Educating

There has been a lot of thought recently on Ethan's future education. For the past 4 months or so, Ethan has been participating in a co-op preschool that some friends and I organized. It has been great for Ethan both learning wise and social wise to participate in twice a week. Next year Ethan will be a pre-kindergartener and since we live in the city limits we get to put him in the universal Pre-K program (which is conveniently free). After watching the movie, "Waiting for Superman" I decided that I'd like to check out the public schools where he could potentially go since we have to do a lottery system to get him in. One of the schools we checked out was the one right behind our home, and then today we visited another one that is about 1.5 miles away in the Park Avenue neighborhood. I'm glad I checked out both, because I think I'd prefer to put him in the school further away. I really liked the teacher I met and the principal of the school. I also liked the facility and the time offered for the program.

Anyway, we decided that we'd like Ethan to do some more learning at home in preparation for preschool. Actually the real reason for the boost in getting Ethan to learn to read and write was that we bought him a Lego Superman set and we figured we shouldn't just give it to him; rather he should earn it. We told him that if he learned to read 10 books on his own and learned to write his name, then he could get the Lego set. My parents gave us these old yellow pamphlet books that I remember reading as a child. He's been doing really well with them. We started sometime last week and he's up to book 7. He still needs to work on the name writing part, but he'll get it soon enough.

Recovering

It feels like some members of our house have some recovering to do. For Ethan, it's recovering from a bizarre case of the pukes. He never had a fever, but threw up 3 times last week one of which was all over the car, himself and me in the parking lot at Wegmans. For me, it's trying to beat off this nasty cold that has been hanging around for at least 3 weeks. It must be a sinus infection or something, because it does not seem to want to go away. Luckily it seems as if Ben and Eleanor have escaped both my severe cold and Ethan's sickness.

Now we're just spending the majority of our time indoors because the weather has decided to suddenly become winter-esque. We got a good storm last week that gave us a heavy covering of snow that I have a feeling will be lingering around for the next while. We've only had about a foot or so total this entire season, which is about 1/3 of the amount we usually have by now. Ethan was so excited for the snow to actually stick, so he and I spent Friday afternoon playing in it while Eleanor napped. We went sledding down the back deck stairs, stomped around and hung out for a good hour or so out front. Ethan's 18-24 month snow bibs are just short enough that snow gets inside his boots and by the time we headed inside his socks and thermal pants were soaked. He didn't complain once though and would have stayed out all day had I let him. Size 4T snow bibs are currently on their way in the mail since I feel slightly guilty about putting him in the same snow bibs he's been wearing for the last 2 winters.



Anyway, we've got our fair share of things to keep us busy. Ethan is always willing to play with his Legos, and Eleanor is more than willing to dress up like Batman, who, like her brother, is quickly becoming her favorite superhero. I have a feeling this winter will bring plenty of movie days, pajama days, trips to the Museum of Play, trips to the Y, total vegging days, and days we just can't wait for Ben to get home to save us all.

Ethan and Eleanor always wait for Ben to come up the stairs when he get's home from work.

Holy Picture Overload, Batman!

We got back on Monday from our week-long Christmas/New Years visit with the Mudricks down in VA. We had a blast spending time with Ben's entire family, catching up with old friends, visiting sights, eating good food, celebrating birthdays and lounging around. I caught (or maybe I brought it with me) a nasty cold that is still lingering around, but other than that it's good to be back in Rochester where there isn't even an inch of snow on the ground. Wohoo for global warming!

The best way to describe what we did over the week that we were there, is to show it in pictures. So here goes...

Pre-Christmas Eve at our house. We figured we didn't want to bring down all the kids' gifts.

Eleanor gave Ethan a Batmobile which he was pretty excited about.

Reenactment of the Nativity scene. Ethan didn't want to be any of the normal characters so he was a superhero for the production.

Our Christmas card from Jacob and Julia

The Sam Mudrick clan's Christmas card.

Santa brought Ethan the Lego Batman set that he's been talking about for a while.

We spent Christmas afternoon walking around Great Falls since the weather was perfect.

This really can't be Ethan's funniest face can it?

Ethan had a blast playing with his Lego set both by himself and with all his cousins.

The day after Christmas we met up with our UVA friends, the Harris' at a restaurant in Bethesda.

Eleanor opened up another one of her gifts the day after Christmas. It was the never-ending Christmas.

Once the Ohio Mudricks got into town, we had another Christmas celebration.

Ethan got Sensei Wu from his grandparents, which made all his Christmas wishes complete.

The next day we met up with Scott and Kirby Fish at the Old Ebbitt Grill where we got to meet Beckett for the first time.

One day we ventured out to Mount Vernon where we got to see Aladdin the Christmas camel on the estate.

Ethan posing with the home in the background.

All the cousins (minus Stella and Hazel who were home sick) running around with the animals.

I can just imagine Eleanor telling Ben, "Look over there; over the horizon."

Family shot in George's backyard.

Grandma and Grandpa Mudrick with 10 of the 12 grand-kids.

Hanukkah feast at Sam & Julie's house. All the 2010 babies had these matching pj's but it was hard to get a picture of all of them together. And Eleanor scratched herself with some aluminum foil.

Fancy buttermilk pancakes made by Grandma Mud.

Hazel and Eleanor watching a show in matching pjs.

The little cousins made gingerbread houses with Aunt Mary.

Owen's was a little top heavy with icing.

Cousin bath time.

Ninjago on the landing.

We visited the botanical gardens in DC to check out the train exhibit.

The Capitol building made with twigs, leaves, branches and other natural materials.

Ethan fell asleep in the stroller so only Eleanor got to really enjoy the trains.

We made a quick stop at the air and space museum so that Ethan could see an astronaut. He was still tired, hence the facial expression.

We ate at Chipotle's south eastern Asian restaurant in DC. It was super spicy.

We went to Chipotle the next day before venturing out to Aunt Alice's in Maryland.

We saw got to see all the horses at Aunt Alice's

The kids took turns riding on the ATV.

Ethan was pretty hesitant but we're pretty sure he still enjoyed himself.

Everyone played in the barn.

Up on top of all the hay bales.

And that, in 50 pictures or so, was our trip to Virginia. After all the fun we had Ethan has been trying to catch up on his lack of sleep. Even if that means he falls asleep while playing Legos at the dining table.