Orrin is also healthy and growing. He's always been a talker, but I think the biggest developments with him the past few months has been transitioning over to real words and sentences. He's been stringing two or three words together for about a month now, and we got our longest sentence ever a couple days ago - "I don't wanna home go" over and over as we walked home from the playground. :) Its really fun watching his little brain figure all of that out.
Some of his current favorite things are letters and numbers. One day a few months ago I sang the alphabet song to him and he said a couple of letters at the appropriate time - I had no idea he knew any of them! So once that happened, we started singing that more, and I got him some magnetic letters for the fridge. So far he can pick out the A, E, H, I, and L correctly every time. He loves pointing out letters in books and anywhere else he sees them. And of course singing the alphabet song. He'll even sing along to the "now I know my abc's" part at the end. We started counting steps with him when we were on vacation last month and it just sort of stuck. So now he can count to ten, getting all of them almost every time. He loves to count everything!
He's definitely about to turn 2 - with the attitude to go with it! Now that he can communicate what he wants and doesn't want, its like living with a small dictator. It doesn't always go over very well when we don't immediately meet every request, but he does get over it pretty quickly. Overall, though, he's still very good natured, and lots of fun to be with!
Ok, enough with the words.
One of Orrin's favorite passtimes is still watching elmo videos on youtube. He gets this big cheesy smile that cracks me up. Of course, now anytime he sees a computer he asks for "elmo"
He is working on his art skills. He likes to color, but gets bored of it pretty quickly.
Giving kisses. He is definitely becoming a very empathetic kid. I had a foot cramp the other day and as I was writhing around in pain, he came over looking very concerned and kissed my foot.
He came with me on a trip to visit friends in Ann Arbor a while ago. Here he is with Joyce's dog Charlie (who was a very good sport about sharing his crate).
Another obsession is rocks. We have an abundance out front that he loves to play in, but also we have to stop and pick up any rocks we see on the sidewalk or parking lot. He generally likes to have one in each hand whenever we are outside.
He is a very hard worker, too. He loves to sweep the garage.
Found this at a garage sale for a few dollars, and he loves it! As well as a small plastic wagon that he likes to push (yeah, I can't convince him that it would be easier to pull) around.
Working again, helping daddy water the flowers. They do this a few times a week.
Helping daddy with a puzzle. Orrin is absolutely a daddy's boy! He loves to do pretty much whatever Scott is doing.
Like fishing! He sat in the boat with Scott when we were on vacation for a couple hours at a time without complaining. Scott was ecstatic to realize that he will have a fishing buddy!
Orrin's first fish! 
If you ever call our house and talk to Orrin, I cannot guarantee that he isn't doing this... (I went downstairs for something and came back up to find that he had dragged both of these out into the living room)
We finally got his sandbox set up (with a little too much sand, oops). He likes it almost as much as his pool.
Helping Scott re-assemble the crib in the baby's room.
Because he got a fabulous toddler bed (thanks Eddie and Amie!) for his room! It made me sad when we first moved everything because his room looks so grown up now, no more changing table or crib. One of these days we'll get around to decorating the walls a bit. But the toddler bed went over very well, he doesn't try to get out ever, and he's only fallen out a couple of times. Much less of a battle than we thought it would be!
If you are wondering what to get Orrin for his birthday coming up, I think he'd like one of these...
Or maybe just a lake in the front yard. He just loves the water!
Yet another one of him helping. This was a great moment for me as Orrin vacuumed the kitchen and Scott got the rest of the house!
Well, maybe someday I'll update on life for Scott and I - he has done a ton of work on the landscaping and garden, and we've done some fun projects inside as well.
