the greatest of these

You know, love is super important.  Aside from the commercialism of Valentine's Day, I do think it is an opportunity to be intentional about talking to our peeps about love.  What is faith? What is hope? What is love? Why do they remain? Why is love the greatest?  The conversation evolves each year as they get older - their questions more thoughtful, their answers more logical.

We usually tell something we love about each other (Noah contributed kisses and laughter).  This year I didn't ask them to include us, but just one another and the answers were sweet and as different as each child.  I add them to a list and maybe one day they will want to see just how they served each other, and how those actions transformed their relationships in even their young lives.

On a hilarious side note, Dustin got me a bunch of USB charger things for my *gift*.  WHAT.  Thank goodness I bought myself flowers on Friday, right?

memory

My Aunt Peggy was cleaning out her house (getting ready to move) several years ago and sent me home with a grown up // baby animal memory set that we all love.  Noah finds anything that looks like one of his buddies (yakyak! puppy! panda!) and hugs them tightly to his chest, not to be shared.  He goes to his room, throws said buddies down the stairs, and lines them up against the couch - each looking at its own match, naturally.  Adam thinks the idea of turning a card over and then back over facedown is complete nonsense.  Seth and Paige and I play it often.  Sometimes one of them distracts the other two of us and then slips two or four cards out of the lineup.  This keeps us hunting for nonexistent matches and them chortling - and then they remember that they never looked at which cards they nabbed...so they are in the dark just like us.  They are so funny.

PS the photo is blurry but that is such an awesome little boy book that Adam is looking at.  I pick the page of ships or farm equipment, but it is all about the construction site for this guy.

all day long

Noah was in charge of chocolate-cake-making cleanup.  He bore the responsibility quite well.  He has become super interested in all counter-height activity, as he should be.  Thankfully the magnetic strip on the fridge door seal is too strong for him to open, whew.

I must have smelled Playdoh too much when I was pregnant - now just a whiff makes me want to rub my tummy and sweep the floor and throw up, all at once.  Should we move on to modeling clay?  I saw on Pinterest that you can make play dough out of jello - then it is colored and flavored!  Do you think it dyes everything it touches as well?  I don't know if I'm willing to find out.

There are things growing out of the ground and I am so excited.  They may have a hard freeze and die, of course.  But the wonder of it all!  The winter sky has been lovely and gray lately.  The peeps drew it recently and it was so fun to hear them dither over which specific gray they wanted for this spot and this and this.  Painting would be great for it, but I still struggle with flashbacks to the Paint Fiasco of 2008 and Paint Disaster of 2012 whenever I consider letting them run for the acrylics.  They have been using watercolors lately and I can handle that without needing a paper bag.  It's very soothing to watch them work and know I can just wipe it all up.

This is also the time of year that I share random ideas about summer all day long, any time I come into contact with Dustin.  I *think* he enjoys it (most of the time), though he did cover my mouth and say, "Allison, it is February." Just once though.  And it was really late and we were nearly asleep.