February photos postponed

Due to a convergence of events making my life really crazy, I haven't had a chance to upload February 2010 photos. I'll do it as soon as I can. We got a new digital camera recently, so starting in March photos should be of much higher quality. Our 8-year old Canon Powershot Elph S110 has served us well, but it passed into obsolescence a long time ago.

A quick update on the kids, though:

Austin: Austin can read and write now!!! It's pretty incredible. He can read beginner books and is able to sound out most unfamiliar words, even large ones. His teacher has taught him to write phonetically--I can't remember the technical term but the point is to get him to write words, even if they're misspelled. So we get some interesting spellings but he LOVES to write--we get "cards" and letters all the time. They're adorable, and he loves to make "fancy" letters with little spiraled stems and stuff. I'll have to scan one to show you what I'm talking about.

He's lost 2 teeth now, but none of the others have started to loosen yet. Well, maybe one of them but only a tiny bit. Also he's started to wear his glasses more, although I'm not sure if he wears them in school yet. I think maybe now that he can read and write, he's figuring out that he can't see from a distance well enough to read? Or maybe he just wants to wear glasses like daddy, I dunno. He claims the former, but part of me just thinks it's a convenient excuse. :)

Jonas: Jonas has started to potty train and is doing pretty well. Originally we were just going to let him train at his own pace, but we want to put him in 3K classes next fall and they all require potty-training. He took to peeing in the potty very quickly, it only took a few days--he still doesn't do it consistently (2 days ago he didn't do it at all, for example) but it's getting there. No real progress on going #2 on the potty but he'll do it occasionally. We have till late August to get this accomplished so there's no huge sense of urgency yet.

Speaking of pre-schools, we got Jonas into our #1 preference of preschools (Bethany). It's a different preschool than Austin went to, but has a better reputation. We're thrilled. He'll be going 2 days a week this year, and next year he'll automatically have a spot in the 5-day 4K if we want it (which we will). Score! I'm also thrilled because this preschool is significantly cheaper than Austin's (St. Luke's). We loved St. Luke's, but (1) the opportunity to get into Bethany couldn't be turned down, (2) it was way more expensive, (3) Austin's old teacher (who we absolutely loved) is retiring.

Devon: Devon is walking now. It's still slow and tentative, but he walks as much as he crawls and is getting faster by the day. He can't quite make it across a room unaided yet, but will probably be able to by this weekend. He's so cute toddling around!

He has 7 teeth now with another one ready to break through any day. He's still a good teether, you'd barely know he had any coming in. He's in a wonderful mood lately, especially after we got him on medication for two (!!) ear infections that we had no idea he was suffering--he never showed any symptoms other than general crankiness, which we attributed to teething and a cold. Anyway his mood is markedly better these days and he's an absolute sweetie to be around. He is trying to talk, and has "uh-oh" and "woof woof woof!" in his vocabulary but that's all so far. He's improving though, and is able to repeat many sounds with remarkable accuracy. He can growl and "monster roar" and often does so when playing with Amy, me, and his brothers. He'll also "vroom vroom!" when playing with cars.

Devon's birthday is later this month; we've been slackers about planning it, but will probably have a party at our house for family and friends. We're both too tired these days to think about it :) but have to got to get on the ball soon.

That's it for this update! More when the photos get put up.