February Fools!

Paul woke up from his nap just after I uploaded the pictures, so I let him dictate to me what he wanted to say about each picture. He typically wakes up from naps in a very conversational mode (unless I have to wake him to go get Micah from school.) Paul is on a roll with helping me on computer projects like this one, because I had him pick my March Madness Basketball Bracket picks and I am in first place BY A LOT! Anyhow, all of the words below are straight from Paul, except I've added my own comments in italics.

That's me in the Big Kid Corner. (Sam still isn't crawling, but over New Year's, we moved all of the small pieces upstairs into this hall space, forming a Lego corner.)

Sam is in the Bumbo.

Samuel with food all over him. (Our baby loves all of the purees I've made for him! Thankfully, he also quickly learned the first lesson Anthony and I needed to teach Samuel: Do not put your hand in your mouth after every bite of food.)
Sam in his bunting in his chair.

That's when Micah was skiing with you, mom.
Micah and me reading our new books from the library. (They barely got in the door from the library!)

Sam was in everything.

That was funny. Click that play button again, mom!

When I readed a book to Sam and Micah was building a workshop. (I'll need to work on the past tense of "read.")

We were opening your...what's that called again? Oh yeah. Capsule. (We made a time capsule to be opened in the year 2020. I had this totem-pole thing that I had made in elementary school. Thinking it was also a time capsule, I had the boys open it on February 1st only to discover that it was empty. "April -- no February -- Fools!")

Ruby and Olivia

Where were we? (Paul didn't remember cheering for the Saints at the Super Bowl party.)

We were in our igloo.
Micah was funny.

Micah was crying because he fell down when he was sledding on our igloo. (Revisionist history: Paul fell down and cried; Micah did not.)

This is when I was thinking. I was a detective. (Micah wrote a book during his week of snow days and took pictures of Paul to illustrate it.)

I was a space robot in Apollo and the Missing Moon.

It was a snow day.

We were at the fun day and then that guy had his monkey up and Micah was holding a picture for the monkey.
Grandpa and I were golfing.
That's our house. That was when Sam was sick. (These are my four sweet Valentines on 2/14.)
We were playing tennis in the snow.
Samuel! Good job!! I'm talking to Samuel in the picture!
That is Samuel, yeah me ya me yo. (I think Paul's conversationalism is exhausted; I guess I won't delegate the blog upkeep to him yet. Instead, Anthony will write the next one about his trip to China.)

December 2009

December seems like a long time ago. Hopefully I'll catch up on the blog even before our math book project is done filling my evening computer time.
Here is our annual "hug the snowman" photo. Little did we know that we would have two BIG snows after that day!
Instead of decorating for Christmas this year, we had precious family times during December, including a picnic in front of the fire.
I have a suspicion that this experience won't be the only time Paul will need to learn a lesson like "don't push your head into a place that will be hard to get it back out" the hard way.
Sam in December, part 1.
Sam in December, part 2
Benefit # 84 of living downtown: We walked to Heather's Christmas party during the big snow!
Micah is digging out the first of two igloos this winter.
We still got to go wish Grandma Bev a happy birthday!
Happy Birthday to Grandma Bev, continued.
Micah and Paul both enjoy Legos -- Micah prefers to make things by following the instructions, while Paul typically creates any mode of transportation for mini-figures. For now, immobile Sam can sit and watch while trying to put something much larger into his mouth.
We went to Joletta and Doug's home for Christmastime. Paul is trying to stand JUST like Grandpa Doug as he examines the train.

Grandma Jo's house is fun, huh, Sam?
At Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas Eve Party, Paul discovered that if he has three little books he can work the room and get nearly each person to read one of the books to him. Aunt Andrea was his first stop for a cuddle and a story!
At some point, Paul enticed Amy to humor him for one story, then on to Papa Jay...
Micah was most excited about getting toothpaste on Christmas morning. After he realized that people thought it was funny to be so thankful for toothpaste, he stuck with that answer to "what was your favorite gift you got for Christmas?"
I actually think Micah truly enjoyed giving gifts more than receiving them, especially since he got to pick out and purchase gifts with good behavior currency he earned at school.

However, Micah sure was thrilled when he realized that his jersey was an Arizona Cardinals one! Does it look like Heines (Jack) Ward, Larry (Micah) Fitzgerald and Adrian (Paul) Peterson joined us for Christmas?

How does MY jersey look, Grandma Jo?

So this is why Paul calls this home "Chloe's house."

"Thanks for the new diaper, dad! I'll get a lot of good use out of it!"

Ahhh. A moment of concentration.
The wonders of Skype -- we wish you a merry Christmas, Papa!
I love how this picture captures the multi-directional joy of Paul.

I was so thankful to be able to go to "home" to Wooster for a day to have a tea party at the Mathurs' home. I love Sue, Arun and their family.

Micah and Sophia enjoyed each other's company.

Paul chose Kevin. Maybe next time, Cashel!

Aunt Elaine is one of the only people whom I actually believe when she says, "You're always welcome." Thank you, Aunt Elaine.
Here's a zoom in of the same setting. Don't miss the sweet hands!

When we went back to "Chloe's house" we had fun sledding. I'm so thankful that our three boys get to have so much fun with their dad.

Anthony is, after all, beloved by kids. We got to spend a great day with the Burens. Notice how Tessa is trying to squat just like Anthony. Here we are watching the incline.

I imagine that Anthony will use this photo sometime to remind the boys of their Pittsburgh heritage.