We kept Sam home a few days last week with the cold, and then when we went to his school on Friday we heard that several classmates have "foot and mouth disease." It's basically just a virus that spreads quickly with kids. But the policy here is if two students have it they close the class for a week. So we've had him home this last week. It's been fun, although our productivity has dipped. Sam is saying a raft of new words: all of his colors, parts of the face (even "eyebrows." thanks to a faces sticker book from Em's parents), foods ("yogurt," which he pronounces like "Rutgers"), machinery ("tractor" and "helicopter" are new favorites, both pronounced something like "gokter"), athletics (b-ball, ball, big ball), and some new spatial terms (fast, high, go, drive). Sadly, he can say "bite," because he gets mosquito bites. He can say the neighbors names and is still pretty friendly to strangers.
We did several park trips this week. Sam can stay at a park for hours and getting out of the house and spending time together was good for all of us. I got a full sized basketball at the store, and we spent a good morning playing around campus with that. Those of you who know me know that I am pretty much a loss at any team sports (I can't do a lay-up, kick a goal, or ground a ball). Nonetheless, it's fun to have a kid who's enthusiastic about all of this and shows a high level of patience and concentration (something I never had, as the kid who was picking grass in the outfield) and some coordination.
A classmate of Emily's left Taiwan this week and one of the things she passed down was two doll babies. Sam doesn't play with them a lot, but they're helping us to communicate what is coming for Sam. Tonight he had the babies "sleeping" on Emily (this is one of his new words also), which is a good sign. Emily thinks he may be realizing that her tummy is growing, and hopefully his own development will proceed such that he's not entirely horrified when they arrive in another five months or so.
Tomorrow's (hopefully) the rescheduled doctor visit. It's possible we'll find out gender then. Sam goes back to the nursery tomorrow, which should be good for all of us. He's coming along fine on Chinese, but we're hoping to find a couple of people on campus who could play with him in Chinese a couple of hours a week. He really gets a lot of attention at school, but we want him to get a bit of reinforcement now.
Otherwise, all is well. I think Emily's excited to be back full time into language. I am feeling a little over-committed, but am doing my best to flex. The weather's been reasonable, although it will soon inch into the boiling range. It's hard to believe we have just a couple of months of summer, and then a few months beyond that before the new arrivals.
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