We are having a snowy, patient Christmas Eve.
When I was a kid we used to wait (patiently, I’m sure!) for
what seemed liked FOREVER (usually until 3:00pm-ish) for my
Grandma to arrive. The day felt so long as we waited and
waited. Today I’m having dejavu as we are waiting (patiently,
I’m sure) for my family to arrive!! It’s getting close to
3:00pm and I suspect they won’t be here by then. We started the
day with blueberry pancakes. Yum! I thought I was being so nice
and making everyone a treat, instead 1/2 ended up under cooked,
the shapes I tried to make failed miserably and it took awhile
to talk Lex in to even trying them. He flat out refused until
he realized that Jack, from one of his Eric Carle books, liked
pancakes. Then, and only then, was he willing to give them a
try. Not surprisingly he loved them! He even had more for lunch
and now, not surprisingly, won’t take a nap!! We have to go run
an errand in a few minutes so hopefully he’ll get a little car
nap in. Anyway, happy holidays to all!

Please make it stop!!! Just kidding! It’s
been snowing for days now and it feels like winter should be
over by now… but wait, it’s only just begun! Happy Winter!
It’s actually been really nice snow. A lot of it, of course,
but its light and fluffy and not too windy, so we’ve been
having fun playing outside. Today I bundled them both up for
some outdoor fun. Eve ended up angry because our neighbor was
not home (she really wanted him to come out and play!) but Lex
had a blast. We walked around the yard for awhile (that in and
of itself is an adventure!) then up and down the street, then
headed into the back yard to play on the “snow slide” and try
to find the picnic table. I think I need to get Lex a scarf
though. He spent the entire time licking the top of the zipper
on his snow suit. Almost every photo I took has him with his
tongue out. Crazy kid! I’ve been lucky so far that they seem to
get bored/cold/tired/whatever after 30-45 minutes, which
coincides with when I’m getting bored/cold/tired/whatever :) So
we all go in and have warm chocolate milk and life is
good.

A little
boy in the front yard.

Flop!
Down he goes!

I tried
to get a picture of them sitting together on the picnic table
(see it?) I don’t know why I ever bother trying to orchestrate
pictures of them sitting together… it never
works!

She sat
patiently for awhile while I tried to talk him in to joining
her…

And as
soon as he headed for the bench, she started crying. I, of
course, snapped a quick picture then consoled
her.

Down the
snow slide! This swing-set is an awesome four-season
toy!

Whee!!

Tired
kids trudge home.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKda5A_ket0]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLSkN5SxAYY]

Here are a few videos that I didn’t have a
related post for already (scroll down to see more!).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlvk3zxfwGQ]
This
is Eve “looking” at the sticker chart. She does this alot and
it cracks me up! She says “looking!” and then squats down and
shakes her head back and forth. She does it in the grocery
store, at the bookshelf, the sticker chart, etc. Hysterical.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bucp5YeRQc]
Just a
little silliness with the stuffed animals.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-14RNGJOWk0]
Daddy’s idea of doing laundry is to grab the camera and
put the kids to work! They don’t seem to mind much. The video
is pretty long (7 minutes, I think), but it’s cute.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMewK31q2xA]
I
don’t even have a comment for this one. Silly kids.

Our day is going relatively smoothly (so
far!), especially considering we’ve been up since 4:00am! When
the kids started losing interest in the Pampered Chef boxes, I
decided to take things to the next level. Welcome to the
Pampered Playhouse! They love it! They decorated it with
crayons, Lex drew a blue sky on top and wrote “in” and “out”
above the doors in “fancy writing,” which just means his
scribbles. He writes his name in “plain writing” (real letters)
and everything else he writes in “fancy writing” (scribble
characters, his own symbol based language perhaps). Anyway,
they have been launching airplanes out the windows and Lex
brought as many toys as he could fit into it :) Whatever it
takes to get through the day!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpDUT8S6q_Q]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O14DdQccObA]

In addition to the architectural work we’ve done today, we
also made eight loaves of bread…

and uploaded eight videos! Look for them in the
updated posts below. I’m trying to get Eve down for her second
nap of the day and the snowstorm is rolling in. We’ve got all
sorts of winter weather advisories, so I guess we’re settling
in for a long winter’s night.

Check out Eve reading Highlights magazine!
Such a smart girl! Then check out her messy hair :)

We’ve had some funky sleep issues lately.
I won’t go in to detail, but the result was Eve took a nap from
9-11am this morning (they were both wide awake at 5am!). Lex
and I played Trouble and ate popcorn. Popcorn is a special
treat that Lex only gets when Eve is napping. It was such a
beautiful day that we decided to go outside. I wanted to get
the driveway shoveled before tomorrow’s snowstorm. We had a
really nice time. Lex cleared off the Saturn (“Daddy’s little
black Saturn car.”) and hit the snow off trees with sticks and
practiced his snow angels, while I got the driveway and porch
clear. Then we played for awhile. I pulled him around on the
sled and then he decided it was his turn to pull me on the
sled. That lasted for about 30 seconds. I’ll post the video. :)
Then we came in, Eve woke up, and they had apples, raisins, and
sunflower seed butter for lunch. Some days things just go
well.

Lex is
taking “a quick little nap” in the snow. (mostly he was just
trying hard NOT to look a the camera)

Lex
tried really hard to pull me on the sled.

Lex does
not ham it up for the camera like Eve does.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATZS_1ravOI]

I like
taking pictures of the messy kids.

My Pampered Chef party resulted in the delivery
of three large boxes today. The kids always get so excited when
we get a Pampered Chef delivery and I think its hysterical, but
it occurred to me today that its really the boxes they are
excited about. They were moderately interested in unpacking,
but got bored because I wouldn’t let them play with the
products (they aren’t for us!), but when the boxes were
empty… the fun began!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygP7NA35rEA]

I’ve been amused lately (kind of!)
realizing all the things that seem ingrain to me, but
apparently have to be taught to children. Germ related stuff is
frequent these days. I don’t consider myself to be overly
germaphobic, but simple things like not licking door knobs…
or the wall of a public bathroom!! I mean who does that?!?! Oh,
yeah, small children! I have caught Lex putting a freshly used
toilet seat (the removable kiddie kind) on his head as a crown!
Yuck! He also likes to carry his full potty to the toilet to
empty it, before pulling up his pants. Huge recipe for disaster
there! The potty training thing in public restroom is rough. I
think it’s kind of yucky with him, but then I also have to keep
a super close eye on her because she’ll grab the plunger, lean
on the toilet, lick the walls, etc. Blech! One time he sat down
on a public restroom floor, bare butted, to put his pants back
on. I grabbed him and pulled him up and realized that I have to
teach him that sitting on our floor at home with no pants is
ok, but public restroom floors… not so ok! The other day she
leaned over a toilet, both hands on the seat, and said “smell
it?” All I could do was grab her and say, “no! don’t smell it”
She seemed confused and I didn’t even know where to go from
there. So many things to teach. Bring on the Purell!! It’s
amazing my kids aren’t dying of all sorts of nasty diseases!
Perhaps this is where the expression “What doesn’t kill them
only makes them stronger,” comes from?

On the bright side, we bought some regular
(non-rechargable) batteries for the camera so you can expect
more pictures in the near future. I took a ton of them today!
How’s that for a tease… :)