Uh, we’re all getting sick again. It’s been an endless string of colds through the house this winter, with maybe 2-3 weeks in between. Mostly just the same congestion, body aches, drippy head, etc. etc. as always, except for the nasty sinus infection and earache that Autumn had last month. Needless to say, we’re all anxiously awaiting spring.
In non-sick news, Fiona continues her seemingly exponential growth in vocabulary, talking all the time now. She loves to read books to herself and join in on our conversations, making more and more sense all the time. She has also been very busy dressing herself and playing dress-up with her big sister now that she can get most clothes on by herself. Ella is very good at helping too, only occasionally going too far for Fiona’s taste. Fiona is also becoming quite a counter, wanting to count everything. Reading books, she’ll stop to count whatever’s on the page, and now can get up to 4 on her own. Just a couple of weeks ago, she’d count things by pointing to them and saying, “eight, nine, eight, nine, eight, nine, eight, nine!”
Ella has continued to improve in her reading, and seems to be having a lot of fun with it. Just tonight i had been getting some bedtime things ready, and found Ella sitting at her little table already most of the way through reading Dr. Suess’ ABCs to herself. She’s excited that Fiona is counting, and now wants to start teaching her little sister the ABCs too. They’re having a lot of good play time together now, and it’s amazing to watch them have conversations about this and that.
Autumn did her first triathlon of the year, the indoor Tri-U-Mah race, and did really well. Her swim has been fast this year, but the bike leg has evolved to be her strongest, partly due to the time and miles she’s put in on the basement trainer. Despite the periodic head cold delays, she was able to finish the race 3rd in her age group, and 8th overall for the women. That’s a fantastic job, and a great way to start her race year.
I’ve been helping out a guy in Minneapolis get a web site set up for his new bike shop, Hiawatha Cyclery. I didn’t do the logo (which i like), but designed the website layout and got everything set up. The store blog is online now, and the online catalog should be live in a week or two.
