Evelyn calls rubber duckies "rubbie duckies". It's so darn cute. And instead of neck she says, "neck-oh" which I believe is some mashup of "neck" and "necklace." She definitely appreciates accessories. And she loves the samples and stickers at Trader Joe's. She's a loyal customer.
Colin is so very Four. In the span of one day, he flies LEGO Star Wars ships, giggles and guffaws through Peppa Pig, stomps around in defiance of anything he deems Not To His Liking, transforms into a black cat and licks people ("Colin, please stop licking people. We only pretend."), makes beautiful artwork, gives 5 thousand kisses and hugs, and tells me I'm the Best Mama Ever. He is busy.
Christopher is missing so many teeth I'm afraid I'll have to start feeding him a strict diet of scrambled eggs, smoothies, yogurt and ice cream. He'd probably be on board with that. He plays basketball and participates in Lego Club and likes to skid all over the ice after school while I try not to watch lest I witness him cracking his head open. He still likes me to give him a hug and kiss before he goes into school in the mornings and will come up to me looking for a snuggle when he's feeling happy and content. He barely fits on my lap anymore, though. Short Mom + Long-Legged Boy = A Precarious Snuggle.
Mike is happily teaching his favorite class (singular class! last quarter he taught 2 and was properly buried for several months) and has time to get back to his lab and the stack of lingering manuscripts that never disappear from the corner of his virtual desktop. He's all about Date Nights in 2016. I'm good with that! We're doing a Wednesday night outing tomorrow. Nothing fancy... just dinner while our favorite babysitter home from college puts those silly boys to bed. Worth every penny.
Me? Believe it or not, I'm doing some singing in order to fund my next creative pursuit: Photography. (All those years when I took other jobs to pay for singing... now I'm taking singing jobs to pay for my interest in photography. Go figure.) I have a new lens from Christmas to play around with and have raided the library for stacks of books on digital portrait photography. Kids, babies, families, couples, singles, artists, professionals... I want faces of all kinds in front of my camera! My 2016 Intention is to further refine my understanding of my DSLR and become more proficient with Adobe Lightroom so that I'm not limited to Photoshop.
Winter means lots of ideas in the back pocket for when Cabin Fever hits. It means hot chocolate and scouring the internet for fun coloring pages. It means the weather shield on the stroller. It might mean a snow day (fun!) or a polar vortex (less fun). Winter means colds (bummer), but hopefully not the flu (triple yuck). It means soup smells from the kitchen and don't forget your coat/hat/mittens/neck warmer/snowpants/boots. It means everything takes 15 minutes longer. And, please, give yourself time to pee before we get ready and go.
