Bat Guys...

 Moses, Henry, HW, Milo, Leo...at Amira's 4th birthday party...




(Have pics from Mae's party, Harper's party and Leo's....stay tuned)

Cooking with Henry and Elliebelly...

It's the story of a little boy named Henry and his little sister, Eleanor. Don't worry, we bought it.

Topical...

 From Henry's teacher

 

Good Afternoon,

 

I hope everyone has a nice spring break with family and friends.  We've all earned some down time away from school.  We've wrapped up our dinosaur unit and when we return we will focus on signs of spring and start a weather unit that includes wind, rain, sunlight and shadows.  We will also continue with our daily journal writing.

 

We started writing in journals a couple of weeks ago.  We started talking about the journal writing process several weeks ago.  We talked about why we write in journals and how to write in journals.  Ms. Laura and I have regularly practice taking dictation to accompany their drawings and writings.   I encourage to your continue the journal writing  practice at home this week.  You might even want to consider starting a journal to keep at home on a regular basis for them. Also, if you yourself keep a daily journal, I encourage you to share that with your child.  Maybe you can both have journal writing time together. When used each day, children will get into the routine of filling out a journal page and can develop a sense of pride in the work they create. Using a journal also can help them develop creativity and language skills and encourage them to record their thoughts and emotions. 

 

When they do write in their journals we give them the freedom to write or draw whatever they want.  Afterwards, we let them share with us what they wrote.  We label drawings or write certain phrases specific to the meaning of the journal entry based on what they say about their work.  So far, they all seem to really enjoy this time in our day.  I sincerely hope you continue the practice at home.  Have a wonderful week together.

 

Cindy

Spring has sprung...

Photo speaks a thousand words...

Just saw this photo in the NYT right after a reading a brief and silly article in Time Magazine about how dumb it is to have kids. 

Happy Women's Day...

Just read this article and decided of all the wisdom I'd like to impart on my children, I think problem solving--not being defeated--is on the top of my list. 

There is always a way around a problem -- you've just got to find it. Keep trying doors, and one will eventually open.

Congratulations to Uncle Karl and Aunt Rachel....

....who are soon to be Daddy Karl and Mama Rachel.

Please welcome baby [Florida Evans*] Hoffman, who we just learned this morning is a girl! 

[J.J. Evans] Hoffman will just have to wait, I suppose.

I asked Henry what they should name her and he immediately suggested 'Shoema Manunu.'   That's how it sounded phonetically, anyway.  I think that might be better than Florida Evans, but only barely.

*for the record, Florida Evans was my suggestion.  A great one, I might add.  Sadly, I don't think anyone is taking me seriously.  Oh well.  And just to clarify, Esther Rolle would also be acceptable.   

Slacker...

I go about most of my days feeling pretty good about my mothering.  And then I see blogs like this http://www.soulemama.com/ and this http://www.filthwizardry.com/ and I feel so inept.

On that soule mama blog there are lots of pics of the food she's prepared too.  I just don't get it.  Her house is perfect.  Her cooking is perfect.  She has four kids and one on the way.  She makes all their clothes.  She even sewed cloth "wrapping paper" for their Christmas presents.  She makes a lot of their toys, she seems really sweet and loving and patient.  How?  How do these women do it?

I hate arts and crafts.  I just do not enjoy it. I really really wish I did b/c it's a huge part of the mother's job description.  Luckily Justin has artistic abilities.

Austin Zoo

Henry Sings

Friday was Grandparents and Special Friends Day at Henry's school. This picture melts my heart.

Cars...guys...bugs

I don't think I've ever really documented what Eleanor likes to play with most.

She loves to dump out Henry's bucket of matchbox cars and sift her hands through them. She likes to put the cars back in the bucket one by one. She likes to crawl across the floor while driving a car, and make vroom sounds.

She loves to play with Justin's (and now Henry's) case of Star Wars and GI Joe guys. She again likes to dump them out and put them back and hold bunches of them in her hands and make sounds while holding them up in the air.

She really loves to dump out Henry's box of rubber and plastic bugs (it's mostly butterflies). There's also some plastic snakes in there too (she says sssssssssssssssssss) and some other animals like rubber cows, pigs and sheep. Her sounds are pretty great. She's got the cow-moooooo down pretty well. Still working on horse.

Eleanor loves to hand me tubes of playdoh to remove the lids from. Then she grabs the doh and plays with it for as long as she possibly can until the temptation to shove it in her mouth becomes too much and we have to stop.

She likes to play at Henry's train table and move trains back and forth and throw them on the floor. She really loves to dismantle the tracks.

She likes to choose play fruits and vegetables out of the basket and throw them across the room. She learned this from Henry. Sometimes they are both in the front room for 20 min just doing this.

She likes to open and close the doors on the play Kitchen, and put veggies down the sink-hole. She likes to put toys in the toy kitchen and close the door behind them.

She LOVES to pet Kitty and put her head down on him.

She loves to "jump" on the bed with Henry. She bounces up and down while sitting but more recently she has begun standing and bounces up and down, trying to jump. Henry is pretty good at knocking her down.

She loves to rip up paper.

She loves to pull the magnets off the fridge.

She loves to take all the towels out of the rag-drawer.

She loves this musical toy that has a microphone and plays nursery rhymes. She gets so into it she stands up and claps while shaking her booty. Then she'll shout into the microphone some baby garble.

The ball popper.

All her push toys--whose days are numbered now that she's walking.

Her daddy. Who is so useless against her baby-girl-powers. She calls him at 3AM to come hang out with her and he goes and he stays and he is happy to be there (unlike me at that hour).

Vet came by today...

And Kitty put on a really good show. The Vet was too scared to pick Kitty up and did not even touch him. Kitty was practically rabid, he was hissing and growling so much. Ten minutes and $110 later, the vet called in a prescription for a whopping dose of Prozac. I say whopping because it turns out Kitty is 17 lbs (he's lost a significant amt. of weight) and the dose is 10mg. People who weigh 160 can be prescribed that dose.

I think this is going to turn him into a stuffed animal. Oh ethics. How you nag me so.

In other news, Eleanor is taking lots and lots of steps. I'm not sure who's more proud. Her or us. Henry is equally ecstatic. He says the most heart warming things. "Good job sweetie", etc. They've been paling around a lot lately. Giggling and copying one another. I definitely feel the scales have tipped lately and the work required to take care of two children is less then the amount of fun and joy they provide. Here here.

Get well soon, Aunt Sandra

That's what the sign would say if you could actually read it.

Any takers?

Grandparents and Special Friends Day - Friday, February 18th at 9:30am - Followed by Early Dismissal at 11:30am
Please let your child's teachers know how many guests he or she will be expecting next Friday morning for Grandparents and Special Friends Day. The children will be making special gifts for their guests. We will have a special chapel service followed by a breakfast reception in Kleberg Hall.

Day in the life...

I was cleaning out one of my bags this morning and came across a piece of paper with a list on it. It must have been from the early Fall or late summer. I vaguely remember writing it but it's a list of everything I had done that day. I wanted to write it all down so that I would remember what daily life was like (for me) with a 3 year old and an infant.

6:15 AM
Wake up to Henry crying. He wet his bed.
Change Henry into dry clothes.
Make Henry's breakfast.
Nurse Eleanor.
Give Eleanor a bath in the sink.
Diaper and dress E.
Empty dishwasher while handing E toys.
Give Henry a bath while feeding Eleanor in his room.
Dress Henry.
Reload and run dishwasher.
Put on records and dance with the kids.
Put Henry and Eleanor's clothes in the wash.
Strip both kids beds.
Read kids books.
Pack Henry's lunch for school.
Put kids in car and drive H to school.
Push Eleanor in her swing.
Put E in her jumpy while cleaning up the toys in the yard.
Feed Eleanor yogurt.
Change E's diaper.
Nurse E and put her down for nap.
Put clothes in dryer and sheets in the wash.
Pump milk for tomorrow.
Take out the trash.
10:30 AM
Put the toys away in the front room and sweep floor.
Take clothes out of the dryer and sort/fold.
Play toys with E
Put clothes away.
Empty dishwasher.
Drive to computer place and pick up computer.
Get tacos.
Eat lunch with family (Justin p/u Henry)
Play toys with H and E.
Put both kids down for nap (nurse E).
Mom naps.
2:00PM
Have snack with kids.
Sweep kitchen floor after E's mess.
Take kids to Central Market (grocery store)
Sit at table and eat gelato with them.
Play on playground at CM.
Grocery shop.
Come home, put groceries away while handing E toys.
5:00
Take Henry to dance class.
6:15 PM
Put Eleanor to bed.
Make lunches for tomorrow.
Tuck in Henry.
Pump.
Have tea.
Shower.
9:30
Read
Go to bed.

He's still with us...

Yesterday, Justin and I made the incredibly difficult decision to have Kitty put down. The appointment was for today at 12:30. I was going to take him because as we all know, it's the women who do the heavy lifting in this world. That, and because Justin is 50 million times closer to the cat than I am.

The problem with Kitty is he's crazy. He spends a good part of his day chasing his tail; growling and hissing at it. It sounds like a vicious cat fight, only it's just him. It used to be annoying and kind of funny but now he's doing it several times a day and throughout the night. I can not tell you how many times we've been awoken at 1 AM (and 3AM and 5 AM) to shrieking on our bed. It's terrible to wake up that way. At first your mind goes to very ugly places and then you realize it's your dumb cat attacking himself again. Eleanor does a spot-on impression. If she sees a picture of a cat she'll go "rrrrrrrrrrr, hsssssssssssssssss". Henry has learned to just open the door and push him out. He'll also say very condescendingly, "Kitty, it's just your tail. Stop that." Other Henryisms are "Kitty's a jerk." and "Kitty's crazy".

E is very fond of him too, of course. He likes to nap on her changing table pad while she is napping. "Kitty" was one of her first words. She gets a HUGE smile when he comes near her and she pets him very gently. Then she tries to stick her finger in his mouth.

I told my boss yesterday what was going on and she recommended a second opinion (actually, it's a 3rd opinion since Amira's dad is a vet and told us the diagnosis and treatment in the first place). The reason why Kitty is still alive right now is my boss told me her vet makes house calls. The downside of getting Kitty on Prozac is we'd have to bring him in for an examination and that's an absolute nightmare. Everything about that would be hell for Kitty (and me). The car ride, going in the carrier, being held down, etc. He's an incredibly neurotic cat. So I called the guy, he said he would just come over, weigh Kitty so he could get the dose right, and then call us in the script. He said there's no reason to do an exam because if it doesn't work we'll know in six weeks and we'll go with plan A which is put the cat out of his misery.

We were pretty set on not doing Prozac b/c of the exam (this was before knowing this vet would hook us up w/o blood-work) so we've been telling Henry that Kitty is sick and that he will die soon. Everything I've read and studied about grief and especially grief in children says that we should not lie. We should talk about death as if it is a totally normal part of life (b/c it is) and that it's our culture of obscuring death that causes people such complicated reactions to grief. I wanted to lie though. I really really wanted to tell him Kitty was going to live on a farm. He LOVES Kitty. He snuggles with him. He loves to pet him and kiss him. He always includes Kitty in conversations about our family. I knew this was going to be hard. Justin and I told him a few days ago and his immediate reaction was to fall to the floor, like a sack of potatoes. He had a very sad face. He asked some questions that I don't remember and then he asked to go in the back and watch TV. Then he seemed to forget about it and hasn't brought it up since.

Today when I went to pick him up I saw they had a bulletin board up for Valentines Day. It had all of the kids names and then listed the thing that they love. I think I would have fallen to pieces right there in the hall way had we gone though with our 12:30 plan today.

Friday and Saturday...

[slideshow]

Ch ch ch changes....

On Thursday, Eleanor took her first step. It was just one step and then she sat down. Yesterday, we were at Mae and Jane's house and Eleanor stood up in their kitchen, by herself. She's been standing on her own for several weeks, but getting from a sitting to a standing position without support is new. When we came home, we put Mungo Jerry on for her inspiration. She stood up and swayed and bounced and giggled, but she did not take steps. It's so close though. Very exciting.

Eleanor has moved from the baby room at school, to the transitional room. It's just 3 other kids. They nap around 11 and they have activities focused on mobility and practicing with utensils, etc. The toddler room is all potty training, so that's why there's this transitional room (and they nap earlier). All the babes are between 12 mos and 20 mos. Her teacher is Jackie. But the toddler area has four teachers and while Jackie is Eleanor's, they mingle at meal time and during some of the free-play time. E seems very happy. When I dropped her off on Wednesday the toddler teachers separately asked me if E is always so happy. Justin said the same thing regarding pick up. They comment on her constant state of joy. She's just very easy to please. I think it's because she doesn't get out much. Not like the early days Henry had, of two outings per day. When I'm home solo with Eleanor on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we rarely leave the house, except to drop off and pick up Henry and maybe go to the grocery store. She's just so content at home, and Henry really wasn't. He liked to always be out and doing things or he would be fussy at home. I used to take Henry to two library story times a week and I've never taken E.

Note about Henry (and maybe all kids). If he can't be GREAT or THE BEST at something, he gets so frustrated. And sometimes he suffers through it till there's success and sometimes he walks away. This is going on right now about drawing. He is pretty good at writing letters but he won't really draw a picture. Justin is a really good artist and used to draw pictures for Henry or with Henry (while H would scribble) and now he is just raving mad that he can't draw pictures as good as daddy, so he just won't draw them. And come to think of it, he's never been all that interested in art. When we did that art class he never wanted to participate, because they had a sandbox. I paid $150 for Henry to play in a sandbox. He does the bare minimum at school with his craft stuff and he rarely wants to do those things with me. He'll use a pen and paper to draw lines or write letters, but not depict anything with crayons or markers. But that's okay. We figure these things out about our kids and we don't push it. This is who he is or where he is right now. When he draws something we'll post it here. I can't wait to see what it will be.

It's 66 degrees today. Yesterday we made a snowman.

A Day of Discovery

Not only did Eleanor see snow for the first time (she's not all that impressed), but she also discovered the joy of putting cars into Play 'n Ride trains.

Snow

Soccer Game #2

We had our second soccer game yesterday. While there was a remarkable dropoff in enthusiasm for most of the Panthers compared to last week, Henry and Moses gave it all they had (seen below running their hearts out.) The game started 4 on 4, but there were many times when it was 2 on 2 or even 1 on 3. i9 sports is great for a lot of reasons, but one of them is that it is perfectly reasonable and acceptable for most of the kids to tune out when and if they choose. Henry scored three more goals (thereby surpassing my entire soccer career's total) and won the medal that is given out each week for a different value. This week's was respect, but I think it was more given to recognize the fact that Henry played as hard as he could. I am so proud of that boy.

Bike riding

Henry learns to ride a bike...

On Thursday I went to Academy and bought the cheapest 12 inch peddle bike they had (Huffy, Pro Thunder, $27). It doesn't even have real tires. The reason for buying a bike that's actually too small for him is if he starts to fall he can just put his feet down and stop himself, which is exactly what he did.

While Justin was out running 18 miles this morning (gah!) we had some time on our hands. We went outside, I got out the bike, I put E in her swing, and Henry and I went into the street (we have no sidewalks). I put my hands on his sides, underneath his armpits and told him to pedal. Once he got going I let go and just ran beside him. That was it. He rode up and down the street and then when dad returned, we went over to the parking lot near our house. He was riding up and down the ramps, all over, doing turns, going fast, slow, stopping, starting; yelling at me if I came near him.

The tires are already bald. The bike is a total piece. But it did it's job.

Henry is very excited he can join his friend Lowell, who inspired us all by learning to ride a bike months ago.

Potential blackmail...pretty girl

[slideshow]

Park yesterday...

I couldn't find Henry playing with his friends and then I looked over and saw he was playing with his sister.

The other picture is Eleanor, Jane, and Joe, with Truly on the other side.
[slideshow]

Giggles from E's school...

The haps...

I taught Henry how to fold towels yesterday.

This morning I would not let Henry watch his hour of TV because he woke up too early. I think he's been waking up earlier and earlier (today 5:50) in anticipation of TV watching. After I made him lay in bed with me till 6:45 he asked if he could play his video game and I said no, but you can get dressed. He yelled, "I don't get to do anything special!". Sometimes I think my parenting decisions in the early morning are made more out of anger (revenge?) then out of good sense. I didn't get to sleep, you don't get TV. So there.

I'm not proud.

I taught Eleanor a body part. I say, "Where's your nose?" and she points to it. I am going to teach her the rest this week. That took 2 days of asking a few times a day.

Eleanor can repeat words, which is like a little window into the future. For instance, yesterday we were outside and a grackle was right next to us squawking, and I said, "Bird" and she repeated it exactly. She says, "book", "Kitty", and "Yes" too but she mainly is sticking to daily usage of "this" and "that" "mama" and "dada" and "key" (for kitty) and "dog". She is signing "more" and "milk" and yesterday I began teaching her the sign for "chicken" b/c when Henry did that sign it made Justin and I burst into huge smiles. It's the cutest sign ever.

Eleanor is a picky eater. She eats good portions but not a terribly wide variety. Definitely a sweet tooth and she goes for junk (health food junk, I guess). Her dream meal would be veggie booty, cheddar bunnies, squirtable fruit/veg, mac and cheese and yogurt bites. Add some raisins and frozen blueberries and that would be her ideal. She'll eat eggs, yogurt, tomatoes, oranges, grapes, kiwis, strawberries, melon, avocados, olives, cheese and crackers, sometimes rice, and lots and lots of oatmeal. She'll eat cod. That's about it.

We're no longer vegetarians. I call us meat-avoiders. We eat it about once a week. Fish and grass fed-beef only. There's been occasional exceptions for halal lamb, but only because the place down the street makes a slammin gyro. Henry ate it like candy yesterday. The real reason for our meat back-sliding is Franklins-which we get about 2x's a month and Quality seafood's fish N Chips. And because Henry loves sardines. We're not really preparing any meat at our house, except for the occasional organic, nitrate-free grass-fed all beef hotdog. I don't feel good about the hotdogs but it's only about 2X per month and they're just so easy to prepare.

Eating with a fork

Eleanor's daycare just sent me this and I have watched it about five times in a row....so, clearly it needs to go here.

Soccer!

Henry finally got to play his first game for his new team, the Panthers, after two weeks of rain outs.  Moses and Mae are also on his team and it is going to be a lot of fun.  Today was a "practice game" and the Panthers got creamed by the other team....but Henry scored two goals, including the first one for his team.  He told me about four times on the way home that he had fun.  That's good.





Henry (43) and Moses (41)

I think I have blog-writer's block.

What's up? I love Henry. I love Eleanor. I love my time with them just as much as I love my time without them. Eleanor is taking it easy on me lately. She played alone in the closet for an embarrassingly lengthy amount of time this afternoon. As I was finishing up in the kitchen and heading over to check on her, I imagined a cross examiner shouting at me about the length of time in between checks. She was fine. Always fine. Let's keep it that way. ABC. Always Be Careful. This mantra is in the back of my mind on a constant basis ever since I became a mother. You can't get sloppy. You can't rest on your laurels. Don't count your luck. Proper planning prevents poor performance. Deep breaths. Everything's okay.

Work is less enjoyable lately. I keep getting subpoenaed by upper middle class white people. Litigious, they are.

Here's some pictures.[slideshow]

Pushing alligators

Dancing Eleanor

What's funny about her dancing is this happens the second she hears a single note of music being played anywhere. Grocery store, a musical montage on tv, a cell phone ringing.....

A lot of the time I won't even notice there is music playing until she suddenly starts flailing her body everywhere and it's like, "Oh, there must be music somewhere."

January catch-up...

The biggest downside of potty training Henry almost a year ago, is that he wakes up every morning very, very early, because he needs to pee. We take him before we go to bed, but still, that's about 8 more hours he has to go without peeing and that's a lot for a little bladder.

My solution is teaching Henry a rudimentary method of how to tell time. He can recognize 1-12 so that was the first step and know he's starting to figure out what time feels like, in terms of seconds and minutes and hours. That's a pretty hard concept and I don't expect him to get it anytime soon, but he's becoming familiar. He has a giant wall clock and after I take him to pee sometime between 5:30 and 6:00, I give him the clock and he knows he has to stay in his bed until the long hand reaches the 5 (6:25). PBS Kids doesn't come on till 6:30 so that gives us a few minutes to cuddle before he glues himself to Word World and Sesame Street for an hour. He's pretty cute with that clock. It's really large so when he emerges from his room clutching it and saying, "Mom! It's on the 5!", I always laugh.

Eleanor is quite the party girl. She loves music just like Henry did as a baby. Always shaking her booty to the beat and flailing her arms around in joy when she hears anything musical. She'll laugh and squeal on top of that which makes the whole music experience pretty great. Eleanor, when not sick, has reminded us what an independent little girl she is. She's perfectly content for incredibly long stretches of time, without us. She likes to be busy filling and emptying just about anything she can get her hands on.

Eating and sleeping are pretty good. I'm guessing she averages about 15 hours per day--sometimes more, sometimes less. 12-13 at night and about 3 hours worth in naps. She is still taking two naps a day. Henry will sleep 10-12 at night and take a 2 hour nap if at home--he refuses to nap at school anymore. Only 2-3 kids in his entire class still take naps at school so he doesn't want to.

Henry has become confident on his balance bike. Yesterday we took the kids to an empty parking lot and he could go very far and fast balancing, suggesting that if we had a bike his size with pedals we could probably teach him how to ride by the end of the day. That bike has really changed everything for him. He rides it every single day and does not even get upset when he falls. Eleanor enjoyed walking for long stretches on her push alligator; stopping only to shove pebbles in her mouth. (Memory: The wacky hording lady stopping to shout that her ex husband John Howard achieved the land speed record back in his day.)

Uncle Karl and Aunt Rachel were here this past long weekend and he took a zillion pictures that I'm currently wading through. Stay tuned.

School updates...

For the next few weeks we will focus on a winter unit. We talk about the changes we see in the weather and the environment. We'll learn about animals in winter. We'll learn about migration and hibernation. Our cooking activities will involve warm comfort foods like soups.

This week we made a batch of snow dough. We've had fun using it to build snow people and pretending to make animal tracks or having our cars and trucks get stuck in the snow. We've painted winter pictures at the easel with blue and white paint and added silver glitter for a snow effect. We have also been gathering sticks to make winter trees pictures. Tomorrow we will paint with ice paint.

We've been reading and listening on cd to different versions of the folktale Stone Soup. Tomorrow we will make our own stone soup.

This week we'll read Maurice Sendak's Chicken Soup with Rice which is a fun story that introduces the changes of the seasons as well as learning the months of the year. We'll also make a batch of chicken soup with rice. I expect it to be a bigger hit than our stone soup which was fun to make, but not so very appealing for some of the friends to eat.

Today we read Katy and the Big Snow. We had a fun sensory experience using shaving cream as snow to drive the cars and trucks through.

We learned a couple of new games. One is a memory card game with winter pictures to test our recall skills and the other is an alphabet game to help us work on letter and sound recognition. We put together our winter bulletin board by tracing our arms to make trees and paint white paint with cotton swabs to represent snow. We are making ice collages to hang on the trees. We put different pieces of nature in pans with water. Then set them outside. We hope that with tonight's freezing temperatures they will turn to ice. We learned that it has to be below 32 degree for the water to start freezing. We'll check on them in the morning.

Yesterday we read The Snowy Day and talked about what fun things we would like to do in the snow like the little boy, Peter. Today we read Chicken Soup with Rice and practiced saying the months of the year. We talked about which month our birthdays were in and took turns standing up when our month was called.

Next week we will read two of my favorite stories, The Little Red Hen and Bread and Jam for Francis. We'll also attempt to make our own homemade bread.

We've been talking a lot about winter weather as well as experiencing it first hand. We have been looking at pictures of Alaska and igloos. Today we made our own igloos with sugar cubes and glue. We pretended the cubes were blocks of ice. Amazingly, no one tried to sample the blocks. The igloos are drying on the sensory table and can go home with you. Have a great long weekend. See you on Tuesday. We will start to talk about animals in winter.

Polaroid Version

I also second the champagne shout out. The mom crew knows what's up.

Plenty to say...

...and no time to say it. My brother made the mistake of sending me "Mad Men" and we've been having epic marathons of this show. Also, I'm really enjoying the new Franzen novel.

First, a Christmas break re-cap: We had two weeks of no school for Henry, and one week off for Eleanor, and basically two weeks off of work for me and patchy but generous time-off for Justin. I'm incredibly fortunate enough to have mom-friends who are much more organized and forward planning than I am, and so most of the time-off was booked with stuff-to-do. Henry spent two mornings with his friend Archer at the Little Austin Yoga House . It's run out of an old guest house, behind a huge house, in Clarksville (really cool neighborhood I wish I could afford to live in) and it was just a pretty young teacher named Abby and the two boys, from 9-12. They did yoga of course, but also lots of fun things like make New Years Resolutions, which Henry taped to the wall in the living room. His resolutions for 2011 are: Eat lots of Strawberries, Have a Happy Family, and Have fun!". You can't really beat that.

There were several play-dates at the park with friends (a highlight for me because it provided all us mom's an opportunity to curse and moan about our lack of childcare), coupled with unbelievably mild winter-weather. I am not even sure it's fair to say 60's and 70's is mild for winter. But the sun shone almost everyday and there were lots and lots and lots of bike-riding trips around the neighborhood. Henry got something called a balance bike (AKA a Glider). It's an incredibly genius invention that will all but guarentee he will be riding an actual pedal bike (sans training wheels) before his 4th birthday. He LOVES that thing. It actually teaches you how to balance on a bike, which is the whole hurdle of learning, by designing the bike low enough to the ground that you push yourself on the bike with your feet and then you rest your feet on these bars, and then you're essentially riding the bike--w/o training wheels! I think within the next decade training wheels will be obsolete and children will all learn to ride bikes before age 5. We've begun a nightly tradition of going around the block at night, before bath. It's pitch dark by 6 but he eats dinner and then we go back outside and he's so fast on the bike I actually enjoy the walk, unlike the beating it was to snail alongside him on the training wheels bike.

Henry's other favorite Christmas gift was a bike too. But this bike I truly despise. Coincidentally my mother and my MIL bought this for him (we had to send one back) so they share blame evenly. But it's a video game bike. It hooks up to the TV and you ride it as if you are competing in races (against Thomas the Train, or Batman, or what-have-you). He is so earnest on this thing and wants to do it all the time and perhaps it would not be so bad if he didn't constantly want me to witness every moment of his success or recognize each and every victory (which happens about every 15 seconds). I'm hoping this particular toy gets it's 15 min and we move on, as he does with all his toys (except for cars, blocks, books, bikes, and balls).

Eleanor received several dolls for Christmas, which she pays no attention to but Henry loves. My heart has melted a few times this week already, watching him put them down for a nap, giving them paci's, holding and rocking and singing them lullaby's. He wants them surrounding him at nap time too, it's very cute. I've already told him he is going to be a great daddy someday and that made him feel pretty good.

As I've mentioned before on this blog, Henry really loves Jesus. Eleanor received a pink teddy bear that sings "Jesus Loves Me" and Henry will not stop playing it, singing it, holding it, singing it on his own, signing along with it, etc.

Henry has fallen deeply in love with the cat, in tandem with my falling out of love with Kitty. When Kitty is not embraced by Henry, he is chasing his tail, groaning, hissing and darting to and fro. I am constantly letting him out, letting him back in, and contemplating having him put down. If it were not for Henry's love and devotion, Kitty would be in an urn right now. A vet friend has recommended Prozac, which I would consider if it did not take four people dressed in something that looks like they should handle eagles, holding him down to get a pill in his body.

Henry and his dad went to Dallas for a few days and had Christmas there, while Eleanor and I stayed back. She was way too ill to transport her. It was really really hard for me. Eleanor needed to be held all day. She had a fever, an enormous amount of snot and so she was waking up a lot because she was uncomfortable and couldn't breath out of her nose, and the days were just very very long. Since I did not go to Dallas, I can't really comment but I think Henry had a lot of fun running around with his cousin Maggy. He also got a horse for Christmas, slept in a trailer (winnebago, or whatever you call them) and Justin brought a little Christmas tree to light up the trailer with.

Eleanor is fully capable of walking alongside me while holding my hand but she goes a few steps and then wants to sit down. We also catch her standing on her own and then she realizes she's doing it and then immediately sits. She's funny--always smiling, playing, and if we're outside, completely independent. She will crawl off on her own without a second thought of anyone else. At home she'll do this if Henry is around but if it's just 1:1 she likes to be near, or held. She just has the two little teeth on the bottom but eats just about the same food we do. She even eats nuts. She got her first bang cut a few weeks ago. She LOVES bath time with her brother (well, anything with her brother). Sleep has been pretty weird. She is taking a long morning nap at 9 or 9:30 and then fighting her afternoon nap or not taking it at all and then has to go to bed by 5:45. And then of course she wakes up ridiculously early (6:00). It seems like this has been going on since I moved her crib a few weeks ago but I can't move it back because her room is an actual room now and not just a space where she sleeps. It's pretty cute--I'll take pics and post one of these days.

The last thing I want to comment on about Christmas break was New Years Day. We went to Mayfield park to meet friends and Mae's mom brought champagne. I don't need to say much about that, just want to note it in hopes the memory remains in tact. That was very cool.

Here's some pictures of that outing
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