The winter is in it's home stretch. It is 4 degrees outside right now and has been like this all week! Every morning on the way to school we talk about the things we are going to do in the summer/spring weather. "Go barefoot!" "Eat water ice!" "Have picnics!" But, at the same time we are enjoying cozy days snuggled up in the house together. I wear my bathrobe 98% of the time and want no part of the cold. The kids still make attempts to go out and play. Eliana gets excited at any amount of snow and is out there shoveling, making snow angels, attempting to make a "snow family." Leah prefers to be indoors but makes a noble attempt to get outside briefly before retreating for hot cocoa. Pete is worse than the kids in wishing for snow days. He tracks the weather obsessively, and faithfully scrapes the ice off my car every morning. We've focused a lot on indoor pursuits. The girls have fallen in love with the TV show Master Chef Junior and love cuddling on the couch to watch. It has renewed their interest in cooking so we've been doing a lot of cooking and baking together. They are also happy painting, drawing and creating artwork for hours. It is nice that they are content to relax at home together!
There have been some exciting things going on this winter. For starters, Eliana has now lost two teeth. Her peers started losing teeth in kindergarten and she had just about given up that it was ever going to happen for her. She finally was visited by the "tooth fairy," and left her the cutest note requesting that she leave money, but also leave the tooth because she wanted to bring it to school the next day to show her class.
We discovered the Trader Joe's in North Wales - BIG NEWS! The Trader Joe's in Jenkintown is my go to store for so many things. But the TJ's in North Wales is HUGE, and they have these little tiny kid sized shopping carts. Leah, who usually complains within the first 3 minutes of a shopping trip, is happy as a clam to fill up her own little cart with groceries. So Fun!
The girls have a new favorite pastime of climbing up the doorways. Eliana mastered it first and gave Leah "lessons" until she perfected it. They spend a lot of time hanging around the doorframe, and have all kinds of different techniques. They've amazed several of their friends with this trick and are quite proud of themselves.
The girls got to help out at a bake sale - a fundraiser for the nursery school. They loved manning the table and taking people's money. Eliana even convinced me to leave them alone for five minutes to handle it ALL BY THEMSELVES.
Christmas happened! Leah got to spend quality time with her BFF Caspie. We had so much fun in NY that I didn't capture much on camera at all, which seems to be pretty typical for our NY trips.
Over Christmas break we decided to take the girls out to lunch at our favorite Japanese restaurant. We had a lot of fun, but decided that we won't try it again until they are older since they rejected everything but the California rolls.
I ended up being sick for most of Christmas break . . .a virus that lasted for a week and then somehow turned into pneumonia. Somewhere between the virus and the pneumonia we made it to Happy Tymes and Leah had her first (successful) trip on the Frogger. Big Day!
The girls both received lessons from Nana & Papa for Christmas - Eliana chose swimming, and Leah chose gymnastics. Swimming had a rough start. This is Eliana below with her scared face. She is worried about getting her face wet. But she has really made great progress and is so much more comfortable in the water now! The goggles have helped too! Leah likes splashing around in the water as well, and Pete has been a trooper and has gone in with her while Eliana has her lesson. (Although after last week when the pool was evacuated because a kid had pooped in it, I'm not sure he'll be going back in.)
Leah loves her gymnastics class, especially because her close friend Adelaide is in the class with her. They are goofy and hilarious. They both take more breaks during class to drink water than their combined water intake for the rest of the week.
I've enjoyed some "date" time with the girls individually. Leah is easy to please - she is in love with Dunkin Donuts. Eliana opted for a more sophisticated sushi date. It went very well until she dropped the last piece of sushi on the floor and cried for an hour. Poor Eli.
Eliana and Leah have grown closer and closer. They have so many private jokes and secrets between them. Eliana continues to be the nurturing and bossy big sister. She is extremely responsible and trustworthy. Leah is loving and generous and a bit mischievous. She is the comic relief of our household and Eliana is her best audience member. We are looking forward to spring, but also enjoying the winter, and each other!
