Springtime words

I get disgruntled email from colder climates if I write about spring too early in the year, so I've been trying to hold off. But I can't wait any longer! Our average high for March is 65 degrees, which is nothing to complain about, but for over a week we have had even warmer weather -- we even had a few days where it was 80 degrees. Not to further encourage the disgruntled emailers, but it was too hot for this early in the year -- I've been going crazy in the garden, moving plants around willy-nilly, and instead of being able to rely on the rain, I have had to water the plants by hand.

We've been spending all our time playing (and gardening) in the yard, and Isaac has learned to say a number of appropriate brand new words:

• barbecue
• bug
  
• coo-coo (the call of the mourning dove)
• daffodil
• daisy
• ladybug
• log (he likes to sit on a log in our yard)
• mourning dove (they're nesting now)
  
• orchid
  
• outside
• plant (noun)
• sunblock
• umbrella (the one to block the sun on the patio table)
• weed (verb)
  
• worm
  
• yard

Old words like dirt, dig, and bird are also getting a lot of use.

Besides daffodil (pronounced da-doo), you would understand most of these words. His pronunciation is improving hourly, even with a busted lip. It's sad, in a way, to hear our old favorite babyish Izzyisms fade away in favor of the proper word: mee-mee has become man, and ba-ba is now bread. Instead we have cute toddler mispronunciations: we have hort for horse, and tuck for cut.