Daniel grows up

At times I wish I were as good as Wil about keeping records, but I'm not. So here's a little catch-up on Daniel.
He talks quite a bit now, and has learned most of our names. Riah has been perfect for a long time, but Naysha evolved. It was Nana for several months, then went to See-saw, to Shesha, to Haysha. At long last he has called Taryn (he did just refuse to say anything for her) Taytan (which is the same way Naysha used to pronounce it). Ella is sometimes correct but usually Lella (yes, he has his ls down). Cedwryck took him a while to attempt, but he says something like Geh-gick. Elijah is Juh-juh. The funny one is William, whom he persists in calling "Johnny" that sounds like nonny. We are told that one time - ONE time - the children were playing some make-believe and William's character was called Johnny.

He now says Gam as well as Papa when he thinks of them.

He often says two words together, and the boys work at getting whole sentences out of him (one word at a time). Some words are usually repeated, like "sideside" for outside and "bitebite" when he wants to eat.

He has begun asking "why." This isn't so much a want-to-know as it is another way to disagree with a command, which he does frequently. His frequent disagreements seem to stem from his complete disconnect of actions and consequences.

He still doesn't like to eat much. He'll eat a bowl of oatmeal in the mornings, but only if I feed it to him. He'll sneak a fruit every chance he gets, and asks for (graham) crackers a lot. Mostly he enjoys sugar and simple carbs, with just a touch of peanut butter and cheese. No meat, and very few veges. He now asks for "geek" instead of ee-eee when he wants a drink (or a trip into the kitchen to look in the snack cabinet for graham crackers).

Daniel loves to go outside where he drives the riding lawnmower or pushes Tonka trucks around. He enjoys the trampoline when someone will watch him. Of course, he's not worried about safety, but he wants people to appreciate his moves and will call someone by name and say "look!"

He will occasionally look at books, but prefers the iPad. He will play with his toys if someone sits on the floor with him, and likes to ride "horsey" by climbing on someone's back, or just back up and run and jump into my arms.

He has noticed that when I want Bob's attention, I will call "Bob," and so he does this sometimes, too, though in most situations he says "Daddy." He is a good mimicker and several of his ways are simply that - he says "Fine!" when he doesn't want to agree, wipes his hands and face on a napkin, and blows his nose.

Recently he has correctly answered the query "Are you sure?"  Every other child will repeat the negative they have been declaring, but Daniel will say "yes" he is sure that he doesn't want something.

Today he went swimming for the first time. We were at the river where there is a large flat area with an inch of water, and then it quickly drops down to my waist depth. He gladly splashed around in the shallow spot for a long time, but would occasionally inch closer to the deep water. At one point he thought Elijah was having too much fun in his floaty, and asked about it. So I talked Elijah into letting Daniel try, and when he got into the floaty I just walked him out into the water. He really enjoyed it! We went over to the other children, and he showed them how he could stick his toes up out of the water, and repeatedly said a word that sounded like "raining" but I guess was "swimming." It didn't take long to wear him out, though, and he would just float there very still and quiet until it was time to go.