Riley and JD

JD riding his "motorcycle"

Monti

Here is a good picture of JD's favorite blanket, whom he has named "Monti." I don't know why. He made it up himself: "Monti Blankie."

Chinese New Year

This is JD, dressed as a Chinese lion, for the Lion Dance for Chinese New Year. We brought this mask to Riley's classroom with a bunch of other Chinese New Year treats to celebrate the Year of the Lion. It was a lot of fun!

Swimming!

JD pretends to swim in the tub every night

Budding Ballerina

As much as Nana Plante does not like ballet, she still brings Riley almost every Saturday to her class at the Providence Ballet Company . . .

Look at how big the kids are!

Kid update: they now play together. Not always but a lot. And it's fantastic.

Riley is 4 now. She is 41 inches tall (80th percentile) and a mere 36 lbs (not even 20th percentile). JD is also a tall peanut, weighing about 26lbs. I can't remember how tall he is, but he has the same percentiles as his big sister.

Riley goes to preschool at Happy Hearts 3 days a week for 2.5 sweet hours. She tells me her favorite activities are singing and art projects, but I wonder if bossing other kids around is in her top 10 favorites, too. She also continues with ballet, sports gym, and swimming. Her amazing accomplishment this year is learning to read. She spends hours reading and practicing her printing. She's very determined.

JD, now 18 months, also loves books, but he is more excited about trucks, tractors, cherry pickers, drills, hammers, screwdrivers, etc. His other favorites include anything that Riley has or wants or does. His big milestone has been word explosion. His vocabulary astounds me: motorcycle, caterpillar, helicopter . . . but he is also now putting together short sentences and using pronouns! "I do it," "I want Riley juice," and "I poop, change me bum." His choice of conversation isn't always the most sophisticated. His activities now are library story hour, gym class, and Music Together.

More snowy day pics

The New House (in the snow)

It's good to know that even with a foot plus of snow, the new house stayed warm and cozy. Riley tells us that she loves the brick house because "the big bad wolf can't blow it down!" Now that's security . . .

Anyway, we had a great day being snowed in! It was the first time in a long time that both Matt and me were not "essential" staff at a hospital, and we got to play with our kids the whole day.