Family Fun in February

We had lots of fun this weekend playing in the snow with family. The Goulds and Groggs were here and the kids were super excited for Grandma and their cousins to arrive. We did our first snowman and sledding of the season, and while we have had a few big snowfalls we actually didn't get too much of the white stuff this year so this was our first time taking a run down the small hill down the street and putting up Frosty in our yard. I found Joseph in the living room after lunch today, on the couch staring out the window singing "Frosty the Snow Man" which he said would get our Frosty to start talking. He was so happy to be outside having so much fun with everyone, and Hannah and Leah seem to have warmed up to the wet stuff too. They've also all had some pretty funny quotes lately. Last weekend when we made Joseph clean up a few of the rooms that had toys everywhere he said in a quite serious voice "Arg you guys are making me do all the work" and later exclaimed "No way am I picking up girl socks". And I can't remember exactly what we were doing but he told us one day "I'm wearing super hero clothes so I can go super fast" (Joseph is very into shirts with super heroes on them, and since acquiring all kinds of fun spiderman, captain america, and scooby shirts over the holidays and getting a few pep talks from Jay, has been doing a great job of getting himself ready every morning. He even seems to pick out things that match....though none of the nice striped or solid color shirts mom likes, and definitely not any jeans.) Leah and Hannah are quite particular about their clothes as well, and have started battling over who gets to wear what color or which pear of shoes. I think we have worked out a rotational system with the pink shoes that seems to work though. Leah will sometimes however get so distraught over this or other things that she goes into tantrum crying mode, and after one time out Hannah turned to me and said "Can I go give Leah a hug?". And actually, hugs and kisses do work with Leah, and for the moment we have figured out that this is what will make her snap out of any sort of fit. She will even ask Joseph or Hannah for a hug when she is sad (very cute). There was also another time when Leah was crying in the car on the way home from school (probably due to her fingers not being in the right spot in her gloves or me not giving her the purple mittens to wear) and when she paused for thought, Hannah turned and said "You all done Leah?". To which Leah responded with "Raaaaar" (as in, a Lion). The "raaaars" tend to make Hannah cry, and she is quite emotional and her feelings are easily wounded by any tone from her siblings or mom and dad that is anything less than butterflies and roses. And of course Leah isn't the only one to loose it at times, but lately she has had the most memorable moments that end with something so humorous that you can't possibly forget what occurred. For example, both girls, unless totally exhausted, don't go to bed so easily. Leah will look at you quite cleverly with a smile pretending to put her head down on the pillow (but not quite) and then when you walk out of the room the whispering or giggles begin. The other night, I had hung the girls square baby picture announcement things back on their wall above their beds, thinking they had outgrown the phase where they were pulling things off the wall that fell into their reach, and then later went back in to find Leah in bed with hers to which she said "Leah broken it. I broken it again". And so the wall things are back on the shelf out of reach. Also out of reach for the moment are cups for Leah. She literally spills her cup at almost every meal or snack. And she used to feed the food that she didn't want off her plate to Rosco (but now we keep a close eye on what is going on and try to keep Rosco at a safe distance....not only to prevent Leah from feeding him all her unmentionables, but also because sometimes Hannah has accidentally dropped an item that was still desired, which Rosco would then snap up before we could get to and Hannah would then burst into tears). Hannah is better with the drinking, but seems to struggle with staying in her chair. She quite frequently falls head first out of her chair, unless strapped into a booster seat, so we are still using both boosters at most dinners. Joseph also has a problem with staying in his chair, but it's not clumsiness that is his downfall, just ants in his pants and a small tendency to not listen. Right now he is staring at me with his hands pulling down his cheeks waiting for me to finish on the computer so that he can have some fun with Nick Jr. And since I can also hear the girls giggling and "boinging their butts" (as Leah put it...Hannah explained to me that it was jumping off their beds) which means they are awake from their nap, and since Joseph doesn't have any strikes at the moment, it seems my writing has come to an end and his game playing will begin!