Activities Galore

Maddie's getting to the age where she soaks up everything -- her nightly activity routine has expanded to more use of the computer.  Cathy found a great website called Sheppard Software (click Link) with a ton of learning games.  The 'Color Game' really helped Madison with her mouse control (clicking and dragging objects on the screen), after a couple of runs through that game I noticed it really helped Madison on Coloring.com.  The letter game on Sheppard Software is another good one -- you click on a letter at the bottom of the screen and then it identifies the animal that begins with the letter you selected.  The next page takes it one step further and asks you to click on the animal that starts with the letter they select for you.  

We've stepped it up on Little D too.  We found this book helpful with Maddie when she was younger - now that he's pointing and making sounds (I think Dylan says 'ball' now, he will point at a ball and say 'ba'), this book allows him to soak up words to go with the pictures -- all it takes is constant repetition.  As he points at the pictures we repeat them -- followed by us asking him to point to the objects.  At this point I think luck plays a key role in Dylan selecting the object we say... but nonetheless it's fun to interact with your kids....  currently the ball, duck and baby pictures have his undivided attention.

Here's some of Maddie's latest work:

Mouse practice - Maddie has been sending pics from coloring.com to her family and friends.  There are tons of sites out there for coloring -- this one is just easy to remember for some reason.

Keyboard practice - Maddie can type her name by herself.  She's learning how to use the backspace button too!  As you can imagine, there are some typos from time-to-time.

Handwriting - We were doing dry erase flash cards for a few weeks when we decided to revisit the Kumon capital letter tracing book.  This time she breezed through it in under two weeks.  We found that the dry erase cards were a good way to teach Maddie her letters -- the only issue with them is it's tougher to keep good hand control.

Dinner Time Antics

Maddie having some fun at the dinner table.  Note the calendar in the back, there's a 'birthday' tag on the 23rd (for Aunt Jackie) and a 'Celebration' one on the 29th (Grandma is coming into town).  It's a nice in-your-face calendar so we can remember all the key dates for the month.

Camera Skills

We taught the princess how to take photos of herself!

Maddie took this pic of Dylan in his high chair.  Been a while since he was able to eat at the table -- actually, this is the first time Dylan's been in a high chair!  Before his cast we were using the booster.

Cheese!  Ethan came over last Saturday to play.... she didn't realize the camera was set to record video!

Legs!

We're almost a week in with the 2nd cast -- this one is quite a bit easier to work with and he seems to be a bit happier now that his legs have some freedom.  Dylan can bend his knees and he's already rolled over a few times too.  The rolling over part is both good and bad... we may have to alter his royal crib arrangement if he decides to get adventurous.  The best part is we can fit him in a high chair again!  What a difference, no more feeding him on a bean bag.

Counting down the days -- September 28th.

First Pet

While I have been adamantly against a feline pet addition to our household, I did strike a soft spot and cave a little bit -- Maddie now has a new fish friend to take care of.  Last weekend the family took a trip to the pet store and (with subtle input from our daughter) we picked out the required accessories.  The fish tank started out neutral until I opened my big mouth and broke the first rule of communicating with a 3Y2M old -- I provided poor options with only one obvious choice.  Not only did I provide poor options, but I already had the neutral tank in hand -- I actually revisited the fish tank section to point this one out!  I guess it compliments her room nicely....

Initial name of her new friend was "Fishy Claus"... that name however has morphed to Cinderella, which I think will stick from this point on.

Taking pointers from his sister

Dylan is still spending some quality time in his Buzz Lightyear chair everyday.  Little D likes to thumb through books while he's sitting there and now Dylan's starting to point at just about everything -- very similar to his sister when she was this age (link).

He won't go longer than a minute when you're holding him before he points at what he wants next.  Tough not to meet the little guy's demands since he's in a spica cast and cannot get things by himself -- good news is he'll be getting a smaller cast on Wednesday, the whole family is looking forward to it!

Staying in the Lines

A few times a week we try to get Maddie more familiar with the computer and mouse -- we started doing these coloring webpages a few months back -- now Maddie's at the point where she's starting to get more creative in her color selections. Maddie printed this one out so she could mail it to her cousin in Phoenix.

Efficiency Gains

I'm always hearing that with your 2nd child the amount of pictures you take comes down a bit when compared to the 1st.  Sure some of the smaller milestones aren't as exciting (which may not require a series of photos) -- but I contend that I've been unbiased with the camera since Dylan's arrival.  Let's see if I can walk the talk - here's the picture output for our household before and after Dylan was born:

• Just Maddie:  4,115 total pics (~152 pics per month)
• Maddie and Dylan:  2904 total pics (~264 pics per month)

Best case scenario is that we would be at 304 (152*2)  pics per month with both kids -- 100% increase.  But I justify the smaller monthly output with our increased experience in using the camera... experience that can only be gained over the course of 1-2 years with a firstborn.  Everyone knows that you need to take multiple shots of any picture opportunity, knowing full well that only 10% will be usable to the general viewing audience -- the rest fall into the black hole of disc space on your pc to pretty much never be viewed again.

As I stated before, best case would be a 100% increase in photo output.  But let's dissect these numbers a bit.  264 pics/month is an increase in picture output of 74%.  One may be quick to say that this represents a 26% reduction in attention paid to child number 2.  I can prove with additional statistical evidence that this is NOT the case.  The 26% differential is, in fact, an efficiency improvement in the amount of usable pictures available after a photo session.  Said another way, I have reduced the total number of pictures taken while increasing the amount of usable ones.  So why I am leaning towards efficiency-gains versus non-equitable picture taking for both children?  Let's take a look at blog output.

Surely you know that posting a blog takes much more effort than just snapping a series of pics with your camera.  It couldn't be possible, with a 2nd child, that I would have more free time to post about my kids and other family members?  Could it?  Well, let's see:

• Just Maddie ~3.6 posts per month
• Maddie and Dylan ~9 posts per month

There you have it, an over twofold increase.  You read it here first, statistics show that having two children will lead to:  1)  using your time more effectively, and 2) having more to talk about!

58 days to go

So far so good.  Dylan's followup appointment went well, everything is healing in place.  1.5 weeks until the next cast -- it will be a smaller version with his knees exposed.

For Your Entertainment

A couple of funny stories recently, compliments of the princess:

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Madison was playing with a pair of toy scissors -- cutting one of her baby doll's hair:

     Mom:  Hey Maddie, why don't you try to cut Dad's hair?


     Maddie:  I can't, he has crumbs on his head!


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Driving in the car with Madison -- just Daddy and the Princess -- it was a warm morning, probably 75 degrees:

     Madison:  Dad, can you roll the window down please?


     Dad:  Of course.


     Madison:  Thank you.  Dad?  Can you play a song?


     Dad:  Of course, which one would do you want to hear?


     Madison:  Who Let the Dogs Out, please.


     Dad:  You got it!


     Madison:  Dad?  I can't hear it.  Can you turn it up.


     Dad:  Yes my princess.


     Madison:  Thank you.  

Madison sat back and sang for the rest of the ride.  Minutes later I pull up to a red light, windows down, and I turned and made eye contact with the person in the car next to me... at this point, Celebration (by Kool and the Gang) is blasting from my car into the Summer air -- Celebration is next in the queue after Who Let the Dogs Out -- I just nodded my head in acceptance.  Accepting that yes, I (now) know I have my windows down and Celebration is jamming!  The windows (of course) stayed down for the rest of the trip.