January

After a fun but busy holiday season, we were looking forward to having a low key January.  Lucy took the opportunity to nap wherever she was able...usually going from wide awake and crazed one minute to sound asleep the next.  She parties and sleeps hard.

 Frustrated with the lack of snow and inability to make a real snowman, we found a warmer compromise of making Play-Doh snowmen.

Lucy wasn't as interested in making snowmen as she was in keeping the colors segregated.  I fear that some of my OCD has passed on to the next generation.

We were so excited to have our friends Nick, Catherine and their daughters, Bryn and Claire, come to visit.  While BJ and Nick headed to the ISU-KU game, Catherine and I caught up and the kids played.  Or I think that it was more like we would start to catch up, one of the four kids would need something (rarely was it baby Claire), and then we would try to pick our conversation up where we left off.  Charlie and Lucy were pretty enthralled with baby Claire and I don't think that Bryn picked up any of their naughty habits while she was here so I consider it a success!

The "big" kids hanging out in our toy room.  The picture below was taken right as the night was ending so trying to get all of them to look at the camera was about as successful as Catherine and I having an uninterrupted conversation.

Charlie got to meet Spider-Man at a friend's birthday party and the below picture was about the 5th picture that Spider-Man suggested that I take.  At some point I became concerned that he thought that Charlie was the birthday boy, but then he slipped me his business card and I realized that his Spidey marketing skills were in overdrive.  

After a plentiful birthday and Christmas in December, we are recommitted to teaching Charlie that cold hard truth about money and entertainment.  He really wanted to go see the new Paddington movie and we told him that we could go as long as he bought his own ticket with his own "paper" money.  Charlie was pretty excited at first, but on the way to the movie theatre he asked how much money he was going to get back from the worker.  When I told him that he might not get any back, panic flashed across his face but he was committed to going to the movie.

We went to an early morning show so his ticket was only $6.25...I think that he was asking if he had to give all of his paper money to the worker. The answer was yes :).

Happy boy with a movie ticket and $0.75 back from the employee.

We went back to the dinosaur exhibit at the Science Center - Charlie spent most of the time asking me to read the various descriptions and names of the dinosaurs while Lucy tried to climb over every barrier.  I did a decent job of sticking with the facts that were posted about the various dinosaurs but when I was busy rescuing Lucy from a restricted area I would make something up like "that dinosaur's name is Sharpclawosaurus and he lived in Egypt."  I think I saw a guy give me a disgusted look but he was at the exhibit with a notebook and pen taking notes and I was there for my kids to burn some energy so his judgment was lost on me.

The judgemental-guy-with-a-notebook did not appreciate our collective giggly over the picture below.

No month would be complete without a trip or two to a noodle place.  Speaking of food, Charlie has said dozens of time that his meals at day care are "awesome" and that his wishes that I had Miss Karry's recipes.  On Wednesday of this past week I received a voicemail from Miss Karry, telling me that she was working on a special project based on a request from Charlie to share her recipes with me so that my food could take just like her food.  When I saw Karry the next day, she indicated that Charlie came up to the kitchen following lunch to tell her that it was the most "awesomest" lunch and that he really need her to give me her recipes.  The lunch menu that day?  Ham and cheese.  Two slices of white bread, two slices of generic ham and one slice of generic American cheese.  Parenthood can be humbling.

Lucy also decided that Charlie's "weapons" are much more fun than her toys.  She frequently finds me with a weapon to tell me that she's going to "fight" me.  Her stance may be threatening but she needs to lose the smile if she wants to be taken seriously.

During a quick trip to the mall, the kids insisted on finding all of the mannequins and then requested that I take their picture.  They were so proud.

 Charlie had his five-year old check up last week and I told Charlie that he had to get a few shots but that if he was brave, we could go to Target after and he could pick out a Lego set.  For the judgmental-guy-with-notebook from the Science Center, it's what I call picking your battles. 
   

So while we had plenty of fun in January, most of the month was spent doing what we do best - staying at home and relaxing.  February - here we come!