We have been busy with holidays, final exams, work, and on-going house renovations and I feel like there is quite a bit of catching up to do here on our blog.
We are moving Astrid and Ramona into a different bedroom that has more windows. We talked to Ramona about the move and she requested that their new bedroom be "sparkly princess pink." I told her that we were planning on painting it yellow. So, she said, "Can it be princess yellow?" Of course!
I am proud to announce that Astrid is going to bed so much easier now. We decided to "train" her to go to sleep on her own, rather than holding her until she was asleep and then putting her into bed. And it worked!
We have been reading Ramona "The Wizard of Oz" at bed time. It's her first big kid book, with only a picture on every other page and lots of words, and chapters. She seems to be enjoying it. I had never read "The Wizard of Oz", only seen the movie, and there are some differences. For example, Dorothy's shoes are not red, they are silver. Nevertheless, Ramona will wear nothing but her red sparkly shoes that Mumsey gave her.
Andrew and I have been daydreaming lately about moving to Hanover, New Hampshire. There is an ornithologist there at Dartmouth that studies the effects of global warming on migratory songbirds, which is exactly what Andrew would like to study if he enters a PhD program. The state of New Hampshire is also a great place to study and practice as a midwife legally and socially. I think about 25% of pregnant women give birth with a midwife there and homebirth midwifes have a lot of freedom in their practice. So, we've been daydreaming, even though we would be very sad to leave the close proximity to my family. Guess we'll just have to see where the wind blows us. In the mean time we'll be here in Johnson City for another year and a half while Andrew finishes his graduate degree.
Andrew finished his finals about a week ago with straight A's and is now on break through the second week of January. So, he's been spending lots of time with the kids, feeding the ducks, baking cookies, swimming, taking walks, and going to get treats at the store. I'll have to admit, he seems to get so much more done than I do when I am home all day with the kids. I get home from work at 730pm and he has the kids asleep, dinner made, the house clean, errands run, a batch of homemade cookies, and stories of what fun things the kids did that day.
We spent Thanksgiving with my family here at our house and had a wonderful time.
My sister and parents spent the night, we played at our favorite park, ate a little roasted chicken and some other yummy food, watched a very cool documentary on Andy Goldsworthy called Rivers and Tides, and just enjoyed hanging out together.
Ramona made this artwork titled "I Am Thankful".
Here's a little close up of "At the playground with Grandpa sliding down the twisty slide"
and "strawberry ice cream" and "jumping on the couch"
We will be spending Christmas in Fenelton, PA with Andrew's family out in the country. Ramona loves getting together with her cousins and has been talking about this visit for months. I think there may even be a surprise visit from Santa Claus and Mrs.Claus when we're there! Andrew and I have been looking forward to this visit, too, and can't wait to see all of his family and celebrate the holidays with them.
I hope that all of you are have safe and happy holidays with your loved ones!
