Zoe's new words in the past few days:
(all said very clearly)
awesome
argh (when she's frustrated - takes after Sascha and Mom)
happy
honey
bum (the body part, not the vagrant)
why
water (comes out more like "wadda")
boo boo (for when she's hurt - I can't stand this term, but I think she picked it up from Dora the Explorer)

I think she's just going to start talking in complete sentences one day. She still uses a fascinating mix of signs, gestures, facial expressions and words to get her point across. And she still calls Sascha "Fah-fah" or "Fah-fee", which is the cutest. And her favorite word is still "poop".

Photos....

Here's the birthday girl with her cake!




"I will always be younger than you...I will always be younger than you..."




I'm still getting the hang of this photo software, which seems to hide all of the photos somewhere on my computer that's impossible to access. And here I thought Macs were user friendly.

Anyway...we have lots of snow (15 inches or so) and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. After last year's green Christmas, we are excited about that!

If you are living where there is no snow, here's a photo fix:

Awesome! That was Sascha's word of the day yesterday, her 5th birthday. Her cake was awesome. The frosting was awesome. Her gifts were especially awesome....she loved all of them. The remote-controlled VW Beetle was the hit of the night, though. Although now I totally understand the idea of not letting kids drive until they are 16. Or 25. Luckily this car has great fenders.

Now she is 5...and already jaded. Tonight she told us that she "has to do EVERYTHING" because I asked her to find her own library books. Wait until she finds out that she's probably going to have to get a job in the next couple of decades. (At least we're holding off asking her to repaint the house.)

Zoe has been vocabulary girl lately. Tonight, Sascha called her a goofball, and Zoe said, "Doofball!" Her favorite word is still "Eh!", though. I think she probably could speak complete and fluent sentences if she really wanted to. But she is toying with us. Tonight she drew all over her face with a marker, came to me and said "Mom! Me! Kitty!" and pointed to her face. She was so proud that she did her own "face paint." :) (And the marker came right off, which was a bonus.)

Photos still are not uploaded...I'm such a slacker. But this one will freak you out.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are the kids and I having fun with PhotoBooth....



There are some truly frightening photos using the special effects options...but I can't get them to upload right now. So you'll just have to make do with the smiley photo for now.

We had Thanksgiving at our friends Morgan and Beth's house in northern Vermont. (Yes, there is more north to Vermont than where we are!) First we had a detour to the emergency room so I could get 8 stitches in the tip of my right thumb. Serves me right for trying to cut sweet potatoes before I'd had any coffee. The surreal thing was, the ER was like a scene from Attack of the Thanksgiving Knives. I was the second potato-cutting injury of the day (at 10 am), and by the time I left (11:30), three more had arrived!

We're still here - it's just that:

I've switched to a MacBook (long live Apple!) and haven't bothered to figure out how to download photos yet.

Even if I had figured it out, the battery on the digicam is dead and we haven't gotten a new one.

Sascha has been doing the Birthday Countdown for months....she was really excited when she had 50-60 days to go, but now that she has only 14, she is not as excited. Or maybe she is SO excited that she can't bear to talk about it.

Momcentric post....

I'm just taking over the blog for a moment...my half marathon was, well, not FUN, but the weather was great and my running partner was awesome and Matt and the kids cheered me on at the finish line and I ran faster than I thought I was going to. So if not fun, it was pretty darn close.

I was going to post pictures but they are teeny weeny eeny for some reason, and I can't make them bigger. Urgh. Well, it's not my finest photogenic hour anyway. :)

Not much other news....one of Zoe's newer words is "how". The twist is, it means "big". No idea how she translated that, but it took us a couple of weeks to figure it out. You have to say it in a semi-awestruck manner, as if you're truly impressed by the size of whatever it is you're talking about. It comes out "hhouwww". Or something like that. This is the same girl who says "oooo" for cow and owl, and grunts for the word "truck"...so she's pretty creative all around.

When Nerds Have Children





"Look Mom, I bited my toast into Oklahoma!"

There are some childhood milestones, for sure...and learning to ride a two-wheeler is one of them. Sascha is now in the Two-Wheeler club, as of September 8! We were having our annual tie-dye party and a friend of hers brought over her two-wheeled bike. Sascha got on and took off without looking back! I'm sure it helped that she has been riding this all summer.

Sascha now has a new, smaller bike (since the $10 thirdhand one we'd gotten her was way too big for her to get on and off after we'd taken the training wheels off!), as well as a new, shorter haircut. She actually ASKS me to brush her hair now, because it doesn't hurt. (See photo below.)

Late summer/early fall is usually amazing in Vermont, and this year it has not disappointed us. We have been kayaking, raspberry picking, and just generally wandering around the neighborhood as much as possible. This weekend we are all headed to Waterbury, where I (Nancy, that is) will be running in a half marathon. I love this race because it starts at a reasonable time (11 am) and because the scenery is outstanding (except for last year when it rained!). I do wish there was a way to flatten out some of the hills, but they haven't figured that out yet.

On to what the grandparents really want - photos!





(No, it hasn't gotten cold enough to wear fleece sleepers yet! They were just trying them on.)




New haircut photo! (And yes, they have dolls tied around their waists with shoestrings.)

So we've started this tradition of taking a photo of Matt and the kids every year on Zoe's birthday. Our midwife took the first one (I was in the shower and had given birth an hour before, so I hope it's understandable that I did not participate). Zoe looks like a little pink raisin covered with sunscreen (and a hat). Sascha is 2.5 years old in this photo. She kind of looks like she's wondering when Zoe will go away. :)




Here's the next one, when Zoe was 1 year old. She's not incredibly happy about the whole photo thing. Sascha is sporting the I-don't-let-my-parents-brush-my-hair funkiness that was all the rage in 2006. We dressed Matt up in the same shirt, for continuity I guess...it's not like he's not recognizable.






Here's this year's photo, taken a few days after her birthday, but who's counting, really. Sascha no longer believes in smiling for photos. Matt says he got rid of the red shirt (possibly because he knew I'd be forcing him into it for the next 20-odd years).




Is it my imagination or is Matt starting to look tired?

Look who's two! Zoe had not one, but TWO chocolate birthday cakes, and parties in two different countries. I hope she doesn't think she's getting three cakes and parties next year. ;)

First we celebrated on the actual day, with friends in Bay Beach, Ontario. Zoe blew out the candle twice (to make sure we had it on video) and then plowed through four pieces of cake (eating only the frosting).

Then we celebrated again at home, but took only video and no photos. Zoe loved all her gifts...the purple fuzzy purse and the pink kitty are her favorites so far.

I got Zoe a Dora motorized ride-on car (I say "I" because there's no way Matt would have suggested such a thing...in fact, I wish I'd had a picture of the look he gave me when he saw the box) because she's too small for Sascha's old tricycle and scooter. Zoe has ridden it a couple of times but mostly is scared of it. Sascha loves it...but it's almost too small for her and her knees are up under the handlebars. Ah well. At least we know who likes motorized vehicles and who doesn't. (And I have Sascha on my side when I want to angle for a New Beetle the next time we need a car.)

Here is Zoe at celebration #1, loving her cake:






On our way to and from Bay Beach, we spent a day and a couple of nights in my hometown, right next to my old house. Watching Sascha play with Nicky, my childhood friend's son, was sort of surreal (they are both 4). In a really good way.


Here they are keeping their Frisbees away from Nicholas, the 17-month-old son of Sandy (whom I've known since kindergarten).



Sascha and Zoe on the swing with Mr. Gorski (aka "Grampa Gee")


The new 2-year-old in the house!


Other than birthday celebrations, we've been enjoying the weather, except for that freak storm that came through. We just got rain and high winds, but when we visited friends on the other side of town that day to have dinner with them, we discovered they had been hailed on and lost power. We saw many trees that had been ripped up by the roots - pretty amazing. It reminded us of the tornado that came through Lake Itasca in 1995 and deposited a big tree on the windshield of my car. (It also moved the house we were in off its foundation - very Wizard of Oz-ish.)

okay, one more photo of the birthday girl, and one of her wonderful sister!



A clean face is totally overrated.





Sascha in Canada, where she had a grand time!

Last night we were talking about names, and I asked Sascha what name she would choose if she could choose any name in the world. Of course she wanted THREE names (first, middle, last).

This is what she came up with:


Jose Carolyn Rex

(She wasn't sure about Rex because "that's really a boy's name." Apparently in her eyes, Jose is unisex.)

She hasn't asked us to start calling her "Jose" yet, though.



And here is some cuteness that'll bring a tear to your eye. (Well, it did mine.) Sascha came up with this all on her own (Matt helped with the spelling):



(In case you can't read the writing, it says: Dear Zoe, I love you. I like playing with you and giving you hugs")

Aghh...it's late and I should be in bed. But I wanted to post some pix of my board of advisors. They keep me honest at work every day. At times, they question my motives in suggesting such strategies as a bath with hairwashing or more zucchini instead of more curly fries. (and really, is there anyone who prefers zucchini to curly fries? I mean, we make some pretty good grilled zucchini, but still....)

In short (erm, no pun intended, since they are both under 4 feet tall), my advisors are all about having fun, seizing the day, and eating dessert first. And really, isn't that what life's about? Shower the people, indeed.




(Can't you just hear them now? "Do you think she's conflicted about her decision to give us pseudo-healthy cereal as a snack?" "She thinks she's doing the right thing, of course, but she'll revisit that decision in 11 years, when we're both teenagers and taller than she is.")



("It's not wise to smile for the camera, Sascha. Then she'll think you'll do anything she asks you to. Don't you remember how I picked up the cat by his head? That's the kind of rebellion that parents need to experience.")




(really, this photo does not need a caption except to say that after her bath, this is the girl who will ONLY allow herself to be dried with a PINK towel. yet she is definitely related to me...there was no mix-up in the hospital, seeing that she was born in the bedroom...genetics are so funky, aren't they?)

Summer's here, and the blog suffers for it. We've been out picking strawberries, playing in the giant sand pit that was once our swimming pool, swinging on the swings and generally enjoying ourselves.

No major updates, just some pix....

Are all four-year-olds such deep thinkers? Sascha is. Yesterday in the car, out of seemingly nowhere, she says, "Everything has to be something, doesn't it?" After processing the question, all I could say was, "Um, yes. I guess so." I hope she wasn't looking for meaningful dialogue....

Sascha is about to get a serious hair cut. Every morning, she and I have the Battle of the Hairbrush. This consists of me trying to brush her hair as gently as possible while she whines, yells, shrieks that I am hurting her, moves away, and generally makes it difficult to do anything. I have always told her that she could get her hair cut short instead, but she's never wanted to until now. So tomorrow, it's happening. She says she wants it as short as Matt's...I think we'll keep a bit more than half an inch of hair. :)

Sascha is all about games still. Mancala, Uno, dominoes, card games, matching games, any kind of game. We started teaching her chess the other night. Who knows how far that will go.

We discovered that we do have to register her for homeschooling for kindergarten - the Vermont rule is that a child doesn't have to attend school until age 6. So kindergarten could be optional for some kids, but because of Sascha's November birthday, she'd be going to k-garten in the fall of 2008. So we'll be submitting all of our paperwork in the spring.

Zoe's current favorite things to do: jump on the bed, jump on the couch, swing on the swings, color, paint, listen to stories, play in the bathtub. Right now, she's afraid of a lot of things. Or at least she is sure that they're going to hurt. Cars (even ones that are turned off and 100 yards away), stoves, bugs, animals, small appliances. We keep telling her that everything is NOT out to get her. :) Besides that, she's a happy, curious, smiley kid who gives great big hugs.

We've started our garden and are on Strawberry Watch - the ones in our garden are starting to ripen, and in a couple of weeks, the farm down the road will have pick-your-own. June in Vermont - there's nothing like it!

Now for pics...these were taken in New Hampshire over Memorial Day weekend....



Here they are with Mason, a 5-year-old boy who also was visiting that weekend. Don't they all look so happy?




Zoe!


Reading a story with Kristen

Summer is here...at least for a few days. We're trying to plan out our summer travel, but planning and us don't go together well. We tend to procrastinate until a decision is made for us. (That really doesn't work when it comes to airlines, by the way...it's not often they just provide you with tickets without asking for any money.)

Zoe is currently terrified of cars. She calls them "ahhs" and seems to truly believe they are all out to run her over. She signs "hurt" every time she hears one (which is more frequently than you'd think, considering we live on a dead-end road at the top of a hill in rural Vermont). She also thinks all insects have it in for her, even the dead ones. On the other hand, she wants to hug birds, dogs, cats, and people in picture books.

Zoe also likes sitting in boxes, buckets and laundry baskets. Case in point:




Sascha is outside right now, wearing her swimsuit and rainboots. We'll have a photo of that in the next day or so. :) She has created huge Memory card games that span the entire living room. She makes up her own rules, too -- but not for any advantage. She definitely understands winning versus losing, but she's not a sore loser or a sore winner -- she just asks to play again.

I would not be surprised if she became an engineer. Or a lawyer. Or both. Her favorite questions are "How does X work?/How do they make X?" and "How do you know that?"

They are both super cute. But you knew that.

B's and Bees

B's and Bees

Zoe is up to 20 or so spoken words...doesn't sound like much, but she knows 40+ signs and enough other gestures and noises to make herself very clear. "Bee" is one of her latest words. It refers to:
1) any letter of the alphabet
2) any insect

Like most of the houses I've ever lived in, we get ant visitors in the spring. To Zoe, these are "bees" and she is afraid of them. She will come running into the living room shouting "Bee! Bee!" and drag me to the bathroom to point at a spot on the floor where an ant once stood. Outside is a "bee" field day - since there are actual bees (bumble and honey), as well as flies, ants, butterflies, mosquitoes and all manner of other buggy things.

Sascha is still bike riding, drawing, imagining and jumping off things. Her drawing has changed dramatically in the past few months. She drew a cat yesterday that looked, well, like a cat. Of course, we force her to sit and draw for an hour every day so she can improve.

(Um, that was a joke. As if she'd stand for that, if we were silly enough to do it!)

Anyway....

Some recent photos.....


The kids at the table yesterday, being goofy


The Z-meister


And my attempt at an arty shot - a reflection of the capitol building in Montpelier:

Back from Boston....and tired!

We had a great time. Went to the science museum on Friday and visited the butterfly garden, saw to-scale dinosaur models (I was impressed by how small the Triceratops were...I always thought they were bigger), and played around in some exhibits. Also had a picnic by the river.

Saturday we went to a playground and met my childhood friend Natalie and her son, Adam. It was great to see them and the weather was wonderful! Had some down time at K's house for a couple of hours and then went to the beach on Nahant - very fun! Kristen and Sharon taught Sascha how to play mancala and she picked it up pretty quickly.

Kid brags...

Zoe has added several spoken words to her vocabulary - ow, baby, yeah, NO, kitty. Very into pretend play with stuffed animals and dolls - mostly "making" them food and pretending to feed it to them. Loves being outside, splashing in the bath, hugging Theo and looking for birds (wants to hug them too - does not understand why they won't hold still for that). She is starting to act very two years old - hence the "NO".

Sascha has been writing her letters consistently and the improvement is obvious. She also cut out some cards from a magazine the other day right along the lines...so her fine motor skills are great. Right now she is into riding her KinderBike (a balance bike with no pedals - good practice for a real two-wheeler), talking about our flower and vegetable gardens (that we haven't had time to work on yet!), learning about alligators and crocodiles (she wants to know the difference...I can never remember) and building things with her Magtastic set that Aunt Mary gave her (and we picked up an expansion pack yesterday on our way home).

It's hard to remember what she learns in any given week because it's just so MUCH. Last night she asked how her body grew, and we started talking about cells. We've also been talking about plants versus animals, how plants grow, how everything needs food for energy and how some animals eat other animals.

Spring, Perhaps, and Lots of Talking

I'm kind of tired of waking up, looking at our indoor/outdoor temperature/clock/phases of the moon thingie and discovering that it's 33 degrees out. But it's 50 degrees out there right now and sunny...so spring may finally be here. (The crocuses sure think so - they have been blooming for weeks, right through several snowfalls.)

Kid boasts:

Sascha has been adding numbers for awhile. She doesn't know that's what she's doing, but she does it. She's good with adding 1 to just about anything; adding 2 or 3 is fairly easy for her; larger numbers are dicier. And she can definitely subtract 1, because every morning, she's been telling me just how many days it is until Aunt Mary visits. (We're at 9 and counting.)

She has been asking some hard questions. She wanted to know if there was a time when there were no people in the world. Then after about a week, she wanted to know how the first person got here!

She also wants to know why people take cow's milk away from baby cows and sell it to people. And why we kill animals and eat them. Whew. We have talked about how many animals eat other animals, and if they didn't, we'd be overrun with mice and worms (among other things). But it's still difficult to explain why, with all the food we have to choose from, we eat chickens and pigs.

Zoe: today Zoe said her first sentence. She was in the pantry and she distinctly said "Oh, no!" (I have never heard her say this before.) I came over to see what was wrong, and she pointed to the cat's food dish (which was almost empty). Then she signed "cat eat" and pointed to the container of cat food. After I filled the dish she started calling for Theo (the way you might call a cat - I have no idea what to call the sound - it's like a really loud kiss). I was floored.

My favorite Zoe word is "bleah!" She says this to describe something dirty, or a spill. You have to stick your tongue out when you say it to get the full effect. ;)

Recent photos...darn cute if I may say so.








And here's Theo and Zoe relaxing together....

I'm Dreaming of a White April

I'm Dreaming of a White April

Winter appears to be making up for our green Christmas by giving us snow for Tax Day. How thoughtful.

The kids are doing well. Although poor Zoe has cavities. She went to the dentist Wednesday and I thought all would go well. Instead she's slated to have 2 fillings done in July. As Matt's teeth are astoundingly healthy, I can only assume they have inherited my bad teeth genes. (Sascha's 1-year molars all have some degree of decay.) Fingers crossed that they don't get my genes for eyesight as well, or they'll both be wearing glasses by the time they are 7.

Zoe's saying quite a few new words: yeah, bye, cheese, juice, baby (she said this once...we haven't heard it since), ball, bowl, and mine. "Mine" seems to be one of those words that second children learn fairly early! Zoe uses it constantly...sometimes she sounds like one of the seagulls from Finding Nemo.

Sascha is starting to figure out spelling...she asks how to spell words, and what certain words start with. Yesterday we were reading about snakes and she had a lot of questions, so we pulled out the encyclopedia and learned where cobras live, how antivenom works, how baby snakes get out of their eggs without breaking them open, and why snakes shed their skin.

Sascha also wants to go exploring in the woods...which I would be much more enthusiastic about if it weren't 33 degrees and snowing. Before we got more snow, she was riding her bike (with training wheels) and she is much faster than last year! Of course Zoe wants to ride a bike too, but her feet don't yet reach the pedals of the tricycle. She has grown about an inch in the past 2 months, but is still wearing 12-18 month clothing.

Here's a pic of Sascha watching ToddWorld this afternoon (based on the books by Todd Parr):



And here's some from Easter morning:

Photos, Finally

Photos, Finally

These were from weeks ago, but the kids still look essentially the same (though Zoe's mouth and hands are no longer blue, and they both have shorter bangs now).




Sascha, dressed up as, er, we're not sure. But ain't she cute?



Cookies decorated by S and Z.

Z also decorated herself, as the next photo shows...

Kids and Memory

Kids and Memory

Zoe remembers that there were tadpoles in our pool last summer. Last week we were looking out the window and she pointed to the pool and signed "fish". Then yesterday, we were outside and she pointed to the pool again, signed "fish", and asked me to pick her up so she could see if there were any "fish" in there.

I'm amazed that she can remember something that happened 6 or 7 months ago...since she's only 19 months old!

We heard our first morning (mourning?) dove today (at 7 am). Zoe thought it was Sascha crying upstairs! Every time we heard it, she'd say "Wah-wah?"

Burning to Learn

Burning to Learn

A sampling of questions that Sascha has asked over the past month or so:

What is energy?
Where did all the dinosaurs go?
What's a skull?
What's a brain?
How does the medicine work that helps you not hurt during surgery?
Why do some people need wheelchairs?
What's 'alive' mean?
A go-kart is alive, right? Because it moves.
Are trees alive?
How do they kill chickens? (Yikes...this was during a discussion of where Buffalo wings come from)
Is anyone older than 60?
How much is an hour?
How much is a minute?
How much is a second?
What's a month?
Why do people throw trash on the ground?
Why is it bad to throw trash on the ground?
Where does the water go after a bath?
What are germs?

And that's only the ones I can remember...there are many, many more....

Infantile Syncope ... No, It's Not a New Dance

Infantile Syncope ... No, It's Not a New Dance

Zoe has always done the silent, throw-your-head-back, keep-your-mouth-open-and-turn-red-and-don't-take-a-breath sort of crying, usually only when she gets hurt. But she's recently started doing it so "well" that she faints. She has done it twice, most recently this afternoon. (I was on a phone call and missed it all...probably for the better.)

Being an irrepressible researcher, I looked it up on Google. It's termed "infantile syncope" ...which is just a fancy way of saying "cry until you faint".

It's not common - maybe 5% of kids - and stops by age 4 or so. There are no long-term effects. She starts breathing again within 5 seconds. The time I was holding her, not only did she start breathing right away but she picked up crying right where she'd left off. ;)

Now I am starting to understand how children can make you old before your time.

On the Cuteness and Light side of things, she has started calling Sascha by name. But it comes out "Wah-wah". So you will be elsewhere in the house and suddenly hear this little voice shouting, "Wah-wah? WAH-WAH!" I simply must get it on video, but every time there's a cute something going on and I find the camera and get it set up, they have moved on to pushing one another or crying.

Oh - the camera is working again. I just haven't taken any postable photos yet. Soon...

Our camera battery died. I have a new one; I just haven't actually put it in the camera yet. So no new photos. Both kids need haircuts so if I did post photos you might just be wondering how Zoe could possibly see properly what with her bangs in her eyes like that. :)

We all went out to dinner last night (Thai) for the first time since possibly last summer. It's been a looonnng time. As long as Zoe sat on my lap and had an endless supply of spring rolls, she was happy. I think she did freak out a younger woman by pointing at her and shouting "Mama!" (Zoe thinks all females over the age of about 3 are mamas and all males are daddies.) Sascha is at a pretty low-maintenance age for restaurants anyway, so we all did fine.

As we were layering up to leave (it was about 4 degrees outside!), an older couple next to us commented that Zoe was "as cute as a bug's ear". You should never say something like this to a biologist...I became distracted trying to remember if any bugs really did, in fact, have ears, and if so, were they cute.

(Yes, I know, it's just a saying.)

For nostalgia's sake, here are some newborn photos of the kids.....

Here's Sascha at about 8 days old. It's amazing how much she still looks like this (with way more hair, o'course).


Here's Zoe at about 1 week of age. Ah, blessed sleep.

Childhood seems to me to be like punctuated equilibrium. Very few things happen gradually. It's more like, all at once, one of the kids makes a jump. Suddenly, Sascha's speech is incredibly clear (and advanced...she likes phrases like "On the other hand"). She has figured out past and future. She wants to measure everything. (Sadly, I am not as tall as I claim to be. Shhhhh.)

Zoe is now jumping with both feet and doing this little Electric Slide move across the floor. She loves to be read to. But, I think I will have to hide the Dora the Explorer phonics books, because if I have to read "Great Day for Soccer" or "Stuck Truck" one more time, I may explode.

Some recent pix....


Zoe wearing my hat, and an outfit she picked out herself. What is it about toddlers and clashing patterns? Maybe they know that they look cute no matter what. :)



I could say that this pic showcases their very different personalities. :) Sascha is incredibly outgoing with people she knows, but when she first meets someone I really do think she'd rather have her fingernails pulled out than say Hello.

Zoe is still quite social, but she's in a "Mama all the time" phase that often keeps her from noticing there are other humans in the world. Mama realizes that soon, Zoe will be saying things like "Mom, stop talking to me, you're hurting my ears"....not that anyone in the house would say THAT to me, oh no.... ;)...so Mama is trying to enjoy being the center of a little one's universe as long as it lasts. But it does get somewhat old when I cannot go to the bathroom by myself, or sit at the table and eat anything, without having a person clinging to my leg.

We got a lot of snow. You might think, that living where we do, this would be normal. But 2- and 3-foot snowfalls are not normal. This is our fourth winter here and this is easily the most snow I've seen at any one time.

Unfortunately it's too cold to play outside! But tomorrow it's supposed to be "warmer" (aka 25 degrees or so). Hopefully the kids' colds will be somewhat better by then. They have very different reactions to the same cold. Sascha's lives all in her nose, while Zoe is not stuffy, but usually gets a cough and is sometimes wheezy. :( It's only happened a couple of times (the wheezing) but it freaks me out to no end. I have flashbacks to her bout with RSV, I guess. Plus, we're talking about breathing, which is no small thing to mess with!

Anyway. I swore I'd write about some of the "schooly" things we're doing. Sascha is very into writing the letters of the alphabet right now. She writes lists, and valentines, and notes, and surprises (notes folded up very small and stuffed into envelopes), and anything else she can think of. Some of her letters are written quite creatively!

Wednesday, Matt and the kids made brownies from scratch. You can see how much they disliked this......