And so ends another month. Phoebe has been working on a few things most notably on a way to start saving us some money. On November 10th, Phoebe got out of bed during nap time and went poop in the potty all on her own. She stated, "I don't like poops in my pants." A couple days later, first thing in the morning before I even got out of the shower, Phoebe had gotten up to poop in the big potty. The same day at nap time, she tells me that she needs to go poop, and she went to the little potty. Dry pullups are a more often occurrence due to Phoebe's constant need to sit on the potty. She keeps going back because there might be more poop. (Wonder if the chocolate is too much for her system. She does love the m & m reward.) Also, Phoebe insists on going to the bathroom to pee. However, now Phoebe is getting a little out of control. She is getting up early in the morning to head to the bathroom-her new favorite room in the house. She spends much of her time there, peeing, pooping, reading through the stack of Sunday Comics. If we don't get a handle on this she will become her dad ;). After we put her to bed, she heads off to the bathroom again. We appreciate her laser-like focus on potty training, but having to clean her up when she misses is getting a little ridiculous. But that's not all. She's been learning lots and showing it. We have many window clings on the kitchen sliding door, in particular a set of red and blue sea animals. She can sort clings by color on her own and identify same shapes with prompting. She also recognizes P (P is for Phoebe) and R (R is for Rose) when she sees them in signs. Her language skills are improving. As Thanksgiving was approaching she said, "Thanksgiving is flying towards us." Other of the little things that usually get skipped, but are things we wish that we could remember like this month she has stopped using bibs pretty well. Her coloring has improved. She really concentrates on filling the spaces, and she has really good control (or as Jada calls it, fine motor skills). It's really fun to watch her face as she does it (or any time really) because she has the best expressions. Finally, I was so proud the other day when I pulled out the guitar, and she came up and said "Play some Jimmy Buffet, daddy." That's my girl.
Ellen has been making her own incremental improvements. She has been playing more complicated matching games and working on puzzles again. She put together a couple 100 piece puzzles mostly on her own. She is continuing to improve her writing skills. She is practicing forming the letters correctly, working on reversals, and sounding out words to write them. It is amazing to see her get all of the letter sounds into her words. She spelled butterflies-batrflis. Pretty close! Her drawing is getting more complex as well. She is putting backgrounds on her colorings, and drawing things that she has seen like buildings, rain clouds, and herself. Ellen is struggling with being a big sister and finding that fine line of being a good roll model and being bossy. She's typically leaning more on the bossy side. When we were in Fred Meyer using the zoom carts (those are the shopping carts that are shaped like race cars), Phoebe and Ellen were both using the steering wheels when Ellen said, "Phoebe, you don't know how to drive". Well it was funny at the time. She still has her fits and sudden explosions of emotions, but she can really be a good helper when she wants to be. We're starting to give her more jobs each week. On garbage night, she's in charge of getting her and Phoebe's garbage, as well as the ones in the bathrooms and our room. She pulls them out, ties them, and replaces the bags all by herself. She's also working on dry pull-ups during the night. Oh, and she loves the Jimmy Buffet as well.
On Veteran's Day we hosted our childbirth group friends for a get together. Ellen and Phoebe enjoyed playing with Emily, Clara, Paige and Courtney. Everyone had fun romping around the room-our playroom feels much too small these days. All the girls took time to entertain Paige's new baby sister Courtney. At one point, Paige handed Courtney off to Phoebe while they were seated for group picture taking. We were all surprised, Phoebe the most. She held on until Courtney's mom Lori came to the rescue.
The girls enjoyed a "weekend" with Manghelli-really just 24 hours-during which we traveled to downtown Portland in search of a full night's sleep. We took advantage of the time to see the new Harry Potter flick, eat dinner and breakfast out (although we cannot seem to eat at a more leisurely pace) and even did some holiday shopping. During this time Laurie and the girls had a whirlwind of activities. Dinner at Laurie's parents house and a pancake breakfast with Laurie's nieces. As Ellen said "I am not excited for you to go, but I am very excited to spend time with Manghelli." Phoebe's plea was "but I don't want Manghelli to go!"
Thanksgiving week, I decided to actually take some vacation time. (I even managed to only work a little bit) We had fun. We read...a lot. I got to take Ellen to school, and I got to go to the library story time with the girls where I helped with the project (Turkey hats). Then we went out to lunch with one of my friends. I got to practice my guitar during the day without worrying about how loud I was. However, the bummer was that Phoebe was sick all week with a cold. This one was characterized by a nose that was simultaneously stuffy and running. Her eyes also watered from the cold and the constant tears that popped up when she did not have a tissue immediately available. Nap time was a nightmare. Phoebe couldn't breath well enough to sleep and as a result managed very short naps all week. It was a battle to keep her in bed during nap times so I didn't get much rest during the week. But it was still nice to be off.
On Thanksgiving Day we sup'd at the Orphans and Angels Event. I prepared my speciality (as Obi Wan might say) of Chocolate Peanut Butter pie the night before Thanksgiving. The next morning Jada made pie crust and filling for her fabulous pumpkin pies. Throughout the morning, the air was punctuated with Phoebe's cries of "I need a tissue!" The poor kid had managed another cold for the holiday. During this time we had a discussion of whether to even attend the Thanksgiving dinner at the Wiltzs'. We decided we should go, if anything to try and cheer up Phoebe, which it did. After nap time we headed over to pick up Jada's mom. Upon arriving at Shannon and Dave's the girls found Pete and tried to get him to play with them. Unfortunately he was worried about picking up a cold right before a trip to France. Next, the girls found Shannon and she headed upstairs to print out coloring pages for them. From then on they were either coloring pictures, re-arranging furniture, or eating. Once Dave's Goddaughter Elsa arrived there was a little more excitement. Phoebe managed to stain the carpet with pumpkin pie and spent quite a lot of time in the bathroom playing with the sink. The grown-ups enjoyed the food and company immensely.
The next night was the members only preview of the Zoo Lights at the Washington Park Zoo. It was cold and rainy, so there weren't a lot of people there early. Which was nice for us since we were able to easily get on the first train around the park. The seats we found were mostly dry. The second train probably would've been complete dry. It was very chilly on the ride, but the girls didn't seem to mind. I wish I could have gotten a good picture of the smiles the girls had on their faces as the train started moving. They looked so excited and happy even in the cold and rain. After the train ride, it was still raining a bit, but not as bad. The line was very long by the time we got off. We decided not to chance a walk about in the park in case of rain... especially when the buffet was starting in a warm and dry dining room. They always have terrific food for the holiday buffet, and this was no difference. Both of the girls enjoyed loads of turkey and ham and cranberries. Not the can-shaped cranberries that they were fond of last year either. No, these were actual cranberries. And then I let them eat way too much desert. Oh well, I did too. But it was sooooo worth it.
The last weekend of the month was quite rainy, so we just stayed in and did some light errands. Next month, of course is the end of the year. I expect we'll have lots more things to talk about.
Journal Entry: 12/4/2005