More Firsts

Ember waved at my mom today.  My mom was sooo excited to be a part of one of her "firsts!"  It was so sweet to watch the two of them.  Ember said her first word yesterday.  Well, i'm considering it a word, because it has a clear meaning to her: Num.  You can guess what that means, hehe, she says it when she wants to be nursed.  If i'm too slow, she says "NUM NUM!" and bites her fist.  She is brilliant Willow is doing AWESOME with the potty.  She only forgets or doesn't make it about 1/3 of the time.  She's holding it alot longer between trips too.  Maybe girls really are easier than boys?  Ryvre was 3 years + 3 months before it was all said and done, he was in pull-ups for about a year.  Willow has only been using pull-ups for a few days.  Such an awesome little lady, she's learning so fast. i did one thing i thought i would never do: label everything in the house with the name of the item on an idex card.  i remember learning to read in much this way at school, first you recognize what a word looks like, and then realize that the letters each form a sound of that word.  Explaining that doesn't seem to do the trick for Ryvre (he's 4, i'm guessing it shouldn't), so i'm trying this way.  He saw the cards up and ran around excited, trying to guess what each said.  He did very well.  i had to explain a few of them, like how i put the word "cabinet" on the craft cabinet (a piece of furniture) while another cabinet in the kitchen was labeled "pantry" instead, though it too is technically a cabinet.  Ryvre is in the typical "i want to be a ______ when i grow up" phase.  Today he wants to be a policeman.  My dad said "Well, that is very noble"  I then told him that two days ago Ryvre said he wanted to be an armoror.  i loved that one, thought it was totally cute that he picked up the word from a movie, and remembered what it meant.  He even designed a suit of armor, and drew a picture of it for me.  My dad was really impressed, and thought it was great, as our ancestors (on his side) did just that.  Ryvre's great-great-great-great grandfather literally carried an anvil all the way here from Germany.  It was the only possession he brought, because he couldn't rely on the fact that he could just buy a new one in the states.  My father has used that same anvil for a number of years, and i hope to do the same one day.