"dank ou, dank ou, dank ou"

Translation: thank you, is what I heard over the monitor this morning while listening to Kyle wake up! He's been picking up words faster since we spend one afternoon a week at the Trouards (playing with up to 6 other kids). My new job, as once a week nanny, to kids ranging in age from 19 months to 14 years has Kyle hearing all sorts of words and trying them out. Kevin and I talk to him a lot, but it's not nearly as all encompassing as sibling chatter! The 19 month old (Rose) talks a lot more than Kyle, and the big things they have her saying right now are thank you, welcome, and please. So Kyle picked up thank you this week and he said welcome a couple times on Tues. afternoon while we were at the house, but not since we got home.

Kyle is also using his hands for things besides sign language! He waves all the time now, especially when he's ready to leave the house! Kyle will wave bye bye then run to the front door when he's ready to go. The other day I took him for a walk (which really means he's walking with me or pushing his umbrella stroller). I followed his lead, so we stopped at each place where he would have to decide a direction and he would point which way he wanted to go. Well, we ended up on our usual walking path, but it was cool to see that he knows the route! He also really enjoys using Kevin and me as jungle gyms; climbing, falling, sitting, bouncing, etc... on us.

We did go to the zoo for the first time ever this week with one of Kyle's friends and he loved it! The elephants, giraffes, and large tortoises were his favorite animals by far. I doubt we'll go again until the fall, as it is warming up around here.

Last week I got to go out to dinner and bowling with some other moms; the first time I've been out with people other than Kevin and Kyle in a long, long time! It was wonderful! On the job front, I'm still torn with whether or not to really go to work full time. I haven't had any job offers, which I'm secretly relieved about, because that would mean I'd have to commit to a decision already!

We found out this week that Kevin will be going to Germany for a week or so in May. I'm excited for him, but disappointed because I was supposed to go with him! It had looked like the funding wouldn't be available for him to go, so we didn't make any arrangements for me to go. Ah well.

Last weekend we had lunch with one of Kevin's old neighbors from college; turns out her husband is the new staff leader for Intervarsity here at the U of A! Very exciting. It seems all sorts of people from our past lives in Flagstaff have ended up here in the southern part of the state.

Oh yes, one last Kyle story before I go to bed. Junior has been all sorts of tantrums lately, mostly at home, but boy did we have a doozy of a tantrum outside of Trader Joe's this week! This was pretty much the first real temper tantrum I've had to deal with in public. So, Trader Joe's has these great kid shopping carts that Kyle loves to push around and have me fill with all the food on our list. Regretfully, this week's list was fairly short and so, thus, was the shopping trip. After we got done at the cash register, I explained to Kyle that we were done and it was time to return the shopping cart because we needed to go home. He allowed me to steer him over to the line of kid's carts, but started screaming as we pushed his cart in to the line. I removed him from the store, just outside the exit doors and explained to him one more time that it was time to leave. He decided to lay on the sidewalk, kicking his legs, screaming, and crying. I calmly told him I'd be waiting for him at the car and walked away. We were parked right up front, so I just walked down the sidewalk and proceeded to put our groceries in the car. I could see him the whole time, but pretended not to notice what he was doing. After about two minutes of on and off crying (he would stop to sit up and look around to see if anyone was watching), he pretty much stopped, I walked back over and asked him if he was ready to go home. He picked himself up, wiped his hands on his shirt, then asked me to pick him up. I carried him to the car where he let me put him in his seat, no problem. A retiree, sitting at a picnic table right next to our car said, "Good job with that little guy, you did exactly what I tell my daughters to do with all my grandsons when they throw tantrums". Let's hope it actually works and results in less tantrums in the future!

Happy Easter!