Priates!

Tovina has an awesome pirate imitation. It even came with a big floppy hat an eye squint and some credible 'arrrrrrrrr's.
Unfortunately it did not come with any pictures.

Swimming!

Recently we had the very enjoyable experience of spending a weekend with local cousins and friends (and luckily for us those categories have a fair bit of overlap) at an indoor waterpark! We had a few days to try it out which was fortunate since at the start Tovina was still in her 'I'm not sure I really like this water thing' mode. But by the end of the 3rd day she was playing in the wave pool, splashing and getting splashed back with glee, putting her own face in the water, stepping on the fountains coming out of the floor, and almost falling asleep on my stomach as we bobbed in an inner tube in the wave pool.
Was a great weekend.

More sledding

More from our exciting day.
Emma prepping for a run. Molly pulling T up the slope after their run. (I thought that was very kind. Tovina thought that was her due. Emma seemed to agree since she pulled T up a few times later.)
Michael and Brendan trying something a little unorthodox.

And here are 3 more runs in that exciting moving picture style.

Sledding (season 2)

Last year Tovina tried sledding for the fist time. This year she tried it again and it was a much bigger success. I don't even know how many times she went down the hill, but I'm sure it was more than 10. Even her 1 wipeout was not enough to deter further tries. I've got many photos and some video so hopefully you will be seeing more.

Warm fire

The beginning of January we had the fireplace in the living room replaced. The old one was cracked. We knew this when we bought the house. We were informed that it is generally considered a bad idea to burn things inside a house in a container which has holes. We took this to heart and survived the first year on our propane heater. That was not terribly effective for the living room and kitchen, which (shockingly) are the rooms adjacent to the big ol' wood burning stove.
So we got this new wood burning stove with a new chimney insert installed. No more holes in the back of the stove or in the chimney pipe leading to insulation, which is apparently considered flammable - oh the things one learns when one owns a house.

Here we are mid installation and post installation. The craftsmen at Vonderhaar did a great job matching the old stone work.

Here is Cyrano enjoying the fire while doing his woolly caterpillar routine. This is a popular hobby for both cats. What we enjoy is sinking our hands into their warmed fur after they have been laying there for about 20 minutes. Very toasty!


One of the side benefits of this beast is that we finally have somewhere to put all that spare wood that was lying about the yard. (Remember this beast from the Fall of 2008? Michael finally got to use his chainsaw a 15 months later.)

Tovina's favorite fruit

Here is T asking for her favorite fruit.

And here she is asking for more.

These videos were actually taken back in January, but they came to mind because of yesterday's discussion. See, yesterday Tovina told me she wanted to have pomegranates. I told her they were out of season and we would have to wait. Since I clearly had not understood her request, she asked again. I tried a new tack and said there were none in the house. Tovina then realized that she was talking to someone with minimal intelligence and asked for this fantastic fruit very CLEARLY and sssllllloooowwwllllllllyyyyyyy as well as politely in case that might tilt things in her favor. She was clearly frustrated when this also produced less than desired results.

Aw well. I guess she needed to learn the hard facts of waiting for pomegranate season eventually.

Soooooo unhappy

Tovina is a shockingly even tempered child. So much so that when she gets upset we can usually just talk her down and everything is okay.
Usually.
There there are the rare afternoons like today when nothing is okay and we are not really sure why.
"I DON'T WANT!"
"What don't you want T?"
"I DON'T WANT IT!"
"Okay. Then you don't need to have anything. Feeling better now?" And all this said with an impressive amount of calmness, lack-of-sarcasm, and no smirking.
....pause...... quiet.........thinking.......... TEARS!!!
"I DON'T WANT IT!"

This may have something to do with getting roughly 23 hours of sleep rather than her usual 54 hours over the last 3 days because of some fun-packed, cousin-filled, indoor waterpark weekend... but why make excuses?

Progress?

Tovina has been doing very well with the potty training. Now, she can pretty much take care of it herself during the day... though pulling pants back up afterwords has a 50% success rate at best. For the last 2 weeks Michael has been working with T regarding naps and no diapers. This has led to a lot of laundry, but she does seem to be getting the knack for it.
Which has led to the latest excitement.
T is now getting up between 3 and 4 and needs to go to the bathroom.
That's a.m. in case you were wondering.
I'm not sure this is what I would call progress.
Tue and Wed night she got me up to help. Thursday I realized that we would need to break her pattern before it became one but as it turned out minimal help was needed as she stayed in her own bed and did not come wandering out in search of someone to unzip pajamas and lift her onto icy cold toilet seats in the dark. (Shocking what doesn't motivate some people to keep up a pattern.) However, it was apparently not Tovina who needed some guidance on not forming disruptive habits because it is now 6:45am and i have been up for 2 hours.

Baking bread as a family

When Michael made bread this week Tovina helped and made her very own loaf.

It was 2 inches in diameter.
Though it is hard to tell from her joyous expression, she was quite proud of the results and forsaking larger bread options, only had eyes for 'her' loaf. She even broke it into 2 parts to enjoy with her meal.

Eventually the camera did convince Tovina to actually express some of her joy.

2 bows

Remember how we said T put 2 hairbands with bows in her hair a week or so ago? Well she managed to do it again. Not quite the look she achieved last time but still a winner!

Aunt Sheila told me I had to remove at least one of them before taking Tovina out in public. Spoil sport.

Resting on Shabbat

This past Shabbat we enjoyed our day of rest. Michael even caught a very rare nap. (Rare because he doesn't like them not because some midget who lives in our house prevents them.) Tovina decided that a napping Daddy needed some extra attention so she selfishly gave him some.


And then Tovina realized that she found quietly resting really boring.

Luckily Michael was able to sleep through it all.

Baby Doll

On our previous trip to PA, Tovina brought back a slighly aged baby doll. Yesterday she started carrying it around, feeding it bottles, changing its clothes, and in general giving it all kinds of love and attention. Today I went and dug out the doll swing for her.



Poor Tovina was kept up all night by the doll and was left so exhuasted that she ended up pushing it while laying on the ground.... or maybe I am projecting some personal recollection as T really only pushed the doll for about 10 minutes.

Red tailed Tovina

Tovina was prepping for a rousing rendition of grey squirrel. The actual performance will hopefully be recorded and presented here for your pleasure at a later date.