Open Wide

Tunnel slide descent #1 of 40.

 Tunnel slide descent #2 of 40.

 Tunnel slide descent #3 of 40.

 Tunnel slide descent #4 of 40.

After many failed attempts to lure Anni to the port hole for a smile, I finally caught her on the ascent.

Ahhhh!

Some of my favorite pictures of myself are with this sort of smile - captured moments of pure joy.  It makes my heart more happy than I can say to see this joy in my children.

The Snowy Day

There was snow on the ground this morning!  

It was too cold to go out right away, so we had to bring snow indoors to satisfy our curiosities.  The girls cooked with snow long enough for me to wash up the 5 pots and pans I'd already dirtied today, and chop enough vegetables for a big pot of soup.  This is a record.

 Cooking With Snow

I really thought we would get by without any this winter, so we were ill-prepared and without snowboots that fit, but our shoes with an extra pair of wool socks worked just fine for the little while we were out.

Base-Layers

Chasing

 Tracking

Hi-ho, Silverado!

Yaya made this track, according to Anni.  Pretty sure it was a cat.

Making Our Own Tracks

  

Snowballs to Share

Elli

Anni

Seriously, could they be any sweeter?

Happy Shirt

Some stickers arrived in the mail yesterday from Yaya, which immediately inspired us to color. 

Anni opted to put them on her shirt.  After her design was complete, she looked down at herself and said "Anni's happy shirt."  She wore her happy shirt all day, and then carefully removed each sticker and put it to rest on her paper before bed time.

The Happy Shirt

Elli's stickers made it onto the paper, and then she got real happy with her blue crayon.  I told her that her page had Uncle Ben's favorite colors: blue and yellow.  After looking at the paper for awhile, she continued only with her blue crayon. So, Uncle Ben, here is a sneak peek at your valentine - made thoughtfully just for you.

Uncle Ben's Current Favorite Niece

A Side Note

Many of you have commented on the way videos are "acting" on the blog.

I am now hosting some of my videos via YouTube, so you are actually clicking on an embedded link to an external site.  I would not recommend clicking on any of the "suggested" videos that are displayed after my videos are done playing, as I can't promise it won't contain questionable material.  Just YouTube's way of getting more site traffic, I suspect.

Why the change?  Well, as video cameras get better and better movie quality, Blogger has not upped their maximum data allowance per video upload.  Most videos I take these days exceed those limits.  Incredibly frustrating.  Often times my absences from blogging are because I got so peeved at Blogger over not being able to share something, or because I waited for DAYS for something to upload, only to be told there was an error.  RAR.

It's still a drag having to upload them elsewhere and maintain a second account (because I still have concerns over privacy and how to protect it), but that frustration is much less than NOT being able to share great videos with our faithful fans.  :)

If any of my fellow Blogger / YouTube users have any suggestions on how to do this more seamlessly, please let me know!

Lists

Elli's Artwork

I love lists.  No, you don't understand, I LOVE lists.  When I think, I think in lists.  I don't visualize images or actions happening.  I visualize lists.  Actually, I visualize flowcharts, complete with feedback loops and, I could also argue that they are PID controlled. Ahem.

The girls like lists, too.  They like listing off things we did during the day for Papa when he gets home.  They also keep sub-lists.  For example: the order in which we did things to get out the door.  "Clothes.  Shoes.  Purse. Keys. Car.  Store."

Yesterday, while eating lunch and coloring, the girls made two lists that I hadn't heard before.

I counted out 5 chocolate chips for Elli: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5."   And then she continued by saying, under her breath, "6, 7, 8, 9... 10."  WHOA!  (She did not receive chocolate chips 6 through 10, despite her awesome list.)

We also happened to be experiencing heavy prairie winds, which made it sound like our house was under some air assault.  Anni suspected it was an airplane, and even though I assured her it was just the wind flying, she was still concerned.  To distract her, I asked her to tell me some other things we could see flying.  Here is her list:

Anni's Artwork

• airplanes ("air-pwanes")
• helicopters ("heh-coppers")
• Soldiers ("soh-jers", they fly in the "heh-coppers")
• dinosaurs ("dy-o-sars")
• butterflies ("buh-fies")
• Super Grover ("super grower")
• owls ("ows")
• "quacks" (that would be ducks)

  

Snow Bunnies

The girls caught a cold, so I put all excursions on hold for a day to try to nip it quickly.  By mid-afternoon, Anni was pressing her face against the back door and pining aloud for outdoor adventure.  I told her we could go out to "water paint" if she wore a sweater and hat in addition to her coat. (She hates wearing hats.)  The girls took it a step further by donning protective eyewear.  They looked like snow bunnies... minus the snow.

Sunglasses and Rainbows

HAHA.  Did you laugh as hard as I did at that video?  I don't know what it is, but the whole thing really gets me in the belly.

Piggies

Catching the Wind

It sure is easy to catch the prairie wind in your mouth, in these parts.

Shake It!

The girls love story time at the library.  Mostly they like people watching, but they get really into any singing, dancing, or repeated phrases, too.  

During one segment of story time, the kids have to go up and get maracas from a bin.  Elli is always the first up there and the last to leave.  She likes to see if there are any leftovers so she can have multiple.  Anni is more timid and will wait in the crowd until a clear path is revealed to the bin.  (She seems to not want to get in anyone's way.) Most times the librarian hands her one before she makes it up there, and then she grins with glee before galloping back to her seat.  

I tried my best to take a good video of some maraca-shaking today... Not my best, but cute, nonetheless.

Letters

The girls received magnetic letters for Christmas.  I spelled out their full names on Grandma's refrigerator one evening, and returned to find them re-organized.  Aren't they so smart?*

They've been able to identify their letters since early September, thanks to the foam alphabet puzzles the girls received for their birthdays, and countless (and excessive) readings of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

They've been able to say all of their letters since early October.  (My favorites are when Elli says "W" and Anni says "H".  I shall endeavor to capture that on video!)

*Every parent I know believes their child to be a genius.  I am no exception.  Just roll with me, here.  

Hugs

  

Garnish

What do you do when you're at a steakhouse, have just finished off an adult plate of chicken tenders (3 - 7 inch pieces) and french fries, and you're still hungry?

You eat the garnish, of course.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  If I tried to convince you of how much these girls eat in a day, you wouldn't believe me.

Donut Shoppe

I took the girls to visit a new donut shoppe that opened up downtown.  I thought it was would be a great "experience".  We would sit in the cozy cool little place - me with my coffee and the girls with their donuts - and we would have great conversation.

Length of "experience": T < 2 minutes

Please note that the donuts were not around long enough for me to even get picture of them.  It took us longer to get seated than it did to eat them.

Jump Jump

The girls LOVE jumping.  When they get hyper, they start running while jumping and grunting "jump", which is hilarious. 

Anni and Elli will make you jump, jump.

And, no, we aren't wearing our clothes backward, because that's wiggety wiggety whack, yo.

In case this post was a throw back to junior high for you:  Kris Kross.

Watermarking

Papa finished the upper-railings on our deck reno this weekend, so we were able to venture out there and do some painting.  Water painting, that is.  Oh, we wrote our names, drew flowers and doggies and piggies and helicopters and tractors.  Free fun!

Elli telling me that this squiggle is a tractor.

Anni's close-up.

Elli carrying our medium over to an "untouched" area.

Anni drawing flowers.

Artists don't often work well in teams, but we do. 

Bye, Mommy!

My girls like to "disappear" still.  The very act of shutting their eyes renders them invisible to all others.  I continue to play along.  They say "Bye, Mommy!" and "away" they go.  Even the other sister will play along with the charade.  They also like to disappear by physically tucking themselves away.  They usually don't bother to totally hide, though, because as soon as they can't see anyone, the job is considered done.

Anni: "Bye, Mommy."

Now I see her...

Now I, supposedly, don't.

"Boo!"

The socks are the give away, Elli.

No matter. We're only interested in the theatrics, anyway.  "Boo!"

Sense and Sensibility

Surely, this is my progeny.

Transfixed by Jane Austen.

 And, perhaps, one of them is "sense" and one of them is "sensibility", like Elinor and Marianne.

Boredom Buster

Sixty Degrees

When it's over 60 degrees in January, what do we do?

We visit the city park for a nature walk.

Anni leads the way.  She picks the most interesting paths. 

She would walk straight off a ledge for how mission-focused she is.

Elli follows behind.

She prefers to stay closer to Mommy, and often holds my hand.

Posing.  They actually did it when I asked them to for the first time.  Sort of.

We visit the play structure.

Anni climbs up and comes down the slide all by herself for the first time.

Elli DID do it by herself once or twice, even on the tallest

and twistiest slide, but not this time.

We go get FroYo.

Anni devours hers instantly and asks for more.

Elli dawdles while people-watching and day-dreaming.

We head off to "our" market (where everybody knows our names, dum-dum-dum).

Go-carting.

We wash it all off in the bathtub, nosh some dinner, then run around in circles singing "ring-around the rosie" 12 times, followed by racing our cars and trains repeatedly down the hall way, then snuggle with Papa for a few minutes when he gets home.  A wonderful day.

Pretty Lights

One of things I will miss about this holiday season was the awe inspired by Christmas lights.

Growing up, it was tradition in my family to go for drives to look at lights.  The Doubleshot are rarely out late, because bedtime is at 7, but when we happened to be out and about after dark one evening, the girls really got to take in the light displays for the first time.  This began an obsession with "pretty lights".

More Lights?

From then on, we could not drive anywhere without "More lights?  More lights?  MORE LIGHTS!!!!" being shouted from the backseat over and over and over.  And, then, just when I would get a reprieve from the cycle, the girls would spot more twinkling lights and start again.

We are also fortunate to have a great view of several neighborhoods from our perch up on the farmer's hillside.  Each night when it would get dark, (insert Anni announcing that it was "DARK!!!" very loudly each evening, just in case we didn't notice) the girls would look out to see all of the "pretty lights" and comment on them.

Pretty Lights

Pure magic.

Pigtails

Were you concerned about our coiffures based on yesterday's pictures?  Fear not.  Enter Pigtails.
 

Pigtails are powerful.  So powerful that you can obtain discounts on catering in their presence.  Or divert attention from a mother's particularly bad hair day. Or bring even the sushi man from the local market to dig out his phone to snap a picture.  Or draw forth a smile and "hello" from practically every one who sees them.  If you have a low moment, think about 2 sets of "piggy tails" and be well!

Too much flash photography, Sushi man.

Bubble Beards