Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Happy Times
A little bit of sunshine goes a long way (both figuratively and literally)! After an amazing pep talk by my sister-in-law Jeanette, my down times turned majorly up. Thank you for the great pick-me-up, Netty! Of course, sunshine and fresh air help a lot, too!
We jumped at the chance to hit the tramp on a particularly warm day last week. It was funny to me that snow was surrounding us, but we were very warm.
I hope February’s sunshine has reached you as well!
The kids have all been sick off and on. Last week, the girls came home from school both sobbing because they felt sick. They went straight to bed (which NEVER happens). The sickness passed through all of the kids (and now Jon), so to watch everyone having such a great time outside on the tramp was a real boost for us all. (See Amy’s blog entry about staying home from school HERE.)
With Tyler on the tramp, no one could jump, so Jon came to the rescue and threw snowballs with Tyler and let him walk around in the snow.
I couldn’t say no to the kids’ request that I jump with them. Adam wanted to see how high I could jump, so I humored them while they sat around the edges. Man, I’m out of shape!
Adam reading a book from school to Andrew.
I was jealous of Tyler two Sundays ago when he got a head rub during Sunday School (only 4 weeks until Nursery!)
The girls and I play Ticket to Ride almost every day. I love it! We are really cooperative and try to avoid blocking anyone. I’ve become so used to it that I really miss my Ticket to Ride fix when we don’t play! (The boys had just broken a house rule, so were washing walls.)
Tyler has finally started to cooperate and sign a few words. He has had no interest in speaking or signing, and as I know that every child is different, it’s fine. I still can’t help but miss how Adam was at Tyler’s age, though. At 17 months, he could say and/or sign 129 words. I stopped keeping track because he was so conversational that it was hard to record all of his words. But that was just Adam’s “thing” and I love Tyler’s unique traits, too.
On Valentine’s Day, Tyler was introduced to tomato soup for the first time and loved it!
Amy has been working on the piece “El Zapateado” and we constantly find her at the piano. Jon hears it from the basement (where he works) and I hear it throughout the house, so we are all singing this in our heads thanks to Amy’s love for playing. You can hear her practice it here:
We enjoyed a few hearty meals that day: Valentine Pancakes with strawberry syrup,
mashed potatoes and carrots,
brown sugar meatloaf (which even the boys devoured like crazy),
and some fancy fruit. It was a pretty low-key, nice day for our family.
For Family Home Evening, we read and discussed the last two scriptures remaining in our Valentine Scripture bowl.
