Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Monday, September 27, 2010

Sharing -- In Absentia, & a Work of Art

This evening, Megan and I ran to the store for a few things, while Daddy and Kayla stayed home.  Their birthday is fast approaching, so I made a detour down the toy aisle.  Megan's eyes lit up when she saw some stuffed animals, reaching for them, to no avail.  Mommy knows better than to get too close to things. 

But when we passed by a display of baby bottles, and she got excited about the bottles, Mommy stopped.  They were just cheap little baby bottles -- filled with colored liquid that "disappears" when you turn the bottle upside down and the dolly "drinks" it. They even came in pink and purple.
 "Juice! Juice!"  Megan insisted, pointing, bright eyed and with a big smile.  I explained they were baby bottles for doll babies.  She quickly mimicked "Doll baby bottle" to the best of her ability, followed by "pease, pease!" accompanied by the sign for "please", quite insistantly.  Mommy caved.   But not to play favorites, we got one for Kayla, too.

Throughout the store, she had one in hand at all times.  Then she'd want to trade it out for the other one in the basket of the cart, and mommy obliged.  She started sucking on them -- so I reminded her they were doll baby bottles, one was for her, and one for Kayla.  She repeated several times, "doll baby bottle" as best she could, several times, clutching both of them tightly.

Suddenly, the wheels turned in her little head, and she thrust her little arm out back and to the side, holding one doll baby bottle out behind her, and yelled loudly, "Daaaaahhhh"  (which translated, is "Kaaayyyyllaaaaa").   Then she looked around.   "Kayla's not here, sweetie, she's at home".  She called out, waving the bottle, "Daaaaahhhh!! --- Daaaahhh!"    as if Kayla would magically appear.

Once again, I told her, "Kayla's not here, sweetie, she's at home"  this time adding, "with Daddy."  Megan thought about it only a moment before she waved the bottle again, this time, yelling, "Daddy!" 

Obviously, no one appeared, but Mommy told her we'd give it to Kayla at home, and that we'd go home in a few minutes -- then promptly distracted her with some odd grocery item.  

Nothing better than sharing with your sister -- even when she isn't there!

Meanwhile, at home, Kayla and Daddy had their own fun.  When I came in the door with Megan and groceries, Daddy and Kayla met me there.  Kayla had a paper in her hand, but when Megan came in with a baby bottle, they both ran off to the living room together.  Daddy helped unload the groceries while I gave Megan the second baby bottle, which she promptly gave to Kayla. 

Daddy reminded Kayla about her paper, and she picked it back up and ran over to me with it.  While I was gone, Kayla had spotted the crayons on the counter, and Daddy let her color me a picture!
The first pictures they colored went into the keepsake box.  This one?  Straight to the kitchen 'fridge door!

The girls insisted on taking the bottles into their bath with them.  When Daddy took them away so he could dry them off, there were tears.  And after they were in their pajamas, and we went back to get the bottles -- they both yelled "doll baby bottles!" repeatedly while taking them out into the living room.  Best $3 and change I ever spent.

Little things like these remind me how blessed we are to have these two precious girls!



Saturday, September 25, 2010

English

How do you teach someone the word "dirty"?

It's a thought I had the other morning, getting the girls ready for daycare. I was telling Kayla about her dirty diaper for some reason, and Miss Mimic repeated the word back to me. "Dohty" I believe would be a good approximation of the vocalization. So we had a brief conversation about the differences between Dirty and Clean, and my day was that much better because, hey, I taught my daughter a new word. Didn't I?

I probably did, but it got me thinking about the enormity of this task, something I very nearly took for granted. A thing can be dirty in many ways, for example. What exactly constitutes "dirty"? The definition itself can vary from person to person: See, The Five Second Rule. And what if you haven't yet learned the word of the item, of which I'm trying to communicate the level of unclean? Does "dirty" refer to the object itself, or it's state of being? Linda made a Facebook post related to this the other day, trying to teach Jordan that the words "smallest" and "biggest" are fine, but "mediumest" is not. Why is that exactly? At some point a linguist has probably written a thesis on this very subject.

Phonics lessons aside, things continue to truck right along in the Vogts household. We are about two weeks away from officially hitting two years old, a concept that seems to be somewhat understood, including Mommy and Daddy only recently (October 9? Well, that's still weeks and....oh, yeah). And then it's our anniversary, and then it's Halloween, and then it's Thanksgiving, and then it's Christmas...We really need another month in here somewhere to slow things down. Smarch has a nice ring to it.

We bought a new video camera that should be arriving any day now, because Daddy likes shiny toys our old video camera is somewhat cumbersome to use properly. Getting videos off the current tape model involves plugging the camera into it's docking station, plugging the docking station into a computer, importing the video from the tape to the computer using some kind of editing software, encoding it for upload to YouTube, etc etc. An afternoon's work; a block of time I used to throw around casually, but now is quite precious to me. The new model is not only HD, but allows for videos to be saved directly to a memory stick, which hopefully should allow us to provide the world with videos more easily, and more often. The girls of course are at the point where they are capable of doing things more interesting than rolling over and spitting up, and we realize we've been somewhat negligent in offering up video proof of their talents. Early New Years resolution: the YouTube Channel will once again be active, beginning with the girls second birthday party in a couple of weeks.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Technotwins

Kayla and Megan
They're starting young, picking up daddy's technical side.....


.....................or maybe they're big fans of The Wiggles clips on line...

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Picture Story

Megan:  We're not doing anything, mommy -- just sitting here under our blankets.


Megan:  What do you mean I look like I'm plotting, Mommy?
 
 Megan: Gotcha!
Kayla: That's funny!

Megan:  You know what would be even funnier?
Kayla:   What?


Megan:  THIS!


Kayla:  ha ha  I know what would be even funnier!

Megan:  Really? What's that?


Kayla:  If we both did it to ourselves!
Kayla:  And then ran at Mommy!!
Megan:  yeah!  I'm coming to get you, Mommy!

Megan:  I'm gonna get you, Mommy!  Here I come at full speed!



Megan:  Mommy?  Where are you?
Kayla:  I don't think she's over here.

Megan:  Mommy!!!


Kayla:  Mommy, that blanket messed up my hair.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Trash Can Wars

First there was Star Wars.

Then there was Junkyard Wars

Don't forget Whale Wars.

And we can't miss CupCake Wars

But now, to top them all -- we have Trash Can Wars!



In this episode, we have Kayla and Megan battling with the garbage bin and the recycling bin.  The battle takes place in the kitchen and the adjoining laundry room.  While it started out as a bumper-car like battle through the kitchen, it quickly becomes a chase into the laundry room.
Scooting quickly across the floor, as the crown roars, the girls wrestle, each with a can nearly as tall as themselves.  They take great pleasure in their triumph over the large plastic containers as they slide back into the kitchen with them. 

Oh, wait, that wasn't a crowd -- it was mommy, saying, "hey! Put those back right now!" (While capturing the last moments of the event on camera.)

Can you tell who won?
Or better yet .... can you tell who's who...



Mouse over and highlight the bar below to see the answer! 

Kayla is in Aqua with jeans shorts and Megan is in Pink with Purple shorts 
(May not work in all browsers)








Sunday, September 05, 2010

Here we go

First off, a picture that Jenn already posted, but I'm posting again because it's instantly become one of my top 10 favorites, though I'm not really sure why...














So the big news around our house is that the girls, Megan in particular, have apparently decided they are not just Megan and Kayla, but MEGAN VOGTS AND KAYLA VOGTS AND YOU WILL RECOGNIZE THIS FACT OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES! In short, we've stepped up our independence assertion by a factor of at least 3. Things like running down the drive and into the court when we get home from daycare, more defiant and repeated "No's" when asked to stop doing something, meltdowns at the littlest provocation, etc. Not unexpected of course, but still a trial. James and I like to tease each other about the "Iron Fist" method of child care, the implication of course being that our fists are more talcum than iron, but clearly Daddy is going to have to step his game up.














Things have been relatively slow otherwise. Jenn bought a "water and sand" activity set we finally put together, and the girls have had great fun on several occasions playing with that outside. You perhaps saw the "tea party" video from the other day; this continues to be a favorite toy as well. And tonight, the girls seemed to be playing "house" with, oddly enough, some shoe boxes obtained from Daddy after a fruitful shopping trip. They were a little big for their houses of course, but immediately saw the wisdom in putting their dollies in the house, when it was suggested. Jenn mentioned the other day she's on the prowl for a kitchen set of some kind as well. Play improves at a remarkable pace.

Personalities continue to emerge as well. Megan's stubborn streak is already well established, as is her sense of adventure. She's constantly looking to climb in or on something, and generally seems to have little or no fear. Very "go-go-go". She's also usually very concerned about where Kayla is, and what she is doing. In a way she is turning into the "older sister".

Kayla is turning out to be more subdued. She tires much more easily than Megan, and will gladly lay down in her crib at bedtime while Megan screams in protest. She's quite the singer as well; lately I've noticed her singing whatever song she dreams up for minutes at a time, while she's playing with blocks or "reading". She tends to be very dramatic too: not in behavior necessarily but in facial expressions (as seen above). She's not quite as possessive of her toys as Megan is, but is generally more concerned about having a dolly at any given moment.














Little mysteries is what they are, that slowly reveal themselves to you, bit by bit. I wonder what I'll learn about them tomorrow?