Tada!

This weekend has been a great weekend.  It was one of those weekends that everything seems to go right and you start the week feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. Sunday, Tae came over and helped me organize the basement.  In preparation of the event, I purchased some shelving earlier in the week and Mike put it together.  Working together and chatting, it took us just under 4 hours to turn my basement from cluttered mess (that there were literally little paths to navigate your way through) to this:

So Clean!

Huge success!!!  Next steps are to put shelves over the laundry area, install a clothes line, and then move on to organizing the formal dining room (which we use as an office/changing area for Derek).  The basement organization was the first step in this process so I have a place to put the extra desk from upstairs and really convert that room into a playroom for Derek.

Our great weekend continued into Monday evening.  We were all sitting down eating supper together.  Derek really wasn't eating very much, but his food options were ones we knew he liked.  We've learned not to push food on toddlers and to let them eat as they are hungry.  (Plus, I always check in with daycare to make sure that he is eating at least one good meal a day and that it's not a systemic issue). We asked him if he wanted more (using sign language to indicate more) or all done (which he lifts his hands in the air, palms out).  He looked at us and held out his right hand and signed milk perfectly.  Mike and I both stared at each other and asked, "Did you see what I just saw?  Did he just sign milk?"  We both saw the same thing so we gave him some milk to drink.  He sucked it down and asked for more.  He drank two glasses of milk and was happy as could be.  Milk was the very first sign we started doing with him back when he was about 7 months old.  Finally, after 4 months, he got it.    :-)