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I have been waiting for inspiration to strike, for some grand event or momentous milestone to spur me towards a wonderful post about the darlings...

But it has been another quiet weekend, full of comfortable routine and card games and dustings of snow.

Nat taught Jack to play poker this week, complete with betting (you put a chip in if you think you'll win).  The boy is obsessed.  He is thoughtful and focused on the task, carefully checking that he has 5 cards, carefully deciding if he wants one, two or three new cards, exclaiming with joy when he gets a pair.  "Oh, that's JUST the card I wanted!"  "I have a REAWWY high pair!"

He has a ways to go with his poker face.

He loves the game and for the most part is a terrific sport, though if we take a chip from him in a bet more than two times in a game, the tears come hot and fierce.  "IIII wanted to win!  I want to get a chip from YOU!"  Eyes ablaze and brimming with tears, face red, hands busy gathering the cards to play another round.   I have to smile at him, just a little, before composing my face into serene empathy for his emotions.  My little sensitive soul, that one.

The girl?  She is more of a comedian every day.  Tonight at bedtime was was cracking herself up.  Seriously.  We could hardly get through her bedtime routine because at every turn she was working herself into belly laughing hysterics, thrilled with her own jokes.  Her favorite goes back to the "What does little birdie say" incident.  Now she thinks its a big joke to present ANY animal as making a loud, high-pitched, kind of horrid squawking sound.  She did this on every page of the Zoo Babies book tonight.  Except by the end it was a loud, high-pitched, half-squawking-half-laughing sound because she couldn't handle how great her joke was.  She lost it again when she couldn't keep a grip on her jammies zipper (she likes to zip herself up these days), and then again when she pulled her chin down into the neck of the jammies and "hid there".
Her eyes just dance and her laugh is irresistable and she is going to be able to get away with murder, this one.


She's talking more and more these days, too.  We are starting to hear phrases strung together.  "Mommy-- oh-ee dis!"  ("open this" for those not fluent in Ivy-ese) or "me, up, bounce!"  She loves dancing, being naked, jumping and sliding, and playing with her little porcelain tea set.

I love her.

This morning we had a little time before heading to a play-date/ clothing swap meet-up at a friend's house.  (I love our friends, have I mentioned this before??) and I found myself with two snuggly creatures who were happy to share time reading a book.

Moments like this, I feel like I might be doing all right at this Mommy thing. 

Happy Sunday, all--

With love, 

Amanda

Winter Quiet

Apologies for the quiet here on the babies' blog.  There are times in life when keeping up with two blogs is, apparently, one blog too many.



To my credit, though-- it's been quiet in real life, too.  A soft, settled sort of quiet that comes from two weekends with no big events and the resuming of our full back-to-school routine in between.



The kind of quiet that comes from two kids who are suddenly, somehow, acting like brother and sister.


They play together.

They eat together.

Jack pulls Ivy down off of high places.

Ivy kisses Jack's boo-boos.


They love each other.

They are paragons of virtue these days, really.  Or maybe that's just the 2 good nights of sleep in a row talking.

Really though-- can you beat this for cute?
























They play by themselves!  They sit and look at books!  I am beginning to see glimmers of a time when they get up and get themselves breakfast on Saturday mornings....



I am really, really looking forward to those future Saturday mornings.



In the meantime, though-- Saturday mornings are for playing Go Fish.

Or Go Shark, or Go Squid, or Go Octopus as the case may be, thanks to Nat's introduction of "Word of the Day."  Jack's been on a sea-life kick and so this week we've been watching videos of reef-squid laying eggs, making flashcards, finding the letter S, drawing lots of tentacles, and chanting things like, "S-H-A-R-K, woooo! Go shark!"

Our house is fun.


Not to be outdone, Ivy can identify the letter "i" in multiple settings and can count to two, thank you very much.  She continues to add to her lexicon daily and we are astounded by the depth of her communication considering she still speaks primarily in single words.

For instance, "one"  (or one-nuh, as she pronounces it) can mean one as in I want one of those, or it can mean "I want to count now!" or it can mean "There's another one of those right there!"  She loves pointing out "another one".

"Go" can mean "I want to get going now" or it can be short for "There you go" when it is paired with one of our names and the insistent presentation of some object, very close to our faces.  " 'go, Mommy!" as she hands me a dishtowel.  " 'go, Dack!" as she brings him a cookie (which she grabbed for herself off the kitchen counter no less).

She's intensely independent and intensely loving and intensely cute.

 The above pictures were taken at a recent birthday party for lovely friend Sibel, at The Little Gym.  I have to say I am a fan of the place and would seriously think about enrolling both of my little monkeys in gymnastics there if I were, in fact, made of money.

Sadly, I am not, so the occasional birthday party will have to suffice.

Love to all!

Snow babies, take two

A stunning, powdery snow has settled over the Heights, along with a wintry chill to the air.  When the temperatures drop below 20 degrees, what do we do??

Take our children sledding, of course.

We met friends Greg and Scott at Coventry Park at 10am and we had the hill to ourselves for at least a half hour.  The kids we rock stars, flying down the hill, rosy cheeked and happy and not a complaint about the cold.  We kept warm dragging their little selves back up the hill; the snow was powdery and glittery and very, very slippery.

We celebrated the morning with a walk to Phoenix for hot cocoa, where the picturesque, nigh-Rockwellian perfection of our little group-- sipping warm drinks, clad in snow bibs, by the fire-- was marred only by the fact that our son (recuperating from his first ear infection, poor boy) suddenly hit the wall of exhaustion and became so droopy that Nat went and got the van to pick us up.

A lot of Max and Ruby has been watched today, and between that and an evening trip to Chic-Fil-A (complete with ice cream, of course), he has perked back up considerably.



In other news:

Soup Supper

I believe I waxed poetic on the glories of our January Second Sunday Soup over on my Thirty Days blog...  it was a lovely night, quite relaxed despite the fact that we had 7 littles dashing about the house.  Babies playing on the living room carpet, preschool set joyfully dumping bins of toys in the playrooms, lots of markers strewn on the floor.  Loveliness.

Here are a few pictures.

Sweet sibling moments.

They do happen. Interspersed between the screaming toddler and the boy yelling "No, Ivy!" and the grabbing of toys and kicking each other's chairs and....there are moments like this.

They are beautiful.  The children, and the moments.

Thanks for the kitchen, Grandpa and Vovo!  Jack said with joy, "It EVEN has a refrigerator!"

Card Games. 

The obsession with War continues, and yesterday Nat helped him add Go Fish to his arsenal. 

We played a game before breakfast today.  Jack asked about it upon snuggling into our bed this morning, and again when I tucked him in tonight:  "Mommy, do you think we should play Go Fish in the morning when we wake up?  We have to ask Daddy!!!  (sits up, I assure him I'LL ask daddy, he needs to lay down to sleep) OK, but you have to ask him in the morning or he'll probably forget.  Ask him like this -- "Wanna play Go Fish?"  Got it?  Put it in your BRAIN, mommy..."

I love our boy.

Yep and Nope

Ivy's two new favorite words.  The way she says these things-- its the cutest thing going.  That is, unless she's applying "Nope!" to bedtime.  Which she's been doing a lot lately, the little pill. But that's another story. 


She says "Yep" more like "Dep" with that little nod of her head or her self-satisfied smile.  And she says Nope clear as a bell and like she means it.  Which she does.  Girl knows what she wants down to what size of cookie she'll have, thank you very much.  She likes to exchange items she's taken a bite of, for a whole new one.  She loves her little tea set and putting tiny things into containers.  She prances on her tip-toes, loves her snow boots and enjoys picking out her own clothes AND taking them off.  She's a riot and I am pretty in love with her right now, too.

A little more in season....

From our trip to the zoo on Saturday.  Brilliant sun.  Colder than you might think.  Especially when one is waiting 20 minutes for the tram.

We never did get to see the sharks.  But the New Guinea Singing Dogs were wonderful, and there was stuff to climb on, so the kiddos were happy. 

Out of season

I don't think I ever shared these pictures with you all.

(blame Nat, he was hoarding them on his phone)

I think they are priceless, if a bit out of season right now.

Jack and Ivy, circa September.

Alternate title for this post:  Children of the Corn.  The cute version.