Ryan is finally TALKING

Ryan is finally starting to talk more! For the longest time he has had just a few favorite words, and only used them part time. Now finally this past weekend, he's decided to start talking. Yay! :) The past couple weeks, he's been trying, but this weekend the words are starting to come, and starting to be clearer. He started claiming everything with "mine" a couple weeks ago, and now he's asking for things, and my favorite, he says "I love you" now. "ah wahboo!" at first, but it's getting clearer also. This is all new territory for me, since my older 2 girls were talking by now...Allie most definitely, as she was a very early talker! But anyway, I am very excited about Ryan's expanding vocabulary. Oh, he does sign a little, with his best signs being "more", and now "please", although he does also say both of those words as well.

Summer, and new words

Hello again! We're finally getting into our summer break here. The kids finished up school on the 25th of May, but my sister, who is a teacher and whose children I take care of while she works, didn't finish up until May 31. So this week starts my summer break. Of course, I still have to keep and take care of my own four children! :)
Speaking of my children, they are all doing well. Amanda is 2 months old now, and had her 2 month checkup yesterday. She weighed in at 10 lbs. 14 oz., and is 23 inches long. She looks nice and filled out and chunky to me, but others who have had "real" chunky babies tell her she needs a little more fat on those legs! I think she's perfect. She's growing just like my other 3 did. :)
Ryan is in the midst of a word explosion I think...and finally! He is finally this week starting to put 2 words together. Of course, the words he's chosing to link are MY this and MY that. MY BABY...MY DOG...MY CUP! I'm just happy he's starting to talk more, of course, and it's exciting to see him make the connection between thinking "this is mine" and actually saying it. Not as much fun when the "MY" object is actually his 17 month old cousin's bottle, or cup, or toy...and that cousin is a biter. :/ These 2 are going to be a lot of fun in the fall, when I have Patrick again every day.
Allie is doing great. She had her last dance practice last night, and her recital is next Monday. She gets so excited to dress up in her costume and put on makeup! She tries hard to get through the dance routine, and does as well as a 5 year old can. I hope she wants to continue on in the fall again.
Emily is also doing great. She's playing softball this spring/summer, and has just become excited about the possibility of pitching. I've gone out to work with her and catch for her the past couple days, and I think if she works hard she might do pretty well. She needs to practice a lot, though, and get used to the motion. It's pretty fun to see her get excited about it. She has been a little ambivalent about softball up until this point. We'll see how far she goes with this pitching idea. It helps that Mommy was a softball pitcher back when I was a teen, so I can at least give her some basic pointers.
Not much else going on today. Grandma is coming to town for a visit this coming weekend, so we'll be straightening up the house a bit for her, and planning some fun, like a trip to the zoo, and lunch at The Blue Owl restaurant. We still need to come up with some good ideas for some other summer fun, too. Hopefully it won't be too hot for long this year!
All for now!