Ducks!

 Munchkin can say ma & da & dou (dog). Today she started saying duc (duck) in earnest. It started in the morning with her bath duck, she would say duc and throw it at me. Then we went to the park and she pointed to the ducks and said duc! She was very excited to see the ducks. Her ck sound is hard to hear, but it is there and occasionally comes thru clearer. It is clearly different from dou (dog) when she points to Sarge.

I've been signing words to her pretty reguarly for months now and she hasn't felt the need to sign back at me. She finds yelling and pointing to be fairly effective overall. I thought she signed nurse one day but she hasn't repeated it. We'll keep at it and maybe she'll become a signer. But she sure is trying to communicate!

Here is a video of us at the park and her saying "duc" as she walks towards the ducks and the pond. 

Peanut butter spoon

You know you want one.

Ice cream!

Munchkin discovered ice cream when Grandpa was visiting. She got a small cone at the BBQ restaurant. It was devoured. She is a big fan, can you tell?

Munchkin's pigtails

Munchkin happily lets me put things in her hair right now. I thought maybe there was enough for pigtails and spent some time trying. They fell out after a couple of hours, but it was fun trying! Her hair is exactly like mine in texture and curl right now.

Snow Day Again!

Friday we woke up to MORE snow. A lot more snow. It had snowed all day and all night. The trees were almost touching the ground. There was a lot of snow. So we went out and played in it of course!

Eating snow, building snow forts, snowmen, snow angels, shaking snow out of trees, throwing snowballs for Sarge to eat... the list of fun things to do was long!

Snow day!

Feb 11 was a snow day. I woke up hearing the boys talking about all the snow. We ate breakfast and put their snow gear on to play in it before it melted. Trainboy in Dinoguy's old snowgear, Dinoguy in my snowgear, Munchkin in her cute teddybear coat and Trainboys' old gear.

It kept snowing all day though. I think the high for the day was 36, making it a great snow play day. Big fluffy snow that is the perfect kind for snowmen and snowball fights. Sarge loves to catch snowballs in his mouth. Munchkin loved the snow, she walked, crawled and tasted it. The boys played in it for hours. Tuna can eyes for our snowman. Trainboy discovered he could pick up an imprint of his shoe. A snow "fossil"!

We tried building a snowman on the trampoline, but every time you move, it falls over pretty much. Then we decided it would probably stretch the trampoline out too much and had to break it up and throw it over. It was all from the snow on the trampoline. I thnk we got 4-6 inches, though we didn't measure. Lovely day of play.

Violin songs

Dinoguy playing Song of the Wind. Trainboy playing Twinkle Variation A. They are preparing these for a Suzuki Trophy Festival and really trying to get them perfected.

Grandpa visits!

Grandpa Actuary had a business trip in our city and stayed for a short visit afterwards! The kids were thrilled to play with their Grandpa. It was lots of fun to watch him play (and teach some more about strategy and rules) backgammon, checkers, chess, mastermind, and blockus with them. The boys asked him to read to them and cuddled up to him as he read chapters from "The Wizard of Oz" that we are currently reading together. He also took us bowling, to the golf driving range (despite the cold), and out to dinner (BBQ!) andalso went to Home Depot craft day with us. Here are a few photos I snapped at the bowling alley.

Three kids

A moment where they were all playing happily by themselves, while near each other on the couch. What a lovely moment to try and capture!

Grandma's Afghan

Over a year ago I started a CAL (Crochet-a-long) on Ravelry, making 6" granny squares to make an afghan for my mom. I finished the squares in late December and thought I was basically done. Then I started trying different joining methods and 3 hours later finally chose to use the flat braid method. It took me an entire month to join the squares. But it turned out great and is my first really big crocheting project to finish. Happy Birthday Mom!