our vacation

Lets jsut call me distracted these days, and forgive the fact that I am not 1. posting often and 2. posting un-processed snapshots taken with Joe's camera.

We spent a week in a beachhouse in Hyannis (on Cape Cod). It rained nearly the entire week, but we still were able to go out in the grey and hunt for hermit crabs, walk through the town and seaport, and eat at the many good restaurants around. We visited the cape cod children's museum during a torrential thunderstorm, and had a lovely visit from my friend kelli and her son seth (which luckily coincided with the one sunny day).

In other news, E is standing independently, shakes his head no, and knows a smattering of other sign language. He says "mama" but thats the extent of his interest in language. He points to learn words, and given his love of climbing might prove to be an excellent tree climber. He is very interested in balls, cars, and instruments such as the cymbals and drums. He has a narrow repertoire of books he enjoys, though he loves them completely (as in will scream if we read a different one in his general direction). His other interests include biting (which he thinks is hilarious), trees, waving to strangers to ascertain their reactions, tasting food and spitting it out, and wresting with his brother. It is hard to believe he will be a year old next week.

James is getting very interested in imaginative play, specifically relating to dragons, pirates, billy goats, trolls and bears. He loves to read, has his own made up language (which I strongly suspect does not have any grammatical rules and mostly involves sounds such as "bop" and "ning-ning"). He has a great interest in the world around him. He has a fantastic command of English for his age. He enjoys screaming, running away from his tired mother, all fruits and vegetables, chocolate, his friend Seth, and general silliness. He is quite a performer and will sing, dance, and play instruments with gusto. He also offers reasonable alternatives for most things he does not want to do. He is very proficient in the art of getting adults to come around to his line of thinking through compromise. "compromise" I should say. There are times when he is quite the dictator. As all toddlers should be I suppose. It is even harder to believe he is nearly 3.