the kids are adjusting to their new room. sunday night, malloy opened the door about a minute after we put her down. today for naps, rex went in and fell asleep, then malloy went in. it was very smoothly! and bedtime was better tonight. i told malloy that she needs to talk quietly into the monitor when she needs me instead of yelling for me. so while i was gone tonight, she whispered into the monitor to neal that she had to go potty. hooray! hope that keeps up and perhaps she won't wake rex up at 5 am like she did this morning! not fun :(
we had a playdate at our house this morning. malloy was so excited that her buddies, lena and cameron, were here! they were all laying in her bed and pretending to sleep. when they "woke up" they yelled, 'santa's here!!!!' they were so funny together!! and of course there was ring around the rosy! it wouldn't be a playdate without it!! the older kids were holding hands in a circle and rex was outside the circle, arms in the air like he's holding someone's hand, and turning in circles singing right along with them! he has fun whether he's included or not!! nobody can keep rex down ;)

one more thing: this afternoon, rex came over to the fridge and reached his hands up saying "bana bana bana" and then a desperate "pleeeeeeeeeeease!". i gave him half a banana and he was very happy. about 30 seconds later, he came back in the kitchen saying "bana bana bana". i said "oh, you want more banana?" and he repeated "more bana". i gave it to him and smiled big and said "i got it" and walked away. he's just starting to put 2 words together. his new thing is to run up to me and tell me what he's doing or playing with. "i squinkie!" or "i hiding!" i love it!! such a little chatter box!!! his words are very clear these days, too!!! he's now adding the "s" onto the ends of his words. he pointed to my face today and said "eyes, nose, and teeth" as clear as could be, including the /s/ and the /th/ sounds!!!