The five of us celebrated my 35th birthday on March 15th with cake, balloons, decorations, a nice walk, and (for once) a meal that didn't take Doug hours to prepare. The highlight of the day for the boys was the Lego "Droid Escape" that they and Doug got "me". Nicholas helped me put it together, and Donovan loves the new C-3PO and R2-D2 figures that came with it. Lily's highlight was the balloons spread throughout the house.
Donovan, Nicholas, Lily, and me
Lily with one of the balloons
My "first" Lego, as Nicholas called it
Donovan, Lily, me, and Nicholas. I'm holding Donovan's favorite Lego, an R2-D2 robot from the movie Star Wars. R2-D2 is a very sought after item in our house. Both boys take turns hiding it from each other - making the other quite upset.
Lily helping me open a special birthday candy bar.
We took a nice walk down to the ball-park (about 1/4 mile from our house). The trees behind us are cottonwoods, and they are just starting to smell like Alaska. Hopefully we'll get up there this summer.
The next several pictures were taken this past week while Doug was in India. He did a really nice job capturing his trip in a separate blog that you can find at: dvancitters.blogspot.com While he was sweating through 100 degree weather and having an incredible trip, we were enjoying unseasonably warm weather - which reached into the 70s or 80s for almost 5 days.
Nicholas and Donovan on a boulder along the path to Balch Hill (behind our house).
Lily, Donovan, and Nicholas on the top of Balch Hill. The sun was too bright for them to actually look my way.
Nicholas and Donovan pretending to fish in a vernal pond near the top of Balch Hill. The ice was still on most of the pond, but there was enough open water to drop some sticks in.
Lily playing in the driveway. She's loves to pick stuff up, and put it in her bucket or in a shopping cart.
I realize that I haven't put any actual updates on the kids lately, so I thought I'd jot a few notes on their likes and dislikes.
Nicholas, now 5 years and 4 months old, is a self-professed "Lego-maniac". He loves to build things with Legos. Most of his creations are airplanes, jets, space vehicles, and other things that fly. When Doug returned from India, he brought his box of Legos (from when he was a child) out of the garage for the boys to play with. We now have an entirely new set of Lego creations - all following the same theme as above - just constructed with different components. Nicholas has a few activities that he does every week. He spends two hours on Wednesday afternoons at a pre-school class at our local science museum. The class includes 4-6 year olds, and is structured around a different scientific concept each week (they've done tracking animals, buoyancy, balance, marble tracks, making bread and butter, etc.). He and Donovan also do several fun activities together. They often go to a story hour at the library (several stories, songs, and an art project). Our children's librarian is really excellent and the kids love him. They sometimes go to a "Lego class" at the library. Once a week they go to gymnastics. Nicholas is now in a class of 5-6 year olds, and is learning to do many gymnastics tricks. He really enjoys gymnastics, is incredibly strong and lean, and LOVES doing cartwheels and roundoffs. He'll do them anywhere, and everywhere - and they compete with Legos for being among his favorite things.
Donovan, now almost 3 and a half years old, has recently been going through a period where he says he doesn't like anything. In the last week, he's decided that he doesn't like milk, he doesn't like meat, he doesn't like Star Wars, etc. On the other hand, he does like penguins, R2-D2 (the Star Wars robot I mentioned above), princesses, and a pretend monster that he calls either "U-B-A" or "Boo-B-A". A month ago, Donovan was a relatively unfocused gymnastics student (running around like a crazy guy), but he's now doing a really great job listening, and staying in his place in line. He does a perfect somersault, and both he and Nicholas can climb a rope higher than anyone else in their class. This week, Donovan started a special speech class at the elementary school. While he talks non-stop, there are several sounds that he usually doesn't say - especially if he is tired or speaking fast. He's begun working on the "w" sound, which he normally pronounces as "h". In just one class, he made remarkable progress, he's excited about it and is having fun (which is a huge change from his not liking everything phase).
And, Lily, at age 16 months, is developing a personality all her own. She's generally very sweet and personable, though she likes having things done her way. She is a "Mommy's girl", but is very happy to have Doug back from India. She has begun to scream at a high pitch if you take something away from her, she doesn't like getting into her carseat or stroller, she is impossible to keep in her high chair without the seatbelt attached, she doesn't like to wear a bib, and she really likes to feed herself. On the other hand, she loves to dress up and wear necklaces, she loves to read, she loves to "talk" on the phone, she loves to take walks, and she really loves to cuddle. Her favorite books are "Goodnight Moon", "Chugga Chugga Choo Choo", and a picture book of things that are red, green, blue, etc. Her vocabulary is growing rapidly and now includes many words, though they don't necessarily sound just like the regular word: doggie, kittie, mommy, daddy, hi, again ("a-ga"), yes please ("eh pea"), thank you ("ay oo"), car/train ("coo coo"), beep, grandpa ("bapa"), and balloon, among others.
I've included several other pictures from the last week in the slideshow below.
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