There's a new lunch lady in town. And if you don't eat your tots, she will.
Hope loves books. As long as the story moves along at a rapid pace, she will sit and cuddle for as long as I can take the reading. (Baby Beluga, for example, starts killing me by the 4th or 5th sing-read)
Sandra Boynton's board books are perfect. The illustrations are cute, the one-liner pages leave no lulls for boredom, and they are funny!
I also picked up this book at the thrift store last week, and I love it's rhythm and pace: Hand Hand Fingers Thumb, One thumb One thumb Drumming on a drum...
Hope's favorite, I think, is this "Wheels on the Bus" book by Paul Zelinsky. The moving parts, like the bus driver's arm, the windshield wipers, and cutest of all -
the babies' crying mouths and mom's shushing fingers are fabulous. Hope never wants to put this one down, and usually has a little tantrum when I decide we've had enough.
OK - reading time is over. Nap time is here! Yay for nap time!
A couple days ago the girls were sent downstairs to clean the basement. They went above and beyond the call of duty by organizing all our DVD's... according to color. Some are easy to locate: Spiderman? Bam! Red. Barbie? Cinch! Pink. But then you get to things like my butt-kicking squats exercise DVD and I'm clueless. I spent several dull minutes this morning looking for my work out, trying to cut to the chase - Black...white...blue? I finally had to squint over each title, until the hosanna chorus echoed in my ears and I found it in orange. I had no idea.
Madelyn had to make a 3D model of the solar system. We were up way too late tonight making this planet necklace; cooking shrinky dinks and stringing beads. I've learned all kinds of things about the planets that I never knew - or forgot a long time ago. Each of the different colored beads represent a different length of measurement from the sun. The cluster of stars is the asteroid belt. The small yellow discs represent the individual planet's moons. Madelyn is so excited to show her unique rendering of the solar system to her teacher. I hope it's a hit.
We got another couple inches of snow today. After school the girls romped around in it for awhile.
Everyone took turns pulling Hope in her new sled. She's got a seat belt and everything. It's not like she can escape, though. That snow suit keeps her 100% immobile.
This is how Hope and I go to pick up the girls from school every day. My baby jogger cuts through deep snow really well. The new snow is beautiful and covers up our ugly dirty stuff. It also covers the ice. Just before Cailin took our picture, I completely biffed it on an icy patch on our driveway.
Toys are over-rated. My collection of yogurt and butter containers seem to be endlessly entertaining.
The other movie I was given was "Emma Smith: My Story". I hadn't gotten around to watching this one until Sunday. Church was cancelled due to freezing rain and very slippery streets, so we had a little extra time on our hands. That, and having the elders and sister missionaries call and ask if they could come watch the movie, provided the perfect opportunity for a little Sabbath cinematic viewing. I have always had a soft place in my heart for Emma Smith. Approximately 6 years ago I was reading her biography while pregnant with my third little girl. Every time Joseph spoke of his "ever affectionate Emma", it seemed to me the words "Emma" and "love" were pretty much interchangeable. So I fell in love with the name, and thus, our Emma was also given her name.
We had a very fun night, welcoming in the new year. We invited a couple families over to play games and eat lots of good snacks as we counted down the hours till midnight. I used the idea from Family Fun magazine to open up a bag of goodies every hour, to mark the time passing.
