If I write only once each quarter, does it count as a blog?

Well, it's the best I can do because I prefer to enjoy the moments with you kids instead of always preserving the memories and not being "in it" with you.

But then Alex and Avery, you have both been doing so many amazing things lately that I feel compelled to capture some of them here.

1. This is the comment that made me come back to blog. From the book "Horace, Morris, but Mostly Dolores" which is a story about three young mice who are friends that go on adventures. In describing the adventures, the author writes humorous things like "They sailed the seven sewers" which is of course funny because they are tiny mice who wouldn't sail the seven seas. Then on the next page the mice are on top of what looks like a garbage heap holding a flagpole (the flag is made of cheese) and the caption reads "They climbed Mount Ever-Rust". At this point, Alex asks what this means - Mount Ever-Rust and I explain to him that they are probably in a scrap metal junkyard. He thinks about this for a second and then says, "I think it would be funnier if they wrote 'They climbed Mount Rust-More'" Seriously, he is Alex, boy-genius, when it comes to words!

2. Avery is nearly 18 months (this Thursday!) and a clock must have gone off in her head because there have been many leaps and bounds in the past few weeks. One of these, is there is no longer a gate at the top of our stairs because the little miss has discovered how to climb down a flight of stairs on her own. And how did I discover this? Friday night (Shabbat dinner at the Piazza's :), the adults were hanging out and I decided to see where Avery was wandering around because we all know that too quiet can only mean bad things. When she was nowhere to be found, I went down to the basement where the boys were playing and there she was! I asked the boys how she got down there and they looked at me blankly (like I was stupid) and said "I don't know, she just came down"

3. Alex is officially two months into being a kindergartener and has either adjusted quite well or rather, has not had to adjust at all. When we went to the school on back to school night, there were hanging in the hallway self portraits with the words "Today is the first day of kindergarten. I feel ___________" and then Mrs. Moger had obviously asked each child how he or she felt and wrote it for them. The majority of kids had Mrs Moger write either "happy" or "excited". The emotionally self-aware child, also known as Alex "I feel a divide between happy and sad"

4. Another thing that seems to have clicked with Avery over the past couple of weeks is an awareness of what's happening in her diaper right and when it's going to be happening. So this past weekend she happened to be in the bathroom with me and said "pee pee", so I thought why not and ripped off her diaper and attempted to sit her on the toilet without a potty seat, because why would I have one. So she freaks out, perhaps because she thought she was going to fall into the toilet (even though I was firmly holding her). I take her off the toilet and she runs over to the carpet in our bathroom and....pees all over the carpet and her legs. And of course, I'm still thinking 'my little genius - only 18 months and she's already so aware'

5. One of the 'new' things about kindergarten are clearly the new kids in Alex's class. So of course, I regularly ask him who are the new kids he likes, who are his new friends, etc. One time he named one or two kids, but in the past I had heard him say other names. So I ask, "What about Shelly and Talia? I thought you said that they were your friends too." Alex's response: "They're not my friends, I just like to look at them, they look good to me. Also Jillian, Jillian is good to look at too."

6. And what post would be complete without marveling about the development of language for a young toddler in this world. Avery is expressing more and more words each day, clearly understands multi-pronged directions and even goes between English (open - actually opo, and water - actually wawa) and Spanish (abre, and agua) depending on who she is talking to (once again - my little genius!). She also sang a form of Happy Birthday to Eric on his birthday and can say: Alex, mommy, dada, Jenny, David, papa, up, cheese, banana, apple, milk, pasta, chicken, hello, bye, night-night, light, baby, book, ball, bubbles, head, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, teeth, toes, belly, elmo (help me!), dora (actually 'doe doe', probably because the song is d-d-d-d-d-dora).

Can't wait to see what's next! My guess is that I wont write until Grandma Ruth's birthday.