William's Forbidden Fruit

Everyday I lay William's blanket out and scatter toys all around him. Toys that light up, toys that sing songs, chew toys, rolly toys- you name it- we have it. And yet he crawls away from these toys as fast as he can and heads straight for the DOGS toys. And then just as he grabs it and gets it ready to eat he pauses and looks for me almost like just a last minute check to see if perhaps he will get away with eating it today. Now you might wonder why don't I just put all of the dog toys away while William is playing on the floor? I do, of course. But our sweet Hettie insists on having her belongings strewn about the living room, so as fast I put them away she drags them one by one back out onto the floor. And she has gotten pretty sneaky about it now because she knows I don't want them over there. The only thing I can do now is lock the toys away in her kennel while the baby is crawling, and even then William just crawls over to the kennel and stares in at the toys :(

Our Violinist

Chase has just started violin lessons. He is doing really well and has learned to play this series which is the beginning of Twinkle, Twinkle.

Dedicated to Our Kalli

Kalli, my niece, is in a miming group with her church. They dress in black and have white gloves on and act out miming moves to christian songs under a black light. There is a story line and goal of trying to motivate church members into evangelizing. Kalli has the lead this year. We went up to watch the first performance and the kids have been amazed with their cousin and the show. Here is Olivia's version of mime dancing, notice how she puts her hands behind her back at the end, which is what they do in the show to hide their glowing gloves at the end of the song :)

Sick Days

Right on cue, our annual battle for wellness has begun. Every winter we get sick with a string of cold, ear infections or sinus infections and this year is not different. One week we visited the doctor's office 4 times. I wish that we could time the sickness better so they would all get it at the same time but the reality is that as one is getting better another is getting sick so we are in and out of school and can't go out to playdates for extended periods :( and poor William has gotten everything :( However, we have had fun playing together at home. And we have made some excellent artwork! These were pictures the kids painted for Kalli. We had recently attended her church performance and the kids were totally star struck and talked about her non-stop for several days. They even recently began imitating her dance moves :)