Just in case I wondered...he listens to me :}

Owen and I had a 2.5 day 'date'--as he likes to call time spent just the two of us--flying to Baltimore and back this weekend to visit my sister, her roomies and her friend Kristi.  It was awesome!  Even at 3.5, this boy did not mind the full-time attention of multiple, older, beautiful women, let me tell you :)  We spent Saturday at the National Aquarium, with it's several-story high glass-walled atrium filled with a tropical sort of scene, waterfalls, birds, and of course, water life.

That was just the beginning...also jelly exhibit, full-fledged dolphin show, and 5 stories of tanks with a sting ray-filled pool at the bottom.  It was impressive!  Owen was rather obsessed with getting to the jelly exhibit.  A close 2nd for Owen was paint-your-own pottery, which we did after lunch...one of his fave things to do :)  Aunt Deb will have to mail us the mug he made after it's glazed and fired.

Reuel and Asher apparently had a great time at home!  What a lucky lady to have a wonderful husband who lets me take a much-needed vacation for the weekend.  SMACK!

Owen was really on great behavior the entire trip...he is an awesome traveler and LOVES airplanes, trips, new things, all of it.  He insists on wheeling the black carry-on and gets nothing but attention from fellow travelers :P  What makes him so funny in the airport is that when he's excited he speaks LOUDLY; he has a high, clear voice and pretty good pronunciation, so everybody can hear what's on his mind.  There were a bunch of funny moments, but here's the best.  Let me set the scene on the way home last night.

We were in row 29.  The engine was *right* outside our window.  So, it was a loud trip.  During takeoff you almost wanted to plug your ears it was so loud.  Every noise in the cabin is drowned by the engine hum as usual.  After landing and parking at the gate, then, the absolute silence was all the more conspicuous.  Since we were at the back of the plane, and the door was taking a while to open, there was a long spell of silent waiting, all stuck in our seats.  Every sniff, cough and cell phone beep is a loud interruption, and everyone is observing the undeclared social rule of being quiet and keeping to themselves until we've all got our personal space back in our possession outside the airplane.  Suddenly penetrating the silence...a voice.  Bell-like, soprano, and LOUD.

THE SEATBELT SIGN IS OFF, BUT NOT THAT OTHER SIGN MOMMY!  WHY IS THAT OTHER SIGN ON?

I squirmed for a second, but not much, because hey, nobody minds a cute kid asking a question, even if it's a little loud...good for a laugh.  I asked Owen to lower his volume just a little bit and then as quietly as I could, answered, "Because even though we can unbuckle our seatbelts now, we're still not allowed to smoke on the airplane."

WHAT IS THAT A PICTURE OF THOUGH?  I DON'T SEE THE SMOKE.

That's a picture that says 'no smoking cigarettes'

WHY AREN'T WE ALLOWED TO SMOKE ON THE AIRPLANE?

It isn't safe to have cigarettes on the airplane and it's not healthy for our bodies.

DID YOUR GRANDMA SMOKE CIGARETTES SOMETIMES?

Yes Owen, she did smoke cigarettes.  Owen, I think we can talk about this more after we get off the plane.  Let's keep our voices quiet and not bother the other people on the plane.

DID SHE DIE?!!

Yes Owen she did die, but we don't need to talk about that.

WAS SHE ON A CROSS?

[mixture of chuckling and horrified expressions among surrounding travelers]  Owen, no, no honey.  This is enough talking, let's talk more later.

DID SHE DISOBEY THE RULES???

At this point, the back third of the plane has practically dissolved into giggles.  I am beet red.  Owen is clueless.  I lean over to the pregnant lady and her husband across the aisle and whisper, "Are you ready for THIS??"

:)

Pix

By far the best thing about a snow day?  A daylong visit with the blessed angel Laura List, who my kids adore unceasingly, and who PLAYS with them untiringly.  What an awesome arrangement.

You've heard of smorgasbord, but how about floorgasbord? Very popular with the under-4 crowd.

Saying cheese while mixing all his foods together in a bowl and eating the concoction off a spoon.  Hey, if it gets in the mouth, it's a win for both of us.  I believe this day's recipe was noodles + yogurt + turkey.

All smiles and dressed for Japanese!!  (See one of my presents on the carpet?)

Thoroughly snowed

...going to snow another 10-ish inches tonight.  On top of last week's 8 and 6, and the 24 the week before that.  Or something like that.  Not to mention the negligible 1-inchers that we barely notice, like happened yesterday and today already.  The streets are so narrow at this point that I had a moment where my life flashed before my eyes (seriously) as a FedEx truck came toward me in the opposing lane on the winding and already-narrow-in-good-weather road in front of our house.  He couldn't have cleared my mirror by more than 2mm and he was moving fast.  I don't drive that road anymore!!!

There's a rhyme the kids LOVE from music class that goes like this:
It's freezing, it's freezing, I hope I don't start sneezing,
AchOO!
AchOO!
Slushy, mushy, cold and wet, snowsuits and boots, is it over yet?
AchOO!
AchOO!

As an aside, both my kids break out in peals of giggles whenever the teacher fake sneezes, or if I do it at home.  It's pretty cute.  At this week's class, the teacher said that on the internet discussion forums for Music Together teachers, there are all these pollyanna teachers (her words) that are complaining that the rhyme gives too negative picture of the season to kids and they are offering all sorts of edits:  fluffy, lacy, cold and white, sledding, skiing, what delight!, etc.  She rolled her eyes heartily and exclaimed, "Clearly they are not New Englanders!"  And despite the fact that I still am actually enjoying the snow, I had to agree with her.  We were all sitting in stocking feet because we have to remove our boots in the hallway, where they sit in puddles of cold, grey water by the time class is over, everyone's feet are cold, socks are wet, and the next class is coming in covered in slush, we squeeze by after 15 minutes spent gearing up, push a stroller through 2 blocks of slush to the parking lot, strap kids into carseats with cold-stiffened seatbelts, realize the cuffs of your own pants are soaking wet, and then realize you forgot to take Owen to the bathroom.  Hurry home!!

Asher LOVES this music class, by the way.  Dances in the middle of the circle, clicks his sticks, whatever he can do to be adorable and groove with the music.  Fun.  He will NOT sit still, but luckily the teacher is totally OK with that.  There was a requirement this last week that there could be no mobile children with drumsticks, and somehow I managed to keep his rear on the floor during that section.  It was a major challenge, but he wanted to keep his sticks enough that he tolerated the imprisonment between my knees.

Owen was in a GRAND mood all day, as soon as he found out it was gymnastics day.  He could barely contain his goodwill toward all.  He wrapped many presents for me (he loves to pinch wrapping paper from the closet and wrap up various toys and household objects and present them to me as gifts), offered gentle help and sharing to Asher ALL day, and was the most obedient boy you've ever known.  Hmm.  Sounds good, but it only made me ponder that he *does* actually understand the expected standards and therefore normally knows that he is not quite meeting them!  It was cute anyway.  He had another fantastic time, although 45 minutes really is too short, when chunks of it are spent standing in line, warming up, and all of that.  He was quite naughty today and when the kids were waiting in line to do something, he would glance around, and then make a mad dash for an off-limits piece of equipment...trampoline, bar, tall foam platform to climb, etc.  The teacher would retrieve him and return him to line.  He'd be good for a while, then another mad dash.  Finally I saw the teacher get down on his level and hold his cheeks in her hands and look him right in the eye.  He didn't do it after that!  I asked him after class if he had fun, and if he was listening to his teachers.  He said, "It was SO fun.  I want to do it ALL day.  When I'm a big daddy I'm going to do Japanese all day!  [now he thinks it's funny to say that]  I didn't obey my teachers all the time mommy."  I asked him why he didn't obey, and commented that there are rules at gymnastics, and if he doesn't listen to the rules, the teachers won't want to keep teaching him!  He replied, "I didn't obey sometimes because I had to go and see what I could do!"  We came to an agreement that next week he will be able to obey the teacher's directions :)  Hate to curb that enthusiasm, but the structure is so good too.

Very fun day!!

Just gotta dance

Owen just came up from the basement, where he has an hour of 'rest time' while Asher is napping (and I am taking one precious hour's break from childcare!).  Here's how the conversation went...

Owen:  Mommy, can my rest time be done now?
Me:  Owen, you haven't been downstairs for very long.  You need to spend your whole rest time doing things downstairs by yourself, and it's not time to be done yet.
Owen:  But I'm so tired of dancing, and I've just been dancing and dancing so much and I need to be done!
Me:  Well that's OK, I'm glad you had fun dancing, but you can stop dancing now and go back downstairs and do other things.
Owen:  But I can't stop dancing!  That music that is playing is making me dance!  I was trying to play with my train, but the music made it hard to play toys and it just keeps making me get up and dance.
Me:  Well, why don't you go and make a nest in your tent down there and snuggle with your animals and pretend to lay quietly and just listen to the music.  Then you don't have to dance so much.
Owen:  Mommy, you don't understand.  The music comes in my ears and I can't do quiet things, it makes me start dancing!
Me:  Would you like me to change the music so it's quiet music?
Owen:  Yes, PWEASE!

:)

Day in the life

Normal = one in a cowboy outfit + one stripped down after a diaper change but insistent on wearing his new shoes.

Owen's orderly snow cakes

Goofy for the camera

Asher's new say-cheese face.

Driveway Granita

I have been a blogging addict I know...sometimes I'm not in the mood, but I happen to be at the moment, and cute things are happening.  What can I say.

I'll try to make this quick.  The minivan has sold me on one feature:  playpen.  I desperately needed to get some shoveling done today as the driveway was covered in ice, and it warmed up enough that the ice could actually be separated from the blacktop...but only for today, because tonight it's going to freeze nice and cold.  And for a while after that.  Compacted ice for the rest of the winter; not so nice.  I pulled up the minivan, opened the trunk, and Asher happily played in the back while watching Owen and I shovel for a good long while!  Then he went up to nap and we went at it some more.  2 hours of chipping, shoveling and clearing later and just the patch of drive between front door and garage were clear, and we were whooped.  Owen LOVES SHOVELING.  Seriously.  He will do it for hours.  He loves chipping ice even more...2 years ago he loved chipping ice, and now he can do a much better job.  I was using a flat-nosed metal roofing shovel to get under the ice sheets today and Owen desperately wanted a 'sharp shovel'!  The best I found was a small hoe.  He can wield a hoe, let me tell you!  I would direct him to a patch of ice and he would break it all up and then I'd scoop it off to the side of the drive.  At one point in this great fun he looked over and said, 'Mommy, we're like ice farmers!'  Indeed!  Later I noticed he'd gone missing and he came out of the house with every mixing bowl I own balanced in his arms, and explained that he needed to 'make snow cakes.'  Of course :)

Then, it was time for Owen's first gymnastics class.  He found out it was on the docket and he was bouncing off the walls.  VERY excited little boy.  He happily donned a t-shirt and swishy pants and we set off for the gym (barely a mile away...yippee!).  Unfortunately I hadn't been there before and was looking at the nondescript office park sort of buildings on the left of the street instead of the right, so we arrived at about 3:58 for the 4pm class.  Fine, but when the teacher came to get Owen's class at the door to the gym, Owen freaked.  I guess we really haven't done a 100% new thing in a while where he has to leave me.  He wasn't crying, just not willing to go in.  After some pep talk and walking him in there myself, he plucked up his courage and made the break.  Through the glass wall where the parents watch, I could see that he was having fun.  It's a big open gym with several classes going on at once and since it was his first time (and all the other kids in his class were returning students) he had to be frequently corralled into line (Owen, over here! Our class isn't jumping on the trampolines!  Owen, you can't jump off the balance beam!).  He was just so excited about the whole thing.  I promise you I saw the teacher's eyes getting big at his adventurousness and that he was doing the little activities spot on...he was one of the littlest in his group (3-5 yr olds), and he jumped *right* in, despite it being his first time.  His favorite was hanging on a high bar, swinging back and forth, and then falling waaay down into the foam pit.  No fear at all...whose kid??  Here's the funny part.  At the end of class, they get a stamp on their foot or knee, line up to high-5 the teacher, and then come out to the parents.  He came out, hugged my leg, and his face suddenly got all red and scrunched up and the tears just poured.  'What's wrong, Owen?!!'  Had he been that nervous the whole time that once he was back with me he was melting?  I couldn't believe it.  "I want to do it MORE!!!  I don't want to stop doing that!!  I didn't get to do all the things in the Japanese!!"

Yes, it was a heartfelt agony from him at having to walk away after just 45 mins, and at not having gotten to do the big uneven bars, climb the rope to the ceiling, etc. that the big kids were doing.  I told him that he would have to be much bigger and do lots of practicing first on the little kids things before he'd be ready for that.  "But I did all the things today and it was easy for me!"  (Well, he wasn't wrong exactly, that was kind of hard to answer.)  It was so sweet.  He was really torn up that the class was over and he couldn't 'do it all day long'.

The other funny was after I finally figured out what this 'Japanese' reference was.  He couldn't remember the word 'gymnastics' and so the closest his memory had gotten him was 'Japanese'.  So he kept calling it his Japanese class.  Misremembering a word...THAT he got from his Daddy :)

Skiing and slush

Reuel had MLKJr day off yesterday, so he and Owen headed for the regal slopes of...Wachusett Mountain!  A mere 1 hr drive from our house...not the fanciest skiing in the world, but when you're going with a 3.5 year old, that's pretty much what you're looking for.  They left at 8:15a and got back around 6p. 

I have never seen Owen that tired.  Never.

It was adorable, actually.  He energetically hugged me when he came in, but as soon as his arms fell from around my legs I looked down at him, and he looked like he might fall right over sideways onto the floor.  From 6 til 6:20 when I got him in bed, his eyes would kind of half-shut, he'd get a little woozy, and then all of a sudden he'd snap out of it and tell me something about skiing.  He wasn't tracking mentally normally either, he was so tired...he only half-heard most of what I said, 'Let's brush teeth and go potty.  Where are your pj's?'  [Dazed.]  I got him dressed, laid him in bed, said goodnight, kissed him and turned off the light.  No response.  Close door.  Sleeping. 

This afternoon, he decided to really open the floodgates and share the experience with me.  He had a blast.  "Mommy, this is my BACKpack, and there are the ropes that Daddy holds me with, and we made new friends on the chair lift, and I LOVE the chair lift, and there was a girl learning how to ski holding her mommy's ski pole, and when I'm going to fall Daddy says squat down a little and then I won't fall, and we went way up on the chair lift so we could ski a long time, and we never did the magic carpet, and I LOVE skiing, and we are going to go again but today the road is not safe to go there, and next time I'm going to wear my GOGGLES and Asher is too little to ski but I'm not, and Daddy and I had chocolate when we were resting, and Daddy gave me these really, really great hand warmers and they made my hands get warm, and my LONG skiing socks kept my feet warm and I only fell a little bit."  [Breathe]

He is a pretty geared-out kid.  We got him these so he can hold a 'pizza slice':

 

and this so Reuel can hold onto him; the harness has a great handle for picking him up and getting him off the chair lift as needed:

Reuel said most of the time the lines are slack, but now and then he steers him or pulls a bit to keep him from falling.  Seems to work pretty well, but you have to be a pretty good skier in order to use it, so you don't land on your kid when they fall!  (Guess that rules me out as driver.)  With all the gear, it's not *exactly* like he's skiing, but he's enjoying himself, starting to get the hang of it, and starting this young maybe he won't be as afraid of it once he knows enough to be afraid ;)

This was quite a weekend for the two of them, as the day before skiing they had gone sledding for a couple of hours in the town nextdoor.  Owen was insatiable and never complained about the laborious climb up the hill...over...and over...and over.  At the top he would say every time, '1, 2, 3, blast off!' and jump on his innertube sled.  Reuel said he was the littlest guy there, but lacked no gusto.  The only funny thing was that he would always stop just a few steps short of the top of the hill and try to start sledding from there.  If Reuel pushed them all the way up, Owen would carefully walk down the mountain to his preferred starting spot and start there.  Reuel said the difference in fear factor between the 2 spots was virtually negligible, so he couldn't figure out what that was about.  In any case, it's official, he's a snow sport lover!

After the 2ft of snow last week, we got another 8 inches today, followed by...freezing rain.  Can you say YUCK??!  The snowblower broke, too, not that it would have been useful on that slush anyway.  We both went out to shovel a bit, but that was some heavy labor.  Reuel stuck it out a bit longer than I did but he's not going to do the whole drive.  Best part?  Tomorrow night is a nice 12 degree freeze to turn the driveway into a super bumpy skating rink that probably won't melt til April.  We had that 2 years ago and it was a bit of a pain :P  Ah well, we actually like the snow, crazily.

Snapshots

Asher's recent words (they seem few compared to Owen, but maybe I've forgotten timelines of these things):
*stuck (said this morning in Sunday school as his leg got jammed between another kid's chair and his)...duk! duk! duk!
*uh-oh...said perfectly and anytime something falls on the floor.  VERY cute.
*Owen...sounds like 'oowah'
*Mommy...mimi
*Daddy....dadAA!!!
*more...moh!
*lots of animal noises...baa, moo, quack, roar, tweet, fish face, meow, arf, squeak
*up...ah!
*bAY-bee
*Mommy Owen is smothering me and I don't want any more of this right now....screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeam!

Owen:  Mommy, I am doing a GREAT job at keeping my underwear dry all day all the time
Me:  Yep, Owen, as long as you remember to take breaks for going to the potty you do a great job!
Owen:  Yes, I am really growing and growing into a grownup now.

Me:  Guys, that is a no-no.  You are not allowed to open that drawer and play with those things.
Owen:  Sometimes we know we aren't allowed to but we like to do it anyway.
Me:  Well, that is disobeying, and we don't disobey in our house!
Owen:  Mommy, Asher and I do really like to disobey.

Owen:  [sucking a long asparagus spear into his mouth]  I love to smook asparagus.
Me:  Smook?
Owen:  Yes, smooking things is SO much fun.  I like to smook green beans too, and noodles.
Me:  Do you mean 'smoke' them? [not knowing where he might have encountered this concept]
Owen:  No, SMOOKING.  It is so much fun.  I made that up.

Owen: [frustrated, searching for a certain song on a particular musical toy he got for Christmas] Mommy, I can't find the right music!  Where is that other music?  This is not the right kind!
Me:  [searching through different tunes]  Is this it?
Owen:  Oh YES!  That's the turkelly one.
Me:  Turkelly?  What's turkelly?
Owen:  That's the turkelly music.  I like how it sounds all turkelly.

Asher is totally in love with music.  We are taking a new music class, and he is something else to watch.  He ran into the room the first day and was ON FIRE from the get go.  No sitting in my lap taking in the new scene...running, giggling, sitting in other moms' laps, climbing on the teacher's back while she's hunched over doing motions to a song.  He is the class clown and star of the show :}  He also dances and moves very energetically and rhythmically and the mood of his dancing matches the mood of the music.  Owen enjoys the class plenty too, but has a lot to learn from little bro in the rhythym department!!  

Owen:  Mommy, I want more asparagus. [eats it all]
Owen:  Mommy, I want MORE asparagus. [eats what's left in the steamer]
Owen:  Mommy, from now on, I am only eating green food.
Me:  OK, Owen, I think that sounds great.  You'll be a healthy boy for sure!
next meal...
Owen: [with a plateful of food including broccoli]  Mommy I want more broccoli.  You will have to give me lots more broccoli than this because I'm not eating this other food and I am only eating green food.
WILL WONDERS NEVER CEASE??

Here's the only story to blow that one out of the water...
Owen:  Goodnight mommy. [rolling over and cuddling into his blankets]  I like to go right to sleep as soon as you and Daddy leave my room.  See you in the morning.

That's all she wrote!

Snow day!

Reports say 18-24"  Not sure how much we actually are getting, but it's still going, and on top of the substantial layer that was already on the ground...LOTS of snow :)  Very fun, Owen is having a grand time.  Asher didn't want much of it once he got outside, but was more than happy to sit on the dirty front door mat just inside and eat clumps of snow and ice that got tracked in on our boots.  Eeuw, I know.  Sometimes a happy baby is the goal, eat what he may!!  The driveway is now about the same height as our front porch...two big stairs up to our landing.  Owen loves shoveling...Reuel's snowblowing, too...the more the merrier!

A few backlogged pix:

Eating snow cream (last snowfall)

Lego airplane fun

A very bad error in calculation on my part.  Thought to self:  Aw, let them play with the packing peanuts in the box a little, followed by taking myself to the restroom.  Discovery on return:  box completely upended, peanuts crunched underfoot, in severely dry static-electricity-inducing ambient environment....the 1st floor of the house becomes a snow globe and I am still picking pieces of styrofoam off of walls and furniture.  Yikes.  Well, they did have fun.

Sweet to the ears

This little capture from earlier today is a hoot!  Let's just say it brings tears of joy to the mother's eyes to observe the love growing between the li'l rascals...and the bruises.  The love seems to grow with the # of injuries... 

Video: http://vimeo.com/18448472

Christmas at home, and now we're back home

Can two places be home?  Absolutely, yes!  In fact, I think I felt more at home while we were away...my parents' dream house is indeed a dream house, spacious and oh so un-creaky and un-drafty compared to ye olde fixer upper.  But more than that, it is filled with interesting and different toys, and plenty of adults chomping at the chance to spend time with my kids...can I hear a 'VACATION', ladies and gentlemen?!

The Big Problem:  not sharing it with Dad.  Choke.  Like good practitioners of denial, we mostly managed to push the elephant in the room aside and enjoy the time together.  I really want to be able to talk about Dad more now and then, but it's so much easier to pretend the problem isn't there and just write about the adorable, distracting children.  Someday soon I will summon the ability to tell a few things about him and this experience.  It was hard not to think of him over and over while being in his home...it's still so full of him.

Now a natural segue to the anatomy of a very generous Christmas...anyone who knows my mom knows she is a skilled and passionate shopper (in fact, I really think that she might be uniquely gifted in being some sort of personal shopper, but I digress)...and in the wake of losing my Dad and the fact that we were coming to her place for the holiday, I think she threw caution to the wind and spoiled my children rotten as a form of retail therapy!  Between what we got the kids, her gifts, and also-highly-generous Mommo's, Daddo's, Granlily's, Aunt Debbie's, Aunt Karen's, and so on....hopefully they'll believe us next year when we have to tell them  that Santa lost his suit in the stock market and the elves really had to cut back production.  Hmm.  The kids really had a blast opening up more packages than they knew to hope for.  Lots of fun to watch both of them, but especially Owen enjoy the goodies.

One story I have to put down for the record...all the deciding about how to handle the concept of Santa at Christmas, etc. and what did hubby do but forget to pack the Santa gifts (the legos especially!) and bring them to NC!  Ack!!!  We both felt pretty ill on Christmas Eve when we realized what had happened.  Santa left Owen a note that he'd accidentally delivered a couple of presents to his other house, and they'd be waiting when he got back.  We thought it had all sort of gone right over his head, but a few days after Christmas Owen said, "Santa didn't bring me those legos anyway."  Oh NO!!  All the gifts, and that was the one thing he'd asked for!  Well, he was still very excited to get them, and a pair of roller skates that had also been left when we got home :}

Well, I guess I already put up a bunch of Christmas morning pix come to think of it, so maybe this is all old news.  The summary is that we had a GREAT time going home, and sharing it with Mom and Deb.  It would be nice to think that Dad was able to catch a peek, but maybe that just isn't really as important as we tend to think it would be...whatever it is, we trust it's better than what's going on down here, and I'm thankful for that fact.  When the story of the woman who had to deliver her baby in an NYC lobby during a blizzard and ended up losing the baby because the paramedics couldn't get thru the snow hit the news...well, that's just one desperately sad story among millions.  I'm so glad that such a story isn't just OK, that it's not how things were supposed to be, and that this world isn't all there is.

We came back to a whole bunch of snow, and two of our oh-so-wonderful neighbors had plowed our drive and shoveled our path to the front door...now THAT's a Christmas gift.  This was no small amount of snow.  Owen and Reuel have already been sledding a couple of times ("Mommy, I LOVE to go FAST!  I go all by MYSELF!"), he geared up in his ski getup and slid down the front yard slope a few times, and has shoveled alongside Daddy to his heart's content. 


Some more photos that haven't gotten posted yet...

My attempt at fancy Christmas cookies for a cookie exchange:

Look at those brows...so Reuel!

The boy is SO ACTIVE.  Just signed him up for afternoon gymnastics class starting soon...

Original painting from Granlily!  For Owen's room!

More from the costume-box present:

Is that someone in distress I hear?

Owen has told me on numerous occasions that he can fly.  He was not kidding.  He really thought he could.  He told me he could fly down the stairs, he just needed to flap his arms very hard, and I could not convince him otherwise.  I put him on top of a dresser and told him to try flying and then stepped back and let nature take its course (it wasn't THAT high of a dresser).  He flapped with all his might, jumped fearlessly with an I-told-you-so look in the eye, and then there was a pretty good thud.  I figured it was better to let him convince himself than to find out he'd commenced experimentation on the stairs.

Nothing more captivating than Daddy blowing snow!

Made a giant gingerbread cookie today that didn't get finished at Nunu's house

Owen usually eats some dessert and then knows when he's done...leaves the rest on the plate.

Asher NEVER puts down a dessert when he's full.  NEVER.  I tried to take away the rest of his too-big cookie when he was absolutely chock-full, and he threw quite the tantrum and insisted on stuffing in every last morsel.  Uh-oh!!!

The pictures just reminded me...the boys ever since we've gotten home...SO MUCH FUN together.  They've discovered wrestling.  This will not be easy...I'm sure I will need to watch them like a hawk, but boy do they get each other giggling hysterically.  Asher usually instigates and Owen answers the call.  Asher will push Owen over from behind and laugh, and Owen will look startled for a moment, but once he realizes it was purposeful with a motive of fun, he jumps right in the game.  Very cute...for now :)