Progress

Annabel had her 4 month checkup this week. She's 17lbs 6 oz, which puts her in the 95th percentile for weight (she's also there for height). I'll have to post a picture of her leg rolls soon.

Alexander has been taking swim lessons for the past two weeks and yesterday he graduated to the next level. When he started he didn't even want to get his face wet. Now he dunks under easily, although he sometimes forgets to blow out and comes up sputtering. It's been such fun to watch his progress. He loves to push off the wall with his feet and come floating out to you. And he'll happily dunk underwater to retrieve a toy from the bottom of the pool.

This has also been his first "class" setting since he attended peuterspeelzaal in the Netherlands. I'm happy to see that although he and I are constantly butting heads over authority issues, he listens and responds to his swim teacher without any trouble.

For her part, Annabel loves to watch her brother do anything. She finds him the most fascinating creature. I often try to enlist Alexander to help me when she's fussing and I can't put down what I'm doing. He sometimes obliges...when he's in the mood.

Alexanderisms

It's time for a few more things from the mouth of Alexander. I've been collecting them.

For a long time Alexander didn't get the concepts of yesterday, last week, and last year. It was all "yesterday" to him. Yesterday we went on opa and oma's boat. Yesterday he played with Leah and Talia. Now, he's learned to differentiate between things that happened just yesterday and things that happened longer ago. For all of those other things he says, "A long day ago.

He's also taken to saying, "Aw man!" when something cool happens.

And when he's done playing with something or done picking up his toys, he says, "I'm full of doing that."

We're often telling him that he needs to behave or that he can join us again once he's ready to behave. When he gets mad at us for something we've done, he'll say, "You're not being very have."

One of my favorites, though, was when he told me, "Mommy, you need to learn to play by yourself sometimes." Wonder where he got that?

Toiletries

We just spent the week in Sunriver visiting my sister. Michiel had a training for work, so it was a good excuse for a little visit. The weather was glorious! And Alexander pooped in the toilet...twice...all by himself. Finally!!!!!

When we were still at home packing up for the visit, I had funny conversation with Alexander. We were in the bathroom.

Me: "Oh, I almost forgot to pack our toiletries."

Alexander: "Toiletries?"

Me, coming up with a quick definition: "Toiletries are things like your toothbrush, toothpaste, and hairbrush that you use in the room that has the toilet in it."

Alexander, nodding knowingly: "Then we have to take the plunger."

Rolling Over

I forgot to write about this earlier, but on June 9th, Annabel rolled over for the first time. She's only done it once since, so it may have been a fluke, but still, she did it. She rolled from her stomach to her back, and I think it surprised her as much as it surprised me.

Here she is getting ready for the amazing feat:



And here she is in mid roll:

LOL

Today Annabel laughed for the first time! She's giggled and cooed before, but this was her first all out belly laugh. So cute! It actually sounded a bit like she was coughing (in a happy way).

And what was she laughing at? Her brother of course. He had climbed into her crib and was pretending to be a baby while lobbing stuffed animals onto the bed, where she was watching. Every time he threw an animal, she thought it was hilarious and would let out this lovely bubbling, bursting laugh. I can't wait to hear more of it!

Summer Job

Hooray! Not only has the nice weather finally decided to shine down on us, but now Michiel has a summer job! And it's the job he most wanted. School for him ends tomorrow, he has a nice long 5 day weekend, and starts work next week at the Oregon Gardens. He'll be a crew leader for a summer program with at-risk youth.

It's pretty much a dream job for the summer. Four days a week, out in the sunshine, working with plants. It's in Silverton, so he can ride his bike to work. Yay! We're all happy and excited about the summer.

ABC

So, Alexander can now sing his ABC's (as of 6/2). And he's quite proud to do so for anyone who asks. Sometimes he forgets Q, R, S, but who needs them anyway? I was a little surprised when he did it for the first time. When he got to E, F, G, I thought he would be done, but he just kept going all the way to the end. It's strange because we never actively tried to teach him his ABC's; he just picked them up on his own.

Now if he would do the same with potty training...