Catching up on December & January

The last month and a half has been predictably busy with Christmas and both kids' birthdays.  Both Ben and Elizabeth have moved up to new rooms at daycare- Ben to pre-kindergarten and Elizabeth to young toddlers. Elizabeth is adjusting fine and Ben seems to be gradually getting used to the new routine, though change is always a little hard for him.

We missed posting Elizabeth's 11-month photos on time. She did not want to sit still but stayed put for a few seconds when given the echo microphone. She loves hearing her voice echo in the microphone and any hollow object!

On New Year's Day, we got a little snow. Ben was so excited to build a snowman, but it wasn't really good packing snow. Ben and Dave managed to make a tiny snowman (and Ben didn't understand why he couldn't retrieve and eat the carrot nose after the snowman melted) and threw powdery snowballs with Dave. Elizabeth was content looking at the snow from the safety of my arms but did not like it touching her.

Ben in one of his goofy bedtime moments:

My parents flew out for the kids' birthday party in January. We'll have a separate post with the frosting-filled pictures from that, but here are a few from the rest of their visit.

Grammie reading Rhyming Dust Bunnies

Papa and Elizabeth at the piano

My dad wanted to take Ben to a hockey game, so we loaded up everyone and made our first trip to see the Missouri Mavericks at the Independence Events Center, which is a great smaller arena just a few miles from our house. Unfortunately, the Mavericks seemed to be half-asleep and lost 4-1 against the last-place Tulsa Oilers, but it was still a really fun evening.  Ben chatted up the girl sitting next to him and Elizabeth charmed a grandma in the row behind her who had sparkly bracelets that caught Elizabeth's eye (and her grabby fingers)! Both kids made it through the whole game and were fascinated by all the things and people to watch.

Elizabeth spent part of the game snuggled in her baby carrier with her yellow ducky.

The refs were exceptionally lazy for the first two periods and hardly called any penalties on either team, despite both deserving several. One fan was prepared to point this out.

Due to the number of missed opportunities by the Mavericks, Ben quickly learned the "Come on!' What was that?" motion.

Ben enjoyed the hockey game a lot and was also excited to hear that my Detroit Red Wings have "stopped fighting" (i.e., ended the strike) and are playing again. He has been asking for score updates and keeping his poor teachers informed of game results, whether they're interested or not!