Mayhem and Milestones

First I keep meaning to give a caterpillar update. Basically by the next day it seemed rather despondent/lethargic and so Cla decided the most humane thing to do would be to let him go. So he was released into our yard and hopefully he is leading a better life now.

We have been busy around here meeting a new nephew/cousin, working on making our basement into a useable playroom/classroom, painting the front porch, organizing hand me downs and seeing what clothes the kids need for the Fall (in the hopes that this heat will indeed eventually end!!), weeding through our immense collection of books trying to stick to just what we REALLY need/want, Claudio having to go into the office every day this week (I, for some unhealthy reason I am sure, find it so hard to be as productive/organized/and dare I say HAPPY when Cla is gone all day), and then just the general disasters and mayhem involved in taking care of two toddlers.......like when Ben poured the Brita on the floor, or when Anna slammed her head into the corner of the stepstool, or when potty training Ben thought it would be a super idea to pee in the empty wading pool on the porch....TWICE!

I have also been trying to put together, figure out, decide, wrap my head around, understand, discover some preschool materials to start with Ben this Fall. So far I have decided we will definitely be slowly working through the Little Saints program starting around Thanksgiving. And I also want to find some phonics "stuff" to do with him. The problem is that the things I find at his motor skill/intellectual level include letter recognition and learning letter sounds. These are things he already knows. But programs and workbooks etc at the next level (early reader/phonics stuff) requires a level of direction following and fine motor skills I just don't think he is ready for. So I will continue to hunt around to see if there is anything I can put together for him.

As for Anna, she is wonderful as always. She is still not walking yet, but she started to stand herself up independently! Totally backwards as far as I know! Ben was walking for a while before he could stand up without the aid of a wall or table or something! Below are some videos of Anna in action. I didn't get one of her standing for long because every time she stood up Ben would get so excited and scream and it would scare her so she would quickly sit down and crawl for daddy.