The funnest thing about toddlers is watching them change, literally hour by hour, before your eyes, from babies to kids. Kids with opinions on what to eat, what to watch, what to do, what you should be doing, and what you are doing wrong. It is non-stop hilarity.
G is using the Power of Her Mind to get you to click the link, below, for the full scoop on August…
We live on the border of a big city park – golf course, skate park, batting cages, soccer fields, BBQ and party spaces, two separate playscapes for little kids, and a toboggan hill. So naturally, when we want to take the kids to the park, we get in the car and drive two blocks north of our park to another park, a tiny pocket-park, because the playscapes in our park are not fenced, and every time the kids run, they do so in opposite directions at top speed, and there isn’t enough Xanax in this state to help us when that happens.
But this little park is cute – a few swings, a climbing structure, and some benches and grass, all the size of one city lot, and fully fenced. And almost always empty, since it sits on a street of single-family dwellings, who presumably all have backyards of their own and don’t need a park. Hey, Chicago, your awesome city planning is awesome.
M loves to have a magic wand, and her conjuring skillz are epic.
Treehuggers. We are raising treehuggers.
This video and these pics are actually from August 1st. We mention it because the kids look so little in them! August was on of those months that they grew 8 inches and got 3 years older in just 30 days. But this video also cracks us up, because this is a taste of what we see every day – both girls cracking themselves and each other up. And that incessant buzzsaw in the background is Cicadas – its been a big year for them in Chicago.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ8c5ZEPiMA]
The sparrows love to read now, and we love to encourage it. All the Boynton books are a big hit, as is Dr. Seuss. And now, without even coaxing them, they like to go over to their play table and read. Or, you know, “read”, since they don’t know how to actually read. However, they don’t know that, and we aren’t telling them.
It all starts out well. Everybody is reading … even Dog is reading!
And then the shenanigans start. “What if I sit on you and squish you on your chair?”
“Oh, no worries. Nothing keeps me from reading!”
“Although, this is getting a little old, you know. And there is a perfectly good chair – your chair – right across the table.”
“Did you … say something?”
” I said … did you say something? Are you tryin’ to start something here?” (ed note: the kids are obviously watching way too much Real Housewives of New Jersey)
“Listen Daddy, I warned her not to be startin’ something!”
It seems grandma accidentally confused her grandchildren with the garnish tray on the bar at her local TGIFridays – again! These kids are all ready to pop into a cold gin-and-tonic, or garnish a nice, deep glass of sangria.
For more updates and ridiculousness, click below.
As both girls progess in therapy, expressive language is blossoming, and they are making great strides. We are tremendously proud of their achievements. But we are equally proud of their newly developed senses of humour. Some days, its hard to know whether their answers to the questions we ask them are wrong because they don’t know the answer, or because they love to tell jokes and play pranks. Often, its jokes, and its so much fun, watching them develop these hilariously funny personalities.
We have been learning what animals say: cows, ducks, birds, cats, dogs, etc. And M is quite impressed with herself being able to answer all of these questions 
Note: it will look best if you click thru to youtube and watch it in HD. Also, the back half is a little example of the kind of horseplay we absolutely do not EVER encourage at all. EVER.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDnlDNSej0c]