Kids Update

Natalie:

• Can use a public restroom alone, as long as she can reach the sink.  (By this I mean that I can wait outside the stall door or a single toilet restroom door). 
• Can use a mouse or touch pad for basic point and click.  (No drag and drop).  
• Rides a tricycle well.  
• Was in her first dance recital.  
• Can read!!!!  She has read three phonics readers focusing on short a, i, and o.  It is not fluent, but it is still reading!  She has a few sight words, too. 
• Can operate things with play, pause and stop buttons, like remotes and a cd player. 
• After about six months of us bringing her to the bathroom in the middle of the night, she now wakes up fully when she needs to pee. 
• Working on her understanding on death.  She currently talks about it through her play and jokes.  She's working on figuring out what it really means.  
• Having trouble figuring out what to do when what her parents want differs from what other adults have told her.  
• Is infatuated with a couple of boys at schools, one of which she seems not to know!
• Notices that not everyone is her friend.  She will say that certain kids in her class or dance class she doesn't know well, while she plays with mostly the same five or so kids. 

William:

• Making big progress with potty training.  The most recent development is a potty dance.  This shows that he is starting to hold it to stay dry.  
• Can count to ten, but needs help pointing to the objects in a logical order to get the right final number.  
• Can recite the whole alphabet.  And he randomly tells me he sees letters all the time.  Such as, Momma, a pink M, and its a spray painted root in the woods which looks exactly like an M.  He even once said Sheepie laying on his side looked like an E.  
• Knows most shapes (mixes up triangle and rectangle) and most colors (has trouble with brown in particular).  
• Has trouble sharing toys when friends visit home.  
• Makes awesome Lego creations.  My favorite was taking the legs off a Lego man, putting on wheels, and calling him Wall-E.  
• Makes two toys talk to each other and act out a scenario. 
• Increasingly picky eater, including having trouble staying at the dinner table.  
• Sings Baa Baa Blackie Sheep. 
• When Natalie is not around to steal the show, he will talk to people we run into when out and about.  He mostly likes to tell them about Sheepie. 
• Loves to play with Natalie.  Sometimes plays with Natalie's friends, but mostly in chase games where he made to be the villain.  Does not play much with kids his own age. 
• Loves to help out, especially Mike with his tools.  Also likes helping to make a sandwich at lunch.  He insisted on helping to carry the cat carrier out of the vet this week.