One of the Three "R"s

Well, Connell has started to show a big interest in writing (or should I say 'riting to make it one of the three "R"s). Although his letters are barely recognizable, I am simply happy that he wants to try. Part of the fun is crawling upon the phonebooks that I set up to try and get him to "table level". ("Booster chairs are for babies" and even "baby" Liam hardly ever sits at his -- he sits right at the table now with us even though it is tough for me to accept that we are through with boosters altogether! :-(

Connell enjoys his "workbooks" with Care Bears, Scooby Doo, Pooh, etc. as he traces the letters/numbers and tries to create them on his own. Of course copycat Liam is always close behind trying to imitate big brother!

Loving Brothers

This time Liam was the one trying to be loving towards his brother as I took a photo. Connell doesn't seemed to pleased to be caught on film.

My Last 5 Novels

Here are the 5 novels that I have read from Dec. 29th until now. I have now completed exactly 30 books since I started reading on Nov. 23rd.

"Baby Love" -- Catherine Anderson 3 stars
"The Memory Keeper's Daughter" -- Kim Edwards 4 1/2 stars
"We Were the Mulvaneys" -- Joyce Carol Oates 4 stars
"Before You Know Kindness" -- Chris Bohjalian 4 stars
"Fortune's Rocks" -- Anita Shreve -- 5 stars

Playing Doctor

Connell got a doctor's bag for Christmas from Santa (that included a stethoscope, instrument for looking in ears, injection giver, blood pressure machine, thermometer and a fake band aid). He enjoyed playing with the items from time to time, but his interest was really piqued today after coming home from preschool. Apparently they had a new doctor kit at preschool and when they arrived, Miss Theresa pretended to be sick and all the kids got to work on her as doctors and nurses. Then Connell wanted us all to pretend to be patients and so with Ray out with the gang (Brian, Joel and Tony) tonight, Liam and I got to take turns being patients all evening.

The Boys Sporting Their "Tats"

Here is a picture of the boys sporting their "tats" as Ray calls them. They got the tattoos with a Cars movie theme from a friend's birthday party that they attended on Saturday afternoon. The boys had a blast at the party and were tickled pink (or should I say blue since they are boys) sorting through all the goodies they came home with. Oh, and the orange splotch on Connell's right arm is simply some squash that he had for supper. Nothing like a little squash on your arm to bring attention to your tattoos! The biker babes will be flocking to him!

My Backyardigans Obsession

I think I realized today for the first time that I am absolutely obsessed with the children's show "The Backyardigans" as I told friend Vicki (while exercising at the mall) about how our day is being planned around the 1 pm "Race Around the World" episode. That episode is probably my ultimate favorite though.

I think that the creator (Janice Burgess) is a genius -- if you haven't seen the show, it takes 5 animal friends (2 African American ones and 3 Caucasian ones) who act out an entire scenario together in their joint backyard (they pretend that they are in various parts of the world and in different time periods as well). The part that is simply ingenius is that each show has a music style theme (some of my favorites are zydeco, ska, reggae, Italian tarantella, tango, disco, punk, and oh the list goes on and on) and there are 4 songs from the style throughout the show. The cartoon characters' dance moves are professionally choreographed as well. The messages are usually pretty good as well teaching social skills. I allow the kids to watch this show mostly for music appreciation although I know that I get more out of each episode than they probably do. Ray also was kind enough to download the CD albums from the shows which has given us a 36 song CD with some of our favorite songs from the shows. We listen to it in the car and also dance around the living room while listening to it.

2008

Happy New Year to everyone!

The boys were in bed before 6:30 pm, I went to bed at 9:30 pm and Ray was there about 10:30 pm. But the boys and I were up bright and early at 6 am to great the new year!