see how run, mind ice. see how they mind ice.

-Ella, singing a new version of "Three Blind Mice" over dinner tonight.

A few weeks ago we took out the floor potty for Ella since she was asking to go potty. She would ask to go and we would put her on. She would sit for a total of maybe 5-6 second and then get off. So that is that. Yesterday at like 1:30PM after only have one diaper change in the AM she had a dry diaper. I was like that is odd since she drank a lot in that time frame. She says mom I want to go to the bathroom. I said OK. I put her on the potty. I made sure she stayed on the toilet and held onto the handles and then she went. She did her first pee pee on the toilet. She was so excited. She was gigging through the whole thing. We will see where this goes. Claire started this at the same time and was in undies till age 3.

This evening, about 45 minutes ago, we had what probably qualifies as our first major overnight 'incident'. Claire's had an upset stomach all day. She did a great thing. She got up after midnight, got herself into the bathroom, and mostly got everything into the toilet. While bathing her, she had the following insight.

"Daddy, I got almost all of the pieces. I wiped them myself"
"That's great Claire. Good job. Which piece did you miss?"
"The piece on the floor"
"Oh, I see"

There was a long pause, and she continued

"Daddy, how did it get on the bottoms of my feet?"

You can fill in roughly how much fun we've had tonight. :) As incidents go, this one was pretty well contained on the tile. Lots of little footprints, an earnest attempt to clean everything up on her own, and two proud sleepy parents that she did so much by herself, even if we did need to scrub up a few foot prints.

Ella has learned to go up and down the stairs all on her own - months ago actually. But with every advance there is a longing for an earlier time.

She stands at the top of the stairs and says "Daddy, I want Carry You. Carry You Daddy! I want Carry You?"

When I confirm "Do you want me to carry you?" she eagerly says "Yes!" and the arms go up.

We were at Kansas City's Union Station today, walking through it on the way back from a performance by a local Irish group a few friends are in on the way back to the car. As often happens when we wander through the halls of the train station, Melanie pointed out to Claire that this was where I proposed to her and where she got her ring.

As we walked, Claire's shoe came off a little, so she and I stopped while Melanie and Ella gained a little distance. As I was kneeling down to help adjust her shoe, Claire asked me a very simple question.

"Daddy, was Mommy sad here before you came to get her? Was she so sad waiting for a daddy to come?"

We just returned from Ella's 19 (supposed to be 18mth) month checkup. She is doing well. Her weight is 22-8 pounds and her height is 32 inches and head 18 1/2. For weight she is in the 25% and her height in the 50%. She is a little bigger then Claire was at this age but not by much.

I feel like such a slacker since I have not posted much about Ella. They say that happens with the second one but I don't feel great about it. So I finally have stopped to do it now.

Ella is a awesome. OK done. See you later. Kidding :)

Ella has grown up so fast. It feels like yesterday when I was on bedrest and she was kicking around in my belly. She just turned 19 mths yesterday. She is such a funny girl. Always laughing and talking. Oh does she talk so much. At about 16-16.5 mths she was using over 50 words. At this point I have stopped counting. She is now speaking in 3-4 word sentences and can say words with 3 syllables. She has also worked out how to properly add "ing" to the endings on words. At the airport a few weeks ago she says "Mommy airplane is flying". Or she might say I want to "run" and then say "Claire is running". Very excited to have a second child who can communicate so well. I never expected that after Claire. I guess she has Claire to teach her. She repeats everything.

She also loves to sing. I am amazed at how much she picks up. She sings Twinkle Twinkle, Ba Ba Black Sheep, Tender Shepard (from Peter Pan), Happy Birthday, Rain Rain go away and Rock-a-bye Baby. She sings almost the entire song.

She is also very active. She likes to climb, walk down the steps (holding on of course). Starting to do some good jumping. Actually getting both feet off ground.

She also loves to read. That is pretty much the only time you can get her to sit still and focus. We have a bunch a books near her crib that she can reach. When she wakes up from a nap or in the morning the first thing she does is grab a book and start reading.

That is it for now. Have her 19th mth (late for 18th) next week so we will see how much she ways. I know she is tiny for her age.

Last Monday we hopped on a train and headed into Manhattan with Claire, Ella, Melanie's sisters Sheryl and Meredith and their mother Lynn. We met my parents in midtown, right outside of our destination, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Which was closed.

After looking at the huge lines at the Guggenheim just a few blocks north, we decided to head over to the American Museum of Natural History on the other side of Central Park.

After purchasing our tickets, we headed straight for the top floor where the dinosaurs are on exhibit. Both girls loved it. Ella ran around saying "Dinosaur! Raawar! Raawar!" while swinging her hands around above hear head. Claire marches about saying "Stegosaurus" and "T-Rex". Ella learned that there is a creature at home that chases her called a "Daddysaur" ("D-Rex" to Claire).

Ella is working hard at her speech right now. She repeats many of the words she hears, and the babble to English ratio is dropping.

Each week Ella tags along to Claire's group violin lesson. At this age, a lot of what is taught are rhythms with words which the students will use in various tunes as they progress. Ella picks up on most of these.

One rhythm is "ta-ka-ta-ka-stop--stop--" (each - represents a quarter note duration).

Ella runs around the house yelling "Taki! Taki! Taki!" and clapping, which is pretty cute.

Another is "Run--po-ny-run--po-ny-" and that one has Ella in stitches as she shouts it out. Every now and again she changes the words and says "Run the pony run the pony" which I think is pretty cute.

On Monday night Claire had her second concert with the studio where she takes violin lessons. June marks one year of lessons for Claire, and it is neat to see her little fingers really starting to move.

Just in the last few weeks she has begun to place her fingers on the fingerboard herself to play an E scale (technically just the first four notes of the scale) and an A scale. This is a pretty big step. Having played myself for so many years I forget just how many little skills go into something as 'basic' as coordinating finger placement on the left hand with bowing on the right.

She did well at the concert - my primary goals are that she be proud of whatever she did and that she enjoy herself. Both were true. She was glowing when we were done.

Three years ago, when Claire was too small to come see the show, I played pit for Beauty and the Beast at the Theatre in the Park in Shawnee Mission Park. It was one of the best shows I had played, well scored, great music and such a strong production.

Given how much Claire enjoyed Peter Pan the following year and The Music Man in 2007, I was always a little sad that she was just eight months old and not ready to see Beauty.

Because the show was so popular Theatre in the Park brought it back pretty quickly. While I will be on vacation during the run and am not playing in the show, Melanie and I took Claire to see the final dress rehearsal, combining a visit with friends in the pit with a show.

This past weekend I took Claire camping for the first time. She loved it. We went to a local event called the String Band Rendezvous, which is a weekend of camping with about a hundred musicians where groups are playing informally all around the camp sites and there is a stage with scheduled performances for much of the day Saturday and both nights Friday and Saturday.

Claire was a great camping companion and is looking forward to the next trip. She was full of fun little observations too. Such as "My ears are buzzing!" as she runs away from the gnat that had discovered her.

She was very excited by the tent and her little pink sleeping bag. When we arrived Friday night she spent the first 45 minutes after the tent was set up running around inside of it and jumping on, in and under her sleeping bag.

I was driving yesterday and came to a quick stop at a light. I then hear from Claire "Woh that was close - GIRL!!" Pretty funny. Not sure where the GIRL part came from :)

Claire is ready for bed, I've just kissed her good night. Total silence is is broken by one final conversation.

Daddy, sometimes snowmans have sticks for noses.

When?

When they don't have carrots on sticks. Why are carrots sometimes on sticks?

I suppose to make them better noses.

Why are carrots a vegetable?

Why are you a little girl?

Because I like being a little girl. Why do carrots like being a vegetable?

For the same reason Mesquaki is a cat. He has always been a cat and always will be a cat. Just like a carrot is a vegetable.

I'm on bed rest.

Last night Claire wanted to play Monopoly again, or as she calls it, "That game up there [points] with the little man on it". She is three, so obviously we don't play by the full bore rules. Melanie and I have each simplified the game in our own way when we play with her, and it has never been all three of us together so we didn't really know the rules each other has used until we spoke about it yesterday, after Claire and I played.

Melanie plays it by handing Claire a stack of small bills and having her pay small random sums for properties she lands on. The face value of the bill is not relevant, it is "that one costs three". Claire rolls the dice, gets cards, gets to acquire houses and loves it.