Snow

We got more snow. It started snowing early Saturday morning and kept going, pretty lightly falling, until evening. We didn't get nearly as much snow as the storm right before Christmas, but it was enough to play in (and to cancel church, which is why I'm sitting here blogging about it in my sweats instead of yelling at everyone to get in the car right now).


Princess Sparkley lounging on a sled. She'd spin in circles every once in awhile. The kids biggest complaint is that in Kansas, our front yard had a small hill to it. Not in Virginia. PS found a tiny dip in the backyard to push Baby X down on the sled. And I spotted Buddy next to our front step trying to slide down a dip that was about a foot long. We'll have to try to figure out where a good sledding hill in Virginia is. Who'd have thought that we'd have a better sledding hill in Kansas?


Buddy was the first one out and shoveled the sidewalk a little bit.


Once Baby X figured out what was going on, he wanted in on the fun. So I convinced PS to go in the backyard, where Baby X is trapped, and play in the snow with him. Here she is giving him a push down the teeny dip in the corner of our yard.


He liked the dip.


Maybe he'll grow up to love shoveling like his dad and his brother.


He thought it was hilarious that I put two pairs of socks on him and two pairs of mittens and two pairs of pants. It was in the 20s!


Buddy got bored with shoveling and moved to the backyard before everyone came in for some hot chocolate.

Cuddling with Daddy

Until I took the picture, Baby X was looking at the camera too.

Check here

Highest Point in Ohio post now up.

Field Trip: National Postal Museum

Friday (January 29) was our homeschool group's field trip to the National Postal Museum. B was nice enough to take the kids since I had strep throat. I dropped he and the kids off at the Metro station and then I went to the doctor to have my strep throat (with a scarlatina rash aka Scarlet Fever) diagnosed and treated.

Sorry for the poor picture quality, the flash had to be turned off and our camera takes horrible pictures with the flash off. And our kids have blue eyes that are always red and especially creepy and not able to be fixed in the following pictures.


The arrived a little bit before the tour started, so they explored the museum on their own and found this big rig truck cab.


An old timey postal carriage.


Our friends the G-----s.
In order, Baby X, Buddy, CG (5), Princess Sparkley, EG (7) and KG(3). (Their baby, LG, was home.)


That's the Capitol in the background peaking out behind the trees. It was in the 20s, but they didn't want to have to deal with hauling giant coats all over the museum, and the Metro stop is right across the street from the museum, so they braved it with sweatshirts/sweaters.

Coming soon... a picture from B's camera phone of the kids on the Metro.

Baby X and Daddy Go Wild at Lowe's

B took Baby X with him to the hardware store the other day. About half an hour after they left, I got this picture sent to my phone.

Baby X on his Birthday!

Baby X on his 2nd birthday.


He found the spray (?) Cool Whip in the fridge and insisted on having it so I told him to put it on the table and we'd remember to have it with his brownies. He said, "Oh" and went and buckled himself in to his booster seat to await dessert.


To occupy him, I got out all the fridge letter magnets. Here's his word.


Then PS helped him spell out a message.


And had him pose under his name.


Here's the actual birthday, happy birthday song. And he was successful at blowing out his candles. He had one candle in his oatmeal for breakfast and blew it out. This film is actually the second time we lit the candles on his birthday cake and he blew them all out both times. At the end, you can here him insist "more" and reach for the lighter. I told him, "we can't blow out the candles again, it's time to eat the brownies now" and he said, "Oh" and eagerly awaited his treat.

Weather

We were about to go on a walk to pick Princess Sparkley up from Girl Scouts the other day because it had been a nice day but as soon as I got Buddy's bike out, it started to rain huge, plump rain drops. This is what the sky looked like. I especially like the dark on one side of this big tree, and the nice light blue sky on the other side.

Baby X's Real Birthday

Last night we had brownies with frosting and an M&M number 2 for Baby X's real birthday. Today he went for his two year old check-up.

Height: 37 inches (3ft., 1 in.) 100th percentile
Weight: 27 lbs. 40th percentile
Head: 49 1/4 cm (19.4 inches) 65th percentile

He's doing great. He's been talking a lot more in the last three months or so to the point that I'm not worried about him having delayed speech anymore.
Here are his words:

Mama, Dada, [PS], [Buddy], [Baby X], [Baby X's], mine, sorry, kiss, done, mouse (squeak), cat (ameeoooww), dog, duck (quack), bird (tweet tweet), horse (pbtbtbt), doggy, fish, nursery, library, book, car, truck, fire truck, ambulance, fire station, Christmas, birthday, cookie, cake, breakfast, bread, jam, water (wawa), milk, juice, cheese, foot, sock, stinky monkey, uh oh, oh, apple, snack, bridge, thank you, bless you, amen, healthy, food, sit down, upstairs, downstairs, bed, binky, blankey, Bubble, Gus, Cuddles, elephant, no, hair, teeth, keys, bike, hat, up, down, what, bye-bye, night-night, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, ball, football, baseball, soccer ball, basketball, hockey, golf, bat, flower, see, there it is, there he/she is, all done, hot, let go, no, church, yes, temple, airplane, woo-woo (train noise), train, piggy, red, blue, green, Grandma(GaAa), Grandpa (GraGa), baby, fridge, bath, shoes, buckle, please, more,...

The list seems to be never ending because he's finally reached a point where he will repeat just about anything we ask him to say. Plus there are the things he says that I'm not sure about. For instance, I'm fairly certain that I once said, "[Baby X], come here." And he answered, "Just a minute."

He runs, jumps, jumps off of things, climbs onto everything, builds with Lego Duplo blocks, kicks a ball, rolls a ball, throws a ball, etc. He's down to one nap every few days. He doesn't like vegetables or eggs, but loves fruit. He LOVES bread with jam on it and peanut butter and jam sandwiches. He finally loves nursery and it excited each Sunday for it. He tries to sleep in PS's and Buddy's beds instead of his own. He also tries to sit in their booster seats rather than his car seat. He calls all food either breakfast or snack unless he's being specific like bread and cheese. If he's hungry at any point in the day, he demands breakfast.

I got a list of cardiologists from his new pediatrician, but in reading the letters from his old cardiologist, he doesn't need to go for a year from his last appointment, which was June. So he won't have a cardiologist check-up for a few more months.

Elmo Birthday

PS 8/2004 at her 2nd Birthday Party

Baby X's birthday isn't until January 26, this Tuesday, but we celebrated it tonight. PS had an Elmo/Zoey Birthday Party when she was two so she insisted that since Baby X loves Elmo so much, he should have one too. We even created our own giant Elmo cookie cake since we don't have a Mrs. Fields to order from (and their prices have doubled!!).


B decorated the Elmo cake since he is more artistically talented than I am, and he's much better at frosting cakes (in this case, cookie).


The masterpiece.


We saved the decorations from PS's party and hung them up again adding all the other Sesame Street stuff we could find.


Present time. PS and Buddy got Baby X a K'nex Elmo police car.


Buddy is very into Legos right now, so of course, Baby X is too.





He was super excited to open a present to find a bike helmet. Not that he knew a bike was coming, just because he was so excited to get a helmet. Then the bike.


He's very adamant about trying to pedal.


PS put Bubble in his trunk to go for a ride.


While exploring his bike, Buddy figured out how to assemble the Elmo police car.


Then we showed him his "cake."


His reaction to the Elmo cake.


This cookie looks like it's 4 times the size of his head.


Two candles. We've been practicing blowing and blowing out candles for a couple of weeks now. He does a great job blowing, but a little puff of air that goes straight down and misses the candle.


I think Buddy blew out the first candle. And Baby X (with help from Daddy) blew out the second one.


Ahh... Elmo.


Baby X picked a piece with some mouth on it.


Hence the black/red lips.


PS and Buddy both picked eyeball pieces (the pupil was a Junior Mint).


Neither one of them finished their cookies (plus they had double the cookie because the eyeballs and nose were a second layer of cookie).


Baby X put in a good effort.


And ended up looking a bit like the pirate Captain Jack Sparrow.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

Sick Baby X

Baby X threw up last Tuesday or Wednesday night about half an hour after I put him in bed. Than twice more before 10PM. He'd been grumpy all day, and felt a little warm before I put him in bed that night so I'd given him some Motrin. The next day he mostly drank juice and Gatorade and a few crackers, still had a fever, and was grumpy and tired. This was better than last year when he actually had the flu on his birthday and didn't even eat a bit of his birthday cupcake. AND, no one else got sick. Hooray! I was expecting a different kid to start throwing up every 12 hours or so.


Needless to say, he was grumpy and a little clingy to Mommy. This is how Jed found him one day when he came down to the kitchen... I put him there and since he thought it was pretty cool to sit there and eat a snack rather than whine at my leg, I let him be.

Bike Ride

We've had some warmer weather, so last Monday (1/18) on Martin Luther King Day, we took the kids to the school where PS has Girl Scout meetings and they tried out their bikes. PS's doesn't have training wheels because we can't find any that will work with her bike, so she's having to learn without. I kept giving Buddy crazy directions for where he had to go and when he had to brake so he'd stop frantically putting his feet on the ground to stop. Baby X kicked a soccer ball around with me.







Then I taught them how to do flips on the playground bars.










Buddy got the hang of flipping his body around right away. PS hung upside down for a lot of the time. When she finally figured out how to twirl around, she had me film it.