Flat Family Visiting

Waiting for the bus. About 17 F

We have the chance to host a (cute little) Flat Family from Northern Kentucky. They arrived on Saturday and we are showing them the area in our day to day lives. Monday the Flats went to school with Logan and also to jui jitsu. We've just had a busy week of vacation with skiing, bowling, 3-d movies, sleepovers, trips into the city (Did you know that both my grandmother's house and the house we lived in for 10 years have been torn down and replaced?) tons of take apart erasers and a couple of meals out. Today is Logan's birthday party (yeah, yeah, so we are about 6 months late.....)

Here they are. You may see them in more photos.

Hotel Swimming

Cathy had an overnight in Boston so we met her at her hotel. We were excited for the hot tub but the pool was too hot for us. The kids ended up shirtless and we had to hit the showers to cool off. A good time was had by all.

lounging and cooling off. Cooling off.

Still working on cooling off.

Getting comfy.

Hair

Hair that a 5th grade boy would kill for. Hair that I just try to keep out of the nose goo.

The Zoo

Since the farm went so well and they clearly need to see more animals, we went to the zoo. The gorillas were the hit of the day for Meryl.

Finely liked the lemurs. Logan thinks it is a riot that the mandrill's penis is so obvious. And this is what Avery found interesting. (Her photo, not mine!)


A guide to whether the female mandrill is ovulating or not. You can learn a lot at the zoo!

The Farm

Also known as going to stomp in the mud. This was the babies first trip to the local farm. Meryl received a membership for Christmas (Thanks Mom!) and she hated it. The cows are so scary. The chickens noisy. Even the fox was too much for her. She warmed up to the mud though.

Meryl checking out the mud.

Finley cruising along.

Avery running through the biggest puddles she could find.


Logan took this picture of us checking out the cows. Note the ever present silky. We ended up putting it down her pants to keep it out of the mud.




We didn't stay long and didn't look at all the animals because it was getting dark. Even Logan agrees we can go back again.

Expressive Language

We've been using this phrase a lot in our house recently. Meryl has just been approved for services with Early Intervention because she is far enough behind in her verbal language. (Even though she. never. shuts. up.) So I started thinking about Finley's language. These are her words-

• mama
• momo (meryl)
• bye bye
• bobo (the monkey)
• boo boo
• strawberry
• bappy (happy)
• meow meow (her cat)
• papa (her paci)
• caca (cracker)
• poop
• birdy
• tweet
• doggy
• baby
• yum yum
• yuck

She also has a bunch of signs. Most don't matter but two do. One for her silkies, which are the rags she carries. She rubs her fingers together. Much like the sign for money. The other is for nursing. She'll either pound me on the chest or gently tap her own chest. These matter and get asked for often.

But back to Meryl. Meryl scored just fine in everything but her expressive language. She had a ball with the testing and loved the attention. Several times she had to remind the testers to applaud for her upon completing the requested task. I'm fully biased but she was quite the character. If she can actually talk I can't even imagine what type of a ham she'll be. Which is fun to think about in a family of shy kiddos.

Why We did the Addition

This is the reason we doubled our mortgage, lived in the basement for 4 months and put up with living in a work zone.

Space to work on valentines. Space to let them dry. Space to change focus for a minute and decorate the windows. Space. It feels good.

Sibling Relationships

The babies (Be quiet! They are so still babies!) have interesting relationships with their siblings. Logan and Meryl clearly have a connection. Meryl is very open with her affection. She squeals when she sees Cathy coming home from a trip. We sing "Where oh where is the big yellow school bus" while we wait for Logan and Avery to come home from school and the excitement builds for her. Meryl and Logan almost always partner up when we pair a big kid with a little kid.

Logan and Finley at his lego table

But recently Finley and Logan have been sharing their love for legos. And I've been catching them lying in the big bed reading books together. She can now climb up to his loft bed unassisted. And today I found Finley wearing this sticker.

"best cutaler aword" aka "Best Cuddler Award"

with two intertwined smiley faces

I don't always take the time to notice how the kids are with one another other than to holler a "knock it off," "stop pulling her hair" or "Don't sit on her head." It is fun to see that they'll all have different memories of this life of ours. And I wonder how I was with my siblings. I was always envious of Kathie's (my older sister) relationship with Ben (my younger brother by 10 years). I found him to be nothing but a pest while she seemed to take pleasure in his existence. Where will Avery fall in all of this? Will Finley and Meryl be friends as adults? Will Avery and Logan? Who will clean out our house when Cathy and I die?

The Marble Run

I recently brought out the marble run for the girls to play with because they are pretty good about putting small things in their mouths. But look at Finley's face........ Maybe she still needs a bit of supervision with marbles.

Here she is showing me that she spit them all out!

On an unrelated note, the missing gingerbread man showed up in Avery's class today. They ate him, raisins and all.

Homework is such a Bummer

Neither Logan nor Meryl particularly enjoy doing homework. Meryl wants Logan's attention and Logan would rather be giving it to her than have to do any work.


But they both really like erasers. Meryl prefers to eat hers, especially if it is still attached to a pencil. Logan likes his to be cute (but not too cutesy) and have pieces like puzzles.

He has been trying to earn money like crazy to buy these little things and for the first time ever is choosing to give these as gifts rather than legos. I just hope his friends appreciate the $30 per ounce cost of these silly things!