Heat Wave

Kiana has been talking up a storm for the last couple of weeks. In addition to "Mama" and "dis" (this), she now clearly has other words that she is using. Last Monday, she asked for "ma" ("more") raisins, and has been using "ma" (as "more") a lot since then. She regularly asks for "up up up up" (to be picked up). And when she rides her rocking-moose or Gyffy riding giraffe, she chants "bup bup bup" (mimicking my "BUMP-ity BUMP-ity bump bump bump!" riding song!). She is becoming increasingly adamant with her "neh neh neh neh!" (no no no no!). Perhaps most amazingly, however, has been two gestures: she is clearly responding to questions with nodding ("yes") and sometimes shaking her head ("no")! It's incredible to be able to ask her something (Do you want to go to bed? Do you want more food? Should we find Daddy?) and have her respond clearly with a nod!!

She has also gotten *really* into reading books. She adores reading Good Dog, Carl and other animal books (Busy Horsies, Busy Piggies, Pet Them Gently) and lift-the-flap books (Where is Baby's Belly Button?, Daddy and Me, Grandma and Me). Aidan has been reading to or talking to her about some of her favorites, and I'm not sure who loves that more - Kiana or me!!


While dropping off or picking up Aidan at daycare the last couple of weeks, Alex and I have both heard Aidan playing a very creative game with his friends! They get together, and ask each other who wants to be the "Mommy Batman", who wants to be the "Daddy Batman" and who wants to be the "Baby Batman" - it's amazing! For a long time, Aidan's friend Olivia has been really into playing "baby", and has tried to direct the other kids to be the Mommy/Daddy/Baby in the game. At the same time, the boys and Kira have been really into superheros recently, and haven't always wanted to play that game. So, in recent weeks, it seems that they have amalgamated the two: thus, the "Mommy Batman/ Daddy Batman/ Baby Batman" game. I've never heard of anything like it before, and am very impressed with their creativity and ability to play a game that everyone wants to play!

On Saturday while we were at a friend's house with a white grand piano, Aidan surprised us by performing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"! He has learned this at school, but this was the first time that he showed off his skills for a whole song, and it was amazing! He plays beautifully: he uses different fingers (not just one), and caresses the notes, rather than plinking them out uniformly - it's beautiful! He also still comes up with his own music, which is sounding more and more beautiful itself! On Sunday, he tried to play again at our house but got really frustrated because our C "wasn't right". We couldn't figure it out for a while until Daddy realized that Aidan could tell that our keyboard's callibration made the notes sound different from the piano at school: He told Aidan that Aidan must have a better ear than we do, because he could tell where middle C was suppossed to be, whereas we were content to just have the notes all be different from each other. Fortunately, he was able to recalibrate the keyboard until Aidan was content with middle C being the right deepness! (Aidan's pitch seems to be exceptional!)


This week has been something of a survival game, as we have been going through a ridiculous heat wave. We had a couple of days in a row with temperatures over 100 and heat indexes of about 110, and the rest of the time in the 90s with high humidity. It's been intense! Aidan skinned his knee badly on Thursday and hasn't wanted to go to the pool because water hurts, so that has limited our options. We've mostly been trying to find interesting places that have air conditioning! Hopefully this won't continue for much longer.


Saturday we had brunch at our friends Karah/Jonathan/Oscar/Leo's house, which was fun. Then we went to Aidan's friend Olivia's 4th birthday party at Castle Village party room. Between the two of them, Aidan had pastries and cupcakes in just a couple of hours, and loved it!


Sunday, we let Daddy sleep in, let Mommy and Kiana have a nap, and then we all went to the Museum of Natural History. The AC there was *fantastic*, and the kids loved seeing the exhibits, too! Kiana loved the T-Rex, the archeopteryx, and the elephants; Aidan loved the T-Rex (his favorite) and the blue whale in the ocean room; we all liked the gem collection, too.