President's Day and onward

I'm not sure what it is about Sunday afternoon--end of the week fatigue or just early onset symptoms of old age, but I always seem to struggle remembering what we did that week.

On some occasions, a good calendar is indispensable. For instance, I know that this week we had president's day, ergo I can remember that we spent the day in Bryce Canyon (another fee-free weekend, once again rendering our season pass to the park irrelevant). Bubby and Poppy were already there visiting old friends, so we joined them on a couple of scenic outlooks and for lunch at Ruby's Inn. I had high hopes of hiking down into the hoodoos, but turns out snow + warmer weather = too much mud for good hiking. We settled for some pictures instead.

We did take a short just outside the regular park boundaries (still technically part of the park, but reachable off the highway) leading to "Mossy Cave." The kids were initially resistant because the trail was awash with mud. (Who am I kidding? Andrew was resistant all the way to the end. Who knew the kid was so finicky?) But the end of the trail was pretty spectacular--a grotto filled with bluish ice, like something out of a fantasy novel (or Frozen, as Evelyn was quick to point out).






The rest of the week has been pretty mundane: classes, school, piano lessons, etc. Yesterday we took a little jaunt down to SG and enjoyed the even warmer weather down there--including a short hike without jackets. Andrew finished another round of swim lessons and was crushed to find he didn't pass, even though his teacher told him he was close, and there's a huge list of things he has to pass off to make it to the next level (which would put him on swim team for the summer). We're working at teaching him perseverance; some lessons are easier to learn than others.

This morning, we had a chance to go to the baby blessing for Dan's cousin Tony's baby daughter, Juliet. She's an adorable baby, with a head of wild black hair, wide squishy cheeks, and big blue eyes. (She looks exactly like her older siblings, for those who know Vince and Suki). I even got to hold her for a little, which was bliss for me but the occasion for much bemusement on Oliver's part. He wasn't sure if he was fascinated by the baby or threatened by her. (Mostly, I think he was looking for food handouts). After the blessing, we joined Dan's extended family at Uncle Phil and Aunt Karen's place, where, as per usual, Karen arranged a terrific spread (pulled pork sandwiches, nachos, fruit, and a super rich chocolate cake). We left early so Oliver could take a nap--not surprisingly (he'd been up since five a.m.), he fell asleep for ten minutes in the car, woke up as soon as we got home and is currently flipping around in his crib, refusing to sleep. It's a good thing he's cute.

A little bit of love

Naturally, the biggest event of the week was Valentine's day. Evelyn spent most of the week counting down: "only three more days till Valentine's day!" The other two didn't seem quite as excited by it--Oliver, of course, was clueless, and Andrew's class was more focused on their grandparent's program Friday than on Valentines (in fact, they had their Valentine's party on Thursday instead).



Andrew did a nice job in his program. But I was most impressed with their teacher, because it was clear she'd spent a lot of time and effort working with the kids. I helped her decorate the gym Thursday after school (Evelyn helped, too; Andrew's help apparently involved taking Oliver all over the school and playground--I thought they were just wandering out in the hall!) with another of the class moms--and our little effort was only a drop compared to what she put in. Thank goodness for dedicated teachers!

The kids' Valentines turned out okay, despite a stressful assembly. Every year I promise myself we'll take things easy, and every year I find myself foiled. This time, it was Andrew who insisted that he wanted to make his Valentines instead of buying them. I picked what I thought was pretty straightforward (and non-candy, which was important to me, since they get so much candy already), but of course, it still took much longer than expected. I don't have pictures, since they're all on Dan's iPad, so you'll have to imagine 45 colored squares with plastic dinosaurs attached, reading "Valentine, you're Dino-mite!"

In other news: Evelyn has lost her second lower front tooth--and now her two top front teeth are *both* loose. She's going to be sporting a very interesting look in another week or so.


And we've picked up on a couple more words from Oliver, including: "booh" (book) and "nana" (banana). I am still being hailed, with great delight, as "dad-ee!"

Saturday we took advantage of the continued unseasonably warm weather to ride bikes up the Canyon Park trail--and then play on the playground afterward. We even ran into some acquaintances of Bubby and Poppy (the connection was discovered after the husband, Mr. Lefevre (?), observed that Oliver was talented at observing rocks in the wood chips and "he must be a geologist!")

short thoughts

This afternoon seems to be a bit short on tempers and we still have valentines to make, so I'll keep this brief.

Mostly pictures.

Andrew started swim lessons yesterday (30 minutes late because we mixed up the time). And Oliver has discovered a new word: nine (mine). It makes me laugh when I hear it because it sounds so much like the German "nein"--also very appropriate. This brings his sum total of words to: daddy (which he uses indiscriminately for me or his dad; he still hasn't said Mommy), boo (boot), bah (ball--his new favorite thing), moo (for cows), grr (for dinosaurs and tigers), woof (dog), ni-ni (good night), and uh-oh. He's not as verbally advanced as his siblings were at this age, but we sure love him anyway.

Evelyn being electrifying.

 You can't see it in the picture very well, but Oliver is wearing my shoes and carrying the broom. A mini-me?

We saw the Lego movie yesterday. In shifts. Dan took Ev in the early afternoon and I took Andrew when they got back. As Dan put it, "it was awesome." (Fitting, since the theme song for the move is "Everything is Awesome"). But it really was.

February fantasies

(Okay, so I picked the title because it's alliterative, not substantive . . . )

Anyway.

This has been a good week for our family. Dan found out that his paper was accepted for publication on Wednesday and that he got accepted to a national workshop in Chicago this summer.

Evelyn lost her first tooth yesterday trying to open a fruitsnack package with her teeth. Another loose tooth is on the way. Funny to think that my sweet little girl is about to embark on the awkward child phase where their teeth are too big for their mouth. She told me this morning that she got *two* coins: one from the tooth fairy--and one from Andrew (who is apparently playing surrogate tooth fairy).




On Wednesday, while the kids were at a friend's house, Oliver and I had a playdate with our friends Charla and Miles (Oliver's birthday buddy--they were born the same day!). It was cute watching them--they're finally old enough to be aware of each other, though mostly that consisted of taking away whatever toy the other seemed interested in . . .

Our unusually mellow January ended with a blustery cold day and snowstorm Friday and Saturday. The kids enjoyed playing in the snow, building a snowman, making snow angels, etc. I think it may be their first successful independent (mostly independent) snowman assembly.
 



Oliver hasn't moved much beyond the flopping down by the snow and face-planting (and then eating the snow), but he appears to enjoy that too.

 (And of course, being the good mom that I am, I took pictures of him eating snow instead of actually stopping him.)

Saturday, Evelyn and I had a mommy-daughter date to Frozen (of course! Evelyn has now seen it three times in the theater, and we've already pre-ordered what is clearly her new favorite movie). We went to the sing-along version, which was a lot of fun, even if there were only a handful of us in the theater. They print the words of the song onscreen, which Evelyn didn't need, but I certainly did (and realized I'd been hearing some of the lyrics wrong at home). There were a couple of songs where she didn't want to sing--I'm not sure if she was attacked by an unaccountable burst of shyness (she's never been shy before), or if she didn't like singing when I was singing . . . . Since I remember doing much the same to *my* mom growing up, I suppose it's just karma.

Later Saturday afternoon we took the kids sledding. It was freezing and the kids could only find one of our sleds (the other, apparently, is buried in the back yard under the snow. At least we got to make a good point about why you need to put the sleds away . . . ), but I think they still enjoyed themselves. Even Oliver got to go down the hill a couple of times--though he was mostly strapped into the baby sled and pulled down the mountain.

In our final news, we've been really enjoying Just Dance for the wii. (Okay, maybe I enjoy it because it's the only Wii game we have where I can actually win sometimes). We've been playing at night after Oliver goes to bed. Only last night, I must have overdone it, because today I have such a sore pectoralis muscle . . . I know, I know. You can stop laughing now. :)