Sick

Ear infections. Stomach flu. Nasty bone wracking coughs. Congestion. Fevers. It's been a rough weekend. And that's why I've been pretty inactive.

Sarong

Grandma Kathy sent treats in the mail today from her trip to Hawaii. It was very exciting to open the package. Ms. Crazy Preschooler got a sarong. For the life of me I can't figure out any of the instructions on how to wrap it around her right, but we sure did have fun trying. I have some pictures of the actual sarong and how we ended up configuring it, and they turned out all right, but I just really fell in love with these close ups of her face from this morning. Ms. CP had a lot of fun pretending to be a tropical princess all morning.

Daily Wisdom From the Four-Year-Old of the House

Spoken in a most chipper voice:

"Mom! I love you so so so so much. I love you so much I hope you never die. I am not going to die for a long time because I have A LOT of numbers yet that I have to be. But you're pretty old, Mom. You could die any time, you know."

Valentines Day Party at Preschool

Last Wednesday Ms. Crazy Preschooler's class celebrated Valentines Day at school. Gus and I got to visit school for the whole morning along with lots of other moms who were assisting with the festivities. The kids decorated cookies, painted, and opened their Valentines. Gus got pretty tired by the end of the affair, but it was super fun to see how her preschool classroom actually worked: how they do calendar, sharing time, writing journal, phonemic awareness, oh . . . I just get excited. She has such a great teacher.

Each student made their own cute little mailbox for Valentines, and when they opened their cards and treats one of the helping moms helped them tape the Valentines into a special book they took home. (What a fantastic idea . . . Ms. CP reads hers all the time.) The treats that came along with the Valentines were also a very big deal, of course. This ring pop sucker was Ms. Crazy Preschooler's coveted jewel from the holiday. She had so much fun slurping on it this afternoon.

Zombies

Ms. Crazy Preschooler and Gus.
Signing Time on my computer.
Distint concentration.

Mini Man Out My Window

Ms. Crazy Preschooler made this snowman last week with one of her babysitters while I was teaching lessons. I love looking out my picture window. His cute little carrot nose just cheers me up. He's just a tiny little guy, which I think makes him an especially cute snowman. He sits right on top of the snow pile where we shovel the snow from the front driveway and peers into the living room all day.

Yesterday we got between 8 and 10 inches of new snow! Hooray. It was a beautiful snow storm. To celebrate Ms. Crazy Preschooler and I made snow ice cream. This was a tradition in Dr. Pediatrician's family when he was a small critter. It was a new experience for both Ms. CP and I. You simply take milk, eggs and sugar, whip them together and add a little flavoring (we used almond extract). Then you add buckets of snow until the mixture is the consistancy of ice cream. Fun! Ms. Crazy Preschooler was soooooo excited about it. "Mom! You'll never have to buy ice cream ever again!"

When Dr. Pediatrician got home from work in the evening he and took Ms. CP sledding for over 2 hours! They had so much fun. I stayed home with Gus, who is recovering from a bad cough, and taught two piano lessons while they were gone.