Kids grow fast!

Just in case we needed to be reminded...

Our warm spell continued (and ended) Tuesday with a high of 61 degrees, which finally freed the sidewalks and streets of snow and ice. So it was a perfect winter day for Levynn to hop on her bicycle again.

We quickly realized, however, that the bike needed its seat and handlebars adjusted to make her comfortable on it. She was too big! So she rode it to the bike shop and got that done.

We also need to mention that Levynn is trying to sound out more and more words and literally can read some simple ones. It's very exciting!

Lincoln is bigger, too. Several long-sleeve shirts we bought for winter now cover only three quarters of his arms. He also outgrew his hard-sole Robeez shoes, which is a problem when there's no snow on the ground and thus no reason for boots.

So we used Abraham Lincoln's birthday (an off day for Chicago Public Schools) to visit our favorite suburban oasis, Woodfield Mall, and buy our Lincoln his first pair of big-boy shoes.

We also spent time at the mall's neat Looney Tunes-themed play area, which was mobbed with little kids. Lincoln seemed to be the only one having more fun identifying all the animals and colors than running and climbing and sliding.

For instance, there was a large Bugs Bunny figure that was crouched on the floor with oversized marbles scattered around it. Lincoln pointed to Bugs and said "rabbit," pointed to Bugs' white hand and said "white hand" and "big hand," pointed to the blue marble and said "blue," pointed to the green floor and said "green," etc. And he did that with several characters, like Pepe Le Pew (who is a skunk, if you didn't know already).

But he can say more than two words at a time. He strings together as many as four, and he has started to add an "s" to plural and possessive words. That's exciting, too!