The Birds and the Bees

Well I certainly didn't expect these questions to come up quite yet! The other day, Noah was looking at one of our wedding pictures when he asked, "Where was I at your wedding?" I said, "You weren't born yet. Mama and Daddy got married, then you were born a few years later. "But where was I when you were getting married?" Noah persisted. Hmmm... At a loss for what else to say, I just said, "Well, you had not been made yet." That seemed to satisfy him for the moment.
A little while ago, he asked me, "Mama, how did I get into your tummy before I was born? Did I go in through your mouth? Was it kind of like magic?" I said, "It really was kind of magical." And that seemed to be enough for now since his next sentence was, "Now can we please go down and play with my trains."

Snowy Days

Snow, snow, snow....we've had it on the ground for about 2.5 months now! Though we'll be glad to see it go (march? april?) we do make sure to get out and play in it on most days. Noah could stay outside for hours on end, but Kai is not completely sold on the cold, white stuff yet. He hates wearing mittens and spends a good deal of time yanking them off, then gets upset when his bare hand touches the snow. Today the sun was shining, the sky was blue and the temperatures were just around 30, which is as close to perfect as a winter day can get!

Preschool Sledding Party

This morning the whole family headed off to a sledding party with Noah's preschool at a local park. The weather and conditions were perfect - temperatures in the mid-20's, no wind and a few inches of fresh snow on the ground. We all got some exercise (especially those of us carrying Kai back up the hill) and had some good winter fun. Kai had big smiles going down the hill. Noah particularly enjoyed the two (small) crashes he had with other sledders. No matter what the season, no trip to the park is complete without a visit to the playground equipment. After a bit of swinging, sliding and climbing, we filled up with some hot chocolate and cookies before dragging two tired boys back to the car.

"Painting"

Noah spends about an hour each afternoon after lunch in his room doing "quiet time". I usually hear occasional thumps and movement coming from up there, but Kai sleeps through it and I have some "me" time, so as long as it's not too loud, I just ignore it. Late this afternoon, I discovered that Noah's "quiet time" today was used quite creatively. The boys were playing upstairs while I was dealing with some laundry (our laundry is upstairs as well). As I went into Noah's room to put some clothes away, I discovered that the entire side of a book shelf and the floor immediately around it were covered in a thick white cream. "Noah, what is this," I demanded, probably in a somewhat irritated voice. "Oh, that's paint," he answered very matter-of-factly. "Is that what you were doing during quiet time today?" I asked. "Yes, I was painting in my dreams," Noah said. Turns out that it was lotion that he had pumped out and meticulously spread across the bookshelf. Noah helped me (well, kind of) clean up the mess and the lotion bottle was placed well out of reach. I have a feeling that Noah was inspired by a library book we checked out this week, "Matthew's Dream", in which a mouse paints in his dream!

So Tired....

February has gotten off to a mostly healthy start for us, except for a mild chest cold for Noah. Unfortunately, it has triggered a few night-time asthma attacks which have required nebulizer treatments and disrupted sleep. Yesterday morning this happened at around 5:00 am. Phil and I were groggy from having been suddenly awoken out of a deep sleep, and Noah was in a complete panic which was just making his attack worse. All the commotion woke Kai up, and by the time all was calm and well, it was clear that we were up for the day! By lunch time, Kai was utterly exhausted. After a quick lunch, I cut him up some oranges for dessert, went back in the kitchen to wash my hands, and when I turned around, he was deep asleep with his hand resting on the next piece of orange!

The entertaining narrator

Noah has taken to occasionally talk as if he were narrating a story where he is, of course, the main character. It can be highly entertaining and amusing to listen to. For example, the other day I overheard him twice talking to himself in the bathroom while I was working in the kitchen:

" "What was that!" I said as the poop plopped into the toilet. "

" "(Can't remember what he said here)," I said as I swiftly washed my hands in the sink. "

Kids are hilarious!

The Little Tornado

Shortly after the holidays, Kai finally discovered how entertaining kitchen drawers can be. Our drawers that have non-dangerous items in them do not have child safety latches installed. Once Kai had figured out how to open the drawers, it didn't take him long to figure out which ones were accessible. Noah really never showed a whole lot of interest in this type of activity. Kai, however, can keep himself entertained for hours on end emptying the contents of drawers and cupboards! Occasionally, he puts some of the items back where they belong, but most of the time, he leaves the mess behind in search of new adventures.




"Where did everything go?!"

And there went January....

Well, January ended up being filled with a continuous stream of bacterial and viral infections - thus not much energy to blog or interesting topics to blog about. At one point during the month, the entire family was on antibiotics! Let's hope that February is filled with good health and lots of fun!