Time

Such siblings...Sept. '07 Maryland

Kids in the moving van Oct. '07 Maryland

Great friend Patsy with kids on one of our last adventures... to the Baltimore Aquarium in Sept. '07

Ella Jane at Eagle Point Park Oct. '07 Iowa!

Funny these pictures are several months old but I look at them and feel as if it were just the other day. Four months have passed?...really!? In some ways, time seems to stand so still and then in other ways it seems to fly by. Matthew is at a stage where he is EAGER to learn about anything he can wrap his little mind around. Yesterday while I was making lunch he asked me which ocean polar bears live in. Uh....well, the polar bears like the cold, so they probably live in the arctic so they must swim in the Arctic Ocean. (That's an ocean right?) I realized that was a pretty easy one compared to what is to come. I'll have to go back to Elem. school just to keep up!

Ella Jane is into asking if she can keep this and that. Can I keep this book? "no it belongs to the library", Can I keep this toy? "yes, that is your toy." Are we going to stay in this house? "Yes, honey, we're going to stay in this house." Perhaps she thinks she's getting uprooted again? And for those of you who know how much I love to clean out...I haven't tossed any toys recently.

Baby girl is getting big. She and I did the salsa this afternoon. What a fun little dance, it's a new workout I'm trying here at home. No names yet. Not even a possibility or a back up. We've got to get going on that!

Carol

Snow time fun...

Jim and the kids are outside enjoying the morning "snow flurries" as forcasted for today. We got about 3 inches. Mmmmm... At the end of our culdesac the snow gets plowed into a huge pile and the neighbor kids then make snow tunnels and slides on all sides of it. We take full advantage! Matthew is out there right now making his own trail. He's such a joy to watch in the snow; so able bodied and such control over his movements. He handles the snow better than his prego mama.

Ella Jane is way into Little People these days. She loads EVERYBODY into the bus and off to school they go. When it's full there are about 12 little characters in there, construction crew included. We have the little buldozer and the other day and said "mommy look!! it's the snow pick up guy!" Nothing about scooping dirt or making roads, just picking up the snow. That's because here in IA. after the snow has been piling up, they come in with the dump trucks and bulldozers and scoop up the snow. I imagine there is a kid's dreamland of snowforts and slides just waiting to be built somewhere.