Is it Spring yet???

On some subconsious level, I think they were having spring fever on this day. They got the sunglasses from Dale and Ellen as a Valentine's Day present, and they found their hats in a pile of clothes I was going through. They wore them all day long. It's as if they were saying "bring on the warm, sunny days". And, I agree. It's been far too long and cold of a winter. Where is spring?!?!? Do you see how wet Will's shirt is? That's drool. The poor kid has been a fountain the last week. It's because his nose is stuffy, so he can't breathe through it. He leaves his mouth open all day long to breathe and then he drools a ton. We've had to change his shirt a lot, just like we did when he was a baby. I'd give him a bib if I thought he would keep it on.

In other news, I spoke too soon last week when I said no one else had pink eye. They all three have had it (Grace for a second time). However, it was a week and a day after Grace got it the first time that Will came down with it on Saturday. My theory is that it came from the museum again. We played in the same places on Thursday we had the week before. Needless to say, we will NOT be playing there Thursday. So, luckily the drops from Grace's prescription have lasted to get all three of them over it. And, I went nuts again on Sunday and Monday, sanitizing, spraying, washing and cleaning everything that I could. Unfortunately, Brian also got pink eye on top of whatever illness he currently has (he thinks it's the flu). I, thankfully, have not gotten pink eye. But, we have not gone anywhere or done anything much this week. No church, library or anything else. Their colds/coughs/runny noses on top of the pink eye make them look and sound terrible. There is green stuff everywhere on their faces! The coughs sound horrible, I've been doing 3 nebulizers every 4 hours, plus 1 for Will at morning and night of his Pulmicort. That poor nebulizer machine is overworked, maybe we should invest in another one!

When they are not grumpy from being sick, they are learning everything at a fast pace. What little sponges! Will now knows about 10 letters, while Grace knows about half the alphabet. Xander is still learning the letters, but counts to ten accurately by himself. Both boys are better at their colors, which is good. And, they seem to learn or say something new everyday. The lastest things are opposites. On/off, up/down, hot/cold, in/out, open/shut are all interesting to them. They love to turn lights on and off whenever they get the change and the garage door going up and down is fascinating. Another language development is that they will answer questions with free recall. Last night, Brian came home from work and I said "Tell daddy where we went after nap." Grace said "store". (We had gone to Target.) Then I said "Tell daddy what you ate for dinner." Xander said "peas" and Will said "chicky" which they had both of. We also do this when we're leaving the store, I'll ask them what we bought and they'll respond pretty accurately if they know the answers. It's also neat to ask them something like "What did you play with at the museum" and they'll tell us. Two to three word sentences are the norm now, and I even got a four word sentence out of Xander the other day "daddy car all gone". It was neat to hear an actual sentence!

They are also coming into the "spontaneous song" period of development. This is where the child will make up words using notes and some rhythm patterns, but do it spontaneously. I've noticed Xander singing about his "ucky diaper" or Grace singing about her baby. They just do it in a sing songy kind of way and it's usually about something they see or are currently doing. I've also caught phrases of actual songs they know that they try to sing, which will happen more and more often now as their language increases. Just fun little stuff for me to watch develop in them, and it makes me glad that I actually learned something useful in all those years of college! Stay warm everyone in Nebraska, it's cold here!