Kieferism

Kiefer got out of the shower this morning and was doing his usual drip dry technique. I asked him if he wanted to put on clothes to which he replied he did not.

"But Kiefer", I reasoned, "You have a bare bum!"

"No, I don't have a bear bum, I have a DINOSAUR bum. Roarrrrr!" he exclaimed.

Brotherly and Sisterly Love

Here are a couple pictures from this week that I really like.

Kiefer & Ella Christmas Ornaments

Kiefer and Ella received a package in the mail today from Auntie Dianne. I let Kiefer open the package and recorded it for Dianne.

Big thanks to my Auntie Dianne too! I just love the ornaments!

Snow time!

Kiefer loves the snow! It was finally warm enough today to actually go outside and play in it! We walked around to look at our tracks, played with the shovels to clear the sidewalks, climbed a big snow pile that Don made for us and made lots of snow angels. We were both pretty cold by the end of our snow adventure, but he was having so much fun, only chocolate would lure him back into the house.

Gingerbread House

Kiefer, Nanan & I built a Gingerbread House yesterday. It was not as easy as it looks. It was an all hands on job to get the house upright, firstly. Secondly, it takes some skill to get icing and candy on it, especially because you are up to your elbows in sticky icing.

Kiefer said, "That is a GREAT Gingerbread House!"

I guess we met his expectations, so mission accomplished!

Today he asked to make another one. Ha ha!

Christmas is not a date. It is a state of mind. - Mary Ellen Chase

Here is Kiefer cutting cookies. He loved making the "play dough cookies". We sat on the counter together and ate them as the batches were coming out of the oven. We enjoyed eating trees, sleighs, stars and all sorts of Christmas shapes. It was a great Mom & Son moment. Kiefer is really getting into Christmas this year.

Kiefer skating again!

Kiefer is improving. Here he is from his 2nd skating outing!

Kiefer went skating for the first time!

Don took Kiefer skating today. He got some video of the event too!

Posting video in chronological order:

“Anywhere is walking distance, if you've got the time.” -Stephen Wright

Ella has started walking with a bit of proficiency in the last week. She had been cruising and reaching from one piece of furniture to another for about a month, but has finally taken the leap to try walking for transportation as opposed to crawling.

She is such a stubborn little girl that she accepts help from nobody. If you reach your hand out to her or try to hold her hands for her to walk, she'll actually bat your hand away with disgust. The only walking aide she will use to help her learn to walk is her grocery cart and lawn mower; she loves both!

I was baiting her with her pacifier today to try to lure her a little further out of her comfort zone but that only made her mad because I kept taking it away!

Here is a video of our little walker. Kiefer is in the video too. He is listing train names from Thomas the Train.

Kiefer and the Owl

This week I took Kiefer to Storytime at the local Library. It is an hour or un-parented story and craft time in a classroom setting for kids aged 3-5.

The teacher was phenomenal; she read stories and helped them do some crafts. One of the crafts was coloring an owl picture. The teacher gave them crayons, glue and tissue paper to decorate the owl. I made a big deal of the picture to Kiefer and told him how great it was, but it really didn't look that remarkable. It had some green crayon on it, 2 pieces of tissue paper, a whole bunch of glue and some scribbles.

The scribbles on the piece of paper looked deliberate to me though. I asked him what the scribbles were and he kept saying "owl" over and over again. Then he clearly sounded out to me the sounds of A and L. Sure enough his scribbles were an "a" and backwards "L". Get it? A-L? (Owl???) He was sounding out owl and figured it was an "A"and an "L". It makes a whole lot of sense to a 3 year old to spell it that way!

I was so surprised he was able to compute that and I am so proud! Not bad for a recently turned 3 year old!