Almost Spring

Well, that was a quick 6 months. Winter came and went. We had several good storms, so we were able to get some sledding in. Not sure who had more fun with that; Little M or me. I'm a sledding nut. But she definitely had some fun and was a real trooper, even when her dad sent her sailing into a drainage ditch. She got to experience even more "real winter" when we went to see family at Christmas time. I think she'd be perfectly happy to live in a snow state. Me, too!

Now we're gearing up for Spring, and a few months of nice temperatures and good thunderstorms. Hopefully no tornadoes. The grass is starting to green up and a few early leaves are coming out. M has been talking about the trees making more leaves and seems pretty excited about the whole process. My budding little horticulturist! We're enjoying getting out more and taking the dogs for walks, packing a lunch and eating out on the trail. It's so great to be able to spend time at the playground again!

Pretending to be cartoon characters is a favorite pasttime these days, and we're all required to join in. Usually M wants to be Diago, I get to be Dora, and her daddy gets to be Boots the monkey. Another regular is the cast of Little Einsteins, with her being June (which usually requires a skirt so she can dance). Pretty much any time we put her in a dress or skirt, she says she's June.

Vocabulary is getting pretty entertaining. She uses absolutely and actually in her sentences now, which is fun. She also likes awesome. Whatever is one word we're trying to discourage her from, usually preceded by a large sigh and followed by eye rolling or a similarly disgusted expression. The girl can really give a look these days! I don't know where she gets that attitude from...

It seems we can teach her just about anything if we make it into a song. Pretty cool. She can spell her full name (even middle), and is working on days of the week, now that we've started singing the Happy Days theme. She's also counting to 10 in English, Spanish, German, French, and Japanese. We met a little Russian girl last week, so maybe we'll pick that one up next. She likes it, so we're going with it. Now if we can just figure out the trick to getting her potty trained. She does well at school, but fights using the potty at home for some reason.