Lately the kids have said and done a lot of really cute things that I don't want to forget.

1. Noah told the bus driver and bus aide, "Thank you for the bus ride" yesterday. He loves the bus ride. He pulls me down the icy driveway to the bus every morning. Whenever I hear the bus coming and call him, he comes running so fast from wherever he is in the house. They really like him too. He sings a lot of songs and is really sweet the whole ride to school.

2. Andy has been giving Lucy piggy back rides.

3. Lucy uninvited Scott from her birthday party for about 20 whole minutes because she was embarrassed that he laughed when she said she wanted a "real" dog. She loves animals so much! She is obsessed with dogs, elephants, cats, and bunnies. She's always making little beds for her "babies". Her babies are usually little dolls and an assortment of pigs, teddy bears, and all sort of creatures. When she takes a bath, she insists on having all the spiders, whales, and sharks that we have in the bathroom.

4. Lucy is currently sitting on the sofa watching Clifford wearing a "princess mommy" dress with an apron and a little cup of real peppermint tea.

5. Andy loves, loves, loves school in the afternoon. He loves being around kids so much. He adores PE, art, and music. He is excited when it's library day. He loves being responsible and packing his backpack and remember his gloves and hat. The principal told me yesterday that every time he sees Andy, he has a big smile on his face. I love that about Andy. I asked him what he thought about full day, but he said that he doesn't want to be away from me for more than three hours a day. And since I'm in a position to honor that, I am.

6. Scott has been able to work from home quite a bit this year, and it has been so great. It makes us really look forward to really snowy days because then he gets to stay home!

7. Noah is going to get his g-tube taken out in a few weeks. Yay!

8. We're planning our summer vacation out west this year. If we can take 3 weeks we will. I'm hoping we can save up enough vacation time and money to do that.

9. I've been a bookworm lately and have read The Road, An Unlikely Disciple, Another Mother's Life, plus quite a few read alouds with the kids. This year we finished Treasure Island, Nim's Island, and are finishing up Peter Pan. We're not sure if we'll read Pinnochio next or The Railway Children.

10. Andy has been loving reading the Junie B. Jones books since they have been reading those aloud at school after recess. They are apparently reading through a lot of the series. Anyway, he read one of the JBJ books all the way through all on his own and started rereading it. He loves to ask on his own questions at the library. The librarians are so kind and helpful and help him find all the Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Lego books he can find. And he fills up a basket with lots of books on CD, but he and Noah have to compromise on what they listen to at night. Noah likes jazz and Andy likes a story. Usually they start with a story and move to jazz. Andy was loving Song of Hiawatha for a really long time. We downloaded it for free from the internet and burned it.

11. Lucy is still loving Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit.

12. I have been aiming to work out 6 days a week, and I feel really good. I also quit caffeine for awhile and have been loving getting 8-10 hours of sleep every single night. Wow. That is so good.

13. Scott and I had a wonderful trip to Florida just the two of us. We had a convertible and saw probably 500 alligators (really!). We took a boat tour under mangroves in the Everglades. We fell asleep to waves crashing on the beach, feather beds, and sea breezes. We ate at fun Cuban, Italian, and South Amerian restaurants. We sunned ourselves on the beach for two full days while reading books. We drove all around Miami with the top down on the convertible night and day just so we could do it. So fun! We shopped for the kids and Lucy's birthday. I brought the boys back cute sport coats and shades and all kinds of things. Lucy-- purses, accessories, and clothes. The morning after we were home, she woke up and the first words out of her mouth were, "Where's mah puhse with all my 'cessories in in?"

14. Andy decided he didn't want to take music lessons anymore, so Lucy now has an hour lesson instead of a half hour, which of course, she is loving. Her teacher lets her look inside the piano, and they tell stories with stuffed animals that involve drums and the piano and the glockenspiel.

15. Andy is loving his art class at Studio Virtu as well as art at Hubbell. A big highlight was making a painting on glass and making a Chinese lantern and Chinese calligraphy.

16. Lucy is also loving making things and often asks for the glitter. I let her use as much as she wants and she thinks of creative things to do. One day, she called me in to see how she had taken glitter, spread it all over a sheet of paper and then took her little light spinner and made the glitter sparkle in different colors. It was beautiful!

17. Noah said the other day, "I love you, Mama." Brought tears to my eyes.

18. Lucy likes to speak in her made up language a lot. "Cokalogie" is a very important word in that language!

19. We like to all go to the library on Friday after I pick up the kids from school and Scott from work. It's a blast... today we can't go though because I have a massage!!!! and Family Fun Night at Hubbell.

20. Today Andy was giving Lucy "plastic surger Johnn Corkscrew style" with a snorkel and fins on. Hilarious!

21. Lucy has figured out on her own how to make duplo stairs and makes big tall towers and lego stairs.

22. Andy has played outside so much in the winter. He loves it.

23. Andy made a model of the Nile river and planted seeds in it. Lucy made a farm and planted seeds in it too. So cute.

24. My sensory boy has been playing with my daffodils, tulips and hyacinth. Noah will be sooooo excited when spring and summer come again and he can have some more marigolds. I'm really excited to plant our garden at the community garden again this year. This will be our 6th year there. It's been a great experience.

Well, I am going to go pick the kids up from school now, but I wanted to get some memories down before I forget them! They're a little disjointed, but that's okay.