Daley Ponderings

8/7 - Faith started using the more sign consistently and spontaneously.  She will now also use it to mean "I want that."

8/11 - Faith took her first step.  It was sort of accidental, since she was walking holding to my hand, and I slipped my finger out.  After that first step, she realized she was not holding anyone anymore and she sat down.  On 8/15, she took another step in a similar way.

8/12 - Faith shook her head along with the more sign to indicate "no more".  She has not done it again.

When Noah starts telling a story he begins, "Wunt 'pon time..."

Noah's word for spaghetti is "ebbi."

8/18 - The boys and I had the opportunity to talk to and learn from some rock sample drillers in a parking lot.  Pretty neat.

8/18 - Faith took 3-4 steps at a time.

8/19 - One incident of 7-8 steps, then lots of practice with 2-4.  During this practice, she figured out how to stand up by herself without pulling up on anything.

8/21 - At Hannah's birthday party, Jonathan was playing with a garter snake and it bit him.  It didn't seem to bother him at all; in fact, he seemed rather excited about telling us about it.

Faith is copying many words now.  It makes us do a double take - did she really say that?  Some examples are "hay" on a hayride; "Katie" when talking about a friend, and "water" which has happened more than once.  I think she said, "Hi, Dad" once. Consistent, spontaneous words are "hi" (with waving, for hello and goodbye), "yay" (with hand clapping), and "yeah" for the affirmative.  She also is still consistent with her "d'goy-d'goy-d'goy" for "I want that" or "I want to eat that." She also says "hi, hiya" and claps her hand on her ear when someone talks on the phone.

8/24 - Noah is figuring out other pronouns besides "him": "Baby snapped mouse trap on her finger."  (She was not severely hurt. It was a newer kind, not those metal scary ones and you can be sure that I have not forgotten to put it away in the morning since then...)

8/25 - We went to Idlewild with the Linds.  It was a fun time.  Sally, Faith, and I spent most of our time in the little kid park with Noah.  He was the perfect age for those rides and he enjoyed it so much.  It was neat to have that time with him, getting more insight into his personality.  He was very patient in line, several times letting more aggressive kids go ahead of him, until we figured out to tell him it was his turn.  His favorite was the hand cart ride which he called a train - a cart on tracks that the kids power themselves with hand pedals.  He also liked the airplanes (milder version of Dumbo) and the ferris wheel.  Well, he liked everything, but those were his favorites.  The first time he did the teacups, he went with a little girl about his age and they did very well together.  The second time, he went with a couple of older boys who spun it too fast and too continuously.  It was hard to watch his little head loll around and around and not have any power to do anything about it.  He took that very well also, his only comment when he got off being to curl up in my lap and say, "Too dizzy."  Poor little guy.  But we did some other rides after that and took his mind off it.  (It was only Sally and I who continued to be traumatized by the experience.)  We also did the big ferris wheel twice and the carousel twice.  Faith joined us on the carousel.

Jonathan did the bigger rides with Jon, and they also did the waterpark.  Overall it was a very fun day.