9/8/09 Katrina's colors

Gabriel was really a pain tonight. The least of his offenses was not getting out of the car for a long time because he was too busy kissing Katrina, and she was actually tolerating it.

Yesterday I found him sitting and helping her play with Zoobs (a sort of building toy that's Julian's), pausing to kiss and hug her. This boy's love for his little sister knows no bounds.

Homework's started again. It's due weekly, but it's going to require a lot of oversight from us on a daily basis. Gabriel also has to practice a spelling list every day, as he'll have a spelling quiz every Friday.

Katrina's definitely identifying colors now, sometimes even correctly. For a few weeks, it seemed she's been trying, though still saying an object's color with the object, as though it's part of the name.

For instance, the "orange firefly," a tiny dragonfly barrette, too small for her hair, but she likes playing with them. She saw them in the drawer I keep a brush and her hairbands in, so I started handing her one every morning to play with. I used to give her any firefly, but now it has to be the "ahhjj fiefie" (orange firefly). Then she started pointing out the "boo fiefie."

Today I directly quizzed her on Gabriel's T-shirt, which had identical red, white and blue cars on it. She got "boo" (blue) and "rit" (red) right, and couldn't identify the white one, but so what. Most telling is that she understands the question and what sort of thing she's supposed to answer. She's experimenting and saying new things and imitating and trying to communicate all the time now, a real language explosion.

Even her regular evening dinner tantrum was relatively minor. She's shedding babydom with every passing day now!

9/8/08