Hey all.

So the snow has come and gone.
The much prepared for baby shower for Brittany has come and gone.
Mike would say his paychecks have come and gone.... as well as his weekend.

BUT.

The snow was fun, and didn't prevent Caleb from getting to school.
The baby shower went off without a hitch and everyone LOVED the flowers and little details I had put effort towards.
The alternator in my car was gratefully replaced by Mike on Sunday and so far everything is looking like it's running perfect (including the service all wheel drive light NOT coming back on, crossing my fingers still on that one).

Joshy loves the bath time color crayons I picked up for him. He is the "drawer" of the family and there's nothing like combining two of a child's favorite activities.
Josh is also developing even more verbal skills.... lately, he says "I said NO!" and "stop that". Along with others. And today he initiated conversation with the oil change staff and said "I two". Then he clammed up because he got shy! He also said today, "I do my-self!" He has entered into the understanding of pronouns... ME, you, yourself, myself, him. Although I love it when he still refers to Caleb as "Brudder".

Caleb had made DRAMATIC improvements in his letter recognition, letter sound identification and even sounding out words and "READING"! I'm amazed. Daddy and I have both buckled down on him because we are determined to put him into Kindergarten as the same (or slightly advanced than) the other kids. No one wants to be the slow kid in school. Also, his MATH is coming along. He is counting bites of food at dinner and doing substraction etc. He is really impressing us. Which is really great because he was worrying me so much that I actually went and talked to his teacher about it. She of course said he was normal and just needed a little maturing.

So that is where we are today. Moving forward (and secretly i'm starting to miss a little of the baby-hood, where I could just sit and cuddle). But Joshy helps me with that. His way of showing affection is to come up and rub cheeks with me... and it means the world to me because that was my first contact with him when he was just minutes old... I was still lying on the table being stitched up and Daddy held him up to me and we rubbed cheeks. The thought of that connection with him brings tears to my eyes.

Ok, enough mushy stuff; BACK TO WORK, time to go make dinner.