Understanding

The theme this week (month?, yes I know) has been understanding. Consider the following conversation which might have taken place scant weeks ago:

Mommy: What did you have for supper, Kayla?
Kayla: Abaga sten raga, Dowa Boots cleck bagara expactera.

Which roughly translates into, "I have no idea what you're talking about, Mommy, so I'm going to tell you how Dora and Boots saved the tree sloth". Compare and contrast this to the following. It must be an amazing thing to all of the sudden be capable of verbal communication with those around you, after lacking the ability for so long. The obvious comparison would be myself suddenly moving to a foreign country, but even that falls short, as I already have a basic grasp of one language. Perhaps the more accurate comparison would be waking up and finding yourself on an alien world where they communicated by smells.

Astute viewers might notice that Kayla almost-sorta-maybe counts the number of mash totatos she consumed, another skill we seem to be developing. Demonstration of said skill can be frustratingly rare, however, and subject to the whims of a two year old, but we have heard the number thirteen uttered. They still have trouble with the number one, it seems mostly because they're so used to Mommy or Daddy beginning the counting process. Previous to the above video I had assumed that counting was still just rote memorization/recital, but Kayla does seem to work out the number in her head....well like I say, almost-sorta-maybe.

Developments come at such a furious pace that I find myself having to reign in my expectations. The other day I was briefly searching for child color blind tests, because the girls can't yet reliably identify the blue and green crayons, before finally telling myself, "Calm down, they're two".

Aside from major developmental milestones that will fundamentally shape who they are as people, things continue to chug along normally. We made it past the big 2-0 (minus 18) and Halloween, and now have our sights set on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sounds like we're going to use the Thanksgiving weekend to try and formally introduce potty training, as both girls have taken to telling us about wet diapers most of the time. I'm telling myself this will be the last major hurdle to overcome; that once this is done, it's smooth sailing from here on out. I'd appreciate it if you would allow me this delusion until at least the end of January.

That's all for now, bye bye!