Story time

Its been a nice Sunday, as evidenced by the fact that I am still wearing pajama pants, and the only time I left the house was to go sledding this morning.  It was a sunny-lovely day and I soaked in the sight of the bright-white snow covered world before the melt comes tomorrow.  We cleaned and played games and watched a movie.

And, Jack read us a book.

Here he is, reading from "Go, Dog, Go!"  With a little help, yes.  But this is his first time trying this book-- and I think he did pretty well.  He made it through about 500 of the 550 words in the book, which is also a tremendous display of stamina for our boy.

As he went up the stairs to bed, Nat said to him, "I can't believe you read 500 words tonight! Wow."  And Jack replied, "I'm really proud!"

I am too.




And did I ever post this one?   Meh, it's so cute it doesn't matter if it's on here twice!

About the Weather

As I prepare to post the pictures you'll see below, its hard to believe that it was only a week ago we  spent a blustery, sunshiny day outside at Wade Oval.  Since then our high temperatures have been in the teens, Jack has had his first snow/cold day, and our world is blanketed by a fluffy layer of white. The weather is a little crazy around here.  

So are the children.

You may notice Ivy's "Rocky" impression in these pictures.  She fell while on a walk around the block on Friday. On her nose.  We couldn't get this band-aid off of her for several days.  Cute look, eh?

Last Saturday we went to our second Children's Matinee at Playhouse Square.  Its so fun to dress the kids up and take them downtown, and to see the parade of other littles, dressed and pressed and so excited to be out with their parents.  Or at least, in the case of my little ones, to be getting a package of skittles from the refreshment cart in the lobby.  As soon as I mentioned the play, Jack began to work himself up for those skittles.  The boy is serious about skittles.

The play we say was a puppet adaptation of the children's book "Guess how much I love you."  It was sweet and calm and quite fun to watch and not nearly so over-long as the last one.  We shared a packed lunch in the lobby with Gram afterwards and it was a lovely way to spend a morning.

We got home to find that the day in general was getting lovelier by the minute.  In Cleveland, when you find yourself looking at a 50 degree, sunny day in January, and it's only 1:00, you do not pass go, you do not collect $100, you just proceed directly to the nearest outdoor, picturesque location.  

For us last Saturday, that was Wade Oval.  I am not sure why we don't spend more time at this perfect park in front of the Art Museum.  It is stunning there, really.  Symmetrical and planned, yet organic, dotted with sculpture and fountains, encircled by paths and steps, graced with flat grass begging to be run across.  The wind whipped our hair and the kids played "Daddy Monster" and Corydon and I had a brisk walk around the lake together.

We had to go inside the museum too, of course.   The new Gallery One interactive experience?  Yeah.  It's pretty awesome.  Nat says it is proof positive that we are, in fact, living in the future.

It was so awesome, in fact, that we didn't make it anywhere else in the museum...


The rest of the week, in brief and sans pictures:

Monday-- given a 3 day weekend and no other plans, we did what we always do:  drive to IKEA.  Never mind the two kids who had just come down with colds.  Why not go on a road trip?  We took lots of tissues...  We ended up having a grand day, relaxing at Fi and Anthony's lovely new house, watching Ivy and Keely play together, then a quick shopping run through our Mecca of consumerism where we picked up a new oriental rug for the living room (we'd meant to get a cowhide.... but I am actually-- dare I say it?-- really happy with how this one looks...) and $100 of who-knows-what to go with it.  Happens every time.

Tuesday-- records day for me.  Awful roads. Worked two hours at Starbucks while waiting for roads to improve.  Could get used to that.

Wednesday-- workshop for me.  Great day, really.  The workshop was rather boring and repetitive but the company was lovely.  It is vital to have these chances to connect with co-workers.

The rest of the week-- cold and snowy and busy!  This weekend has found us snuggling in with movies and games, with  one foray out to swim at the J this morning.

I really like my mornings at the J with the kids. We have a routine, and they do very well with it.  We change then swim for about 30 minutes. It's so do-able now that Jack is an independent swimmer (more and more independent every time!  Today he spent almost the whole time experimenting with how deep he could swim under water..).  Then, 30 minutes of enjoying a hot shower in the great, accessible family change rooms.  I am dreading the day we have to bite the bullet and say its no longer appropriate to shower together as a family, because this is SO convenient!  They have fun, they are contained, we all walk out clean and dressed and ready for the day.  We go upstairs and eat lunch and play in the Family Space rooms for about an hour before heading home...  A nice way to spend 4 hours together with a minimum of yelling.

(Sadly, 4 hours at home usually contains far more yelling that I am happy with.  Jack, while stunningly handsome and a pretty good swimmer, has recently been a bit of a pill when it comes to listening to us, or behaving acceptably towards his sister.  If she's not screaming at him for taking a toy or getting in her space, we're yelling at him for ignoring our directions the first 7 times we said them.   I am hoping that this is just one of those "phases" he goes through.  Please....)

And somehow, so soon, we 're entering the tail end of another weekend.  At the tail end of another month!  We shall see where the weather takes us this week...

Around

We're still around, never fear.

It just turns out that 2013?  Is kicking my patootie so far.

Work has been exhausting,  getting up at 5 to go to work out has been exhausting, keeping up with the pace of life-not-on-vacation has been exhausting, getting up with a little girl who has given up on sleeping through the night, exhausting...

Being exhausted = not very interesting writing.


I will work on this, I promise.

Thankfully Nat's days with Ivy are keeping us supplied with pictures.  We also had a nice weekend outing this past Saturday, a family trip to the Science Center followed by a spontaneous ride on the free L-Line trolley up to public square.  It was a lovely, unseasonably warm day out and the whole event felt reminiscent  of the City Hop, of summer festivals and exploration... Sigh.

Sunday brought soup!  A delicious green mix of brocolli and brussels sprouts...  complemented by a house full to the brim with children. Thirteen under the age of 5.  It was noisy and crazy and warm and wonderful, all these lovely friends (old and new) gathered and chatting and simultaneously refereeing the littles.

And Nat got to spend his days  with this little imp...

They went back to the Art Museum today.

I

.

And she's off...

Here for your viewing pleasure: photos of Ivy's first day at St. Paul's.  Nat noted that her first day-- all one hour of it-- was slightly less strenuous than a typical morning at the Parent Center.  But it was her first day nonetheless, and as such, significant.

There are five small people in her class, with a young and enthusiastic teacher.  It is, by the looks of these photos, entirely too cute to handle.

I am very proud of my growing-up girl.

January's Girl

This one.

 
The one with the dancing eyes, the wild smile, the spunk and character, the funny little sayings and too much personality to contain.

She starts school tomorrow.

She is two years, 8 months and 2 days old today.  She is ready to take on the world.

The question remains: Is the world ready for her??

Today Miss Ive and her daddy took on the Art Museum.  As I looked at these photos on Nat's phone, little girlie told me about her day.  Before you read her narration, you ought to know that a good deal of their time was spent in the medieval section, looking at various renditions of Christ and other religious scenes (who knew Nat would steer her toward that???) and that Nat had taken photos of some of their favorite paintings...

Ivy: (Looking at the painting of the eunuch being visited by two spirits)
"I lookin at that one, those two (points to spirits).
Me: You like the spirits, Ivy?
Ivy: That one has a baby one!  Why that one have blood drippin from him knife? (note-- the baby one does, in fact, have blood dripping from it's knife.  Think about eunuchs...  Nuff said.)
Me: Is is a little scary that he has blood on his knife?
Ivy: Nope. I not scared!
(scrolling and looking at a "Last Supper rendition) What that Jesus doin?  I see a Jesus missin a foot.  And him missing him arms (holds arms out crucifix style)
Me: (look quizzically at Nat, who confirms that she did in fact view a crucifix that was missing a foo,t and the arms).  Oh.
Ivy:  And him have that other foot.  With a nail in it.
Me:  Oh.
Ivy: (Scrolling and looking at a photo of herself, looking at a bust of a man)  That one not coming back.  That one gone away and not coming back!
Me: (looking quizzically at Nat who confirmed that the bust in question did have the inscription "I am the one that left never to return."  He'd read it to Ivy at her request.  At the museum.  6 hours before.)  Oh.

Girl has got one heck of a memory.  And doesn't miss a trick.  Especially, apparently, when the tricks involve plenty of religion, death, and gore.

Why yes, she IS the funniest thing going.  She's as entertaining as they come and oh so sweet.  Here is the description I put on her school information form when asked "What characteristics would you use to describe your child?"

Funny, friendly, fearless.  Talkative.
Tenacious, charming, bossy, sweet.

All that and so much more.

And two-and-a-half.  And starting school.

She loves to paint and draw and generally create.  Today she sculpted a motor boat for me, out of the pink floam she got for Christmas.  "It a boat, mommy.  There the light.  There the seat! DON'T TOUCH IT!  It made of GOLD...."

She loves to dance and sings the alphabet song to herself sometimes when she plays.  She likes to count things (right up to 5).  She loves Oreos and ice cream and Cinnamon Life cereal ("it DEEElicious!).

She wants to do EVERYTHING herself. It is perfectly logical, to her, that she unzip the sleeper I just zipped up for her, so that she can zip it right back up on her own.

She is love incarnate when she snuggles in to nurse, this great long girl all melted into me, little hand pat-pat-patting, rubbing her eyes.  She is my baby and her hair still smells so good.

And she starts school tomorrow.



Watch out world, indeed.

Photo credits to Nat and his amazing use of Hipstamatic....