I do apologize for the late post; our Internet has been wonky the past couple days.
- Aria is suddenly talking incessantly, with new words all the time, and many full sentences. She’s an expressive little thing with her nonverbals, as well. She likes to fold wash clothes and put silverware away (at the same rate at which a glacier melts). She knows just where everything in the house belongs, and likes to put things away. I was extremely proud of her the other day when she saw Noah put something from the floor in his mouth, and she told me about it. She was trying to help, not tattle, and she chose to do it by telling me, rather than trying to fix the situation herself. Huzzah! I hope that instinct sticks. This week she sang her first actual song phrase, as well. She’s done some mimicking and written some original compositions with nonsense words, but this week she was asking for a “Jesus song”, and in her attempt at clarity regarding her wishes she sang the phrase “Jesus loves me” to me. The notes were entirely wrong, but who cares about that? I was SO excited. She’s done it several times since then.
- Noah turned nine months old on Wednesday. His favorite activity is to stand, and his favorite food is paper/cardboard (second favorite – everything he’s tried). Wednesday evening he ate cat puke. Yep. We took our eyes off him for a minute, and he found a fresh pile of vomit. He was delighted. Seriously. So that was gross. Other than paper and cat puke, I’m pretty sure everything he’s eaten has been actual food. (That’s one of those things I never thought I’d say.) Anyhoo, he had his nine month checkup today, and he’s doing great. He weighed in at 21 pounds, 11 ounces (80th percentile) and 30 1/2 inches tall (99th percentile). His head circumference is in the 95th percentile. We are a big-headed people. <insert jokes here>
- I caught Andy’s sickness from last week, and spent the first two days of this week in bed. That’s a huge bummer on all fronts, but especially because those are the days I get to see my church and work families each week, and I missed both. Honestly, I started out the week pretty frustrated and discouraged. Between busyness and illness, I had fallen behind on routine maintenance around the house, and we were in one of those states it seems impossible to recover from. In fact, at one point I suggested to Andy that we might just blow the place up and start over. (I’m given to extremes.) I don’t like that feeling ever, but when you start the week that way, and you’re sitting around the house looking at it but feeling too poorly to do anything about it, and you know you’re getting behind on everything else, as well (like the work that pays you)…well…ugh…
- But guess what! Spring has finally come to Indiana, and it’s amazing what bright sunshine and the promise of warmth and new life can do for a person! The latter part of the week has been wonderfully productive. I’ve been a whirlwind of activity, and I am mostly caught up on everything at this point. We’ve even been on a few walks. I feel like a new person. One with clean counters/floors and all her laundry put away.
- The kids and I went to visit Cassie and her kids for a couple hours this afternoon. It is beautiful outside, so we spent most of our time there. We took a walk to a park in their neighborhood. It was Aria’s first time on playground equipment, and she had a blast. She loved the swing (I put her on the low-hung big kid swing, and she is nearly too tall for it). She also enjoyed the slide. She followed Claire right up the full-size slide, then wasn’t so sure about going back down. She did it with my help to sit down, and by the time we left she was a pro(ish). She has a technique to slow her trip down, which is pretty hilarious to watch. She’s quite enthused about the slide, even though she clearly doesn’t trust it. (I apologize for being the worst photographer for this post. Doesn’t Claire look lovely, though?)