Musical Notes

Pip has an awesome music teacher at school and he loves music class.  She's always making it fun and teaching them great ways to think about music.  He loves it.  He come home this day telling me al about notes and how the symbols mean different things.  On note is "doo", two notes connected is "doo-deh", and backwards C with a squiggly means to pause, and so on.  Soon he was writing notes on the board and demonstrating for me!

Valentine's Photoshoot

All will be revealed when you receive her Valentine!!!!

Sounds that make Meg laugh

Here are some sounds that Meg thinks are hysterical.

Sharing

Sharing a bowl of cereal may take the concept a step too far.

Gymnastics

Here's Vivie waiting for her first gymnastics class of the new session.  She's very excited.

Here are her and Pip showing off their headstands, thanks to said gym class.

Sledders need a hill

This year has been the Polar opposite (pun intended ... ha, ha) of last year in terms of snow.  Barely anything and what we do get is usually a dusting that melts the next day.  Finally we got a decent 4 inches on Saturday morning.  Pip was VERY excited!   Too bad we don't have much of a hill for sledding ...

Still searching for that hill ...

Eventually Dad got involved and made things happen.  Had to construct our own hill over the stairs.

Not too fast, but better than nothing!!

Meanwhile, I was itching to try out the new snowblower.  Works great!!  Took me some practice to figure out how to aim it so as not to completely blow the snow onto the Patterson's driveway.  In the meantime, I may have blown some snow directly into Phil ... but really, who stands anywhere near the front of me and this thing???

Pip also led the way to the construction of a snow tunnel.  About the biggest possible given the measly snow.

Making Meg Laugh

Meg had a rough last few weeks between teething and now getting an ear infection and the croup.  We finally get her some serious meds (antibiotics, steriod, and a dose on the nebulizer) and all of a sudden she was her happy self again.

Her Viv & Pip are making her laugh with their wild Peek-a-Boo game:

Making Lunch

The night before this I went to the Celtics game with work.  I came home to find out Pip got a fast moving nasty bug .. and had puked 4 times while I was out.  All right around bedtime, by the front door, in the hall, in his bed, then in the tent.  Ugh.

Kept him home from school the next day and he was completely fine.  I felt a little woozy and was moving slow but didn't get it too bad.  Luckily Pip was in a helpful mood.  

He shooed Vivie and I away, insisting we leave him completely alone ... for a long time.  I thought he was maybe building something or making some sort of mess.  But when he called us downstairs (we were upstairs reading together ... which is something Vivie loves to do with me) ... we found he had made lunch for all of us!!

PB & J, cornbread, and milk for all!!!

Nice job Pip!

Pip's learning to read

Pip has been steadily working toward reading in kindergarten.  First getting the letters down pat.  Then the sounds each one makes.  Now he's stringing the sounds together to form words.  At least a few times each week he gets homework and sits down with Phil to grind it out.  His confidence is growing and it shows.  This was the highlight of my day.  My week.

First clean plate in 4 months

That might be exaggerating, but sometimes it feels like it.  I swear, these kids do not respond to starvation as a tactic for getting them to eat their dinners.  They will wait it out.  Must've caught Pip on a good night tonight, though.  Ate a full scoop of pasta with tomato sauce, buttered bread, and a healthy pile of broccoli.  Didn't think it was possible.

Camping in

We had a windy day and it made our lights flicker ever-so-faintly.  Pip was on it.  Get the lanterns!  The tent!  We must be prepared!  Reluctantly (running solo with 3 kids and Bridget over) I got out the tent and we set it up in the hot tub room.  Later that night we moved it to Pip's room.  

Wasn't exactly conducive to sleeping, but it did amuse them!

Viv starts dance class

Finally, FINALLY I say, Vivie got to start dance class.  She's been wanted to for some time, but I couldn't get my act in gear.  The only place with a schedule that works with mine was a bit farther away, so I was dragging my feet.  The first day she bounded into that class.  Focused, excited, thrilled.  Afterwards she raced into the shop to pick out her leotard, tap shoes, and ballet shoes.  

Here she is at her second class, seventh from the left.

And dancing over to get her sticker at the end.  

Vivie's first trip to the dentist

Vivie had an amazing first trip to the dentist.  We rehersed what would happen at home and she marched right in, confident and ready.  I had to go first, so Vivie colored while I sat in the chair.  Later the receptionist entertained Meg for me and Vivie tagged along, talking up a storm.

When it was her turn she climbed right up and opened wide.  The counted her teeth, checked for cavities (none), and even polished them clean.  Besides the fact that she hated the raspberry flavor intensely.  She was a pro at filling the little cup, gargling, and spitting.

Here she is with her no cavity club tooth!

The bad news is that Dr. Solomon felt her palette was already shifting from the thumb sucking.  I had already ordered thumb guards, voluntary thumb gloves having failed miserably.  So a couple of days later we put them on.  Viv was ready, willing, and not even upset about it.  She's doing beyond amazing.  After about 3 days straight of wearing them we took one off (it was on too tight and cut off her circulation over night so we needed to give her thumb some air) and she hasn't sucked that thumb since.  Not at all.  She's asked to keep the other guard on her right thumb.  Says she's not ready to take both off yet.  It's really amazing that she is motivated to do this too.  Proud of my girl.

Here she is with the right guard still on:

Vampire

Meg vants to suck your blood!!!

Eggplant and meltdowns

For my actual birthday I was hoping for some mystical relaxing day at home.  Maybe a nap.  In the evening I would drink wine and make eggplant parm for the first time.  

The universe had other ideas.  Pip wanted me to take him to basketball.  Then I had to run the gauntlet at Market Basket (with a whining, grumpy Pip), and come home to Meg being sick AGAIN.  That poor girl is really struggling lately with every bug known to man.  When she's not sick, she's teething and it's horrible.

So my relaxing evening in the kitchen was punctuated by her constantly crawling over to pull on my leg, insisting to be lifted up and hugged.  While I was able to make this yummy goodness ...

... I can't say my attitude kept itself in tact.  When Pip and Vivie all but refused to eat it and then continually interrupted me when I was trying to put poor sick Meg to bed to tell me they wanted to eat my cake, I was all done.  Sourly, I came downstairs, slammed the cake on the counter, doled out three pieces for Phil, Pip, and Viv ... and refused to eat one myself.  I was not going to let them tell me when I would eat my cake.  Childish.  Kind of sad, but at that moment, it was keeping my ego afloat ... barely.  (At least this post is honest).

Flag Football

It was another very mild January day and Pip and Viv went outside to play.  I was in with Meg, not really paying attention.  When the phone rang and it was Joe, asking if I was watching my kids, I feared the worst.  Actually, he said ... "check em out!  They're playing flag football!"

Sure enough, this is what I saw out our window, in Joe's yard!

Laser Craze

For my birthday I got a bunch of great friends together to play laser tag.  I think there were some skeptics in the bunch, but since it was my birthday, they sucked it up.

Turns out it was a blast.  True to it's name, we ran about like crazed animals, trying to shoot each other's bases without getting shot ourselves.  Jess (Sissy) and Sean (Bucknaked) were the power couple.  Kelly (Stupid) was the surprise of the night, ringing up some hefty outings.  I had some good moments, but was not consistent over the 8 rounds we played.  I kept thinking of my play over the next few nights, what I would change next time ... I hope we have a next time!

The one thing I rocked at was the jump rope game.  It took some practice, but after a few failed rounds I put in 3 tokens (the max) and gave it one more shot.  I guess I jumped the entire circuit.  715 tickets!!!

Meggie Mohawk

This is a pretty universal look for Meg lately.  Crawling, eager, snot-nosed, and hair standing up on end.  I had about 5 seconds before she grabbed the camera and threw it aside.

Little Phil

I am convinced that Vivie is a little Phil.  She has his personality, calm and assertive.  She's smart.  Loves to sleep.  Makes very stinky farts.  And now this.  

Trapped

There's something about tape.  Pip loves it.  Viv loves it by proxy.  Taping up boxes.  Presents.  Now even the house.  Pip got busy one evening and taped me into the computer, then taped up the stairs so he wouldn't have to go to bed.  

Feeding the squirrels

Pip "sprinkled" (dumped?) a whole bag of birdseed on the deck.  He later swept a bunch of it up and put it in this sled for the squirrels.  Then we'd watch for them, waiting patiently to no avail.  Finally, distracted with other activities he'd look outside and find one munching away.  Even from inside they could feel our vibrations and squeals of delight and would go running.  Eventually we learned to tiptoe to the door so quietly, where we could watch them stuff the seeds into their mouth for winter.

This was a plump one!  The seeds were mostly sunflower, so perhaps an added benefit will be random sunflowers all over the place this summer!