Cool Tricks

Both kiddos are growing in leaps and bounds these days, to the point where I feel like it's hard for me to keep track of everything. But because I want to preserve as much of their childhoods in this blog, I shall do my best!

Jusst recently, Nikos surprised me by starting to sing along with me. He knows many of the words to "The Wheels on the Bus" (including the hand motions), which I have been singing to him for the longest time. After I realized that he liked singing, I thought I would try to teach him the alphabet song. After I sang it to him a few times, he started singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." WHAT?!? Yes, my child realized that the tunes to the two songs were the same, and started singing the other version. The one I had never sung to him before. I suppose he must have learned it at daycare, but I was pretty shocked!

Nikos has also started saying Maya's name, finally! Hooray! For the longest time, he has called her "Baby." But his language really seems to be exploding lately, and her name is now a part of his vocabulary! He's also started stringing together more two-and three-word sentences. He definitely knows how to communicate with us!

Finally, Nikos did something amazing at his swim lesson on Monday: he BLEW BUBBLES!! This is something the instructor has been trying to get all the kids to do since day one, but Nikos would have nothing to do with it. All the other kids would blow bubbles, while mine would drink the pool water (ew!). But he did it! I'm so proud of him!

As for my baby girl, she is really trying to get moving lately. She spends practically every waking moment trying to roll from her back to her tummy. She is so determined, and really seems to be angry that she can't quite get all the way over! She even woke up twice last night, I think because she was trying to do it in her sleep. Luckily, she conked out again once we gave her the pacifier-- but it was so unlike her to wake up at all! Bonnie said that she was trying to roll all day today at daycare, too, and all the older kids were in the room cheering her on. On a side note, she really is the star of the show over there these days. I'm pretty sure there are several little girls who would like to take her home. One girl even made her a drawing yesterday, hehe! It says "Cute Maya Cute!" on it! But I digress...

In the bath, it's more of the same. Maya is officially an expert at swamping the kitchen! She kicks like crazy (much to her delight), splashing water all over me and the kitchen floor. She LOVES it! She coos and gurgles and grins the entire time. Nikos commented on her kicking and splashing tonight while she was in the tub-- and I am pretty sure he was impressed! :) At any rate, she seems really focused on controlling her various limbs lately. If she could just move one arm a little bit, she'd be a rolling machine.

Anyway, that's what the kidlets are up to these days. Whew! I'm sure I'm leaving something out, but at least this is a start, right? :)