Ready for new beginnings - an update after 5 years!

 

So many changes since I last posted. Our family photo taken by the super talented Michelle Craig shows how time has flown. Not that long ago in this blog I announced Rocky's first birthday, now he is 13! Our sweet Winter is eight. Alex and Dani are 19. Ben is 17.  Jack is over 50 and I'm headed there soon, 48 this year (my dad and I approve of this really nice number...) and I'm feeling good about life at this juncture. I enjoy teaching full time at UHS which also gives me a chance to see Ben at school each day. Jack is juggling many hats as usual, serving as medical director for his department as well as seeing tons of patients and staying patient in countless meetings. Alex and Dani are both enjoying being in their own cities since last year when they began freshman year of college. Dani is a fast-talking, fast-walking, fast-typing New Yorker. Alex is soaking up the sun and music and art to be found in LA while working hard at her  psych degree and an art double major. She has learned about photography and storytelling while working on the school fashion magazine. Dani is passionate about long-form journalism and has a job creating AI language models (LLMs) as she takes a gap semester this fall. In addition to training our future computer overlords, she is volunteering in Queens and Manhattan to help kids learn photography and complete their college apps. Ben successfully completed his college apps and we are waiting to hear where he will spend his college years. Academic team is going well as is his job at Mathnasium and he is a much appreciated peer tutor at school. Robotics season is about to begin in January. 

Our family continues to enjoy spending time together, playing games, hiking, eating all sorts of food, and playing with pets. We are down to five plus an aquarium of fish. Sparky the axolotl was our most recent addition. Taz the conure still squawks his way into my heart (most days) while munching on fruit. Humphrey is going to get a new aquarium soon and is doing well despite needing some antibiotic injections this month. 

I'm thrilled we can always find plenty to discuss and laugh about when we are all together around a dinner or game table. I hope this blog can continue to capture snippets of our busy days for many years to come. I'll try not to take such a long break before the next post! 

Spotlight on Alex

***So I guess I never published this... started it back in 2011 and (ironically, thanks to the first line of the post) never finished. But the goal is to capture memories, so I'm just going to publish what's here. So there. ******

"Finish what you start." It's another resolution, for this year and beyond. So, in March of 2011 I wrote a spotlight on Dani, and now it's Alex's turn, and then Ben's. They grow so fast, I want to capture it all! And I've captured a lot in pictures, and on post-it notes, and in notebooks around the house. Now it's time to digitize it.

AlexPalex. Or as she has told us to call her - Lexie (it hasn't stuck, to her chagrin). Alex is a downright SILLY kid. She loves to silly-sing her own silly songs, hear silly bedtime stories about herself and her silly siblings, make up silly rhymes, make silly dress-up combinations, and generally be a source of laughs, which is understandable since her sister has a really good one. Dani's laugh is joyful, uninhibited, and LOUD. Alex knows just how to get her going. Alex is very ticklish and loves to try to tickle us back. When she is serious, she is very serious, and has a hard time shaking it. But when she is happy, she is completely silly giggly funny fun. She makes hilarious but true observations about the world (Me: "It's been a long day." Alex: "Mom, every day is the same length. It's not like one day is 20 minutes and then next 3!")

Alex loves to draw and make books, especially about horses, dancers, and unicorns. But she also loves to paint. We haven't fit in as much painting time at home since Kindergarten began, but when Alex does get to paint, she pumps out painting after painting with her watercolors. She doesn't want to draw her images beforehand, she just creates with the paint. Her favorite brush is a very small one, to make thin lines.

2020 -- A new decade, new goals

Our house is filled up by the energy, ideas, emotions, and wit of two teenagers and a preteen. All the kids are very active technology users. We hear so many scary things about kids and technology and social media and online predators and all sorts of fear inducing combinations. It's a bit overwhelming to me, if I'm honest. On the one hand, we tell our kids that they should use technology to make their lives easier, better, more rich. We set them up with email addresses and access to the school portal and we make them check those things constantly to make sure they stay on top of homework and announcements. But we also tell them to stop spending so much time on screens. I hate this push and pull on their time and emotions. And I hate my new role as the phone/computer police. I miss peeking over their shoulders at a photocopy, drawing or a book to see what they are working on. The computer is their main tool these days. So our house has set rules about where devices can be used, to make sure the computer is truly employed for homework when it's supposed to be, rather than the allure of an online game or social media (which we've banned for now). I miss having the problem of what to do with all their drawings and homemade books and lego creations. I love my BIG kids, don't get me wrong. Life is interesting and they are amazing people. There are just aspects of our life with little kids that I miss. Things I didn't realize would go away so soon.

In light of asking my kids to watch their use of technology and be wary of putting details into the interwebs that are not safe, I am distancing myself from social media outlets and also making my blog completely private. It will not pop up on feeds and, as you know dear reader, it requires permissions and logging in. This step makes me feel better about the details and pictures of our lives that are posted here. Funny enough, I'm also hoping it reminds me to use this blog again. Without FB to help me capture memories and share ideas, maybe I'll turn to blogging again. I know - very 1990's of me.

So the girls turn 13 in 10 days. My first thought is to at least blog about each kid on or near their birthday each year. So stay tuned! Maybe I'll actually follow my goal and post!

Rocky turns 1

We had an amazing weekend with our extended family this Memorial Day weekend down at Lake Cumberland, KY (Thanks Mikey, Holly, Anita, George, Julie, Ada, James, Mom and Dad! What good bunch!) and I'll post fun pics and stories from that soon. Upon returning home, we enjoyed a day that the kids have been talking about for months - Rocky's first birthday. The kids have memorized his birthday yet still stumble to tell us the date of Jack's. Poor guy. It took a lot of treats, training, sleepless nights, reading, and patience to get us here but we finally have a one year old dog who is generally good at taking direction, is always good natured, and is good at making our kids girls turn to a squealing mess of baby talk (and he makes a good playmate for Ben who loves to tug of war and throw him a ball). The kids' new nickname for him (I am not making this up) is "Mr. Stoney-Woney Covered in Fur and Stuffed with Cuteness." Nuf said.

Today was fun

After over 5 hours of intense gardening both at the old house and the new, I'm just not able to come up with a clever headline for today's post, nor can I find a way to string together today's memories in a coherent way. There's just stuff to post before I forget it. Entertainment value, be damned.

I worked a lot on the yard at the old house today. Hopefully all this cleaning up will help a future owner feel like they can just move right in without too much work. A big yard IS a lot of work, but there are so many benefits. Spring is my favorite time at that house - the columbine at the front are beautiful. Our ducks and even the frog are back.

Alex informed me today that she and Dani have "Brain Communication" and Ben shares this with them as well. It's an ability that only very special siblings have, which is why Uncle Mikey and I do not have Brain Communication. This ability allows them to send each other messages, like "when one of us is going somewhere with Daddy and the other stays home, and if something exciting happens or the plans change, we can tell each other about it. It also works even after death, like if one of us dies first, we can still tell each other things." She also explained they can play games with each other via Brain Communication. Bummer that Jack and I don't have it - we'd save a lot of time and money on texting and board games!

Alex and Dani recently began taking horseback riding lessons. Alex has also mastered riding her bike without training wheels this past week. I haven't gotten any pics of her doing it yet. Here's a cute shot of the girls at class before they start to groom their horses. Notice that they are smiling. They LOVE riding lessons. It's the first activity they both agree is great.

Ben has been having a rough spring. Our new home has lots of flowering trees, dust from construction, and fields of dandelions nearby. This has also been one of the worst springs for people with pollen allergies. Put this all together and you get a Ben who had trouble sleeping and was generally irritable with a runny nose and itchy eyes. Yet despite feeling crummy thanks to nature, he insists on climbing trees and playing with bugs. That's my boy. (It helps that he's been so irritable that he lost his phone/iPad playing privileges for a long time - it gave him plenty of free time to play outside.)

This evening was the block party in our new neighborhood. I had been looking forward to meeting families with kids and we did pretty well - there are at least a few potential friends for Ben and I hear there are girls around but many didn't make it to the party. My bunch all surprised me by finding kids to play with after dinner. Usually Ben makes a friend wherever he goes but the girls hang back. Tonight everyone was running around, doing cartwheels, throwing balls, and generally enjoying the other kids. Dani even proclaimed, "I like having parties for no reason!"

Tomorrow, Jack and I plan to attack the garage so he can actually park in there soon and so it's not such a pit of despair to me. Bring on the shop vac and dust rags - all the contractors cut wood, tile, and stone in the garage this year to avoid being cold outside, so the dust levels are ridiculous.

Catching up? I can try.

2012 kicked my butt. Big time. I seriously think it was the most exhausting year since we had twinfants in the house. How Many “Firsts” And “News” Did The Wei Family Have In 2012? A LOT. I wrote up a big long list for a holiday card that never got produced, and even just editing out the "insignificant firsts" took waaay too much of my 1am time. I have forgotten more of 2012 than I would like to admit simply because I didn't blog about it as it was happening. And the same is going on right now in 2013. Occasionally a fun memory gets logged to Facebook, but I rarely go back and put it all someplace more permanent and accessible years later. If blogging or journaling doesn't become a daily event again, more adorable moments will be lost forever. How will Jack and I reminisce when we are in our 80's if I can't pull up a record of the hilarious things the kids used to say? My crappy memory certainly won't do it for me. We won't be able to chuckle over the fact that Dani feels she is "an under-height first grader" or that Ben wondered tonight, half asleep and calling out for mama, why his foot hurt until he drank a glass of water. And we won't be able to remind Alex that she used to get very perturbed at the idea that she is a picky eater, when her 20 year old self can't get enough of cauliflower and asparagus and fish that doesn't have ketchup smeared on it. Memories get made every hour around here, and more of them are going to end up recorded. Luckily Jack has been taking videos of the kids talking for a few minutes each week. Maybe I'll post a few soon. They are very cute. 

That is all for tonight. Tomorrow - the list of craziness that happened in 2012. 

Here are the kids at The Hundred Acre Wood, a beautiful nature/sculpture park at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. We visited for the first time (which should have happened YEARS ago) on April 27 with Gramma and Opa.

 

 

Making Up Jokes

We have creative girls in so many ways. Alex loves to make up songs (and rhymes!) and Dani's latest craze is making up punny jokes.

Q: What do you call a dancing raspberry?
A: A Jazzberry!

Q: What do you use to power an electric cake?
A: Batter-ies

Q: What do you call blueberries when you first buy them?
A: Newberries

Q: What's a horse's favorite fruit?
A: Strawberries!

Q: What do you call nuts that are very old?
A: Oldmonds

Q: What does an alien who is feeling really hot say when it sees a vent?
A: That's the coolest thing ever!

Q: What do you call a fat pumpkin?
A: A plumpkin!

Q: What do you call a flying weapon?
A: A soared.

Q: What's a plant's favorite food?
A: A Tree-t

Q: What's the only color that doesn't tell the truth?
A: Lie-lac

Q: What's the only golden food?
A: Nuggets

Q: What is the most colorful fruit?
A:  A crayon-berry

Ben's jokes are a little different...

Q: What do you call a spoon that is not a spoon?
A: A fork!

Q: What do you call orange juice that is not orange juice?
A: Water.

Q: What do you call a thing that has a head, a body and two legs?
A: A person

Q: Why was there a hole in the ground?
A: Because someone digged it!

But he came up with this one last week:
Q: What is the only country you can store things in?
A: CANada

He's getting there!

Alex has had her share of funny jokes too.

Q: Why did the cheetah not play fair?
A: Because he's a cheetah!

Q: What is the only edible festival?
A: The Steak Fair

Q: What's the only fruit you can sit in?
A: A Chairy!

Dads = the best

There are two dads in my life - my own dad and my kids' dad. Both are amazing men. So here's a toast: (Raising wine glass) To Jack and Dad. I love you both more than words. But here are a few.
Ten Things I Love about My Dad
1. He loves playing around with mechanical things, and is curious about how they work
2. His hugs
3. How he still wants to hold my hand, even when I’m 34
4. How he seems to have forgiven me for all the times I didn’t want to hold his hand when I was a college kid
5. He values hard work and loves family life
6. When he fixes something 5 minutes after we’ve told him it’s not fixable
7. He plays with his grandkids so long that he falls asleep on the floor next to them
8. He just can’t resist kites, and he helps the kids to fly them
9. The moments when I realize how much I am like him – it means I’ll never feel like he’s completely gone
10. He is kindhearted, sincere, friendly, and beloved by so many especially ME!

6 years!

To quote The Talking Heads: "How did we get here?"



Six years old?!! Holy cow. Our girls have reached an age where they will begin to form lasting memories. What's to come this year? My predictions are:
- Able to read chapter books on their own
- Pierced ears
- Riding bikes without training wheels
- Write all their letters and numbers without flipping any of them
- Get their own rooms (if I can find us a house!) but end up sleeping in the same one most nights anyway
- Giggle a LOT

Happy Birthday to the kids who made us parents!

12 months behind us, 12 ahead

It's a promise, to myself, to everyone I told about this goal, to THE WORLD (because yes, my blog is just that important) - I WILL blog a LOT in 2012. I have a terrible memory, so writing, drawing, and taking pictures have always been my back up. There have been so many small memories lost, because I failed to write them down the last two years. I put some things on Facebook, but they are completely impossible to find after a week. There are hilarious or touching things our kids have said that I will never remember. There are beautiful, lovely life moments that didn't get shared with anyone except whoever was standing next to me at the moment of realization, which may have only been Nighty, Whitey, and King (our pet fish) since the kids and Jack are now gone from the house for hours and hours each day. These losses cannot go on. 2012 will be the rebirth of my dedication to reflection via blog.

How to begin again after only posting ONCE in 2011? A quick way to catch up... hmmm... a list! 12 months brought us copious new and wonderful times. Voila, our major FIRSTS experienced in 2011:

January - First Time Tubing on Snow (Thanks, Wrights, for introducing us to the fun!)


February - First Ice Storm with what felt like a foot of ice and weeks of cabin fever.


March - First Five-year-olds in our Family - Happy Birthday Dani and Alex!


April - First Son to Turn Three - Happy Birthday Ben! Also, First Dance Recital for Dani and Alex. They Tinkerbell Tappity-tap-tapped.



May - First Graduation Ceremony - Alex and Dani celebrate their time at "Mrs. L's" and move on from Preschool. THEN - Bibbity-Bobbity-Boo: First Trip to Disneyworld and Sea World! Gramma and Opa joined us for the rides, the swimming, the sweating, the silliness, and the whole adventure.


June - First Family Camping Trip. Thank you, Evanson family, for showing us the way to camp in style. Alex and Dani also joined our Neighborhood Swim Team for the First Time, and Competed in many Meets. The girls have become quite fishy.



July - Ben had his first swim lesson, attended his First Wedding (Congrats Dan and Leslie!), and then we all had our First Look at Mikey and Holly's Chickens. The kids were present for The First Egg and were Eggstremely Eggcited by this event. The Kids Attended their First Rock Concert - Steve Miller Band, with Uncle Mikey, Aunt Holly, Gramma, & Opa.


August - First Family Trip to North Carolina. We found shells, played games, flew kites, jumped in waves, and generally enjoyed beaching it with Gramma and Opa. Later in the month, Jack's cousin and family came from Japan for their First Visit to Indy! Children's Museum, State Fair, Monkey Joe's - not a single fun rock was left unturned. Cousin Shi-May also came with her family, and we had our First Visit with Baby Ethan. Cousins Galore! THEN - Alex and Dani had their First Day of Kindergarten! Ben had his First Day at Our New School, Sycamore! We are loving it there.




September - First Time Meeting Adorable Baby Marissa. The pool of cousins is growing growing growing!


October - First Musical for the girls - Beauty and the Beast. First Year Ben Chose His Halloween Costume (Luke Skywalker). First year Daddy was sick and stayed home from Trick-or-Treating :(


November - I escaped to Philadelphia and then Gettysburg with my dear friend Chrissa. We attended a conference (First time for me with SCBWI-PA!) where I renewed my love for the whole world of children's book writers, illustrators, and publishers. Jack managed, while on kid duty, to teach our girls all their sight word cards, clean my car top to bottom, and get all the laundry done. He rocked my job. Can't say I'd do as well, given his!


December - First year Picking and Chopping Down a Christmas Tree! It is our First Real Tree since Kids arrived. In utero, the girls enjoyed one in Tucson that was so dry it nearly posed a fire hazard. Indiana trees are much more fun.


Here we are! The start of a year to be remembered. Stay tuned. It may be hard for 2012 to top this past year. It was a good one. Not that you could tell from my blog!

May YOUR next year be full of Firsts, Fun, Health, Happiness, Prosperity, and Peace.

XOXOXO

Five Stars for Dani!

Been a year almost to the day since I really blogged about the kids and general doings. Spring is here (sort of - snow today? Seriously Indy?) and with it will come a fresh start for the earth. It seems like a good time to continue growing the family story tree that was planted back in 2006 when we were excitedly getting ready for the birth of our glorious girls. They just turned 5 on March 12 and it's becoming scarily evident that we are entering a new phase of their growth - out of toddlerhood and little-kid-land and into school days and the Adventures of DivaDani and AdventurousAlex, two Big Girls on a mission to rule the world. Ben's birthday is in a few weeks, and before our little man turns 3, I wanted to focus on each girl, then do a post on him. Dani and Alex are so different from each other and yet they love each other so much. They both draw like fiends every day, although as you'll find out in a future post, Alex also has another type of art she also loves to make. Dani is an amazingly dedicated drawer and is she so prolific that I can barely keep up with the mounds of papers. Some end up in recycling, but there's one drawing she made for her sister that will get preserved for all time:

It reads: "I love my fish and Mom and my Dad but I love you most of all."

It brings tears to my eyes, especially when I think about how happy Alex was upon receiving it. She said, "Did Dani draw that Mermaid all by herself?! It's great!" We taped the drawing to Alex's bunk (the bottom, her choice) and someday I'll frame it for her, probably as she goes off to college and endures the biggest separation of her life. Unless of course they go together as many twins do. Ack! I refuse to start thinking about college when the impending doom of KINDERGARTEN is enough to freak me out!!! (FIVE days a week! All day?! When will we have lunch picnics together on the living room floor?!! How will they draw for hours while verbally telling the story while they draw?!!! Breathing into paper bag~~~ Cough. Sigh.)

Dani's drawing style has recently, within the last 4 months, changed a lot. She used to be all about COLOR, as much of it on a page as possible. With as many objects on the page as possible. This is from February of 2010:



This is from last month. She loves to incorporate words into her pages and really loves making books - pages and pages and pages that we staple together so she can "read" them to us. This one is interesting because it was made the same day as Alex's tear-jerker one and she was doing a "series" of drawing meant to appeal to each family member's favorite things (she drew Lightning McQueen for Ben and asked me how to spell Lightning). So she made a drawing of a book for me! Such a smart girl.



Dani's current obsessions are:
- horses and unicorns
- bagels with cream cheese and jam
- dancing, especially ballet
- her best friend Lily (she and Alex often fight over who gets to marry her)
- rubbing her brother's head (this has been a life long obsession that persists despite my efforts to save him from getting his head popped off)
- making zoos with our plastic animals and clear tubs
- Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, and all things Princess
- putting on plays for us (there are rarely intermissions despite the length of the productions...)

She is working on improving her:
- pencil hold (we say "Pineapple" to remind her to switch to the correct grip)
- bicycle riding (she made a big breakthrough a few weeks ago during a fake spring warm day when she made it down the driveway without walking her bike and she didn't stop at each driveway to walk across it. She even picked up a little speed and realized that the bike felt better that way!)
- temper (she is quick to be angry about ANYthing. Many a stubbed toe has provoked her to yell at the item that caused it.)
- ability to talk with grown ups, even family members. (If she doesn't talk with you, don't take it personally. We are working on it.)
- letter and number writing. She recognizes all of them, but many are backwards when she writes them. I hear this is typical of the age.

And very importantly, she is working on learning to READ! Tonight I was prompted to finally sit down and blog after she reached a milestone I just didn't want to forget. Rather than have us read her a bedtime story, she chose to read us a Clifford Learn to Read book called "Who hid it?" start to finish, with very little help. Hooray! Even for her to want to read to us and to not give up after the first few pages is a big breakthrough. She was very proud of herself and we were very very proud of her. When she is determined to do something, watch out world! The doctors at Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania sort of warned us of this character trait before she was even born... As most of you know, when the girls were 18 weeks old in utero, they developed Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome and it nearly took them from us. We went to CHOP for laser surgery to correct an imbalance in my placenta that caused Alex to get transfused with a lot of the amniotic fluid and blood that should have been going to Dani. This imbalance caused Dani to have very little fluid in which to move, making her what is called a "stuck baby" because she was plastered close to the walls of her sac. Yet Dr. Johnson, while looking at the ultrasound screen, said, "Well, she is still kicking and moving around and acting like she feels fine. So that's a good sign. She's a fighter." Yes, Dr. Johnson. She is. And will always be. She is one amazing kid and we feel so lucky to have her here with us... (even on days when she is yelling at the dentist who, in her mind, had "put the cavity in there to make me sit longer in this chair!")DeterminedDani. We love her.

A few pictures from the last few months. Dani is very happy her hair has grown long enough for braids - it was a goal. :)

This was the most fought over dress this winter. It says "Let it Snow" and now that spring has arrived, their teacher jokes with them that they shouldn't wear it. She puts a sticker above "Let it Snow" that says "Please don't".


One of hundreds of zoos


The sisters, in full Glamour Gear. We have been enjoying the Fancy Nancy books, and these accessories arrived just in time thanks to the first "drop off" birthday party they have attended. Thanks, Katie!

With love, for Tsong

It's been six months. There's no way to catch up and catch everything. So I'll just start back up again... where it's most important - family. And the changes life bring us all.

It was 10 years ago, almost exactly this week of November, when Tsong, Shu, Jack and I had our amazing trip to Taiwan and Japan. The leaves were brilliant shades of fall, the chrysanthemums were blooming, and Tsong was happy as a clam to be in his home country and his adopted country.

It was almost exactly a month ago, on September 30, that Tsong left us, after weeks and months of sickness in the hospital, at home, and at our home. While we continue to mourn, I suspect he would love for us to remember times like I've found in countless pictures (one of his favorite hobbies!) - times when he was creating memories for us all with his carefree smile, and his love of cultures (especially Japanese!) and his love for his family.

We miss you Tsong.

Spring Sproing We are Growing

Spring has sprung up all around us finally, so we're out of the den and back into the world. I've been busy getting things ready in the garden and Alex and Dani helped put our seeds in the seed starter pots again this year. Dani chose to do one tray of flowers and Alex did all the tomatoes and peppers - she put over 100 teensy tiny seeds into soil and I've decided that kid fingers are perfect for this job - I can't hold a minuscule tomato seed between my thumb and pointer, but she can! Most of these have sprouted, so we'll be looking for homes for extra plants again this year. 8 varieties of tomatoes and 4 pepper colors! Plus all the plants we plan to direct seed outside - summer squash, peas (already planted but not sprouting...), watermelon (a first try this year), carrots, soybeans, lettuces (planted but growing sloooowly this year), and cucumbers (my fav!). I'll take pics of our newly expanded veggie bed soon. :)

With all this planting (and sorting, tagging, and pricing for the upcoming twins club garage sale...) I've missed so many blogging opportunities, especially the girls' fourth birthday. (Yes, FOUR! They are amazing little people now. I LOVE age 3-4. Let's freeze 'em here!) I plan to rectify this omission after Ben's birthday fun is done (tomorrow! Yikes! TWO?! My baby... snif!) and the sale is over. Each of our kids is so unique and has their own hilarious, wonderful ideas. I'd like to do a spotlight on each one. In 20 years, we'll certainly come back here to the blog to solve arguments on what Alex's imaginary friends' names were, or what Ben's favorite things to do were when he turned two, or who learned to do a jump spin first...

The kids were accidentally dressed in coordinating clothes yesterday, so I dragged them out front for pics! Here are the four best.

I hibernated

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. No blog posts for 2 months? Yeah, well, you know, it's cold and we all just haven't emerged from the den for awhile... I'll try to summarize.

Around the holidays, we enjoyed visits from Uncle Mike and Aunt Holly as well as Gramma and Opa. The girls were very excited to give everyone the ceramic gifts they had painted at The Creative Escape. They have been asking to go back and paint again ever since. They loved having two Christmases - one at home with Mommy, Daddy, Gramma and Opa, and another over New Year's with Ama, Akung, Aunt Jean, Uncle Aaron, and cousins Clay and Owen. The gifts, as always, were wonderfully chosen and good times were had by all. We are a very lucky family.

Since Christmas, we've just been trucking along. Between two to three school days for all three kids and one day with swim lessons for the girls we really only have fridays that are completely free. We fit in plenty of fun with friends on those days or just spend lazy days at home doing crafts and playing playdoh (one of Ben's fav's). The girls continue to love to play "Baby and Big Girl" and create elaborate story lines of what Baby and Big Girl are doing, eating, going to, etc. Dani often tries to decide who gets to be Baby but occasionally Alex convinces her to be Big Girl. They still draw at least 1-2 times per day, and while I feel slight pangs of guilt over our paper consumption, in the end I am tickled that it is their favorite thing to do. I plan to post some of their awesome drawings soon.

Ben now has well over 200 words that we are able to understand and probably 75 words he can use with the public. He is Elmo-Ernie-(Big)Bird-Cookie Monster-crazy, and mentions them at least 5 times a day (usually in this order). His sisters love to teach him how to say things, breaking words up into syllables. "Say Cin-da-rell-uh Ben!" His least favorite thing about his sisters is how much they love to rub his head. It's incessant. He must feel like a dog most days. He tells them, "Let go me!"

Despite my surgery 4 weeks ago to fix stomach muscles that couldn't handle 15 pounds of babies four years ago, we actually have gotten out for a few days of fun in the snow. Ben and Alex love to crawl, roll, climb, and build in the snow. Dani loves to come in for hot chocolate. ;) Everyone enjoyed a walk at our nearby wooded park with me and Gramma, who has kindly come to help out for 3 weeks during my recovery. They ran from the car saying, "Let's go see nature!"

Here are some of my favorite shots from the last few months.

Uncle Mike and Aunt Holly come to visit!



The kids come up with hilarious ideas. Dani and Alex LOVE their princess dresses and pretending to have a ball like Cinderella.


Ben is a boy. All the way. "I'm going to test out every possible use for my body," thinks Ben...


Daddy has been a good source of entertainment in these dreary winter months.





It's fun to see the silliness get contagious...



One sister demands to be swaddled... so the other sister does too!



Ben's a pretty good sport when it comes to his sisters' ideas. "Let's play haircuts!"




The snow was good this year and we enjoyed it. When we weren't too busy throwing things into the pond.