A Fat Cat

Esther can read! A little while ago Esther started getting really interested in figuring out which letters were in different words. She seemed anxious and ready to learn to read. I found an easy book and for the past week or so she's been sounding out flashcards of the different words that are in it. Yesterday I got out the book and told her she could read it all by herself. She was skeptical at first, but once she got through it the first time she was so proud. This is her third time reading it.

Here is a picture Esther wanted me to put on this post. She was disappointed that she wasn't wearing her blanket dress while she read the book.

Hangin' Out

Twice a week while Esther is at Joy School, William and I get a little bit of one-on-one time. Though it's tempting to use this whole time to run errands with half the number of children in tow, I try to do things that Will wants to do. Especially since we've only got about two more months before William's time gets encroached on by another little person. During Wednesday's Joy School we were in the neighborhood of a McDonald's with a play place.

Maybe I'm weird, but I think that a toddler eating is cute enough to videotape.



After starting up, Will noticed the shoe rack. Having previously worked at McDonald's, and knowing how often those play places are cleaned, and also what sorts of things one might find up there, I actually prefer him to leave his shoes on. But with his new found skill of getting his shoes on and off, he didn't want to pass up the opportunity. (Sorry for the bouncy camera work.)

He did eventually make it all the way up.

Mr. Fix It

William has two great passions in his life: playing with trains and fixing things. Here he is with a hammer he made out of his duplo blocks. He loves to go around the table and hammer in all the screws while exclaiming, "Mommy I fixing it!"

Pure Esther

Esther has her own unique view on how the world works. For instance, if the mom driving you home in the Joy School carpool offered you the last chocolate in a box, you'd probably accept it. But if you were an Esther, you'd ask if you could keep the box, being sure that somehow the box was a key to making more chocolates.



Esther was positive that the words on the back of the box were instructions on how to make more chocolates. Nothing I could say would change that opinion.



Strangely enough, I actually had some melting chocolate on hand. I have never made chocolates before in my life, so it really is odd that we had some. Esther decided to put blueberries, strawberries, and peanut butter (all separately) into the "mold" then pour on the melted chocolate.


Since the back of the box had pictures of decorated chocolates, we had to decorate ours too. Good thing we had a few spoon fulls of William's birthday cake frosting leftover in the fridge.


They actually turned out pretty good!


They tasted even better than they looked. Esther says that tomorrow we need to make some to send to Daddy.


Keeping up with Esther's ideas is incredibly fun, but never ending. For example, notice the necklace and bracelet she's wearing in the pictures. She made one yesterday and the other today. She is constantly making things and amazing me. My current favorite is this crown:

Yesterday she was playing on the computer. I heard the printer and she ran to show me the princesses she'd found and printed off. She asked for her glue, scissors, and tape - nothing new after printing something. I proceeded to do what I was doing (talking on the phone with Cameron I think) when a little while later she came to me wearing this beautiful crown. She had cut out the princesses and glued them to a scrap of plastic I hadn't thrown away yet. Then she taped the ends together to fit her head. What a creative little girl we've got!

Princess Dances

Esther wanted to do a princess dance for her daddy. This is the easiest way to get it to him. Being Esther, she couldn't stop with just one, so those who wish get to be entertained by several princess dances, plus one kitty dance that the princess recorded all by herself. William was napping, so there aren't any prince dances. Maybe next time.

Connecticut and Back

Over the weekend we took a little family trip to Connecticut. Yes, we are crazy. We probably wouldn't have normally taken this 11 hour drive in January weekend getaway, but Cameron started his psych rotation in CT yesterday, and we wanted to see him off.

So, Friday morning we woke up bright and early and headed out. We took quite a few stops, and ended up at our hotel around 7:30. The kids were great. It helped that the seat belt next to William broke, so the kids were on separate rows of the van. There were no complaints of siblings poking each other. Our only complaint was the lack of indoor playgrounds at fast food chains along the way. Our improvised game of hide-and-seek at a Wal Mart after lunch worked out just fine though.

Saturday morning Cameron checked into the hospital and got his room key. The kids had lots of fun jumping on beds while we waited (that's what hotels are for, right?). We spent the afternoon at a place called Funstation. Both kids got their first taste of roller skating, which was harder than they expected it to be, but still fun. They spent most of their time playing in the ball pit and climbing around the soft-play area.

Sunday morning we dropped Cameron off at his new home for the next six weeks in the Danbury Hospital. Esther and William thought his rolling coat rack was lots of fun to ride. Then we said our goodbyes and headed home. I must admit that I was a little nervous about driving that whole way with the two kids by myself, but since this trip was my bright idea, I wasn't going to back down because of that minor detail. I did give myself the option of stopping somewhere for the night if things got tough, but it wasn't necessary. The kids were angels for the first half of our trip, and asleep for the second half. We only made one stop and were home by 5:30.

We had a good trip. We are glad for the time we were able to spend as a family. We already miss Cameron (aka Daddy), and can't wait to see him again. Hopefully these next weeks will fly by.