Getting in the Holiday Spirit

Happy holidays to all!  We will be spending our time off with family in Texas, so I probably won't be updating the blog until the new year.  Until then, here are a few snippits of us getting into the Christmas spirit over the last month, starting with a lovely frosty/icy covering on all of our plants.

Sibling snowman sweaters

The Festival of Trees

And the first sledding of the season.  Too bad this picture is so blurry!

Owen was super-excited to go, and this was really Hadley's first venture out walking in the snow.  It took her about 3 seconds before she slipped on the ice on our driveway.

She enjoyed brushing off all of the fluffy powder from surfaces, including my snow boots while we were walking.  She was smitten.  At least until she fell down and then tried to wipe her face with her snowy mitten.  

Owen's an old pro at this now.  I even got them to go down together several times.  They both loved it!  (See two heads in the third picture?)

While I was helping Owen with his jacket, we heard an "uh-oh!" from behind.  I turned around to find this poor girl had fallen and she couldn't get up!  But, she was pretty happy down there at least.  :)

And she inspired Owen to create some snow angels.  Another task that he has mastered before age 4.  :)  I think he made about 5 of these in our yard that day.

Owen is 4!

Whew!  The morning started off rough, but an afternoon nap seemed to right the ship just in time for his birthday party.  His favorite TV show is Dinosaur Train, so we went with a dinosaur theme for the party.  There is a lot of stuff out there for dino-lovers, so it was kinda fun to put together.

They hunted for dinosaurs with their names on them (with dinosaur hats and stickered bags in tow),

Pinned the horn on the triceratops,

Dug for dinosaur eggs (inside!),

Smashed a T-Rex pinata,

And ate some dino-themed cuisine (not all pictured).  Now it's time to hibernate!

17 months for Miss H

Just wanted to share some of the things that Hadley is doing at this age now.  She doesn't talk often, but I think she's saying and understanding a lot more than Owen was at this age.  Here's a few off the top of my head...

• "mama", "dada", "uh-oh" - been saying these since at least 11 months
• "raar" - lions and tigers
• "mmm" - cow
• "bah" - book and/or ball
• "den-tull" - gentle, especially regarding cats
• "didduh" - kitty, sounds a lot like gentle - she may be confused since they are usually said together :)
• "ah duh" - all done
• "hi" - hi and bye with an awkward wrist wave
• "hoo hoo" - train
• signing pretty well for "more" and does an arcing hand (like a plane in the air) when she hears a plane outside
• can follow commands like "put that back", "close it", "get the book", etc.
• smiles, shrieks, and runs to the bathroom when we ask if she's ready for a bath
• can build small block towers of 2 or 3 blocks

She will climb into her own free-standing high chair when she's hungry.  And though provided with a spoon and guidance, she still prefers to eat with her hands, even for her cereal and yogurt.

She is currently going through the spastic hand phase, in which her arms flail dangerously when she is excited or angry.  Sometimes the hand contains a book or toy and the recipient can be heard exclaiming, "Hadley, no hitting!"  (Mostly Owen.)

When I was folding laundry the other day, she had actually found two matching pairs of socks and set them aside for me!  This was a surprise because usually she's just pulling everything out of the basket, which I have to ignore so I don't go crazy.  She is kind of obsessed with socks though.

She loves to play Hide And Seek with Owen or peekaboo with anyone.  I prompt her with an exaggerated "Where's Owen?" with my hands out in a questioning pose.  Now she uses that all the time when looking for things.  "Where's Daddy?" (She hid him!)

"Oh, there he is!" Poke, poke.  (She also loves to poke any exposed skin, say between shirt and pants, and giggle.)

She and Owen will go downstairs by themselves and play together.  Sometimes this even goes past 10 minutes without any crying!

And here's a video of them dancing to the Rockettes from the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Note that Owen is really into fake falls these days and asks about a fruit-looper?  Not sure what that was about...

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for this year!  For starters, I'm thankful for our general good health and the budding friendship between these two.

Owen is thankful for Halloween candy, the gift that keeps on giving.

Hadley is thankful for shoes.  Every morning when Daddy is getting ready to go to work, she hurries to the mud room to get her own shoes.  I think she wants to go with him. Guess she's thankful for Daddy too! :)

Just had to add this picture of Owen (aka Cool Dude) telling me about his "hypopsis" from the other day. (That's hypothesis, a word he has picked up from his favorite show, "Dinosaur Train.") This one was about why a truck had a camper-top on its bed.

Family Football

We have enjoyed a bit of an Indian summer here in mid-November.  I'm talking it got up to nearly 60 degrees for several days in a row!  We got out in the sunshine for a little walk to the nearby school playground, but the boys spotted a football someone had left behind.  A little game of family football, anyone?

Oh, and then this happened today. :(

Last of Fall

I think we are almost there - to winter.  We've already had a few snow flurries and woken up to everything dusted white a couple of mornings.  The wind has been blowing the last of the leaves off the trees, so let's look back to the last moments of fall, shall we? (Funny aside: I said "shall we?" to Owen the other day, and he said, "who's Shalwee?")

We enjoyed one sunny evening in our front yard. Hadley was ushering in the change of the seasons as our "fall fairy" by pulling leaves off of the burning bush.  It made her very happy.

Earlier that day, we ventured to a local corn maze where Owen led us through both the longer and shorter mazes.  Hadley sat this one out and snoozed most of the way.

The best part were the inflatables they had.  Owen ran, bounced, climbed, and slid like a maniac for about half an hour until it was time to go home for lunch and a nap!

We still enjoy family walks, but Owen does walking now instead of biking. The older neighborhoods in town just have to rake their yards into the street, and the city comes by periodically to vacuum up the leaves.  This makes for some epic leaf piles to crunch through!

It seems their tolerance for each other is growing.  Hallelujah!  Owen is learning how to have his own time/place for things, and Hadley is able to do more with him.  He still loves to get her to chase him, and this morning I caught him playing "fetch" with her!  Ha!

Owen has known his letters for a while, so I got him a wipe-off book where he could practice writing.  He seems to enjoy it and does an okay job when he can trace.  Top picture is tracing little letters next to the big ones.  Bottom picture is free-hand filling in the blanks.  Can you believe we are nearly ready for reading/writing?