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Hide & SeekThe kids are getting better and better at this game. It's no longer "Let's play hide & seek! You hide over here, and I'll hide over there!". Now all three participate, even Sofia takes her turn hiding and helps seeking. When counting they climb on the coffee table and belt out ONE, TWO, THREE ... They do tend to want to hide wherever Papa hid last. And when I tell Julia that the closet she's in is not a good place because I already know where she is, she finds that nagging, and holding up the game. "This is a place where you don't know where I am!" Vincent at schoolI had the pleasure of seeing Vincent in action at the Montessori school during "Papa night". The 2 of us went to his school after dinner - he was so exited that already on the way over he thanked me at least a dozen times "Thank you papa, for coming to my school!" He showed me all the different types of work he does there: ordering beads, sorting bells, doing dragon puzzles, painting dragons on paper, drawing dragons on the windows... Quite impressive. And he served me a snack and a drink. The most amazing thing was to discover that he knows how - and voluntarily does - clean everything up after himself. Who knew! That's a skill we've never seen at home! Vincent went to ski school for the first time on 1/17/05. He loved it. Although he fell asleep right after lunch - when we picked him up he was snoring away in a cot. In his defense, he had been up all night with a stomach bug - but didn't want to hear anything about canceling school in the morning. Sofia SpeaksAmazing how different kids of the same crop can be. Julia spoke in full sentences at 18 months, but Sofia doesn't seem to see the need for such overachieving. We, trained listeners, know that she can say quite a bit, but usually she can't be bothered to use her vocabulary. "No", and "Uh-hum" is what she uses most, and "I want that". But things are improving rapidly this month. Several times at the dinner table I've heard her echo whatever the other two are saying, and she now uses lots more words regularly. Here is a translation table:
DreumesPoor doggie. Doesn't get the attention he used to. But he's got a new favorite hang-out: Arjan's office in Boulder. It's a bit of a commute, an hour in the back of the car, but then.... an office full of people to scratch and pet him. Everybody loves him there, takes him out for Frisbee throwing all the time. He's promoted to director of Moral Support. And to top it all off, in the same building, at the other side of the corridor is a dog biscuit company! So every once in a while, in between running after the Frisbee, he sneaks off to the other side, makes the ladies there melt with his sweet puppy stare, and comes away with a mouthful of the best biscuits ever. He's in heaven.Yusty came to ski with her Florida ski team, and we went to see them for a day. The kids had a great time with Yusty's ski buddy Ray.
Sofia follows wherever the other two go. Unfortunately that includes the coffee table... and the stage diving. Mea Culpa!
I gave Tara a composter for her birthday (hey, not my idea! That's what she wanted more than anything). As I wrapped the thing early in the morning I thought about joking with Tara 'What would you like to do today - play with your new composter?' But of course, the kids thought this was the best present - they played with it all day long, even had a picnic in it. I hope they'll realize this will not be such a great idea once the thing is in use.
Vincent's artistic capabilities keep improving. This is his latest work - in chalk. Comments from the artist: note the long neck, big wings, and arrow on the tail
Hot-tubbing when it snowing is fun. Picking up snow and melting it in the water is funner. But most fun is to walk in the snow barefoot. They actually kept going in and out for 20 minutes!
It kept on snowing, and we woke up to a foot of fresh powder. Time to call a snow day and stay home from work
Mama!!!!
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