Rachel's Progress Report at 1.75 y.o.

1. Knows how to use the can opener but lacks the actual strength to open cans. (Thank goodness)

2. Eats by herself, albeit will play with food and start speading it in all surfaces (including herself) if unattended. Applied yoghurt all over her face like face cream.

3. Taught herself how to apply face powder (and demands for it).

4. Resisted all forms and means to educate her: does not have attention span for books or children's tv. Curiously hates the alphabets and likes numbers (marches off and says 1-2-3). Dances at any given chance, will thus sometimes watch Backyardigans. Likes Sesame English series. Ate crayons.

5. Taken upon herself to torment Dylan to the utmost by destroying his block creations, eating his snacks and swiping his books and toys (only when he's using them).

6. Knows how to operate most of Dylan's mechanical toys better than he does. Almost destroyed the DVD player and R's computer. Will not hesitate to stick things inside sockets. Will push any visible button, turn any knob, pull any string/cord/wire and peel anything that looks "peel-able".

7. Does not sing at all. Will not play or share with others.

8. Loves brushing, bathing, washing, and wasting soap. Too much.

9. All of her animals have chomping monster sounds. Even rabbits.

10. Loves cough syrup and has attempted to drink the bottle.

11. Scared of the vacuum and the lawn mower. Scared of being alone. Scared of water at the beach. Scared of strangers. Not scared of any creature that I know of. Will pull tails and feathers and chase all creatures without hesitation.

12. Can identify and name: eyes, ears, mouth, toes, hair, tongue, teeth, tummy.. will verbally ask for apples, bananas, chips, cookies, milk, cheese etc and say "please".

Dylan's Progress Report 3.25y.o.

1. Can correctly identify the following parts of the human anatomy: skull, clavicle, ribs, phalanges, metacarpals, pelvis, lungs, heart, intestines, brain, patella etc. Very interested on how the body works. (Funny: he calls the lungs, "lumps")

2. Knows useless details like:

• Trees give off oxygen which we breathe
• Heart has 4 valves and transports blood + oxygen.
• Gravity makes things fall. Friction makes things stop.
• Plants make food through photosynthesis.
• Hemoglobin makes blood red.
• Jupiter's Red Spot is a giant storm. Neptune similarly has a spot.

3. Gets creative with blocks. He's "built" cities, dinosaurs, giraffes, hippos, "color truck", tall towers..

4. Early stages of telling time (he can only say what hour it is). Frequently will ask what time it is and its scheduled activity (ex. It's 9pm, it's time to sleep).

5. Begun writing. Still colors pictures with mad scribbles and random hues.

6. Started school, hates school, cries himself to sleep during naptime and doesn't eat his lunch nor participate with gusto in activities except for those which involve the alphabet and/or numbers. Teacher says he is the only person in the class of ages 2-4 who knows his alphabets phonetically. Moreso, Dylan can read simple words to boot. He is so-called "way-advanced" in that area. HUH.

7. Startles me by dropping non-household words such as mucus and backbone. We only use words like snot.

8. Obsessed with complex words (i.e. words with sh,th,ch, silent "e" such as cute etc.)

9. Shown interest in math esp. addition

10. Obsessed with the UpsideDown Show and mimics Shane and David. Loves Meg and Mog stories.

11. On his second pair of orthopaedic shoes beginning August 2006.

12. Lies!! He doesn't own up but instead, accuses others of his bad actions!!

Others:
1. For his 3rd birthday, he wanted birthday party with a puppet show on the moon.
2. Me: "Are you my teddy bear?" his reply: "No, I'm too big."

3. Me: "2 + 2 equals?" (showing him two fingers on both hands and joining them together) Him: "W!"

4. One time I was cooking lunch and he was coloring with crayons. He kept bugging me by presenting and giving to me all of his new and unused crayons. He would have had to collect them carefully because his crayons were all jumbled in his crayon pail. I would get the crayons and dump them right back in. I told him I was busy and to please not bother me. He did it over and over until I was very frustrated and started yelling. It was only after a while when I realized he was giving me his best crayons so I'd want to color with him. Humbled, I joined him with great shame and guilt.

LJH Rips His Guitar and Rocks Pachelbel's Canon in D

This has to be, hands down, the best version I've heard so far. I give this a ten minute standing ovation and a roaring round of applause. Woo-Hoo. LJH: you're a genius. WOW, man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcZGzjKbWvg

Freaky Sex-Ed Book for Juveniles

I stumbled into this at Boingboing.net first thing in the morning in between sips of coffee. It was so surreal I just had to blog it to have documentary proof come tomorrow that it was for real.

Per Holm Kudsen wrote a book entitled The True Story of How Babies Are Made and it is an illustrated children's book that has odd, graphic drawings. Frankly speaking, it was hilarious. And I rather thought it honest and effective in explaining the whole "the birds and the bees" thing. Kids won't find it nearly as funny though. Hee-hee.

If you want to see the entire content of the book, click this Link which has it in German. Make sure you click on the book images to turn its pages.