More words

Audrey didn't want to go to bed tonight - not a huge surprise since she slept so much today, but I know she was tired! I took her up around 7, then brought her back downstairs with me after I got Conner in bed around 8:30. She shared my ice cream (and Conner heard us, too, so I let him come down and have some) then wanted to drink the water I'd gotten. I finally got her to say "more", though it sounded more like "meh". I'll probably regret teaching her that word!

As we were sitting downstairs hanging out, she brought me a couple of books ("gook") to read. One was a book with a different color of fruit and vegetable on each page. We started counting the items... she'd point to a few and go, "two, two, two, yay!" then throw her hands up in the air. Very cute.

Also, Eric told me that Aud finally said "love you" to him last night. She won't say it to me, just purses her lips (and sticks out her tongue) when I tell her. Oh well.

Our new wheels

It seems that everyone except Audrey got some new wheels for Christmas (although she did get a new doll stroller - does that count?!). Conner got a new bike (Daddy was instructed by Santa to get him one) and has been enjoying riding it in this crazy warm weather we've been having.

Yesterday the three of us went for a walk. Conner rode his new bike and Audrey and I walked. The bike is bigger than his old one (of course) and is a little harder to ride up the hills, but he gave it a good effort! Conner told me that it goes super fast because it has wings - the front wheels have things coming out of them which I assume you could stand on while riding. But we won't tell him that! He did fall once - I'm not sure how, because it was a straight stretch of road - but got right back on and made it home with no other problems.

Eric called yesterday afternoon and told me to get the van cleaned out; they'd reached an agreement on the new Ford Flex! It's amazing what kind of stuff was in the van... But I got the kids buckled in and, after a few stops, met Eric at the dealer (which is all the way over by Tri-County Mall - totally not on our side of town!). Around 8:30 we walked out with the new keys! It was a good drive home; the car rides so nice and we had a good time playing with the Sync (a voice-controlled system that you can use for your phone and other of the options on the car). There are also some lights (for ambiance, I suppose) that you can change the colors on - Conner really enjoys that aspect of the new car (along with the cupholders!). He also took his first nap in the car (hopefully first of many!).

I woke up this morning around 9:00 when Conner came in and said "Why are you sleeping so long?" Audrey was still sleeping and didn't wake up until 10:00 when I went up to get her. She obviously wasn't feeling well - I didn't get a smile out of her for at least an hour and she just laid down on the couch where I put her. Little by little she started feeling a little better and started playing but was ready to go take a nap at noon after she ate lunch! It's just about 3:00 now and I'm just starting to hear her stir - hopefully she's feeling better now!

Almost forgot - Conner drew a picture of a hippo on Audrey's new Doodle Pro that he was very proud of (he even put one eye on it and said the other eye was on the other side of its head!).

Our Christmas holiday!

It's hard to believe that Christmas has already come and gone! We've definitely kept ourselves busy.

After school on Friday the 19th, we got in the van to go up to Papa Dave and Weyla Kate's. Aud hadn't had the nicest of diapers for the couple of days before that (to put it nicely) and Angela said that she'd had some nasty ones all day Friday, so we knew she wasn't feeling that good. We stopped in Wilmington (exit 50 off of 71 north) to get some Dairy Queen (Eric's idea, of course), and she refused any ice cream. Just a few minutes later, as we were back on the highway, she threw up. Nasty. We stopped at the Jeffersonville exit to clean up (thank goodness I'd packed extra pj's and extra blankies!), but there was no leaving behind the odor. Yuck. After getting that out of her system, she felt better (thank goodness) and was fine for the rest of the trip.

On Saturday, we went with Weyla to the Aha! Museum in Lancaster. Billed as a museum, it was really an indoor playground. Very fun - the kids had a ball. Their favorite was a water table with several different activities. They also played with the lip sync equipment, dress up clothes, fishing equipment, pizza kitchen, and catacombs... I can definitely see taking the kids back there again!

After making it back to the house and grabbing some lunch, Conner and Eric went with Uncle Andy (in from California), Papa, and Weyla to pick out a Christmas tree. They actually go cut one down every year and waited until Conner could go with them. He was a big helper - he pulled the tree back in the wagon after Papa cut it down. Sounds like he had fun! Then we helped with the ornaments on it after Papa put the lights on. The kids were very excited to open presents from Uncle Andy that evening - Conner got a tent (yay!) and a nerf gun (which was taken away shortly after we arrived home and he shot at Aud); Audrey got a horse ("orsie"!) and something else that I can't remember right now.

We went to church on Sunday morning, stopped at Frisch's for lunch, then watched the Bengals/Browns game at Papa and Weyla's before heading home. It was a busy weekend!

Eric was supposed to work on Monday and Tuesday, but they cancelled because of the coldness Monday (digging the road up and working with water isn't great when it freezes so quickly!). So he stayed home with me and the kids for the week. We went to the Christmas Eve service at our church with Papa Doug and Weyla Marge then ate at Olive Garden before heading home to wait for Santa.

We were actually able to put Conner off on Christmas morning until 8:00 (quite a miracle, especially since I told him he wasn't allowed to go downstairs without us!). He was very excited to see that Santa had brought him a garbage truck (which luckily Mommy found at Toys R Us on Monday!) and a promise for a new bike. Audrey's favorite was the play kitchen (and lots of food and dishes from the grandparents!). Papa Dave, Weyla Kate, and Weyla Ruth all came down around lunchtime, then Papa Doug and Weyla Marge came over later in the afternoon. We had a nice big family dinner around the dining room table!

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Papa Dave and Weyla Kate (and Weyla Ruth) stayed until Saturday evening - Eric and I spent our afternoons on Friday and Saturday at a couple of car dealerships trying out some new cars (it appears now that the Ford Flex is going to be our choice; we just need to get a deal worked out). Today after church we went to a couple more dealerships (thanks to Uncle Greg for offering to let Aud take a nap at the condo while we went!) - Conner went with us and had a good time running around inside, looking at and climbing in all the cars, and meeting a new little friend. I'm sure it wasn't the most fun for him, but he really did a great job and was a good boy. He was disappointed when we left without a new car, but he got over it (and I had warned him in advance that it might not happen today!). We've become a little obsessive about it in the past few days; even now Eric is sitting with some printouts re-studying the numbers.

Gymnastics

Conner went to his first gymnastics class last night (actually, we all went - Eric got home early enough to go with us to the 5:10 start). He looooved it. He was running and hopping and just having a grand time. It was him and four little girls in the class with an instructor (who Conner told me later was "cute"). They started by running on a long trampoline (to get warmed up, I guess) - he would run/hop down, then sprint back to the start to wait for his next turn. After several turns of that, the kids climbed up and across a cargo net, then did some jumping and climbing and somersaults on some big different-shaped mats. For their last activity, they walked down a balance beam (we had trouble getting him to walk forward instead of sideways - yes, we interfered, I hate to admit), then went to some rings to first hold themselves up and later do a flip, jumped on a hotchscotch mat, then did a sideways "walk" on some balance beams (feet on one, hands on the other). Needless to say, he was one tired little boy last night!

Yay Mr. Salt Man!

I stayed home today with an upset stomach (and one of Angela's daughters has been throwing up for a while) - we were supposed to get 1 - 3" of snow but hadn't seen anything until about 11:00. Of course, Conner was supposed to be on the bus for school at 12:25, so it was perfect timing (not)! To get to Angela's/the bus stop, you come out of our neighborhood, turn right, and wind around some hills until you finally hit a straight stretch of road. I'd gotten near the bottom of the first little hill when someone coming the opposite way rolled down their window to tell me that the road was closed because someone was stuck. I got turned around in a driveway, then Eric called on my cell phone to tell me that Conner's school had just called him and said that preschool was cancelled for today (wish they'd called the house before we left!). In trying to get back up the hill to our neighborhood is where we ran into problems. For as many times as I tried, I could not get up that hill! I kept getting stopped and sliding around and just wasn't able to make it all the way up. A nice man (who was driving a Cincinnati Bell van) even got in the van and tried to get it up the hill, but he wasn't able to either. So we backed into a driveway and just waited. (Luckily Audrey had a blankie and paci, because it was nap time! She eventually fell asleep.) After about 45 minutes of sitting and watching other people go past (some got stuck, others made it up), a salt truck drove by us. As soon as he went through, we were able to make it up the hill!

We came home and got Aud in bed, then Conner and I went outside and threw some snowballs at each other. Not great packing snow, but we had a good time!

Two new videos

Conner enjoys singing - especially Christmas carols. (Though he's not too sure about the words yet.)

We were just starting to watch "The Lion King" - I've never seen Audrey so excited about something on TV! I can't wait to take her to the zoo next time.

Our Sunday

Eric left this morning to go the Bengals' game (an exercise in futility, I think... the last one he went to was the TIE with the Eagles!). The kids and I skipped church and just stayed home to hang out. I was writing something on my computer when Aud came over and wanted to write, too.

She was very upset after drawing for a while when we took the pen away so I could trace their hands... which means it's nap time! I think Conner and I may take the opportunity to make some cinnamon ornaments - but I should probably look up some directions first.

It's been a while. . .

So I realized that I haven't updated this blog for a while... in our world, a week is a while! :) Let me see if I can think of some highlights.

1. Yesterday after school I had an online meeting from 4:30 - 6:30 for a program that I'm doing this year. It's actually quite a cool arrangement - it's a service called Elluminate where you can sit and talk and listen to other people all around the world at this same meeting. Anyway, as soon as we got home (around 4:15) I turned on The Grinch (Jim Carrey version) for Conner and told him that I needed to go sit and listen to people on my computer. Both he and Audrey did a pretty good job staying quiet for me, but we were just a few minutes in and I heard a bunch of rustling noise from the kitchen. Eventually I went in there and found Audrey like this:

Cereal's been a big snack for the kids lately, and I guess she was hungry! Goofy girl.

2. I took some pictures of the kids in front of the tree on Saturday that turned out really cute. I'd bought them both Santa hats at Hobby Lobby and got them both to wear them (Audrey for not so long a time).

3. Audrey is coming up with all kinds of new words!
"bubba bop" = muffin top (the toaster kind)
"ereal" = cereal
"bup" = cup
"gog gog" = hot dog (this one's old, but I don't know if I listed it last time)
"at" = hat
"ninny" = Sydney
"Dallie" = Callie
"hot hot" = hot (when she's by the fire or stove or thinks she has some hot food - which she'll now blow on!)
"pashi" = paci
"guck" = truck
"orsie" = horsie
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4. Aud's been really good with the Christmas tree - hasn't bothered it a bit. The dogs, on the other hand, can't seem to get enough of those yummy bulb ornaments. Every day when we come home from school there's another one broken on the floor.
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Only 6 more days of school until Christmas break! Yay! Then my student teacher starts when we get back, so hopefully it will be an easy 2nd semester. I can't imagine not being involved at all during the day, but I can definitely take a big step back.

A conversation about Santa

Conner asked me last night if I knew Santa's phone number. I told him I didn't, and asked if he knew it. He said no, but "Miss O does!" (His preschool teacher.) I asked Conner to ask her at school today for the phone number so we could call Santa.

So today, on the way home from school/Angela's (who Aud now calls "la la" - must be those "la"s at the end!), I asked Conner if he'd gotten Santa's phone number. Here's the conversation:

Me: Did you ask Miss O for Santa's phone number?

Conner: She said it's a secret!

Me: How are we going to tell him what we want for Christmas?

Conner: I already did! (We went to the zoo last Friday with Mom & Dad and saw Santa there)

Me: But I didn't get to! You and Audrey sat on his lap and didn't give me a turn.

Conner: What do you want for Christmas?

Me: A new camera (which I've already ordered - woo hoo!)

Conner: So tonight I'll tell God to tell Santa that you want a new camera.

As my friend Shannon said tonight, at least he's listening to us! (and to his Sunday school teachers!)

Here are pictures from our trip to to the zoo Friday. We had fun and got to see all of the pretty lights. Not too many animals out because of the cold, but the kids enjoyed seeing Santa, his reindeer, and the manatees.

Audrey has the exact same expression on her face as she did last year. She wasn't scared to go up to Santa and sit on his lap, but then she showed no emotion once she got there. Conner told him that he wanted a garbage truck for Christmas. . . that's my boy!