tawbubby

The girls stayed home with Mama (with bonus friend Catriona!) after the morning recital. One of the girls in this picture didn’t take a nap. Can you guess which one?

(Taken at 8:08pm)

I realized that Daphne wasn’t downstairs. I found her playing in their shared room, doing things with a monologue (“I get a book”). Then she saw me and exclaimed, “Daddy!”

She gave me a hug, and then said, “I go hide”.

She immediately hid in the closet. When I found her I told her I would go hide. She responded, “Okay. I count to ten. One… two… three… Here I come!”.

Ten minutes of hide-and-seek was easily the best part of my day.

Aunt Cheri told us to encourage her own artistic talents we shouldn’t give Amelia paper with pictures to color in.  Even when she has those types of pictures, she’s never ‘good’ at coloring inside the lines.  Recently, Amelia has kicked her art up a notch…she is bringing home some incredibly imaginative, detailed art that she makes during their free play time.   She has always spent a lot of time on her art.  I’m not sure if we’re supposed to be doing something to encourage this, just let her run with it and have lots of supplies available to her.  I just love to see what comes out of her head.  This is “an Amelia spider with its tongue sticking out and decorations”. 

Right now she’s asking me how to use a calculator, and is very excited to see that 5+3=8 in digital form.  She’ll be a well-rounded kid!

We visited Gigi and Gifer last weekend, and coincidentally were invited to a nearby (well, not by Washington DC traffic standards) bowling birthday party for our friends’ 4 year old.  The girls had a blast!

It’s really easy- they roll the ball down a ramp onto the alley, and there are bumpers blocking the gutters.

Amelia got a strike and a spare!

And the shoes are really cute.  Especially if they’re toddler size 5.

You may know that the Greek nymph Daphne transformed into a laurel tree to escape Apollo’s unwanted advances.  We have a beautiful-smelling shrub plant by our front steps that began blooming a week or two ago. The fragrance spreads across the whole front yard. Here is Daphne enjoying “her” Daphne plant, also known as Winter Daphne or Fragrant Daphne.

 There are many horticultural articles about Daphne plants on the web.  This title is my favorite:  “Demanding Daphnes: Yes, they’re finicky, but your attentions will be richly rewarded”

Actually, our Daphne isn’t very finicky or demanding.  She is very sweet, and sometimes fragrant.  And we called her “Sprout” before she was born.

Amelia got to go on a fieldtrip with Bebe on Friday night. They had a girl night and went to a Richmond Ballet performance with Bebe’s friend who only has grandsons (1 1/2 h away).

Kids get in free, the seats were super close, Amelia was well behaved, and we have a new Django Reinhardt fan. Can’t ask for much better than that!
They stayed with Bebe’s friend at a house near a river.  Amelia had a great time and was such a big girl.  Bebe got her a disposable camera to take pictures, we’ll have to get it developed soon and see what she came up with.

So we took Daphne to Romp ‘N Roll and met Preston, Kurt, and cousin Jackson! The whole way there Daphne chanted “I go Womp Woll Dakson!”

My favorite part was the two of them rolling this tube around.

Daphne kickin’ back…

The girls get National Geographic Little Kids magazine. This month’s issue had a really cool “experiment” to fill glasses to different levels and play music.
Amelia loved it!

Daphne drank it!

Actually, she played the glasses too, I was just trying to be funny.
Here’s a video of Amelia playing music, and adding in some dance.
Amelia playing water music!

We left the lake and came home from Bebe’s birthday party to beat the snow.  We all napped, the girls upstairs,  Ethan on the fold out bed (by the fireplace) and I on the couch (by the fireplace).  Around 2pm the snow started, exactly when forecasted!  We got out and played after naps.

The first of several hats for Daphne!  She’s not a great hat-wearer, but when faced with “wear a hat or stay inside”, the choice was clear.

Amelia made a snow angel in the street…didn’t try it again today when we had 6+ inches of cold stuff!

She looked at this picture and said “I had to keep my eyes closed so the snow wouldn’t get in them!”

We watched two people sledding in the street with a headlamp last night- that was pretty neat.  We woke up with a bunch of snow, so today we had a SNOW DAY!!  Here’s Daphne sitting in the snow.  She didn’t feel the cold as much as Amelia, but didn’t like sitting there too much either, honestly.

She much preferred to sit in the sled!  And looks really cute in Amelia’s hat.

They loved being pulled around in the sled.  Guess we need a bigger one next time (but it won’t be for a few years in Richmond?).  There are a couple short sledding videos at the bottom of the post.

Amelia measured the snow “wherever someone didn’t step”.  We got about 6 inches.

She also learned about yellow snow from the dogs and tried to bury it with her little shovel.  It was hard work!

I love this one, too bad it is a little blurry!  I pulled out my cross-country skis (see flikr pics, going to be sore tomorrow).  Amelia got a ride while we trudged to our friends’ house.

They finished off the day with bowls of snow with maple and chocolate syrups (“just like at Grannie’s house”) in their playhouse.

Here they are warming up on the couch after playing yesterday.  It’s an o.k. picture, I put it up because I love Daphne in that tall hat! She played peek-a-boo by pulling it down over her face a bunch of times.  I’m not sure what Amelia is saying here.  She wasn’t too happy at that point.

Best part about playing in the snow?  The hot chocolate, of course!

Two small sledding videos, click on the words below:
“Cheese!”
“Wow!”

We celebrated Bebe’s birthday this weekend.

Some kisses for the birthday girl…

They had a snack-treat of Ants on a Log with chocolate chip ants because Bebe didn’t have raisins. Amelia was pretty happy about that!

Neither of them ate the celery, of course.