Get it?

As of yesterday, Aubree has her first "pet." And it's just our kind of pet - a caterpillar. I found Mr. Caterpillar (according to Aubree, his real name is "Boo-Boo") in my garden (boo for "Boo-Boo"). Since we just finished up a unit on Bugs, the timing seemed great. Aubree thinks her pet is the best thing ever. She sings to Boo-Boo, talks to him, tries to cover his "cage" with blankets so he can go to sleep, carries him around the house, and spends significant stretches of time just watching him walk around. This afternoon we discovered that he had molted. It's surprising how much bigger he got. Very neat! During her bedtime prayers tonight, Aubree prayed, "please bless my caterpillar that he will grow and we can let him go in our backyard when he becomes a butterfly." Thanks to Google, I've discovered that Boo-Boo will hopefully grow up to be a Black Swallowtail. And I just discovered we've been trying to feed him the wrong food. Oops. Tomorrow we'll make sure to get him some carrot leaves...

The other day we pulled out the dry-erase markers again. This time, however, Aubree was more interested in writing than in drawing. Here's a picture of what she wrote:
I wrote the sentence in blue ("A cat can see me"). Since it's hard to see in the picture, the first sentence Aubree wrote (all by herself) goes like this: "Aubree a cat bepus a majic mome has a wod." By way of interpretation, she wrote, "Aubree is a cat because a magic mommy has a wand." The second sentence she also wrote by herself (although she did ask me how to spell "fairy"), but I'm not sure what the interpretation is because by that time Bryce had woken up from his nap and she wasn't telling me what she was writing as she wrote. She just tried to sound out the words she was thinking of. I *think* she wrote something along the lines of "the mom has a wand because..." I don't remember!
Bryce is also learning lots of new things. Some things are fun. For example, he's really starting to get good at sign language. He picks up new signs surprisingly quickly - I just need to be more consistent with teaching and using them! Today he learned "Sleep." His favorite sign is still "cookie." In fact, how well he learned and used the "cookie" sign is what made me realize I really should be signing more. As soon as we get to Publix he starts signing, "cookie, cookie, COOKIE!"
He also learned to participate in a funny saying with us. We often quote a line from the old movie, "The Court Jester." -
"Get it?"
"Got it."
"Good."
Now, whenever he hears, "get it," Bryce immediately pipes up, "Go-it" (rhymes with "saw-it") He thinks it's so funny.
Other things he's learning I don't appreciate quite as much. For example, he's figured out how to open doors. Now, nothing's safe! Bathrooms, the laundry room/pantry, bedrooms - all fair game. My life just got harder.