In the name of love

February. The month of love. Valentine's Day and our anniversary. 9 years this past February. We celebrated by going out to a couple new breweries in Fort Wayne. 

You know who seems to get the most love around here? You know. Simon. Who do the girls want to see the minute they get off the bus? Simon. Who does Mommy take too many pictures of? Simon. Who does Felicity beg to see the minute he wakes up? Simon.

First smoothie.

Favorite toy-that-belongs-to-Elijah

Something's off here.

Yes, apparently he doesn't get proportions yet.

LYLAB

BFFs + Super Mom

Yup, that sums up the Simon life.

So in other February news...there was e-learning. WE LOVE e-learning. These are our bonus days. The girls are home and we don't have to make up school for bad weather. We just do the school work at home. It's a lovely, lovely thing.

On a relatively warm afternoon, we went up to Pokagon for a hike through the woods. These peaceful times as a family are going to be memories we'll cherish. When people say, "You're going to miss these days" they're right. We will miss the days we stopped everything to just enjoy our children. 

 Mommy and Aunt Bridget took Simon, Elijah, and Felicity to the botanical gardens in Fort Wayne. It's an annual trip that let's us pretend it's summer for a day with warm, fresh air and play that feels almost outdoors.

 

Tim took Vivian to a friend's birthday party at the local roller skating rink. She really enjoyed it and is getting pretty quick on those skates. Just has to figure out how to balance on them and she'll be ready to let go of the trainer!

AND speaking of love...we love Aunt Bridget! Her birthday is in February and we surprised her with a family birthday party! The Canadian family members even came!!

A quick, lovely post for a short, lovely month.

February

Playing catch up is going to really take some time at this pace...but we'll get there!

Looking back February was a tough month because it was our last month with Mema - Tim's grandmother.

It was Simon's first ear infection...and his hate for the car seat continued.

It was Felicity realizing she's no longer the baby of the family. Felicity is a sweet, sweet little girl who just brings sunshine wherever she goes. But not being the baby was suddenly un-fun. She showed us in a variety of ways...from telling her sisters she got to play at Nana's all day when we picked them up from school (she hadn't) to cutting her hair and whatever she could dream up in between. Could it be because Simon's naps were so terrible? Or because he hated taking a bottle?

Miriam had a deep wart cut out of the bottom of her foot. Daddy made it better with the biggest lollipop he could find. (Jealous Felicity eventually smashed the sucker...it was a really tough parenting month.) 

There were certainly bright spots! Weather warm enough for bike rides and walks.

Simon's first "sitting up" stroller ride

Bubble baths with crazy hair!

Aunt Kim came to town and got to meet Simon!

Valentine's Day!

Vivian went to a classmate's birthday party at the skating rink! 

The big girls had snow days and got messy with shaving cream!

Miriam was awarded a Virtue Award for Patience at school! (A very proud parenting moment!)

Uncle John took Felicity to see Daniel Tiger Live! (We are still hearing about every wonderful detail MONTHS later!)

Mommy, Felicity, and Simon took a trip to the botanical gardens for some lovely fresh air and a special Mary Poppins exhibit. Practically perfect in every way.

We kept up with our theme weeks...making elephant toothpaste was probably Felicity's favorite.

Simon grew stronger. Three months old and very loved.

He practiced this silly face over and over...

...and tummy time.

At the end of the month, while Mommy was eating a banana he leaned in and had a taste!

So begins his exploration of the world of solid foods!

Valentine's Day + (mostly) House Update

What did we do for Valentine's Day? Visit the new house, Mass, Italian takeout, and a living room fort. The interior is pretty much painted!

We don't really do much for Valentine's Day, but have found that what we do like to do is hang out as a family!

Today we had a home showing...which is never relaxing. And about 2 hours before the showing, Mommy found this situation in her bathroom:

And she simultaneously wanted to cry and kill someone...the someone who had found a weak spot in the wallpaper and got carried away. No one was injured but Mommy did not keep her cool. We later found out this was Vivian. Her punishment is still being considered and Daddy JUST got the torn off piece of wallpaper back into place. It's not perfect but it's better than how we had to show this house this evening.

The ol' toilet paper drape trick. Oldest trick in the book. (Heaviest sigh in the history of home showings.)

Tim can fix anything. Anything. Well, you've been subjected to enough pictures of our toilet. We're off to dream up some wild discipline that will make Vivian think twice and think right in the future.

Holed up, Snowed in, Cabin Fevered

We've been having lots of fun the last couple of weeks with the alphabet, Valentine's Day, and of course, the SNOW. 

The snow is actually half way up the fence now. And more is coming tonight. This is where the garden is normally seen...but it's disappeared. The nice thing is that the lowest layers have frozen solid and the girls can kind of walk on the top rather than have to struggle through drifts up to their waists.

Also our perspective on cold has changed. Anything over ten degrees is completely acceptable for outdoor play and twenty or above is practically warm.

Daddy brought in this icicle...it's not even close to being the biggest one hanging off the roof.

Vivian has a small issue keeping her mittens on. Felicity has face planted a couple times when trying to crawl through a drift to reach her Mommy. It leaves her sobbing and shivering until we take her back inside. Miriam wanted to know last week, "Why is winter the longest season?" It's not. It just feels that way sometimes.

Until spring, we'll keep them cuddled up close.

D Week. So to offset the HOURS we are cooped up inside, Mommy has been trying to keep the girls busy with their alphabet activities. We talked about Daddy, dentists, dinosaurs, and more during D Week. While playing with dinos and playdough, we were reminded again that we're raising girls.

 Miriam made her dinosaur a beautiful saddle for a princess to ride him. And Vivian's dino sat on a throne.

Best activity award goes to elephant toothpaste. Miriam and Vivian were in awe. If you want to look like a superhero/genius to your kid this week, we recommend it.

E Week. Eggs, Easter, eyes, ears, Earth...and ERUPTION! Miriam is still freaking out that volcanoes exist. But she also wants to take a vacation to see one...mixed signals. To explain eruption to the girls, Mommy gave them a container of baking soda and a few small bottles (picked them up at Joann's) of vinegar and food color. This was Vivian's heaven. She could not get enough of "making the bubbles happen."

 And then they got to erupt milk!

During the milk bubbling, Miriam asked to try water. It doesn't create bubbles the same way as milk and we got to have a conversation about how liquids are composed differently and behave differently. She asked to mix the water and milk together and try to make bubbles. It was amazing to literally watch her mind working.

Valentine's Week. We love celebrating Valentine's Day with our girls. We never made much of a fuss about it before children, but like every other holiday, they make it so much fun. We made a reservation, got dressed up, and took them to a Japanese restaurant. They tried everything in our bento boxes. Miriam was crazy about the miso soup and salmon. Felicity gobbled up her first taste of shrimp. Vivian liked everything except the sushi! It came back out of Miriam's mouth, too. She politely said, "That is not my favorite taste." During dinner we also took turns saying something we love about each family member and exchanged Valentines.

Daddy gave his Valentines flowers, Mommy made hers brownies!

During the week, Miriam and Vivian made PILES of Valentines. It was craft mania and there were always tiny scraps of paper on the floor for Felicity to eat no matter how often Mommy swept. We also made a list on the white board of Ways to Show Someone You Love Them. The normal stuff came up like, "say I love you" and "give a hug", but they also thought of "say you're sorry" and "help pick up toys"!

It's so nice to have four Valentines!