We finished up caring for Brownie. We enjoyed caring for him and watching him crawl around the house.
Nathan enjoyed putting together winter scenes on the flannel board and telling short stories of what was happening.
We played games like “Sneaky Snacky Squirrel” and made all kinds of dinosaurs and telescopes with building materials.
We even made a helicopter with Click-it bricks. Oh! Another picture of brownie being friendly with Nathan.
On January 8th we returned Brownie to his classroom. We will miss him. Nathan went back to being “alone” again after Christmas Vacation for everyone else ... and he discovered his favorite lunch… Spaghetti O’s!!!
Nathan loves tools and we got out his drill to take apart some of the toys he’d built before. I think building and unbuilding is a little like puzzles for Nathan and he LOVES puzzles. He shows real concentration when he does puzzles and while they may take him some time I haven’t handed him one yet that he cannot put together.
Speaking of puzzles, Nathan enjoyed his new Poky Little Puppy puzzle which is also among his favorite stories. We also had out blocks and explored ways to put two shapes together to make new shapes.
And this puzzle actually has a track for a battery powered school bus and fire engine. This was sure to attract the cats attention as well.
More building took place in the living room… this time towers.
How high could we build them before they would tumble?
Nathan also sorted blocks by color, size and shape.
And he had a good time counting without any help.
We got out paints and sponges.
We sponged shapes and dinosaurs and mixed colors together to make new colors and rainbow designs.
Puzzles, train tracks and warm cozy spaces.
In the afternoons I found Oscar enjoying the sunny patches coming through the front window. Yes! I think this cat is entirely at home!
Sandy curled up in somebody elses carrier. Did they think I wouldn’t notice who I was taking to the vet? And actually I almost took an extra cat who had crawled in while I wasn’t looking. Luckily I checked out the situation when the carrier felt a little heavy. This is the second time that Scruffles has tried to smuggle herself out for an adventure to the vet when it wasn't her turn. Last time I only discovered it because one of the kids took a peek in. I am now automatically suspicious.
More train stories to play.
And more paper cutting with scissors.
Nathan made pictures for himself and pictures to send in the mail to his cousin Porter. They’re pen-pals these days.
After watching “Tangled” I don’t know how many times Nathan, or should I say “Flynn Rider”, is loving galloping around the house with “Maximus” the horse in cowboy boots. Nathan says he wants to be a cowboy when he grows up. I guess he and Lindsay will be spending a lot of time together.
Kaitlyn can now read books to Nathan quite nicely and they cozied up in the evening several times like this together. Spooky and Scruffles cuddled up on top of the warm dishwasher on more than one occasion.
A great way to keep warm on a chilly January day.
I found this cutie one morning taking advantage of the sunny window… And that squirrel watcher. Seeing Spooky standing there like that gives a good perception of how big he really is.
Nathan liked getting out the seashells, listening to the ocean, and matching up shell types together. He was also able to put them in order from smallest to biggest in size.
Nathan worked on some ocean puzzles, some small puzzles as well as jumbo sized.
This spider scared me around the house I don’t know how many times after he resurfaced from Halloween. One day I found it resting on Spooky thanks to some child with a sense of humor. And Kaitlyn thought Scruffles was so adorable that she just had to take her picture.
Toward the end of the month there was a Wax Museum at school for the fourth graders and Tristan brought corn bread into school for the tasting part of the project. We went to see our fourth grade wax statue that afternoon, of course. Nathan had an amazing time pressing Tristan’s button on his hand and listening to him spout information. Tristan kept right on going with his lines in front of teacher and principal despite being shoved and having his "button" pushed repeatedly by little brother. Tristan was a good sport; a good big brother.
Some people spent a lot of money on costumes and put a great deal of time into them. I pretty much let my kids do their own homework and I will help them or give suggestions as they solicit it. Tristan put his costume together himself with what we already had around the house.
With a little over an hour between visiting the wax museum and after school pickup I decided to bundle Nathan up (it was a cold 19 degrees) and take him to Mt. Storm at the top of the hill overlooking the city in the same neighborhood as the school.
We had fun on the swings, playground and even dug up a lost lizard!
Peek-a-Boo!
We were ready to get back into a warm car before the hour was up and Nathan fell asleep for his usual car ride nap.
Jumbo Dinosaur Puzzle. Nathan did this puzzle over and over and over again all month long. Remarkably he says he does not like dinosaurs… they are too scary but he sure loved this puzzle.
While Nathan did puzzles Kaitlyn came home from school and worked on sewing. She likes to work and she likes to have something to do or she’ll find something to do. Crafts are one of Kaitlyn’s favorite things and this bunny turned out pretty cute and with very little help from me.
Kaitlyn with her cute little bunny all finished.
Nathan got a map postcard from his cousin and wished that Porter would live in Forks, as he studied the map, simply because it would be funny, he said. Lindsay took Riding Lessons each Saturday morning… her Christmas present from Grammy & Pops.
Some Saturday mornings I would grab someone to come and enjoy the January barnyard with me.
We loved the turkey and the log cabin is always fun too.
We read shark and ocean books and made up story renditions of Finding Nemo with a card game.
Nathan and I took the pieces of our bird house that the squirrels had left us and rebuilt it using some nails we found down in Dad’s work bench. Nathan thought this project was pretty grand.
He found his toy ax and chopped at some of the dead wood that had fallen, we filled the bird feeder once again and watched for wild life.
A few January days were warm enough; we opened the windows and went outside to play with no coats!!! Then one cold and snowy day a brown package arrived... with little thoughtful gifts like hot cocoa, lollipops and chocolate. What a wonderful surprise!
We drank our hot cocoa on a freezing snowy quiet afternoon before heading out to pick up children. The house got chilly again and Nathan found himself warming up with Oscar under a clean blanket from the laundry.
Sandy tried warming up on the floor near the vent that the toys are sitting over. She's got warm spots down to a science. Most cats do.
Nathan carried around his letters and lollipops in his blue gift bag for days, though the lollipops really didn't last too long.
Dinosaur puzzles, Nathan turned T-Rex and books about Dinos and Sea Creatures filled our month.
Nathan made a few snowmen pictures that were fun to cut, glue and hole punch. Nathan even drew the eyes and buttons on the snowman himself.
We sent a couple of snowmen out in the mail and kept one for ourselves. Nathan couldn't get enough of the puzzles.
We built some of our own dinosaur creatures and played as many games as we could in the afternoon.
One morning I knew I'd woken up to something exciting. The cats were acting very suspicious and when I moved the dishwasher a mouse tore out from under there and raced to the refrigerator. Then it got under the stove. It was surrounded by the feline population... and me! It was 6 a.m. and I was the only one up and still at home as I prepared to put dishes away and make lunch. Knowing that the cats had this situation handled I watched as I went about my business. Four out of five cats in my house are young. The senior citizen of them was still lounging in bed. These cats were batting and chasing and generally having fun without success. I had to laugh when the 15 year old cat Sara walked out of the bedroom, took about 5 seconds to assess the situation, took once swipe under the stove and had the poor little mouse. She took off to the basement with it in her mouth and a large following. By this time more children were waking up to start getting cleaned up and chores done. One of them opened the back door while I went down and retrieved Spooky who had the mouse in his mouth by now. I carried him out back and opened up his mouth so the poor little thing could get away. Probably straight back into the house as we went through the same process about a week later. I get a couple of mice in the house a year usually with easy access into the garage which is attached to the house. The cats keep the situation from causing any trouble. It was hilarious to see Sara "show" them how it's done like she was some kind of expert.
Nathan and I had more fun building creatures with these click-it bricks.
Nathan prefers building to crafting I think. I started Nathan on this Valentine craft which he spent two minutes on and was done with. For good! It just didn't strike his fancy.
Kaitlyn came home from a long day at school and couldn't get enough of this craft that Nathan gave up on while I made dinner that evening.
One Saturday morning I took Nathan to Parky's Farm nearby. I didn't know it but Nathan was going to see how many geese he could scare out of the park that morning.
They have rules about chasing their farm chickens but no rules about geese. Nathan chased plenty of geese that morning right off the farm and thought it was the best fun he'd had all winter.
The kids looked for dead worms and rocks at the bottom of the tub where the pump is. And we took a hike through the woods nearby.
The duck pond remained peaceful, the rest of the farm empty of birds.
A beautiful winter morning to ride horses. And a great way to end January.
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