do you miss me?

Zola has a crazy vocabulary. Grammar is still bad... like "Mom, I angry." But she can count pretty high (twenty but sometimes skips from fifteen to seventeen or something). She is extremely comfortable with people. She just goes over and sits in the neighbors lap and starts telling them stuff. Super confident. She does try to teach Viola stuff and is incorporating her in play more often. She is getting interested in pretending and picks up the garden hose and says, "I fire fighter. I drive a firetruck and fight fire with my hose." and then she dances like she's riding a horse/firetruck. She wants to eat non-stop and she tells you what, specifically she wants. Egg. Egg? Egg? Rah-vah-oli, mom? Sannich? Peanut butter sannich, mom? Chip? want water, mom-may. Not that cup. This cup. Puh-asta, please? Cracker? mac-n-cheese? I WANT WATER! WATER! I feel like the most used sentences at our house are, "No, Zola. You just ate. You don't need anything else." and "Where's your water bottle? I'm getting your water, relax." Still no potty training. That's up to dad to get started because she has been ready for a long time. She can do a somersault and tippy toe ballerina dance.

Viola is still a crazy person. She walked off the top of three steps the other day and landed in a chest roll in the grass and started cracking up laughing. Reminds me of Jared a lot, actually. High energy, laughing, patient, and resilient. She's become more agressive and will instigate fights now and do mean things to Zola or other kids she's around. She'll pinch, bite, hit, etc. She's usually getting revenge, because she gets the brunt most of the time from the older kids. But, she can hold her own. Doesn't say much. Still mainly just says "dada" and rarely will say "mama" but she does know a lot of words and will sometimes breathe them quietly (kitty, thank you, milk, or mimic whatever). She gestures (points, waves, shrugs, etc) and grunts and communicates very effectively... in a way that lets you know that she's comprehending everything. She's almost not a baby anymore. She still loves me to hold and rock her. And she snuggles me really tight. But, she doesn't do that for everyone. (She NEVER snuggles Mark.) She can go up and down stairs by herself (while I panic) and can do the slide by herself (but sometimes she tries to walk down it or jump off the top head first, so again, while I panic)

And we got a rent-a-kid.  If you haven't heard... we have Tyler living with us for a while.  If you are wondering... "Tyler, who?..." Paula's granddaughter is wanting people to call her Tyler now, instead of Mariah.  We're used to calling her that now.  She came to live with us a few days before high school started here and goes to a school with over 4,000 students and three principals.  She is adjusting to city life and keeping very busy between school, helping with the kids and remodel projects, and enjoying teen life.  We are so excited that she will be turning 16 while she lives with us and getting an Ohio drivers license!  For her birthday, we are hoping to take an East Coast City tour to D.C., Manhattan, and wherever else we can fit in along the way.  We've been having a lot of fun just hanging out with her, watching movies, showing her Cleveland, and decorating her room.  I'm going to do a whole post on her room.  It's the most gorgeous room in my house right now.

As for an update on the house... it is starting to look how we envisioned, but it's far from "finished."  That is a LONG way off.  But, we finished quite a bit.  Please drop by Mark's blog, link in the side bar.  He posted some before and after pictures and tells the story much better than me.