Wednesday, February 18, 2015

The Dragon

The Dragon, written and illustrated by Noah.

title page

Once upon a time there was a boy
(keep in mind Noah sometimes starts his first line too close to the bottom of the page and has to write subsequent lines above or below or wherever)

The boy and his family went mountain climbing.  It was a beautiful day.

The mountain was enormous

Then they found another mountain.  The dragon flew over his head.  The end.
(the people are all saying "wow!")

I think it worth noting that Noah did this all on his own, it was his idea and he did everything.  Even the page numbers.  I think it is awesome.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Four!!

And this one is now four.


Like her brother, she's taller than almost all the other kids her age and has been acting like a four-year-old for a while so it's really not all that shocking.  Except when it is.  Eva is a hilarious four-year old.  She sings and dances and invents complicated stories and is shockingly good at making up rhymes.  She likes to tell jokes and is an expert at the rhythm of delivery.  Good enough, in fact, that one doesn't realize she is sometimes mimicking without understanding.  A recent example:

Eva: Why did the dolphin cross the sea?
Mommy: Why?
Eva: to get to the other tide!!!!
Mommy: hahahah

*few moments pass*

Eva: Mommy, "tide" means when both people win.  When they tied they both win.

huh.

At four Eva can sound out and write most letters and spends a lot of time "reading" books.  She draws people and other things and continues to make really creative artwork.  She continues to play out elaborate stories with her dolls or toys or duplos and has also started to get into manipulating Noah's lego sets... 


Oh and she is SUUUUUUUUPER into girly stuff.  She loves princesses.  She loves ballet.  For her birthday we had a "Rapunzel Elsa Ice Power" party.   We got out the costumes...


Featured both princesses on the cake... 


And celebrated with paper crowns and lots of pink.


And then, just to make sure Eva was totally confused about what birthday happened when, we did it all over again with the cousins in the afternoon.


Eva has always known her own mind and this continues to be true.  She can follow directions in a workbook but isn't very interested in being limited - she is more likely to respond with "no, I can put the sticker wherever I want" and we are more likely to go along with it.  She has creative, unusual ideas and the guts to insist they be tried out.  I hope this will always be the case.

Even when it leads to scenes like the following... 


Happy Birthday Eva, my special girl. :)


Monday, February 16, 2015

Six!!

 Hey, guess who's six!  Even if I am a bit late with the birthday post it still seems worth discussing.


I know, it's amazing.  And at the same time, not amazing in any way.  I mean he acts like a six-year old so it make sense he is six.  He is starting to read and can write well enough that I can usually decipher what he is trying to say. He can tell a joke with reasonably good timing and can do one magic card trick.  He goes to kindergarten and plays soccer and two days a week takes the bus to after-school.  And for goodness sake, he looks like an eight year old.  So I guess I believe he is six.

This was our front door for his birthday party - signs made by Noah.  The top one says "Hogwarts"  and the bottom "happy first day at hogwarts!"

He's already lost and re-grown two teeth and can add and subtract and occasionally multiply by 2 or 3.  He loves guns and swords and Star Wars and really really loves Harry Potter.  Hence the Harry Potter birthday party.

Gryffindor Cake

Eva dressed up as Hermione (mostly her hair)

I didn't get the party evite out until one week ahead of time so I invited way too many people thinking most wouldn't come.  I was mistaken.  We had a world record birthday party with 22 kids.  They had to stand around the table because we don't have enough chairs for that crowd.  They didn't seem to mind.

Whenever we go to a birthday party we find that Eva is the last one at the table after cake, committed to finishing her dessert even when everyone else has gone off to play.  This was no exception...


And then afterward Noah read his birthday cards himself.  That was neat.


And then he spent the next two weeks assembling the eight new lego sets he acquired. It was awesome.



Sunday, February 15, 2015

Hello again snow

So we're having some weather... 



We had 89 inches of snow this winter before today's blizzard.  Based on the garbage cans I would say we got a little more than a foot last night/this morning.  It's an adventure.  This is what it looked like before: 




Yes, this is a "before the storm" picture.  This winter is insane.

Even the playset had ice dams... 

And then by early this morning our patio fence was totally covered and the swings were buried again.


By lunchtime the blizzard part was over so we went out to explore.





I was supposed to fly to Paris tonight for work.  I've been rescheduled to tomorrow night so I think I'll take Noah's attitude to the storm and use it as an opportunity to fling myself about the backyard and then go back inside and drink chocolate.



Saturday, February 14, 2015

Valentine's day

Mommy and Daddy received some wonderful things this Valentine's day.

chocolates for daddy, flowers for mommy

It is especially fun with kids who are starting to write

I love you mommy from Eva

To Daddy Love Noah (the picture is the king of hearts)

Eva's valentine for Daddy

This is the inside of Eva's Valentine, featuring the queen of hearts



From Eva to Mommy, featuring a boy "with boogers in his nose.  Also he is allergic to the boogers."

The sweetness, it keeps me warm even in the snow. :)