Spring has sprung!

Spring has been incredibly busy in the Kramer household. We wrapped up our first session of Music Together classes. Leah absolutely adored them - she loved going to class every Saturday morning and she became even more obsessed with music, instruments, signing songs, dancing, etc. Truly, she spends about 85% of her waking hours singing away! She always sings in the car, and in the morning we are gently awakened by a 15 to 20 minute compilation of whatever happens to come to her mind. She has her favorite songs from music class and a variety of others, too - everything from all verses and hand motions of Wheels on the Bus to Zippididoodah!

We've also been doing our best to prepare for the impending arrival of the twins. Many people have asked whether or not Leah understands what will soon happen. We all understand, in theory, what it will be like to have little twin brothers at home, but I'm confident none of us are truly prepared. I will post more about the twins progress soon. One of the biggest differences, though, is the timing. We were thrilled to hit 32 weeks on March 21st (a big developmental milestone), and since then, it has felt like they could, potentially, come at any time. Fortunately, they are staying put, but it is unsettling to go week by week (ultrasound by ultrasound). Recently, we asked Leah what we should name her brothers. Without missing a beat, she said, "Brother John." This, of course, makes perfect sense when one of your favorite songs is Frere Jacques! We then asked her about her other brother. After a brief pause, she decided that his name should be Corduroy. So, for all of you wondering, John and Corduroy it is!

We've been fortunate to see Aunt Sara, Kristin, Em and Josh a couple of times this spring. We visited them at a hotel pool, and Leah could not get enough of the water! She resisted coming out of the water, shivering, on four different occasions, and then insisted upon going back in again. She's going to love the lake even more this summer!

We visited one of my colleagues, Betsy, on a Sunday afternoon in April. She generously offered for us to borrow the crib that all three of her children used. Her children are now all in grad school, and she's hanging on to it for grandchildren, but felt it was safe for us to store it for the next three years or so! Betsy and her husband Len live on five acres of land with a pond (still frozen over), bees, chickens, and a huge garden space. Leah got to meet the chickens up close and helped collect some of their eggs - great practice for Easter! She also had a ball running around in the garden mud with the chickens.

We drove to Boston to celebrate Easter with Aunt Sara, Kris, Em, Josh, and Nila. However, before our trip we had to prep Leah with our own little Easter egg hunt at home. The Easter bunny came during her nap, and she quickly picked up on the process. Prior to her nap, we asked her what she thought the Easter Bunny might bring her. After thinking for a moment, she decided that it made the most amount of sense for the Easter Bunny to bring carrots! So, we did fill some of her eggs with carrots! And, Erik and I are thrilled to start this new tradition!

For some reason, we didn't take any pictures on Easter Sunday itself - I think Erik may have some on his phone. As always, we enjoyed seeing our cousins and Leah really realized how much she likes candy and chocolate! So much for carrots!

Here are a few cute shots of Leah. She's really into the concept of two. She's been able to count up to 20 for a while now, but the concept behind each amount is different. So, every morning I ask her if she wants one or two ponies (pony tails / pig tails), and recently she insists upon "two ponies with two clips, please." Pretty darn adorable, if you ask me!

Finally, Leah recently transitioned to a "big girl bed." She's done remarkably well - she hasn't fallen out yet (we don't have a guard), and we're pleased to report that her bed time routine is so ingrained that she hasn't decided to get out of bed for any reason. She is SO good - her only request is to have the light on so she can "read" in bed, and she's even amenable to us turning this off after 5 minutes or so. How did we get so lucky? We can only hope the twins don't have payback in mind....

Night, night!