January

I know that it's winter and everything, but we are quite ready to be done with winter weather around here. In January, we have had several bouts with snow, one that dumped several inches on us and shut down most schools for a week. We tried to make the most of it on the first day by building the requisite snowman. The kids had fun for a while and the snowman stuck around for several days...because it took that long for temps to get back above freezing! After the snowman adventure, neither kid expressed any interest in going outside for more snow play--which was fine by me!

Very little happened during the month that was truly blog-worthy. But I did capture a couple of slice-of-life moments that I want to remember. First, it must be tough being a little brother with a big sister. Ethan looks up to her so much and wants to do everything she does. So it makes perfect sense that when Kaitlyn dresses up in a costume necklace that he would want to participate as well. And Kaitlyn eagerly indulges him. I wonder at what point he will realize that boys usually aren't thrilled to wear pink necklaces?

At least he has a "manly" shirt on :)

My birthday turned out to be a gorgeous day weather-wise--finally a much-needed break from the cold dreariness! So we eagerly packed up the kids and headed outside for the day. My aviation-loving husband suggested we go to the Fly-In at a local airport. The kids, of course, absolutely loved seeing all the planes up close. And there was plenty of room for them to run around and work off lots of energy.

They had an old restored World War II (?) fighter plane at the Fly-In. We got to watch it take off and fly around a bit. Pretty cool!

Kaitlyn is really, really into artwork these days. Give her some paper and some writing utensils (preferably markers or colored pencils), throw in some stickers, and she is good to go for at least an hour. She loves writing her name (and other words) and drawing pictures of things--things that I can actually recognize! She can write about half of the alphabet well and the other half--well, she's still working on those :) Ethan, of course, is right there with her, coloring on his pages and making his own art. Every once in a while, he'll bring me a crayon and announce its color, then he'll return to his project. It's really quite cute--not to mention a life-saver when I really need them occupied for a while.

On this particular day, the kids were happily coloring together when I decided to get out the Dustbuster and clean a bit. Both kids love to help with chores (in fact, they're downright giddy when I announce that it's time to put away laundry. Wonder how long that will last?). So Ethan dropped his crayons and came begging to help with the vacuuming. Notice that Kaitlyn is still at her art table, a little less eager to leave her project...until she sees Ethan with the Dustbuster. Now I've already mentioned that Ethan loves to do whatever Kaitlyn is doing, but it's actually a two-way street. Kaitlyn can't stand to see Ethan getting a "privilege" that she isn't getting, especially one that comes with attention from a parent. So about 2 seconds after I took this picture of Ethan below, guess who drops her crayons and comes begging for her "turn."

Yep, you guessed it! Now if I could only find a way to foster this enthusiasm of chores so that it doesn't fade as they get older!!

Christmas!

Christmas with a 3.5 year old and a 1.5 year old is SO much fun! Kaitlyn was really excited about the idea of Santa and his reindeer this year. She dutifully left out cookies and milk for the big guy and carrots for Rudolph. Sorry Dancer, Prancer, et al. No goodies for you this year! Ethan was still pretty clueless about the whole Santa thing, but Kaitlyn's excitement was contagious and he got into the spirit too.

When we all got up the next morning, I was expecting unbridled enthusiasm from Kaitlyn as she ran into the living room to see what Santa brought. And she was very excited when she first got up. But when she actually walked into the living room, I think the idea of a strange, odd-looking man coming into our house while she was asleep and leaving presents became a bit overwhelming. The picture below reflects my kids' personalities beautifully. Kaitlyn watching and figuring out everything from a comfortable distance and Ethan diving head first into the fun-looking toy. Santa brought the kids a train set and (wisely) left a note saying that it was for both of them and that he wanted them to share it. Other than a few skirmishes over who gets to play with which train, we haven't had any major incidents...yet.

As you can see, though, Kaitlyn quickly warmed up to the idea of unwrapping new toys.

The only thing she wanted from Santa this year was a horse puzzle. I'm not really sure where she got that idea. She loves puzzles, but the horse-theme was quite random. Nevertheless, Santa brought her what she asked for and she was absolutely delighted. I think she's only worked it once since she got it though. Good thing it didn't cost Santa a lot of money :)

This is what Ethan did most of the morning. Occasionally we were able to tear him away for a few minutes to open another present.

He was pretty awestruck by this large present...for about 5 seconds. Then he moved on to other things. I don't think he understood that there was a toy inside the box. He never once indicated a desire to open the box and see what was inside. I guess he thought we just gave him an empty box with a fun picture on the outside?? Since he had so many other toys that he was already interested in, I decided to hide it away for a rainy/snowy day when we're all in need of a new toy distraction to maintain sanity. I wonder if he'll remember it at all when I pull it out again in a few weeks...probably not!

Mom and Jim came up to Nashville again this year on Christmas Day. We were a little nervous about road conditions that morning because of the snow we had received, but it all worked out okay. I had a lot of fun cooking the big Christmas meal and was so thankful that we didn't have to pack the kids up and travel with them.

After Christmas, we all headed to Memphis to celebrate with Jeff's family at his sister's house. His parents drove down from New Jersey and his grandparents flew up from Florida. 14 people (10 adults and 4 kids under age 4!) all staying in one house. Lots of craziness but tons of fun! We took pictures of the present-opening extravaganza, but apparently forgot to take any other pictures during our stay :(

Here, Ethan is opening a present from Mimi and Papa...and is surprised to hear their voices coming from the book! I'd never seen a recordable book before. What a neat idea!

Ethan and Daddy opening a truck present.

A sweet picture of Uncle Andrew showing Kaitlyn how to work her new ladybug toy.

Mimi made Kaitlyn and me matching aprons. Kaitlyn loves helping me cook, and she insists that we wear our aprons now when we're working together in the kitchen.

I'm already looking forward to Christmas in 2011 when Ethan will be a little older and Kaitlyn will hopefully be even more excited than she was this year. I love Christmas with kids!!!

Preschool Christmas Program and Party

Kaitlyn's preschool Christmas program was this week. Do you see her? She's in the middle, right behind the girl with the green bow. After singing the songs around the house over and over for the past few weeks, she got a little case of stage fright and refused to sing onstage--along with about half the kids in the program. In fact, if it hadn't been for the four-year olds who sang nice and loud, it would have been mostly silent. I think I saw about four of the 2's and 3's actually singing :) I can understand why they were nervous though. It looked like the paparazzi had invaded our building when the kids walked in. I think every parent and grandparent there (us included) had a camera in one hand clicking away and a video camera in the other. Flashes were going off everywhere. You'd have thought that an A-list celebrity had just walked in! We parents are truly a silly bunch sometimes!

After the program, the kids dismissed to their classes for their Christmas party. And we had two special visitors--Santa and Mrs. Claus! If you look closely, you may be able to see the chocolate on her chin that was left over from the snowman doughnut she scarfed down before getting on Santa's lap. This child truly loves her sweets. I was waiting for our sometimes "too observant" child to notice that this Santa looked different from the one we saw at church. But fortunately, she was too caught up in the excitement to notice.

We simply love Kaitlyn's teachers this year (Miss Betsy and Miss Jeannie). They are so perfect for her and she has learned so much. She thinks her teachers are the greatest and was eager to give them presents and have a picture taken with them.

Kaitlyn with Mommy and Daddy (Ethan was at his Mother's Day Out program)

Kaitlyn with Mommy, Daddy and Gran.

Tis the Season

Now that my first semester as a doctoral student is officially over, I can finally get around to all the other things that have been put on the back burner for the past few weeks...like our blog!

We've been very busy with yuletide fun lately. We put up our tree right after Thanksgiving. If we're going to spend all that time and effort decorating the house, I want to enjoy it for a nice long time :) The kids were excited to see all the shiny, glittery stuff coming down from the attic and were all too eager to help decorate.

Although Ethan looks a little bah-humbug in the picture below, I assure you that he was actually having fun overall. By our fifteenth (futile) attempt to get both kids looking and smiling at the same time, he was all done with the merriment.

Kaitlyn was really into decorating the tree this year. I had a hard time convincing her, though, not to put four ornaments on the same branch. So I finally just gave up on that one and did some stealth redistribution after she went to bed. Ethan was bored after the first two ornaments and left us to go play. Probably just as well.

Our first big event of the season was our church's annual Family Breakfast. It's a time of food, crafts, singing and, of course, pictures with Santa. We did the pictures first to get them out of the way while moods were still good. And the picture below says it all about our time with the big guy this year.

Kaitlyn sweetly smiling and Ethan making his unhappiness well known to all. Every kid needs a good screaming-on-Santa's-lap picture though. I personally think the picture is adorable :)

After quick crafts and breakfast, we headed back to the auditorium to take pictures with the festive backdrop. Again, Kaitlyn smiling sweetly...

Ethan, of course, is not interested in (1) smiling, (2) looking at the camera or (3) staying in one spot. I was tempted to post a series of photos showing just how squirmy he was, but I'm sure I would be the only one who would find that amusing.

Here's a nice look at his snowman sweater, though. Maybe that's why he was so uncooperative for pictures...payback for having to wear the cute sweater.

Next was Opryland Hotel, which was oozing with Christmas cheer and lights. One of our favorites is this enormous Christmas tree. As Kaitlyn would say, "It's the biggest tree EVER!"

And we got a little Winter Wonderland as an early Christmas present this year. It rarely snows in December here, but this year we were "treated" to an inch or two of snow. I say "treated" because it was SO cold outside that the kids couldn't really play outside for more than a few minutes. Ethan wasn't quite sure what to make of it all. He was perplexed by his mittens and baffled by the feel of the snow under his feet. But he was happy to walk around and explore for a bit.

Kaitlyn, on the other hand, is an old pro at this now. She immediately started on a snowman. She obviously didn't get very far before it was time to go in, but it was good enough for her. He hung around for a couple of days, too.

Personally, I hope that we fulfilled our snow quota for several weeks!! I don't like being outside in the cold!!

The Zoo

Last Saturday was such a gorgeous day that Jeff and I wanted to do something fun outside. So we took the kids to the zoo! The last time we went was 2 years ago when I was pregnant with Ethan (and not thrilled with all the walking), it was blazing hot, and Kaitlyn had a total meltdown when she got sunscreen in her eyes. A lot of the animals were not very visible and we decided to leave after seeing less than half of the exhibits. Did I mention that I was pregnant and miserable?? Yeah, not such a fun time for me.

But THIS time was much different. The weather was perfect, the animals were happy to be out and close to the viewing areas, the kids were having a blast, and I was most definitely not pregnant :) We got an awesome view of the giraffe (can you see its tongue sticking out?) and the monkeys decided to show off by swinging through the trees and calling out to each other. It was the coolest thing to watch--I had no idea monkeys could be so loud! We walked around the entire zoo and ended up on the really awesome playground. Now that we've had such a great experience there, maybe we won't wait 2 years until our next visit!

Here are some other pictures from our trip.

At the new flamingo exhibit

At the petting zoo

Jumping in the play area

Halloween Fun

Halloween is so much fun when you have cute little kiddos to dress up. This year, Kaitlyn was a cat (because she loves cats and it was a really simple costume to put together) and Ethan was a monkey. We went to our church's annual Trunk-or-Treat on Sunday and the kids got loads of candy.

Ethan wasn't too sure about the monkey costume. He cried when we first put it on him, but he finally decided to tolerate it...although I don't think he ever smiled while it was on.

Is he not the cutest little monkey? Of course it was 75 degrees out and the costume was fleece, so that may have had something to do with his dislike of the costume!

We didn't want him to overheat, so we let him take a break while Kaitlyn finished her rounds. He was quite content to empty out the contents of his pumpkin one by one and then put them all back in one at a time.

Here's Kaitlyn in her cat costume before her preschool party. She loved the face paint.

And no Halloween festivities would be complete without the carving of the jack-o-lantern! Kaitlyn helped me scoop out all the seeds and goop. Then the kids watched with fascination as Jeff carved the pumpkin.

What is it about candles that are so mesmerizing to little kids?

One last noteworthy event. Jeff and I spent most of Halloween weekend in the mountains of North Carolina by ourselves...no kids! Thanks, mom, for letting us enjoy some much-needed adult time!