Snow Days

In the great white outdoors, we've had fun climbing snow mountains, sliding down "haystacks" like Laura Ingalls, and shoveling the driveway.

Inside, days have been filled with tea parties, coloring, and long naps.

Bigger than Goliath

In the middle of another one of those lunchtime conversations, my sweet four-year-old stood up in her chair and announced, "I love Daddy more than I love you." Hoping she had a good reason, I asked why. "Because he's bigger than you are. And he's bigger than Goliath."

I think I'm okay with that.

Birthday Girl

Our girl celebrated birthday number four last week. She requested her usual two layer chocolate cake (In her words, "It's like a sandwich.") with cream cheese frosting and "MNO's" on top. Two things were different this year, however: 1.) She asked for a snowman to accompany the M&M's, and 2.) she skipped her nap to help make both cake and frosting.

She asked her best buddy to help her open every gift, and he shared in her great enthusiasm over each one. Reactions ranged from "Yes! A card with money!" to "Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow!" to "It's just what I've always been wanting!"

This year, she was old enough to understand (and explain to anyone who asked about her birthday) that her party did not occur on her actual date of birth. We marked that day with our traditional breakfast in bed.

If you ask our four-year-old girl about her birthday now, you'll probably hear this: "Yes, I'm going to be five on my next birthday. My bones are getting bigger."

Look Who's Crawling ...

Our plump and pleasant boy has been scooting across rooms soldier-style for quite a while. This week, he mastered crawling on all fours, a much faster way to catch up with his adored big sister and brother.

He also thinks he's pretty special when he's standing.

Watching a baby reach milestones is fun, even the third time around, but the sweetest moments can't be captured with a camera. Those come when a chubby hand rests on your neck and an open mouth plants a slobbery kiss on your cheek, accompanied by "aaaaaah" in a baby-soft voice.

I love my job.

Donkeys for Lunch

Mealtimes get more entertaining every week. Ali has learned that ham is made from pigs, so today she asked me a question about her pig sandwich. I told her people usually call pig ham when it's on a sandwich. "I know," she nodded. "But I call it pig."

Jair added, with a casual shrug of his shoulders, "And I call it donkey."

Next Ali wanted to know, "What kind of animal is cheese?" I told her cheese is made from the milk we get from cows, and I should have known the next question would be, "How do they make the milk into cheese?"

Had to check Wikipedia to answer that one. Turns out, reading about the cheese-making process is no more appetizing than thinking about eating a donkey.

Donkey 'n' stomach enzyme sandwich, anyone?