James' Wisdom

James has been full of some great ideas and advice lately. The other day he told me that I should sign him up for "putting on coat lessons" and then he said he would be able to do it all by himself. But until then, I should help him.

On another morning he was begging to play the Wii and this mommy told him he couldn't play video games all the time because his brain would get mushy. James response: "You can just give me a vitamin!"

And here's one more bit of wisdom fresh from James' mouth when he was told it was nap time: "Mom, people who are tried yawn A LOT and I haven't yawned at all, so I don't need a nap!"

He's having a rest time anyway... : )

Taking Candy from a Baby

As I mentioned before, Claranna was a huge fan of her Valentine's Day treat. We didn't allow her to enjoy it for very long and she let us know exactly how she felt about that. I am fairly certain that she cried less when she had her last round of immunizations. You might want to turn your sound down before you start the video. : )

Valentine's Day Fun

We have a Valentine's Day tradition that started six years ago when Ella was nearly 10 months old. On Valentine's Day the kids get heart-shaped lollipops. Ella and James have been asking if they would get lollipops again this year for the last couple of weeks. They also wanted to know if Claranna would get one too.

Both wishes came true yesterday and the kids were thrilled! When Ella was a baby, I remember her taking a couple of licks of her sucker and then banging it on her highchair tray, smashing it to bits. Claranna's reaction was quite different. She LOVED her treat and she didn't bang it at all. In fact, once she put it in her mouth it she really didn't take it out. It was a struggle to get it away from her. She really has such a limited and bland diet that this was a huge sweet treat for her. Obviously we didn't let her eat very much and she wasn't very happy with us when we told her she was all done.

We all had a great day opening Valentines, eating treats, and playing with cousins. It was a lovely day!

Here's our Valentine's Day fun in pictures...

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Winter Wonderland!

Not a bad backyard view on a Saturday morning...

Not Feeling Too Well...

My babies have been sick... Historically, the month of February hasn't been great at our house as far as sickness goes. If my memory is correct, last year James and Ella just passed the crud back and forth the entire month. Now with a third kiddo, I think the odds of having all the kids well at one time during the winter months is pretty slim. But, what are the odds that all my babies would come down with ear infections within days of each other? From Monday to Monday we've had four trips to the doctor, five infected ears, one ruptured eardrum and four new prescriptions. I think we are finally turning the corner...hope I didn't jinx us!

Both kids had a snow day today which was good. James would have had to stay home sick from preschool today and would have missed "picture day". It was great to have a day for the kids to rest and recover.

Thank goodness even sick babies are super cute! Who can resist cuddling with this?

Ella's First Chapter Book

Ella has been home sick from school the last two days with a double ear infection. This afternoon she started feeling better, so she worked on writing her first chapter book. This is her final draft and we are very proud of the story she came up with. We're also super proud of how hard she worked on writing this afternoon and evening. Even better, it was Ella's idea to write a story in a new notebook today. Love it!