Home life - by Kevin

The last 2 weeks have seen change around here, both for our kids and our house. You know how distant relatives used to say, “Wow, you’re growing up so fast”, well we find ourselves saying the same thing about our kids. Weekly we can reflect and see how much they’ve changed.

Grace is now regularly including “pleases”, ”thank yous”, and “your welcomes” in her sentences, which finally brings her into the 3 word category. Her vocabulary is also really expanding – she knows a lot of words we didn’t know she knew! She’s learning words all over the place and can even count to 6 in Spanish, thanks to Dora. Of course, she has no clue that she’s talking in Spanish but she knows she’s counting. Her vocab expansion is a nice change, though, she’s still happy using the word “this” while pointing to show us what she wants. It’s obviously still easier for her to return to familiar words that have previously worked for her.

Grace is also off bottled milk. It was time for this to happen because she didn’t object to receiving milk in a cup. Since the actual bottle still holds a dear place in her heart, especially at bedtime or when she hurts herself, so we give her bottled water. When she hurts herself she’ll ask for her bottle and run to the couch where she’ll bury her hand under a cushion. She’ll remain here for around 10 minutes until she’s recovered fully (or until she forgot about the accident), then she’ll toss the bottle. She hasn’t asked for bottled milk in 2 weeks!

Braden is also getting quite pudgy. Anyone meeting him might assume his dad was a 300lb football gorilla because of his size. But when you’re on the 97th percentile for weight and soon won’t be able to see past your cheeks when you smile, you can’t be miserable. He’s now 6.5 months chonologically (5 months corrected) and he is sitting up on his own, reaching for objects and sticking them in his mouth. Grace really pays him a lot of attention. When he cries she’ll go get him a toy, his toy. She knows exactly which ones are hers and which are his. If he continues to cry she will quickly notify us that he’s hungry. I’ve concluded that Grace will be babysitting for us as soon as he’s on pablum. She can obviously problem solve quite well.



On a different note, our yard has really taken shape this spring. Of course last year’s focus was renovating the inside of the plex. This year our plan is to landscape the yard. The previous owners really neglected the property and they positioned some of the plants quite poorly. Essentially, we’ve pulled some trees and shrubs and put down topsoil. In fact over the last 2 weeks we’ve dumped 3 yards of topsoil (around 2500lbs) around our yard, and we’ll soon be getting another yard for Shirley’s new garden. More gravel has also been put down in the parking area. Grace (and to a lesser extent, Braden) has really enjoyed playing outside during this time. The weather is pleasant and Grace is getting her shovel and helping move dirt. She enjoys the wheelbarrow rides the most, which really slows down productivity, but she just can’t stop climbing into it.


Braden's wagon is pretty popular for Grace right now... wait till she finds out its his.

She’s also discovered the river behind our place. Last week Grace was playing in the backyard as I was unloading some soil and she points to the river and said, “there, hand”, which means “let’s go over there, right now. Come with me.” Not knowing what she wanted, she grabbed my hand and led me to the noise of the river. Soon, we were at the water’s edge throwing rocks. Now anytime we go outside she asks, “throw rocks”, or “throw big rocks” with a “please” thrown in.




Here's a picture of Grace chasing Bob. He is just ahead of her to her left.

Anyhow, our yard is looking good – probably about 60% done. The last phase of our landscaping plan involves removing the eyesore in our backyard that we call a shed. Perhaps later this spring or summer we’ll replace it. For now we’re just enjoying the outdoors now that the temperature is milder. Gotta go to bed.

Kevin