Spring Break

This is our week for Spring Break at Roanoke College so we're visiting Cathy's parents. The trip actually represents a surprising level of conventional and rational behavior for us. We actually went to Florida when it was cold outside.

Dalton is having a great time. He's pictured here showing his Great Grandpa Art how to blow up a balloon. The balloon is actually already blown up and left over from Art's 85th birthday party.

We also found a dead rat today. It didn't faze Dalton at all. His reaction was...well I don't remember the exact words, but it was akin to "Hey! Look at that." I suppose an aversion to dead animals is an acquired trait...even for vegetarians.

Bouncy

Howdy! Long time no post. I've been waiting for inspiration. I suppose some blame could be placed on various video game addictions as well. Anyhow, I figured I'd get a picture up of Dalton. He's continuing to grow. Here he is jumping on the mattress in the nursery. In most people's homes, this is the place where the infant sleeps in a crib. Eventually, the infant grow up some and it gets converted into their bedroom.

This is, of course, our house. The nursery finally got some use as a bedroom this month. Not surprisingly, it's use involved pulling in a mattress, Cathy, and TY. I even joined the rest of the family in there a few times. It is quite a warm little room.

I think I was posting about all Dalton's new words last December. We had him playing word games and watching educational word videos. I figured he'd be taking over the posting come February.

Since then we have gone into a word drought. Dalton has shown no interest in words until the last week. We managed to catch his interest by playing some games with letters. Essentially, I have a set of cards with letters that I turn over and use to play concentration. I managed to grab Dalton's interest and he started playing with me. It wasn't words, but it worked memory so I was happy.

Dalton then changed the rules of the game. Now we have to get the cards out and put them in piles of matching letters. We then draw the letters one at the time and call them by names that are related to a card game he has seen us play at parties (Dominion). I draw an "A" and call it an "Estate". He calls an "E" and calls it an "Ironworks". I would draw letters in order and spell words on my side of the table. Dalton tried to take draw some of my letters and I made the game more educational by requiring that he tell me what word he was drawing it from. This lasted about one game before he realized I was attempting to teach him something and he started demanding I steal his letters instead. Sigh! He's a bright kid. He catches on very quickly when I'm trying to make something an educational activity. I also have a terrible poker face.

Oh well, he's bound to hit another sensitive period for words sometime. Maybe it will be when he's through with his current sensitive period for sewing and cooking.