Call Day #50, 3/30/11 **Birthday Edition**

Happy Birthday, Daddy!!

(Those hats are birthday cakes with candles, in case you can't tell.)

Eleanor visits with "Hobbes," a neighbor's cat.

Playing with Lillian and Hannah at River of Life church. The kids played while a few of us talked through ways to make the space we use for playgroup more welcoming etc.

Hannah and Eleanor read.

Claire plays with a car. She knows cars make noise and does her own version of "vroom, vroom" when she plays with one.

Way ahead of me, running down the hill, saying "I'm applying my brakes!" Clearly, a Thomas reference.

Right as we got home we ran into friends at the park. So, we joined them. Lila loves "baby Tare."

Chase!! Eleanor leads Bella the dog, Shannon, and Lila.

And then--more friends! Laura and Judah from our church and Amber and Tessa from down the street joined us too. I've never been with that many people I know from our neighborhood at one time, at our park, AND spontaneously. I think this is my ideal morning. Eleanor was asking to leave and go home to eat lunch and sleep before I was ready to go. :)

Then, Claire got a bloody nose on the way into our house. Fell over right on the threshold. She recovered quickly and was happy to have lunch.

Which is why I have no idea what this face is about. It's just her new look, I guess.

Eleanor has been wanting to unlock the doors lately. Returning home after afternoon errands.

Call Day #49, 3/26/11

The dreaded "black weekend:" On call on Saturday, working until midday Sunday, work as usual on Monday. No day off for two weeks.

Eleanor plays school. All available dolls, animals, etc are students who get lined up on the bed to listen to a story.

Breakfast: Several choices for make-your-own oatmeal. Eleanor of course chose to put some of everything in hers.

Runny-nosed Claire. They've both been like this for about a week now.

Thankfully we don't really ever see this face from Claire. She was playing with her toothbrush bristles and managed to repeatedly spray herself. Obviously, didn't like it very much.

I had a few ideas of fun places to go today but Eleanor was pretty adamant about wanting to stay home and just play. So, we did. Here, Elmo is taking orders at Chick-Fil-A while customers wait in line.

There was much train play today. Elmo and Abby get taken to the hospital on the train (adapted from the plotline of a Thomas book we currently have out from the library).

High-fives at lunchtime.

Claire was awake while Eleanor napped. She liked trying out a new skill, zipping and unzipping Eleanor's purse.

Eleanor decided a green bean at dinner looked like a trumpet and decided to blow it. Note the buzzing technique! (It was the end piece of a green bean with the narrower, curved end. It did look a lot like the trumpets Joshua and company used in the Bible story we had just read.)

Call Day #48, 3/22/11

Eleanor reads while I get breakfast ready. She reads a lot but this book, The Jesus Storybook Bible, just gets her talking like none other.

Tuesday mornings I go to a womens' Bible study at our church. Eleanor loves running around outside in the yard anytime we're at church. She loves to play a game where she approaches the building on one of the two sidewalks you see here and I walk on the other so that we meet on the porch to go in. Here we're doing it in reverse as we leave.

Playing with a find from the dollar bins at Target. Made a stop on the way home.

Eleanor decided the automatic hand dryers in the bathrooms are not scary but fun! Claire (somewhat tearfully) disagreed.

After playing in this drawer for months, Claire started trying to put lids on cups today. The two times I saw her really working at it, she had chosen the right lid for the cup (even if upside down).

Erik and Eleanor play the princess memory game Tim brought Eleanor. Yes, Erik was home on a call day! Today was the Housestaff Retreat which included training and social time. Erik skipped out on the planned activity and spent his social time with us!

Puzzle time.

Dominoes. It was quite the game-playing afternoon.

A break to watch a car be towed.

Claire entertains herself with her own little game. She'll find an article of clothing and try to put it on her head (often ending up with it around her neck like this). When she succeeds, she thinks it's really funny, laughs at herself, pulls it off, and starts again.

Speaking of games, Eleanor loves playing the "very useful engine" game. Based on the Thomas stories, I give her a job to do as she pretends to be one of the engines. I pretend to be Sir Topham Hatt and when she returns with the job completed, I tell her she is a "very useful engine," a line used in every storyline. With this game, she eagerly helps pick up toys on the floor, clean up after dinner, or put things away in her drawer as in this picture. She asks to play it and to do it for longer than I expect! Hope this game never gets old!!

Call Day #47, 3/18/11

Friday is trash pickup day and the sidewalks can get crowded with all the trashcans. Eleanor was running through the tight spaces this morning yelling "I'm going through the valleys." Didn't know she knew that word! (This picture was on the main street with wider passageways.)

Eleanor's favorite thing at the playgroup we go to on Friday mornings at a local church? The tunnel. She asked me about it at breakfast this morning, making sure it would indeed be there.

We took a different street on the way home and Eleanor discovered moss. She was pretty fascinated by it the rest of the way home, continuing to looking for more.

Claire in one of her new bibs from Grandma and Grandpa.

Just LOVE her happy crinkled nose!

Giving her own Tigger a hug. A birthday present from Aunt Linda, Claire took to him right away.

Happily playing with her keys from Mr. Tim.

We took advantage of beautiful weather to go to the park. Claire tried stairs for the first time. A good try, but she's not a climber yet.

Eleanor stirring a woodchip concoction she called something like "Peter tree Albert wind sky drink." No, I have no idea what that is, but we played it for a long time. And at one point it was described as "filthy."

Claire moved on to rummaging in a third drawer today. So, when I wasn't looking sandwich baggies were being pulled out and strewn around the kitchen. Drawer lock time?

Call Day #46, 3/14/11

Claire likes having her teeth brushed. This morning she would NOT give up the toothbrush. I let her keep it since I felt two new teeth breaking through on the bottom this morning--maybe it feels good to her.

Working on butterfly art to hang in her room. From a neat Valentine's card from Grandma and Grandpa.

The finished project on Eleanor's door. Twig found on a walk today.

We went to the library this morning. Wouldn't you know we went the one morning they open at noon? We were an hour early. Eleanor enjoyed putting books in the book return.

Since we couldn't go in, she just ran up and down the ramps out front. She always loves these ramps, but today we had time to really let her enjoy them. We played chase here for quite a while, me chasing her up and down while pushing Claire in the stroller.

Eleanor has gotten into a good bit of trouble lately for testing the limits on hand-holding when crossing the street. Today she came up with a plan that I told her was an acceptable alternative. When it is time to cross the street, she just holds on to the "leash." (The "leash" is actually supposed to attach to a cup so that it doesn't fall out of the stroller and get lost.) She thinks this is great fun!

Watching the dump truck and backhoe at work on our street.

A stop at the playground on the way back from the closed library. This picture is for those of you who love the way she wrinkles her face when she talks.

Claire bundled. A very few tiny snowflakes fell while we were at the park.

Whee!

Claire asked for a bath today. Pointed to the tub and signed please.

Post-nap return trip to the library. If one book is good, two books are better!