Adventures with two...

Our "Tumble Bee"

Em started a new gymnastics class this week. The rule is that parents can't watch the class, we need to wait in the other part of the gym. At first I thought that was a little much, but when I thought about it I realized she probably do much better without me there to tell her to "be careful" every other minute! I was surprised that she took her teacher's hand and walked right in. She is so proud of herself! Can't wait to see the final session when parents get to watch. Our little "Tumble Bee" is growing up so fast!

Sorry about the pause....

It's been a few weeks since I've posted, sorry! Life caught up with me and knocked my socks off for a few weeks. I started back to work and we all had colds. Then Eli was SO cranky we didn't know what to do. I thought he must be grieving, but realized that he had Hand, Foot and Mouth disease, which has now passed. Finally our sweet, charming boy is back. Things have settled down a bit and we're finding our balance once again.

So what are the kids up to?

Emily:

* is at the most fun stage we've experienced yet. She is hilarious. She jokes around, laughs, acts goofy and is more imaginative than ever. We laugh with her constantly.

* draws the most amazing pictures. Honestly, I need to do another post with just her drawings. They are simply fantastic for a child her age.

* can eat with chopsticks and demands them when we eat Asian food.

*can write all of her letters and numbers. Plus she is starting to write Chinese characters, thanks to her school. She also wants to write "fancy" letters (aka cursive) more often than not, which is just loops and swirls but she'll laugh at the loops and say, "Look at THAT fancy 'a'."

* always amazes us with her ability to recall where an item is in the house. We've discussed whether it might be possible that she has a photographic memory. If you ask her where something is she can without a doubt remember where she saw it, even days before and tell you. This helps her father immensely as he tends to lose many things daily.

* is eternally patient with her brother, even though he harasses her to no end. He has done some biting and pinching again lately and while she hollers or cries (obviously!) about it, she never hits him, or gets too mad at him or holds a grudge.

*is playing with her dolls these days. Until we got home from China she had NO interest in dolls, or playing babies. Lately she's playing with her dolls, which she lovingly refers to as "Babers". Yesterday she was dancing with her doll and she chucked it across the room. She scooped it up and said, "I know, Babers, sometimes it's hard. Shshshshhhh!" and rocked it to sleep. I almost fell over laughing.

Elijah:

*does anything his sister does. Monkey see, monkey do!

* is fascinated with trucks, cars, motorcycles, and buses. He loves watching traffic!

* understands everything we say it seems. He answers yes and no and can engage in a conversation, even though he doesn't really have the words yet. He uses signs or pointing or posturing to get his point across.

* is gaining weight and getting taller. He actually moved up in percentiles when we visited the doctor! His feet have also grown and we bought the next shoe size. He's such a peanut that any growth is exciting.

* is able to tell you what the cow says, puppy says and kitty says. 

* is much more stable on his feet these days, though still wobbly enough to make me worry non-stop. It doesn't help matters that he is a total daredevil and will climb anything, go anywhere and try everything, especially when he knows it's risky!

* loves to read books. He will sit down and look at books for long periods of time. He also loves to page through magazines. If Mama is reading a magazine,  he needs to go to the magazine basket and pull one out and so does Em.

* is using utensils MUCH better. It seems that he hadn't used utensils much in China, I'm guessing they fed him. He is using a spoon and fork much better these days and can eat yogurt with only a few drips now. He used to have a yogurt beard after every attempt in the beginning. He wants to eat with chopsticks, but doesn't really have it figured out yet.

* seems much calmer to us overall than he did the first few weeks. I'm sure he's feeling more at ease everyday, especially now that he knows our routines and feels more at home.

A few photos to  keep you coming back :0)
I came around the corner yesterday and they were "reading". Soon enough they had moved on to more age-appropriate materials.