Delenn and Logan build jets.

Blast off!

Yeah, so NOW she's tired! (8:45am, resting in the chair in the
living room)

AHHHHhhhhh

That's the sound of Delenn screaming at the top of her lungs from 2:33
to 4:07am this morning. Delenn had a nursing at 2:00am and Mommy was
not going to let her have more milk, but then -- WATCH OUT WORLD!
Delenn took her revenge by screaming as loud as she could for a long,
long, long time. This meant that Mommy had the fun of talking to Logan
about all sorts of things (primarily about Bradon, Seth and Connell
coming on Friday), reading a book (X-Men), convincing Logan that it was
not time for cereal, and eventually snuggling with Delenn in bed to get
her to calm down. I don't know whether she's still in pain (I suspect
so after that performance and she did say this morning when she got up
that she had owies), but I'm just so wiped out. I'm in the precarious
position of trying to figure out whether she wants milk for the pure joy
of it or because she needs comfort because she's in pain. Regardless,
it is hard, hard, hard because it has been a full week now since I've
had a full night's sleep. Oh man, how I miss Daddy.

Delenn gives a smile and a cheer at bedtime (just imagine
the joy Mommy is feeling!)

Logan shows off the new haircut he got this evening.

Hi Daddy and everyone, Logan wanted to show you his art work.
He made it this morning before Kindergym. He helped mix the glue
and food coloring. Then he mixed some cooked spaghetti into the
glue mixture. He cut up pieces of yarn and mixed them with glue as
well. He was definitely NOT excited about getting his fingers sticky.
When this dries completely, it should be hard. Hopefully we'll be able
to get it off the plate to hang as a mobile. Mommy was not terribly
happy when Logan dumped his artwork on the floor, but luckily
it cleaned up easily enough and still looks great.

Logan poses as Captain Main of the galactic star fighter.

Logan and his rocketship with the special buttons.

Delenn is in my arms as I post this. She keeps declaring "Lenny,"
"Lenny" "Lenny"

Cheese!

Lenny's profile shot. She's doing well to be playing with Logan
as she keeps saying "owie" and pointing to her (other) ear.

Another Rough Night

Delenn had such a bad night on Saturday night that I decided to take her
to the clinic at the hospital. One ear was infected the other mildly
infected. She has antibiotics, but we'll have to wait til it takes
effect for her to feel better. She's GREAT when we're not at home, but
totally out of sorts here at home. After the clinic run, I played a
half game of soccer while our friends watched the kids. Then rushed
back to get the kids. I brought Delenn home for a nap. Our friends
kept Logan for much of the afternoon so Mommy could get in a nap too.

Last night was another rough one. Delenn and Logan both went to bed
easily enough around 7:45, but again Delenn didn't stay asleep long.
She was up every hour all night long. It is so draining on Mommy (who
only got about 5 hours of broken sleep total). That's not so bad one
night, but it's been a number of nights this week (remember she and
Logan had a tummy virus, we got the bad news about Grammy and now she's
had three nights in a row now of ear pain). She's now had three doses
of antibiotics (it takes 24 hours to really start making a difference).
That means that naps and bedtime tonight *should* be better!

Poor Delenn

Delenn had a terrible night last night. She slept for somewhere between
a half hour or hour before waking up again and crying. She kept saying
she had owies. At one point she said her ear had owies, so I think I
might make an appointment at the after hours clinic to have her ears
checked out. It's really difficult to tell if this is a teething problem
or related to the terrible congestion she has had for the past week.
The only solution for keeping her calm last night was nursing her -- and
she'd nurse as long as an hour and a half before I could set her back
down again. This morning she seems pretty happy despite her limited
sleep.

Daddy Leaves for the USA

Yesterday, Daddy left for the US around 4:30pm. He was heading straight
to Memphis for Grammy's Memorial Service. Unfortunately he has come
down with a bit of the virus that the kids had -- so we hope he didn't
suffer too much on those long flights. I also had quite a sore tummy
yesterday, but only had a mild case of diarrhea and was nauseas. I'm
hoping that I escaped the worst of the virus. Delenn still has a
congested throat and vomited once this morning. She was up every hour
or so last night -- she is also teething. She often says "mouth owie
money." I quickly figured out that money actually means [teething]
medicine. Logan was restless too. At one point in the middle of the
night just after I had put Delenn back down to sleep, Logan asked "Did
Daddy leave already?" I said, "Yes," though I was a bit puzzled because
we went into the airport and waved good bye as Daddy walked outside to
board the plane. Logan said, "Oh, I had a dream that he comed [sic]
back to us." I said, "Well he'll be back Logan, but he's traveling."
"Yes," said Logan and he promptly went back to sleep. A couple hours
later he woke up again and was whimpering. "What's wrong, Logie?"
Mommy asked. "I fell off the table. I was trying to get xxxx
[something-or-other] and I fell." Yup, quite a restful night! Luckily
I went to bed more or less right after the kids did, so I feel okay this
morning.

Today has been a much nicer day. After a slow morning with lots of
books and a long shower for everyone, we eventually got our act together
and headed over to the Steiner School Fete. We had a lovely time --
with fresh mango sorbet (frozen mango made into puree), time at the
playground, fun going through a clever maze made of yarn, time spent
listening to the school kids perform on recorder, and even a try at
shooting an arrow (as in bow and arrow). We got back around 1:15 at
which point Delenn was already asleep. An hour or so later Sue came
over to watch the kids while Mommy played hockey. Mommy feels greatly
refreshed and the kids seem really relaxed and happy. They obviously
had a great time with Sue. Now we have a crockpot dinner ready (thanks
Daddy for getting all that stuff for us!!). Should be an easy evening
and I might even stay up a bit after the kids go to bed this time!

Eavesdropping on Logan

Logan was playing with Legos and I heard him say this to himself as he
put Lego pieces together.

"Once upon a time there was a big, fat monster. He wanted to gobble all
the Billy Goats up. Then the big billy goat got him.

That's all there was."

Poor Kids

Last night Delenn and Logan woke up around 11pm and started throwing
up. Luckily Logan was sick just once, but poor Delenn was sick for much
of the night. Since she hasn't yet learned to use the bucket very well,
much of the night Mommy was up changing into new clothes while Daddy
would change the sheets and towels all around them. Delenn finally had
some unsettled sleep from 3am until 7:30am. The funny thing about this
bug is that neither kid had a fever. In fact, Delenn was full of energy
often bolting down the hallway while Mommy and Daddy were cleaning up to
go find Logan or play with the toys. She insisted on lots of books at
one point too! She seems pretty good this morning. Both kids have had
breakfast and seem tired but not particularly out of sorts. We called
our friend to cancel a play date and it turns out that her daughter woke
up at 11pm and was sick all night too.

Delenn and Logan wish Grandpa well on his birthday today.
Delenn even said "Happy Birthday" which amazed Momma!
Logan was very eager to tell Grandpa that he had made a
star fighter and a B2 (bomber jet plane) out of Legos.

Delenn at 19 months

Head Banger

I realize we're beginning to sound like a broken record. Yes, yes
Delenn is adding new words every day. Today, for example, she was
looking at a pop up Haunted House book and pointed to a picture.
"Witch," she said. And then, "Bat." What we also have found neat is
that she is starting to sing the last word of some of the songs we sing
to her. There's a book of First Songs we sing her every night and she
sings "Handy" at the end of Yankee Doodle, "Tea" at the end of Polly Put
the Kettle On, "Away" in Georgie Porgie and "Weasel" in Pop Goes the
Weasel. You get the idea. Oh, and another funny thing is when we do
"It's Raining, It's Pouring" she stands up and thumps her head against
the wall. (I once showed her that the man jumped in bed and "bumped" his
head -- so now she 'bumps' her head against the wall when we get to that
song!)

Today we had a really nice time at a Family Fun Day sponsored by the
Town Council. It was perfect for the age of our kids. Some special
guests like Yamba, the Honey Ant, Booka, the reading dog and Ima the
Safety House came. Both Logan and Delenn went up and gave them numerous
hugs! There was face painting where Logan was transformed into Spider
Man. They got some balloons and a little later went up to a clown who
made them special balloon creations. Logan got a flower, I mean a
sword! And Delenn was given a balloon bug that she could attach to her
wrist. John, the librarian, read several stories and Logan and another
little boy were the only ones to sit right up close and listen to all of
the stories. That was followed by coloring. They also had snacks
available (fruit) and a few simple games (a bean toss, stepping stone
path and little stilts). Both kids enjoyed them immensely. Delenn
really enjoys walking on stilts, but of course Mommy has to stoop over
and pull the string up to keep the stilt/bucket against Delenn's foot.
Logan can do it just fine on his own. All in all it was a full busy two
hours, but we had a nice time.

Tonight we had a family movie night and all watched The NeverEnding Story.

Logan gets his face painted at Family Fun Day.
Yamba, the honey ant, looks on!

Spider Man!

Logan and Delenn get their very own ballon creations made for them.

Playing Well Together

Logan and Delenn spend a lot of time together making rockets, jets and
star fighters out of legos. Then they'll take their creations and run
wildly down the hall. They really enjoy spending time together and will
play nicely for a half hour or more without much Mom or Dad
intervention. While there is still a lot of teasing (on Logan's part)
and not-sharing (on Delenn's part), overall they make good playmates. Of
course, Logan enjoys leading the show. Right now, Logan's saying "No,
no Delenn we're not blasting off yet. Okay, put your rocket here. Now
we need some books to blast off on our rocket. Don't put them here, put
them right here." They are both busy carrying lots of books and placing
them under our art table as I write this. [I just told them they had
enough books and gave them 'communicators' for their rocket.] Here's is
a running stream of what Logan is currently telling Delenn [I'll type
while he's talking]:

"Are you ready to go in? [Delenn walks over. They both hum.] I sit
here. You sit there. This is the cockpit. Let's close the door. We
close the door, Delenn. [Logan pulls the chair under the art table.] Oh
yeah. KKRRrrrr [blastoff sound] We're already in our rocket. We blasted
off. Here's the gun."

"KKeRrrr" [from Delenn].

"That's NOT a gun, Delenn. It shoots out of there. No -- THIS is the
button. Okay -- push that. Stop. Don't. I told you don't push that
button! Okay. Yeah! Here we go."

You get the idea. Logan directs the imaginative rocket trip, but Delenn
is definitely an active participant!

Logan often introduces Delenn to others as, "This is my friend,
Delenn." How heartwarming!

Oh and speaking of sociability, Delenn has added "Hi" to her regular
vocabulary. She greats everyone with a wave and a friendly, "Hi" -- even
the dogs and birds she sees. It's really cute!

Daddy and Logan at Junction Water Hole.

Scaling the cliffs at Junction Water Hole. Logan desperately
wanted to go swimming, but settled for rock climbing instead!

Mommy and the kids at Junction Water Hole

DNA Mixup

Mommy and Daddy were talking about the beautiful pictures of Baby Zoe
that Auntie Gina and Uncle Steve sent to us on the ceiva. In the middle
of our conversation, Logan had something to say.

"Excuse me, Mommy. I'm talking to you."

"Yes Logan?"

"When I was a baby, I was in Auntie Gina's belly."

May 10 -- An outing to the Desert Park

There's always so much to see at the Desert Park!

Doing hard labor.

Logan wanted to pet the kangaroo, but a second later it was high up in the air!

A Bit More about Delenn's Speaking

As we said in the previous email, Delenn is adding lots of words daily.
Today for example, she added the words "mountain," "button," "naughty," and
"Lenny" to her spoken vocabulary (she also now says "me" and "mine". I
guess she's found her sense of self!) Yesterday we mentioned how well she
signs. Today she signed, among other things, "I hear Logan washing his
hands." She has also started to sing. There's a book of favorite
kids' songs that we sing through every night (and most naps, too!). She
has always said "tea" at the end of 'Polly Put the Kettle on." And she
sings along with "E-I-E-I-O" in Old MacDonald.
Delenn is also learning the art of swiping from Logan. Logan said he'd
like to use a basket (that is usually full of books). Delenn heard that
and made a bee-line for the basket and would not relinquish it for
anything. I have to say that Logan didn't like that very much! She has
learned quite well from Logan these past few months.

Just thought I'd mention on a bit of a different note, that when we
went to Starfall.com today, a website that teaches about letters
(and later words and reading) the letter "D" (upper and lower case
and nothing else) came on screen. There was nothing spoken yet,
but Delenn said very clearly "D." I was very surprised!

All in all, we had a really nice day today. We met up with our friend
Kristin and her daughter, Sydney (2 1/2) and climbed the hill at the
Telegraph Station. The rest of the day we were at home -- with the main
source of entertainment being three small play tents and a tunnel that
took up the entire living room area!

Climbing up Trigg Hill at the Telegraph Station.

A hike at the Telegraph Station with Sydney and Kristin. May 9

Speaking, Logic and Reasoning

Delenn keeps adding (spoken) words every day. This evening as we were
getting ready for bed, she looked at the photos on our Ceiva. Not
surprisingly she would sign "Logan" and "Delenn" when their pictures
came up. But she also said (in spoken words) "Zoe" when Baby Zoe's
picture came up and "Ben" when her cute cousin came on screen! She says
lots of words now like apple, hockey, Boots (from a book we read about
Dora the Explorer), cheese, owie (for when something hurts), bye bye,
money (and lots of other 1 or 2-syllable words) and also will mimic our
words (though she'll sign them if she doesn't feel like talking!) Her signing
conversation is really good too -- and she signs in 2 or 3 word sentences
such as "Logan's crying" or [I] "hear an airplane" or "Daddy's not at work."

Delenn obviously enjoys our outings as most any time we drive back into
the driveway she says "No!" and then signs and says "More!"
Unfortunately for her and luckily for Mommy and Logan, Delenn still
takes a good afternoon nap. We always read books for 1/2 hour or more
(Logan, Delenn and Mommy) and then when Delenn is asleep Logan usually
gets to watch a "movie" and Mommy takes some time for herself. Usually
there's enough time for Mommy and Logan to have some quality time
together too. That often entails jet and rocket games (and/or building
things jets and rockets as well). Many days Logan and Mommy will play
math games or Logan will do some mazes. Most days Logan will "have a
piano lesson" (he calls them) as he plays "Grandfather's Clock,"
"Moccasin Dance" and sometimes one other. (Both songs I mentioned have
just one note, "C" played alternately with right and left thumbs.
Sometimes he chooses to play another song with two notes.) Logan is
also really good at holding a pencil now and still practices tracing a
word of his choice several times a week.

Daddy and I were talking about how "girly" Delenn can be. Daddy went
into the bathroom to check on her and found her brushing her hair. And
later, when Mommy went in to check on her, she was carefully holding up
Mommy's earrings to her ears and put Mommy's diamond ring on her thumb.
Then she handed them to Mommy to put them back on (Mommy had taken them
off for soccer).

Daddy had quite a rough weekend with two nights of work (Thursday night
& Friday night). Friday night was the worst when he had to go into work
at 8pm and got home at 10:30am the next morning! Yet despite feeling
tired and a bit under the weather he still insisted on letting Mommy
sleep in this morning -- and played with the kids all day long! The
kids obviously love that. It's precious to see them building jet
fighters, jumping on the trampoline and then riding him like a horse one
moment and all curled up together in a chair reading books the next.

Logan's logic often has us laughing. When Mommy reprimanded Logan for
smashing a CD case he said quite calmly "I was smashing it so that Delenn
wouldn't come over and smash it." Here's another example: There's a blood
curdling scream from Delenn. Mommy comes running. "What's wrong,
Delenn? What happened Logan?" Logan's answer, "I didn't do anything.
She screamed loudly because I didn't scream. So I didn't do anything."
There are lots of other examples, but I can't dredge them up at the moment.
He's definitely trying to use logic and reasoning, but has a little work to do to
convince the parental types and pull the wool over our eyes. Just wait another
week or two!!

Mommy had the Eisteddfod earlier this week. Our group played one of my
favorites called "Novelette" by Poulenc. It has a beautiful, soaring
oboe part and Mommy felt great about the performance this week. My
friend told me later that the adjudicator asked who I was and said he
was impressed. That certainly made my day! We won our section with a 95%.

Logan and Delenn busy making/becoming mud pies!

Kids and muddy sand make a great combination...

... especially if you follow it up with a bubble bath!

Logan, Tired, Cranky and Thoughtful

Logan made me chuckle today. He was getting quite upset because I
wouldn't let him watch the movie he was interested in.

A couple minutes later he said, "Mommy, you need to say sorry."

"Here it comes now," I thought to myself.

"You have to say sorry for bringing a turkey sandwich to Kindergym today."

I guess he wanted peanut butter and jelly. Funny thing was, he didn't
complain while we were at Kindergym. He just ate the turkey sandwich
and fruit that I had brought along. His comment made me laugh and laugh
and laugh!

On another note, we were reading a Magic Tree House book together when
it mentioned King Arthur. He asked if he had met King Arthur. I told
him that King Arthur died a long time ago. "What did he die of?" "Old
age," I told him. "Everybody dies eventually, Logan." He looked at me
with a sad face, "I don't want you to die, Mommy."