Summer Activities

We went to a concert at a park recently. The band was playing music catered towards kids. But by far, the highlight was not really the music, but the playground at the park.

They also had cotton candy.  Since it was just $1, and since Eliana had asked for it about seven times, we got her a serving.

She was very happy about that.  Who wouldn't be?

In the past few weeks, Karina has made leaps and bounds in her gross motor milestones.  She can pull herself up on the furniture pretty easily and cruise around.

She can also stand up by herself without holding on to anything, when she puts her mind to it, or isn't too distracted with something else.

In this version of cruising, Karina's figured out that she can push the kitchen chairs like a walker and get around that way.

And Karina loves to play peek-a-boo.  She'll hide behind the curtain and say "a-booo!"  Eliana is also in this video, providing a running commentary and other random thoughts about her day.

  And Karina LOVES to play with water, as with most kids.  Here she is at the water table we have outside.

Karina and Eliana, most of the time, will play very well together.

Here are the two girls playing with a toy that teaches kids how to write letters and numbers.  Karina certainly tries to copy things her sister does, like in the picture below.  She'll also get a crayon or pen and scribble on a piece of paper while Eliana is drawing.

And here they are playing together on Saturday morning.  Daddy is watching them so that Mommy can sleep in.

And we might have mentioned that Eliana is now taking Chinese lessons.  We found a Chinese language teacher on Craiglist who has experience teaching pre-schoolers.  The teacher has been coming once a week and Eliana has been picking up vocabulary.  Eliana really likes singing, and retains the words pretty well, even in another language.  Here she is singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" in Chinese.  She is having a little trouble at the end, and needs some unappreciated prompting.  Karina now recognizes this song as well, and leans down to her toes while we sing, and claps at the end.  You can see her clapping in this video.