Hah!

Usually this time of year my sister, Sarah - who lives in Iowa, and I have a conversation that goes something like this:

"Mom called me today and just happened to mention that the crocuses are blooming. It is 20 degrees here."

"Yep, I was on the phone with Becky today and she was getting hot sitting on the deck in the sun. We have 6 inches of snow on the ground still."

Becky and our parents still live in Colorado.

Well, this picture is for those of you who usually experience spring several weeks ahead of us in the upper Midwest (and who got snow while we had a 60 degree day yesterday).

Yes! My tulips are coming up already and they are even about 3 inches tall. I just discovered them tonight when the Schwan's man stopped by. It is very exciting.

We do still have some piles of snow, but those will be gone this week.

So, Anders is 18 months old as of March 4th. We went to his 18 month appointment and his doctor was pleased with him. He was back down to slightly above 20 pounds, but he had been sick for a couple of days and hadn't eaten, so she figured that was the issue. He had a bit of a belly ache last week, complete with messy morning diapers and throwing up a few times right after breakfast, so we kept him home Wednesday and Thursday.

Here is what happened with his play dough on Thursday. This happened while he was in the seat.

He also did a little reading.

On Sunday we enjoyed some tea and milk in our mugs after breakfast. That lump on the table is what is left of the banana he ate. He lately has been interested in eating bananas out of the peel rather than sliced up.

So, as I said, we had a wonderful, warm, sunny day on Sunday. We spent a bunch of the afternoon out in the backyard. Anders is trading in his shovel for a broom.

I had forgotten how dirty Anders gets when he plays outside, so that combined with being sick this week led to lots of baths. Last night he didn't want to get dressed, but instead wanted to watch his dad make spaghetti (which he called getti).

Finally, this is one of his new things. We give him a napkin and he puts it in his lap. It is very hilarious. He did it for the first time last week and had to remove his bib in order to get the napkin just right.

Another thing he just started doing is when the 3 of us are standing close together saying goodnight or goodbye he pushes Will's and my heads towards each other so we kiss. It is very funny! New words include: owl (which he correctly identified in one of my bird books), goose, turkey, chapstick, dirty, back, and truck. Also on the way to Montessori every morning we see about 8 buses, which means I hear "baa!" about every 5 minutes.