Flumpy

Amelia comes up with the most creative words. Her word of the past week is Flumpy. I asked her if flumpy was good or bad...she said it is good, unless it is not good. Tuesday she told one of my beginner pianists that she played like a flumpy elephant. Stinker!

This week is sort of uneventful so far. We had a pretty good snow storm roll through on Tuesday dumping about 6 inches of dry snow. The kids helped me shovel the driveway. Amelia is pretty good at pushing snow around. Phillip's snow boots come almost up to his knees making it super difficult for him to bend and move. He face planted into the snow with his bum stuck in the air and his legs straight, feet planted firmly on the ground. He had snow burn on his cheeks, nose, and forehead. After his 4th face plant he stay in the garage and cried. Amelia is super bummed the snow is too dry for a snowman. Maybe we can try today after warmer temps.

Amelia had a great time in preschool this week. She wanted to take the ultrasound prints to show all her friends the new baby. I took some photos of the ultrasound too...sorry about the crappy quality. The paper is super shiny! She loved showing the "golden baby" pics to her friends. Amelia is super excited about "balentine day." She made a fun noodle & heart necklace and a valentine purse. The kids learned about the letter S.

We started putting hearts on each calendar day until Valentine's day because she kept asking if Valentine's was here yet. Her Valentine's outfit is super cute. My cuz Jessica inspired me to make Amelia a skirt out of my old tee shirts and decorate a cute shirt. Phillip got a new shirt too, not Valentine's inspired but monkey inspired. He loves it! I also made a root beer shirt for baby Kaitlyn, due to be born next week. I guess Charity and Melissa call her Root Beer! Funny!

Phillip now pushes the dining room chairs all over the kitchen area climbing onto the counters and such. My kitchen is usually clean before dinner. After dinner...oh man...it looks like a tornado blew through. At least the dishes are done, the floors swept, and nothing dangerous is on the floor. My house feels messy but it is usually only cluttered due to Mr Man following me around, me following him around trying to clean up. We have quite the cleaning cycle! He learned how to get down the basement stairs a couple weeks ago. He gets on his tummy and scoots a good four feet to the landing then slides super fast down the stairs. Since Justin is gone more than usual Phillip started giving Justin quite then welcome home at lunch. When he first sees Justin, Phillip will growl then do something manly (like push the garbage can, tip something over, stomp, throw something, etc). After his little manly display then Phillip will come say hello to Justin. It is the funniest thing ever. "Me MAN!!...must destroy something to prove my manliness...."

Amelia is becoming very helpful lately. She puts her plate in the sink, puts away her things (when prompted) without a fuss, eats her dinner and tries new foods, and will fetch me things (most of the time). Oh man, I am enjoying some reciprocal assistance once in a while. She always says, "Oh! Thank You, MOM! I love you so much." I really try to praise the good aspects of her behavior then apply small corrections after praise. She seems to respond really well to positive reinforcement (duh). Another major milestone is that Amelia can FINALLY reach the light switches without a chair. She really has to stretch but can manage most of the time. Hooray!!!