Dance, yeah-yeah

As with the last post, we have Kristen, our babysitter to thank for this one. It's by far the best footage of Calvin's dancing that's been captured so far. We've watched it over and over. Calvin, too. He lights up and dances when he sees himself dancing. I don't think if I ever have the misfortune to see a video of myself dancing that my reaction will be the same.

We're plowing through some long days of winter, and it's been made more challenging by holidays and "snow days" when Audrey has no school and the roads are too hard (for me, super-chicken of the motorways) to navigate. Each day I start with a full pot of coffee and a new lease on life, and parenting. I power through, coming up with creative ways to kill--- spend! I meant to say spend!-- time with my children. And I'm pretty good at it, honestly; I've got to give myself credit. I don't spend all day yelling. We color and read and cook and play games and dance, lots of great stuff. But after so many days in a small house, you do scrape the bottom. You find yourself saying, as I did, "Uh, Simon Says... lie down under that blanket and close your eyes." And then you wait for that small voice to say, "Mommy? How long do I have to lie here?"

But then it's another day, and another pot of that good, good Kona that Scott always brings back from Hawaii. Brew, sip, consider: these are fleeting days. And just look at the pure joy of their dancing.

Here's a sampling of Calvin's new words:

Ba-Ba (bottle or sippy cup)

Moe (more)

CAH-bin (himself? we think?)

AH-puh (apple)

Yeah-Yeah! Yeah-Yeah! Yeah-Yeah! (well, if you insist...)

The doctor will see you now.

Photo credit to Kristen, Audrey and Calvin's babysitter and one of Audrey's very favorite people.

A little bit of a lot: A new year's post in which I have a cow. Supposedly.

"A little bit of a lot" is Audrey's latest turn-of-phrase and an apt title for my post-holiday entry-- perhaps this entire blog given that my entries have become so rushed and so few. We hereby resolve to do better in 2011.

Signs of a theme I hope will develop this year: as I write this, Calvin is in the living room looking at (I won't say "reading") board books. And by the time I finished typing that sentence he was in the kitchen shouting "Reeeeeeeeeeeeee!" and hitting me in the kneecaps with those books. But still. Progress? Yes!

Let's get to the photos. No matter what I do today I can't get these to upload in the order that I want, and I can't rotate the sideways photo of Audrey. I'm sorry. If it's technical ability you're looking for, you are on the wrong blog. One photo is the kids with their Santa haul, an easel for Audrey and a rocking moose for Calvin. Then Audrey in her princess dress ("Sleepy Beauty") from Aunt Janna, accessorized with Hello Kitty purse. And Audrey posing modestly with her Gingerbread House, constructed with a bit of help from Scott and his OCD, uhm, I mean, his engineering skills.

And last but not least, our Overheard column:

When Scott does the shopping he sometimes comes home with items like chocolate brownie mix, which don't fit my Homemade-Yogurt-and Granola-With-Wheat-Germ ethos, and Scott knows it. He may have said something to this effect at the store, within earshot of his short shopping companion. Back home, she showed me what they'd purchased. Bananas for Calvin. Tea for Daddy. "And this," she said holding up the brownie mix, "is to make YOU have a COW!"

First snow

Snow mound with carrot

But don't eat the... oh never mind.

Calvin learns to draw, and hear sounds from deep space.

Again-- again!-- we have Rebecca to thank for helping our children express themselves artistically, this time with special crayons for wee hands. Calvin drew for a bit, and then ate them. This was his first drawing. Which I have now lost, I'm sorry to say. I'm a lousy archivist.

Translucent ears. The better to hear you with.

Gingerbread Yurts

Where would we be without Auntie Rebecca? Audrey took part in tree decorating and gingerbread house making (called yurts instead because it turns out it's really hard to get those suckers to hold together with just frosting) with her best buds, Ruth and Bethiah. Holiday decorations at our house are way, way up at the tippy top of the Fake Mantle where Calvin can't reach them. We've got greenery up there, all feathery and fine near the ceiling, and a nativity scene on the lower mantle by my grandmother, all quilted and stuffed pieces, and including a manger made from scraps of my grandfather's plaid polyester pants.

Overheard: When I told Audrey she needed to do some more serious brushing of her teeth, not just dangling the brush from her mouth: "Mom, you've been giving me a headache all the week." And when spotted taking chap stick out of my purse, "Now: don't be mad in the first place!" On the sweeter side, she often says, "I have a secret to tell you!!! I love you!!!!" She is often in spasms of excitement about matching colors, as in "Mommy!!!!!!!! I just noticed something!!!!!!!! Your blue socks and my blue t-shirt match each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Observed: Calvin, in an assortment of trouble.

Calvin and I have a lot of time here to ourselves when Audrey's at preschool, and for short periods of time I can let him play by himself. As I wash dishes, he unloads the pots and pans from the cabinets and wears them as hats, or pulls clean laundry out of the basket and tucks it into the recycling bins. A new favorite game is to take glass jars from those bins and push them through the cat door, sending the jars bouncing down the back stairs. (The noise and quick reactions are, apparently, worth the effort.) Other times, as I sip of a cup of lukewarm coffee, and page leisurely through a magazine, I'll feel a little tug at my shoe and realize that he is there under the table, my companionable little son, sharing the morning with me and quietly eating a paper bag.

His words are few. And we aren't 100% sure he's saying them, except in the first instance. They are:

Uh-Oh (all-purpose, and so useful in a house of small children)

Au-deeeeeee (center of the Universe)

Go! (proceeds car trips)

Reeeeeeeeeeee ("Read," spoken while tossing a board book into your lap)

This and that

Calvin, looking a little bit sticky.

An afternoon snack at home.

From mom's last visit-- Audrey is schooled in being a bookworm by Gramma Jean.