A House Full of Letters

Tom brought home a set of alphabet letters that a friend at work gave him.  Tommy and Ellie were so excited by this new treasure and they have been playing with it for hours every day.  It has been a great supplement to Elmo's ABC dvd that seems to run in an endless loop here.

 

One morning last week I picked Ellie up out of bed, and she calmly recited her entire alphabet, no prompting required!

 

Tommy has also been learning his letters and is close on his sister's tail. I think he knows most of the letters; he can bring the right one from the board if you ask him for it, but his diction isn't quite as clear.  They are so cute when they get to Z in the alphabet song.  They always cheer wildly for themselves or whoever else is performing it.

 

They are also pretty darned cute when they give each other

a kiss before bedtime every night.

The most exciting new letters in our home are the ones that fell in place behind Tom's name this afternoon -- Ed.D.  He passed the oral defense of his dissertation today.  He will still need to do a final cleanup of the text and have it printed and bound, then of course he will do the walk in May to receive his diploma, but he has officially earned the title of Dr. Thomas Selvage.  Congratulations, my love. :)

Ellie's First Haircut

Ellie's hair has been poking her in the eyes a bit lately, so we took her to get her first haircut.  Here she was standing up and ready to go even though she was still strapped into the stroller.

 

Ready...

 

Set...

 

Go!

She sat perfectly still the whole time. 

Wiggled less than I do during my haircuts.

 

She even got a little "styling" done.

 

 

 

Not a peep out of Ellie during the whole show, but she was happy to get a lollipop after.

 

 

 

Love, Love, Love

We went to visit my family this week. 

We ate breakfast at the restaurant where Megan works.

 

 

Then we went back to Sandy's house for fun with Rachel and Grandma.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday was not just Valentines Day, it was my 10th anniversary!!!

Unfortunately, Tom had to work until 8 p.m. because it was parent teacher conference day. 

So on the way home from Aunt Sandy's, we stopped and delivered a treat. 

 

Tommy and Ellie studied all the books on Papa's shelves, then carried around their favorites.

H-I-J Elmo

My babies are growing up so quickly, and this past month Ellie's language skills have just blossomed.  She has been obsessed for quite some time with her ABC's, although she is quite insistent that they are H-I-J's.  Last week she added another letter, and they became H-I-J-Elmos.  After much discussion, she now knows that K comes before Elmo.

A Trip to the Zoo

Aunt Sandy came for a visit this week and we took Tommy and Ellie to the Cleveland Zoo.  About halfway there, I realized that I forgot to take my camera, so thank you Sandy for the pictures to go with these fun memories.

The zoo has an awesome indoor rainforest, and we enjoyed up close and personal exhibits with the monkeys and birds.  Well maybe with the monkeys, the birds got a little too close when they flew overhead and pooped on Sandy's jacket.  Thank goodness she wasn't wearing it at the time.

Note to self: if you ever win a trip to the Amazon, don't bother packing sweatshirts. And when in doubt, dress in layers. I dressed myself and my kids for the OUTSIDE weather. Yes, even though I knew we were going to be indoors, and in a rainforest atmosphere. So it was probably in the upper 80's, at least, and very humid.  The only article of clothing I could remove without risking arrest was my socks, so they went.

At the gift shop we picked up two monkeys, two bamboo flutes, and one "educational" book.  The book was actually intended for my brother-in-law, but with recorded sounds to teach us about several species, "Farts in the Wild" was thoroughly enjoyed by the under 2 set.

 

Just a snuggle with Aunt Sandy...

Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve with Grandma and Grandpa Selvage.

 

The hit gift of the evening was a wagonload of blocks that Tommy received. 

Ellie quickly ditched her new doll in favor of the blocks.

 

 

The kiddos had fun exploring Grandma and Grandpa's house. 

They were totally taken by a few magnets on a kitchen cabinet. 

It made us realize how simple Christmas gifts could have been.

Both also enjoyed trying on one of Grandpa's hats.

 

Santa visited our house, leaving a large basket full of

MegaBlocks and a smaller bin of more wooden blocks.

 

They looked so tidy under the tree, but they quickly spread

to cover our entire livingroom floor to a depth of two inches.

 

Here, Tommy has a bit of chocolate from his Papa's stocking.

 

My great idea for this year's Christmas card photo was to dress Tommy and Ellie as shepherds and take them to a life sized nativity scene at the church down the street. 

The weather didn't cooperate with our schedule, so my backup plan was to get their picture with their nativity at home.

 

Getting them to cooperate with my plan was just not happening...

 

the blocks were a distraction...

 

eventually I finally caught Ellie in a brief fly-by...

 

These pictures were taken a few days earlier in my first attempt.  I wasn't able to get both of them together, or even facing in the right direction, but I still liked these shots...

 

Here Mama, you take Jesus...

 

This girl isn't a shepherd... she's the littlest angel. :)