Just Playin'

We've been sick in the Marshall household this past week. Someone brought a cold into our house and I'd like to know who! But anyway, we're all getting better and hopefully we'll all be recharged soon.

Lately, Jack has been counting everything he sees (and sometimes things in his head) and can count to ten. He just discovered, though, that there are numbers past ten. So if we ever start counting to ten, he wants us to keep going until we get to twenty. His world for eleven is "mee-ya-mee," which just sounds funny, so we laugh every time he counts now. Sometimes he'll skip numbers just to say it. He'll say, "One, two, three, four, mee-ya-mee, fourteen, yay!" Silly boy.

We were recently given a wonderful gift from a co-worker of Sander's- a lawn mower! Our lawn was looking quite "white trash" as far as the neighborhood goes. Our neighbors were probably hoping this was not going to be our typical yard-care behavior.

Dad took Jack for a ride down the street. Jack thinks the "tractor" is loud, but he did just fine riding it. He's still not a big fan of loud noises, which does include Callie's crying!

Today we played downstairs, as we do most days, since it keeps Jack occupied better than upstairs. We're trying to set up a little play area for Jack and Callie so they can have all their toys in one place and they won't be all over the house!

Of course, Jack often finds his way over to the "entertainment" area of the basement. Our local PBS station helps keep Jack occupied when his toys won't and Mom needs to feed Callie! He's developed a love for a show on PBS called "Super Why," which is about 4 storybook characters who learn about letters and spelling. It may not be the most qualified babysitter, but at least it's educational!

And here is Jack's new magnetic whiteboard we have yet to hang in the play area. This is to further his knowledge of spelling that he'll learn from watching Super Why... Or we could just help him learn without the TV!

Jack discovered his old infant play mat that he used to love. He helped Callie learn the ropes.

This is about as much playing as she can do at this point. She's also a little bit sick this week, so that doesn't help her desire to explore the toy. She did enjoy the bright colors and liked to watch Jack run around her.

She decided to take a little rest from playing and chew on her hand for a little while. Speaking of resting- Callie is great at it! She has been sleeping all night for 2 weeks! Her first month, we were worried she was going to be just like Jack, who didn't sleep through the night until he was 11 months old! But Callie got to 4 hours at night, then 5, then 7, and now she's consistently sleeping between 7 and 9 hours every night. In fact, last night she slept for 10 1/2 hours! Hopefully that is okay for her to do at such a young age!

She's trying to lift her head, but it's just so hard! She needs to do at least 20 reps a day to get those neck muscles nice and strong!

Jack said, "This isn't as much fun as I remember. I don't know what I ever saw in it..."