January Summary

We had an amazingly mild winter in Georgia this month.  The kids were able to play outside a lot.  They got new balance bikes for Christmas and basically mastered them within a week.  They cruise around like maniacs on those things now.  They have indicated that "when they are big," which they believe will be upon turning 4 on their next birthday, they would like to have "pedal bikes."  I guess we know what we'll be getting them for their "big" birthday presents.  I hope we can find the appropriate colors.  As you can see from the video, we are still stuck on orange (Abby), pink (Marie), and green (Will).  Also, you'll hear them talking about baby, dad, and mom.  When they play house, they each always play the same role.  Abby is the dad, Marie the mom, and you guessed it, Will is the baby! 

We took a road trip this month to visit our friends John and Kate in Greenville.  The kids had a great time at the children's museum there.  They also enjoyed having a spend the night with Ben (John and Kate's son).  Abby and Will were planning to sleep in the room with Ben, and Marie was going to sleep on the floor in the guest room with Billy and I, but that didn't last, and we ended up with both girls in our room.  Ben has the same type of bed the kids have, but he has been moved to the top part.  My kids again have indicated that upon turning 4 and being "big," their beds should also be shifted to this position.  That terrifies me.  I can't deal with middle of the night falls from the loft. Here they are reading with Ms. before going to bed.

This month, we had parent-teacher conferences at the preschool.  We had the whole "gift of time" discussion with the teachers again.  Looks like we'll be giving the "gift" next year.  They'll do a second year in the 3 year old classroom.  We were worried about sending them on the 4s because they talk about going to kindergarten a lot, and if my kids weren't going to be going to kindergarten, I didn't want them to get confused.  They bug me on almost a daily basis about riding the school bus.  They want to get on when they see it, and they want to know how old they have to be to ride.  If they thought they were only one year away, and I took that from them, they would freak out.  Unfortunately, one year extra of preschool/nanny services will not be a gift to our wallets.  Oh well.