Our Little Mary Lou

Charlotte went to a gymnastics birthday party today and is totally hooked. We'll be signing her up for classes at the gym by our house.

Bear crawl on the parallel bars

Balance beam (those are crocodile masks on the mat)

Although a non-olympic event...the trapeze was a hit.

It's off to go leotard shopping!

The F Word

Last night, the kids and I were on our way home and as always I was in "prepare for the madness that is the 6:30 bedtime routine" mode. I looked at the kids and asked "What do we need to do when we get home?" I was expecting them to mention putting shoes away, getting right upstairs for bath/shower. Those kinds of things. Charlotte looked at me very seriously and said "Focus." Obviously I have used this word a lot in the past during bedtime routine madness!

Tonight when the kids were getting ready for bed (always rough on Wednesdays when Nicholas has music until 5pm) that word came up again. I asked Nicholas if he knew what that meant, because as much as I say it...I really wasn't positive that they knew. He said yes, and gave me this explanation - "It means no fooling around. And to be quick and careful. Especially when carrying fragile things". Love it!

Career Options

Last week Nicholas firmly decided that he wants to be a garbage man when he grows up. Torn between actually driving the truck and riding on the back, he went with riding on the back. Because there's a pole to hang onto just like on a fire truck. Duh.

Tonight, my now space obsessed son decided that he's changed his mind and now wants to be an astronaut and fly a "rocket" to space. But he'd like to take us with him. Perhaps Virgin Galactic will be in full operation when the time comes!

Pretzels?

Tonight Charlotte kept demanding to wear her "pretzel" jammies. I was perplexed. She was determined. She finally dug through the drawer and found these. "See?!? Pretzels!" I guess we haven't really introduced peace signs yet!

Preschool Literacy Night

Charlotte may have missed PJ day at school yesterday because of her Monday night fever, but she'd recovered just in time for Literacy Night. The kids in her class wore PJs to the party and stuffed bears, read bear books and had animal cookies and hot chocolate (or just marshmallows in Charlotte's case). Although these aren't the most flattering pics of Ms Sally and Ms Dodie, the joy on Charlotte's face shows her true love of them. We will miss them terribly next year!

If Only Our Video Monitor Could Record!

Sometimes Nicholas is so sweet it makes me want to cry. Last night, he insisted on sleeping with 5 (yes, FIVE) of Charlotte's babies. He LOVES babies. Tom and I were downstairs and heard him on the monitor moving around in his bed. We checked the video monitor and saw him lying there on his tummy, picking up each baby in turn, kissing each one 3 times and laying them back down in his bed. We just watched and smiled. But it gets even better. Tom mentioned to him as they were snuggling tonight at bedtime that we'd seen him being nice to the babies last night. He told Tom that he was kissing them so they wouldn't be scared. Nicholas had heard a noise outside (snow plow??) and gotten a little scared himself, and didn't want the babies to be scared. Oh my sweet little man...

Master of the Chopstick

It is no surprise that my darling, incredibly slow-eating daughter has decided that she loves (and is remarkably proficient at) chopsticks. Even for rice.

It is also no surprise that Nicholas prefers the more straightforward fork approach!