Tickles, summer signs and Superman

Roman isn't much of a snuggler - he's more of a bouncer and give-your-arms-a-workout-er - and I was disappointed the other day to find out that he's not really that ticklish. When you tickle him in the usual spots, he kind of just looks at you like you're strange. Yesterday, however, Anika and I were able to make him laugh a teeny bit while tickling his tummy, altho I think the laughs came more from our reactions than anything else:

Also in the growing-up-gangbusters news, Anika is officially a 4-K graduate. She wanted to make her own sign for the photo op:

Despite having been in two different schools, she managed to make some great buddies, have fun, and learn things like counting (up to 140s now) and reading and writing. She still writes a lot of things backwards, but I love how she spells things out on her own (she came running up to me a few weeks ago, paper in hand, and showed me the picture she'd drawn of "a sheep named Isabella." Spelled "Isubelu," backwards. Also seen recently: "hape" for happy, "Sera" for Sarah, "zoow" for zoo). She is always making signs and labels for things, and she still loves dressing up and doing her hair. I found a notebook in her room today where she'd written, on separate lines, Daddy, Moma, Cloz, Anika, and then on the following pages had drawn pictures of us all wearing different clothing.

The library has a superhero theme for this summer's reading program, and Reni is beside himself with excitement. He ran around looking at all of the decorations and we brought back a huge pile of superhero books. When confronted with a life-sized cardboard cut-out of Christopher Reeves, however, Reni was perplexed. "I don't know why Superman always wears his underwear on top of his pants," he said. "That's ridiculous."