The boys driving the car

Hello again! Hope you’ve been enjoying the videos. The boys are doing well. We went to the zoo last week and it was the first time that they really enjoyed it. We didn’t have too much stress because everything is kind of blocked off and there is really only one walkway to walk on so we didn’t have constantly corral them. The only bad part was that we had to pay 18 euros just to get in, then when you add in some lunch, some snacks for the animals, parking, etc., it’s almost 50 euros to go to the freaking zoo. The boys love ducks, I think it may be their favorite animal. Or at least it was the only animal they recognized. Every time there’s a duck we would say “look a duck!” and they would drop what they were doing and look for it. They really enjoyed the playground too, especially the slides.

Also, they rode these electronic old timey cars BY THEMSELVES! We put them in the cars and thought that for the actual ride we would go in there with them. But they were pretty happy playing with the steering wheel. We were completely prepared for them to start screaming once the car started moving, but nope, they were perfectly happy. It was so cute to watch them go around all by themselves, not clinging on to us. They wanted to ride it over and over, but we only bought tickets for 2 rides.

Some new words (and old faves) are - davork or dadavork (daddy is at work), poo away (put away), eeek! mouse! (not because they’ve seen real ones, only ones in books or on videos), baseek (bottle in the sink), ahneemo (asking for the wooden toy animals), auj (orange), zeep (sleeping - jah jah zeep!), took (truck), ah bader (all better), peeboo (peekaboo), ahbella (umbrella), reen (rain), dadet (jacket)

Now when we read books, if there is a picture representing a word, I make them say it. For example, when we read “Little Red Hen”, I make them say pig, duck, cat and seeds. “Not I” said the…. and Rowan says “PIG!” It is so much fun to have them actually participate in the story and not just me reading to them. Rowan really is a bookworm now and is always reading his books or making me read books. Elijah likes reading too, but he much prefers reading by himself and only occasionally likes me to read for him. Elijah is the artist of the family, he loves the magna doodle pro that my sister got for them for christmas. He is always drawing and always wants me to draw houses. It’s always house house house house! Even if you draw one, it’s not enough. There needs to be a whole city of them.

I also recently bought some colored soap so they can fingerpaint while taking a bath. Elijah LOVED this! He made a really pretty purple heart on the walls and constantly was asking for more “paint”. Rowan had fun putting paint on Elijah and himself.

Nothing else too terribly exciting is going on here. Long Easter weekend this week - 4 days! At MS, we never had any holidays around Easter. Between the new year’s and memorial day, it was a dry spell. We want to do something but don’t know what. Maybe go overnight somewhere. I’m thinking somewhere with a yarn store. oh and a playground for the boys.