Spring is in the Air!

Yes!  We have been outside EVERY day this week!  Just the cure I needed for my winter doldrums :)  Just when Chloe and I were starting to run circles around the living room, God told the sun to ShInE!  (That circle running would be literal.  She has learned to spin and loves for Mama and Daddy to spin with her.) Sitting in the sun, watching Chloe play outside is such a pleasure.  Autumn has gotten a taste of sunshine as well.  Hopefully, she will learn to love the outdoors at least half as much as Chloe.  My list of outdoor projects seems to have grown by leaps and bounds since last fall.  I want to finish the fence in the backyard (right now there are three sides, so we just need to close it in basically), dig a small fish pond, purchase a bird bath, build a sandbox, paint and pillow our outdoor furniture so it's comfy and inviting, and of course plant flowers and make the yard look lovely.  The grass received its first trimming of the season this week, which is amazing since it's only March, but it looks MUCH better, mostly because we got up lots of the leftover leaves.

 Autumn started eating cereal this week.  We didn't start cereal with Chloe until 6 months, but we have had a little trouble getting Autumn to sleep all night long.  I don't know that cereal is the solution, but it's worth a shot :)  We had a couple of rough, gassy nights, but she seems to have adjusted and last night slept very well.  Today when I fed her cereal she actually seemed to enjoy it and I didn't feel so much like I was shoving it down her throat. 

 

Autumn's personality is starting to show.  She has started squealing (a really high-pitched attention getter that I am not sure I am a fan of), reaching out for objects and my face, and playing with toys.  She usually greets me with a dimply smile as well.

She gets pretty fussy about 7 PM, I suppose because she's tired and hungry.  However, we have discovered that she LOVES being disrobed!  If we take her clothes off, she'll be pretty happy for 20 min or so just laying on the bed playing with her toes and her fingers. (In this picture, she's enthralled by the NCAA basketball tournament.)

After her "naked time" comes a bath.  Sometimes we give the girls a bath together, but this presents special difficulties right now since Autumn is not truly sitting up alone yet.  Chloe tries to help, but...you know!

This morning we all looked pretty spiffy!   First day of spring, we were all pretty excited to wear some bright, happy clothes. 

Finally, in family news, my Pop has been moved to a nursing home/rehab facility.  He is making progress, slowly, but progress.  My cousin, Lily, with Trisomy 18, has reached the 9 lb mark and is doing pretty well currently.  Just waiting on the time to come to have heart surgery.

Happy Spring!