Red is a really great color -- reach out and touch someone

Alex is trying to learn his colors. He's figured out that red is a color, but that's about as far as we've made it. At first, I was excited because I thought that he had actually learned a color and could identify it .... then I realized that "red" was the answer to any question about color. Even if we've just studied a picture and I've told him the color and had him repeat it. One minute later, it's all gone, and the object is "red" again. It sort of reminds me of when I used to watch Jeopardy, and any time there was a category about the Bible or religion, I would just answer every clue with, "Who is Moses?" and typically I would get at least one question in the category correct. You just can't talk about the Bible without bring up Moses, and Alex just can't talk about colors without bring up "red".

Teagan has become very interested in reaching and grabbing. She wants my Diet Coke can, my water bottle, any food that I may be eating, and pretty much anything else that she sees me holding. She hasn't quite mastered working her arms and hands yet, so she sort of seems like she has a depth perception problem. She'll reach out and grab at things, but not reach quite far enough. It's amusing to watch.

I've just begun training Teagan to put herself to sleep. I've been going easy on her by rocking, nursing or snuggling her to sleep. Now she's placed in bed for 20 minutes and left to cry if that's what she chooses to do. This is how we trained Alex, and after taking a survey of our friends, I think that he has one of the best bedtime routines. I'm especially proud to say that both kids sleep in their own beds and never with Mommie and Daddy. That's an extremely bad habit to get in to, and a hard one to break.

We assembled Alex's tricycle over the weekend and let him have a go at riding it around inside the house. He's not too good at it yet, of course, he's never had to steer or pedal before, and to ride a tricycle you have to do both ... simultaneously. That's a lot to learn for a little guy. He does go around demanding, "By-sick ... By-sick", and expecting Pete or me to put him on the tricycle and give him a little push around the living room. I just hope when he masters the pedaling and steering that he doesn't run over Teagan. But you know, if you ask him, "Alex, what color is your tricycle?", he'll tell you, "RED!"

That's all for now ... I'll keep you posted!