Welcome back!
Rene has a loose tooth! The bottom left. So I've started working on a cross-stitch tooth fairy pillow, since we will be needing it soon!

We've had a very cold and snowy January, and because of school delays, scheduled school closings etc, today was Rene's first day of school since January 15th! The principal, Sister Delia, has decided to schedule some make up days for PK4 since all the delays and closings ended up being on MWF - so next week Rene will get to have extra school on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon! Corrina hasn't missed any school. Today we are expected to hit 40 degrees - but it will be back to 10 degrees tomorrow :-(

Corrina had some croupy sounding coughs last night, but seems to be feeling better today. She did go to gymnastics today. Tony called and warned us that he heard something on the radio about the Greenfield Bridge (here's the story - rock crumbled off it and critically injured a driver on the parkway below). Traffic was definitely a mess.
Hank fell asleep in the car on the way home from gymnastics (very unusual!) and last night he fell asleep on the couch before 8pm. He seems to be going through a growth spurt and I've had to put away pretty much all of his 18 month clothes and move him into 2T, as well as move him into size 7 shoes! Corrina just moved into size 8 shoes this month - we took her to the store to pick out her first pair of shoes that were NOT hand-me-downs! Corrina picked a precious pair of black Mary Jane shoes with a velcro strap instead of a buckle - so "I can buckle them myself!" Very unlike anything Rene has ever picked - Rene picks tennis shoes with anything sparkly on them! At least from here out Corrina won't be getting hand-me-down shoes because Rene's are worn out by the time she outgrows them.

Hank recently had a speech evaluation that put him speaking at a 13 month level (he's almost 20 months). A speech therapist will come next week to re-evaluate him and decide what kind of services he should get (probably speech therapy). The good news was that his receptive language was right where it should be, so he understands, but just hasn't gotten the talking down yet. He's doing much better - he will say Nuh for Corrina and Nay for Rene. He also says ma-ma, da-da, no, ba for ball, bup for cup or book. He makes some animal sounds (the test don't count animal sounds!) - meow for cat, ruff for dog, and he is just making a wider variety of sounds than before. He's also figured out how to ride those ride-on toys and can keep up with Rene and Corrina as they race/chase around the living room and dining room (we call them all "firetrucks" since that's what Rene got first, but Corrina's is a pink truck and Hank's is a red and blue shape-sorter!)

Click here for Christmas and January pictures at Ofoto.