Art

Nyla had been playing baby with Cora.  Prior to me getting the camera she was laying down bundled tightly on the pad.


I haven't taken any pictures of the kids' artwork in a long time. Nyla produces the most art. Cora the copycat is now doing lots of art also since Nyla is. Bohdin joined in this morning. Cora was the only messy one. It will be nice when she's a bit older and I don't have any kids in the messy art stage.



Nyla


Bohdin


Bohdin


Cora




I need to do laundry but not so badly that Nyla doesn't have any clean pants. This morning she complained that she didn't have any clean pants that fit. She wants pants to hit exactly at her ankle. If they are even a smidgen high then they are too short. She's definitely not into capris. We hit up the consignment store a few weeks ago with very limited success. Nyla also only likes stretchy pants so denim and any non knit fabric is out. Nyla has a tiny waist and generous butt and thighs which also make sizing tricky. This evening we went to Target. I made her try on the pants to make sure they were too her liking. Three stretchy pants were not good but two were okay. I made her squat and jump to be certain. She hates it when her pants ride down when squatting. Cora watched Nyla jump around and dance and soon joined in doing everything that Nyla did. I'm not in love with the pants we bought because they are a little too tight in the rear and gaping at the waist. I may have to start making her pants again but I don't have a lot of extra time right now.

There has been no luck with the tree tapping yet. At the tour of the maple farm we were told that identifying a maple tree in winter is very tricky because it looks a lot like other trees in the region. It really does look like we have the right trees but no sap is coming out. Perhaps we are too late or there is some other problem.

One of the girls from across the street came over to play last week. It wasn't long before Nyla came in mad. She said that the girl had been mean but I never found out more. Soon I overheard her saying something to the effect that if you do that then I swear I will kill you. Bohdin didn't say anything but I did. I went outside and told her not to speak like that. Nyla ended up rejoining them eventually and they had fun together making a delivery system with rope up to Nyla's bedroom from outside. The neighbor ran back home and grabbed a stroller and baby for some reason and let Cora play with it after she fell in love. Cora was mad that we had to give the baby back and kept calling out "GooGoo. GooGoo". It seems that Cora thinks all baby dolls are called GooGoo not just the ones that live at our house.

Maple Syrup

Today was the first day of the maple syrup festival. It's supposed to be much warmer tomorrow but we went today because we thought the attendance wouldn't be quite as high. Buddy went with us so that was an important consideration. It was colder than we expected. There were flurries now and again while we were there. Nevertheless it was good.

Waiting in line for food. The evaporators are behind me.


Nyla eating her pancakes and syrup.


Cora had to help Buddy get his bags in the hole.


Bohdin and Nyla doing the scavenger hunt. One of my favorite aspects of the festival is that it is small enough that the kids can run off and explore by themselves.


Bohdin remembered this game from last year and looked forward to playing it again.





Buddy was inspired to tap the maple trees in the forest behind the house. In addition to all things maple, they also sell spiles and tubing so we came home with over a gallon of maple syrup and the ability to make our own. Buddy already tapped three trees. We'll find out tomorrow if it worked.




Nyla and Cora are big fans of each other. Nyla tries hard to take care of her. She has even dressed her up a few times. She and Bohdin help Cora into her car seat and buckle her up. Sometimes the unbuckle her. Today Nyla was holding Cora's hand while she was nursing.
I asked Nyla what was the best part of having a sister. She said that if she dies Bohdin would still have one sister. That was not even close to the answer I expected.

Progress

We've been busy making progress on the house again. Buddy hates tiling so I did the bathroom. It was more time consuming than I expected. It shouldn't take that long to lay 12 tiles but it took a couple of hours. While I was doing that Buddy started tiling the backsplash. He did one section and then I helped a bit with the second section. The toaster oven wall is grouted also. Last night we started on the stove wall. It is by far the biggest one. We worked for a good three hours before I had to call it quits to get the kids to bed. Buddy continued for about 40 more minutes. It's nearly done and it looks much better. It gives the kitchen a more finished feel. The next step after this is paint which should also transform the space.





I went downstairs while Cora was sleeping to take these pictures. Since I had the camera out I took a picture of her sleeping. Today is library day but I didn't want to go to storytime. Taking Cora to the library has become unpleasant so I'll do it later maybe without her. I checked out the Liberty Kids dvds for Bohdin but he has been a bit sulky this week and didn't want to watch them. I finally persuaded him to watch just one before I return it. He loved it so he and Nyla will watch as many as they can before I go. Nyla declared that she loves history but I dont' believe her. She is just copying Bohdin who truly does love history. He spends a lot of time per day listening to his ancient history audio books. I am getting so tired of them. I convinced him yesterday to listen to one that we have only heard three times. We encourage his use of headphones as much as possible. None of the rest of us like it nearly as much as he does. I know I'm not the only one groaning when he walks in the kitchen and asks if he can listen to history.

Cincy

Buddy had taken off Thursday and Friday to study for the GRE but since he is no longer going to take it he had some free time. Thursday morning we decided to go to Cincinnati and spend the night. We would go to Ikea, the water park, and whatever else we had time for. It took us longer to get ready than I expected. Bohdin and Nyla were super excited and packed quickly. I put them in charge of packing snacks and it was interesting. They brought a lot of placemats, several spoons, a bowl, and a jumble of food mixed in one bag. There were almonds, napkins, banana bread, an apple, and a pouch of unopened tuna fish sharing the same bag. Cora slept on the way so it was an easy drive.

The plan was for Buddy, Bohdin, and Nyla to do the water park while Cora and I did something else. I was still debating that something else when they came back in the room. The water park was closed on Thursday. We hadn't seen in on their website. The kids were disappointed but handled it well. We decided we would do Ikea that night and the water park in the morning. Ikea was Ikea and we were lucky to make it out with our lives. We were there longer than expected and just made a quick run to the grocery store before heading back to the hotel room and going to bed.

In the morning the kids were so impatient. They were ready to wait at the doors an hour before opening. There was no distracting them at all. They could barely eat because they were so excited. Finally it was time. I took Cora and we went to a nearby thrift store and picked up lunch while Buddy, Bohdin, and Nyla did the water park. When I came with lunch Nyla freaked out that her clothes were wet and she cried for many minutes while I ran to the car to bring her some dry clothes. She stripped naked right there in the lobby of the hotel before we could do anything. She really hates wet clothes. Since she was already in a bad mood from the wet clothes Nyla declared that she didn't have any fun earlier so I took her with me while Buddy and Bohdin stayed a bit longer. I had to run back to Ikea for something that we missed the day before. I really really hope we are done this time but I have a feeling we are not. After that we just drove home. I was hoping to see the Underground Railroad Museum but that will have to wait for another trip.






The other night I dreamed that I was attending a screening party for a friend who had made a movie. I was having trouble paying attention because I wasn't feeling well. I just kept feeling worse and was having difficulty breathing. In my dream I was pulling down on my shirt and gasping for air. I woke up and found Cora sleeping on my chest with her head resting on my throat.

Nyla loves hotels and often asks to go to one. Today she was playing that she would visit her fairy friend Nina in a hotel and asked if we wanted to come. After clearing it with Nina on the phone it was decided that we would all go. Nyla told Buddy that he could even work on a bathroom there in the hotel. Buddy declined and said he didn't want to work on any new bathrooms. Nyla then casually mentioned Nina's invention that finishes bathrooms so he wouldn't have to do any more work. Buddy was really interested especially after hearing that it was only $30. He pulled out his wallet but then wisely decided he would wait until the invention arrived and finished the work before paying Nina. If only it was true. Buddy did get some work done and the framing is nearly complete. Tomorrow we plan to tile the floor.

10 on 10

The 10th was too busy to do the 10 pictures so I tried to the 11th instead but that also didn't quite work out. I petered out at the end of the day.

Nyla dressed as a fairy


Bohdin, Buddy, and I played a board game while Nyla played with Cora.


Buddy received a phone call so we had to pause the game. While I waited I made some burritos. The previous day I had made three different fillings so now I just had to cook the tortillas and wrap them. Buddy takes them to work and every couple of months I make up a new batch. This time he chose a tomatillo chicken, veracruz chicken, and a rice and black bean. All of the recipes came from the Rick Bayless cookbook.


Nyla played in the basement while Cora slept. I can't remember what Bohdin was doing. Maybe reading? Lily and the unicorn were picking up treasure.


Nyla playing with a stuffed unicorn and the Playmobil unicorns. I was working on making Nyla's Tangled hair out of yarn. We bought the yarn a few weeks ago and I finally started it. That reminds me what Bohdin was doing earlier. He was making a giant maze out of the yarn.


Cora is awake and checking out the book that Bohdin was reading earlier.


We checked the mail and found a card from Grandma.


After that my tooth started hurting. If I take the medicine on an empty stomach it can make me feel bad and since it was a bit before dinner time my stomach was empty. I had to lay down for a bit. Buddy made dinner.

Cora dressed in the monkey costume. She's seen Nyla wear it so often and she finally had her turn. She really seemed to enjoy it.


Playing with GooGoo.


Cora has had a language explosion. I couldn't keep track of all of the new words she has said in the past few days. Some of them are up, duck, car, cheese, bee, and go. It felt like every hour she would say a new word. Since she does not say words on demand sometimes we would hear something and wish she would repeat it just to be sure but that's not her way.

Nyla and Cora are starting to play together more and more. They have a lot of fun together. While they play, Bohdin reads, looks at board games, or imagines. Bohdin has been wanting to spend a lot of time recently imagining (his word). I'm not a big fan of it because it seems to make him sad. When I asked him what he is imagining he says it's about a computer game. He and Buddy like to play computer games together. I'm trying to keep Bohdin with somebody now so he can't imagine so much. Right now he and Nyla are watching tv while Cora sleeps. He's supposed to be doing his art though while Nyla plays. At least tv is better for him than his imagining.

Dams

While the weather has been warmer than usual I didn't think it was warm enough to break out the bathing suits and the hose but Bohdin and Nyla disagreed. I checked the weather and it was 51 degrees. Cora was the most appropriately dressed. They tried to build a dam for a while using rocks and sticks but the fun ended when Nyla got wet. The water was cold and she didn't like that Bohdin had sprayed her. Cora wanted to join in the action and was waving the hose around. She finally did manage to soak herself so she had to come inside and change. After that we just cleaned up the yard a bit in anticipation of the expected snow. Nyla was more excited by the frost the previous morning than the amount of snow we ended up getting. It was hardly measurable.






Nyla and Cora like to push the GooGoo sisters around. Here are three of them stuffed into a baby buggy along with their cell phones. Cora races around the house doing laps with either this one or the other one. I prefer this one because the other one is cheap and the
straps frustrate her often.




I think Cora said two new words today. It sounded like she said bath and dirty. The dirty was referring to her diaper. I asked her if it was dirty and it sounded like she repeated it back. This morning in the bath it sounded like she said bath. She is a huge bath fan and if she hears the word bath she will start stripping. She will take a bath with anybody anytime. She also likes showers with Buddy but not me which is the way I like it. I prefer solo showers. Cora also says doggies often but it sounds a lot like daddy. This afternoon when she woke up from her nap Bohdin and Nyla entered the room. Cora stood on the bed raised her hands in the air and yelled "yay" when she saw them.

Outside

The weather has been so lovely considering it is winter here that the kids have had a lot of time to play outside. Last week I told Bohdin and Nyla to play outside while Cora slept. When she woke up they were excited to show me the holes they had dug in the front yard. They moved on to playing with the giant ball and riding bikes. Later that evening Nyla was tossing Cora around like a rag doll which Cora thought was incredible fun. After that Nyla practiced her flips so Cora had to try as well. Bohdin was off reading or listening to his history on the ipod.









Friday we had friends come visit. Both Bohdin and Nyla didn't play well at first. The other kids were interested in the toys and Bohdin and Nyla wanted to play something else. It took a long time for my kids to start having fun. It wasn't until the toys were put away actually. Then Nyla could do the tunnel/playhouse structure she built earlier with R- and Bohdin played an invented math game with M- and P-. We talked about it later so hopefully next time will be better.

Bohdin says that Cora has a new word. Yesterday when he was pushing her on the bike she said yay. This weekend she also said GooGoo for the first time. GooGoo is the name of every baby doll in the house. Nyla chose it because books always tell that babies say goo goo.
Now I finally have one that does.