Summer is here...at least for a few days. We're trying to plan out our summer travel, but planning and us don't go together well. We tend to procrastinate until a decision is made for us. (That really doesn't work when it comes to airlines, by the way...it's not often they just provide you with tickets without asking for any money.)

Zoe is currently terrified of cars. She calls them "ahhs" and seems to truly believe they are all out to run her over. She signs "hurt" every time she hears one (which is more frequently than you'd think, considering we live on a dead-end road at the top of a hill in rural Vermont). She also thinks all insects have it in for her, even the dead ones. On the other hand, she wants to hug birds, dogs, cats, and people in picture books.

Zoe also likes sitting in boxes, buckets and laundry baskets. Case in point:




Sascha is outside right now, wearing her swimsuit and rainboots. We'll have a photo of that in the next day or so. :) She has created huge Memory card games that span the entire living room. She makes up her own rules, too -- but not for any advantage. She definitely understands winning versus losing, but she's not a sore loser or a sore winner -- she just asks to play again.

I would not be surprised if she became an engineer. Or a lawyer. Or both. Her favorite questions are "How does X work?/How do they make X?" and "How do you know that?"

They are both super cute. But you knew that.

B's and Bees

B's and Bees

Zoe is up to 20 or so spoken words...doesn't sound like much, but she knows 40+ signs and enough other gestures and noises to make herself very clear. "Bee" is one of her latest words. It refers to:
1) any letter of the alphabet
2) any insect

Like most of the houses I've ever lived in, we get ant visitors in the spring. To Zoe, these are "bees" and she is afraid of them. She will come running into the living room shouting "Bee! Bee!" and drag me to the bathroom to point at a spot on the floor where an ant once stood. Outside is a "bee" field day - since there are actual bees (bumble and honey), as well as flies, ants, butterflies, mosquitoes and all manner of other buggy things.

Sascha is still bike riding, drawing, imagining and jumping off things. Her drawing has changed dramatically in the past few months. She drew a cat yesterday that looked, well, like a cat. Of course, we force her to sit and draw for an hour every day so she can improve.

(Um, that was a joke. As if she'd stand for that, if we were silly enough to do it!)

Anyway....

Some recent photos.....


The kids at the table yesterday, being goofy


The Z-meister


And my attempt at an arty shot - a reflection of the capitol building in Montpelier:

Back from Boston....and tired!

We had a great time. Went to the science museum on Friday and visited the butterfly garden, saw to-scale dinosaur models (I was impressed by how small the Triceratops were...I always thought they were bigger), and played around in some exhibits. Also had a picnic by the river.

Saturday we went to a playground and met my childhood friend Natalie and her son, Adam. It was great to see them and the weather was wonderful! Had some down time at K's house for a couple of hours and then went to the beach on Nahant - very fun! Kristen and Sharon taught Sascha how to play mancala and she picked it up pretty quickly.

Kid brags...

Zoe has added several spoken words to her vocabulary - ow, baby, yeah, NO, kitty. Very into pretend play with stuffed animals and dolls - mostly "making" them food and pretending to feed it to them. Loves being outside, splashing in the bath, hugging Theo and looking for birds (wants to hug them too - does not understand why they won't hold still for that). She is starting to act very two years old - hence the "NO".

Sascha has been writing her letters consistently and the improvement is obvious. She also cut out some cards from a magazine the other day right along the lines...so her fine motor skills are great. Right now she is into riding her KinderBike (a balance bike with no pedals - good practice for a real two-wheeler), talking about our flower and vegetable gardens (that we haven't had time to work on yet!), learning about alligators and crocodiles (she wants to know the difference...I can never remember) and building things with her Magtastic set that Aunt Mary gave her (and we picked up an expansion pack yesterday on our way home).

It's hard to remember what she learns in any given week because it's just so MUCH. Last night she asked how her body grew, and we started talking about cells. We've also been talking about plants versus animals, how plants grow, how everything needs food for energy and how some animals eat other animals.