Understanding English

Our little Julie is 2 months old!

Julie turned two months old and celebrated with her first set of shots! Poor thing. Her faced turned as red as a tomato when the nurse stuck her. True to form, she has handled the whole thing well, only sleeping and crying (whimpering, really) a bit more than usual for the first day. Our little Julie, who was born weighing on 6 lbs 9 oz caught up to Therese's birth weight (9 lbs 4 oz) at 5 weeks and has gained a pound and a half since. She is in the 92% for height and only the 46% for weight - skinny little girl! She continues to talk a lot, stay awake for longer periods, and is getting better at holding up her little head. Reese also continues to talk a lot and stay awake for longer periods (she keeps fighting her nap :-)).

This week Reese has been working on her language skills. She's become a lot more interested in Spanish recently which is much better than German - I actually know a few words in Spanish! Today she counted to 32 in Spanish for Todd. It's sweet. Of course it's fun to watch her try to figure out English, too. It is a rather confusing language after all. After learning that red lights are called stoplights, she insisted that green lights are called "go lights." When we're driving in the car, she often asks if we are on the the highway or the "low way." One day we were listing different types of berries and I said, "Blackberries!" to which she responded, "Nooooo, that's Daddy's phone!"

Our life was further complicated this week when I was spelling bath outloud when discussing with Todd whether or not to start giving Julie one. Reese promptly figured out that B-A-T-H spells bath by sounding it out and has been reinforcing her knowledge by walking around calling her bath "B-A-T-H" (for example, she told me she wants to play in the B-A-T-H and that it is time for a B-A-T-H). Ugh. I guess I'll have to start spelling shower.

The real complication, however, has arisen from the endless questioning so typical at this age. Reese loves to ask "why?" particularly when I tell her not to do something. This week I've been called upon to explain why we don't put macaroni and cheese in our bellybuttons and why we don't eat books. Of course, Reese has moved beyond these questions and has started asking what different words mean. When I was putting her to bed the other night she asked me what it means to ask and what it means to tell. She keeps asking Todd what "need" means. While these were tough questions, they got much more difficult to answer throughout the week. On the way home from school Wednesday Reese asked me, "What does it mean to sing?" and then at dinner she asked us, "What does the word please mean?" Good question. I guess I shouldn't complain about lack of mental stimulation anymore :-).