I'll Take, "Random Toddler Categories" for $200, Alex

Little Miss is becoming the non-stop talker. Who would've thought this would happen since her brother is constantly jabbering too? What's even funnier is that she likes to use all of the words she knows in a category all at once. For example, if it's lunchtime and I say, "Would you like some cheese?" She'll say, "cheese, turkey, toast, apple, avocado, blueberries". If I mention the park, she says, "swing, slide, rocks, balance beam, running". She does the same with people and places. If it's time to take J to school, she starts to rattle off all of the people we will see when we get there. It's pretty funny. I find myself marveling at how many people's names she actually remembers. It is true that Geminis are party people, right? I think she's starting very early.

I began a Christmas wrap-up post. Are you surprised you never saw it? I would like to say that blogging more was one of my New Year's resolutions. I suppose it could be. Let's just say that I'll try to do better without any guarantees. Here are a few xmas pictures of J and his new drumset and S in her new car. Both have been big hits around here (pardon the pun). I'm amazed at how little the drumming bothers me, yet how much screaming and whining does.

(that's a candy cane and not a cigarette in her mouth)

We're gearing up for a 5th birthday party around here next week. It's going to be a superhero themed party at our house. I desperately tried to get J to pick a place so that I wouldn't have to worry about cleaning and hosting lots of people, but he decided that since he had his party at a place last year that he wanted to have it at home this year. He's so type A. He's been full of good ideas for the party, which has been great. In some ways, he wants to do nothing special ("We don't need special plates with pictures on them; we can just used colored ones") but in other ways he has been extremely detail oriented ("Let's make an obstacle course for superhero training with a chance for running, jumping, slithering, and bouncing activities.") I'm excited to be using a very old cake pan for his cake (circa 1977) that my mom used to make a few cakes for my brother's birthdays. This weekend is going to involve some fabric cutting and label making. I will do my best to update you on the actual party in decent time.

I thought for a while that my daughter was going to have to be given away to be raised by wolves for a few years because she was quite the little animal over Christmas and the few weeks after. She decided to have some major separation anxiety while we traveled, leaving her pretty much attached to my hip for our entire holiday. If I even walked over to the sink and she was in the same room, she still screamed my name over and over again. Things are gettting better, but she does like to let everyone know when things are not going the way she would like them. All I can say is thank God for wine and early bedtimes!

I just picked up J from school to find out that he has pink eye. A quick trip to the doctor to get eyedrops confirmed it. I'm glad it's this weekend and not next weekend, but my eyes feel itchy already and I hate that!

This is also totally random but funny. The kids got great bath stuff for Christmas from their Aunt. One of the toys is a bunny called "jumping Jo Jo". It plays a song, shoots out water, and rides around the bath. Both kids like this, especially Little Miss, who yells, "Captain Jo Jo at the helm! Captain Sam-mone at the helm! Captain Nonah at the helm!" And so on... Anyway, other fun bath ritual involves a bath tea pot and hair washing. J likes to wash Little Miss' hair with the tea pot and calls it shampoo with champagne. When he rinses her hair off he says the water coming from the teapot is the champagne. Now whenever it's time for a bath, Little Miss yells, "Champange! Champagne!" If you didn't know she was 20 months old, you would think she has very refined taste.