New Skills

As I look back over the past few months, I realize that the children have taken up several activities new to our house. The toddler delights us daily with activities, words and even sentences new to him; Sophie is breaking ground by learning a useful craft that she plans to teach the rest of us as she becomes more proficient; and the older kids have continued a tradition begun by their great grandmother.



The kids' Great Grandma, over the years, has decorated many a wedding invitation with the art of paper filigree or quilling. She in turn taught me how to quill, though I've put the skill little to use, but now the kids have taken up the art on their own, following the instructions in a child-friendly book that Grandma gave them called Twirled Paper by Jacqueline Lee. Here is a picture of Evan's very first quilling project:

The kids have followed the book to craft paper insects, fish, snails, and even aliens which are flying by threads from their beds or ceiling, or crawling up their walls and doors. I hope to get in on the action in the future to help them work on larger projects.

Sophie has long expressed a desire to learn to knit, and with the instruction of a friend of ours (Gina K.), she is making progress in her new ability:


(I have seen an old picture of myself with this same expression on my face. On the back of the photo, my mom wrote: "The cat that ate the canary.")

Logan talks quite a bit now and can often be heard yelling for "Ophie!" or "Ewan!" or Mafoo!" His pronunciation of "Matthew" has degenerated somewhat, and even comes out as "Awful" sometimes which gives us all the giggles. One of his favorite fruits is an "ocean", also known as an "orange". He loves to drink "waters" out of a little jar that fits nicely in his small hands.

Last Tuesday, as I changed his diaper, Logan pulled the handle on a musical toy. I informed him, "You pulled it!"

He echoed, "I pulled it!" surprising me with the change of pronoun. I'm not sure if that counts as a sentence, but he is at least expanding his vocabulary to phrases.

This weekend, he saw James walking towards him, and he ran to him, exclaiming, "He's coming!"

In the van, Logan called out his name (which he says quite clearly.) James and I joked about how Logan's cousin, Elijah, calls him "Coco."

I told Logan, "You tell him that your name is Logan," and asked him "Can you say 'Elijah'?"

Logan quickly replied, "Coco!" to our great amusement!

Other new activities:

Playing with Model Magic with the big kids.

"Washing dishes" in the toddler tower with his cousin, Josi.

Standing in the toddler tower from a safe distance, watching his Daddy (taking over temporarily for me) brown some meat.

Building towers...

with different objects

So happy!