We are doing a lot of talking. Both Thomas and Sophia are talking a lot! Thomas is a question hound: "What's a planet? What's moisture? Why?" Or he pretends to be one of his trains, or a character called Alpha Pig, or something else imaginative. Sophia babbles a lot, and comes out with some great words and phrases. Some of the things she says, we actually understand! "Where did Mommy go?" "alligator," "chase-chase!," "underwear," even a "Go away, Mommy!" Instead of the word yes, she used to say, "mm-hmm, yeaaaaah" in a Wisconsin accent, but now she says, "I do, I do!" Tonight in the bath she even said, "T-O-M-M-...." And I leaned forward and said, "Yes, Sophia? What comes after T-O-M-M-...???!" and she said, "Y!" Wow. Her favorite TV show seems to be Super Why on PBS, even though it seems pretty advanced for her age. It's a show all about learning how to read, with letters and words flying around. It's Thomas' favorite show, too. He loves to shout out lines from the show, including, "And I am Super Why, with the power to read!" So now whenever we even mention TV, or it's her turn to pick a TV show, she says, "Watch! Super Why! ... Power! Read!" She also sings, "Wait, wait wait ... what? do? wait?," one of my favorite Blue's Clue's songs about waiting, and what shall we do while we wait? One of the things we can't figure out yet is when she points to me and says, "Batta! You!" Butter you? Batter you? It's a mystery.
Thomas and Sophia have had two weeks of swimming lessons, and were supposed to be having more, but Sophia has been sick so we haven't been this week yet. At Thomas' first lesson, he wailed for the first ten minutes, and then after a short silence, we heard him giggling, so that was a big relief. His favorite part seems to be pretending to be an alligator in the 10-inch deep pool. For Sophia's first lesson, she was okay for the first five minutes or so, but once she went under the water, she cried for the rest of the lesson. She has gotten better over time, and now when we practice jumping into the water, she actually kind of makes a jumping motion, instead of having to be dragged in! She practices holding her breath underwater, and kicking to the side of the pool and pulling herself up out of the water.
This morning we had our first serious sibling altercation. We were grocery shopping, and the two kids were in the double shopping cart/trolley, where the two kids can sit in the trolley side by side, with little steering wheels so they can "steer" the cart. We were in the store for a while, and Thomas started squashing Sophia, as usual when he gets bored and antsy. Then when we got to the checkout counter, he leaned over her to play with the pen and squashed her again. She struggled and wailed, and then she bit him really hard on the arm. They were both really quiet after that. No crying or blood, thank goodness. I think they were both a little startled themselves by what had happened! We'd better not see any more of THAT, but I suspect there is going to be more fighting and fighting back, from now on. Oh dear.
This is Thomas and Sophia playing hopscotch! I drew the squares, and Thomas filled in all the numbers by himself! And then added the box for the zero! 
Thomas has been doing poos on the potty! I was starting to wonder if it was ever going to happen. I think Thomas had a bit of a bug, because one night when Matthew was home, Thomas woke up at one in the morning full of urgent news that he had to go potty, so Matthew instantly got his pants off and just held him over the toilet. We've had a bunch of poo prizes gathering dust on the shelf, waiting for this moment, so once Thomas got the first prize, it was very motivating for him to keep going on the toilet! So now except for the occasional wet morning, and daily potty dance ("Tommy, I think you have to go to the bathroom." "No I don't!" *while dancing with legs crossed*), we can say that Thomas is all done being potty trained!! Yaaaaay! Sophia's turn next!
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