Scrabble tray concert

Going into James' room to transfer the laundry from the washer to the dryer, I heard James humming tunefully with a Scrabble tray in his mouth, moving his fingers as if the tray were a recorder. I got a turn and played "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and then gave it back to James, and requested "Old MacDonald Had a Farm". By this time Isabel had come in, and James hummed and vocalized to the song, and at the end you could hear the "E-I-E-I-O"! Isabel played "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" and we took turns after that. A couple of the cutest were "Gonna take a walk outside today", that Isabel played (from Milo and Otis), and James' "I Am a Pizza". He sang all the verses, you could tell, and at the end he very sadly and dramatically hummed the last part--"I was a pizza, now I'm a MESS!"

Isabel has identified with Otis. Now instead of quoting the lines word for word, she replaces "Otis" with "Isabel". I've also found out what the kids think I mean when I say "Take a bow!" Can you figure it out? Isabel ran from the room, shrieking "Yay!" and James stood still, emphatically nodding and saying "YES". Luckily for me, he signed what he thought I'd said, and then I knew where Isabel had run to.

Isabel minces garlic at eight in the morning

It was a bit too quiet this morning while I was checking my email. This is why:

I guess I must be mincing a lot of garlic lately. And no, before you ask, I don't do it with scissors. Though maybe I should consider it.

Thankful for happy moments like this

James and Isabel dance. (James likes country and salsa, and Isabel likes opera and folk.)

Spider glove!

Isabel seems to be on a spider-compound kick. Some of you may already be familiar with her "spider-frog". Now, there's the "spider-glove"! Pictured here on long-suffering Rody, dressed by Zizi.

Talking!

ai æm ə i a
Repeated after me, syllable by syllable, and please forgive the transcription, as I'm not a professional. :)


Can you guess James' current favorite song? :) If not, click here.

October at Hidden Villa

(Pictures added!)
We came back with our pants covered with (I think) cow manure. There's a big pile in the chicken section that the chickens run away from kids on. Unluckily for the chickens, my kids are not intimidated by small hills of manure. After a bit, they realized that James was (mostly) harmless, and seemed to prefer his quiet advances and general plopping down in the middle of them to the squeals of some visiting schoolkids who were getting a great tour. I hope the chicken taking a dirt bath can recover--it looked as if all the feathers on its back had been plucked. Do chickens persecute each other? As the kids ran past the cows and sheep, we got the usual "Are they twins?" question, and heard some teenage boys talking about how they wanted babies and how they wanted to be "daddies", which isn't something I hear every day.

We also got to see two piglets. The sow didn't like me coming over to look, but seemed, as most animals seem to be, more tolerant of the kids. Is the red lamp a heat lamp? And why is there a fence between them and their mother? It looks like they can go to her, but she can't go to them. James didn't want to go home after peeking in at the goats, and had to be relegated to my shoulders to get him back to the car. Isabel insisted on holding hands, and as James isn't very interested in holding on at the best of times (he has absolute trust that I won't let him fall off), it was a somewhat precarious journey. We were very grateful that we'd saved our water for the end! (Also very grateful that those stinging weeds near the rams had been cut back.)

Great five minute video about how people with Down syndrome are more alike than different

I loved watching this movie from the NDSC (National Down Syndrome Congress) this morning--I was especially interested in the young woman teaching sign language! Here's the link.This second link has Spanish subtitles.


James is very gently putting two babies to bed at the moment, patting them softly and tucking them in, and vocalizing. Isabel is placing chess pieces in their case, quietly counting them. Last night she was fascinated by the numbers after one hundred. I hadn't realized before how interesting a concept that was. You could just see the gears clicking over.