Reading

The other day Natalie brought out a couple of Curious George books while I was sitting in the living room with Kaia. I asked her if she wanted me to read them to her and she emphatically told me that SHE was going to read them to ME. So I sat back as she opened "Curious George Goes Camping". Keep in mind that we have only had this book for about two weeks and we might read it to her once a day or occasionally twice. Natalie started on the first page and "read" it word for word! I was surprised but I figured that maybe she had the first page or two memorized, but after that she would just make something up while looking at the pictures. The crazy thing is that she turned each page and told me exactly what each page said with the exception of a word here and there. I am pretty sure she can't truly read yet, but she had the whole story memorized word for word! By the time she was at the end of the story I could hardly congratulate her enough...I was just so amazed. But I guess Natalie has always had a really good memory.
But who knows, maybe she is starting to read. The week before Easter, a local church came to hang fliers on our door knob telling us about their Easter services. I grabbed the flier and set it on the table where Natalie found it. She picked it up and asked me what it had on it. I told her it was words and asked her if she could tell me what words it had on it. She said "God". OK, I figured she just made a guess, and as coincidence would have it, it was a church flier that DID actually have the word "God" on it. So I asked her where the word "God" was and she pointed directly at it! This kid amazes me and kind of scares me already.

Camels

About a week ago we decided to take the scenic route home from town. We drove out through the countryside where I grew up and decided to go past a farm where the owner has collected and bred exotic animals for several decades now. While there was not a lot of animals there this time, we did get to see a couple camels and a cute "little" camel that looked like it had been recently born.
Natalie liked seeing the camels, but I did not realize that she remembered the event so well since it was pretty short. Well, this weekend we went to my parents house for Easter. The first morning we were there, four elk walked through my parent's yard pretty close to their house. As we all looked out the window and watched them, Natalie said, "look at the camels." So there may not be many wild camels just outside Seattle, but at least she has a good memory and associated them with a similar animal.

Potty Training

So we are starting the gradual process of potty training with Natalie. It has definitely been a gradual process as we are trying to encourage her to tell us when she needs to go to the bathroom but she often doesn't say anything. So we have started to try to find ways to motivate her. We will cheer for her, clap, sing songs, and tell her how proud we are when she does use the toilet and that seems to help a bit, but so far the most effective motivator is if we give her a hanful of M&M's every time she goes to the bathroom in the toilet.
Well a couple weeks ago we were at some friends house when we noticed that Natalie had followed one of their daughters into the bathroom and was standing right in front of her watching her go to the bathroom. Jamie rushed in to tell Natalie that we needed to let her have her privacy. The other girl was about four or five years old so I would guess that she has been potty trained for a while. When Jamie told Natalie to leave the bathroom and let her be alone Natalie looked up hat her and said very sincerely, "But I am just so proud of her!" As Jamie held back her laughter and started to pull Natalie out of the bathroom, Natalie broke out in a cheer and said , "Yay!" and started clapping for her.
Well I guess we have at least been successful in teaching her that going to the bathroom in a toilet is something to be celebrated...now we just have to teach her the appropriate time for celebrating and the people to celebrate with!