Sponges and Milestones...

Random title, huh? 

Our little 'sponge' would be Olivia.  The 'milestones'....well as you can guess, that refers to Luke these days. 

First to our sponge.  This has to be one of my favorite times in Olivia's lengthy 5 years.  She is right on the cusp of reading and it is incredible to see the progress.  I'm sure I'll be saying things like this as she progresses through math, science, etc.  Or, you somehow get used to it and take it for granted like everything else in life.  So, for now, I'm trying to really appreciate it. 

I think I mentioned this in an earlier post, but Olivia is dying and I mean dying to spell, read and everything in between.  I went in to her room last night and she had a paper with all kinds of words written on it.  Listed right down the page.  The first one there....'Glamorous'!  What??  I still have no idea where she copied that from.  But, that's what she does.  She sits down at her desk and finds things to copy.  Then, she writes.  It's so funny.  She can spell our whole family from memory. 

We also bought a deck of 'sight' words.  This week's words are 'On', 'No', 'Black', 'The' and 'And'.  She more or less has them down already.  So, after practicing them the other night, she picked out all the words she knew in her bedtime story and read them when she came to them in the book.  You can just see her little mind working.  It's so cool.  I love watching her think through the words, what letter they start with and what that must mean in terms of which one of the 5 it is on the card. 

To make it more confusing, she also has an incredible desire to learn Spanish.  Olivia has completely caught on that we live in a place where other languages are spoken.  And, she's anxious to participate.  The funny part about it is that she identifies anyone of Latin decent and tries, publicly, to talk to them.  Up until now though, the first word that comes to mind is 'Uno'!  We were at the park the other day and Olivia was on her bike.  As she rode past anyone looking Latin, she yelled out 'Uno'!  Imagine... a five yr old yelling 'One!' as they rode past you.  We got some strange looks.  She also did it in the Costco line checking out.  Awkward. 

So, I ordered some bilingual books that we're now reading at bedtime.  I'm going to take advantage of her curiosity so we can all learn Spanish.  It really is a necessity here.  My discovery of the week.....'Special Agent Oso'....you know the TV show.  Well, he's actually Special Agent Bear if you translate it.  Why does that just not sound 'catchy' to me??

On to the little guy. 

Luke survived his first trip on a plane, his first road trip (4hr drive from Dallas to SA), his first time in a pack and play and crib other than his own.  He grabbed a toy for the first time Sunday night and he sat in his Bumbo (or whatever they're called) chair for the first time. 

He also has decided not to sleep anymore.  This is the child that for 3 months has been waking up one time in the night 8 times out of 10.  He's the kid that has given me newborn sanity and made me think a 3rd child was a great idea!  Now....all hell's broken loose.  As of this past Sunday, all bets are off.  Kyle and I have now split up the night.  Whatever happens in your 'shift' you handle.  My shift is from whenever I go to sleep until 2am.  Kyle gets after that.  Last night, Luke was in and out of sleep from 11:30-1:45am.  At which time I fed him.  He then slept until 4pm.  Then, Kyle got to deal with similar patterns for the rest of the night.  Oh Lord help us!!  Praying this is a 'growth' spurt.  Isn't that what you call everything you can't figure out in a baby's world!! 

Here are some pics.  Luke in his chair...I laugh at every single picture.  He looks so funny.  I now purple is not 'manly'.  It's a hand-me-down.