Lonely chair

I remember that distinct moment a few years ago when it became clear that Nate and Nile were ready to "graduate" to the next level of seating at the table:

Now it seems Novak may have hit that milestone. He recently discovered that he can climb up into the counter-height chairs at the breakfast bar. And now that he has, he wants nothing to do with the booster mounted on the center chair. He wants only to sit in "Nate's chair" or "Nile's chair."

This morning, with Novak sitting in the chair previously occupied by Nate, I had to remove the booster so Nate could sit down for breakfast.

Once again, life has demonstrated to me just how little control I have over the passage of time. My baby is quickly growing up. :(

This is his "Perfect Piggies" smile (from the Sandra Boynton book).
There's a line in the book that says "No one around has a lovelier smile!"
He does this whenever I read that line.

The lonely chair

"Want to sit in Nate's chair!"

Snow buddy

I can't remember for sure if we had Novak out in the snow last year, but finally the weather was warm enough yesterday that I felt he could be outside.

As predicted, he was a little whiny and didn't like walking in his snow boots, but he got over that enough to have some fun.

Afterwards he got to have another first. Hot cocoa with peppermint marshmallows - in a "big boy cup!" He calls it coffee, the silly boy.

:)

I think these two like each other.

My printer can eat your printer

We got a new printer for Christmas. Our old one has been "dead" for several months. After looking at it sitting in the box for the last few weeks, and complaining about not being able to print, I finally decided to go ahead and set it up.

It's significantly larger than our old printer. I took a picture of them together for a comparison.

And it may have the most ink cartridges I have ever seen on a printer. Maybe this will mean that we replace them less, but my guess is we will have all 8 go out at once each time. :S

Hot cocoa...soda fountain style

Only Nile would have to drink his hot cocoa through a straw.

"Hey mom! I sucked a marshmallow up through my straw!"

Snuggling buddies

Not the best cell phone pics, but look how cute these two are together! Novak wanted to watch Nile play the "Cars game" on the Leapster. He crawled right up and snuggled in.

Subtraction Math Star!

Nate has been hard at work on his time tests all semester. He's struggled with the time tests, not because the math is hard, but because he was finding it hard to work quickly.

For the time tests, the students are given a set amount of time to solve 100 math facts. They have 3 minutes to solve 100 addition facts, and 5 minutes for 100 subtraction facts.

A few months ago, I told him I knew he could do it by Christmas. And sure enough, yesterday he came home a subtraction "Math Star!" He was so proud of himself, and I am so proud of him.

Now to work on addition!

Merry Christmas Solo

Merry Christmas to you!

Merry Christmas Cubed!

Christmas Tree Decorating - 2012

I can't believe I got them all to stand together for a picture.

Charitable Giving

I'm pretty proud of my boys tonight.

This morning, as Nate was searching for a missing "wormie fuzzy animal," he tore apart his room, leaving it a complete mess.  When I walked in, it was overwhelming.

I talked with him about how he needs to be better about keeping his room organized, and was surprised when he was eager to "reorganize his room."  What more, he wanted to donate some of his old stuff.  I was happy to oblige.

Nate's clean organized room!

Then, after lunch, I asked Nile if he could do the same to his room.  To my surprise, when I suggested he and Nate do it together, they jumped at the chance and had his room clean in less than 10 minutes!

Nile and his clean room!

Maybe more impressive was the fact that they then went to the basement and cleaned it up as well.

our perfectly clean basement!

At the end of it all, we had a large moving box full of toys to donate to Goodwill.  To recognize all the hard work they'd done, they each earned two "mom points" and I took them out to dinner after we dropped off the box at the Goodwill Store.  

I'm pretty proud of these two tonight. :)