What happened in February ?

February flew. 
We did some drastic yard work - a 15-20' high photinia bordering our neighbors to the south was reduced to 2' one afternoon with our new chainsaw.  It makes such a difference!  We can actually see our neighbors now, our yard is bigger, and we are getting more light!  The drawback is that it was really a leggy shrub, so the remaining shrub is very twiggy - well, stumpy.  So we'll see if by the end of the summer it grows any fresh new leaves.  Otherwise, it's outta there.  We also pruned our quince and forsythia down to the ground.  After four years, it was time for a universal severe pruning.  Our yard feels a little naked now.

I got out the ol' bike trailer, and gave the kids a ride in it.  Wow, that's ~75 lbs. of resistance!  So maybe summer-time will be about the bike and not the gym?

In February, Dean started moving away from the little red potty in favor of the toilet!  Which means, of course, that we don't have to clean out the potty constantly.  A little respite before Fiona starts up.

And finally, Fiona developed new words!
Besides "Mama" and "Daddy", "uppy" = pick me up, "De" = Dean, and "hep" = help.

She also signs: "all done", which is waving her hands around.  Mainly she does this at the end of meals, but lately it's also in the middle of diaper changes, or when I'm trying to get her dressed and she wants to play, or when we're at the store and she wants out of the cart.  It's such a simple thing to say, but it seems to have many applications.  I think I'll start using this at work.  All done with this meeting, all done with this project,  all done with sitting at this desk.

All done with this blog post.