January 2010

January flew by. Here are just a few things we did in January.

One thing we love about living down here is the weather in the winter. Here is Rook and his friend Benjamin at the park in the middle of January. They rode their bikes all over the place and then rested in a tunnel. Benjamin and his family moved this week and we are so sad to see them go. We will miss you!

Alexa had a lot of ups and downs this month. A definite up is her blossoming love for reading. If it's a little too quiet, I can usually find her "reading" a book somewhere.

Rook pushed her off the couch and she got a big fat lip. It was pretty bloody. Good thing she can smile about these sort of things...We also found out she has a cross bite. Her top teeth don't go down over her bottom teeth, they meet in the middle. That's why her left front tooth hasn't descended all the way. The dentist said it's actually really helpful that she sucks her thumb and if it doesn't straighten out by the time she gets her big teeth, then braces will do the trick.

The tantrums have started to come in mass effect now. If I don't let her read books in the bath--tantrum. If I give her water instead of juice--tantrum. If I take something out of her purse like leftovers or popcorn or my cell phone--tantrum. I finally got a lock for the fridge so she can't get the eggs and anything else out and open them on the floor.

A nice up for Alexa is her word explosion. Here is a typical morning. I hear her talking in her bed so I go in to get her. "Purse, mama". We go find it. "Thanks Mama". "I wanna drink, Mama. Thank chew mama. Cereal Mama? Thanks mama." She can almost communicate everything and it's so fun to see Rook and Alexa kind of talking to each other. She points to herself and says "LEX". and then laughs. I love it.

Rook has opened a new world of pretend. It has ups and down in itself. He has lots of nightmares about monsters and weapons. He makes lasers and arrows out of tinker toys. He will often ask me what he looks like when he has tinkertoys stuck out of the back neck of his shirt. I say--A jedi master or a dragon rider and sometimes I'm right. But now, if I'm wrong, he gets really mad. So when he asks what do I look like? I ask, What do you want me to say? And he tells me. It's so much easier that way.

I made a bunch of ties this month. My friend Angela sent me the link to a blog that has patterns for all kinds of fun things. If you want it, let me know. You have to pay $1 to get the pattern. They're super easy and washable and they have velcro for the neck.

I also read the 3 Eragon books and can't wait for the next. I read "Have a Little Faith", the new book by Mitch Albom. Thanks Mattie for giving it to me for Christmas. One of my favorite parts was when someone asked the Rabbi's wife about their marriage, she said--"It's been a wonderful 30 years". But they had been married for 50. She explained.."You know, we'd have a good hour here and a fabulous couple of hours there and they all add up". I thought that was pretty right on.

I also made a bunch rag quilts. Joe's mom sends me flannel scraps all the time and so I finally decided to make something with them all. I've got 2 more in the works.

Tractors

Football

Trains and Tools

We hope February will be just as much fun.