Ian's favorite words

Ian's vocabulary has exploded. I'd guesstimate he has said over 200 different words. Some he pronounces very clearly. Like I heard him say the word "donkey" for the first time today, and he said it very clearly. I didn't even know he knew what a donkey was! He brought a little one over to me and said the word. Other words I am sure many other people would have no clue what he said. "Play-doh" would be one of those. Have I mentioned he is OBSESSED with Play-doh this week? I would say I have spent more hours playing with Play-Doh this week than the whole rest of my life put together. Other words that he says very frequently would include: Naia (for example he says it when she's napping and what he means is he wants me to give him the video monitor so he can watch her sleep), no (typical toddler!), help, side (meaning outside), pretzel, and milk (when I'm trying to feed him solid foods he reminds me over and over that what he really wants is milk). It always surprises me how many food related words are in his vocabulary given he hasn't eaten many of those foods such as pizza and cookie.

The video clip above is of Nadia doing a little counting and showing that she can identify a penny and a nickel. She has succesfully counted to 20 for me on several occasions. The other skill we have really been working on this week is to get her to identify the numerals 1, 2, and 3. That has not been easy for her. She can memorize things very easily that she hears but getting her to learn things by sight (letters, shapes, numbers, etc.) is much harder for her at this point in her life.

One thing I forgot to include in my thankful post yesterday was that I am thankful the cleaning service resumed yesterday. The two ladies were here for almost two hours yesterday morning, and the house looked spotless for about 1 minute. We sat down to eat lunch right after they left, which meant there were crumbs on the floor before it even dried (they had just finished mopping it). It was work getting the house ready for them to come. They don't move things around so if you leave stuff on the floor or on top of dressers, counters, tables, etc. then those spaces don't get dusted or vacuumed. So I had to work to declutter every space in the house, which is a challenge as while I'm cleaning one area, the kids are destroying another area. I'm still using the motivated mom chore lists for some tasks - cleaning the inside of the refrigerator and microwave, washing the sheets, etc., but for the next few months I don't need to worry about things like cleaning toilets, dusting, or vacuuming. It seems like a nice reward for working outside the home when I'd rather be a SAHM. I can't say cleaning the toilets is my favorite thing to do, but I'll be happy to resume that duty if it means I'm unemployed. I will say that certain things (like my kitchen sink) look far cleaner after they've cleaned the house. It's nice to have things look so sparkling clean, even if it is only for 1 minute, lol.