building

This was week three of colds in our house and it was Steven’s turn. I wish the germs knew that it would be more convenient if they could all get colds at once.

Madison is doing a great job involving kids in daily clean-up in the house. At this age, their help is actual help. Can you spy Amaya in a winter hat? Madison often wears winter hats in the house and Amaya was trying to copy her style.

This child is working the poses. She cracks me up. Here, she’s wearing a pair of baby leggings over her tights as leg warmers. Creative and functional.

Curly pony from an overnight braid.

On Tuesday night, Amaya visited Sammy’s hair salon.

“Are you making a braid?”
“Well, I have your hair in three pieces so I might be.”

By Wednesday morning, Steven’s cold was on full force. We decided to keep him home from school so he could get some extra rest. It’s nice to have that flexibility with Madison, this year.

I was off to DC where I was speaking at a conference and got lots and lots of hugs before I left. Sammy had a hard with me leaving – my 4th trip in 6 weeks – so there were more tears than usual. He hung onto my leg for as long as he possibly could. I’m glad this ends my run of trips for while – save for the week after Thanksgiving when I’ll be traveling with SSA.

This sweet, sweet face. <3 <3 <3

Two Cline kids dipping apples in ketchup. They absolutely did not get this from their mother.

Thursday morning was another sick day for the Bobes. He vomited twice, very early in the morning. I’m still convinced it was from all of his drainage because it didn’t happen again, but it meant that he had to stay home from school and everyone needed to stay home from dance class so he didn’t risk infecting anyone else in the lobby/waiting area.

Making tracks in the snow after school…

By afternoon you’d have hardly known he was ever sick.

The kids asked for a picture in front of the snow. They’re getting SO BIG.

Always posing.

Steven, Sammy and Amaya had a real treat on Friday. It was “Special Person Shabbat” at school and Madison made plans to attend with the kids. Since drop-off was only an hour prior, Ms Bri and Ms Jena invited Madison to stay in the classroom with the kids for the morning.

Steven, working on his typing.

Sammy & Amaya coloring with Ms Bri

Steven and Shoshana did Madisons make-up.’

Special Person Shabbat! I was so grateful that Madison was available and interested in attending with the kids. I’d have hated for them to be without a special person. <3

Running to Ms. Shannon. I can’t overstate how much the kids love Shannon, their center director, especially Sammy. If you ask the kids who their favorite person is at school, Amaya says Henry, Steven says Evelyn and Sammy says Ms. Shannon. It’s so sweet & special.

The whole gang.

After Shabbat, the kids asked Madison to stay for the rest of the day. She got some photos of the kids sliding down the snowy hill and even joined in herself.

This is Amaya playing with Henry. He’s her favorite at school but she’s pretty clear that she’s marrying Elsa. Or has already married Elsa. The status of her nuptials varies by the day.

Waiting for me to get home from the airport! Jason and Madison both reported that the kids were so excited for me to come home. Amaya would never actually let me see her excitement but she admitted it to her daddy. 🙂

Homecomings are the BEST.

My secret sister sent us a great Hanukkah gift – DIY candles! I’ve never seen them before and we had a great time making them.

She also sent us a Haunkkah bingo game, that both Jason and I had fun playing with the kids this weekend. (As you can see the background of this photo, we have Hanukkah decorations up around the house. Those were carefully placed by Sammy.)

Sammy is super independent with food and loves anything he can do himself. He’s making a tasty butter sandwich – and Steven is having a meltdown because he’s eating the last two pieces of bread.

Amaya stayed in bed until her green light went on for 6 nights in a row. As a result, her hair grew a long braid overnight! 😉 She’s so pleased.

We spent a lot of time playing with legos this weekend. It’s nice that I enjoy it so much, too. Steven does a very good job following the instructions. He’s right when he says, “I’m very good at legos.”

We built this house together. I found the pieces in the big box and he followed the instructions to build it.

All of the kids are so creative. It’s really interesting to see what they come up with when they’re left to their own devices.

Jason spent a good amount of time today making custom pictures for each of the kids. 🙂

Talent!!

Jason saw these Under Armour shirts that match one he has and got them for the kids. He gave them to the boys but also had one for Amaya. It went something like this:

Amaya: Those shirts are just for boys.
Jason: I have one for you if you want it.
Amaya: Yeah! *rushes to change into her new shirt*

She later told us she looked like a boy which opened up a whole new discussion. Amaya’s pretty cute trying to say “social constructs”. I hope the message she took away is that she should like what she likes and be who she is. The end.

Someone tell me how she looks so old. Mind boggling.

Sammy wanted his shirt buttoned all the way up.

The whole gang in their matching shirts. I hear there’s even one for me, too!

They’re cute when they play together. Dr. Amaya was taking care of Sammy’s puppy who’s allergic to everything except his special food. It was a lot of fun up until they couldn’t save Puppy and he died.