Nathaniel has been learning words like crazy! Some weeks it feels like he picks up a new word every day.
He loves to make pretend phone calls to his dad; anything rectangular suffices as a phone, and if he doesn't have anything that fits the bill, he'll just use his hand. He mostly spends his fake phone conversations talking about balls and trucks (or, as he says, "bahs" and "gucks"), his two favorite things. He'll just sit there with his fake phone, saying, "Dad. Bah. Bah. Bah. Guck." And then hang up. It's pretty funny.
He's developed an obsession with cooking utensils, especially spatulas, which he likes to use as sort of makeshift golf clubs. He is still very obsessed with hats, and uses anything he can find to make a hat out of. He wears pots, pot lids, bowls of all sizes and materials, and iPad cases, as well as baskets and anything else that looks vaguely hat-like.
For Valentine's Day, Carl's mom sent us some amazing chocolates (Thanks, Ann!), and a whole row of them were filled with coffee. As Latter-day Saints, we don't eat/drink coffee. So I gave them to a student I tutor, on a plate. Well, Nathaniel saw the plate, and freaked out because each little chocolate looked like a tiny hat and in the moment there was nothing he wanted more than to wear those little hats. I ended up having to send my student home early so I could put Nathaniel to bed because the hat tantrum was so out of control. Sorry, kid! Chocolates are not hats and no, you cannot wear them!
Carl's been working hard and writing in the evenings. He likes his job and his coworkers and he is working on a very interesting story right now--it utilizes a lot of rhythm in the storytelling. I'm interested to see how it turns out.
I've been sick a lot lately, and my house/life have suffered for it, but yesterday I was feeling well enough to actually clean the kitchen (...sort of) and straighten up our bedroom, which had really fallen apart. Now it is mostly clean. I need to vacuum today. I've been trying to write on my novel, but I've been feeling so sick and spacey it's been hard to be coherent at all, so it's been slow in coming. Normally I'd be at least halfway done with the draft by now, but right now, I'm barely at 9000 words.
I did sign a contract for the second book in my Body Electric series, though, so that's good, and that'll be coming out sometime this fall. Excited to start editing it! And hopefully I can finish the rough draft I'm currently working on so I can just get this series over with. I really want to work on Spidermaiden now.
I've not been super good at updating this blog, but I have been all right at updating my writing blog. You can check that out here.
