Our cute munchkins

Cousin Joseph (6'10") has calmed a restless Elizabeth at our last two extended family breakfasts by helping her fly. She had the biggest smile on her face and then happily sat with him for a long time afterward, which is rare in her current clinging-to-parents phase.

One of Elizabeth's favorite things to do at school is to rock the baby dolls. She was cuddling one of her baby dolls this morning while Ben was watching "Veggie Tales"... at least until she unceremoniously dropped him on his head next to Dave.

 Ben was out sick for a day and a half with a stomach bug. On his second day home, he and Dave built towers our of Solo cups. We got him a pack of them for Christmas after he and his cousins spent almost an hour building with them over Thanksgiving. As you can see from the third photo, he was most enthusiastic about knocking it down!

Ben is rocking his way through the BOB book series and is in the final box set. We have him read one most nights as well as reading a regular book to him. Elizabeth wanted a front row seat on story time this night!

Even in his sleep, he doesn't stop talking about sports

Ben has been soundly sleeping for a few hours, but we just heard him say, "He just striked the Angels player out really hard with his hand. Isn't that awesome?" Must be dreaming about baseball!

Who needs fancy toys?

Elizabeth put herself in and took herself out (sometimes by tipping) of Ben's $2 Goodwill mixing bowl at least six times yesterday afternoon. I'm not quite sure why it was so fascinating or how it could be comfortable, but she thought it was pretty cool. She was rather upset when I put it out of her reach after she tipped over multiple times.

Snow Day

 

After receiving virtually no snow since February 2011, we got hit hard by a late-Winter storm yesterday.  At various times, snow was falling at a rate of 4 inches per hour, and in all we got 12 to 14 inches of it (it's tough to tell exactly how much, considering the drifts).  It shut the city down, and we all stayed home rather than chance the roads. Ben was quite excited by it all -- he spent a good portion of the day yelling, "Thundersnow!" (which was an accurate description of the storm), and asked repeatedly if he could go outside and play in it.  When the storm finally abated, we let him do just that.

He had a great time tromping around in the snow, throwing snowballs, and making snow angels (not the easiest task, as the snow was crusted with a thin layer of sleet).  Emily joined in to show him how it's done.

 

Elizabeth was much more interested in the snow than she was earlier in the winter; she most emphatically did not want to play in the dusting we received a couple months ago.  This time, she enjoyed patting it, making a small pile of it ... and crawling around after Ben, of course!

 Note the makeshift boots made of plastic grocery bags.  We're classy, sophisticated people.

 

 

Ben's valentines

After denying last week that his teachers had said anything about handing out valentines to his pre-K classmates, Ben changed his story and decided a) they were handing them out and b) he wanted to bring some. My requirements for the valentines were that they were simple, inexpensive, and didn't have candy or animated characters/superheros he talks about but really doesn't know anything about on them.  Pinterest saved the day and pointed me toward these cute magnifying glass valentine printables from Dandee. Ben loved the magnifying glasses they had in his last classroom and adores PBS' "Sid the Science Kid" who uses one frequently, so I thought it would be a hit. As a bonus, 12-packs of magnifying glasses were only $3 at the party supply store! Ben had fun either writing his name or using rubber stamps (or both) on the valentines and was excited to have his very own magnifying glass.

And here are a couple random pics from the last few weeks of us playing Ben's new favorite game, Crazy Eights, and the kids cracking each other up!

Little Wing Nut

Elizabeth was all decked out in appropriate gear to cheer our Detroit Red Wings onto victory against the St. Louis Blues, 5-3. We are still working on her octopus-throwing skills. Her current method involves a lot more drool and chewing than is typically recommended by expert octopus throwers.

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!