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Anna & Karen
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Last update: 20 July 2007.
Welcome to my page devoted to the third year of our twins: Karen and Anna.
Related sites:
For an enormous (500 kb) studio portrait of the girls, click on
its thumbnail below. (Don't say I didn't warn you about the size!)
-- from their 1st birthday
Each year I've prepared a custom calendar with a montage of
the more interesting shots from the prior calendar year. I've
placed the enormous files below. To learn who is who in each picture, click on
the 'who is who' link to a black and white version of the picture with nametags.
From 1997:
342 kb
who is who?
From 1998:
361 kb
who is who?
From 1999:
388 kb
who is who?
From 2000:
164 kb
who is who?
From 2001:
691 kb
who is who?
From 2002:
228 kb
who is who?
From 2003:
391 kb
who is who?
From 2004:
260 kb
who is who?
From 2005:
195 kb
who is who?
From 2006:
560 kb
who is who?
From 2007:
1.7 Mb
who is who?
From 2008:
1.3 Mb
who is who?
Important numbers
The following page was added 20 August 1998.
Image Magnifier is a page which magnifies a portion of the image that the mouse sits over. You do NOT hold down any mouse key. It takes a little while for the images to load and the magnifier to respond, so be patient and enjoy! Let me know if you want to see other images this way.
I'm placing the news in reverse chronological order to make it easier to spot, especially since I rarely have time to update this page. I put all the pictures prior to the birth on a separate page (see above) to give our readers faster loading.
************************
****************** March 2004 update **********
2003 'holiday picture'
Our family 
****************** 7 May 2003 update ********** Karen rode a bike without training wheels today!
****************** 3 January 2003 update **********
Here are some pictures taken by professional photographers
of the girls...click on the image for a larger picture.
School Pictures: Fall 2002:
Anna 
Karen
Picture in the Davis Enterprise newspaper
Karen and I 
2002 'holiday picture'
Karen & Anna
in their 'princess' costumes
****************** 20 December 2002 update **********
I have not had time to post anything here in a long
time. I've been a bit overwhelmed with the water damage
disaster at our home. I have prepared a directory with
a raw listing of files of
pictures from the year 2002
The names are somewhat informative of what the picture is about.
****************** 2 October 2001 update **********
We are surviving the move to the temporary housing.
Some recent pictures from a trip to the beach can be found
HERE Sorry, no time to write any words.
****************** 21 March 2001 updates **********
Calico died early Saturday morning (17 March).
Calico is one of the two cats we kept of a litter raised from birth. She was 11 months old. Even though Road 30 is 350' from the house and lightly travelled, she was hit by a vehicle and died instantly. What follows are some moments later that day.
Judith collected Calico and placed her in a large box. I dug a hole 1.5-2' deep at the edge of our citrus grove. I found a smaller clean white box and placed Calico inside with some blooming Rosemary (mainly to mask the growing smell). It was a hot day.
Once preparations were complete I asked Anna and Karen to sit
together on my lap. Parts of the conversation are as follows:
R: "I have some very sad news to tell you. Have you
noticed that Calico is not here this morning?"
A: "Where is she?"
R: "She had a very bad boo-boo. Much worse than the
boo-boos you and I get. Calico is dead."
A: "Why?"
R: "She was walking where she was not supposed to be...
You know how we always tell you to hold mommy or daddy's hand
when we are in a parking lot or by a road? Well Calico was
at the road last night and was hit by a car."
K: "Will she be all right?"
R: "No. Calico... is.. not going to get better... That is
why this is so sad..."
At this point I had brought a tear to my eye, but
noone else seemed so affected.
J: "Calico is dead."
A: "When will she be coming back?"
R: "She won't be coming back. That is why this is so
sad. But we can always remember her in our hearts. ...
We are going to go outside now and place Calico in a special
hole in the ground.."
K: "A hole in the ground?"
R: "A place for Calico to stay. There will be a rock
there for us to remember her.."
The girl's reactions now became quite different. Anna
became silent. Karen interrupted my explanation of coming
events to launch into a continuous dialog:
K: "At my Rainbow House I have a cat and a dog named
Calico and ....."
I cannot remember what all she said, but it continued
until mom and I gently interrupted Karen after a minute or two.
We then had a small ceremony to bury Calico. I asked
A&K to each pick a flower. I opened the box so they could
see that Calico really was in there. I pointed out that she
was not moving. They each placed their flower in the box.
I brought along a hand-wipe and suggested that they could
touch Calico one last time if they wanted to.
But if they did, I'd have
to wipe their hand afterwards. They declined. I sealed up
the box with tape.
I then wrote "Calico" on the outside and invited the
girls to write something as well. Instead, they each asked me to
write a message to Calico:
A: "Write Anna will miss Calico very much."
K: "Write I love you Calico and I will miss you too."
After that, we began to fill the grave. The girls helped
toss in handfulls of soil. At this point, they began to
loose interest. However, Anna started to become upset
and wanted to walk away with mom.
Karen stayed until the grave was filled. I placed
a standing stone on top. I told the girls that they
could "talk to the stone" whenever they wanted to "visit"
Calico as way to remember her.
Later that day, Karen came to see me working in the garden.
She wanted me to go with her to talk to "Calico's stone."
Anna also appeared and said she didn't know where Calico's
stone was and could I show her. (Of course, she knew. It
is just her way of asking you to go with her.)
Anna added some twigs sticking out of the ground.
With Karen on my lap, she and I sat next to
Calico's grave. Karen began to tell a story something
like this:
K: "At my Rainbow House I have a dog named Calico. She
died. My Rainbow House mommy died too. But I have a special
coin. I said some words and she got better. I should have
brought my coin today... next time I'll bring it..."
Later that weekend I got the "predictable" questions
and comments. Here are samples from various times:
K: "I miss Calico."
A: "When is Calico goin' to come out of her box?"
K (to J): "Mommy when you die can I die with you?"
I thought I'd indulge a bit on this significant event because it reveals a lot about the girls. It also provides some tools for our future.
****************** 28 February 2001 updates **********
Just some quick notes on language.
****************** 14 June 2000 updates **********
If you like Kittens and you like kids,
then you should check out this link:
Kittens! & Kids!
Some miscellaneous shots:
K with Amber, Grandpa with K & A, A ready to serve you!
****************** 25 May updates **********
I can't believe it has been more than 5 months since I
have updated anything on this web site. Those who visit here
don't want to know what has kept me so busy, so I shall start
with a brief summary of some significant events:
****************** 15 December 1999 updates **********
Hey! In response to the many request that have poured
in (OK, so it was one request...) I've finally gotten around
to posting a few new pictures!
Why now you ask? (OK, so nobody asked... but if they did)
I have unposted christmas pictures FROM LAST YEAR!
We had a great vacation, their fans clamour for photos!
I finished my busy fall quarter (the real reason --
I'm burned out...)
Here goes!
Pictures
from December 1998 - April 1999.
Pictures
from May - July 1999. (under construction)
Pictures
from our August 1999 family vacation.
******************* 9 November 1999 updates **********
Quite a bit has happened in the past 3 months.
The family tried a vacation to the "great Northwest". It
was quite successful. The only problem was brief and
resulted from trying to drive just a bit too far on
the second day. The girls wanted "out-side" and Anna (naturally)
taught herself how to wriggle out of the safety harnesses
in her child seat.
To simplify matters we stayed with friends at 3 different
locales: Redding, Portland, and Seattle. This helped a lot, not
just because these people were such nice hosts, but because they
helped watch the girls. (Read that: created a more favorable
adult-to-child ratio that could "keep a lid" on the "wild animals".)
By the 10th day mom needed a rest, so dad took the girls
to the Columbia gorge. This worked fine. We did a little hike.
Ate some blackberries. Watched a train go by. Looked at waterfalls.
And, Karen discovered a favorite activity: throwing rocks into
the water. Big rocks. The bigger the better. (What have I
created?!?)
The language development continues to explode:
Anna favors declarative sentences: "I eat dat" or "I want dat"
Actually, she says "I want" as if it was one word. For
example: "Iwant murr" (I want more!!!) Then there is the
ever-popular "No! My doit" (Both girls substitute "my" for "I"
frequently.)
Anna likes singing. It is just that the songs get a little
bit mixed up. "A B C D..." was popular for awhile. They both
like to "crazy count" as in: "one, two, five, six, eight, six, five,
ONE!"
Anna also has her cute moments. Such as a saying
"What's dat?" in a rising voice, becoming very high by the second
syllable. Another popular activity is immitating animal sounds.
It is getting a bit old now, but I still say "tyr-ANNA-saur" when
referring to "T-rex" which always prompts a "Grrrrahh" from
Anna. (What? You didn't know that T-rex sounds like that?)
We will do other animals. Sometimes she mixes them up,
as in: What sound does a turkey make? A: "cluck cluck cluck..."
Sometimes they are interesting extrapolations: What sound
does an Owl make? A: "ow! ow! ow!" Mind you, these are not
one-time examples, but have been repeated several times.
Despite correcting the responses, she says the same
thing the next day...
Karen favors the word "No" at the moment. She likes to use
it in sentences, as in: "I no like it". She actually doesn't
mean it most of the time. "I no like mommy" "I no like sisser [sister]"
etc. We know she doesn't mean it because she will alternate
usage of the word "no" in successive sentences. "I no like...
I like... I no like..." I think
she picks this stuff up at the nursery school where she
and Anna now attend (Applegate). Unlike the special school
(Greengate) where she attended for therapy, Applegate has
older kids and many more of them. She started 10 weeks ago.
I've notice her using phrases that only kids use: "Go away!"
and "I'm mad at you" a lot. I also heard her use the
"4-letter" "s" word. :-(
We still have occasional competitions
for attention: when Anna get's a "boo-boo" Karen will inject herself
between you and Anna saying something like "I have a boo-boo too."
They both volunteer information about each other. Such as: "Sisser
crying." (as if we couldn't tell!). Karen particularly has liked
ordering her sister. If we tell Anna not to touch the stove, say,
Karen will start chanting: "No touch. No TOUCH! Sisser no
touch stove!" Which may prompt Anna to say "Noooooooooo" and we
are off and running with another screaming, or perhaps giggle,
contest... (They don't make sense... they are toddlers!)
Karen still has plenty of cute things she does. Yesterday, she
named her favorite stuffed animal (a dog); she calls it
"Ruffy" -- an appropriate choice it seems. After breakfast, she
sometimes announces that "My going to my office now" imitating mom's
explanation of why dad is leaving. When pressed for details as
to where her office is located: "at Applegate".
They both have a huge vocabulary and Karen continues to amaze me with her ability to repeat words accurately. Sometimes she repeats phrases several minutes after hearing them, particularly if the words are new words. She has created sentences as long as 11 words! Granted, they are 1 & 2 syllable words, but that seems quite advanced for 2 1/2.
I know I keep saying this, but I do plan to post some pictures from the big vacation eventually. (soon!)
******************* 4 August updates *****************
Some thoughts on talking:
The girls like to sing. We have frequent serenades of
various hit tunes. See if you can guess these favorites:
"Ay bee see dee baby gee gee blah dah...(etc)"
"Hap-ee dirt day to me, hap-ee dirt day to ..."
"... roun-n-roun, ahhh-uhh tau!"
"Happy do-do, Happy do-do,.."
"Tinkle tinkle ittel tar..."
Then we have pronounciations. Karen often has spectacularly good elocution. However, she does refer to herself as "care-ah". Such as "kay care-ah, kay care-ah, kay care-ah" (when she sees the letter "K"). Anna tends to slur sounds. So she refers to herself as "nanna" sometimes.
Various other words:
"wah wah" -- water
"ay bee spider" -- small or "baby" spider
"uples" -- soap bubble maker
"nu book, nu book,..." -- let's look at one of the recently
acquired books
"sit dad-dee" -- I want to sit on daddy's lap
"lear-rum" -- I want to go to the living room
"uuppp!" -- pick me up and carry me. (Sharp eyed readers will
recall the 26 April update, below, and note that this is
now shortened from "daddie up"!)
"out sighed! out sighed" -- I want to go out side
"noooo" -- the initial response to any question!
"hippo in water" -- a hippo at the Sacramento zoo who would
surface only for air, making a noisy exhalation each time, made
a big impression on Karen
"cur" -- corn
Karen is very good at imitating adult speech. She can remember words to string together into 4-5 word sentences. For example, "sisser, no pull hair!" She can imitate the sounds of many words when asked to repeat them. She has trouble with "r" sounds, though does better than Anna.
New pictures!
A trip to the photo studio
(mid July, 1999)
First Steps (therapy) program
(November 1998 - July, 1999)
******************* 7 May updates *****************
Some news:
We had a 2 hour meeting with the staff of the Alta program: 'first steps'. Basically, they felt that Karen had made great progress, now met the minimum norms for her age group, and should be dropped from any further services. Unfortunately, the physical therapists from CTC could not be there to support their contrary views. Our concerns are basically that Karen's progress has been dramatic in the past month (really a marked improvement) and that we don't want to loose that by dropping her too soon. Further, Karen's history: stopped breathing, low heart rate, clinical diagnosis of cerebral palsy, argue against accepting her as 'cured' just because everyone's hard work has brought her into the bottom of the range for kids currently her age. Why should we expect her to keep tracking within the norm without any expert guidance?
The girls had their 2 year checkup earlier this week.
Basically, they both track in the 35-50% as far as weight
goes. (Gee, I wonder where they got the 'skinny' genes?
From dad??!) Karen was measured as just below the median
height while Anna was above the median height (70%) for
her age. (70 percent means that 70% of the children are
shorter. Ditto for 50% weigh less, etc.)
Karen weighs a full pound more than Anna: 25 lbs 10oz
vs 24 lbs 10oz. They are both about 33 1/2 inches tall.
Their current height projects them to be about 5'7" tall
when adults.
They did have nasal problems which would clog up at night causing them to wake up and cry for mommy. We tried several antibiotics, then switched to an allergy medicine. I am begining to think the problem is our dusty house. My own nasal passages clog each night except when I run a HEPA filtered portable air cleaner next to my bed. The dust builds up from our minimal cleaning efforts, to be sure. But the windows we have allow a lot of agricultural dust to enter the home, too. To the north are numerous large, tilled fields which generate a huge amount of dust....
******************* 26 April updates *****************
Some news:
A birthday party was held for the twins yesterday. About
2 dozen people attended. It went better than you might expect
for such an event. No major disasters. The main casualty was
a playball that went flat after a close encounter with
some rose bushes... The group
included 5 kids who were able to amuse themselves.
Anna and Karen opened a bunch of nice gifts. These included
some very nice plush animals (bunny, 2 doggies, bear, 2 dragons).
Her grandparents found some really neat drawing boards (with
an erasable screen and 'rubber stamps') to make pictures.
They got a pair of "teletubbies" videos which were put to
immediate use to occupy them whilst we prepared for the party.
They got several sets of clothes, along with special plates.
Karen got another stacking/puzzle toy made out of a dense
foam rubber product (which they love trying to bite off pieces!).
Also, several books, which are always a big 'hit' with both
girls. Speaking of 'hits' Anna got a pounding toy (oh great)
which was ok until she decided to hammer on the plaster walls, and then
on her sister; when scolded not to do that, Anna took up an olympic
event: the 'hammer throw'. (sigh)
Anna was thrilled by: all the active (older) kids, the freedom
to wander about the house and outside with little of the
usual restrictions. Karen was a bit overwhelmed.
Anna is picking up lots of words, though her pronounciation
still lags her sister. Try this test: what does "dah" mean and
how does it differ from "duh"? (Answer: one means: set me 'down'
while the other means: I am 'done'. Fortunately, we have a
hand gesture to indicate 'done!' which avoids some confusion.)
They both know many colors: blue, geen (green),
white, black, oilow (yellow), pink, ret (red). They like to make
sounds to imitate various animals (cow, dog, cat, sheep, pig...).
Anna was overheard last night saying: "Anna, daddie, mommie, sisser"
over and over. Karen has used multiword sentences; though many are
2 words: "daddie up" (pick me up), or "daddie shoe", some have been
4 words long. Karen will sing to herself as well: twinkle twinkle
(with hand 'wheel' gestures) is her current favorite. At their
twice-a-week nursery school she hears this and other songs at
every 'circle time'.
On a more serious note, today we have a meeting with
the people who decide if Karen can continue with her therapy.
There is not doubt it has improved her tremendously. We still
see items of concern; the social issues have become more
obvious in recent months. The physcial therapists support
continued therapy and recognize many of the same things we
note. However, we have to convince another panel, and they
seem less concerned.... so Karen (and therefore Anna) may
be kicked out of the special nursery school they now attend.
******************* 25 April updates *****************
Some news:
Some early words (list compiled sometime in 1999):
sock, shoe, doll, ball
daddy, momma, sit
cack-a (cracker)
eye, hi, bye,
sheep, blankie, egg
duck, truck, up
milk, mine
***************** "old stuff" ********************
That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by....
--------------ignore below------------- test junk below here -------------
********************* end of 27 August update *************
Here are some pictures of the girls taken at a local photo studio in November 1998:
-- Anna! Smile! (please?... sigh)
-- Anna! look at the doggie (camera)....please? ...
.
Lest we forget our starting point...
<-- Anna
<-- Karen
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