Tuesday: puffy puffs

Today was a pretty normal day.  Except that Joshua talked about 'puffy-puffs' for pretty much the entire ride home.  (Including after we picked up Isaac.)  All these puffy-puffs are are a small flavored rice cake in a special shape.  They apparently made a large impression on him today.

Monday Monday

Today was a pretty normal day today.

We got groceries, went to gymnastics, and built a fire plane.

We went to karate and had dinner.

The kitties enjoyed watching some birds and hugging Ben's arm.

Saturday: relaxing

Today was a good day.

The kids played together well and a lot.  This meant that I got a bit more work done than normal. 

Tornado tried to help.

Friday: today

This morning Joshua and I went to a ...playgroup?... that included bounce houses.  It was really nice.  I got to see Amie again and there weren't many people there.  It was a lovely way to spend the morning.

This afternoon Ben was taking a nap, so I left Joshua with him while I went to get Isaac.  I told him that Ben was taking a nap, but apparently that didn't mean much to Joshua and he interrupted Ben two times in the fifteen minutes I was gone.  The second time the kitties escaped.

Now, we had been planning on starting to let the cats out this weekend.  We talked about it yesterday; how we wanted to clean up a little more and would watch over them carefully.  So imagine my surprise when I saw Tornado in the middle of the floor.  "Dad said I could pet them." says Joshua, working on a puzzle.  However, they behaved themselves quite well during this exploring stage.

Joshua has been loving the puzzles we got on a whim on Monday.  We finished the hardest one and are now working on a Monsters University one.  I was making dinner while he was doing it for a bit and thought he looked mature.

Some other pictures...

Over winter break, "Evin came to are haws and we had loos uv fun."

Isaac finished his Christmas catapult.  He has been enjoying throwing clay balls.  (He did most of it by himself with just a bit of help from us.)

Tuesday: school

School started again for Joshua and me.  My day was busy, but it didn't feel quite as crazy as some first days.  Joshua wasn't thrilled with going to school, but did ok.

Monday: Joshua

Joshua and I were on our own again for the first time in two weeks.  We started with a visit to a different day care...their pre-K room is still for four year olds instead of being more of a young 5s.  While I didn't dislike the place I'm also not sure that I loved it.  It's still in the running but I need to do some more looking.

I also got two videos out of Joshua.  Sorry about the video on the second.  We were doing them in the car and I didn't realize my mitten was in front until the end.  He wasn't willing to do it again.





We hit Meijer for a few groceries.  On the way out, he lost one of his coloring pages from gymnastics due to wind.  This ended up being a tragedy.  A big one.  Never mind the fact that he rarely uses the coloring pages or that this one had been stepped on several times and was probably gross or whatnot.  It probably took him a good fifteen minutes to recover from the loss.

I also brought Joshua to the doctor today for frequent bathroom trips.  It got a little ridiculous as we were doing our errands and he had to go to the bathroom six times in 2.5 hours.  Nothing was found in his urine though...sugar levels were normal and no sign of a UTI.  The plan is to wait a week and see if it resolves itself.

Weekend: DeYoung Christmas

Nathan and his family came up for the weekend.  To say that Isaac and Joshua were excited about it would be an understatement.  I was asked several times a day all week if it was Evelyn's day.  Finally...it was!

We had a low key Thursday afternoon while the kids played.  They did a lot of playing and usually did a really nice job playing together. 

Isaac had reminded me a few days earlier that we didn't do "Happy New Year", so I got some sparkling grape juice and we did Happy New Year for him.

Friday we went to Hope.  We were waiting for Dad, so the kids played with rings in the hallway...just like Nathan and I used to do.

The kids made some card holders.  Then we did some die cuts.  Everyone made a cutout for Dad, like normal.

In the afternoon we opened presents.  My favorite was when Jamison opened a pack of books and immediately said, "I'm not going to share these!  I'm going to put them in my room!"  He took a step or two before being redirected.

Isaac was super excited about the ship in the bottle.  He hadn't mentioned it since it had been put on his list, but his face lit up!  Joshua was also excited about his Red Mech Lego set (which was the present he had been waiting for) and the blue dragon.  He'd usually say the cursory "Thank you" and continue to look at the box.  Then he'd say 'thank you' for real, but the giver didn't always hear it as the show had moved on.

Joshua got 'bugs in the kitchen', a game.  It was a pretty good game.  One that doesn't need strategy but can have it.  Isaac played this game for hours.

I helped Joshua with the outside of his puppy puzzle and then he and Evelyn filled in the inside.

Saturday morning we went to 'CC's playground.'  It was pretty busy, but Aunt C joined us for a bit.  The kids bolted off and we barely saw them until it was time to go.  Well, except for JJ as he liked to be helped into the slide.

In the afternoon we went for a walk.  Joshua didn't let go of Pat's hand until the last five minutes.  He had to be sure she didn't get lost.

The kids were a bit crazy for the adults in the evening so they got a show.

Sunday morning Isaac read some books to everyone.  Then they packed up and were off.  A successful visit!  (Although Joshua lost it pretty much right after that.  I was trying to get him set up on a Lego set and he couldn't decided what he wanted to start with and it was very confusing.  Later on Ben told him to go rest and he finally took a nap.  When he woke up from the nap he was upset because he "didn't sleep at all!")