Cathy, Erik, Anders, Halle and Evan: AAA: All About Anders

Anders has participated in two Easter egg hunts this week and truly could care less about finding eggs. He'd much rather run around or play in the sandbox at school, giving me a look like "why am I picking up plastic eggs from under bushes?" Can't you pick them up, mom? He didn't mind so much once he realized they had candy in them. At the Furman egg hunt, he even got his face painted, sitting still for a full five minutes. That was for sure a record. Here he is proudly displaying his bunny.

Speaking of bunnies, he couldn't get enough of the life-size person bunny and decided he didn't want to share him with anyone. I had to pry him out of the bunny's arms at least four times during the event so that other kids could have their turn. We thought he would be afraid but not at all. He just kept running towards him with open arms.

He pointed out the bunny's eyes, nose and mouth.

More Bunny please!!! Mom, can we get one at home?

Anders has had a bit of a verbal explosion recently. And, in general, he's been acting more and more like a little boy. Several people, not seeing him for a couple of days, commented on how much he had changed. He's understanding nearly everything we say to him, and he tries to repeat a lot of words. He's said Halle, baby, brush, box, fox, pizza, etc. etc. Several fun things that have happened:

he pointed out the moon to me in the sky one afternoon
he ran up to the fire hydrant and said "agua" and I said, "yes, for fires," and he said "hot."
whenever he points to the stove he says "hot."
Halle was crying in another room and he was very concerned. He said "baby... paci" and wouldn't do anything else until I took her a paci.
His two favorite words are Spanish words - he says "mas" (meaning more) for everything... mas cereal, mas yogurt, mas cars, when we see an airplane and it flies away he says mas, when we see a bicycle pass by he says mas. His second favorite word is "pan" (bread). He says it with great exhuberance... PAN! There's an exclamation mark at the end of every mention of PAN!
He loves to say "I See You." We started saying this when he was hiding and when we'd find him but now he just bursts out occasionally with "I See You!"
He's been saying Uh-oh for a while but has recently been experimenting with dramatic interpretations of Uh-oh. Little Actor. Sometimes the Uh is really loud and the Oh very soft. Sometimes he pauses for a long time in the middle.
He's been working on learning how to whisper.
He gets excited at the mention of his friends and has said Lucy, Tess, Wes, and Hazel's names.
He calls Smash the cat, "wash." It cracks us up. We've started calling him Wash.
He loves water and if we give him some in a cup or bowl he will pour it back and forth between cups, bowls, etc.
Cooking on his little kitchen is one of his favorite things. He stirs with a spoon and pretends to taste whatever he is making.

Here he is at the hunt with Ana Sofia and Angelica.

I love this manly man picture of David and his month-old Davey, and Erik with Halle (7 weeks)

Christina Henderson came to visit from D.C. It was great to see her and catch up. She was a natural holding Miss Halle. She's off to grad school somewhere this fall.

Anders took a trip to the zoo last week and loved the giraffes. Here he is playing in the trees.

Watching the giraffes.

We had a fun visit the other night with John, Melissa and Noah Branch. John is an opthamologist in town and we went to high school together. Actually, he was in my first grade class and I've known him my whole life. It's always great to reminisce a bit with him. Noah is eight months old, and we loved getting to hang out with him. What a cutie! Sadly, they are moving to Texas in a month for a new job. They will be missed. On top of that, they are going to have another baby! Wow.