Hearts and Flowers

For Family Home Evening this week we made a paper heart for each person in our family. Then we each said (and I acted as scribe and wrote on the hearts) something that we love about them. They've been on our front door since. I've read them to the kids and Cooper and Phoebe especially get smiley and giggly when they hear all the nice things we said.

I stayed up too late last night putting together those Valentine bags. They garnered the desired effect.

Front of Phoebe's

Back of Phoebe's

Front of Cooper's

Back of Cooper's

Front of Peter's

Back of Peter's

Also, I need to remember to not give my kids candy during breakfast. The rest of the day was a little rough. In between bouts of tears and strong feelings we did a few other fun things. Peter had a great party at school that included a treat that was safe for him to eat (the mom in charge of the treat called me twice to check and double-check). Cooper and Phoebe and I went to a little party too and they decorated sugar cookies. Wow, now that I'm writing it up, today was a sugary day.

We had planned to go out to dinner (Peter earned a free meal at Applebee's), but several factors combined to stop that from happening. So instead, Bryan ran to Subway and brought home sandwiches for us. Either Cooper was exceptionally hungry, or he's decided that he likes more than just sugar and breakfast.

Bryan surprised us by bringing a bouquet of roses to the kids. I admit, I felt a little deflated when he said the flowers were for the kids and not for me. Then he pulled another surprise from behind his back. He got me two mini-watermelons. Watermelon in February.

Way better than flowers.

Big Red Hearts

Peter is really excited for Valentine's Day this year. All the kids in his class had to make a special box to collect their valentines. Peter's is a robot, cause nothing says love like a metal non-human.

He was so excited about the holiday that he wanted to give valentines to Cooper and Phoebe tonight at bedtime. I convinced him to wait until the morning. Speaking of the morning, I need to go put together little bags of red and pink sugary-goodness for the kids to discover upon waking.  The big thing I'm going to do is decorate the paper bags and write a note to each child. We try to keep Valentine's Day small but special.

What do you do to celebrate February 14?

Excelling

Bryan is currently teaching me the fancy tricks that Excel does.

He uses Excel on a daily basis. I do not.

I'm an intelligent person, but my brain feels slightly bent out of shape at the moment.

That is all.

Phoebe Is Not Impressed

Recently our sweet Phoebe has been replaced by Grumpy Girl. She scowls and scolds. She screeches and smacks. And her two-minute time-outs have increased in frequency, largely due to her frequent employment of naughty words and unkind names.

I can identify two culprits. One is her age. She is two. Wow, is she two. The boys didn't really experience the Terrible Twos. They may have dipped their toes in now and then, but mostly they were sweet until around three, maybe three-and-a-half. They've more than made-up for the delay in the proceeding years, but at age two, they were sweet. Phoebe however, is a quick-study. She hits those developmental milestones ahead of schedule. Maybe she's just taking this whole Terrible Twos thing very seriously, hoping to do her job as a two-year-old right.

The second contributing factor is her refusal to take naps. Now that she isn't confined within the lovely walls of her pack 'n play, she can roam her room rather than nap during what should be her afternoon siesta. Some weeks she naps four out of five days. Some weeks, it's more like two out of five. We have a nap-time routine, I try to keep the time consistent, but alas, the girl has a mind of her own.

On Sunday morning Cooper kindly made a paper robot to hang on Phoebe's wall. Here he is with his creation.

And here was Phoebe's response.

I do hope this is a phase.

Mr. Sandman

It's been a full week for me. I've had something going on every night since Monday and every morning since Tuesday. That's why most of the posts this week have been brief.

For the last hour I've been brainstorming about what to post today. My brain is too tired for anything long or creative and I don't have any new pictures at my disposal. As I've been thinking, my eyes have been getting heavier and heavier.

And that's when I figured out what I should write.

It's 10:28, and I'm about to go to sleep for the night. I haven't been to sleep this early in ages.

I think that's worth remembering.

Good night.

On Her Own

Phoebe has been getting herself dressed recently. You may not be able to tell from this blurry picture, but both her pants and her shirt are backwards. I rarely correct her sartorial choice. If it doesn't bother her, I don't see why it should bother me. And it's pretty cute.

Tickling the Ivories

Last semester my prize for attending a service auction was four weeks of free piano lessons. While I'm not a proficient pianist, I decided not to use the lessons for myself.

That's how this picture came to be taken. Peter had his first official (meaning not taught by me) piano lesson today. 

I warned his teacher (a fellow MBASA-ite) that he might be a know-it-all and not very teachable, and he had moments of that, but for the most part it went well. He even seems excited to practice. Of course, that might change when the time to rehearse actually arrives.

I'm going to remain hopeful.

Who Needs Rockefeller Center?

It's warmed up enough over the past few days that the snow has slowly started to melt. Today the sun was shining and it felt so nice that Cooper and Phoebe and I ventured out to visit some local ducks. At least, it seemed warm until I realized the ducks could swim in half their pond and ice skate on the other half.

Cooper and Phoebe were so taken with the ice skating ducks that they couldn't tear their eyes away. This is the best picture of the kids that I could get. And really, who can compete with ice dancing waterfowl?

Concert Attire

Phoebe just brought me her pajama shirt so I could turn it right-side-out for her. She and Cooper had been playing that it was bedtime. Gee, maybe if we play that when it's actually bedtime we'd be able to get them to sleep easier. Anyway, I questioned her about the pajamas, and this is what was said.

Me: Are you putting your pajamas back on?

Phoebe: Yes. We're going to the jammy concert.

Me: And what will you do at the concert?

Phoebe: The president will come.

Me: Wow, that sounds cool. The president of what?

Phoebe: Of Mars.

Maybe I should put my pajamas back on too...

Back In the Saddle Again

I never wrote about my resolutions for the year, in part because I didn't want to jinx myself. Now that we're a whole month in to 2013, I think I'm ready to make my list public.

The first item is to make it through to graduation. We're in the final stretch. And we're both totally exhausted. That's okay though, we only have three more months. So I guess that's not so much a resolution for the whole year, but I'm including it anyway.

Next, I want to go to sleep before 1AM. I'm not doing so well with this one right now, but I'm working on it.

My final resolution is one you may have already picked up on. Remember how I used to post something on this blog every weekday? And then last year I had to stop to maintain my sanity? Well, I still value my sanity, but I also missed writing everyday. And I missed having such a wonderful record of our year. So I'm back on the blogging wagon.