Fall is Here

Noviembre, Noviembre
Time to spend with family
Calabazas, pastel y pavo
Pumpkins, pie and turkey
Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

This is one of the songs in Delaney's Spanish Class. She loves the last part which includes tickling someone while saying Gobble, Gobble, Gobble.

The end of October, early November brought us lot of family visits and fun. The girls got to see their Grandma Mary, Grandpa Keith, Grandma Joan and Great Aunt and Uncle: Sue and Bob. They both got to visit Eckerts Fun Farm for mom's birthday and they played with their cousins too. This is a busy time of year for our family. Here are some November pictures of the girls.

What was I like - Delaney's car rides

Delaney: What was I like when we would ride in the car?

Mom: Starting at about the age of 2, you made short rides in the car very fun. You could see out the window much better and noticed everything around you. You started at about 18 months to be able to distinguish types of vehicles - cars, trucks (including pick up trucks), vans and buses. So when we would ride in the car you would point these out. You loved buses - especially school buses. If we were out in the morning you would see so many buses that you would start to count them or want to sing Wheels on the Bus. You weren fascinated with letters and look for STOP signs so you can point them out and spell them.

Today you surprised me a couple of times. As we got on the highway and started to go faster, you started to chant Go Car Go, Go Car Go. We saw one of the dancing balloons many car dealerships use to capture drivers attention and you pointed it out calling it a Wiggle Head.

What was I like? - Introduction

I have often asked my mom what I was like when I was young. She could never give me the specifics I was looking for so I figured she must just have a bad memory. Now that a few years have passed and we are experiencing baby moments again with Adele, we realize that we don't remember everything we would like about when Delaney was younger. We think this will only get worse and want to be prepared for when she asks us "what was I like?"

So, I decided to start documenting moments worth noting here. They may not all be of interest to our visitors but I think that one day Delaney and Adele will enjoy looking back on them and "thumbing through the pages."

The Plank Girls' Bedrooms

The girls' bedrooms are painted but not done yet. The first two pictures are of Delaney's room. The inspiration is from the book Zin Zin Zin Violin. This book is great teaching instruments and counting. Delaney loves the book and so do we. It features 10 instruments but we picked three: Clarinet, Violin and Trumpet. All the walls are painted in a similar pink color with faux painting swirls a bit darker on top. Ideally, I want to hang instruments on the other walls.

Adele's room is orange and yellow with colorful animals and letters. The inspiration for this room is a painting we used to have in Delaney's room at the old house. It isn't hung yet but it is very colorful and features a dog and goldfish. The artist, Charles Houska, has done a lot of work locally.

The mural artist is Christina Hummer: http://www.sweetdreammurals.com/

Adele Telling it Like it Is!

Adele loves the sound of her own voice.

ABC's

Delaney is fascinated with letters these days. We will be walking or driving and all of a sudden she will start spelling out words she sees. She is putting together that the letters on an object spell an object like a stop sign but this isn't always true. She has a fork with the brand name Nuk. The letters NUK are on the fork. She spelled out N, U, K, and then said Fork. Makes me want to have items with the actual word on it everywhere like the cartoon Word World on PBS.

The other day we were in the car and she was sitting in a way that she could see the dashboard. I had the car on so the console had a bright D for Drive. I turned it off and she said, "No, I want D for Delaney back." Took me a minute but figured it out. Won't be long now before she is reading.

Adele Videos and Pictures

Smiles smiles and smiles

Adele is smiling a lot these days. Tonight at dinner, a big smile was on her face as she watched her sister sing and chat. The smiles and giggles have been hard to capture on video. I tried tonight but she saw a camera instead of me so stopped all the cute faces. We have a few cute shots that we hope to get online soon but in the meantime, here are more pictures of Adele from our friend Kate.