Baby, It's Cold Outside!

The View From Here

We've been pleasantly busy and blogger's been refusing to let me upload pictures. There are worse reasons for a blogging absence, right? Last weeked we were on the run every day, Lake Farmpark, Papa's birthday, and the Ohio RV expo.  The IX center has a massive Ferris Wheel that goes right out through the ceiling.  The girls were enthralled. Nana and I were dizzy. 

We had a great time celebrating Papa's birthday and painting in the basement.  The girls are getting better and more patient with their artwork and really taking pride in the finished products. Yesterday Naomi drew a rocket ship that actually looks lke a rocket ship! At least to me.  I asked Amanda what she thought it was and she guessed "fish on a stick."  We've decied to put it in the museum of modern art.

Speaking of museums, we've been to the Natural History Museum twice in the last few weeks.  It's funny; some of the exhibits haven't changed a whit since I went in elementary school.  The informational blurbs are actually written on a typewriter. But they have added and changed lots of things, too.  The planetarium is delightful and they have a show just for the preschool set with Big Bird and Elmo showing us around the nighttime sky.  An interactive discovery center in the basement  has lots of things to touch and sort and learn about.  Today there was a helpful table of Case Western students to teach Lillian about polymers.  She was thrilled. Mostly because they demonstration involved a string of beads. To your right is Naomi, the Dinosaur Ballerina.

And, saving the best for last:

 Perhaps you can't tell from the photos, but no one is wearing a diaper in any of these pictures!! We are unofficially/officially potty trained!!

Baby Birds

The girls spent about 40 minutes tonight in this giant box, pretending it was a nest.  They chirped and tweeted and made worms out of playdough.  They flapped their wings and hid in the nesting. This first photo is Naomi feeding baby bird Lillian some milk.

Lillian, arranging her nest materials

Tweet! Tweet!

Happy New Year!

Here is the dance party at our Second Anual Rockin' New Toddler's Eve Party.  We won't be able to call it that next year, but New Preschooler's Eve just doesn't have the same ring to it.  I hope you all had an equally festive time.  Here's to a grand new year with all the adventures it holds.  (2013 is the fifth calendar year the girls have seen!!)

Long Nights

December has indeed been a month of long, dark nights. I am happy, for so many reasons, to be adding daylight back to our lives in tiny increments. I gave up on posting for a while because I just could not put into words all the things I needed to say. 

William's brother, Jim, passed away unexpectedly last week.  In the midst of our personal mourning, the tragedy in Newtown, CT. 

I felt like I was unable to come here and share cute pictures and anecdotes until I figured out how to air my feelings about these tragedies. But, no.  I have decided that these are not necessarily things I need to delve into in the public realm of the blogosphere.  Just know that we have been hugging these girls a lot and that helps. So, we will get back to posting pictures and stories for your dose of virtual hugs.

 

 It's a Christmas Miracle!  After several encounters with different Santas, this guy was apparently the real deal.  Previously, the closest we'd gotten was for Lillian to high-five the jolly old elf while Naomi huddled in our arms.  But this one?  They just walked up to him.  He asked if they wanted to sit on his lap and up they scrambled, all smiling like they'd done this a million times before.

We were at the Botanical Gardens to take this year's Christmas photos.  Which also went remarkably well, as you may have seen on our cards. Tiffany's great at very efficient shots, getting it done before everyone loses it.  Below are some of the configurations that didn't make it to the card.



Our happy little polygamist family. Thinking about doing a reality show.

  Christmas itself proved to be the shining light in the darkest part of the season, just as it should be.

Nana, Papa and Grandma came out to spend the day and help the girls contribute to what might be next year's wrapping paper shortage. Here is the first part of the carnage:

 Among the favorite gifts? A camera.  As soon as Lillian figures out how to stop taking pictures of her own eyeball, I'm hiring her as the full time photographer for the blog.

Never a Dull Moment

This might have been my longest absence ever from the blogosphere.  Fear not, dear readers, we have been packing in as much fun and fraught times as I think I can handle in that time.  Where to begin?

The girls had a positively delightful birthday party the weekend after you last heard from me.  We had to postpone it due to our week without power, but waiting made it even lovelier.  Nana schlepped in all the supplies--streamers, goody bags for the guests, soup, games, balloons, plates, forks, ribbon sticks, the dollhouse we gave to the girls.  I bought a veggie tray. 

I left said veggie tray in the refrigerator and did not remember it until I tried to put away the leftovers from the soup Nana made.

Here is a teeming hoard of children who were way excited about the fishing for letters game that Nana made from scratch and brought for everyone to play.

 Here is Naomi, victoriously claiming a letter.

We opened wonderful gifts from guests and family.  Naomi was extraordinarily happy about this dog guitar.

Lillian would like you to check out her boots.

Everyone was excited about cake.

So that all went well.  Really.  And then the girls went back to school and Naomi was walking across the room and she stumbled and fell.  No big deal.  Except she refused to put any weight on it.  At all. Remember, this is the girl who literally laughed in the face of pain as her lip swelled up when she fell in the driveway. So I left work in a frenzy, took her to the pediatrician, then to the med center to get xrays.  Those came back clear but we had an appointment with an orthopedic specialist for the following Monday if she didn't improve. After a weekend of beautiful weather, she couldn't even be enticed to walk at the zoo. Instead, she rolled wherever she wanted to go.  Needless to say, we kept our appointment.

Naomi ended up in a hot pink cast, but only for 10 days.  She handled it like a trooper, only asking to take it off once. In fact, once she got used to it, she refused even the discussion of having it taken off.  Lots of folks signed the cast, which made it even better.  So good that she cried when it was being cut off, yelling, "My people!  My people names!" Thankfully, we were able to bring it home and William epoxied it back together and she's bringing it to school for Show and Tell tomorrow.

In that 10 days, we had Thanksgiving and that was lovely and peaceful and everything that it should be.The girls helped Granny make the stuffing.  Lillian discovered that French Chocolate Silk cream pie really is the best thing ever and tried to steal it from Brad. Both girls were markedly disappointed that Brad did not sing before dinner on Saturday as he had on Thursday.

These are stories that I intend to come back to, but it's after 10 pm and my brain is made of mush.  Oh, and William had a kidney stone inside those 10 days, too, and he was in miserable awful pain for, like, 72 hours and we were in the emergency room and percoset is great and that's all better now.

I'm really glad our power is on.

Mush.

20 Questions

I saw this idea on another website and I've decided to steal it.  There's a list of 20 simple questions to ask a child on their birthday.  You record the answers and the  ask the same questions each year to see how the answers change.  I figured it would be a fun thing to try, but didn't expect it to make much sense.  With my printed questionnaire in hand, I sat down with the girls at lunch to interview them, Barbara Walters, style.  Well, aside from not knowing what cereal is, they blew this one out of the water.

Below are the answers of these amazing 3 year olds who live in my house.


                                                                                       Naomi                                                      Lillian

1. What is your favorite color?                            
Pink                                                            Blue


2. What is your favorite toy                                 
Caterpillar                                                  Basketball

3. What is your favorite fruit?                             
Banana Orange                                         Banana Orange

4. What is your favorite tv show?                      
Chica                                                          Super Why

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  
 Hot dogs                                                   Pancakes

6. What is your favorite outfit?                          
 Pink                                                            Blue

7. What is your favorite game?                            Matching                                                   My friends

8. What is your favorite snack?                               
Cheddar Bunnies                                     Bread

9. What is your favorite animal?                             
 Giraffe (balloon)                                       Giraffe

10. What is your favorite song?                            
"You are My Sunshine"                        "Hello, Bye"

11. What is your favorite book?                          Olivia                                                           "Pinkalicous"

12. Who is your best friend?                                  Lillian                                                          Joey

13. What is your favorite cereal?                         
Black                                                          Orange

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?      
Toys, like a puppy                                   My friends

15. What is your favorite drink?                          
Chocolate Milk                                          Milk

16. What is your favorite holiday?                      
Candy                                                         Halloween

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? 
Puppy                                          Puppy and Blankie

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  
Sausage                                          Hot dogs

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? 
Cake                                                  Cake

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? 
A big boy                                             At Nana's House