Bringing Home Avi: I want to eat Panda Poofs with daddy!

Avi's English is getting better. It's amazing how many new words she's learned. We're getting a lot more sentences. She's understanding more and more. She and I had a conversation about birds eating bugs. (YUCKY!) We love ladybugs and look for them every time we're outside. (usually by calling ladybug come here) We identify squirrels and she demonstrates how they eat whenever we ask about them. From rain to flowers, Korea to cookies, we actually talk about all kinds of things. In two year old speak of course, but she asks all kinds of questions. Her favorite is "what that?" And finally, she's given us her first grammatically correct complete sentence. Last week, she very seriously told us "I want to eat Panda Poofs with daddy." And with that, Panda Poofs were served for dinner.

She's still pretty delayed with regards to her speech. All her classmates are speaking a great deal more than she is. She thinks everyone she meets is named Avi. However, for only hearing English for the first time 8 months ago, she's doing better than I would.

We met with a speech therapist this past week. We're happy to say that though she's behind, everything else is on track. Better than that, she's officially very smart. The gave her the puzzles for a 3 and 3 1/2 year old and she finished them both. She was working on the 4 year old puzzle but she didn't quite get it. I'm more than happy to brag about that. They say she'll be up to speed in no time. Hooray!!

We had my brother and sister-in-law out last weekend. The grown-ups had a blast, but Avi was a bit of a pill. I think she had an audience to watch the performance. I can't believe they were here and we didn't take a single picture. I think we were having too much fun. Especially the part when Mike and I rented a chainsaw and made some folk art in the back yard. True story. The wives went inside because they didn't want to see the part where we each lost a limb. Made a nice bookshelf though.

We've also been working on potty training. We've switched from diapers to big girl underpants. It's funny how we've flip flopped from wanting tinker bell to hello kitty and back. It's kind of a psychotic back and forth but at least it's understood that we're not going back to diapers. And let's hear it for bribery! The dentists have a bowl of gummy worms next to the potty. Talk about motivated. And tonight she learned you don't say "Back!". That's for talking to the dogs. You ask for "Privacy please." That's how you get to potty on your own. Maybe mom and I should start using that one.

We're still working on the bike. She's only got a few months to train for the Strider race this summer. Can you attach those things to a cyclops trainer? And is a Garmin on the Strider a good idea? I say yes to both and I can save money by not buying a cadence sensor right now. Genius I say. Now if we could just get her to sit on the thing without freaking out.