It has been well-established during the recent reports of this blog that our boys love the sandbox. One thing that has lately made it even more exciting and entertaining for them is the addition of...water! I expected them to immediately dump out the bucket of water I gave them one afternoon last week but instead, they sat together and played for probably close to 15 minutes before it was all gone.
Caedmon transferred water to the pitcher, and Isaac transferred it back to the bucket. It was a great system for drawing out the fun as long as possible!
I'm sure it was entirely accidental that this cup full of sloppy wet sand got dumped all over Isaac's hand!
As the guys neared the end of their interest in the sand and water, Caedmon poured the contents of the bucket into the pitcher, with Isaac's assistance. It was such a treat to watch them play together so nicely!
Whew, my mom (Grammy) always said she could tell how much fun we had by how dirty we got after playing. It's pretty evident that Isaac enjoyed himself! Hmm, who gets to clean that up!?
The boys have been up to so much lately, definitely keeping us on our toes. Caedmon's vocabulary and ability to express himself continues to explode and the things he says can be so amusing, as well as amazing. For example, he went through a phase of climbing up in the stroller, pulling the shade down over his eyes and peeking through the corner of it, and announcing, "I want some mayo!" We didn't know what he meant and for several consecutive nights tried to make conversation with him about "mail" or anything else that we could have misunderstood. Finally, after a few episodes of the same thing, he also said something about chicken and I realized what he was doing. He was imitating me in the Chick-fil-a drive through! His hunching over and peeking through the opening of the side of the stroller shade was like leaning out the car window, and I do always ask for mayo. He doesn't miss a thing!
One of his puzzles is a farm scene in which there are pigs playing in the mud. I was chatting with him as he worked on that puzzle one afternoon and he looked up and very seriously informed me that "pigs eat mud pies." Just in case I didn't believe him to be an authority on the matter, he quickly added, "You remember? In my 'I Love You, Goodnight' book, pigs like mud pies." With that, he took his index finger and scanned his bookshelf until he found the aforementioned book, pulled it out and opened to the page containing the information he needed. He's done that again since then but relating to another subject. We may just have a little researcher on our hands!
As we go along, we're also working on the alphabet. There are a handful of letters that Caedmon will consistently identify but his current favorite letter is "d" - "D for DADA!" is what we hear exuberantly announced anytime he sees it, whether it's in a book or on a billboard along the highway!
Isaac doesn't want to be left behind in anything that Caedmon is doing, and he continues to learn new sounds and associations also. Right now his favorite word is "na," meaning "snack." He says it constantly, and knows very well the word's meaning. He'll occasionally include the sign for "eat," except rather than touching his fingertips to his mouth he inserts them up to about the second knuckle while looking at me with pleading, hungry little eyes. If he is awake, he's usually in motion, so I guess he's using a lot of energy...but I'm pretty sure he could eat snacks all day long if given the opportunity!
He also uses consistent and distinguishable words for "drink," "up" (as in, pick me up!!), "book," and, to my surprise, as I don't think I've used this word a lot around him, "baby." That may be the most clear of all the words I just mentioned, since the others use some part of the word but don't really sound like the real word just yet.
Like I said, his favorite word, I think, is "snack." However, that is debatable, and the runner-up word is a close second. It was probably around this age that Caedmon really started paying attention to the sounds that indicated Daniel was home from work. Now Isaac has a keen ear for the sound of the garage door opening and heads that direction as fast as he can go, belting out "Da DAAAA" along the way. He knows lots of tickles and kisses are around the corner and can hardly wait for the fun to begin. If Caedmon or I mention "Dada" during the day, Isaac begins calling for him and looking towards the door, or sometimes if he hears something and wishfully thinks it's his dad, he again will call out his name. I can't think of anything else he vocalizes with such joyful enthusiasm!
Both boys relish their time with Dada and the fun time they have doing boy stuff, like chasing around the backyard, playing hide-and-seek in the house, roaring like dinosaurs, wrestling, and being tossed up into the air so that they can touch the ceiling. It's fun to think of all the adventures that are yet to come with these guys!
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