Horseradish, shape puzzels, and vocal exercises

Not a whole lot to update our faithful readers on in the last week.  Erin has been laid low and lower for the last several weeks with a combination of hip flexor pain, pubic synthysis pain, and a pretty rough headache from what turns out to be a deep sinus infection.  Sleep has been spotty and too short as a result, which certainly hasn't helped our heroine much.  Nor has Xander's new-found joy with the range and decible power of his voice, used frequently to display happiness, frustration, and everything in between.

Luckily, things definitely are looking up.  Erin has made it past the first round of final exams as of this weekend, and her new round of classes should be a little easier for her, topic-wise (statistics and macro-econ).   Antibiotics and an acupuncturist have really helped Erin feel better, and hopefully this will mean more exercise and time in the pool for Erin.  We've bought several new toys for Xander to play with and capture his attention and imagination.  One of his favorite things now is to play with wooden 2-D puzzles and the 3-D shape sorting puzzel that Gran gave him many months ago- he's getting quite good at identifying shapes by name and visually.

In other Xander news his vocabulary continues to just skyrocket and he is using more and more simple sentences.  He is getting pickier about what clothes he wants to wear, and what he wants to eat.  He'll still eat just about anything we put in front of him, but not anything all the time, and he certainly has favorites.   We had to overcome a minor obsession with juice, cheese is the rage. milk has become  less popular, and it turns out the kid loves horseradish sauce, and will happily eat it straight!

In Maya news, she continues to be incredibly active and we can now watch Erin's stomach shift and bounce.  She's pretty strong for a little girl who is approximately 1.2 pounds!  We've decided on how we want to decorate her room, and have already purchased used furniture and new bedding.  We'll start on paint sometime before Christmas.  We're starting to get pretty excited, but we still have 4 months to go!