January Update

I can't believe that January is almost over - it's flown right by, and all without any blog updates!

Our year started off great, with some friends of mine from college coming to visit on New Year's Day. One friend, Jo, stayed with us for almost a week, while the others drove to DC, and then back through to get Jo and head back to Chicago. I loved having Jo here - she was just about the perfect house guest. And it was nice to have an adult around while Yuta was working. It almost makes me wish we had a bigger house so we could rent a room or something.

Taisim also started going to a gymnastics class once a week. Taipan isn't interested, but if the timing works out he goes along and plays with other kids that aren't in the class, but go along because of siblings, and then a good number of folks meet up at McDonalds afterwards to play. No one was interested in going this week, so it may fade out ... we'll have to see. Luckily it's paid by the month, so there's not a huge up-front financial investment.

Other than gymnastics we've been sticking pretty close to home. Fortunately we've got some great friends that we love to have visit, and who don't seem to mind coming to our house, so we get to stay out of the cold, and be social too!

Speaking of cold ... um, it's been cold. And snowy. We've been out to play in the snow a little bit. I hope we get to go out a bit tomorrow, as it's snowing right now and we're supposed to get up to 10 inches of snow. We now have snow pants for Taipan and Taisim, and it made such a big difference for Taipan to have them on. Taisim declined to wear them, but I'm hoping she'll give them a try the next time we go out.

In the next day or so I'm going to post a bunch of pictures, and caption them as time allows. My Mac was out of commission a bit this past month, so it's been harder to upload pictures.

And we're going to UWWG on Sunday - the event lasts through next Friday, but we're only planning on staying thru Wednesday, partly due to work schedule, and partly out of respect to Taipan's preference for home over hotels. He's on-board with going, but I think anything more than three nights might be pushing his tolerance.

Finally, Happy Year of the Ox! Unforunately we missed out on New Year's Eve dinner at my in-laws' this past Sunday - both kids woke up surprisingly early that morning and were taking marathon naps through the late afternoon and evening hours. Taisim was the first awake at 7:30, and that alone would have been too late to go, but Taipan hadn't even woken up at that point.

Now I'm off to watch some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse - hot dog, hot dog, hot diggety dog!

Playing on 12/28/08

Taipan had two new computer games in his stocking - one was an Incredible Machines game, and the other was Zoombini's Logical Journey.  We were all anxious to checkout the Incredible Machines game ... and we quickly realized that there are not many similarities between it and the one we have.  Both Taipan and I were expecting something different, and he didn't seem to enjoy it too much, and quickly tired of it.  And he hasn't asked for it sense Christmas Day - I think we'll stash it away for a while and bring it out in a year or so.

The Zoombinis game, on the other hand, is a big hit.  We are all enjoying it.  And we even played a game of "Zoombini Duck Duck Goose", where we had to state which zoombini characteristics we had.  If you had skates, you had to skate as you were being chased, etc.

Both kids really enjoy creating the Zoombinis at the beginning of the game.  It's a great game for us all to do together.  

The instruments in the photos below are not new, but they formed another band, and I wanted to get some pictures of it.  They chose a guitar and the accordion this time so they could be like Jack and Mary from Jack's Big Music Show.

Lastly, a nice shot of Taisim with her new hat.  She loves it - it's not only a hat, but it's served as a popcorn bowl (with pretend popcorn, not real), and a swimming pool for one of her dolls.

A warm day in December

The Saturday after Christmas we had an unusually warm day here - it hit almost 60!  It was a very nice surprise.  Taipan slept most of the day, and while he and Yuta were sleeping, Taisim and I played on the swingset for a bit and ran around the yard.

A couple of hours after Taipan woke up the sun came out, and it was just like a spring day.  The morning had been very overcast and windy, but for an hour in the afternoon it was just beautiful.  So we decided to go outside and play with our new balls - the soccer ball was a gift Taipan had wanted for his birthday, and the basketball is a gift he wanted for Christmas.  

The kids through the balls down the driveway and then chase them ... Yuta or I are stationed at the bottom of the driveway to kick the balls back up if they're not caught before they get to the bottom.