Another Philly trip

We went to Philly again this weekend since our washing machine still has back-ordered parts. Three weeks of laundry necessitates dramatic action, and our response was a visit to the Philly relatives to abuse their washing machine for two continuous days of laundry. But we got photos! Including Margaret, Andrew and Lizzie playing in a torrential early spring downpour.

On other matters, Teddy is not a good sleeper at this point. I don't recall how well Margaret slept at the same age, but I do know that we could plop her in the swing, and she'd sleep for a few hours at a time. Not so with the Tedster. He seems to prefer sleeping in bed with us, and it's getting pretty annoying. Almost every morning, I give him a pleasant greeting and tell him how lucky he is that we don't toss him out the window. Or at least put him in a room by himself and close the door.

A nuk-nuk update. Despite my recent complaints about Margaret's dependence on her "comfort device," she has recently started to use it less frequently. When she wakes up, she has started handing us the nuk-nuk and saying "Away." She also doesn't use it anymore on the way home from daycare. Instead, she'll occasionally request it, but will spend the trip home blabbing and singing after I tell her that the nuk is "for bed" or "for babies." Teddy, on the other hand, has started using it more and more often. Since it helps him sleep, I'm willing to make that trade-off, but he's not very good with it. Unlike Margaret who suctioned onto the nuk from an early date, Teddy often spits it out after it's inserted in his mouth even though it's clear that he wants it. Just more evidence that number 2 isn't as bright as number 1.

Speaking of Margaret's intelligence, we'll be heading to her 2 year check-up pretty soon. One of the questions is how many words she knows. At her last check-up, I said "Ummm, a lot?" Apparently, border collies like Maddie know around 300 words which is typically more than a 2 year old. Now Margaret's vocabulary probably rivals, if not beats, that of Maddie. But how does she compare to other future applicants to Harvard? (Hah!) A friend of mine whose kid was non-verbal until he turned 2.5 years old (at which point he started talking in complete sentences) said that the baseline level of verbal communication at two years is amazingly low. Six words, or something like that. So needless to say, we're feeling pretty good about Margaret. Nevertheless, to avoid giving a response of "Umm, I dunno" when asked about her vocabulary at the next check-up, I'm going to subject my dedicated readers to a list of her words (that I can remember.) In the process, I'll only include words that she can pronounce with some accuracy and use in a roughly correct way.

• "Papa" and "mama" or "mommie" - Obvious
• "Margaret helps" - Usually when she doesn't
• "Margaret's turn" - When she wants something
• "Share" - Accompanies Margaret's turn
• "Papa's turn" - When Papa has to do something
  
• "Happy birthday _____" - Intended for Peter or Steve, but never articulated at the appropriate time until the target has hung up
• "Love you" - Said to anyone and everyone
  
• "More books" - Constantly at night
• "Again" - A request to repeat anything such as books at night
• "Sam I am" - A Dr. Seuss reference. "Hop on pop" and "pup in cup" are other similar phrases.
  
• "Sal" - Her favorite book character from the McCloskey books like Blueberries for Sal
  
• Other names include: Teddy, Rodah, Maddie, Peter, Nancy, Eleanor, Mary, Dave, Will, Mickey, Tommy, Sean, Kip, Lucas, Ben and, most importantly, Lizzie and Andrew
  
• "Potty" - What we do before a bath (without success in general)
• "Pee-pee" - What we do in the potty
• "B.M." - An affront that we attribute to Teddy
• "Stinky" - Something that we always deny
  
• "Bum" - What we wash at night
• "Bath" - When we wash the bum
• "Bum juice" - The diaper creme that we put on a clean bum
• "Diaper" - What we put on after the bum juice
• "P.J.'s" - What we put on after the diaper
• "Bed" - Where we head in our P.J.'s
  
• "No!" - Can't be any more clear
  
• "Yes!"- A more recent development
• "Breakfast" - Food!
• Other foods include: kix, raisins, pasta, beans, tomatoes, cookies, yogurt, apples
• "More" - A request that typically accompanies food
• Clothes: socks, shirt, shoes, pants
• Colors: yellow, blue, red
• Shapes: circle, square
• Flower: flower, daffodil

In any case, I figure we've about caught up to Maddie at this point. I'll see if I can come up with more interesting phrases before Margaret's next check-up. At some point (perhaps now), this exercise will become too difficult to be worthwhile.

As for Teddy, he's giggling a lot. "Heeeeeee," he says, in his odd way of inhaling when he laughs. (We'll get this on tape someday.)