Is there something in the water?

Friends

Spring is here, and we have a fresh new crop of injection-molded plastic sprouting in the back yard. This picture was not staged, it usually looks even more chaotic.

The play structure is new and both kids really like it. Daniel can climb up the side walls like a rock climber, while Rachel can figure out the steps when she wants to. When she doesn't want to - well, she just loves the slide, so you can be her best friend by lifting her up, letting her slide down and repeat the process until your arms fall off. For Daniel, the house alternates between being a firetruck, a pirate ship and a mouse house.

The "Cozy Coupes" are another big hit, and there obviously had to be two of them to avoid conflict. Both Daniel and Rachel love driving around on the deck and the driveway.

With the warm spring weather, we've been spending a lot of time outside in the back yard.

Rachel's list of words and instructions that she understands grows every day - a complete list isn't really possible anymore. We've started to watch more carefully for verbal sounds, and have discovered that she's making more sounds than we previously thought - it's probably just hard to get a word in edgewise with little-mr-talkative in the house.

Daniel goes to swim lessons every Sunday, and is making nice progress there. Through pure luck with the scheduling, he's actually getting private lessons. He has no fear of water whatsoever. He can *almost* float on his back on his own, and when holding a floating bar can kick himself from one side of the pool to the other.

Someone is quite aware that he's almost three years old. He's also had a recent growth spurt that has pushed him to 29lbs and the 25th percentile for weight, which is a huge jump in a short amount of time. Rachel, who wants nothing more than to be like Daniel right now, is trying to catch up and is at 24lbs.

And that's it for now. We'll be back with an update after the party. Hope that everyone is doing well.

Love, D.A.R.E