Get it!

Yesterday I had to vacuum, which I really hate. Usually I don't do this when Cordelia is around, but I just couldn't wait any longer to vacuum. So I was prepared for her to holler and cry as soon as the vacuum turned on. But she just looked at it and then took off. She chased it all around the dining room. Then I stopped to use one of the attachments so she caught up and was really interested in the light. Then I had to finish the rest of the room and again she chased me wherever I went. She is still not crawling up on her hands and knees, but that isn't stopping her.

Like her brother

Cordelia likes her thumb just like her big brother Rion. She also likes the feel of tags and I wonder if she will latch on to a favorite lovey or blankie like Rion.

Rion latched onto a blankie quite early. I want to say he was only a few months old. He liked how one particular receiving blanket felt and he would rub it with his fingers. There were two of these receiving blankets. Rion had one while the other was in the laundry. He carried it everywhere so I always had to rotate them. Then one day we lost one in Menards. I called later to see if anyone had turned it in, but whoever found it probably just threw the rag away.

I had to wash the blankie so often that it began to shred. Soon he had multiple little blankies. He would carry a strand everywhere we went. If I took a picture of Rion the blankie would also be in the picture. Rion also went through a phase where he liked to hide things, especially his blankie. Part of our bedtime routine was to find a blankie strand. When we finally had discovered all of his hiding spots, he would find another one. Many nights I ran around the house frantically searching for the blankie. When we found blankie Rion would curl up, thumb in his mouth, and run the blankie through his fingers until he fell asleep.

After many washings, his blankie was nothing more than a few small strands and it "disappeared." Rion was devastated and it made me heartbroken. I couldn't wait to get rid of the darn thing, but my heart was breaking for the lost of my son's blankie. He loved it so much. I put the last few strands of blankie in his hope chest so they will be reunited again some day. For months after blankie had gone away I still would come across a strand hidden by Rion. These strands ended up in a keepsake box of my own as I reminder when my growing too fast boy fit in my arms. Not too long ago Rion saw a picture of himself with blankie in his hands. "I miss my blankie," he said. "I know," I told him, "I do too."

Tell me a story

Last year I bought Rion a program for the computer with preschool lessons on it. I think it was too easy for him because he never really paid much attention to it. Now Torii has discovered it and has been playing it a lot. Today he was playing with the Art section of the program. On it kids can create their own books with different backgrounds and stickers. There is a place to write text and I told him I would write whatever he wanted me to on it. Torii likes to tell stories so he had no problem coming up with a story. I could barely type as fast as he was talking. I had to keep telling him to stop so we could select another page because we had run out of space on the current page.

Rion liked that so he also wanted to write a story. Rion thought about his story more. He would tell me to write something and a few times told me to erase part of it and he changed it up a little. Once he told me to erase something and he basically told me the same thing, but worded it differently. Both boys are good storytellers, but the way Rion thought about his story and the wording was encouraging to me. I hope I have a writer in the family!

I printed out the stories each boy wrote and we read them again. I let Rion read his and I helped with some words. He had the word "mysterious" in his story so I don't think he was going to figure that one out. He did really good and read a few complete sentances. He is doing so good with reading.