Chloe's First

She said her tooth felt mushy on New Year's Eve.  Maybe she shouldn't eat any more apples, she thought.  Well, we discovered with much excitement that it was actually loose and wiggly!!

She was nervous about the process and most days she complained that it was hurting when she tried to eat.  This was not fun at all for her.  She wondered with little tears in her eyes, "Why can't teeth just grow bigger like everything else on our bodies?"  Poor thing.  It hung on till the last possible moment and wiggled free on the morning of January 9th. 

She came into my room to wake me up saying, "Mom, I woke up because I was sucking on something in my mouth and it was my TOOTH!"  The real thrill finally hit her.  Freedom!!

Of course, she is following along with her big brother and keeping her tooth in a bag forever.

This arrangement actually works out nicely since the Tooth Fairy doesn't have to root around under her pillow to find the tooth.... she just leaves it alone and slides in some money :-)

The Christmas Post

{I have had a nasty cold since Christmas Eve, which passed on to Evan and finally Chloe by the end of the week.  The three of us have been living in a fever-y uncomfortable fog for over a week and seem to be just on the way out of it now.  Sorry for the delay in posting and for the pathetic picture quality.  I was not myself on Christmas morning, and still don't feel quite right, but better late and pitiful than not at all....}

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Christmas Morning!

This year, we filled a stocking for the kids and boy were they thrilled at the novelty of it all!  Quickly, they dumped it and separated everything into piles:  things like gum, fun-printed bandaids, fruit leathers, bright colored pens and playing cards.  (These two really love gum.)

They each got a long stuffed snake and a beanie baby kitten to add to their families.  These toys ended up being their favorites out of all!

As soon as the new animals were opened they ran to their room and grabbed armfuls of old animals to bring out and play with.


For Evan, we stuck mostly with his "usuals"...  a Transformer, a Star Wars ship and a really big Lego-type building set called Remote-Controlled Machines.  He also asked for some mind-bender puzzles which he is still puzzling over.

For Chloe, we focused on crafty things for her horses like a pack of bright colored fabric and embroidery floss to make horse blankets, and a pack of modeling clay for making horse accessories. We also got her a sparkly pegasus foal, a monster truck and a magnetic marble set.   Since she asked for another chess game this year, we found her a magnetic and metallic travel set which she LOVED!  It's tiny and sparkly!

Ruby was in on the action from the moment the fun began, of course.

We got the kids some "shared" gifts this year: a large Magnext set, a beautiful solar system puzzle and a vintage Spirograph set.  The only problem with shared gifts was the amount of arguing over who got to open them.... we'll have to plan that better in the future.  Their fussing was soon forgotten once they started playing with them.

The Spirograph set is a close second place favorite to the stuffed animals.  Everyone enjoyed it, especially Todd!

Evan and Chloe bought each other a four foot long wooden cobra snake.  They both want to paint them in rainbow stripes so the painting process is slow-going.

Chloe loved working with her clay this week and seems to have a real talent for it.  Her dainty fingers can create the tiniest details.  She made tons of horse food already

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We were able to spend our morning together, then some time Skyping with Gramma and the family in North Carolina in the afternoon, and finally had my mom over to play with the kids between lunch and dinner.

Everyone (except me) had lasagna and played all day, and nobody (except me) wanted to go to sleep when bedtime came around.  Christmas is always exhausting in the best sort of way!

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Second Snow!!

Unbelievably, the weathermen predicted snow and we got some!  Not the 4 fluffy inches we thought, but we'll take it!  Crisp icy snow for clumping, squeezing, tasting, shaping, scraping and spraying!

Ruby likes snow (and really anything that reminds her of Christmas, I think).

 Both the kids love to eat snow compulsively.  It's like they see it and they fall to the ground with their tongues sticking out.  They eat till their heads hurt.

 Such icy snow really held it's shape when you squeezed it.  (Perfect for the snowball fight which Todd and Evan had after lunch.)

Evan said the snow on the garage roof was especially sweet.   I'm still pondering that statement.

Chloe spent an excessive amount of time scraping ice off both swings only to ditch her shovel and the clean swings to go eat more snow.

We braved the freezing wind and walked (briskly) around the block while we were out too.  Just as I went in to cook lunch, the kids got out their sleds to careen across our gently sloping yard. Eventually they both ended up on the deck using cookie cutters to make snow-cookies which are now in the freezer.  

I never thought I'd be glad it snowed, but after last year's  lack of snow days, I have to say this is pretty great!

Cushions & Cooties

Downstairs it's all about the cushion tower (with an ottoman underneath) on the broken playground couch.  Climb up.... toboggan down.  They say they are usually pretending to be Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. 

Upstairs it's all cootie catchers in piles getting ready for the great wars.  Speed-bursts, Gross-bursts, and Spy-bursts chase each other or smash into walls.  Leader-cooties (the Alphas) hide while the others search for them.... I hear other names like Beta, Gamma, Epsilon, Theta....

I don't understand these amazing ways they think and play, but it is how they spend entire days.  Cooties and cushions are the interests right now.....

Hurry Christmas, the kids need toys!!  (or maybe they don't, but they sure will like their new things)

Playing With

*Battleship and chess*

*cards*

*Monopoly*

*a new RC truck*

*RC helicopters*

*this RC car*

*friends*

*each other*

*Ajay*

*cushions and cardboard boxes*

 

*ribbons*

*the cats*

*gourds (which are slowly dying)*

*slingshots*

*Did I mention RC toys??*

Two Won't Do

When a girl has sparkly hairclips in every color of the rainbow that just happen to match her church outfit perfectly, it is impossible to just pick TWO to wear.  So we just put all of them in.

Night Walk

Our house:

Kids on scooters with flashlights:

Our next door neighbor's house:

 (this lights up both of the bedrooms in our house and sounds 

like a small airport with all the fans blowing... so festive)

Just down the block:

 (the kids are like moths to a flame)

A few blocks away there are two right across the street from each other:

This is our favorite:

We came home, read a Christmas book and the kids went straight to bed, exhausted.