We have recently discovered that it is really true that toddlers generalize one experience and expect it to happen in other similar situations. When we go on car trips, we will often stop at Dunkin Donuts so I can get a coffee, and we will get some chocolate munchkins for Seth. We usually go through the drive-through, and Seth knows the drill. He always asks for a donut, and he has asked us for donuts at other restaurant drive-throughs as well, which, of course, makes sense. The other day we were driving to a medical complex for an appointment, and there was a guard station. We drove up and told the man why we were there. All of a sudden Seth pipes up from the back "Can I have a donut?" Jason was totally confused, but then I realized Seth thought anywhere with a "drive-through" would be able to serve him donuts. We laughed hysterically about this, and Seth realized that what he said was funny. We explained there were no donuts there because it wasn't a restaurant, and then he realized why it was funny. We all continued to laugh about this for quite some time!

Things have been going well the past couple weeks. Seth is 34 months old, and Evan is seven weeks old. Seth has transitioned nicely into his weekday routine of being at daycare in the mornings and then coming home for the rest of the day. He likes having the time to play with Evan and me, and has started napping again with no problem, which is a relief. I think he really just enjoys napping in his quiet bedroom with his comfy bed and toys, and who could blame him! He has started throwing all his stuffed animals, pillows, blankets, etc. out of the bed when he doesn't want to nap right away, but otherwise the transition has gone smoothly. We also have this little portable LED nightlight that we call "glowman." When we leave him for nap or bed, he likes to keep books with him, and we've shown him how he can read in the dark using his glowman. It is so cute to see the little image of him reading in the dark with his nightlight as we close the door.

Seth and Evan are continuing to get along so well! Seth loves to hold Evan's hand when he is nursing, and he likes to encourage him when he is on his toy mat. Just today, we were talking about when Evan was born, and Seth told me "The doctors made a special hole to take him out, and then he was a tiny little baby with a tiny little hat!"

Evan is such a joy to be around. He loves to snuggle and cuddle, and will usually take a couple naps a day in his playpen. He has decided he likes to nap in his swing, but only for almost exactly half an hour at a time. We can almost set our watches by it! He likes to stick his hands straight forward like a little zombie when he is in the swing. He will hang out in his bouncer if he is near us, and is becoming more alert with more open-eye time. Of course, he still likes to take naps on us, and there is nothing more wonderful than a baby sleeping on your chest. Time goes by so fast, so we definitely take time to enjoy this!

We've had some nice visits from family and friends. The boys have spent time with Auntie Kara, Auntie Carolyn, Auntie Gina and Uncle John. Aunt Michele and Uncle Bill have come for visits, in addition to frequent visits from Geema and Michael, and Grams and Papa. We've spent time with Grandpa Joe and Grandma Nancy, and Nana got to meet Evan for the first time over Skype - she loved the video chat. We are going to go to Rhode Island next week for the day so Nana can meet him in person. Grandpa Joe gave Seth a special coin collection kit where he will get coins every few months until he is ten, and Seth was very excited to learn how to store his special coins.

Our friends Chuck and Jenn came for a visit, and it was the first time where the four of us adults were with the four kids - Seth, Katie, Sam, and Evan. We all went to college together, and they live in Boston. We get together about six times a year, and we've started a yearly tradition of spending a week in Cape Cod together over the summer. It is always wonderful to see them, see our kids together, and share in each other's happiness.

Right now, Suffield Academy is on spring break for three weeks, and Jason is taking off Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of each week, essentially giving us three five day weeks of time together when Seth is not in daycare. We've gotten some doctor's appointments out of the way, and we've been relaxing and having fun. We spent a nice day with Geema at the Children's Museum in West Hartford. Seth especially loved the planetarium show, hosted by Big Bird and Elmo. We've gone to story hour together and spent time at the library, and had a great music class. We have plans to go to more museums and libraries over the next couple weeks, and to spend plenty of time with the grandparents. It is nice to have this family time together! We just ordered a double stroller, so hopefully as the weather improves we will have lots of nice time outside!

We have also been doing a lot of projects and pretend play. We made a castle out of a huge cardboard box, which Seth loved, especially when Jason cut a window in it just like the daddy did on his favorite tv show Calliou. We've had picnics with his toy food and "sleepovers" - reading and giggling under his covers. We've made pictures with pipe-cleaners, which he likes. We took a long piece of brown paper and traced his body and then painted it - he loved this! We've splashed in puddles after all the rain - so much fun!

Here are the bullet points about the boys for this entry. We feel the transition to life as a family of four has been going well. Our family works really well together, and we feel very lucky and happy. Our evening routine has developed nicely - after dinner we have baths, Evan gets his tummy time and his bottle of pumped milk, and we spend family time together before we put Seth to bed. We are definitely happy!

Evan:

• His hair in the back is still falling out, but he is starting to get some peach fuzz back on the top of his head.

• His eyelashes have started getting really long, like Seth's, and he has started to develop eyebrows.

• When he cries now, he has real tears. Before, he didn't really produce tears.

• The little circle of while milia that he was born with on his nose is almost gone.

• His ears are still folded on the top, though they are starting to spring up more and more.

• He doesn't chew on his hands as much when he is hungry; he just starts to make fussing noises.

• He is not cluster feeding as much in the middle of the night, though he still likes to be held at night.

• He nurses about eight or nine times a day, and his sleepiest times are usually from about 4am to 8am and then 8am to 11am or so.

• He always falls asleep when we go in the car or go for a long walk in the stroller.

• He is starting to get much better at his head control - he can definitely hold his head up more for longer periods of time.

• He is starting to really enjoy time on his playmat - we just noticed he likes to bat at the little blocks that are hanging from his mat with his hands. He gets so excited and kicks his legs when he makes contact!

• He is becoming slightly more tolerant of tummy time, and today he seemed like he was making some movement to attempt to roll from his tummy to his back. Not there yet, though.

Seth:

• When he talks now, his full sentences are often punctuated with the placeholder "um..uh.."

• A cute little phrase he has "My socks are all ruined up" - meaning they are twisted or coming off

• He is very good at using words like "instead, already, because," etc. to connect two thoughts in a sentence.

• Seth has at times started calling me "Mom" in addition to Mommy, or Jason "Dad." It is cute to hear him say "Hi Mom." It makes him sound so grown up. I think I still prefer Mommy, though. When Jason will bring Seth home from daycare, Seth will come inside and say "It's just me, Mom."

• Seth really likes this song about rainbows that he learned from his Cat in the Hat tv show. The song lists all the colors and ends with the line "That's a rainbow song for you." Seth was pointing out all the colors in a rainbow book we had, and kept asking me where "That's" was. He thought it was a tangible thing he could point to. I tried to explain to him what "that's" meant, but it was hard for him to grasp (gee, he's only two and three quarters, I am amazed he can even ask the question!). We ended the conversation by agreeing it was confusing and we'd have to talk about it another time! He brought it up again the next day.

• Grams also told me about a conversation they had when she told Seth her car was "dark blue" and he wanted to know if it was only "dark" blue at night!

• We were talking about all the people Seth loves, and he said "I love Mommy, I love Daddy, I love Evan, I love videos...can I watch a video?!"

• Seth is also into singing with microphones. He likes to make microphones out of his magnet toys and make up songs about everyday things, what we've been doing, etc. I liked to do this when I was young, too!

• Seth is getting incredibly good at letter recognition - he can read almost all of his letters and is starting to understand about uppercase versus lowercase letters. He really enjoys the tv show Super Why, which has a lot of letter recognition. He loves to sing the Super Why theme song. The characters talk about being super readers, and Seth often says he is growing up to be a super reader.

• He likes to pretend to talk on the phone, and will start his conversations by saying "What's going on?"