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KeikiTweets

• 14:18 Looks like I will have to get better at pocket-checks before I wash. In one load of clothes I found 4 rocks and a car tire. I'm learning.

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KeikiTweets

• 06:26 While I was up nursing Caspian Koa fell out of bed. Poor guy! I don't have enough arms!
• 08:22 Caspian and I are having some toast and studying Greek together. Now how's that for a second language...koine Greek.

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I Don't Have The Hang Of It, Yet

Today I tried to capture our activities in picture and video, but when I tried to share via Twitter my plans were thwarted.  So, I will have to post the old fashioned way.  Here are some pictures from today's harvest...

    

   

 

Here's a video of Koa's latest for your viewing pleasure: Download MOV-0003

   

 

  

 

KeikiTweets

• 11:10 The Zumwalt Ohana is taking the day off today and enjoying the Portland Zoo!
• 13:04 Look out! Stampede! Of strollers...
• 14:43 Caspian now has a more obvious word for "Koa". It sounds like "Kaka".

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KeikiTweets

• 18:03 Testing out my new KeikiTweets Twitter account! Now "The People" can get real-time (daily) updates on the boys rather than bimonthly posts!
• 23:39 Koa says, "If anyone needs me, I have my phone." A little later I heard him "talking" on it saying, "Yeah, I'm just picking up my toys."

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The Kids Are Becoming Hip

So, Koa and Caspian have signed up for Twitter.  They are KeikiTweets.  Now, they too, can have meaningful conversation with the world in 140 characters or less.

We have decided this is a better way for those who are interested to get more up to date information on what the kids are doing without having to read a marathon post once a month or so.  I also figure that when something funny or interesting happens and I think, "I should blog about that."  I might actually do it--in miniature.  In the mean time, we can blog about other things that are relevant to us as well.

Since a big part of this blog is for record keeping, we will also be posting the tweets here at the end of each day.  So, for those of you who are interested, but don't want to have to "Follow" us all day, you can get the update here on the blog after it posts and we all win!  Now, I'm not promising to tweet every day, but when I do--you'll know.

Need Your Tires Changed?

Yesterday afternoon the boys and I took a trip to the library to get some books about baseball and some new Signing Time DVDs.  As we were headed home we passed a corner lot with huge piles of old tires.  Koa asked how you get the tires off the car.  So, I started in on my titillating description of pneumatic devices and the noises they make in removing the nuts from the bolts.  He was captivated.  Then I realized we were just about to pass our local Les Schwabb.  So, I asked Koa if he would like to see how a tire was changed instead of listening to me describe it with such charisma.  Surprisingly, he said he would. 

So, we pulled in to the parking lot.  True to form, Tony the mechanic met us at the car and I explained that we didn't need any tires changed today, but that my three year old would like to watch the process and just observe him working on someone else's car.  He agreed that we could and then introduced himself to Koa.  Koa extended his hand, shook hands with Tony, and then headed inside the garage.  Caspian and I stood by as Tony gave Koa the full tour and showed him how they put the tire on the wheel and then take it off.  Then he showed him how to put the tire on the car and take it off with the very noisy thingamajig.  Koa watched in silent amazement until the very end when he launched into his description of how they do it on "Cars" the movie.  Then it was Tony's turn to wait in silence! 

All in all it was about a five minute diversion from our day, but it was a fun little impromptu field trip.  I think Tony even thought it was a nice change in the normal routine. 

If anyone is interested in a free e-book with ideas for occupying curious preschoolers there is one being offered at Heavenly Homemakers.  I love this blog.  It is where I got my idea for planting my potatoes in a box.  More on that coming soon...

Boys Oh Boys!

Oh my, but they are growing!  Caspian is on the move and eating us out of house and home because of it, yet the thighs remain.  At this point in his development Koa had stopped gaining weight and just used every last calorie consumed to propel himself along.  Caspian is movin' and shakin' but he is still a little chunk!  I love it!  I will miss those fat little thighs when they are gone, so I am glad they are stickin' around! 

He had his well-baby check up with Dr. Jen this week and passed with flying colors!  He's right on schedule or just a little ahead for everything developmentally and just at 50th percentile or slightly above for size.  I thought for sure he and Koa would be very different as far as hitting their milestone for motor skills and such, but they are basically on the exact same schedule.  In fact, Koa took his first steps about three days before he turned 10 months old and so did Caspian.  Weird!  Caz is getting more and more confident in his new form of perambulation and is quite pleased with himself.   Lately he has been practicing going up and down the stairs, but he will either stay on the bottom step and hold on to the bannister while he does it, or he will sit at the top and wait for me to come up and then hold on to me as he tries to come down.  It's really fascinating how confident he is and yet how careful he is, too.

His four teeth are just about to become six!  And with more teeth comes more variety in the diet!  He loves that.  He got his mother's ability to eat!  He loves all the fresh fruit and veggies we've been having.  His favorite is strawberries.  He will eat them frozen, fresh, dried, any way he can get them!  We've also had a plethora of peaches lately and he and Koa both have been really enjoying eating them fresh and Caspian likes them in his oatmeal!  We tried Salmon for the first time this week and so far he is not a big fan of that. 

One of my favorite parts of development is language and Caspian is just like the rest of the family in that he is a verbal child!  I love watching him figure out how to communicate with us.  He's starting to learn a few signs and clapping.  He dances to pretty much any song--especially if Koa is singing!  He has two words he uses consistently and they are "Dada" and "tickle-tickle-tickle".  He has a little horse named "Bacon" who has a very fuzzy tail.  When we ask him, "Where's Bacon?"  Sometimes he will say, "Tickle-tickle-tickle" with his little toothy grin.  It's adorable!

Koa's vocabulary also continues to flourish, as well.  He now likes to try to give instructions for things in lecture form.  They don't always make a lot of sense, but he loves to "be in charge"!  The other day Zak and I went out in the yard to play baseball with him and he launched into a monologue about the rules of baseball and told us exactly how to play until we were both ready to come back inside! 

Apparently Koa knows it is "back to school time" because his little mind has really been working on learning lots of new concepts.  He is starting to understand the use of a calendar and will often ask us what day of the week we are going to do something, then he will go look at the week we have printed out and hung on the wall to see if he can figure out which day it is.  He is starting to actually count items instead of just recite numbers.  So, now he likes to count everything!  He also surprised us a couple of days ago by drawing a few letters.  I was especially shocked by that just because he generally shows so little interest in drawing, but he sat down at the table with us to "do homework" while we were working on our Greek and he said, "Look, a T" and he proceeded to draw a "T".  He also drew an "O" and an "H" and tried to draw an "A", but couldn't quite get his lines to touch at the top. 

Today I was trying to study vocabulary for our Greek quiz and he insisted on helping me.  So, he took my flash cards and would say any word in English that came to his mind and I would do my best to give him the Greek counterpart.  Each time he would say something and I would respond he would look a little more surprised.  On about the fifth card he said with a bit of shock in his voice, "I can do it!  I'm really reading!"  I think he was convinced that he was. 

On the days that Zak and I go to Greek Koa gets to go hang out with one of the other seminary families.  They have a little girl in kindergarten and a little boy just a couple of months younger than Koa named Zeke.  Koa loves to be able to go over there!  I can never tell him too early in the day that it is Monday or else he just asks me constantly if it is time to go to the babysitter's yet!  It's tricky getting everyone fed, the kids to the babysitter's and me to Greek when class starts at 12:30 and Caspian usually wakes up from his nap at 12, but I am grateful to have someone close by who is able to watch them during that time.