In other words....
Olie and Solvi have been on a discovery tear this summer. As a result, their language skills have expanded along with their growing glossary of terms.
Oliver will now give any listener (willing or otherwise) an entire discourse on dinosaurs. Whoa to the teen on recent hot hair ballon ride in celebration of Sandy's 60th. In her attempt at polite conversation with balloon mates, this unwitting adolescent chanced to ask Olie about the dino he was holding. "It's a Maiasaurus," he said, "a duck billed dinosaur. Maiasaurus mean 'good mother.' They know it was a good mother because they found her fossils along with babies in the nest. They lived in the Cretacious Period. Some duck bills had crests..." Or when our friend Ben mistakenly suggested that sharks might be descended from Liopluerodons, he provoked the following response. "Noooooo, sharks were around DURING the time of the dinosaurs. Except they were MUCH BIGGER. Then were called MEGALODON. They're TEETH were as LONG as pencils and as SHARP as knives." Now when picturing this add the effect that when he speaks, Olie gets really close to you and talks quite loudly especially when emphasizing important details like "TEETH!"
Solvi has been on her own verbal tear as well. In the last month she has added so many words to her vocabulary, that it's safe to say that if she hears it, she will bascially try and repeat it...at least one syllable of it. Thus her regular vocabulary has expanded to include the following: baby, rah (rock), ruck (truck), go (always said in twos, "go, go"), bea (bear), bah bah (bottle), up (she uses that one a LOT), wuz zaaaat (what's that - also a favorite), seeya (sit), staya (stairs), boh (boat), boo (book), fi (five as in "high five." When you ask her for one, she holds up her hand and says "fi."). Also...foh (fork), poon (spoon), coo coo (cookie), no (always as "no, no, no"), da (dog), hah (hot), coh (cold), goo (good), bayee (belly), bah (ball), wa wa (oh come on now, you know what that one is...), ca (car), boo boo (blueberries - her favorite food up. In fact so desperate to get these delicious treats into her mouth is she that, if you mistakenly give them to her before she has finished chewing something else, she will spit it out in order to IMMEDIATELY make room for boo boos). She also says, whea (where), ha (hat), bu (bus), ouch, and choo (shoe - she's obsessed with shoes! We can never find a complete pair because she's always carrying them around the house and dropping them in obscure places! She always wants them on and when hers are not to be found she will don someone elses and come toddling out proudly an/pro-nouncing "choooooo.").
Solvi only says a few multi-syllable words or phrases including "ap-ga." That's apple. Chad has successfully cooped Solvi into helping him clean up apples in the yard by teaching her that it's a game. She's so please with herself as she deposits each apples in the bucket with an "ap ga." And when you praise her with "good Girl" she repeats "goo, goo." Solvi did utter her first sentence of sorts the other day. (Well her first besides "Wuz Zat?") Much to her peril she was climbing after her brother on the jetty at Rock Harbor. I pulled her off and said, "Solvi, no rocks." To which she yelled in protest, "No Rahhhhh!" The next night she inquired, "Where boo?" (Where's the book?"), closely followed by, "Where Pie (Spy)?"
Another favorite is "cheese." Solvi always mugs for the camera. So whenever you try and take a picture of her you get one sticking her chin out with her mouth squared off to form the word "cheeeese." She also says "cheeeesse" when looking in the mirror.
Solvi has also "mastered" several names. Every morning, or when she wakes up from her nap, the first thing she says is "AhhhhLeeee? Dada?" (Where's Olie and Dada?) She's now perfected Mama our new 5:30 to 6 am wake up call, "Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma...." Also Brian has made to list of honors and is greeted with a sing songy "Bii." Also Pie (Spy) and Beya (Bella). Her new favorite activity on weekend mornings is to walk both dogs calling "Pie! Beya!" Finally last night Sheila and Mon made the list. Of course Sheila comes out "SHeeWa," while Mon is "Maaaaaaa."
Solvi also identifies many things by their sound, what they do, or some other association. So and crow and "caw, caw." (That's the other thing she says every morning as she lies in bed listening to the sounds of the world and drinking her bah bah. "AhhhLeee, Dada, caw, caw, caw.") The many very tame bunnies in our yard elicit a "hop, hop." Chicken is "cuck, cuck, cuck" and chick is "pee, pee, pee." Sheep is "Baaa." Cow is "oooo." Owl is "oo, oo, oo." And every time a dog bark Solvi mimics, "woo, woo, woo." My favorite: sunglasses are "coo, coo, coo," because like we did with Olie, we'll put them on Solvi and watch her dance as we sing "to cool, for school...."
And finally, like Olie did, Solvi signs many words, but not quite as many as he did because she's so much more intent on talking. Signs include: crab, helicopter, plane, motorcycle, bunny, tree, please and thank you, apple, ice cream, book, where, finished, boat, bike, hat, flower, shoe, mouse, train, gorilla, elephant, penguin, giraffe, rhino, worm, bird, duck, squirrel, pooping, etc."
And speaking of pooping, I'm happy to report that (as of July) Olie is finally fully potty trained! Other accomplishments of a less scatological nature: Oliver is great at rhyming. If you ask him, "what rhymes with car?" He'll quickly say, "bar." I also don't think I mentioned that he's very good at counting. For months now he has been able to reliably count up however many of something there are, provided that there are not more than 20 of them. He also seems intrinsically able to do math. The other day I told him that he had to pick up 5 pears in the yard, as "community service" to make up for the curtain he ripped. Upon collecting three he announced that he needed "two more."
Olie and his two summer gal pals, Tilly and Audrey really got into the Rock Harbor flora and fauna this year. Catching crabs with Marnie's homemade fishing polls (chicken bones tied by string - orange of course - to a stick) was a favorite. My favorite experiment was collecting vacant snail shells, putting them in a bucket with lots of hermit crabs, and watching the hermies swap homes. We called that one Hermie HUD. Other creatures caught and observed included: eels, jelly fish, minnows, clams, quahogs, sea worms, and shrimp. True to his Bonnell heritage, Oliver was a bit of a self-appointed freedom fighter on the beach. Whoa to the kid whose collection of sea creatures Oliver deemed had cooked too long in the sun!
Oliver also really enjoys collecting rocks, shells and flowers which he often gives as gifts for people. Rocks are his favorite and he provides them wonderful names. Gramma birds was recently presented with a "Moon clam" and "Thunder Rock." Sheila got the prize this summer though. On finding a duck skull, Olie promptly announced that it had to go to Sheila as part of her bone collection.
Despite being the youngest, Solvi had no trouble keeping up with the big kids. With her most advance pincher grip and hand-eye coordination she was an excellent hermit crab catcher. She also kept right up with them over sand and surf, and toddled after her brother thru the prickly beach grass in search of hidden tidal pools. One very nice thing that's happened this summer is that the kids are now really playing together. Every morning Solvi runs around after Oliver in their various "obstacle courses."In fact she's so tough and daring and hell bent on keeping up with Oliver is she, that Solvi's proving to be a danger to herself. She walks right along after Olie UP the slide and stands triumphantly with him on top of the jungle gym and even tries to jump down! (So far we've caught her each time!)
Other Solvi physical feats include dancing and jumping. She's not quite there on the later, but every time she's sees a bunny, she gives it the old college try. Both Olie and Solvi sent us into hysterics with their moves at the band concerts this summer. Solvi now kicks and turns around and around, but her favorite move is to stick her butt out and wave it around. Oliver's favorite move is a sort of suspended side kick or arabesque which often ends with his hurling himself to the ground.
I should also take the time to mention (Yes, I know I'm taking quite a BIT of time to mention EVERYTHING!) that Solvi's fine motor skills are also pretty impressive. At the beginning of summer, Al gave her a wooden cheese toy with lots of holes that you thread a mouse through. I gave it to her while I was making dinner one night, not expecting her to be able to do it at all. Imagine my surprise when I turned around a moment later and she'd done the whole thing! (I think the hermit crabs are also quite surprised when she ably catches them as well.) Solvi also already has a perfect pincher grip when she draws (something we're still working on with Olie. - Boys versus girls I think.)
Another difference I've noted between the kids is their reading habits. Like Olie did, Solvi actually "reads" often now. In fact every morning after her "bah, bah" she asks for a "boo" and as we turn the pages she asks, "Wuz Zat? Wuz Zat?" Unlike Olie though who was already very interested in stories by Solvi's age, Solvi is ONLY interested in the pictures and how to say them. Oliver has now moved on to chapter books about dinosaurs now. One recent rainy day, Olie coerced Chad and I into reading these to him the ENTIRE afternoon!
Solvi continues to be a total socialite. She loves to entertain Gramma Sylvia with her dancing (Remind you of anyone? - Err me!) and the other day while Gramma was watching us play in her apple trees, Solvi simply grabbed my hand and led me across the lawn waving and blowing kisses at Gramma the whole time. Solvi also has just the sunniest disposition. Gramma Birds and Chris Patterson posited that they could make a lot of money if they could just develop a drug that would induce Solvi's happy demeanor. They decided to call it "Solvitrol." This had become her new nick name. Another popular nick name is "Little Miss Limpit." This she acquired when Chad and I went away for the first time since she was born and she absolutely clung to my Mom and/or Alexandra - just like a limpit shell. Even when we came back she decided that she's rather be held, so if you try and put her down her little legs clamp hard and fast. The fact that Solvi is so interested in people also makes her a great mimic. A couple weeks ago I caught her under the table with Bella. Solvi's tongue was sticking out and she was panting just like the dog!
Favorite Olieisms of the summer:
Chad was teasing Oliver one day and Olie said, "Dad don't tease me."
To which Chad said, "But Olie, I love to tease people. I used to tease your Mama but now I get to tease you. So in a way you were put on this Earth so I could tease you."
"No Dad," Oliver corrected, "I was put on this Earth to study Dinosaurs."
Or my phone conversation with Olie after he landed from his Utah trip. "Mom, we just flew over a pirate ship!" (The USS Constitition.) "You did!" "Yeh, but they couldn't canon ball us because the plane was so high up that the pirate ship just looked like a tiny sailboat."
And here is an example of typical Olie imaginative play: 'Just then, a trumpeting roar echoed through the booming desert. Chomper [a baby T-Rex] said, "This would be a great place to evolve, except what was that scary roar?!"'
And when I asked him if he swam in Utah. "No, there was nothing but dry, dry land for miles."
Oliver will now give any listener (willing or otherwise) an entire discourse on dinosaurs. Whoa to the teen on recent hot hair ballon ride in celebration of Sandy's 60th. In her attempt at polite conversation with balloon mates, this unwitting adolescent chanced to ask Olie about the dino he was holding. "It's a Maiasaurus," he said, "a duck billed dinosaur. Maiasaurus mean 'good mother.' They know it was a good mother because they found her fossils along with babies in the nest. They lived in the Cretacious Period. Some duck bills had crests..." Or when our friend Ben mistakenly suggested that sharks might be descended from Liopluerodons, he provoked the following response. "Noooooo, sharks were around DURING the time of the dinosaurs. Except they were MUCH BIGGER. Then were called MEGALODON. They're TEETH were as LONG as pencils and as SHARP as knives." Now when picturing this add the effect that when he speaks, Olie gets really close to you and talks quite loudly especially when emphasizing important details like "TEETH!"
Solvi has been on her own verbal tear as well. In the last month she has added so many words to her vocabulary, that it's safe to say that if she hears it, she will bascially try and repeat it...at least one syllable of it. Thus her regular vocabulary has expanded to include the following: baby, rah (rock), ruck (truck), go (always said in twos, "go, go"), bea (bear), bah bah (bottle), up (she uses that one a LOT), wuz zaaaat (what's that - also a favorite), seeya (sit), staya (stairs), boh (boat), boo (book), fi (five as in "high five." When you ask her for one, she holds up her hand and says "fi."). Also...foh (fork), poon (spoon), coo coo (cookie), no (always as "no, no, no"), da (dog), hah (hot), coh (cold), goo (good), bayee (belly), bah (ball), wa wa (oh come on now, you know what that one is...), ca (car), boo boo (blueberries - her favorite food up. In fact so desperate to get these delicious treats into her mouth is she that, if you mistakenly give them to her before she has finished chewing something else, she will spit it out in order to IMMEDIATELY make room for boo boos). She also says, whea (where), ha (hat), bu (bus), ouch, and choo (shoe - she's obsessed with shoes! We can never find a complete pair because she's always carrying them around the house and dropping them in obscure places! She always wants them on and when hers are not to be found she will don someone elses and come toddling out proudly an/pro-nouncing "choooooo.").
Solvi only says a few multi-syllable words or phrases including "ap-ga." That's apple. Chad has successfully cooped Solvi into helping him clean up apples in the yard by teaching her that it's a game. She's so please with herself as she deposits each apples in the bucket with an "ap ga." And when you praise her with "good Girl" she repeats "goo, goo." Solvi did utter her first sentence of sorts the other day. (Well her first besides "Wuz Zat?") Much to her peril she was climbing after her brother on the jetty at Rock Harbor. I pulled her off and said, "Solvi, no rocks." To which she yelled in protest, "No Rahhhhh!" The next night she inquired, "Where boo?" (Where's the book?"), closely followed by, "Where Pie (Spy)?"
Another favorite is "cheese." Solvi always mugs for the camera. So whenever you try and take a picture of her you get one sticking her chin out with her mouth squared off to form the word "cheeeese." She also says "cheeeesse" when looking in the mirror.
Solvi has also "mastered" several names. Every morning, or when she wakes up from her nap, the first thing she says is "AhhhhLeeee? Dada?" (Where's Olie and Dada?) She's now perfected Mama our new 5:30 to 6 am wake up call, "Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma...." Also Brian has made to list of honors and is greeted with a sing songy "Bii." Also Pie (Spy) and Beya (Bella). Her new favorite activity on weekend mornings is to walk both dogs calling "Pie! Beya!" Finally last night Sheila and Mon made the list. Of course Sheila comes out "SHeeWa," while Mon is "Maaaaaaa."
Solvi also identifies many things by their sound, what they do, or some other association. So and crow and "caw, caw." (That's the other thing she says every morning as she lies in bed listening to the sounds of the world and drinking her bah bah. "AhhhLeee, Dada, caw, caw, caw.") The many very tame bunnies in our yard elicit a "hop, hop." Chicken is "cuck, cuck, cuck" and chick is "pee, pee, pee." Sheep is "Baaa." Cow is "oooo." Owl is "oo, oo, oo." And every time a dog bark Solvi mimics, "woo, woo, woo." My favorite: sunglasses are "coo, coo, coo," because like we did with Olie, we'll put them on Solvi and watch her dance as we sing "to cool, for school...."
And finally, like Olie did, Solvi signs many words, but not quite as many as he did because she's so much more intent on talking. Signs include: crab, helicopter, plane, motorcycle, bunny, tree, please and thank you, apple, ice cream, book, where, finished, boat, bike, hat, flower, shoe, mouse, train, gorilla, elephant, penguin, giraffe, rhino, worm, bird, duck, squirrel, pooping, etc."
And speaking of pooping, I'm happy to report that (as of July) Olie is finally fully potty trained! Other accomplishments of a less scatological nature: Oliver is great at rhyming. If you ask him, "what rhymes with car?" He'll quickly say, "bar." I also don't think I mentioned that he's very good at counting. For months now he has been able to reliably count up however many of something there are, provided that there are not more than 20 of them. He also seems intrinsically able to do math. The other day I told him that he had to pick up 5 pears in the yard, as "community service" to make up for the curtain he ripped. Upon collecting three he announced that he needed "two more."
Olie and his two summer gal pals, Tilly and Audrey really got into the Rock Harbor flora and fauna this year. Catching crabs with Marnie's homemade fishing polls (chicken bones tied by string - orange of course - to a stick) was a favorite. My favorite experiment was collecting vacant snail shells, putting them in a bucket with lots of hermit crabs, and watching the hermies swap homes. We called that one Hermie HUD. Other creatures caught and observed included: eels, jelly fish, minnows, clams, quahogs, sea worms, and shrimp. True to his Bonnell heritage, Oliver was a bit of a self-appointed freedom fighter on the beach. Whoa to the kid whose collection of sea creatures Oliver deemed had cooked too long in the sun!

Hermie HUD
Oliver also really enjoys collecting rocks, shells and flowers which he often gives as gifts for people. Rocks are his favorite and he provides them wonderful names. Gramma birds was recently presented with a "Moon clam" and "Thunder Rock." Sheila got the prize this summer though. On finding a duck skull, Olie promptly announced that it had to go to Sheila as part of her bone collection.
Despite being the youngest, Solvi had no trouble keeping up with the big kids. With her most advance pincher grip and hand-eye coordination she was an excellent hermit crab catcher. She also kept right up with them over sand and surf, and toddled after her brother thru the prickly beach grass in search of hidden tidal pools. One very nice thing that's happened this summer is that the kids are now really playing together. Every morning Solvi runs around after Oliver in their various "obstacle courses."In fact she's so tough and daring and hell bent on keeping up with Oliver is she, that Solvi's proving to be a danger to herself. She walks right along after Olie UP the slide and stands triumphantly with him on top of the jungle gym and even tries to jump down! (So far we've caught her each time!)
Other Solvi physical feats include dancing and jumping. She's not quite there on the later, but every time she's sees a bunny, she gives it the old college try. Both Olie and Solvi sent us into hysterics with their moves at the band concerts this summer. Solvi now kicks and turns around and around, but her favorite move is to stick her butt out and wave it around. Oliver's favorite move is a sort of suspended side kick or arabesque which often ends with his hurling himself to the ground.

Dancing at the Band Concerts
I should also take the time to mention (Yes, I know I'm taking quite a BIT of time to mention EVERYTHING!) that Solvi's fine motor skills are also pretty impressive. At the beginning of summer, Al gave her a wooden cheese toy with lots of holes that you thread a mouse through. I gave it to her while I was making dinner one night, not expecting her to be able to do it at all. Imagine my surprise when I turned around a moment later and she'd done the whole thing! (I think the hermit crabs are also quite surprised when she ably catches them as well.) Solvi also already has a perfect pincher grip when she draws (something we're still working on with Olie. - Boys versus girls I think.)
Another difference I've noted between the kids is their reading habits. Like Olie did, Solvi actually "reads" often now. In fact every morning after her "bah, bah" she asks for a "boo" and as we turn the pages she asks, "Wuz Zat? Wuz Zat?" Unlike Olie though who was already very interested in stories by Solvi's age, Solvi is ONLY interested in the pictures and how to say them. Oliver has now moved on to chapter books about dinosaurs now. One recent rainy day, Olie coerced Chad and I into reading these to him the ENTIRE afternoon!
Solvi continues to be a total socialite. She loves to entertain Gramma Sylvia with her dancing (Remind you of anyone? - Err me!) and the other day while Gramma was watching us play in her apple trees, Solvi simply grabbed my hand and led me across the lawn waving and blowing kisses at Gramma the whole time. Solvi also has just the sunniest disposition. Gramma Birds and Chris Patterson posited that they could make a lot of money if they could just develop a drug that would induce Solvi's happy demeanor. They decided to call it "Solvitrol." This had become her new nick name. Another popular nick name is "Little Miss Limpit." This she acquired when Chad and I went away for the first time since she was born and she absolutely clung to my Mom and/or Alexandra - just like a limpit shell. Even when we came back she decided that she's rather be held, so if you try and put her down her little legs clamp hard and fast. The fact that Solvi is so interested in people also makes her a great mimic. A couple weeks ago I caught her under the table with Bella. Solvi's tongue was sticking out and she was panting just like the dog!
Favorite Olieisms of the summer:
Chad was teasing Oliver one day and Olie said, "Dad don't tease me."
To which Chad said, "But Olie, I love to tease people. I used to tease your Mama but now I get to tease you. So in a way you were put on this Earth so I could tease you."
"No Dad," Oliver corrected, "I was put on this Earth to study Dinosaurs."
Or my phone conversation with Olie after he landed from his Utah trip. "Mom, we just flew over a pirate ship!" (The USS Constitition.) "You did!" "Yeh, but they couldn't canon ball us because the plane was so high up that the pirate ship just looked like a tiny sailboat."
And here is an example of typical Olie imaginative play: 'Just then, a trumpeting roar echoed through the booming desert. Chomper [a baby T-Rex] said, "This would be a great place to evolve, except what was that scary roar?!"'
And when I asked him if he swam in Utah. "No, there was nothing but dry, dry land for miles."
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