Sophie and Rhys Quirks and a Neat Opportunity

I tell the kids to get in the car (parked in the garage) as I grab my keys and finish up any last minute business.  In the past, when I get there I find them pretend sleeping in their seats until I playfully say, "wake up!  wake up!"  Well, lately our established practice has had a little shaking up.  I often find them like this.  Rhys in every attempt trying to match his sister's topsy-turvy pose.

Sophie has a unique imagination and has been having fun with it a lot lately. She is singing her own made-up songs and some of them follow a story line while others just follow a tune.

During cuddle time before we say goodnight, she likes to describe unusual parks she has conceptualized. Some have included a dolphin park where you swim with the dolphins and feel fish swim around you, a snow park with plenty to throw and land in, a leaf park with numerous large piles for jumping in, a rainbow park with arches to slide down, and so forth.

Also, she recently received some hand-me-downs of a drill team uniform and because it includes boots and tassels she considers herself a cowgirl while wearing them. She calls herself "Cowgirl Senet" and she says she does not know what a senet is but that is her name. A sennet is a small barracuda (type of fish) but that is totally unrelated to her new character. She makes us laugh and always keeps us guessing.

 Rhys has spent a good part of the summer conducting himself as Sophie's pet cat. "Meow! Meow!" is heard here and there throughout the day. If you think his big sister is reducing Rhys to pet status, don't worry. He often yells at her and attempts to man-handle her when she does not do exactly what he intends her to do. Needless to say our time out spot is getting good use this season.

Rhys is successfully potty trained and will dig past his tdig through his tighty-whities and stripes to secure his prized pirate and superhero undies.

After a long evening out we will head home with the kids in the backseat.  Sophie, without fail, nods off in minutes.  Rhys, on the other hand will turn his head to the side, and with one eye peeking at us will fake snore, "shew, shew, shew" for a good long while or until we have reached home. 

We find it fascinating that Sophie will find any small bug, usually as spider, and call to her little brother to come smash the bug; which, he does without hesitation using the blunt force of his fingertip.  Then life continues as though nothing had happened.

The "neat opportunity" that came our way was for our family to again share our experience with Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) but at a higher level.  Our story, along with pictures of our handsome Rhys, will be shared with legislators to help them understand the importance of this service to families and later the public.  We, again, were pleased to demonstrate our gratitude in responding to this request as we had a wonderful experience with ECI. Rhys continues to make progress with using specific sounds and longer utterances.