Weird pictures from the breakfast table

Must have been something in the food. Notice Gavin's two little teeth.

It's been fun to watch Gavin learn and grow at an ever increasing pace. He crawls all over and pulls himself up on things. Then he'll reach up and start pulling things off until he finds something of interest, which usually goes in his mouth. His favorite place is under the table, where he looks for Cheerios and other food that has fallen onto the ground...and eats them. We try to keep it clean, but there's no stopping him and he usually finds something. We pull him from under the table and offer him food, but he's not interested until he finds the exact same thing under the table.

Teething has been an ongoing trial for little Gavin. It seems like it takes forever for teeth to come in and he' sin just enough discomfort to make his sleep fitful, with lots of waking up during the night.

As the weather is starting to perk up, Gavin has discovered the joy of being outside. In fact, 'out' is his third word (dada and mama were his first two). He uses it to express his desire to get out of his car seat as well as his desire to be outside. Out was also one of Sahara's first words.

You've got to feel a little sorry for northwest kids. A while back the winter gloom broke and we had a sunny day. We walked out of the house and Sahara winced in pain and said, "My eyes! It's hurting my eyes." The 'it' was the sun, something she hadn't seen in long enough to have forgotten that it was actually a burning orb in the sky, not simply a filtered light from the clouds.

Sahara is growing up fast too. She's nearly done with her year-long toddler group and getting excited for her co-op preschool in the fall. We've also got soccer and some other fun activities lined up for her this Summer. Weekdays are often filled with activities aimed at Sahara. Gavi is along for the ride right now, but doesn't seem to mind.

Now that she's completely potty trained, Sahara seems like a little girl instead of a toddler. It's strange to look at her baby pictures any more. An early talker, Sahara has graduated to clever articulation. She questions things: "are you sure about that?" At night she asks me to tell her stories (that I make up and which involve her and people she knows as a main character). My favorite is when I say goodnight an tell her I love her, and she responds, "I love you too."

Sahara's best friend is Anna, and she'll tell you so. She also favors her cousin Grace and a few of the older kids at church and her school. Not sure why, but she really enjoys playing with kids who are a little older than she is. Sahara is a little reserved around people she doesn't know, or doesn't know well. It also takes her a while to get going in large group settings.