Today Jonathan put together a collage/mosaic out of various papers he and Benjamen had cut out with the new set of edging scissors I got them for Christmas. That was an all-day off-and-on project that he kept coming back to.

We spent a pretty good chunk of the morning doing thank-you notes for the sets of Grandparents and the one Aunt-Uncle-Cousin who had sent gifts to the boys. Jonathan wrote them all out and covered the front and back of all of the papers I had given him for note writing.

When the baby went down, we tried out a few more Christmas gifts, Hungry Hippos and the set of Playmobil pirates. I think we all had lots of fun.

Also while Nicholas slept, on this last day of the old year, we started doing our end-of-year out-with-the-old decluttering. We got rid of lots of broken and duplicate hot wheels, bunches of duplicate utensils and dishes for their little wooden kitchen, a bunch of the "guys" from their guy box (who had somehow cloned themselves, had a war, and maimed each other beyond all recognition in some cases), and lots of odds and ends from the playroom in general. Tomorrow (in-with-the-new!), the first day of the new year, we'll find permanent homes for all of our new toys; so far they've mostly been living in a big bucket tote in the dining room. I had picked up little brief-case type plastic carriers at the dollar store, and we're using one of those for all of our Playmobil guys and their accessories. They fit quite nicely!

Nicholas woke up about 10 minutes into the decluttering, and "helped" us for another hour or so when Papa suddenly showed up from work several hours earlier than usual. They had let him off early for New Year's Eve, so we're enjoying the rest of the evening with him ...and the next few days until he has to go back to work on Monday.

Happy New Year to everyone!

We did about five of the Winter Fairy poems before Nicholas woke up. It was a good thing, actually, because my voice was going fast. Jonathan sat and read more poems to himself for about another 1/2 hour.

After Nicholas had nursed and was awake-awake, he and I read several board books that he brought me. I keep his favorites in a basket in the living room and the rest are in the bedroom on a small bookshelf that's just his size. The bigger boys have their books on the three lowest shelves of two of our big bookcases and Nicholas has access to those, too, but he seems to understand that the board books are his.

Benjamen and I ended up reading a number book that he brought to me, too, before 5 o'clock (time for Cyberchase!) rolled around. I usually cook dinner while they're watching, but today I barely got it started when Nicholas wanted to nurse some more. So I stopped dinner and we sat down and nursed for a good long time. I had everything ready to cook by the time Dan got home, shortly after 6 o'clock, and he played with the boys while I finished dinner.

At bedtime, I nursed Nicholas while Dan told them a pretty interesting version of Peter Rabbit that I had never heard before. He flipped through one of the little story books my mother had bought the boys, which isn't the Beatrix Potter version (neither the words nor the illustrations are as good) and made up his own story as he went. In Dan's version, the three bunnies aren't named Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail, but Jonathan Peter, Benjamen David, and Nicholas Jacob. Jonathan Peter turned out to be the naughty bunny (of course) who didn't listen to his mother and go play at the playground. Instead he went to 7-11 and filled up on donuts and candy bars. A "bad guy" started chasing after him with a mop because he hadn't paid yet. Poor Jonathan lost his shoes and his shirt in the mad dash to run away. Another guy tried to show him the way out, but Jonathan couldn't understand him because the guy's mouth was full of Slurpee (the boys cackled madly at Papa's garbled Slurpee-talk). Jonathan Peter finally got away, of course, but the man sold his clothes, and in order to keep away other little children, put up a sign that said "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service" in order to confuse them all (Jonathan could never puzzle out that sign). Jonathan went home with a tummy ache, wishing he had listened to his mother and been a good little bunny like his two little brothers. Mama made him some tear-water tea, though, and it settled his tummy.

My husband is beyond bizarre.

We did some finger painting today while Nicholas napped (he's still napping and we're snacking on club crackers, cream cheese, and tuna antipasto). I'm still feeling under the weather and my voice isn't strong enough for prolonged reading, so we're listening to Harry Potter and Sorcerer's Stone on CD. Meanwhile, Joanthan (who freakishly and inexplicably started reading before his third birthday) is reading a Magic Schoolbus book to himself on the couch and Benjamen's playing with the cat. Benjamen had "read" for a short while beside Brother, but decided the cat was more interesting.

Benjamen is all about numbers and colors and shapes lately. He's always been interested in counting from about the time he could talk, but now he's wanting me to identify number shapes for him and he checked out a number book from the library with number and counting games. He talks about colors constantly and makes up songs about them. He asks to paint the house all different colors and wants to know which colors we'd like to paint, sings about painting the different rooms different colors, very cute. Dan and I are always trying to stifle our giggles listening to him from the back seat of the car. The same with shapes. He's gotten really good at identifying most shapes and when he gets confused, he always stops himself and puzzles it out or asks us what the shape "really is". He doesn't give a hoot for letter shapes at all, and the only one I think he really knows is "O".

They're demanding that I read the about the Winter Faires, so off I go with my scratchy voice.

Lots of free play today. Jonathan's getting over a bad few days of illness and it looks like I'll be starting on my few days, now.

We did manage to make some peppermint bark like I had planned, and we'll be reading some of our old Beatrix Potter favorites in a few minutes. Nicholas skipped his nap, today, so some of my plans were foiled, but we're managing to have a good productive day despite the changes in plans. The Christmas toys are being put to good use and some old favorites have made appearances, as well.

Off to do some reading.

Nicholas finally woke up and we headed outside, to the playground, around the lake, our usual trek. We're enjoying some gorgeous weather. The first official days of winter have been more fall-like than the bitter weather we've had the last months of autumn. Today was milder than yesterday with sunny warmth, a chilly wind that only bit once in a while, and temperatures so high that I left the door open for most of the afternoon.

We walked outside for two hours and went to Quizno's for lunch. We go there alot because it's the healthiest alternative within walking distance. They also give the kids pretty cool prizes with their lunches, like Discovery Kids magazines and Jump Start CDs. When we returned home, today, they spent an hour or so playing around with their new space CD and had fun with that.

On the way to Quizno's we pass a preschool/childcare place in the same strip mall and the boys always stop to admire the window displays. They also wave at the kids inside and it always give me a little pang to see the kids' faces from inside, usually watching TV, look up to the windows, a flash of excitement, then little waves, a little sadness in their faces. Or maybe I'm just projecting, I dunno.

We watch TV, don't get me wrong, and we spend a fair amount of time inside, too. But it's different to be home, to be able to go out whenever you like, to have unstructured play, to be able to follow whatever interest strikes your fancy.

This morning, we watched half an hour of Magic Schoolbus and talked about exercise and how the muscles use the oxygen provided by the blood cells. Later when we were having lunch, Jonathan made his usual suggestion that we have another baby. He started off by saying that he thinks Papa should send me some of his cells so that we can start working on growing the baby. I asked him if Papa should email them to me, and he laughed at me. Nooooo, they come from his brain, silly! They come through his skull and then go into your skull and through your brain and then down into your uterus and then the cells divide and multiply and then the baby grows and when it's big enough, it crawls out of your anus. The older couple eating behind us choked on their sandwiches. I couldn't stop him, though. I laughed and said that was an interesting theory. When we were walking home, I straightened him out a bit on the details.

Also on the way home, we came across a utilities guy checking water and electric meters behind the strip mall. Jonathan was curious so we walked over and he asked the guy what he was doing. He was very sweet, even though it was clear he was hurrying. He showed the boys the tool he uses to open the covers, showed them the water down in the holes, where he read the numbers, his meter thingy where he inputs the numbers, how the address and account number were right there in the pad (Jonathan called it a squack pad like they use on Cyberchase), and he explained how the numbers changed as water was used, how they used those numbers to calculate the bill, etc. Then he walked us down to the electrical meters and went through all of those details with them, too. Jonathan thought that was the coolest job in the world and said he wanted that job when he grows up. The guy gave me a look like, Nooooo! Jonathan thanked the man and wished him a happy holiday and we headed down to the lake again. He and Benjamen went on to play "electric water man" while we walked the circuit around the lake.

When they were playing hide and seek we picked up some more pine cones and we're going to paint them with glitter glue today or tomorrow. Since we've been home, Benjamen colored a few more of his pages: the nativity, the drummer boy, and the three wise men, all in magic marker.

Now we're home, Nicholas is asleep again, I'm about to bake some biscotti, and the boys have locked themselves in the playroom to escape my Tony Bennet Christmas music. Heh.

This morning the two older boys have colored reindeer coloring sheets that I printed out for them. They both did a bang-up job and we taped them to the wall so that Papa can see them when he comes home.

I also printed out coloring pages of poinsettia, the nativity, Christmas trees, etc, but they were most interested in the reindeer. We read the original Rudolph story, written by Robert May, last evening for about the third time and so I think that's why they only colored the reindeer page. We learned that May was a Montgomery Ward employee who was given the task of creating a story that Santa could hand out to customers at Christmastime. I thought it was interesting and it provided another opportunity to talk about the commercialism of the holiday.

Finished with his page, Jonathan wandered over to the computer and started assembling bugs online while Benjamen continued to color. I read the Bethlehem story to him as he colored and Jonathan eavesdropped, asking questions here and there. They both kept getting up and finding the characters in their Playmobil nativity that we set up last evening.

Jonathan finished online and Benjamen finished his coloring so Benjamen played on PBSkids.org for a bit while Jonathan played with his LEGOs and I made some toast for them and got a bite of oatmeal for myself.

Now they're engaging in some imaginative play involving flinging themselves at each other and speaking a language I don't understand. Jonathan's intermittently providing me with factoids about skunks: They're muskelids! They emit a strong smelling liquid from glands beneath their tails! You shouldn't challenge them!

Good to know; thanks!

I've decided to start logging our learning adventures.

We're Jenniffer (da momma, going on 31), Jonathan (6 in February), Benjamen (4 in May), and Nicholas (2 in June).

I have three big binders with their names on them, full of clear plastic paper protectors, and whenever they ask, I add photos of their projects or the projects themselves, if they fit, theater stubs, museum brochures, etc and that's how I've been documenting what we do. The problem, of course, is that I put off the actual inserting and end up with intimidating piles of papers that need to be filed (I do the same foolish thing with my bills and other stuff that needs to be filed; remind me not to put up a photo of my desk sometime).

So here's a (hopefully) easier way that will motivate me to keep current and accountable.

I'm psyched! This should be loads of fun.