Tooth!!

Hey look what happened!

Eva's first lost tooth!  She was pretty pleased with herself.

In Zimet tradition she got a tooth cake (made from scratch with Grammy!)

It says "Eva's Lost Tooth"

Noah's Piano Recital

Noah had his first piano recital last weekend!  He was awesome. :)

Marathon

Back in October, Chad ran a marathon.  It was a very cold day but his cheering section was up to the challenge.

Eva was especially dedicated in holding her sign up as high as possible

Which is not so easy for a very small person on a windy day

Chad did great, finishing his second marathon in under 4 hrs

And we are all very proud!

Tooth, where are you?

Noah finally lost that tooth in the front that has been shifting to the side for weeks... 

And it turns out the tooth fairy operates in British currency in the UK.  He made out quite well with the exchange rate.

Recital painting

Yesterday Eva had her first ballet recital.

It was great, actually a pretty impressive production, and Eva and her class were totally adorable.  I have pictures on the big camera but no time so those will get posted later.

In the meantime please enjoy the painting Eva made today of her and her best friend Natalie (who was in a different recital, but in the same dress)

I love this picture.  I love how there is one big dress split into two girls (each with a rose), how she carefully painted the red straps and used marker to draw Natalie's hair bow, how the background is bright blue, how she wrote "love ballet" in tiny pencil letters.

Also, may I draw your attention to the rose detail?

This girl, her pictures blow me away.

Noah's first transcription

This evening Noah sounded out Mary Had a Little Lamb in order to write it down.

Some of the numbers may be written backwards but other than that I think he got it totally right!

Also it was neat because he was finished practicing and I had already left the room and he just decided to do it on his own :)

Marathon

Daddy ran a marathon!!  We braved the cold to cheer him on.

He finished in 3:55 and we were very very proud.

I also wanted to capture the signs Noah and Eva made.

Eva had a great idea for hers.  She told me where to write the letters, then drew herself yelling them.

Noah did his entire sign himself.  I did not help in any way.  My favorite part is the picture of daddy running and smiling.

Go Daddy!  Run and Run!!!

Tooth!!!

Or more importantly, lack thereof

Noah lost his first tooth today at dinner, eating a carrot.  He was pretty psyched.

He carefully placed the tooth into the pocket of the tooth pillow Nana made him and placed it at the edge of his bed.  At bedtime he told me he doesn't really believe in the tooth fairy, but he will believe if the tooth fairy brings him money.  We'll see what we can do :)

Story!

Today Noah wrote a story all by himself!  I am a little bit beside myself I am so proud of him. :)

Transcript:
A boy was walking in the woods with his family.  He saw a house.  The boy did not know what a haunted house looks like.  So he went in!  The end.

(for those of you reading along, the actual story starts to the right of the crossed out letters and continues below and to the right of those crossed out letters.  The space to the left of the crossed out letters is for the "so he went in, the end") 

No training wheels!

Big happenings at our house today



First day without training wheels!  After we took the training wheels off Noah did everything else by himself.  I guess he was ready.  Unfortunately we did not capture the part where he shouted "this is easy!" mid-ride, but you get the idea.

When I put Noah to bed he was talking about how he loves riding a bike and he is going to practice and practice and practice until he can get a bike with gears.

Kindergarten!

Noah had his first day today

He was a little nervous (and very silly)

But overall it was great and he says he loves kindergarten.  Success!!

William

Meet William

Who is the youngest cousin (brother to Jenna, Jolie and Hannah) and as best I can tell the perfect baby.

also tiny

The other cousins celebrated the new arrival by the traditional "let's give mommy a heart attack while riding around on the quad and also apparently being pursued by a mask motorcyclist"

Good times.

Eva's Birthday Post

Well, she finally turned three on Wednesday.

And in addition to beautiful, she is also impossibly tall and strong and competent.  She clears her own plate from the table and can put on her own clothes and shoes (when she feels like it) and draws figures with limbs and eyes and backstories.

Look mommy I drawed a picture of me giving you a hug!  Look at that (points to lines below figure) that is the kitchen all around.  I am giving you a hug in the kitchen!

 She can run and jump like a little athlete and is pretty good at jumping on one foot.  She can walk by herself down a balance beam, and has no problem getting up and down from the kitchen bar stools.  She still flings herself about and knocks into things and wails hysterically when she bumps herself.  For about 5 seconds.  Then recovers and it back at it, flailing and spinning and being her boisterous self.  She informed us about two weeks ago that she is finished sleeping during rest time, and instead she will play quietly in her room like Noah.  So far, most of the time she does.

 She recently caught the princess bug.

Me and Bawbie we're both princesses!

But because she has an older brother the story lines are not about finding a prince yet, instead about fighting bad guys with her super ice frozen power.  She does like to have princess dances, but there is no touching allowed.  When daddy and mommy attempt to dance together at one of these events they are sharply reprimanded, and instead everyone must dance in an Eva-approved manner (i.e. slow twirling and the occasional ballet-like move).

That kind of dancing is toooooo silly

For her birthday dinner we went out to Cabots and got ice cream sundaes for dessert.  Over her ice cream, she calmly informed us "when I grow up, I'm going to change my name to Dave."

I think Dave is a nice name, don't you?

After our initial astonishment she explained "remember Dave was a worker?  And he made us a new kitchen?  Remember that!?"  

I don't think Dave the worker is a reader of this blog, but apparently he made a big impression.  Especially considering our kitchen renovation was finished about two months ago.

In my defense, we do really love the new kitchen

She has two best friends at school: Natalie and Owen.  Her only response to what she did at school today is "I played with Natalie and Owen."  This has led to some awkward conversations with other parents whose children apparently like and talk about playing with Eva, but whose names I have never heard.

Eva is smart and sassy and can count things and sound out many letters and is completely disinterested in the sort of party trick where I ask her a question in front of another grown-up and expect her to show off.  She is a great little show-off when she wants to be "Look, Jesse's daddy!  I can jumping on one foot!!"  But my request to show the pediatrician this skill at her checkup is met with a totally blank stare.

hmmmm... shall I charm the adults today or instead refuse to speak?

My sweet special girl, she knows her own mind and remains fiercely in charge of herself and I hope this is always true.

I may be small, but I am in charge of myself and this chicken.

Happy birthday Eva, we love you.

Five!!!

Noah turned 5 today.

He's such a great 5 year old boy. He loves silly noises and practices silly faces in the mirror and bounces around and sings and wrestles with his friends like little bear cubs and loves to play outside and loves to climb and build things and knock them down as violently as possible and then build them up again.  He asks so many questions.  SO many.  And while exhausting, a lot of them are pretty good questions.

He loves to play with Eva and they have a series of adventures every day.  He is strong and tough and kind and accommodating and empathetic to others, and somehow also very sensitive that he is being heard and easily hurt if he thinks he is not.   He is obsessed with the way the body works and how time works and where things are and knows more random animal facts than Chad and I put together.  He still does his little twitch whenever he is excited about something.  He can tell a knock-knock joke with pretty good delivery.

So yeah, he's a great 5 year old already.  Happy Birthday, my special boy.

Oh boy, here we go

Hey, I got a new camera.  Now I can take photos like this.

Of course, I have no photo editing skills so I don't yet know how to digitally wipe her nose, but here's hoping I'll learn.

Noah helped me practice with my field of focus

Noah's in focus!

Oops where'd he go

Ok there he is again

Brace yourself for a lot of this.  Hopefully it will at least be better than no posts at all. :)

Hospital Scene

From the "holy cow, when did you learn to do THAT?!" department. I present to you Noah's drawing of a hospital:

Some features of note: "H" sign, ambulance with bumper and flashing lights, doctor wearing a surgical mask pushing a gurney, a helicopter complete with windows and seats, decorative rocks in front of the building, and the fact that the helicopter and ambulance compositionally extend off the page.

Wasn't it just last week he started drawing stick figures?

Representational Drawing

And just like that, all of a sudden (i.e. today) she's drawing figures.

(The tall figure on the right is Dorothy, the short one on the left with the four legs and the tail is Todo)

(Wow.  It seems so far away from the scribbles she was drawing yesterday)

Ta Dah!!

Hey, look at our new kitchen!!

Pretty sweet, huh?

With appliances made during this century and everything.

And, in my opinion, the world's coolest dining room chandelier.

(Also pictured: salt dough menorahs, drying in anticipation of being painted tomorrow)

Just in case you forgot, this is what we had before:

After

Life is good :)