High honors

You may be wondering why there's trash on the table. Worry not, these pieces of paper are in the wastebasket now, but until they made their trip into the circular file, they were works of art.



You've heard the saying, "One man's trash is another one's treasure." These two creations occupied Joshua for at least two hours, on two separate days. We treasured the quiet time and a break from the question, "Mommy, what you doin'?"

They are called "the girls." Or, as Joshua says it, "the guuhls." Amah and Grandma, of course. Can't you see the resemblance? He taped pieces of paper together painstakingly, he even cut out hearts to attach to "arms" and "legs." They are CRAZY-looking, but certainly made with love.



Talk about love. It's tough to pull the above cherished item from Joshua's grip. But it needs to be washed once in a while. Yesterday, I asked Joshua to hand it over and he said, "Ok, first, one last zip." That's where he takes one of the ribbons and slides it between his pointer finger and his third finger. One last zip.



How do you say no to that smile? It isn't easy and he knows it.

Lots of silliness and fun this past weekend. We went to a holiday parade, after which the city was decked out in bright lights.
The weather was PERFECT and surprisingly, the same goes for the boys' behavior.



You never know what you're going to get when you ask them to say, "cheese."



We kept saying Jason definitely looks like one of the "99 percent."



Hours before the parade got underway, Joshua got the chance to attend his very first birthday party for a classmate!!! It was so exciting.



He looks tired in this first party picture. And no wonder. He overcame his shyness so quickly. During birthday parties past, it would take Jason and Michael many minutes to warm up to new surroundings. Joshua, two minutes and then he was gone!



Of course, ask him to smile for the camera and this is what I get.

By the way, we are very proud of our young scholars. Jason got all A's for the first quarter and Michael (who doesn't have letter grades yet) also did VERY well. We have definitely been studying hard, with vocabulary words in particular. Last week, Jason told Michael that he looked "bewildered" by something. Without missing a beat, Michael looked at me and said, "I'm coping with Jason."

Aren't we all.