updates

rory has made some leap in maturity (if you can call it that for a 3 1/2 year old). i can't really describe it in exact terms, but she seems a little more sure of herself, a little more independent and more able to express herself in the last week or so. she also seems to have a bit of a 'tude now and then, but i'm trying to ignore that so as not to encourage it. she starts in a preschool room at 'school' (aka daycare) on tuesday and i think she's excited about it. it's kinda crept up on us so we haven't had much chance to talk about the change in classrooms, teachers, etc. the good thing is that she already knows quite a few of the kids in the room, and a few of her friends from this years are going into the same class with her. in other developments, she had bunk beds set up in her room last week. she has listened to music, read books and taken naps on the top bunk, but sleeps overnight on the bottom bunk. the bunk bed set up is in preparation for the girls to share a room at some point. not sure when that will be... when alix seems ready to sleep in a big girl bed, we'll start to have 'sleepovers' and move on from there.

alix is now walking more than crawling. the crawling seems to happen only when she's tired or upset, other than that, she walks EVERYWHERE and LOVES the new mobility. i'm loving it too because i can put her in all these dresses that i've been saving for this moment. for everyone's information, dresses (and skirts) are not conducive to crawling. she's also trying to be much more communicative-saying the words she does know that work, and trying others to get her point across. this morning, i'm convinced that she tried to say 'ro-ro' when rory and i were snuggling in the rocking chair.

our neighbor, kim the veterinarian, noticed that pearl was limping last night and did a quick streetside exam which revealed tenderness, swelling and an unwillingness on pearl's part to have kim do much more than palpate her right knee* a little. kim gave us some doggie anti-infammatories she had at her house for pearl to take for the next few days and it will hopefully get better. unfortunately, this injury is on the same side as her funny paw, so she's really at a disadvantage in the walking department. no walks for the next few days, and only short, slow ones for a couple of days after that and then we'll see how she's doing.

*hopefully, you will know that by saying knee, i mean the rear leg, as the joint on the front leg would be refered to as elbow. it is NOT on the same leg as her funny paw, just the same side.