at the "King Jr." parade (as A. calls it)

with Troy & Jenny and kids

clarification

A. at dinner tonight: "Lions are scary sometimes. They roar. And also the potties at the Children's Museum because they make a scary noise.
But penguins are not scary at all."

fun in the snow

reading Noam Chomsky to the kids

(Mommy, save us from crazy Daddy!)

an especially impressive one

she did this 100% on her own. pretty good, huh?

recycle this

these three

L. has an issue with nightmares. She usually gets several a night and ends up sleeping part of the night in our room on the floor so that we can all get some rest. Lately, we've been trying different methods to try to teach her to address them herself, and defuse some of the fear she feels. Art therapy, humor, endings to the dream that she can 'control,' that kind of thing.




It has worked literally overnight, at least with with her dream about The Claw. She talks about squirting it with a special orange juice formula that he hates and that will land him in the hospital next time he tries to come near her. Meanwhile, she made him a Valentine so that he knows there are no hard feelings. It was her idea:

To: The Claw.

Happy Valentine's Day.

From: L.

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Artwork by A.:

It's a rainbow tunnel with two holes for cows. A big hole for the biggest cow and a small one for "the littlest cow in the widest world."

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The Ball of Rice. Or Ball of Stink as we like to call him at times... (I'm sure you can't imagine why!) He is still the insanely happy one-year old. He waves "Bye! See you soon!" as we carry him up to bed or nap. He LOVES his blankie so that is part of it. And his thumb. We have wondered if he will ever agree to grow up. However: he has finally decided to learn to talk. He just wasn't so sure it would be a useful skill until recently. And now it's, "Where is L.?" "I don't know" and "Where are you" along with other full sentences. Crazy kid.

tracks

This week L. has spent most of BR and A.'s naptime working out new and exciting paths for the trains. During naptime so that the loving siblings don't knock them over right away, of course. Sometimes Daddy helps, but most of those pictured are her own creation.

The extreme coolness of the train set is rivaling that of the glow-in-the-dark unicorn tattoos from P-roc's mom. A must-have for 4 year old girls, as everyone knows.

"hey, mommy! take a picture, we're holding hands and eating our breakfast!"

princess and the pea (and the prince. with a necklace.)

Visitors

The snowstorms out west didn't keep Gaga & Papa & Aunt Mer from being with us on Christmas, though they threatened to. We had plenty of food, outings, play, more food, more play and plenty of holiday naps while they were here.

And of course, the requisite stopover at Casa Bonita.

these three...at ages 4, 2 and 1

first taste of gumballs

A.: "Hey, L.! We look weird."

definitely a christmas favorite

as BR says: "shoo shoo!"