siblings

Samantha and Joshua are pretty funny together. They can inspire great fun and silliness, and then do exactly what will drive the other one nuts. Pretty much like every sibling I know. Samantha and Joshua had a rough morning, so I told Sam I would like to see her do something that would make Josh happy, not angry. Joshua lost his bagel, so she gave him half of what she had left, and apologized that she didn't have more to give him. He said thank you - with a little prompting from mommy. We had a nice afternoon at the zero entry pool at the Y. Josh will walk in up to his neck and bounce around. We also saw a small train table at Mahoney's Garden Center that delighted Joshua. They did a nice job with the landscaping around the train.

I don't know if I mentioned, but Joshua is sleeping in his toddler bed about half the time now, and staying in his room at night. He gets up on his own, even if he is in his crib. I leave the side rail down so it is easier and safer for him to get out of his crib. It is weird that he just sleeps there. I guess he likes it. We've had a few good nights of sleep, which is wonderful. I let Josh decide where he sleeps. If he wants the crib, that's fine with me.

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a very nice day. It started off slowly. Matt made a wonderful blueberry pancake breakfast for us all. We went out into our backyard for a bit to play. Samantha and Joshua gathered up the ice bits in baskets and carried them in. Sam said she wanted to see what happened when she put the ice in the microwave. She's our little scientist. Joshua had a blast picking up ice chips just like sissy. I walked the dogs for a bit, then we went to the playground. We didn't meet any other locals, but we did meet a family from California, and one from Canaan, NH. Joshua was pretty tired, as I had planned, so he had a nice nap just before we went to dinner at Henrietta's table. They were running a bit late, so Matt and I took the kids outside to the plaza where there was another family with young children waiting for their table. Samantha and Addie became fast friends and walked around everywhere hugging and holding hands. They were very sweet, and her parents were also very nice. Addie came over a couple of times during dinner to say hello. Joshua started running from one side of the restaurant and slammed into Addie to give her a hug. The food and the company were very pleasant. We exchanged e-mails with Addie's parents. Samantha will be able to see her again. Addie is a couple of years younger, but they played very well together, if a bit loudly. :-)

I hope all of you reading this today have wonderful things to be thankful for. Please know that we count you as one of our blessings too.

Gingerbread House

Samantha, Joshua and I made a gingerbread house a week ago. I think it looks very pretty. Joshua glued on some of the marshmallows. Samantha designed a house and calculated what kind and how many candies she needed to decorate the gingerbread. We went to the store together and tried to find the right candies and made sure we had enough. I got a template on-line and adapted it to look as much like Sam's picture as I could. I made the gingerbread, made the royal icing, and then we glued it together. I think it came out very well. Matt took photos of it in mid construction.

Lollipops

Samantha wrote things to be thankful for on paper leaves and glued them to paper tree branches. Some of the things she wrote are:

World
family
nabors
joshua
teacher
G-D

She is a pretty good kid.

Joshua is very fond of lollipops and his daddy. (He is most definitely out of the mommy phase) This morning, Joshua got very sad when Matt said he was going to work. "No, no!" Matt said he had to go to work to earn money for lollipops. Was it okay to leave if he was earning money for lollipops? Joshua thought very hard and said, "okay." To Josh's credit, even lollipops wasn't enough to make Joshua *happy* about Daddy leaving. He just wasn't crying anymore.

I asked Samantha to get her brush to brush her hair. Samantha dawdled, but not Joshua. He ran into the bathroom and came out with Sam's brush yelling "Sissy, Sissy, brush!" He loves to help. He loves the broom. He follows around Julio's son when he cleans the house. Josh carries a broom and a cleaner spray(empty) and does whatever Mark does. Mark laughs, Ella kisses both of them, and a good time is had by all. The only thing Josh won't do is pick up marbles. What is one of his favorite things to do? Throw marbles on the floor. Again and Again. He loves the noise, and the sound of putting them in the can just isn't as satisfying as the wonderful long rolls he gets from marbles on wooden floors.

This one goes to eleven!

Joshua has counted all the way to eleven! Of course, he won't do it in front of anyone else, but I swear I have heard him count up to fourteen, only missing number 13. He is a smartie boy! Lately he has been cranky boy too. He has a molar coming in. Of course, wouldn't you know it, Marie notices it before anyone else. That is just what Marie is like, and thank goodness we have her helping us with Joshua and Samantha. I've been giving Josh Motrin at night which is helping him sleep through again. I think he has another growth spurt coming on.

Samantha had a friend over today for hot chocolate and gingerbread house viewing/eating. They played dress up, and Joshua insisted that he play too. "Me too! Me too!" is a common refrain around the house nowadays. He looked very handsome in his Ariel princess outfit, which came off just in time for him to prance naked in front of our guest's mother. She didn't bat an eye, thank goodness. So, should I be taking pictures of him on these outfits to hold for future black mail, or do I take pity on him in the digital age?

Mondays

Today was a pretty typical Monday, except Matt worked from home writing employee reviews. Joshua did his best to distract him. I personally think that given the choice between changing a diaper and continuing to focus on writing, Matt found it a bit easier to keep writing when I took Josh upstairs for a change. (Oh, I want Josh out of diapers!) Yes, Josh helped Matt to keep working. :-)

Sam was thrilled to see Matt when she got out of school. We played on the playground for a bit while Matt talked to Mrs Abbott, and then we stopped at home for a snack, then off to yoga. Samantha has a wonderful yoga teacher here in Arlington who truly seems to love teaching children. Sam is the eldest child in class, so Tara asks Samantha to help with the little ones, a role she loves. Tara gives them seaweed for snacks. Yum! This is as earthy crunchy a place as I could imagine, but they are very nice people with a good sense of humor, so I can't hold it against them.

Sam's teacher, Mrs. Curtis, worked on Halloween, then had her baby on the next day, Saturday. I don't know how she worked so far into her pregnancy, but good for her. I know Sam misses her. Mrs. Abbott has been teaching with Mrs. Curtis since the beginning of the year, and they got another teacher in to help while Mrs. Curtis is on maternity leave, a Ms. Bisson. Very French young lady. The transition went very smoothly, as well as anyone could hope for, I think.

Joshua was pretty tired today. He doesn't have strep throat. Sam is just about finished her antibiotics. She did test positive for strep. Sam came to my room around midnight last night, and Joshua joined us around 2am. Matt gave up and went to the attic to sleep. Josh thrashed around and almost whacked Sam in the head with his head several times. He got so bad I gave up and tried to put him in his room. He screamed and kept climbing out of the crib. He stayed in after the 5th try for about 10 minutes, just long enough to let me settle into bed. Matt came downstairs from all the screaming and Josh finally settled in with daddy and slept. I didn't get much sleep, and I don't think Josh did either. I hate it when they can climb out of their crib and get out of their room. He just hates to be in his room by himself, and he is too excited when he is with us to settle into sleep. It'll sort itself out eventually, but in the meantime, sleep is hell.

smelling

I lean over and smooch Josh's neck, then take a little sniff. I don't want Ella to feel left out, of course. I smile to myself, because in the midst of the ice cream smell, a bit of dirt, I get a faint soupcon of playdough. I think, yep, his life has the right mixture to it. Just out of curiosity, I sniff Samantha, and that too makes me smile. She smells of flowers, powder and fresh shampoo, every bit a sweet girl.

Fun times at the Landau House

I don't know what was in the air last night, but things got pretty silly here. Samantha and Joshua like to be in the sleeping bag together, although Samantha insists that Joshua wear a diaper and it must be clean. Seems reasonable to me. Here is a picture of the two of them in the bag.

They also got into the paint, the dots. With a little help from Samantha on Joshua's tushie, they covered themselves with dots and insisted that I take pictures. I had a hard time taking the photo I was laughing so hard. They had a bath after this, which only took most of the paint off.

The Flirt

I had strep throat this weekend and was really concerned that the children get treated quickly if there was any sign they were getting it. Sam did get it, but was treated very quickly so she only had about 15 hours of discomfort. Josh hadn't been eating well and seemed very tired, so I took him to the doctor on Monday night. She examined him on the table with Samantha holding him on the table. He was a dream to examine, she said he was her best patient all day. Maybe the others didn't have such a nice big sister! Sam was really great, helping the doctor. So after the doctor left, Josh said kiss. I leaned over for him to kiss me, and he said no. I asked if he wanted to kiss the doctor, he said yes, and off we went. He kissed the doctor, he kissed Maureen the nurse, and he kissed the secretary. He made their evening, i think. The doctor looked at him and said "I think he is a bit of a flirt?" I laughed and said yes, but really, he is just a love bug. There is none of the self conscious feeling of show that I see with a flirt.