Dancing Leaves

Yesterday afternoon, the girls and I stepped outside to play in the unseasonably warm weather while we waited for Paul's bus.

Julia stepped outside first. She said, "Mommy, look at the leaves!"

"Are they dancing?" I asked.

"Yes, they're dancing. Come and see!"

We had strong winds yesterday. The old autumn leaves were being kicked up and swirled around.

Julia said, "Look, now they are getting in their places. Now they are dancing. Now they are doing a triple leetch. Now they are doing a grand etay. Now they are doing a triple leetch again..."

At first, Petra was a little tentative about going outside. But after a while, she decided she liked having all that space to roam about in. The ground was nice and soft to fall and roll on. When Paul, Julia, and I played hide and seek, Petra was confident enough to roam off on her own.

Bacon for Steve

For Christmas Steve received several bacon gifts. The book, "Bacon: A love affair." Bacon salt (contains no bacon). Bacon band-aids. Bacon popcorn (not quite as yummy as you might think).



The bacon band-aids advertised that there was a "prize" inside. What was it? Dare you ask?



A puffy Mr. Bacon-man sticker. Nice.

CAUTION: If you wear a bacon band-aid to work when they know you cut your hand, but they don't know that you own bacon band-aids, then people seeing it from a distance get really excited and ask, "Wow - How badly did you cut your hand!?!"

We are planning a special treat for Steve's birthday dinner. Pepper bacon wrapped fillet. We got the recipe from our cookbook, "Everything Tastes Better with Bacon."

Petra is huge

Petra had her 15 mo. checkup today. She is officially huge.

At her 12 month visit, she had measured the same length as she had 3 months previous. We weren't too concerned because those length measurements are not very precise. One of the concerns I did have then was that she was still waking to eat once or twice a night.

After reviewing a brochure they gave me on nutrition, I became convinced that she was waking up during the night because she wasn't getting enough to eat during the day. We made a conscientious effort to increase her food intake, especially protein.

It seems to have helped. She has grown 1.5 inches since November. She was 75th percentile on height, 75th percentile on weight, and 90th percentile on head. She is sleeping through the night. Yay! (I've started dropping hints to Julia that Petra will probably end up being taller than her.)

Her vocabulary includes
more (hand sign)
eat (which means, "I want to eat", or "Can I get out of bed now?")
teeth (meaning it's time to brush them)
cookie
kco (meaning sock)
ah (meaning cheerio)
nack (snack)
up (throws her hands in the air)
oi oi (while flapping her fingers - it means all done)
mmmm (it's what a cow says)
ga (meaning dog)
kcuh (duck)
kak (what the duck says)

She seems to be trying to say, "sister" too.