January Wrap-up

All is well with Linus. He acts goofy much of the time and especially likes being silly with his friends. He and his friends are showing so much maturation lately. They've gotten taller, self-confident, share their snacks with one another, and sometimes have nicknames for each other. Linus' friend, Oscar, likes to call him Lina. This started when Oscar's baby brother pronounced Linus' name that way.

Preschool is going great and Linus enjoys each day there. Miss Kay plans fun and unusual activities for the kids. I got to help out the day she had the kids ice skating on the art room floor, which she had me cover in shaving cream. The kids skated around in their stocking-feet and the floor was just as slippery as ice, but messier. I had a blast helping out this day! The dramatic play corner has been a post office with a postal scale, rubber office stamps, envelopes and writing paper, letter carrier dress up clothes, and mail boxes. Linus has played in the post office a lot of the time.

Mr. Smarty Pants read an early reader to me the other day. It was one we haven't had out in several months. Matthew also discovered that Linus can do addition and subtraction. I wonder what else the kid knows?!

Some of the fun things we've done this month include ice skating downtown, visiting the zoo on a 60+ degree day, building vehicles out of Legos, taking care of a friend's cockatiel, and putting up the Ursa Major constellation on his bedroom ceiling with sticker stars that glow. Each day flies by faster than we realize.

Bonus

Here he is, wearing his super hero mask that he wore to the singing party, and the jester hat that Ziggy said he could keep from the Twelfth Night performance, and all bundled up for the short walk home.

Christmas

We were invited to Rich's and Lisa's house for Christmas Eve dinner, along with all of our neighborhood friends. Rich cooked us a traditional Italian Christmas dinner and the rest of us brought appetizers and desserts. It was such a pleasant evening eating, drinking, and laughing together. Linus chose to wear his reindeer antlers headband for the party. Lisa even pulled out a light-up Rudolph nose for him to wear. He and Grace took turns with it.

We celebrated Christmas at home by opening gifts, eating Christmas cookies, and attempting to have cheese fondue for dinner. The dinner was a flop: the cheese seized up and we couldn't dip anything into it. We have enjoyed having Matthew home for four days the week of Christmas and the week of New Year's. He and Linus have spent a lot of time playing with Linus' new train set. We've also had a lot of fun watching the class gerbils over winter break. It will be hard to part with them tomorrow.

(The top picture is from the singing party at Wendy's and Lon's house. Linus is wearing the jester hat that was worn by the man playing the fool during the flash mob presentation of part of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. It was a 40th birthday gift for me, a bit belated. He played the lolly pop-looking drum most of the evening.)

Happy New Year!

We celebrated the beginning of 2011 with sledding in City Park. We finally got snow on December 30. All three of us were excited. While Matthew and I shoveled the sidewalk, Linus sledded down the little hill in our front yard. It was a cold day, around 11 degrees, and my extremities were freezing. So after lunch Matthew and Linus went sledding while I curled up on the couch under a quilt. Yesterday it was around 24 degrees and I joined them in the park. Linus told me that if I was scared going down by myself the first time, to let him know and he would tell me I would be okay. We had a fun time taking turns going down individually or with Linus. Linus only face-planted once and he was brave enough to try all of the lifts kids had made. Back at home we warmed up with cranberry scones and hot chocolate. Then we made rolled honey comb candles with a kit we received for Christmas. I made black eyed peas and rice for dinner and read Anna Karenina while Linus painted dinosaur figures and Matthew transferred files to his new computer.