Been very busy, but nothing has happened, if that makes sense. Trying to play catch-up at work and keep on top of things. Grades were due last Tuesday so I had a lot of that to take care of. Planning & implementing the 1930s unit which I dislike. It's like marking time until WWII. Have been part of a textbook-choosing group for 8th grade. We've narrowed the choices to two. I ran off some pages for my 7th graders to get their opinion and they clearly preferred one over the other - the one I liked better too. Final decision to be made Wednesday morning.

Swimming is coming along. Two meets this week, then the League meet on the 27th and we're done. It's a whole lot of work, so will have to really plan ahead next year. It's worth the pay though! The world has heaved sideways though - East beat Central, yet Discovery beat Pioneer. And Central beat Discovery. And we beat Pioneer, but East beat us. So we should beat Discovery, but apparently Central is not as tough as we thought - and East has surprised us. If that makes any sense to any of you. So League meet should be interesting because we score the top 18 places. So it's all very strategic, something I'm not real good at.

Taxes have been done and we're getting $$ back - yay! Now the little boring things can be taken care of - brakes for the popup, new tires for my car, etc.

In the last 3 weeks we have been to the zoo twice and this weekend bought a sandbox. Roman is not sure about it - he doesn't like it on his hands. He loves using the shovel and pail, though. Our boy is SO fantastic. I really wish we could have started at this age, but I also realize partly why he's such a joy is because we have raised him right. He also is at a great age. He plays by himself really well now, and he knows enough words that communication is very easy. He likes to be with both of us equally now, which is a relief too! Here are the very common things we hear now:

"Mama, sit. Daddy, sit." As he points to a spot or pats the seat next to him.
"'side? creeze?" Wanting outside. Please.
"Roman park." Obvious.
"Shoes? Coat. Car. Coat." Wanting to go to daycare or the store.
"I sorry! I sorry." Usually to the cat, after he's hit or chased Merry.
"Watch. Choo-choo watch?" Thomas the Train video.
"See Bop? See Paul? See Papa?" His 3 favorite men, after Daddy.
"'stairs? Watch?" Go downstairs to watch a video.
"Play. Play." Duh.

He also says ola now, and spontaneously starts singing parts of songs. He is enraptured with animals. Recently the hippo, but talks about monkeys and puppies a lot too. We're just loving this age!