9.28.2003

Sounding Words Correctly

They are still working on getting the pronunciation of letters/words correct. Progressing well:

Connor
d: Say YES
c: yes
d: Say Yellow
c: lllllello (trouble with the starting Y I guess)

Connor can finally say "Little" after struggling with it the past couple months. Whenever he would try, and still get it wrong: "That was a good one"

Pronuciates Avery correctly now, and can tell you that he used to call her "Avey"

Spelling Words

The kids are great at recognizing letters now, and so their interest is growing trying to spell words, etc. They are starting to spell out words around town as they see them everywhere. Funny how they try to say what words mean, without knowing what word they spell:

Connor at the Wild Animal Park reading the sign at the food stand: O-P-E-N, that say Hot Dog!

Connor going into the women's bathroom with Mommy: L-A-D-I-E-S, that say Girls!

Avery spells a ton of words too. When we pull up to park somewhere, she demands that there's a sign of some sort on her side. She ends up spelling all the words on the sign.

Driving


They now know their directions, but only as they relate to being in the car.
Left is "Connor's side"
Right is "Avery's side"
Straight is "Mommy's way"

Many requests for various ways into our neighborhood:
  • Connor: "longest way" -- come in on Mariposa and go through the tract, likes looking at houses and stuff along the way
  • Avery: "plane way" -- the standard entrance
  • A/C: "apple way" -- come in from down at Lion park. The wall with bird of paradise logo looks like apple

Ding the 'Teers

Connor is SOOO into the "Fireman Show" these days at LegoLand. For that matter - anything fire related is his favorite!

So Jamie took them to LL a couple weeks ago, and of course, as is the case on every LL trip now, they watched the "Fireman Show". It was a BIG DAY for Connor:

At the start, Captain Stern asks for a volunteer from the crowd to ring the bell that brings out the volunteer firemen/women. On this weekday during school season, apparently there were only a handful of kids. So when she asked for volunteers, Connor was emphatically raising his hand, and actually already starting to head down the stairs. Captain Stern went ahead and picked Connor.

So...Connor got to "ding the 'teers" as he describes it when telling anyone about it.

Of course, round out this greatest of shows with hi-5's from Vern (the nerdy fireman) as he runs through the crowd at the start, and then shake hands with Vern at the end of the show.

Fireman Update
Everything in Connor's world right now is fire-related. Some examples:
  • points out all "hyrates" (fire hydrant) and "stinguishers" he sees around town/buildings
  • re-enact the LegoLand fireman show at least a couple times a day at home
  • any letter F he sees in any word - "F is for fireman"
  • Scott Quinlan sent the kids a fireman coloring book - Connor sleeps with his.
  • LOVE hearing about Scott's job, driving the ladder/tiller truck, the one with the dude that drives the back of the truck
  • now has TWO sets of the same fireman PJs. This is so he can STILL wear them, even when Mommy is washing the other set