Words

We are delighting in Winston's word acquisition skills. Just last week, as he was pulling his morning yogurt out of the refrigerator, he reached back in, looked up at Dave and said, "another?" How does a child learn that concept? With Winston, we're not surprised to find it linked to a) food (he's got a healthy appetite) and b) yogurt (by far his favorite food).

The mild winter weather continues here in DC, and we are taking full advantage. On Saturday, we visited Roosevelt Island, which is in the middle of the Potomac just outside of DC. The trail is about 1.5 miles and spring is already beginning to emerge with new green shoots from the ground and on the trees. Winston delighted in all the sticks on the ground (nothing more exciting than picking up a stick, counting to 5, and throwing it back into the trees). Dave's query: "what separates our son from a golden retriever at this stage?"

The photo above makes me laugh. Winston saw the statue from afar and shouted, "MAN!" as he ran toward it. He then spent 5 minutes looking up at Teddy Roosevelt calling out all the body parts and clothing. Foot, shoe, knee, leg, pants, stomach, arm, hand, fingers, shirt, coat, neck, mouth nose, eyes, ears, hair, head. Visiting national monuments and historical places certainly takes on a different perspective with a 19 month old.

On Sunday, Kate Moore, Michael Smith and Lamour Rogers joined us for dinner. It was great to entertain in the new house and wonderful to reconnect with dear friends. Winston loved the attention and particularly took to Kate (she brought him a scuba man that swims in water..."man kick, man kick, man kick" has been heard shouted--exuberantly--throughout the house ever sense).

On Monday, Winston and I found a wild bird store and bought bird feeders for our back yard. We have a huge bank of windows in the living room that oversee tall trees and shrubs in the back yard. Perfect for observing birds, squirrels and other wildlife from the comfort of the couch! Sadly, the only visitor yesterday was a curious squirrel, who was foiled by the "no squirrel" design of the bird feeder. We're hoping a few curious birds make their way to our yard and discover the bounty of yummy seeds.

We ended the long weekend by taking our little golden retriever out to the park on Monday afternoon to let him run around and burn off energy. Hence the photo below.