Caught!

Can Veronica pull the towel off of the oven door? Yes.
Can she open the drawer? Apparently.
Can she rearrange and remove the contents of said drawer? I should think so.


Ask me how I know.

Cookies, Cookies, and More Cookies

Hamilton loves being in the kitchen (which in our open-concept place is pretty much part of the living room and dining room...we call it all "the other room"). He also fancies himself an amateur chef. He will confidently declare that we need "1 cup flour and one egg" for pancakes--which is actually correct, though incomplete.


My sister Mariam, who also loves being in the kitchen, had the brilliant idea of bringing over some cookie ingredients on a recent visit. She and Hamilton mixed, rolled, and cut to their hearts' content.

...and of course someone needed to do some quality control on the taste. Please don't ask why he's on the counter. I really don't know. I do know that he has been crossing his ankles like that since he was a baby. It's his trademark move, but not really relevant here, so let's move on.


Fast forward a few weeks...and Hamilton gets another chance to perfect his cookie making skills. This time, his partners were Emily and Allison (cousins from Texas). Hamilton was intermittently interested, mostly towards the end when there was opportunity for sampling.

Checking the progress

Hands-on Time

"I think I can get that bit of frosting, Mom. Please don't wipe my face."

The finished product

Semantics

Hamilton is very much into categorizing the new words he's learning (and he's learning a lot of them!). It's really fun to hear him process and get a peek into how he works. For example:

Freeman (on the way to the bus stop Sunday morning): Hamilton, check out that snow plow!

Hamilton: That's not a snow plow; that's a dump truck.

Freeman: It's a blue snow plow.

Hamilton (insistent): That's not a blue snow plow; that's a blue dump truck.

Jenny (who's been a part of a few of these conversations): Hamilton, it's a special kind of dump truck that's called a snow plow.

Freeman: Yes, it's a dump truck until they add that plow to the front.

Hamilton: Okay...it's a snow plow dump truck.

He then proceeded to let several people on the bus know, "I saw a blue snow plow dump truck."

I think we have a scientist on our hands.

And, because there is no picture to go with this post, enjoy a fun one from Thanksgiving...

Stickers, Hats, and Why we don't have more video of Veronica

Hamilton loves stickers. In fact, on a bus ride home Wednesday evening, he spotted some stuck to a window sill across the way and was set on peeling them off so he might have them (that is until Freeman nixed that idea).

So you can imagine his delight when he turned the page in a coloring book and discovered an entire sheet of stickers...right there for him to play with. This is what I find after leaving for a few minutes to take a shower.

Then, this past Wednesday at Puggles (the 2-year old AWANA program) was Crazy Hat Night. I knew that this would be hit or miss with most of the 2 year-olds, but thought we should be prepared. So we found a crazy ball from Oompah and safety pinned it to his stocking cap (which he'd be wearing anyway...it's COLD out there).

And here's Veronica donning the cap.

And you may be asking why there aren't more videos of our sweet Veronica. Well, one reason is that most videos end up looking something like this:

Or, there's this version, which I think looks a little more like a commercial (maybe for insurance?).

The Vacuum

Our children are very similar in many aspects. They both are not afraid to let you know what they want, they seem to like and dislike the same foods, they enjoy music and dancing, and on and on.

One way we can tell them apart, though, is by turning on the vacuum.

Veronica's response looks something like this:
Yes, she scurries to catch up with the vaccum and pulls herself up, sometimes stopping to taste test. She seems to really enjoy the blast of air that exits the back of the shop vac (what is the technical name for that; exhaust sounds so bad). She's actually gotten some practice "walking" while I vacuum lately.

You can see a bit in this last picture the waves of air hitting her sleeper.

Hamilton, on the other hand, looks like this:

In fact, he informed me this evening that vacuuming, "is not kind, mommy."

He also wanted me to share this photo with you...it's of his soup.