May 2008

Well Blake figured out that he can walk. He came to this realization at the beginning of the month and within a couple of weeks he had pretty much stopped crawling.

This is definitely a good thing for Becky and I because we couldn't let him crawl in a lot of places where it is fine for him to walk (e.g. sidewalks, the garage, in the grass when it is wet). It is encouraging to think that our lives became just a tiny bit easier.

Kyla is really interested in letters and their sounds. One of her favorite games now is taking her toy letters and trying to make words with them. I've had to explain that you can't just throw a few together randomly and make a word. Occasionally when she says a word, she'll enunciate the individual sounds (e.g. "fff-ee-tuh" for feet). She does all of this on her own initiative; Becky and I are being careful not to pressure her to learn to read so that the process still seems fun.

Kyla's preschool class had a musical performance called Song Fest. They sang some cute songs about counting, the continents of the world, the five senses, and even one that was in an Indian language.

For my birthday Cassie came over for dinner and Becky made Indian food (which I love) for all of us. For Mother's Day I kept the kids busy playing and going out for dinner while Becky went running (she's training for a marathon) and took some much deserved time to relax.

Ruby, Linda, Becky, and Kyla all took a trip to Tillicum Village together, making it a four generation event. They had a good time riding on the boat, eating a salmon feast, and watching the Native American dancing. Surprisingly, Kyla seemed to remember the place from her last visit a year ago.

At the end of the month Becky took the kids to the Oregon coast near Seaside with Linda from Memorial Day through the following weekend. I stayed behind during the week to work, watch movies really loudly, and go to my mother's Teacher of the Year party in Ellensburg. I joined them on Friday and we played along the beach and did a little sight seeing. The favorable adult to kid ratio allowed us all to sleep fairly well, though Blake had a cold that didn't help.

Spring has been pretty chilly so far so I'm hoping the summer will finally bring the sun out.