Counting in Spanish

Awhile back I wrote about Sesame Street teaching Isabella how to catch a ball. Now it has proven once again, and twice over, that it is indeed educational television. Isabella has learned to count to ten in Spanish, and she is determined to teach Zach as well. Watch the video below as she shows off and then helps get Zach to do it too.

Choo Choo

Zach's real love these days are his choo choos. He loves the Thomas trains and loves to carry them all over the house and run them on their tracks. The other day he figured out that if he put it on his block it would go around in a circle. Then, if he pushed the button, it would go super fast. He must have stood there watching and playing for 30 minutes or more.

They like music

On Friday night, Liza took Isabella with her to a progressive dinner for freshmen and new students. While they were there, Isabella discovered the drum set. She asked if she could play and Joel (who owns the drums) said yes. She got up there and played around. Then Joel showed her how he can play and she really liked it. She then got back up and really went to town. All I can say is that if she sticks with the drums, we're going to have to build a detached garage for her to practice in. ;-)


Isabella and Zach also like to play piano. They are quite in to doing duets. Here they were working very hard at a piece they like to call, "wow, that's noisy."

More Coloring

Zach continues to be creative in his coloring. The other day he was working away and then got quiet. I went in to see what he was up to, and found him looking like he had either been beat up or was trying to put on his clown makeup. :-)

AWANA and big shoes

Isabella is now officially a "Cubby" in AWANA. You can learn more about it here if you haven't heard of it. It meets at our church every Wednesday, and Isabella has gone 3 times now. She really likes it and is doing pretty well at memorizing her verses. Last week Liza took this picture of her in her vest. She had decided to put on my shoes for the picture though, so she looks a little funny. Don't worry, we didn't let her go out like that. :-)
Zach decided that he wanted to get in on the action too...

And here is another picture of him that is just cute. :-)

Big Ball!

A couple of days ago, Zach and I went to Walmart to do some shopping. As soon as we went in, he saw the row of huge balloons and immediately starting saying "want balloon!" which sounds more like "ont booon!" I said no, and moved away from them as quickly as possible, but it seemed like there were balloons everywhere.

Then, we passed by a huge cage full of balls. When he saw that, his eyes lit up and he started saying, "Big ball! Big Ball!" which sounds more like "Beeeee ball! Beeee ball!" At $2.50, I thought this was a bargain, so I pulled one out and handed it to him. It was so big, you couldn't see him behind it in the cart. Just the ball with two little hands on either side, then he would move it over and look around with a big smile and say, "Beeee ball!" As we worked our way back across the store and through the food isles, we handed out smiles to everyone as he would look around his ball at them and say "beeee ball!"

Coloring Fun

Isabella loves to color, and now Zach does too. The other night I heard them chattering away while I was cleaning up the dishes, so I went in to see what they were up to. I found Zach standing on the table with crayons in his hand smiling like he had won the lottery. He then bent down and continued to color.


If you look carefully at my computer in the video, you can see that Zach "enhanced" the black cover with some lovely yellow stripes. I thanked him, but thought it best to wipe them off. :-)

Bubbles

The kids have been learning how to do bubbles. Liza got a bunch of bubble supplies at a Walgreen's "end of summer" clearance sale. Zach discovered that he could blow bubbles with the little pipe and even with the more traditional wand. Isabella has gotten really good at using the wand and making lots of bubbles. Both of them really liked catching the bubbles (and in Zach's case, eating them) and chasing them down. Here are some pics of them having fun.

Bottom's up!

Zach continues to benefit from being the 2nd child. I can't remember when Isabella even started wanting to drink from a cup, much less be successful at it, but Zach is really excited about it. Every night he wants Liza to take the top off his sippy cup so he can drink from a cup like the rest of us. I caught him the other night as he was very carefully working to drink his milk without spilling. He's getting very good at it.

No better way to spend a Saturday

This picture was taken a week ago Saturday. Football was on TV and Zach found a great seat for the game... he's got it down already... though one day he'll learn about the recliner. :-)

Home Alone Face

Zach has this funny thing he has done since he was about 8 months old. He does it just to be funny or when he's excited, or sometimes when he is frustrated. Usually though, it is when he is being silly. It is pretty much impossible to describe, so I had him do it for the camera. Being the little camera hound that he is, he was happy to oblige.

In balance

Liza and Isabella have been working on a project- a book about Isabella. Last night they came upstairs and asked me to help measure Isabella. It turns out she is 39 1/2 inches and 39 1/2 pounds. Sounds pretty balanced to me! Her book is part of a home pre-school program that a friend from church has put together and Liza is trying out with Belle. Belle also signed up for AWANA this week and will start next wednesday for the first time.

Double Tickle

I caught Liza tickling both kids at dinner last night. They were having a great time.