What a week. I had some work to do, editing/writing stuff, with a crazy deadline. Everything else came to a full stop. Including writing about the kids. And so much has happened in the past week. Carter is at mock speed with the crawling, he has 2 teeth, he holds his hand up in a wave/pointing gesture and says zhhsh zhhsh, like ‘this this’ – he is definitely gesturing at things that he wants. He clearly says mama when sad or needy, and is pulling up and cruising ever so tentatively. He has had his share of bumps, but is remarkably resilient.

Ava is growing up so fast. We went on a walk at the VIC (Visitor Interpretive Center) today and had a ball—she thought everything was neat. It is basically a nature center with a slew of trails, and the one I took goes through several ecosystems – forest, marsh, etc., and she was very interested in the moss and the rocks. And running. Oh, and lily pads. It was nice, because we have scaled back a lot of our other activities, because she has been a bit clingy. We went to the mommy and me tumbling class instead of the teacher and me tumbling class because she was so uninterested in taking part if I was not going to do it too.

She eats like a horse. The other morning she had 3 fried eggs. Unbelievable. She has to be coached, but she can put it away. 2 of them were meant for her father!

She is swimming SO WELL. Almost has the doggy paddle down pat. In fact, she is so excited to swim, she went in at the fish creek beach the other day. All the way in. I took off her shoes and socks, and rolled up her pants so that she could dip her feet in, and she did, and then her knees, and then her hands and knees, and pretty soon she was belly flopping in. I cannot overstate the how cold the water is. It might be 50 degrees. Fortunately it was 80 in the sun, so she was ok. She also is really good on her tricycle. Cute as can be. And we went to a birthday party where the favors were bike bells, so now she is all ring a ding ding.

Oh, and Carter laughs and laughs in the funniest way. Hee hee hee—it is impossible to write it down, but it is an inhaled hee hee hee. So hysterical.