January 2016

Family fun
—Senior sauce: With the grandparents here, R. and I were able to go on the rare grownups-only Sauce night — and once again, the kids barely even noticed we were gone!
—Movie nights: It’s cold, often rainy, and nighttime comes early, so we’ve had quite a few movie nights this month, including screenings of all three Despicable Me movies. The kids are so nuts about those that they can (and do) actually sing the Universal Studios theme song … 

Annika’s things/life/whatnot
—Minecraft: The pointless wanderings of Minecraft have finally come to our house. Annika is heavily into it, forsaking all else, at least for now … my friends with older kids tell me there’s light at the end of the tunnel, but like six or seven years from now. Oh boy …
—Annika in the kitchen: She’s “helped” me for years, the way very little kids do, but as of this winter, Annika is truly a partner in the kitchen — she did fully half the work for some cookies we made for Sauce, and the Swedish pancakes we made with my new plettar pan, and so on. She can measure anything, pays attention to the right way to do things — I’d let her in there by herself if she wanted!
—Piano lessons: She has started piano lessons, half an hour on Monday afternoons, with a young teacher recommended by the parents of her friends Anna & Ella. The teacher comes to our house and Lukas and I vacate the room, and from what I’m able to hear, she’s making real progress — learning about music and notation generally, besides getting better at the piano specifically. So far, she’s liking it — yay! — and isn’t fighting doing her 15 minutes of practice daily.
—Braces ahoy: We went to her first orthodonture consultation, and their assessment aligns with what her dentist has been saying, so we’re going to start the whole years-long process now. She’ll get spacers in February, then other stuff eventually. She’s adjusted to the idea, which she used to vehemently oppose, because fully half of her classmates are on the same track — it’s no big deal now. Whew.
—Cayli’s sleepover birthday party: She finally went to her first sleepover, which was a birthday party at her friend Cayli’s house. This was ideal, because not only were some of her best friends there, but also, Cayli’s mom is Annika’s teacher (Mrs. Merrell). She had an absolute blast, and now wants a sleepover like every night of the week. Heh.
—Noping on out of there: It’s kind of a bummer, but Annika quit Spy Adventures: Star Wars Edition after two meetings, basically because she's the only girl. I wish that didn’t matter, but she’s at the age that I guess it kind of does.
—Girl Scout cookie rally: We went to the big kickoff for cookie sales, where, among other things, she set her sales goal: 1000 boxes! I like her enthusiasm, but I don’t think I’m gonna buy 995 of ‘em … 

Lukas Life
—The TK/Kinder tour: I’ve been hearing such universal raves about our school’s TK class that it’s got me considering enrolling Lukas. So R. and I went on one of the tours the school offers, which was pretty impressive — the TK kids have a great classroom, they were all engaged and behaving, and the program sounds like it might be a fit for Lukas. Based on all of that, I’m going to make an enrollment appointment for him, and keep the option open; at this point, I’m about 90% for it. We shall see. 
—Shanaya’s birthday: Lukas was invited to his classmate Shanaya’s birthday party at Pump It Up. He’s an old pro at that place by now, and was SO EXCITED to go! He had a great time, of course, and I got to talk with the other parents, a few of whom are considering sending their kids to TK as well — more information is always good!
—The ubiquitous Iron Man pajamas: You never know, with this kid — one day, he wanted to wear his beloved Iron Man pajamas all day, so I let him (not on a school day, so who cares), and then he did not want to take them off, ever; he changed back into them the second he got home from school, he cried when I had to take them to wash them, he did his Iron Man moves everywhere we went. It was so cute, we indulged him — at least until they got a hole in the knee big enough to put his head through, ha! And then they went back to being home-only clothes.  

Quotable Lukas
—“Mom: I bezent you my DINOSAUR LAND!" Proudly presenting me with a piece of paper covered with dinosaur stickers.
—“Mick-tunior" His favorite website — aka Nick Jr.
—“Santa Claus Beach Boardwalk” His take on a favorite family destination
—“Mommy and daddy / is a wonderful place to come” A little ditty he sang when he crawled into our bed, several mornings in a row 
—“I won't eat gatoregg. It has egg in it.” On the suggestion that he drink some Gatorade while he had a cold.
—“Are you the sweetest boy in the world?""Yes!" “How sweet are you?” "I'm 18 miles sweet!” Quantifying the sweetness.