Ice skating

We went ice skating on Saturday.  It was the first time for both of the boys.  We wanted to go last year, but Robert wasn't ready and we never found a good time to go alone with him. That is one of the disadvantages of the 5 year gap.  So Saturday was a lovely day, temps in the low 30s and we left early enough that the rink wasn't busy at all.  Harry started out with a cone, but quickly decided that he would rather make his way around the rink holding onto the side of the rink.  He did a good job and by the end, could go away from the side for a little while too.  I think he would enjoy skating lessons, I'll have to remember that.  Ice hockey is a popular sport up here, but I hesitate to put Harry into the sport.  He's such a sweet boy and he's rather small. I am afraid he would just get crushed.  (I don't know if I could take the tension either).

Our little dare devil enjoyed skating too.  He also ditched the cone early on.  He realized the cone was meant to help him stay upright and so he decided to get rid of it.  When asked to tell his sitter what he did earlier in the day he responded, "I falled all over the ice".  He did so on purpose.  He would take some steps and then say "Whoa, whoa, whoa" and plop down on the ice.  He didn't always fall on purpose, but he certainly didn't mind falling.  That said he thoroughly enjoyed himself as well.  I think we spent 1 1/2 hours - 2 hours on the ice with one break for a snack.

Here is proof that I was there and on the ice too.  Harry and I kept close together.  Robert spent so much time down on the ice and had trouble getting himself up on his own.  Kevin was better able to haul him back up, although I did it some too.  To toot my own horn, I am the only one in the family who did not fall while skating on this particular day. 

Here are the boys getting back into boots.  Winter seems to be an unending process of bundling and unbundling.  We pretty much have the process down.  Add in snow pants and it is a little more complex.  the boys wore snowpants for ice skating, more for padding than warmth.  It seemed to work well.  Robert's were drenched by the end of the session.  I just bought Harry another pair of gloves today.  One pair is sort of shredding and he lost one mitten.  We have baskets of hats, mittens and scarves.  I am the only one who wears scarves, so that basket stays pretty neat, but I am constantly rearranging the other ones.  Every year since we've been here, I have added some form of organization to the front hallway and I think I finally have it down, but do remember fondly the mud room of my childhood home.  

Snow days

The snowbank in our front yard is now taller than Robert.  We have had an inch away from record snow for January.

Harry is in his snow fort.  He worked hard on it, and then when the street was finally plowed it got destroyed by all the snow that the plow pushed aside!  Oh well, we'll find a better place for a snow fort next time.

Both boys peeking out of the top of the snow fort!  I discovered interesting things about both boys yesterday. Harry was busy thinking up inventions to put down in his new graph paper notebook (the highlight of his day yesterday) and when I asked him to tell me about them, I realized that he has absorbed and analytically thought about all the science he reads and watches.  He had some really great ideas.   What I learned about Robert is that he can whistle!  We were trudging down the street after sledding on the golf course and he just started whistling.  When I told Kevin later, he asked Robert and Robert promptly whistled again, so it wasn't a fluke!

We've been inside a lot recently.  So one day while tidying upstairs with Robert we pulled out R2D2 and brought it downstairs.  We juiced up his batteries and we have been enjoying playing with him again.  There are all kinds of programs you can ask R2 to do and the boys particularly like the dance program (he plays the cantina song) so here they are bopping out with R2.  As a side note, Star Wars music is one of the most often listened to selections when we are in the car.

One of the fun things about R2 is that he has a mind of his own.  Sometimes he just ignores you and does his own thing, or makes rude noises at you instead of responding to commands.  The instructions say to tell him "Behave R2" and tap him on the head.  Then he makes sort of a sad sound and sometimes behaves.  That's what's going on here.  R2 was a Christmas gift when Harry was 3 and although it was a bit old for him then it has proven to be fun for the past 4 years.

Sledding

We went sledding on Friday afternoon.  School was closed for a snow day and it all had cleared up and was lovely and sunny by noon.  Everybody got into the action.  The 2 toddlers were having fun and didn't seem to mind the wind whipping snow into their faces.  

Normal life

Here are the boys and their favorite sitter reading together.  It is a lovely thing to come home from a Saturday afternoon matinée to a tidy house, boys having already eaten dinner and sitting happily together reading on the couch.  We love our babysitter!

After much deliberation we decided that it is time to put Robert in a toddler program a couple of times a week.  Harry at his age had been in some form of childcare for 2 - 3 days a week since 3 months old.  Our circumstances are different and so Robert has mainly been with me.  I try to make sure he gets out to activities like story times at the library and has playdates and he is a social child.  However, now I think he could use even more time playing and now that he doesn't nap, I could use an hour or 2 to get things done around the house, without worrying that he is wrecking the DVD player (happened) or having to have him tag along and try to help with the cleaning and really make it impossible to clean.

So the picture above is Robert with what he thinks he will need to have to go to "school".  He's got on his dress shoes, backpack (full of toys he selected), Harry's mittens, and a winter hat.  He was rather disappointed because he wanted to head out of the house instantly and get on the school bus.  I have tried to explain that unlike Harry he won't take the bus to school, but hopefully he'll be happy once he gets there :-)  I'm still a bit uncertain about letting him go, but it has to happen at some point and we both seem to be ready overall.

This is Robert with my friend Susan and her daughter Willa.  They are reading a book on the cold floor of the kitchen (not that it isn't cold everywhere right now), because Harry was trying to watch Batman in the living room (the old version that I watched as a child - it is hysterical).  The little ones were running around roaring and then standing right up in front of the television.  I don't know if they were purposefully torturing Harry, but they were doing a good job.  I am also in the room, but I was putting together the last preparations on dinner.

two very different boys and yet very similar

This is Robert with his Star Wars characters.  At 2 3/4 Harry had never heard of Star Wars and Robert knows all the character names and has a couple sticker books about them.  He has never seen Star Wars and will not be allowed to for quite some time yet.  Really, he just likes to stand them up and arrange them.  These days he also plays with them and makes them talk to each other.  He does that with all his toys now.  It is very interesting to watch.

Robert is sort of my little engineer.  He arranges things and puts things in neat rows.  He enjoys drawing pictures and figuring out new toys.  Puzzles are still a very fun toy for him.  At the same time, he is very much a busy boy and is as active as Harry, in his own way.  He doesn't seem to need to move as much as Harry does (and did at R's age), but he needs the chance to run and play and get going.  That makes winter a challenge sometimes, but that's another story for a bit later.

Harry is currently interesting in detectives and mysteries.  Here he is in his Sherlock Holmes' hat.  We found it online and it came with a pipe which he is likely to be walking about with as well.  We took this picture for his detective ID.  He got a little kit with plastic handcuffs and a detective badge and ID.  We put a picture with the ID and he filled it out.  He currently thinks he'd like to be a police detective when he grows up.  There was a long time when he just wanted to be an astronaut and that changed to scientist in the last couple of years.  Now he is learning about all kinds of other professions and different things appeal to him at different times.  I remember as a teen, being envious of my sister, because she knew she wanted to do when she grew up and I didn't have any idea.  It still don't have a great idea of what I'll do next.  I just need to trust that something will occur to me or happen so I figure it all out.

We've been somewhat homebound recently.  Winter has left us with snow on the ground and very cold temperatures.  Today has actually been something of a sleety/rainy mess and we've been indoors most of the day.  Still at least the rain will melt the snow somewhat.  Over the weekend we found that we just had to get out.  So when it was finally in the upper thirties we took a long walk into town (maybe 2 miles roundtrip).  That was a nice change of pace and we stopped for a snack, so that made the walking more bearable (although there was some drama on the way home).  Yesterday was a day off from school and so of course the temps dipped back into the teens and twenties.  We decided to try bowling as a family and that went remarkably well.  Turns out everybody, even Robert, can bowl.  Also turns out the boys are all much better than I am at bowling.  Kevin still wonders how I broke 150 and beat him the first time I went bowling with him.  Must have been divine intervention.  I didn't even hit 50 yesterday.  Anyway, it was a fun outing and makes me look forward to the day when we can play all kinds of games together as a family.  It will be here sooner than I expect, I think.

Snow Day!

Our power went out at around 7:15 this morning and stayed out for a little over an hour, so the planned waffle breakfast became a waffle lunch.  As you can see the boys were still in pjs anyway.

I think we got about a foot of snow (it's still snowing).  There is a crust in the middle though when it sleeted and rained in the early morning which makes for a slightly more challenging clean up - not great for snowmen either.

The boys joined some kids in making a fort and snowballs.

It is wet snow, so we all came in wet and cool.

The obligatory parent shots to prove we were there, playing in the snow too.

We bundle well - we don't smile for the camera very well :-)

The fir tree at the end of the street on the golf course.

Snow fort the kids made

Pictures from the past

When I was home at Thanksgiving I gathered together some old pictures to make Christmas gifts for Jess and Dad.  Here are some I scanned into the computer in preparation for the gifts.

My maternal grandparents, who I never met - Jessie and Herbert Lee.

my maternal grandmother, Jessie Lee

My mom, Margie Lee (McLaughlin) at around 3 years old

My mother at around 6 years old - she used to say she was a tom boy - you can kind of see it here.

Mom as a teenager - Harry must get his thick hair from her :-)

Around 2?  Love the hat!

Elementary School - must of been at the dreaded parochial school.

Mom as a baby - Robert looked alot like her - apparently chubby cheeks come from both sides.

This is what Mom looked like around the time she met my dad (21 or so) - no wonder he came back from Wisconsin to find her again!

Finally, My grandmother holding my mother as a baby - don't you love how they bundled them back then!?