Winter in St. Louis

We have been keeping busy this winter. Here is a photo dump of some of what we have been up to...

Paul and Jenae and family spent a day with us shortly after Christmas on their way to Arizona. It was super cold so we took them to the science center. One of the places in the science center the kids tend to always go is the Mars Rover room. Specifically the place where you get to build your own.

Then you give it a test drive.

 Keith made one for Jane with a bit of her help.

One of the things Charlie has wanted to do for the longest time has been to ride to the top of the Arch. Keith had time off after Christmas so we decided to go.

Waiting for the little door to open so we can enter our tram "pod" that will take us to the top.

Only 5 little seats per pod. It was like being inside a large egg with a glass door so you can see out into the inside of the arch. The engineering behind the whole process is fascinating to me. The actual engineers in the family would think it is pretty cool.

Little windows at the top!

One of the things that was a big seller for Keith in our house was the basement that is almost completely unfinished. He worked in construction and this was a blank canvas that made him giddy. The part of the basement that is finished is fairly small and we really wanted to open it up more to give the kids and their friends a bigger place to play and go crazy without driving me crazy. So we are finishing a section of the basement and will knock out the wall in between it and the original finished section. Keith has enjoyed having a project, especially during the winter.

Molly likes to follow me down and sniff around the construction area while I am there. Whenever we send her out she is right there on the other side of the door waiting for us. The framed in box looking thing in the corner goes aroung the sump pump. However, the sump pump pipes aren't that tall so Keith framed in a raised floor for a reading nook that will have little steps going up to it. It has been fun to brainstorm various ideas of how to make the space fun for the kids.

The kids get so excited when Keith has a job that they can help with!

The flu season has been bad across the country this year and we didn't escape it. It hit some of us twice! It melts my heart to see how kind Charlie and Jane are when a family member is sick. They run to get their favorite stuffed animal or doll and give it to the sick person to help them feel better. Not long ago Keith and I were both sick at the same time. Ugh. Jane took her two most loved dolls and gave one to each of us so we could sleep with them instead of her. They draw pictures, cover the person with their own blankets and tell them over and over how very sorry they are that you are sick. Charlie likes to help Jane feel better by reading her books when she is sick. 

 Charlie had a birthday!!! 7 years!!! Can you believe it? He is such a kind-hearted, inquisitive, energetic kid. We love him to pieces.

 Speaking of which, he read in a book one day about a neat way to see the patterns that salt makes as it melts through ice, so naturally we had to do it. You sprinkle salt on ice then add food coloring which lets you see the veins of water left behind by the salt crystals as the melt deeper and deeper into the ice. It looks more impressive in real life and with clear ice, which we didn't have.

 We also made slime for the first time. It was more fun making it than playing with it! Or at least I think so.

 We added glow in the dark paint to ours as well. :)

 We don't have many days where we are going out in public so Jane has been choosing her own clothes with little say, if any, from me. This particular day made me laugh. She was wandering around obviously frustrated about something when she found her cat ears. She got a huge smile on her face, put them on her head, and proclaimed: "Perfect! Now I'm a princess!!!" I'm not sure what cat ears have to do with being a princess, but then again I am not a 4-year old.

And last but not least Charlie is doing great in school. They recently celebrated the 100th day of school and he got these glasses. I don't know how well he could see in them but he managed to complete his spelling words while wearing them!

Let the good times continue! (And I will try not to get too far behind...)

Hair (or lack thereof) Update

I know this is kind of a strange thing to blog about, but I wanted to document my journey and this is a part of that.

This is (hopefully) the extent of my hair loss. Pardon the hat hair.

The baldspot spread along the left side which made it impossible to hide with the ear warmers that I have been given by sweet friends. So I decided to just cut it all of and go with a short pixie since I am going to live in hats anyway for the next few months.

The day before cutting it off.

I have realized two things since loosing half my hair:
One, my exposed scalp is incredibly sensitive. Like really sensitive.
Two, I took for granted how much heat my hair kept in. I am constantly cold now and sleep in a loose (remember the sensitivity) fleece winter hat. Even with a pile of blankets!

Photo Dump

Some random pics from the last couple of months...

One of the best part of moving, at least for the kids, is jumping in and crawling through the loads of packing paper the movers use.

When Charlie and Jane pretend to be going some place it is almost always to one of the grandparent's houses or... Costco, which is where Jane was headed in her little pink car.

Three mountain jays hogging the feeder. The majority of the birds show up to eat right around the time my family wants to eat as well. This has resulted in more than a few late dinners because I have a rather difficult time focusing on getting our food ready when there is so much avian action right outside the window.

One of the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds guarding the feeder. Do you see her perched on the wire?

Hummingbird feeder aren't just for the hummers. Downy Woodpeckers apparently are fans too! These two are frequent visitors to our yard.

Jane's morning hair. Always impressive, always a mess.

Jane got the side taken off her crib! About a week after she got it taken off she started getting out of bed a lot so Keith put it back on. The entire time he was putting it on both kids cried and pleaded with him to leave it off. We apparently are the meanest parents ever. Ever since it came back off a few days later, though, she has been pretty good at staying in. Oh, and she pretty much potty trained herself. Keith and I are still in shock at the stark difference between our drawn-out disaster experience of potty training Charlie and her. I would have kept her in diapers until she was in kindergarten if it meant not going through a Charlie experience again. Maybe she picked up on that...

The week before school started the nearest cousins drove down for a visit! It included a trip to the huge and free zoo here. That is right, it is free. Just another reason people should come visit us. ;)

There was this gorilla statue that every kid wanted to get onto. It couldn't fit all without a major disaster so we compromised with doing boy/girl pics.

Jane was super cool and cute with her pink hat, purple sunglasses and little attitude that I had to get a picture. She didn't want anything to do with it but I got this one and I think it represents it well.

Merrill Water Park! It was all fun and games until they broke the sprinkler. The good news is that we haven't had to water the lawn since.

 

They were making mud pies but it looked like more of a mud puddle.

I like to think that I handle kids playing in mud fairly well. I think it is healthy for kids to be free to get their hands in the dirt. Mud worked deep into hair however, is a different story. It took loads of shampoo and a rather unpleasant wrestling match in the tub to get it out.

You can't see them in the picture, but Jane is staring intently at a little group of baby bunnies hiding in our tiny garden box. Bunnies seem to like us this summer.
 
My super awesome hubby designed and made this super awesome bookshelf for the kids...

...with a little help from our super awesome kids.

 

Bugs, bugs and...

...more bugs! Jane is actually becoming more drawn to them and cautiously wants to hold them now. Well, most of them.

And THIS big guy started kindergarten!

He likes it a lot although it has been quite the adjustment for both of us. I am getting used to a less flexible routine and so is he. There were about three weeks there when almost everyday he would come home and I would wonder what happened to my Charlie. He was mister grouchy pants! I was describing what he was like to a friend and she pretty accurately said that it is like he used up all his energy to sit still and behave well at school that when he got home he just couldn't keep his crazy emotions in check any more. Gratefully we are learning together how to make the transition from school to home better and things are improving. At least the adjustment didn't seem to dampen his excitement for school!

With Charlie in school I have had more time to spend just with Jane. At first she was grouchy because she missed her older brother, but now she seems to be happy to spend time with me. It also helped when she realized that when Charlie is away she can play with whatever she wants, how ever she wants without Charlie there to boss her around. In the above picture she is showing off the bagel with cream cheese that she made for me. :)

Still she loves going to get Charlie from the bus; rain or shine.

Life is good.