Pollen, pollen, everywhere!!!

Many can look at a calendar to know that spring has arrived.  Others know by the warmer temperatures.  Here in Georgia we know for a fact that spring has arrived when there is a pale yellow dust on EVERYTHING outside.  Ahhh, the lovely pine pollen has arrived. Ugh!  While I enjoy spring time very much with it's beautiful flowering trees & plants, I do not love the pollen & corresponding allergies.  Oh well!  Eddie, Daniel & I spent most of last week with runny noses.  Let me just tell you, an almost 2-year old with allergies is not fun.  We are glad to be beyond that.  
While we may have been battling allergies, it didn't stop us from having a great week.  I had the week off from work for spring break, so made sure to get out & have fun.  We went for numerous walks, went to the park & even went out for ice cream.  One nice thing, for me, was getting to exercise in the morning instead of my typical evening workout.  Daniel even joined in with me trying to copy the movements from my workout DVD.  It was so cute & a great reminder that I am setting an example for him.  Overall, it was a very relaxing week & I was sorry to see it go by so quickly.  
I thought I would update you on what Daniel is up to these days...
He is now 22 months &:
- saying many words including: mama, dada (though he tends to use "daa" more often), baby, hi, bye-bye, book, more, ga (for dog), didi (for kitty), birdy, ba-ba (for banana), vaaaa-ga (for soap - I have NO idea how he got the idea for this one), vava (for bread - more specifically his favorite bagel from Bronx Bagels here in Alpharetta; another pronunciation that I can't figure out how he got), gugu (for duck), baa (for bath), "mo mo mo" (for 'one more' while showing one finger)
- signing: dinosaur, train, banana, book, grandma, grandpa, please, thank you, bird, duck, mouse, water, and so many more!  He can learn a new sign & start using it all in one day, so it's hard to keep up!
- He still LOVES to "read" books.  Many times, he will just go into his room, sit down & "read through" his books.  We will hear him making sounds like he is actually reading the books.  He will sometimes do this for 5-10 minutes!  
- His favorite foods are bananas, egg bagels (a treat), red beans & rice, scrambled eggs, cooked carrots, oatmeal, apple slices, grapes, roast chicken
- His favorite toys are his toy vacuum, balls, books, his Thomas the train ride-on toy, & stuffed animals.  He plays with toy cars/trucks and his toy farm, too
- He is jumping with both feet off the ground & running everywhere
- He still LOVES to help clean (dusting, sweeping, mopping, helping throw away trash)
- He dances to any music with a beat.  His favorite is still most music by Raffi.


Tonight, I was rocking him before bedtime & realized we had forgotten to pray with him like we usually do.  So we went ahead and prayed.  A few minutes later, as I was rocking & singing to him, he bowed his head & folded his hands.  Then, he made some little sounds like he was talking.  Then he said "meh" (for amen).  It was as if he was saying his own little prayer.  It was such a sweet moment!
More next time...