When not outside, the boys and I had fun building with Legos and constructing fun things with our Nugget (the blue foam cushions in the picture that we use to make forts, tents, mountains, steps, ball arenas, etc.).
Ruth has really found her voice and loves to "talk" while playing on the floor. She is also getting better at rolling, allowing her to start to get around just a bit in the playroom. Micah is still her biggest fan and loves to cuddle (also known as half smothering her), though she mostly seems to love it. Both boys will read to her and bring her toys to play with, as well as talk to her. I have a feeling she will be another early talker with all of the interaction she gets already! Meanwhile, Ezra has begun to enter the terrible 3's (3 was much worse for Micah behaviorally than 2 was and Ezra looks to follow suit) a little early with some really fun defiance, screaming, and tantrum fits throughout the day. It's really incredible the drastic switch that can occur between sweet, cuddly Ezra and defiant Ezra. Ezra also has his first major game obsession: Memory (or "the matching game"). He will play with anyone he can rope into a game, or by himself if no one can play, and he will play all day long! Similarly, Micah is cruising through a few different obsessions right now. He is obsessed with chess and plays with Matt whenever he can, or he plays games by himself or teaches Ezra to play with him. If he's not playing chess than he is most likely working on his maze book, which he will work on for an hour at a time doing maze, after maze, after maze. And when he can't do either of those because we are eating a meal or driving in the car, he is working math problems in his head for fun. He likes to come up with different ways to make the same number (this is all his doing) and then he will explain to me all the ways he came up with to make 8, for example (4 and 4, 7 and 1, 8 and 0, etc). It's really fun to watch him figure out how numbers work on his own. He also has learned (once again self driven) to count to 100 and beyond in the last couple of weeks and will count aloud as we drive all the way from 0 to 100. I'm constantly amazed at how much my children learn all on their own by just providing them with a lot of books and talking to them about them as well as their personal interests. It's a lot of fun to watch them grow!