Sneeze

Gemma: (sneezes)
Several moments pass
Gemma: bess dem-na* (bless Gemma)

* she now has a name for herself! dem-na is the closest I can get.

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The big dance show

Was today!

It went wonderfully, but we are ALL exhausted. What a crazy day!

Transportation display

The city had it's yearly transportation display last week. I was tempted to skip it because while the girls appreciate large machinery, they aren't as enthusiastic as William was at their age.

However, it just happened to work out with everything else we had going on, so away we went. The girls tested out a few backhoes, excavators, went for a train ride, and even a snowplow. The snowplow station had sharpies for kids to autograph the blade of the plow. It was a fun day!

William's Lego club

William has been enjoying Lego club this year at the local library. They have many giant buckets of Legos and a theme for each monthly session. This month was planes, trains and automobiles. To William, this screamed "cave escape"  (cave exkpe). His creation will be displayed for the next month (along with all other creations) in the front lobby display case.

Gemma conversations

Gemma: Da - woof!
Mama: Do you see a dog? 
Gemma: Yeah!  Da!
Mama: Wow!
Gemma: Un.  Do.  Do da.
Mama: (looks down the sidewalk and sees two dogs with their owners going for a walk) Are you counting? Do you see 2 dogs?
Gemma: Yeah!  Do da!
Gemma: Brow da
Mama: Hmmm...Do you see a brown dog?
Gemma: Yeah!! Brow da.  Niii da.
Mama: It is a brown dog!  He does look like a nice dog!  You see so many things!
Gemma: Brow da.  Whiii da.  Da.
Mama: Yes.  A brown dog and a white dog.  Are they nice dogs?
Gemma: Yes!  Niii da.  Bye da!

Gemma

Daddy: Gemma are you ready for bed?
Gemma: yeah! Ding dongs!
(Puzzled looks all around)
Daddy: are you ready to sing some songs?
Gemma: yeah! Ding dongs!

-----

Gemma: wah wahs.
Mama: you want a color crayon?
Gemma: yeah! Wah wahs! Bo!
Mama: you want a blue crayon?
Gemma: yeah! Boo wah wah!
(Hands Gemma a blue crayon. Several moments pass.)
Gemma: mo wah wahs. Mo.
Mama: you want more colors?
Gemma: yeah.
Mama: here is a crayon. It is orange. Can you say orange?
Gemma: no. *(takes crayon and starts coloring)

*as in, no, she won't say orange.
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Math time

The kids and I work on math from time to time. We have math workbooks for in the summertime. The summer workbooks arrived recently, and the kids were excited to try them out (not to worry, the newness will wear off. I'm sure in another week no one will want to do math). Gemma was not going to be left out. She very carefully colored each of the math problems on the page while muttering to herself "two! Nine! Two!" Over and over again.