weather and words

Jasper is desperate to go outside.  He runs to the door and points, trying to figure out how to work the doorknob, repeating "soutside."  Eventually he gets distracted (his attention span is rather short at 17 months, after all), but always looks a little sad when I tell him it is too cold or too icy to go out.  Thankfully that trend seems to be breaking for a few days.  I think we might even be able to walk to the post office to today - walking in the street of course, but outside nonetheless.

The birds are singing, the sun is mostly shining, and that is enough incentive for me to go outside.  I can even see the soggy, brown grass in places.  I never thought that would be so exciting, but the winter has been long cooped up with a toddler.

I placed a plant and seed order from the heirloom seed exchange (http://www.seedsavers.com/) the other day... it felt good to be preparing for spring and growing things and the smell of warming earth.  I love just looking at their catalog and reading the descriptions.  Jasper and I read it a few times...   Now I just need to sit down and make a plan on where everything is going to go and where the new beds need to be created.  I have a lot of plans for the yard again this year, including planting two friut trees - pears!

Aside from dreaming of spring, I spend my days amazed at how quickly Jasper's vocabulary seems to be expanding.  Some things he says are very clear, other words make no sense unless you have the advantage of the parental dictionary.  And, for some reason, he puts another sound/syllable after the "K" sound.  So, it is "sock-uh"  (which sounds amusingly like "sucker," and we try not to laugh).  And, "wak-uh" is fork.  On the other hand, he says "bess you" very clearly when someone sneezes, and "bye-bye, see you" when leaving or when someone leaves.  It seems like there are new words he is trying out every day.  And, what he says next is always an exciting surpise.

Well, naptime is over, so I'll be off to see what he says next.