Has anyone else noticed how big my kids are?

Click here to see how big they are. (Photo by our good friend Deborah)

Kenna has grown 4 inches since November - that's 6 months folks! I was just looking at her the other day and realized that she's not really a baby anymore. She's a little girl that does what she wants, says what she wants, and goes where she wants.

She has recently learned the art of turn taking. When reminded, she will wait patiently behind whoever is currently having a turn at something. As soon as they finish she says "my turn." Or if they're not going fast enough in making it her turn, she'll just shove them and say "my turn." But heck she's not 2 yet...wait that's the catch isn't it? She's learned this skill and will soon give it up for the attitude of "no turn. it's mine!"

She's also recently perfected the art of climbing. The Kenna-sized-chair she was using to help wash dishes wasn't quite tall enough to give access to the dishes; so, she did what any heights-loving climber would do. She used the chair as a ladder to climb onto the kitchen counter. This is a skill that Morgan still has not mastered - heck I don't think Morgan has even ever tried to climb onto the kitchen counters.

Speaking of Morgan she's quite grown up as well. Tonight after reading her bed-time books, she went to her room to read her penguin book, primarily to show me the picture of the spines on the rock-hopper penguin's tongue (which all penguins have, in case you didn't know).

As she flipped through the pages, she found a picture of a penguin that had been attacked by a seal (or sea lion). She made the connection that the seal would eat the penguin. Then said that it was not good for the penguins - but it was good for the seal. Then she said that the polar bears eat seals so that they can't eat all of the penguins. When asked if the polar bears eat penguins she promptly reminded me that we already talked about the polar bears don't live in the same place as penguins. Penguins live at Antarctica and polar bears don't. I don't think that necessarily means that polar bears don't eat the seals that eat the penguins; I've never researched it, maybe they do travel that far. I'm guessing Morgan will figure it out and let me know.

Morgan has also taken an interest in dinosaur books. This is not so great for the non-dinosaur-name-knowing-momma, and the non-phonics-reading-momma. Luckily Michael can figure out the names for me. It's hard to find books that I like to read about dinosaurs. We did find a good one recently at the library - I Met a Dinosaur. It's a book about a little girl who meets dinosaurs in everyday places. Excellent illustrations and an enjoyable read. I haven't been looking too hard, since this interest just started recently, but I'm having a hard time finding well written, interesting non-fiction books for young readers/pre-readers about dinosaurs. We did find one about which ones are vegetarians/herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores, but I'd like to find more. So, if the few folks who read have any good suggestions let me know.