More Moments

These are the moments I can't get enough of...

Winter Wonderland

As in, I'm wondering where winter is?  I hear it's headed here tomorrow, but as for today, the only signs of the season are the trees that look like this:

We walked over to the park today, and it was beautiful.  The kids and I were wearing short sleeves, and there was a breeze, but it wasn't cold.

I'm so grateful for weather like this...because it means that we are outside playing,  not inside getting antsy.

You'd think this was a very serious business by the looks on their faces.  Could they be more somber?

Here's our big girl.  She's going to be 8 soon!  I can't believe it.  I wonder if she knows how crazy it is that just yesterday I held her for the first time in my arms?  Will someone please inform her that she must stop this growing up stuff.  It simply cannot be tolerated. 

I guess that's one thing that's out of my control, huh? 

And our son, the middle child, hanging precariously there between two sisters.  Both little and big, a follower and a leader.  Hilarious and smart and sensitive.  My original monkey is what he is.  I wonder what challenges and achievements await this year-he'll be 6 soon!

And this little one...our delight.  We are all captivated by her.  She thinks she's as big as everyone else.  I wonder what is going on in her mind.  There's so much there.

A winter wonderland, eh?  Mostly the wonder part...

Turkey Dressing

Today we worked on a special project for Christian's classroom.  He and Michaela fixed up quite a turkey; I am not sure what it's for yet, but this guy is going to be a show-stopper. 

We began with the basics: coloring first.  Before we got into feathers, buttons, and other accoutrements Christian and Michaela gave the bird a first layer.  

Christian is a meticulous worker when he wants to be.  He really took his time and thought carefully about what he was going to do next.  This was a family project, so Michaela also helped to give this bird some proper duds.

I love it when they work together peacefully.  They worked out a plan for who would color what and when.  Will there be a pattern?  Who starts on which side?  What colors will go together?  Who cleans up the mess?  (Oops, I threw that one in there...)

Eliana was figuring out which color would be the best choice...

Talk about thoughtful!

She is certainly not going to be left out of the action.

She is determined to do whatever they are doing, whether it's coloring, dancing, eating ice cream, or kicking a ball.

 And Christian is so sweet with her; he usually will let her come right along, or join right in.  I heard him tell her he loved her a couple of times today, "sooo much."  How sweet is that? 

The progress they're making!  This turkey is looking mighty fine.  Christian checks out his work so far...

Eliana felt a couple of additions were in order.

Michaela made sure that the turkey was adorned on every side...

You can see how detailed they got.  It's all about the details...

And paying attention to details pays off in the end.  Here is the final product, in all its dazzling array of trappings.

Now that's what I call "dressed for success." 

Big Brother, Little Sister

We've told Christian that he's special because he gets to be a little brother and a big brother.  For four years he was the baby of the family, and when Eliana came along things changed for him in so many ways.  He's done really well, and is a very loving brother.  He loves, loves, loves to make her laugh and excels at it. 

Today I happened to catch the two of them in several sweet sibling moments and couldn't resist the photo opportunities. 

Eliana always seems to want what is on Christian's plate; it could be the same thing on my plate or even on her tray, but she only wants it from his plate.  This happened twice with a veggie dog (I gave her very little pieces of it-do you think I'm going to deny this child food when she eats about three different kinds?), and with an egg/sausage casserole, which she wouldn't touch when I gave her some on her tray with a fork.  So, this afternoon, she climbed up into Christian's chair and took over his crusts. 

"I'm not too sure, but I think I'll try it..."

"Crunchy..."

"You can have that back." 

"Well, I'll try it again..."

"Not too bad for crust."  "She can have it!"

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Later in the day, Eliana had climbed into another chair (she does that a lot these days) and was looking at a book at a little table set up in the kids' room.  Christian sat down with her and began talking about the book and reading it to her (his reading, by the way, is improving every day; he is so excited to read new books all by himself, and to others as well).  This was precious to see.

I took the above picture on the wrong setting, but loved the expressions so much that I made it black and white and hung on to it.  I think it's sweeter than a sugar-coated caramel apple. 

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Eliana pretty much thinks that he is hilarious whatever he is doing, and loves to watch him.  They were playing with the ball popper tonight, and Christian thought it was so funny to watch her get her hair blown by the air that comes out of the top.  Then they were busy experimenting with different objects to see if they, too, would pop out of the top.  They were having so much fun!

Then Christian decided to take the thing apart; he might be an engineer...

Their final "game" was doctor.  Christian was checking out Eliana's reflexes.  I don't know how her knee bone was, but her funny bone got tickled for sure.

What a sweet pair.  Sigh.

Joy

Theirs is mine.