Early July Update: 20 months

As we started running out of time with the packing prior to our move, we started tossing stuff that clearly didn't belong into boxes to co-habitate during the move. Everytime I'd unpack something strange (think baby potty packed with laundry detergent) or books with paper towels (we needed to balance the weight!), we'd get a chuckle out of it and say, "Another priceless contribution from the Department of Random."

My blogging feels like that too lately. There's no time to organize a coherent post, and if I waited until I could get my act together, I'd have a ghost blog.

So, without further adieu, another priceless contribution from the Department of Random:

NEW SKILLS
- Ada figured out how to eat with a spoon (July 3).

- Emma gently nudged Julia ahead of her on walkway, and said, “stap stap” (it sounded like, “tap tap.” It means to “walk walk”.) I was very impressed that she didn’t push or shove, and used a verbal cue to let her sister know to hurry up ahead of her.

- A friend spent some time teaching Ada how to open a stainless steel water bottle. She now knows how to turn the cap, release her hand, and turn the cap again, until it comes off. Oh, the trouble we're in.

BACKYARD FUN
- We are discovering our new backyard. Playing in the sandy soil, splashing in the baby pool, sliding down the slide. The bonus is that our friend – lover of all things living – found a resident box turtle in our yard and showed the girls. They loved seeing the real live turtle.

- Our friend also has 3 little baby birds that he’s hand rearing, and the girls watched him feed the “triplet” birds. They now say, “cheep cheep” whenever he walks by! Oh, and another new word, "triplet!" Sounds like "tippet" when they say it, and I just get all warm and fuzzy when I hear them saying that word.

CLIMBING
- They can all climb into and out of the Choo Choo wagon by themselves now. This is astonishing to me, because of the motor planning and coordination it takes to do that. Pretty impressive how far they've come on the PT front.

- Ada gets her toes over the railing of her crib. I think we’ll have a climber soon. Emma copied her, but because she's shorter, there's less immediate risk. We have a crib tent II on standby and we're not afraid to use it.

EATING
- Julia ate whole peas for the first time on July 3, and cooked, cut-up carrots for the first time on July 4. I’ve offered that a bazillion times before, but she’s always refused to eat any vegetable that wasn’t pureed or somehow hidden in a marinara sauce. All of this running around is making this kid H-U-N-G-R-Y and she’s suddenly eating all sorts of things she’s never wanted to touch before. She didn’t want anything to do with the cut-up potato in front of her, but then grabbed (the same) half a potato from my plate and nibbled away at it. What a sight!

WILLFUL
They are exerting their will more often. They give very clear signals to indicate what they want to eat, and when they’re done. (Sometimes they'll rip their velcroed bibs off midway through the meal, which drives me crazy, and then wipe it through the food that's left on the feeding table. Because, you know, eating isn't messy enough yet.)

They have the cutest and most definitive way of saying, “no.” It’s not a mean and disagreeable “no,” it’s more of a “nope.”

LISTENING
Every now and then they don’t throw a sippy, but actually hand it to me. They're starting to want to put it down upright, instead of sideways.

If they're venturing away from me and into an unsafe area (e.g. towards a road at the rest stops while we were in the midst of our moving extravagaza), Emma will stop and turn around, and come back to me when I ask her to do so. She isn't always compliant, but she is certainly our most compliant kid. It helps me so much when at least one listens, because then I have 2 arms free to keep the other 2 out of harms way. Fortunately, friends came along, so I wouldn't be outnumbered. I'm just trying really hard to teach them to stick with me in case I take them places by myself. Wouldn't want them to bolt in 3 directions!

NEW WORDS
eagle, burra (kookaburra), bakkie (container), beker (mug), koffie (coffee), wit (white) (only Emma says this), koppie (cup), “djaff” (giraffe), vaal (oval), swaai/swing, fan, draai (turn), leeu (they pronounce it "deeu"), lion, hoender (chicken), eendjie (only Emma says this), pampoen (pumpkin), pynappel (pineapple), mielie (corn), ertjie (pea), skop/kick, bytjie/bee (Emma), plane, copter, digger, bus, tractor, masjien/machine (pronounced, "sheen!"), fiets/bike, donder(weer)/thunder, reen/rain, brood (bread), (s)nack, komkommer (cucumber), -matie (tomato), boontjie (greenbean).

Tonight, there were cut greenbeans on their plates (a mom can dream), and Emma called them, “chips” (french fries) because they were the same shape. I went with it, but it didn't help much.

TRUCKS AND THINGS THAT GO
When they hear the distinctive beep-beep of a truck backing up, they say, “truck!” I’m amazed at what they hear and recognize. Julia is fixated on tractors, trucks and machines right now. When given a choice of a million and one books, the one with the various methods of transportation is all she cares about. Her fixation with trucks happily peaked during and after our move. Imagine her surprise on our "packing" day when there were suddenly two HUGE trucks in our driveway. She was equally pleased to see them at our new house.

Today, a delivery truck came by, she heard it, shouted, "Truck! Truck! Truck!" I lifted her up so she could see out the window, and that made her day. When the truck left, she cried inconsolably, 'Twuuucckk! Twuccckk! Nooooo!." Maybe she thought someone she knew was in the truck? I don't know, and have been trying hard to explain it all to her.