Snow Time

Winter finally arrived this weekend ... And then, just as quickly, it left again. Our "blizzard" left a dusting of snow and ice, and about 30 hours of bitter cold.

And then it was over. I'm not counting on any measurable snow this year, which will bring us to two years without. I could really go for several inches, so the kids can play in it.

After the snow let-down on Saturday, Nana and Papa Jack took C&E to "Snow Mountain" (Stone Mountain's snow activities) on Sunday.

Ellyson proclaimed that she wanted to do the tubing "forever."

They had so much fun. Ellyson was tall enough to do the family and individual tubing, but was also short enough to access all the kid-zone activities (a tot-size sledding area, etc). Carter was too tall for some of the activities.

Grant probably won't be tall enough for the individual tubing for another 2-3 years, but the twins may be able to enjoy the family tubing if we renew our Stone Mountain memberships for next year.

Grant Plays His "Carmonica"

We call this, "Ode to Grandpa."

Side note, Jack had some Holst playing this morning, and Grant stopped to conduct the march. He may not be our athlete, but he may be our musician.

Pajamas and Pancakes

Wednesday was Pajamas and Pancakes Day at preschool. My assistant teacher and I - the from-scratch-cooks among the teachers - made a pancake lunch for 50 preschoolers and their teachers.

Graham and Grant with their class.

Ellyson with the other pre-k girls.

Ellyson's pre-k class.

Weekend Project

Jack has been working on refinishing antique poster beds for Grant and Graham. In the meantime, he is knocking out some smaller renovations to their room. This weekend, he gave their walls some color.

Before

After

New decorations will be hung after we see how tall the mattresses will be on the beds.

Let Them Have Their Thumbs

So Grant and Graham are finished with their thumb- and finger-sucking habits. But we've noticed a change. And we want to give Graham his fingers back. Grant is more talkative, which is great. But Graham is feisty and argumentative now. Even the preschool teachers have noticed this change. He isn't exactly the sweet Graham he's always been.

In other news, Grant had a doozie of a day. His day began around midnight, when he woke up with pretty substantial croup. According to my Fitbit, I finally fell asleep at 3:17, except I was still awake at 3:17, sitting in the steamy bathroom with Grant. I must have been pretty comfortable in there, for my Fitbit to think I'd fallen asleep.

I had a day's dose of an oral steroid, and remembered about it in the morning. So he got a steroid, and then I took him to the after-hours pediatrician to have him checked out and get some more steroids.

Feeling better once the steroids kicked in, he toppled off of a kitchen chair while his hand was in front of his mouth, landing with his fingers in his mouth. He chomped down and took a chunk out of his middle finger. The poor kid ... It just isn't his day.

Goodbye, Thumb Sucking

Grant and Graham have been heavy thumb (Grant) and finger (Graham) suckers since they were babies. Unlike Carter and Ellyson, the twins never took to the pacifier. Instead of using their fingers less often, they seemed to be sucking them more lately. They would sit at circle time at preschool, and answer questions with fingers in their mouths. It was bad, and was beginning to impact their willingness to talk. It was time for the thumbs and fingers to go.

So two weeks ago, we started using a bitter nail polish.

Graham stuck his fingers in his mouth once, and never again. He did cry a little at bedtime the first three nights, telling me he wanted to suck his fingers but couldn't.

Grant tried sucking his thumb a few times over the first 48 hours, before finally learning. He has continued holding his hand in front of his mouth like he's thinking about it ... He also tucks his hand in his shirt, like he doesn't know what to do with his hands now. He's doing these things less and less. But they both are talking more, and are done with their fingers! Woohoo!

I don't know how long it had been since they both watched TV without thumbs or fingers in their mouths!

Tortoises

As our Christmas gift to the kids, we took the kids to an animal encounter at the zoo. With our membership, the kids can collect monthly stamps when we visit. After collecting six stamps, we receive rides wristbands on each subsequent visit during that membership year. By collecting 10 stamps, each of the kids earned an educational credit, which we were able to use for an animal encounter.

We booked the giant tortoise encounter for yesterday. We were able to go into the tortoise habitat, and had two zoo employees as our guides for our program. We pet and fed two of the tortoises (a third is to shy to interact). The male (named Shuffles, and our favorite) is about 50 years old and 350 or so pounds. The females are estimated to be 70 years old, and are about 200-250 pounds. They typically live to be 200+ years olds, and at least one is known to have lived to be 255. Exact ages are hard to track, since records from the late 1700s can't thoroughly trace individual animals.

Grant and Graham were timid. They took a little while to warm up, but they DID warm up.

We fed the tortoises sweet potato strips, stuck in the ends of bamboo skewers. This kept our fingers a safe distance from the tortoises' mouths.