An Eliana first: She pulled a ball off a stone ledge.

Eliana uses more a careful and steady style than her brother. This served her well when she reached up on the fireplace ledge to pull down a block puzzle ball.

An Eliana first: She put a ring on a spindle.

Watching the trees shake

Ethan has learned that if he shakes his head, it looks like the objects he sees are shaking. He was watching the trees outside a window “shake” this way and wanted to share his excitement with me. “The trees are shaking! Do you see it?”

Literary bedtime request

Ethan’s bedtime stories tonight came from a different bookshelf than usual. One of the characters was the Abominable Snow Monster. When Ethan asked what abominable meant, I didn’t know well how to describe it. I told him that I should look the word up. Then I subsequently forgot all about it, but half an hour later when I was walking by Ethan’s room, he reminded me from his bed, asking if I could look up abominable and tell him about it when the sun wakes up.

An Eliana first: She went sledding.

Remembering Bear

I’ve heard the expression, “the uncluttered mind of a child”, but haven’t appreciated it so much as in the present, observing Ethan’s power of memory. Not only can he sometimes beat Beth and me in the game Memory, but he can remember details from long ago that I’ve forgotten. On Monday, we had friends over for a game night and were considering an outdoor running-around game. It’s often called Ghost in the Graveyard, or Bunnies in the Garden as we’re fond of. But there was another name for the game, too, which I’d learned when the kids were playing it for a bit back in December at a Christmas party. I couldn’t remember was it was called, though. When I asked Ethan, his answer was shy and uncertain (unusual for him), but he remembered that the name of the game was Bear.

An Eliana first: She played peek-a-boo.

Before changing Eliana into her into her pajamas, I put them over her face while she was laying on her back. A few times, I pulled them from her eyes and said “peek-a-boo”, which brought about some extra large smiles. Then she started pulling away the pajamas herself—even more fun, with giggles and great big grins!