The following pictures pt2

...are from Nana and Becky again, I was out and fancy free - whee!

New awesome bike - thanks Nikki!

Theo got a ball. Theo loves his ball.

Playing drive through at the toddler time.

Theo wants some fries please!

The following pictures

Are compliments of Nana and Becky; Momma was off doing taxes... reading... sleeping... amazing.

Avy made a robot.

Theo ate a lot of chocolate.

Ok ok, everyone ate a lot of chocolate. I don't judge, I was napping.

Nana and Becky came up with a torture game for stuffed animals apparently. It worked!

They also brought new toys. We love building with magnets!

Also we had snow! Ellie threw on some mittens and rushed outside.

Everyone eventually joined her once putting on a thousand pounds of winter gear.

More restaurants

Sushi this time! Again, the kids didn't eat great but their behavior was exemplary.

Ellie decided she liked salmon sushi - this is how she put away five plates.

Theo decided he liked spring rolls. He also liked edamame - he got really good at popping the beans into his mouth from the pods.

Avy enjoyed the basketball game that was playing ;)

Lily ate everyone's rice.

Watering her elephant

Yep. My big kids unload the dishwasher now. It's amazing.

Random handstand.

Aunt Becky is here! Momma is so excited!!! (and oh, right, so are the kids ;)

Theosaurus

I have a surfeit of pictures of Theo from the last few days, so, enjoy!

Bath time is best time.

The only time he holds still.

Don't be fooled, the above is happening less and less: nap time is phasing out. Here's my solution to the first day they refused to sleep - cozy spots and Daniel Tiger while I did school with the big girls.

Hence, DT's "Ugga mugga" (I love you) is now Theo's favorite phrase.

They made up cozy spots for themselves/each other on the floor and basked in the sun for a while. Avy carefully covered up both littles and tucked them in :)

Mm spaghettah!

Yep, yoga with toddlers works as well as you might expect.

It's 35 degrees and snowing.. and Dave's taking the kids to the park. Free time for Momma!

I walked into the kitchen and Theo was cleaning out the dryer filter. First a spoon per Ellie's instructions...

...and then he realized that hands are quicker ;)

Eating Thai

We ran some errands with our wonderful cousin Diep, then went to a Thai restaurant for lunch.

Silly faces not withstanding, the kids' behavior was excellent - they tried everything, were quiet and well behaved, and exceedingly patient given how late lunch ended up being. It was very encouraging!

Questions

I get a lot of questions throughout the day and while most are just "why?", some are really insightful. It's hard to slow down to answer them thoroughly though, so we have a list that we set aside time to research and answer. The girls love this because we sometimes find videos explaining the answers, but other times I make it into a production to practice our research skills (look up books on the topic, put them on hold at the library, read through the book's table of contents and try to guess which chapter would have the answer, etc).

Our current list of questions:

• How do we hum?
• Why do oil rigs have flame spouts?
• What is money?
• Why don't we all have the same hair color?
• Why does acid cause milk to curdle?
• Do crabs grow their shells or find bigger ones?
• How does the rocking chair work?
• Why do boys' shoes not have sparkles?
• Why are men taller than women?

I love it so much.

#stuffLilysays

Lily: "Theo pour yaya (water) on me. All wet. Feel frustrated." <exasperated sigh>

Definitely bragging

I'm not even going to try to hide it. I was trying to get a jump on my bi-weekly house cleaning so I was cleaning the kitchen while the kids did a craft and ate lunch. Avy finished and asked me, "Mom, is there anything I can do to help?"

Oh boy do I like that question. So she got to spot clean the stairs (a prized job) while the others got to wipe down surfaces. 

Ellie: "Mom! There are fingerprints everywhere!" Tell me about it, kid....

The big girls traded jobs for a bit there. My stairs are rather damp now.

Washing windows :)