Spring has Sprung?

It’s been unseasonably warm. As in mid to upper 70s. The robins showed up last week. Cup and Cone opened even earlier than their originally planned opening date which was earlier than their usual opening date (follow that?). The lake ice went out yesterday, March 19th – earliest ever. My spring flowers are popping up and there are green buds appearing on the bushes and trees. I’ve already been attacked by a mosquito. We had to dig out summer clothes. The same day I took the electric blankets off of everyone’s bed, I had to get the room fans out of storage. It’s been odd. And nice.

I’m cautiously optimistic. And while I’ve removed some of my weather proofing to open some windows, I haven’t done all. The snow boots are still out, along with the shovel and the stroller and snow blower are sitting side by side.

The girls are loving the weather. They are outside all day. The only drawback to warm weather is that we have to accelerate the bath schedule, because these two are filthy. Along with bathing, comes more laundry. Muddy pants along with having to wash all of my hand towels because someone (Lillian) keeps snatching them to wipe down damp swing set equipment, and another someone (Ella) takes them to clean off the deck/woodchips/anything else she deems messy.

We’ve started taking our jammie walks. In which we get the girls in their pjs after dinner and take a walk as the sun goes down, come home and head upstairs to bed. The walk has less the calming affect that I’d hoped for when we first started last year, but a nice dose of fresh air before bedtime never hurt anyone.

Ella’s on the second half of spring break, with school in the morning but not the afternoon. This is a bit easier on the schedule. I think Ella’s happy to be back at Garden of Hope. She finished her first poem book (big deal!), is learning to count up to five objects using one-to-one correspondence, and just started on six today! And is trying new things on the playground. She’s growing by leaps and bounds.

As is Lillian. Her vocabulary has exploded. She’s ahead of the curve in this category, easily speaking like a late two to early three year old. This morning, I asked her what she was doing at the breakfast table with a big grin on her face, the response, “I just sitting and tooting.” Which she was…Perhaps not the best example of her fluency, but it was pretty funny. She also sings a mash-up of the following songs: ABC Song, Twinkle Twinkle, Itsy Bitsy Spider – almost constantly.  Except in the car, then she and Ella want to hear “Adele” or as Lily says, “Abell”.

Today may be the first day of spring. The grass may be greening up and the shorts weather we’ve had would lead me to believe spring is here…but I’m watching you Old Man Winter…I don’t trust you.