The first day of school

Happy Birthday Chanson

Nathan writes his name

Yesterday after a failed attempt at going to his Lycee picnic in the city (we showed up as they cancelled it because of rain) we went to Mel's diner for lunch. Nathan and Sidney both had crayons, and we asked Nathan to write his name.

He has been writing his name at school every morning by "copying" a version that is in front of him, but we have never seen him write his name all by himself.

For your viewing pleasure, I give you NATANTAN:

Sidney starts at the Jardin Enchantee

Nathan gets up, goes pipi, then back to bed

After a week of his mother being gone (and wetting the bed on more than one occasion) Nathan last night finally got up (at 3 in the morning) to go pipi by himself.

I woke up when I heard him walking down the hall but to my surprise he didn't stomp into our room to whisper "I went pipi" as he had so many nights before. This time, I heard the bathroom door and the toilet lid open.

I smiled to myself when I realized what had just happened. Then, instead of heading straight back to bed Nathan went to the kitchen and grabbed a glass of water (from the dispenser in the fridge) and then back to his bedroom.

It was magical. I was very proud. Until he woke up his brother at 3:15A.

Nathan earns his green ribbon!

Nathan swims all by himself

Nathan's role playing

Tonight, Nathan and I read "In the town all year round," a great book of illustrations. About halfway through, Nathan said he wanted to read to me and Cocoa (a "dog" stuffed animal that Nathan sometimes calls his cat...).

"Now, what do you see on this page, Cocoa?" Nathan asked. He would then go on to point on a few things and explain them at length.

A few pages in, Nathan picked up Cocoa's head and replied to himself, "I see a bicycle" he said in a pretend "Cocoa" voice.

"Ahh that's wonderful my baby" Nathan said back to Cocoa, affectionately.

Sidney expanding comprehension

I'm seeing lots of little connections being made and light-bulbs go off in Sidney's head over the past few days. He is connecting many more "things" with words, and he is thrilled! Really giddy with excitement...

Tonight we were reading Creature ABC and we were going through all of the animals. When it comes to trying new words Sidney is about as timid as they come. He HATES not saying a word perfectly. If you try to help him pronounce a long word by walking through it with him, he gets all "listless, small and soft" and responds with a random whisper... (it's very cute)

However, tonight he was letting me help him with pronunciation, and was trying to say new things. Eventually he even started prompting me to help him. "Por cu pine."

His favorite page tonight was one he already knew; "Lion!" he would yell. He would then change the page, only to change it back and scream "Lion!" again in an even more surprised tone.

Sidney

The increase in Sidney's vocabulary has been amazing the last week. I left for three days, I come home and his comprehension and his desire to speak has just exploded!

I should have gone away earlier... (jk)

It's really cool to see Sidney get excited by his newfound ability to communicate as well. He is definitely aware of his own progress and is really having fun with us, and his big brother Nathan.

Nouveaux Mots 2

Tapeau for Bateau
Nay Nay for Sidney

Sidney's expanding vocabulary

Sidney continues to expand his vocabulary... He has never been very adventurous with words, but he is starting to mimic and repeat alot more of what he hears

• "No"
• "Me"
  
• "My"
• "Mine"
• "Oui" = yes
  
• "Tan" = Nathan (w/French accent)
  
• "Ana" = Ana
• "Eeeee mo" = Nemo (from "Finding Nemo")
  
• "Eh ya" = Tea, a neighbor-friend of Nathan and Sidney's
  
• "Hiyo" = Hi
• "Ai you" = Yaourt = Yogurt
  
• "Bye bye"
• "Nena" = little girl (Spanish)
  
• "Nigh nigh" = night night. He tells us when he's tired, and if we hurry he's REALLY easy to put to sleep.
• "Wowwy" = sorry (I'll try to capture this on film... it's too cute!)
• "Buh" = bus
• "Doo doo" = choo choo = train
• "Doo doo" = Tchoupi & Doudou
  
• "dacdor" = tractor
• "Pan" = pain = bread
• "Num num" = food
• "Nay" = nose
• "Oye" = Oeil = Eye
• "Boo" = bouche = mouth
• "Aa ee ooooh" = cereal (breakfast)
• "Pehh whin" = penguin
• "Rawr" = lion, panther, tiger
• "Mooo" = cow, horse, any other non-tiger beast
  
• "Tam" = hippopatame = hippopatamus
• "Phant" = Elephant
• "Paap eh" = papier = paper
  

Nathan's birthday

A little late, but "darrrrrrr" we sure had fun - didn't we mateys?

Nathan celebrates his 3rd birthday

Intimate celebration including a black tie cupcake (chocolate cake with vanilla icing), a Nemo balloon and lots of new books.

Mami is the Maman of Maman

Yesterday morning when we walked into the kitchen to eat "brefkist," Robert said "Bonjour ma fille." Nathan looked at Papi and then at Maman, a little confused.

"I'm Nathan's maman." Said Alex. "Papi c'est mon Papa a moi. Et Mami est ma Maman a moi."

Nathan looked at them all and smiled.

This morning when we walked into the kitchen for breakfast, he saw Linda and Robert. He pointed at each of them with a big grin on his face and proudly said, "You are Maman's maman. You're Maman's Papa."

Sidney's words

"HI!" (He's very good at this one)
"No" (and this one...)
"Buh" = book
"Aieeee" (he'll pinch you and say "aieee")
"Ne nuh" = Nounou (teddy bear)
"Abwa" (= food, agua)
"Mama" (= bread, food, or Maman)
"Papa"
"Heeee-en" (Chien = Dog)
"Caca"
"Bain"
"Meuh" = Moo (Cow)
"Ball"
"Yon" = Lion

Look who's talking, too!

Tonight at dinner, Sidney was making himself very well understood.

"Abwa" (agua) he said, pointing at Nathan's water glass.

"He's talking," said Nathan. It was great that Nathan was taking an interest, and was excited.

I was starting to feed Sidney another mouthful of food and said, "Do you want more? Mas?"

"Up!" said Sidney. It turns out that "up" in Sidney-speak means "more" because he repeated it everytime I said, "Mas?" "Up! up! up!"

First steps

After a couple of days of just standing by himself, not holding on to anything, Sidney took his first 3 steps...

Nathans first art project at Lycee

Notice the bold, repetitive banging strokes he uses. Amazing. Never seen that before...

Sidneys birthday

Sidney's birthday fell on an unseasonably awesome day (the weather has not been good the last few days) and boy did we take advantage of it.

The party flew by, and Sidney had a good time... mostly because he got to eat chips...