Life is sweet - a family update.

Ethan has been a his new school, Little Munchkins for over one month. His teachers and classmates seem to really love him. His best friend is a boy named CJ. He seems to know a new song every day and this week they learned about ovals. At some point, he watched "All Dogs Go to Heaven" because he suddenly started talking about it at dinner last night. He amazes me with the things that he says and/or repeats, and he spends hours outside climbing on his swing set or pretending to be Peter Pan. ("Come on Wendy-bird," he calls to me). He and Michael even went out for a walk a couple of days ago to "hunt for Indians" (like in Peter Pan).

Our newest adventure at the house is money! For a while, I have been encouraging him to pick up Michael's change around the house and save it. (Most of it falls out of Michael's pockets when he sits down anywhere). I was mostly encouraging it, of course, so I wouldn't have to pick it up because it makes me nuts, but one day Michael suggested we take him to the dollar store and let him spend it. He LOVES the dollar store. So this week, Peter Pan had a little, plastic trumpet when he threw "John Captain Hook" off the swing set into the crocodile's mouth.

Stella is so chatty! She is blabbering and bubbling along for a good half hour at a time, whether anyone is paying attention to her or not...But she does like to be cooed at. She is also starting to roll around - onto her tummy at least once! She crosses her little ankles and shoots her legs out until she rocks over onto her side.

She loves Sesame Street, too. I suspect that is why she first rolled over. Ethan watches PBSkids.ord, as he calls it, some mornings while Michael and I get dressed. One morning when I was walking through the house from the laundry room to my bedroom, I noticed Sister laying on her back in the living room, craning her neck at the TV where Elmo was playing the piano - her little legs were shoved out so her heels pushed her heavy bottom just in the right direction. She was kneading her hands, eyes and mouth wide open, so excited by the neon muppets on the screen.

Michael and I are doing well,too. We have been working a lot, not unpacking, not cleaning, not stressing out too much about finances. It has been wonderful. Last night, we stayed up late reading comics together on the couch - he with his laptop, me with mine. I hope that the past month or so is an indication of what our new life as a family again can be all the time. Horray for hope!

Happy holidays -life is sweet!