Them kids is growin up!

We have been here in Bloomington for two full months now! Life as a grad student family hasn't changed much, except for the mundane details that probably aren't of much interest to others. What has changed is our kids (Joshua especially), and since they're probably the reason for most of the traffic on this blog, I will cut to the chase and post some pictures of their recent goings on.

Glamor shot of Heather + orange popsicle. It doesn't get any more glamorous than that, does it?

Finished with his popsicle, Joshua returns to his important phone conversations.

Heather cruising on her trike.

No caption required.

Hello?

Heather and her hair post-nap.

Yesterday when she was doing the dishes, Stephanie kept the kids occupied with bubbles on the back porch. They had fund for quite a while!

The pictures definitely show how the kids are growing up physically, but they're growing up in a lot of other ways too. Heather is really having fun with preschool. Stephanie essentially lets Heather pick out books at the library, and those serve as the basis for the week's lessons (some of her recent picks include spiders, earwigs, and the digestive system). She's also getting really excited about Spanish, and bombards us with questions at dinner time. It's really cool when she makes the connection between the English word, the Spanish word, and the sign.

Joshua has become quite the chatterbox himself. He makes a lot more jibberish noises now, but he also makes a lot of legitimate attempts to communicate. He'll pat his chest and say "bappy?" (happy) in an inquisitive voice, and then in a happy voice say "bappy!" like he's proud of himself for getting it right! He's good at saying mommy and daddy, although he has recently begun mixing us up. He's also learning a lot of signs---he's good at signing sign milk, eat, and please, and he knows a few food and animal signs too. We'll see if we can post some videos some time soon to share the cuteness.