Ponies, School, Binkies, and Legos

We celebrated Rand's first full week of school with a trip to Yogurtland. He doesn't have much to say about it -- we usually ask what his favorite part of the day was ("playing on the playground!") but don't drill him too much. He is enjoying it and hasn't wanted to leave the last couple of days. I think it is hard for him to articulate what he does there since the Montessori method doesn't tell him, "Now we're going to learn math!" -- they just work on it gradually.

Ella did not like leaving Rand the first few days, but she seems to be understanding the routine as well. She has switched from calling me "Mommy" to "Mama," which is sweet. Her most common phrase is, "Mama, I'm stuck!" She is constantly crawling over and under things and getting (slightly) stuck.

She likes to go to bed with two pink binkies and has started telling us when she is ready to go to bed (yippee!). They both love to read and Rand has discovered Legos. Ella will do almost anything Rand says....the other day we were eating corn-on-the-cob for dinner and Rand told Ella to hold up the corn to her ear like a phone. So she did. And then he told her to say hello. So she did.

Special Olympics has started up again, so I brought them with me to riding lessons last week. Rand asked if he could ride one of the ponies, and so we got out Ginger. They both had SO MUCH FUN riding her -- Ella was so cute and serious about keeping her helmet on (I told her no helmet meant she had to get off) and they both took turns and would've ridden all night if I had let them. I am keeping my eye out for a pony that would like a nice retirement home in our backyard.