Reading the Signs

Thanks for all the great advice/reassurance about the BH contractions. I had my 24 week check up yesterday and was once again cleared to exercise.

Can't say I'm going to jump right on that, but I'm still thankful for the all clear.

And speaking of being thankful can I just say how much Park and I have been enjoying this beautiful weather?

Two days ago we spent the entire day outside, painting with marbles, sponges, and good old fashioned side walk chalk. There may have been a few (or a hundred) baseball pitches that he required of me, in between activities, as well. That child is so efficient at hitting the ball that there is a strong possibility he could take my head off in the near future.

And today we spent the morning at the playground. He spent some time in the sandbox before we had a picnic and went on a nature scavenger hunt. A while back, Bridget had given me some pictures she had pulled off the Internet of things like a playground, fence, tree, bird, squirrel, and so on. I cut them out and put them on a little ring and Park couldn't have been more thrilled to explore with me until we found each item.

He also discovered something that wasn't on the list.... a huge hill to ride his bike down at breakneck speed while I prayed his training wheels would somehow keep him from bodily injury. If this next baby is cautious, I'm not even sure I will know what to do with that.

In other news, Park has learned to read. Now, if you ask him if he can read he will say, "Well, I can only sound out words, but I still need you to read my books to me." But, the last time I checked, that still counts as reading when you are a three-year-old.

I'm not sure exactly how it came about, but I've known that he has a love for letters for some time now. Last summer we made an alphabet book (a letter of the alphabet on each page and then you cut out things from magazines that start with that letter) and he was quite confident of what items started with which letter.He is constantly asking me what sounds each letter makes and loves when I arrange his fridge alphabet into words.

So, last week I decided to I showed him the word "bat" and asked him how I could change it to "sat". I wasn't sure he would know, but when he handed me the s, we just kept going. Before I knew it, he was reading words like hen, sun, bed, pig, doll and so on.

And at the risk of sounding like a bragging mom, I was amazed that he read "Pass Left" off a sign at the playground today.

Unfortunately, he also screamed this rule to any biker who was trying to get around us on the trail this morning. At least he added please to it, right?

Looks like our next task will be teaching him to read the sign that says: "Caution: Dangerous Hill Ahead."