Winter Update

This is long overdue. We have been having a nice winter, in spite of the large amounts of snow we have been getting. Unfortunately we did not take any pictures of the snow at its peak, but here are some before the last few storms. Our front yard ended up being completely full of snow. Isaac has really enjoyed playing in it. He and Aleks made a fort in the backyard and he likes to crawl in the snow. Now that we have had rain followed by freezing and the snow is like ice we are not playing in it so much.

Thankfully our roof has been in great shape. The roof over an addition to the house needed a little shoveling off. Aleks crawled out there from the boys' room and we had fun watching.



When the bike path behind our house was really snow-packed, we would take nice walks with the kids in the sled. They liked that.

Isaac has been his usual active self. Yesterday he turned three, so there will be more photos on the festivities for that when I get around to blogging again.

He and Aleks continue to enjoy a nice relationship. I think that this will continue to be the trend as he gets in to playing with specific toys and imaginary play. Aleks is so much better at that than I am.

William is ridiculously cute and a lot of fun. He is saying DaDadadadada and Mamamamamamama. I think that he even knows what they mean.

He is a really happy kid and pretty easy-going.

He really likes getting outside, even when it is cold.

He has a really chubby belly and a nice set of love handles. His pants are all a bit tight, even though he is wearing a mix of 18month and 24 month pants. The 24 month pants are generally big enough around, but too long. True fat man pants!

William is totally in love with the bath tub. It is unfortunate since he is a bit top heavy, so we have to keep a close eye on him when he is anywhere near it.

Not sure if it is possible to see that his feet are not touching the ground here. I think that we need to bath him more, since he clearly is not getting his fix of it.

This is the favorite drawer in the kitchen. I like it when they play nice together.

I am determined to teach my boys how to cook. So far Isaac is interested.

This week Aleks pulled out his wig from his wild single years.

Isaac wanted one so he pulled out a hat that he got when he was a missionary for our church in Russia. Isaac liked that a lot.

You know that you are the parent of a toddler when...

1. You respond to the fictitious names of Sally, Chick Hicks, Diesel, Lightening McQueen, etc.
2. You know Thomas and all of his friends.
3. When you finally get a night out with your spouse, you find that you talk about your kids' bowel movements.
4. Elmo's Potty Time is up next on your Netflix queue.
5. You catch yourself over-annunciating and using simple words when talking to your spouse.
6. pbskids.org is bookmarked.
7. A large portion of the food you consume is partially eaten and/or has been sitting on a small plate for a while.
8. You find yourself humming or whistling toddler tunes at work.
9. You get really excited when you see someone dressed up as a Sesame Street or Disney character because you know that your kid will give a great reaction.

Feel free to add your own.

Our elven decorator

Isaac has been inspired by the decorating we did for Christmas and has recently developed a flare for putting out decorations. The other day I was giving William lunch and heard him in toy room talking about decorating. This was what it looked like afterward.

Apparently decorating means emptying out the contents of all his toy bins. William likes his style.

Last night he tried on some new pajamas and he was a big fan of them. Aleks helped him complete the outfit so he looked like an elf.

He insisted on wearing the pajamas all day today and is sleeping in them right now. I must admit it was kind of nice to not have to chase him around to change his clothes today.

Christmas!

We had an awesome Christmas. We did not travel (hurrah! finally!) and family came to visit us. It was ridiculously fun. Christmas Eve we had a lot of family over (14 adults and 4 kids age 2 and under). We attempted the nativity with the kids. Isaac was a great cow and mooed a lot. Henry was a really cute shepherd. William was in bed and it lasted about 30 seconds (if even). Maybe next year the kids will have a slightly longer attention span.

Christmas morning was nice and leisurely. We ate a good breakfast. Isaac opened his stocking present in that time and was thrilled. I think that we could have stopped there (trains and cars!).

We had one meltdown when Isaac found out that he could not open all of the presents under the tree. He got over it pretty quick.

One of my favorite gifts for the kids was an indoor bounce house. I got this for them (and me) last summer on a July clearance. Isaac LOVES it.

Grandma Kay got the kids matching outfits. It is the first time they have been dressed in the same clothes. (I will add that this photo was incredibly hard to take. We have lots of one or both of them crying or crawling or running away).

Puzzle time!

Pre-christmas December

Catch up time...

We had a great December. Isaac had several visits with Santa, which seemed to serve him well on Christmas morning. It seems that Santa understood when he whispered "Diesel" and "all the engines".

We also got to have cousin Benny come over for a while so his parents could go out. We had a lot of fun.

William continues to be super cute and super chubby. He just started to crawl, so I fear that some of the chubbiness might start to melt away. He is nine months old and wearing 18month clothes. Some of those are a little tight, though.

He seems to always need something in his mouth. Poor playmobil girl did not know what hit her (or bit her).

He still has the helmet, but seems to be making great progress. We are optimistic that the helmet should be staying on the shelf soon.

Girls

Isaac and I had a good conversation in the car. I think that this is the beginning of many more open communications between mother and son. It began with me asking about a female friend at daycare. He told me that she pushed him. Then he mentioned another girl who has pushed him. We talked about how to respond to pushing (I was careful not to mention that we should not push back for fear of the power of suggestion-he does not need any suggestions for that). We discussed and practiced say: "Please don't push me" (he did great). Then he said the following:

"Girls aren't good for me. I don't like to play with girls, they push me. Boys are good for me. They don't push me. Boys are fun to play with."

YES!!! Just the attitude that we have been aiming for. Keep those girls at a distance until his twenties. I suspect that we still might have to resort to our original plan of assisting the development of social awkwardness (should not be hard since we can easily lead by example there), wearing the same clothes for the whole week, and wearing a coat at all time to cover said clothes.

When I grow up, I will be...

Tonight we were looking at a picture of Jesus as a boy and talking about him growing up. Isaac said that he is going to get bigger and become a horse. I asked him what he will do then and he said live in a barn, eat hay and become a cow. He proceeded to rattle off all the other farm animals that he will become after that. I think it might be tricky to impress on him that being born in a stable/barn is not the greatest thing in the world. Maybe next Christmas he will understand that Jesus was not the luckiest kid in the world in that respect.