Sophie and Rhys Quirks

On a recent Sunday, our program from sacrament meeting had a picture of Jesus. As the meeting was over and we had all the pertinent information we needed from the program, I put it in a pile of papers to go to the recycle box.  I asked Sophie to take the papers to recycle box.  She says quite concerned, “Mommy, are we going to recycle Jesus?!” I say we are going to recycle the paper with Jesus' picture. Now distressed,“But we can't! We LOVE Jesus!” I say it's okay because we have other pictures of Jesus in our house. This contents her.

Rhys loves sighting letters and numbers and in particular the letter O.  He will be sitting in the back seat of the car and suddenly shout out, "Oh! Oh! Oh!."  While I'm trying to figure out what's wrong--is he getting pinched by his seat belt? Did he drop his drink?  I finally realize that the is drawing my attention to the O in the STOP sign. 

He likes to find letter and numbers everywhere and likes looking at up-side-down even and tell me if the letter changes, as in the case of d/p and 9/6.  We are glad he is interested in letters so we can continue to work on his speech sounds.

Sophie has a new preoccupation.  She loves checking herself out in mirrors.  If she and I are having a conversation when there is a mirror near by, she will stop making eye contact with me and talk to me while watching herself do so in the mirror.  In fact, she often becomes more and more passionate and dramatic about the given topic so she can see herself "perform."  I often have to tell her that "I'm over here and to look at me" or move to a room without mirrors.  It cracks me up because I did the same thing throughout my childhood and maybe even a bit of my teenage years.

Rhys is all about Sesame Street right now.  He loves the Sesame Street books and videos we check out from the library.  He can name many of the characters.  Because we have read the books so often he can now finish some of the sentences with the correct words and help us "read."  His favorite is Elmo but he likes many others just about equally.  He requests his outgrown Elmo jammies every night but holds it together just fine when we say they are dirty.

Sophie has asked to play "activity" a few times.  This is when we get to reenact the coming of the baby Jesus, known as the "nativity" by most of us.  She makes a very good Mary.

Some of Rhys' other favorites are his green robot shirt, requested every morning.  Most of the pictures we have of him are in that beloved shirt. 

He also adores his little figures: a pirate, a fireman, an Elmo.  Others join the party from time to time: a chicken, a dinosaur, another rescue guy, a horse.  He hoards them and then can hardly make it from place to place without dropping one which starts a comical cycle because while he is trying to pick the one up he is almost surely dropping another.  And we have come to hold great respect for these figures because if we dare touch or take one, tantrums often ensue.

One of our favorite family activities is playing team hide and seek.  A parent will team up with a child otherwise the hiding places become a bit to predictable.  We have a blast!  We love having fun with our kids.