Winter Blues.

I have the Winter Blues. Blech. I need sun and flowers.
Enough about me and my stupid blues.
At least my kids are still cute. 
Em is just trying to figure out how he will manage being away from his daddy for 3 hours twice a week. Actually, I think it is harder on Chris. Em gives a good cry for his dad's sake, then his dad leaves and he is fine and can enjoy the rest of his day. He is such a sweet lovey little monkey. When I ask him for a kiss, he tells me to give him a kiss on his cheek. "But not too much kisses" he says. I'll take what I can get. He is also thinking about potty training. Sort of. He likes the idea of getting a candy each time he goes. He prefers the little potty to the big toilet, much to my dismay. I hate cleaning those suckers out. Whatever works. So, he spends all of his home time in unders. We remind him to go once an hour. He has many accidents and they are no big deal to him. He does seem to be holding it a little longer. Eh. No big worry for me. If he is interested, we will try. But this is a no-pressure house in the potty training department.

Em was READY for his first day of school...and he looked fab.

 Later, we found a new hat for him. He likes hats, and he tells us this one is "tool."

 I'm glad he is still my sweet little boy and he needs his weebee near his ear.

Augi is constantly trying to figure out which religion she would like to follow. She wants to know who believes in Fairies and Wind Horses. Hmmm. I told her to try the Wiccans.

I'm not sure which religion will be most accepting of her interesting sense of fashion. It really should be a consideration, though.  

 Augi had her first real sleepover. I was hesitant to have a 5 year old spend the night because I didn't want to be up at 3 am driving a little girl home. But, Augi's BFF Isabella was ready for it. They had a blast. They schemed to get up in the night and get into mischief, but neither moved after 1030 pm. Maybe next time, girls.

 Augi has also started swimming lessons. I am amazed at how brave she is after just 2 lessons. She will go into the water without her arm bands, and she will put her face under without holding her nose. She loves it. She doesn't even complain about the goofy cap. It's Easy-shmeasy Lemon Squeezy, to use her favorite phrase.

The other night the sunset was really beautiful. I took this from my phone while driving, so you have to use a little imagination...

The light is returning, so my blues should go away soon. It wasn't completely dark at 4 pm today! I am looking forward to coming back to Utah...but also dreading it at the same time.
BTW, Chris thinks blogs are so 2 years ago. He says it is all about Facebook now. I say blech to him. I am so over Facebook.

Trial Day

Em had his trial visit day at a playgroup, and it was a success!
We tried the same playgroup with Augi way back when we first arrived here. That was not a success. She was bored at home and we wanted her to have a place to learn and play and make friends until she could start school. Well, she hated it and we let her drop it. However, the playgroup is on the same campus as her school so we can't beat the convenience. After today I understand the early childhood system a little better. Under two's go to "playgroup", at 3 they get free "nursery", then "reception" at 4, and formal primary school at age 5. I was really worried about how Em would do, considering the history with Augi and the fact that he has never been in group daycare. He of course spent time at Sarah's, but that is more equivalent to staying at his aunt's than daycare.
So, today, we arrived after dropping Augi off at her school. We three had been building Em up for it for a week or so. Even Augi was saying nice things about it. It was, of course, ages and ages ago that she had to attend the miserable joint. We went in and Emmett immediately ran in and began playing with toys. He didn't even look back. We filled out some paperwork and Emmett occupied himself. Then, when it was time to go I gave him a kiss and he promptly wiped it away and practically shooed me away.  I sulked away to work and Chris went home for a little while. When Chris arrived Emmett was sitting listening to books with a group of children. He was as happy as could be. So two days per week it is. My little boy is getting big! Time for another?
Anyway, here is the lame part. Do you think I got Em a new backpack or took pictures to document the day? Of course not. Second kid gets no attention. I have convinced myself that it is OK because it was just a trial day. If he didn't like it we weren't going to send him and who wants to document that, right? I promise to make a bigger deal out of his official first full day on Friday. There will be slicked hair and pictures.

Completely unrelated, Chris created these sweet prints of the kids...I love them.

Thanks for all of your kind words about my mother. We are looking forward to visiting with her next month.

Coming back for a visit

I would like to be excited about this, but the circumstances are not good. We found out on Friday that my mother's cancer is not responding to treatment. So, I just booked our flights home to visit with her and take care of some business to make sure she is comfortable. I hope to see most of you then, but it will be a busy trip and we might not have the chance. I wish the circumstances were different.

Happy New Year!

We spent New Year's Day at the zoo. We hadn't been yet, so I was super duper excited. I love the zoo! We bought a season pass, so we plan to go a few more times. It is a cute little zoo, about the same size as our zoo back home. There were some different animals that were exciting to see.
They did a little show and we got to see rats, kookabura, kinkajou, and hawks up close!

 There was a little scare when the T-Rex got loose...

 Not-so-scary goats...

 Giant donkey creature.

 Weirdo Maned Wolf...Looked like a coyote-fox-wolf-hyena.

 Kinkajou!

 Look out Llama!!!!

 Augi's evil eye...

 Hungry kitty...

As for our zoo at home, our little hamster Marlow has had what we thought was a tumor for several months. It was a huge, pea-sized lump on her foot. Well, it finally burst and we discovered that she actually had a string wrapped around it. Today I noticed that it is no longer a problem because there is no longer a lump, OR A FOOT! Ew. I haven't located the foot. I think it might have been her dinner. She seems happy now, though. Whatever works, I guess.