August 08

--paragraph one: sierra is a total ham! (i wonder who she got that from???) see exhibits A through F:

--more about sierra…she LOVES shoes. she calls them “ooosh,” and brings them to me when she finds some, brings me the one that fell off, goes to get them when i tell her to go get her shoes. she even tries to wear other people’s shoes. she put on aidan’s shoes and got pretty good getting around in them.

--she is now mommy's little helper. she likes to help me in the kitchen or doing laundry. she carries things for me, and she runs to get her corn-popper to vacuum when i vacuum.
--she’s pretty good at following directions, assuming she wants to obey. she knows exactly what i’m saying, though she may or may not comply. she runs to the door when i say “let’s go” or “wanna go?” she gets her shoes when i ask, and will “put that back” (for the most part) when i tell her to. however, she doesn’t always like to “get down” when i ask. she will slyly look at me, and back and forth between me and whatever she’s trying to climb on. she runs to her chair, and even starts chomping when i ask if she wants to eat. she heads for the stairs and goes to the bathroom when i tell her that it’s bathtime. (i'm right behind her on the stairs, in case anyone's worried...) she waves bye-bye and blows kisses when it’s “time for night-night.” she stops wacking what she’s hitting when i tell her “gentle” and will pet my arm, aidan, herself, the babydoll, whatever. and she knows where her eyes and nose and ears are. of course she prefers to poke or grab mine over hers though.
--her latest vocabulary advances include:
* “ahh-dee” = aidan (progress from “ahh-eee”)
* “uh-oh” = uh-oh (progress from “uh-uh”)
* “if” = fish
* “ack” = quack

* "baw" = ball
* “a-nana” = banana

* "mum-mee" = mommy
* “wa-zum?” = want some?
* “ah-jiz!” = there she is!
* “uh-uh-uh-uhhhh” = nah-uh-uh-uh (and wags her finger at me)
--when she hears the door, she runs to it and yells “da-da!!” billy’s been working on the staircase a lot lately, and one day we came home and i put something on the stairs for billy. sierra pointed to the steps and said, “da-da!!” she’s been a bit clingy lately too. she passed the snuggly baby stage and went into the “i have too much energy and too much to explore to sit still” stage. she’s still in that stage to some degree, but she also likes to sit still and read a book, play with blocks, or just sit in my lap. and she still likes to do whatever it is that aidan does. she follows him around and tries to copy him.

--aidan has been playing a lot of sports lately. we went miniature golfing with our friends mike and kristin. aidan wasn’t quite as good as last time (no holes in one) or as crazy as last time (no balls lost). nearly every day we have to play at least one sport in the backyard. he’s getting really good at several. he now has good form in basketball and makes at least half of his shots…granted they’re on his small goal, and he has his mark that he stands on (better to have him stand still in a spot to work on form,) but he’s doing great! he’s also catching and throwing a football…has a pretty good spiral too! of course, he has to wear his jets helmet whenever he plays football, and runs all over the place. we play catch, and he’s getting good with his glove. he can also hit off a pitch (or tee, though his tee is now too short for him.) and we’ve been working on his throwing form too. his new favorite movie (that we can see on demand) is everyone’s hero about babe ruth’s bat, darlin'. he got some cute sayings from the movie, and watches it in full garb (hat and glove)!!

--we’ve been working on pre-reading and pre-writing skills. he knows the alphabet song, though he’ll mess up occasionally, and i don’t think he ever got “l-m-n-o-p” just right anyway. he also knows 20 of the letters by sight, and can tell me words that start with the letter for many of them. he also knows several of what are called “sight words” (words that don’t really follow the rules, and new readers just have to memorize them.) we have a dvd of them. he knew 4 of about 20 by the end of the dvd, and 9 the next day, before we even watched the show! he can also recognize his numbers, though 7 and 9 give him trouble. i have him read me the digital clock to practice. i also got him some workbooks to work on tracing lines and following a path with his pencil. he concentrates really hard, and gets excited (and stickers) when he does well.

--we went to the beach a couple times this month. one time was with our friends mariah, sameer and their kids (asha and yogi), and carne. aidan and asha had a great time in the sand, sitting in the water, running from the water, and playing in the waves. sierra is fearless at the beach. she goes straight for the water. aidan was always a sand baby, though he’s getting used to the water now that we go often.

--aidan’s latest phrases include:
* “can i watch aidan’s show about animals?” (every morning/afternoon of every day!)
* “i want to go to ella’s house. ella is my best friend.”
* “asha is my girlfriend.”
* “i want a brother.” (daily for about a few weeks after our friend and (not-for-long) neighbor sandra had gabriel. still says it though not contstantly. i told him to ask daddy, and maybe god will give us a brother or sister sometime next year…)
* “i keep my eye on the ball!” (from everyone’s hero)
* “i just keep swinging!” (from everyone’s hero)
* “rock on!” (goes with a high-five when he does something “awesome!”)
* “cut it out, mommy!” (from everyone’s hero…minus the mommy part)
* “this is no time to panic!” (from toy story)
* “this is darlin’, cause i’m babe ruth.” (playing baseball after everyone’s hero)
--we had a few friends travel down from jersey to visit. mike and kristin came down for the weekend. we went to the beach and played miniature golf. at the beach, i actually ran into a former college volleyball teammate that was in a beach volleyball tournament the day we were on the beach. billy’s friends rob and justin came down for labor day weekend. we had a good time with them, and had a pre-labor day bbq while they were in town.
--i went to a brad paisley (country singer…for you non-fans) with my friend shadra. we had great seats, and she had some friends who got us vip passes. one of them was the nephew of brad paisley’s stage manager. so we got to go on the tour bus, and backstage and see all the equipment. it was bad scheduling that we didn’t get to see brad himself after the concert. they had a two week break from touring starting after the va beach concert, so he took off right after the show. usually he’d be up for hanging out…oh well. still the concert was awesome, and we had a great time!

--billy knows where his next job will be. we were told he'd have to do a tour in either iraq or afghanistan before he could get a ship or another shore billet. however that is not the case. he will be going to the u.s.s. cook (http://www.cook.navy.mil/) next summer, as the SUPPO (supply officer). he leaves acu-2 in april, and has several weeks of schools, and then reports to the ship in june. the ship is out of norfolk so we don't have to move, though his commute will be a bit more. and they do deploy a lot, so he'll be gone several months of the year, but at least he's not in the sand with a weapon!! (that's my take, anyhow...)