Parenting in the Rain

After getting soggy in the past few weeks, I've decided we can't live somewhere where it rains all the time. At least not somewhere where you are yearning for the warm sunny weather after a long winter.

This weekend---finally---is supposed to be warm and "partly cloudy". It is going to be EIGHTY degrees Farenheit! I don't know what we will do, but it will involve mowing the dandelion yard of darkness.

Fiona is continuing to thrive at school. She has two tadpoles that are slowing growing their limbs. Even when they are fully grown, they are a type of frog that lives in the water. At that point we just get a bigger container and different food. They are really cute. She caught some "beatles" (I have no idea what they actually are, but there are a lot of them this year) and we tried to feed them, but they just recently expired. I tried to get her to name them John, Ringo, Paul, and George, but she didn't understand why. (The tadpoles--both of them---are named Cutie-cutie by the way). Actually, I was showing her the first word she wrote (she's writing quite well now and reading along with it): "John" and she was totally perplexed. "Who is John?" she asked. So fickle.

Sophia's words and signing are continuing to grow. The latest is "thirsty". She says it at the same time she is signing it. She does that for all her signs actually: "help" "cereal" "cheese" "banana" (although banana sounds like something else--sort of like "nana" but different). The only one she doesn't say is "more". But she signs that a lot. She is playing more and more with Fiona and obviously adores her (so far, it seems to go both ways). She calls her "Fee-nah-nah" or "Nah-nah!". She is finally signing "Mommy" and saying Mommy. We were both Daddy for a while. Sometimes I am still Daddy, but at least he is sometimes Mommy. When we go to pick up Fiona after school, they are almost always on the playground. Her classmates love Sophia (she's "the baby" but she isn't the only baby) and Fiona is very protective of her. She will sometimes stand in the middle of the playground and announce Sophia her sister is here and they need to be very careful and not hurt her. She is fragile. That does not seem to apply to Fiona, but Sophia seems to love roughhousing with her (it just makes me really anxious). That is where the "more" sign comes in a lot. They laugh a lot together.

I have been watching LOST (a TV show for those of you who don't know---I didn't for a while) based on a friend's recommendation. Since we have no broadcast TV, I have been downloading the episodes off of iTunes. I haven't looked forward to a season finale in a long time, but I am very excited for this one.