Yes, it has been three years since I've been on here. I almost feel silly adding a new post, because is anyone left out there?

Our camera broke right before Christmas, and I'm really all about the blogs with photos to match. And I got really busy. Did you notice? But this picture was taken on Terry's beloved iphone a few days ago and I couldn't resist.

Taylor tells jokes now. They make ZERO sense, like why does the Mary Kathryn climb the tree? Why, Taylor? Because, the PIG was in the TREE!!! And then he produces this fake laugh for a few minutes. It's not funny, of course, but listening to him tell a joke is. And so I laugh, which makes him laugh harder. And encourages him. (today Aidan told a real joke, which totally caught me by surprise, but that's for a later post)

He also must dress himself each day, now, and he does an incredibly good job. Yesterday, he put a short-sleeved blue shirt with a collar on under an Abercrombie looking gray, long-sleeved shirt. He looked like a cutie little 16 yr old who the girls would like. Terry later said, "Is that one shirt or two? I want to wear that outfit!" We are still working on the potty training--he just doesn't seem to care much--but on a good day, I put his big boy underpants on, sometimes over his diaper just to get the feel for it. "Diego goes in BACK, Mom!" he says.

When we go to the store without Aidan, he does not want to ride in the cart anymore (that's a horror story with any kid under 3, isn't it?). But he holds onto the side of the cart, sticks right with me, and places the items in the cart.

He's great, and February 2, I register him for next year's preschool. I'm going to enjoy him while I can.

Gymnastics

Aidan started gymnastics three weeks ago.  She is only going one hour per week because I did not want to "waste" money.  After the first week and watching her little smile stay pasted on her face for the entire hour, I'm confident in the decision to sign her up.  Clearly it's not a waste of time.

She is no Shawn Johnson or Dominique Dawes in the making, to be sure.  She's not wiry like she probably needs to be to actually take to the sport.  But that is not why I enrolled her.  I just wanted her to be active and start to be aware of what her body can do.

She has a fantastic group of teachers (plaid pants) who make everything seem really cool and exciting.  And they have a theme they follow every week, like the barnyard or the beach.  They also gave the participants charts and start stickers, and every week they get to put stickers on the skills they learned that week.

So, it's only been three weeks, but so far, she wakes up early on Wednesday and puts on her footless tights and leotard right away.  Her lesson isn't until 10:15, so she is dressed up this way for a while.  When we get into the car, she encourages me to go faster:  "...or we're gonna be late, Mom, and I can't be late for gymnastics!"  We arrive, she places her shoes and jacket in her cubby, and the smile appears on the face and stays for an hour.  What mom could have a problem with that? 

Friday night movie night

Tonight we started a new family tradition. Terry and I decided that any Friday night that we don't have other obligations, we will have a family movie night. We decided that because The Wizard of Oz was on tonight.

I've been wanting to watch it with Aidan but have been a little hesitant because of a few things...is she old enough? Will she be scared of the witch? (answer: yes)

I can still recall watching this movie once a year on television (before Blockbuster and DVRs). As a child, there were a few things that scared me: those ridiculous flying monkeys, the red sand in the hourglass that seemed to be almost running out on every shot, and the green, martian-like head of the wizard in the palace. At each step, I remember thinking that she was sure lucky she had her dog and some friends with her. I don't remember ever fearing any of those things once the movie ended...

We ended up watching it in our unfinished basement because I got everyone DQ, and we didn't want them to eat it on our leather furniture. So we went down to the playroom area, brought a lamp and turned off the other lights, and the four of us snuggled up on the old couch with lots of blankets.

They both were mesmerized from the beginning, even during the black and white part, but as soon as it switched to color, they were hooked. Taylor called the munchkins "little babies" and the good witch a princess. Aidan seemed to be a little disturbed that Dorothy actually killed the wicked witch of the East, even if she was a witch, and she kept asking me a hundred questions about that for a while.

As expected, each appearance of the wicked witch of the West caused hidden eyes and "that's scary" remarks from both kids, who seemed to be easily calmed by Terry's words of, "It's just pretend," and "that witch is silly!" We'll see if there are any lingering effects, but so far so good. Taylor kept asking where the scarecrow was any time he wasn't on the screen~easily his favorite.

We shared a classic with the kids and it worked. We are out of town next Friday, but in two weeks...Wall E. Can't wait!