Linnaeus 19.3

Siku German recycling truck. The things in the back are
bottle & paper recycling stations that you commonly see
on the streets of Berlin. Sprout's been taking them out
& hiding them in various places in our house. 

This week Sprout has taken a definite interest in playing with cars. He got a lovely little truck as a (late) Christmas gift on the weekend (thanks Dex, Katie & Aaron!) that he's been running around the house. He's still not quite as obsessed with cars, trucks & trains as his friends are, nor does he show much interest in real vehicles when we see them on our walks or out the window. I think the things he's spent the most time with the past week are his gumboots & shoes. Possibly because he knows they are a prerequisite for going outside to the park or on our swing. I've lost track of how many times a day he comes to me holding a boot or his coat. He asks, "Boot? Coat? Fing?" The kid definitely wants to go out more & whenever we open a door, whether it's to check the mail box or do the laundry (our laundry is shared with the suites downstairs & we have to go outside to access it) he asks, "Shide?" meaning "Can I go outside too?"

Getting outside as much as Sprout wants is impossible, given how much time he spends eating & sleeping during the day. The long naps seem to be continuing: Thursday's was actually three hours & 45 minutes! I'm ambivalent about this--it's nice to have such a long break in the day when I can get stuff done around the house, but then again, I have to stay home. As we don't eat lunch out that often, this means I can't ever do anything between about noon & 5pm. I'm not exactly a morning person, so getting out in the three to four hours between when Sprout wakes & when he needs lunch rarely occurs. This is a recipe for cabin fever. When I'm finished school & not scheduled to leave the house for specific things during the week, I'm going to have to figure out a system to get myself going earlier in the day.

Sprout's had more time to play with his his best friend this week because Aiden's lovely mama Kirsten has been taking care of Sprout. As Oli has got some temporary work for the NDP & is working evenings for about a month, we've needed daycare for a couple hours Monday to Thursday. I can't get home from school until just after Oli needs to go to work, even though some days our schedules only overlap by minutes. The added stress of getting Sprout ready to go & dropping him off before leaving for work has been hard for Oliver, particularly because Sprout is usually mid-nap when Oli needs to leave the house. Two more weeks of classes & it will no longer be an issue.

No other major developments this week, really. Sprout keeps adding new words to his vocabulary, including  people's names, like Ainie & Deku (Aiden & Dexter) or Nana & Gumpa. We'll see a lot of my family at Easter next weekend, so I expect he'll add Auntie Sarah, Uncle Aaron, Auntie Wendy, Uncle Paul, Kiki, Talie & Jonah to that list too.