How did they get so big?

Shira and Samuel, both, seem to be growing in leaps and bounds.

We picked them up today, after they spent the weekend at Bubbie's house, and Shira already seems older than she did when I dropped her off on Friday.  When she came running toward me as I got out of the car, she looked like such a kid, there is no baby left.  She can really run, the toddler is all gone.  And she is fast.

She has been speaking in full sentences for some time now, but her conversation has more depth than it used to.  Instead of focusing only on concrete things - I want my water bottle, where is pink baby - she discusses possibilities, negotiates, and theorizes outcomes.

Samuel's big leap in the past few weeks, has been in math sense.   He now adds single digits quite easily, announcing at dinner tonight, "three plus three is six!"  Steve asked him who had told him that, he responded, "I just figured it out."  He then proceeded to tell us the answer to two plus two, as well, without any prompting.

Thankfully, we seem to have come out the other side of our most recent behavioral descent, and Samuel is back to his thoughtful and charming, occasionally mischievous self.  Whatever developmental milestone he needed to hit, has changed his tastes again as well.  Tonight, he willingly ate dinner, complimented me on how good it was, and asked to eat the spicy greens as well.  He must have missed us a lot at Bubbie's ;)

As a side note, I'm starting my third week swimming on the Master's team.  I'm recording it here, because it's the only way I'll remember when I started, and I know I'll be curious to know later.  I can't believe that in two months I've gone from being able to swim less than a lap (feeling like I might drown the whole time), to swimming close to two miles every morning.  I'm very proud of myself.