Long Time, No Post

We'd like to apologize, loyal readers, for such a long hiatus between posts.  We have a pretty good reason for falling a bit behind:  she weighs about 25 pounds and is super cute... but she's EVERYWHERE.  All of our Baby Chasing has left us too busy and too tired for blogging.

But, we thought it was about time for a little update and some pictures.

An update on Annie:


She is walking with confidence now, eaily scooting up and down stairs, and getting into everything.  We have to keep our eyes on her at all times and do our best to be one step behind her every minute, lest she eat wood chips, fall off the stool in the bathroom, trip while running and land on her face,etc.  She is a handful.  But she is also very smiley and very happy.  She wakes up happy and stays happy all day, unless she's hungry or tired.  It also seems that she can understand what we say most of the time, and she's starting to communicate with us.  She says her version of lots of people's names, makes a variety of animal noises, and does lots of pointing and hooting.

She really likes:  pretending to be a monkey (which she thinks is funny), making you smell her stinky feet (hilarious), and being chased and ticked (hysterical best fun ever).  Other favorites include playing outside, eating spaghetti (best food ever), and carrying footed pajamas all over the house.








An update on Mark:

Mark continues to have a lot to say (of course).  Current interests include the states, presidents, space, and music.  He tells us he wants to learn to play piano, and he spends lots writing musical notes on pieces of paper and telling us he's writing a symphony like Beethoven's 5th.  He's making steady progress in reading, and his ability to figure out the answers to math problems continues to amaze us (mostly because we wonder where the math thing comes from).

He still enjoys having long, in depth coversations more than anything else, and we are starting to be thankful that we now have the internet on our phones.  Over lunch recently, we had to figure out which oceans had the warmest temperature (the Indian Ocean), then rank the oceans by temperature.  We then had a conversation about Mohandas Gandhi, who Lynne's "big kids" were learning about in school.  Mark wanted to know how he was similar to Martin Luther King, if he lived before/after Dr. King, if he was assassinated, why he was assassinated, and if he could see pictures of both Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

Mark is also playing soccer this spring, which he's super excited about.  And he's also starting to look out for and truly enjoy playing with his little sister, which warms our hearts.

An update on Lynne and Matt:

We are still working at NCHS and the East Aurora school district, respectively, and looking forward to the end of the school year.  We still are crazy about--and exhausted by--our kids.  And we're strating to feel settled in our new house.  We still haven't unpacked all the moving boxes and our garage is a mess, but we've done some painting, hung some of our pictures on the wall, and begun to make the house our own.  We are very happy.