Phonetic Learning and Little Parrots

"Just use the moat control".
"Oh, that's what that cartilage is" (referring to a printer cartridge)
"Fancy that!"
"His name is Meet Diego."
"Can we go cantelope-watching some time?" (after we talked with her about antelope browsing near Antelope Canyon)
"Geez Louise!" (a common phrase around our house...strong words from AC!)

Music With the Kids

Alana sings all the time (both her parents do, too, so she doesn't find it at all odd). She knows a bunch of the bass lines that AC sings in her chorus, from hearing Mommy practicing at home. She knows "Over the Rainbow" pretty well, and more typical kids' songs, too.

We sing whatever songs we can come up with that incorporate the kids' names, and then the kids pick them up, too. Alana first learned to spell her name because we sang B-I-N-G-O with new lyrics about a little girl named A-L-A-N-A.

At the moment, Alana is pretty frequently singing the Alleluia Chorus, because she hears us singing it with her brother (substitute "Alexander" for "Alleluia" and you'll get the idea). Her original version was pronounced "all-a-you-uh", but she's getting the alleluias now.

Alexander, at 18 months, was humming tunes quite clearly (twinkle, twinkle in particular). He'll also drum on anything we drum on (most kids do, but he's *into* it!) If we leave the basement door open, he makes a beeline downstairs for the drumset. He loves to play with it. Piano and guitar also fascinate him...I'm sure music will be a big part of his life.

My Possibility

I came home the other day, and Alana happily said to me: “Daddy, I did my possibility!”
"Your possibility? I don't understand."
"You know, my possibility! I made my bed!"
"Ohhh. Your responsibility!"

Cuz I'm a Blonde

Alana was walking around singing the refrain from "Cuz I'm a blonde--yeah YEAAHH yeah". Finally we asked her to stop, because it was getting really old. Keith said "You're really more of a brunette, not a blonde." Then we asked if any of the kids in her class were blonde. "Isn't Isabelle blonde?" "No." "I thought she has yellow hair." "She does, but she's not blonde." "Uh, yes she is. Blonde means you have yellow hair." She pondered. "I thought blonde was when your eyes don't work."

Distractable

AC, frustrated: "Alana, you are so distractable".
Alana, calmly: "Yes, just like my Daddy."

Not There Yet

After finally swapping Alana over to underpants exclusively, and subsequently doing a lot of laundry after she consistently woke up wet, we've moved back to training pants for her at night.