We ran into Catelin and her family while on our way to a cup of coffee this morning and the two girls got to spend some time drinking baby-ccino’s, packing rocks, playing in the fountain and riding ponies together. They just had lots of fun.

Romping in the fountain while the brother’s look on

Grace really enjoys watching Zou and often wants to do what Zou did in the episode, so today we built a waterless fish tank, including cork fish, “seaweed” (poppies from the garden), sea animals a mermaid, and the little girl is a diver.

Eli’s speech is developing so nicely and is always a wonder to us, mainly because of Grace’s speaking late due to her oral dyspraxia. He is saying “at, at” for “pat, pat” and “ow, ow” for “row, row”. He sits on Donné’s lap and starts saying “ow, ow” while rocking backwards and forwards wanting her to sing, “Row, row, row you boat.”

Pat, pat the sand

Helping to make tortillas while nibbling on a ball of dough. He certainly is happy when he gets to sit on the counter and “help”

Way back in May 2011….

And now….

(that first wall was built just a tad to well)

Grace is loving climbing trees at the moment and it is an art she is working on mastering in the school’s playground….and everywhere else. If there is a tree, she wants to climb it.

Up a tree at school

Just a bunch of little things that Eli is doing, but that can’t always be captured on camera…

Eli can walk down the entire length of our passage now, and looks quite comfortable doing it. He doesn’t make it every time, but he is doing it regularly.

He is making lots of sounds at the moment, and sounding out parts of words, like saying “at” for “pat” or “cat”. He is doing a nice “baa, baa, baa,” saying “mum, mum,” and “dada.” He is copying nicely and he now has a sense of conversation, waiting for you to finish before having his say.

He lifts his hand for a high five.

He is executing small instructions like, “Give the shoe to Gracie.”

He waves and says, “ye” (as in b-ye) when people are leaving.

One of his current missions in life is to always close whatever lids he can.

He can close his water bottle…but can’t open it, which leads to some frustration (for him).

And he continues to love his sister deerly.

Eli love being under something. Throw a blanket over his head and he has a little happy-gasm, kicks his legs and squeals with delight. He’ll also go and search for something to hide under, like the cloth over the TV stand, or a curtain. He wraps himself up in a curtain and then does a little happy dance. And if Grace is involved, well that just means that everything is twice the fun.

Sissie decided to cover up Eli

What’s that under the covers? Well, sissie likes to hide too…in this case not just under the duvet, but inside the duvet

I found you, sis!

Eli was loving spending some time on the drum kit at the Salzwedel’s

Just sitting on the steps, drinking my juice like a big boy