Observation

Gemma is the third child I have taught their colors*.  Each and every time I have worked on colors with a child I am blown away by the complexity of our world.  There are not just 3-5 simple colors in our world.  No.  There are hundreds of colors and a multitude of variation.  Is that shirt blue?  Or green?  Buses are usually portrayed as yellow, the one in this book appears orange.  What color is it? The overlap and sheer volume of possibilities is staggering.  Especially when you are trying to break it down and explain it to a one year old.



*I use the word taught here loosely as I'm not sure that I did much.  It seems months go by of prompting, instructing, and standing on my head with no response.  Then boom.  Without warning in the course of a day, the child knows all the colors.  Did I assist?  Yes.  Did they learn it because of me?  No.  This was true with all 3 of the kids. 

More valentines

A few years ago, I made these felt envelopes to hold valentines. I pull them out every year and stick in the valentines from family that arrive for each kiddo. The kids love pulling out all the love from the envelopes.

This year was a little rushed. We had freezing rain in the morning and William was off school. Amelia still had her Spanish class at school. I ran to the big grocery store while the kids had a play date. I ran my groceries home and my battery in the car died. Which meant my 3 kids were at a friends' house and I was stuck.

Luckily, John came home early and it wasn't a big deal to get the car up and running again. However, we got busy with the installing of the new battery and related details that I forgot to take Amelia to her school valentine party. I feel terrible! Luckily, she had a lot of other great things going on so she didn't complain too much about missing the party.

Valentine gifts

The day before valentine's day, John took the kids out to get supplies for our traditional fondue evening (I was at work). Apparently, the children convinced daddy I was in need of flowers for Valentine's day. John tried to explain to the kids about my rules about this holiday:

1. Flowers die quickly (cut flowers) and cost a lot around Valentine's Day. I'm pretty sure at one point the words "I forbid you to spend money on such a wasteful expense..." Or something along those lines.

The kids disagreed and I now the owner of a beautiful and fragrant plant that begins with an h.


Secondly, William produced this "craft" for John and I at his Valentine party.

My valentine sweeties

Aren't they cute?

Better late than never, right?

Molars

Gemma is cutting her molars. Which is great for eating and all, but it really stinks for the sleeping and overall general happiness part. I was able to feel the tips of the bottom two molars poking through earlier this week. Then she bit me and I haven't been back to check again.... I like my do fingers!

Sent from my iPhone

Pig tails

So adorable! Although I admit, I hate to tame the curly locks down into any hair style!

Sometimes

Sometimes the demands of my job are impossibly stressful (find something healthy this 1 year old will put in her mouth! You loose for the second day in a row as she threw everything on the floor!).

Other times, the perks are great. For example occasionally I am able to fall asleep on the job. Which my husband finds so funny he documents with pictures.