The things they do

 Things Ian likes to do: Bubbles. Mostly he likes to get the wand and pretend to blow, then eat it. Or lick bubbles.

He is doing stairs now, both up and down, sometimes even without holding onto the railing. He can almost jump - at least he tries really hard and ends up with this gallop thing. He can spin himself around in circles. He can climb a few railings.

He's very insistent about the routine, especially in the morning. He gets his shoes and sits down in  my lap to get them on. He gets my shoes for me, and Isabella's, too. Boy, does he get upset if we leave without him...

 Both kids really like to be picked up and flipped over. Isabella likes to "fly", too, which is made more challenging by Ian trying to get there too. Both kids really like to tumble around on the floor and crawl all over the human furniture. They chase each other around, Isabella grabs Ian and picks him up. Sometimes she knocks him down - he usually just laughs. They push each other on the train.

Ian still doesn't have many words (bubble, cracker, cheese, tissue, bear, zebra?) but he's remarkably communicative. His latest thing is to sit in my lap and "read" books. He points at things and I name them. Over, and over, and over again. Sometimes he tries to name them. He likes the books where the same things appear multiple times (giraffes, bird, bear) and we go through the pages and he points to all of the things. He likes to lift the flaps or move things, too. He does very well with pointing, "yah" (with a whole body nod) and the "no" head shake. He comprehends quite a lot (you can ask him to get Isabella's shoes and take them to her).

What he doesn't comprehend is no hitting, biting, or hair pulling. He's started doing it at day care now, too, at least the hitting part. He just laughs when you tell him no. So we've started time-outs in the crib, which he hates. (The time-outs in the chair weren't so helpful because he thinks it's fun.)

Isabella has graduated to writing her name between lines instead of tracing out highlighted letters. She can write all the letters, and recognize them, too. She recognized "peek-a-boo" repeated in one book. Her ballet skills are improving - she can do all of the positions and stand on her toes. She does some pretty killer jumps, too.

And... she has started *asking* for long sleeve dresses. The world is going to end. She's asked for pants a couple times, but when we've put them on she promptly wanted to take them off.

Isabella's favorite activity these days is Candyland. We've at least convinced her to play correctly, although she does hang onto the special cards when they show up. To prolong the agony, she's added a variation where you have to "guess" what the other person's card is.

She has also decided she likes to say "thanks" at dinner. Although pretty much all she's thankful for every night is dinner.

Ian can drink out of regular cup pretty well now, although it's not very useful because as soon as he's done he turns the cup upside down to pour everything out. He's pretty good with a spoon these days as well, although he still wears his yoghurt in the morning.
Both kids still color and play with playdoh (Ian insists on eating the end of the markers, though, so we're going to have to get some new ones). We've been regularly doing clean up in the evening, with Isabella helping (for her 50 cents). She's got quite the collection of shiny coins, although she's more interested in the number and shinyness than the dollar amount.