We love our local library, we spend lots of time there and check out oodles of books each week. This fall they started a program called ‘reading to a dog’ and we have joined them three times now for it. This week it was very popular and only one dog came so all three shared the ten minute time slot and were very patient with the dog. The first time only Celia went, and she liked it pretty well. The second time there were two dogs, and not many kids so both Josie and Ewan elected to read to the dog. I picked a book for Ewan without any words. This week he had anticipated the dogs and picked out the stack of books he wanted to read to Rufus two days ahead of time. The day before Ewan was practicing reading them to me so he’d be ready for the dog. Rufus is a big big dog, and he likes to lay his paw on you while you read and connect. Josie found his paw rather heavy and kept trying to move it off, while he kept trying to put it back on. Josie read him several pages of a dolphin dreamer book, Ewan “read” him Go Dog Go and Maisy Drives the Bus, book he’s memorized mostly. Celia at the end took a few pages of Maisy for Rufus and fun was had by all.

And that does it! 52 weeks, a whole year of all three kids! I love having captured so many more of the everyday moments of the three of them. I think I may have to do it again, but I also think I may take a short break. I was also considering trying to get better at my iphoneography and pushing myself with that too. I’ll have to decide, but for right now I’ve got a cold and I just want to relax. I should also print off a book of this year!

My kids are always looking for an excuse to pull out the umbrellas so on our walk to Quebrada this weekend it was raining and fairly warm so we brought out all the rain gear and they humored me with some photos, and I let them play in the street. Good trade off? They call it ‘fishing’ when they stick sticks into the puddles and see what kind of muck they can pull up.

This week Code.org has been very popular around this house with both Josie and Celia learning working on block coding. Pretty much any time they get to use the computer or iPad is very exciting for them as we tend to favor them doing things in real life and playing with real blocks. Today though I made palak paneer for the first time, so it was handy for them to be busy with coding. Ewan mostly spent his time ‘washing dishes’ while I was cooking. Here Josie is working on the star wars module and Ewan keeps pointing out every time there is a picture of Leia on the screen.

One of my favorite scenes always is Josie reading to the other two and letting me get some things done without so many interruptions. Although you can see that Ewan isn’t so super excited about the choice of book. Josie picked this book out to give to Celia for the holidays this year and they both like it. Ewan prefers shorter books.

Even in this one small photo I can see all the things that we’ll be changing soon this next year. This couch will hopefully be retired to at least upstairs for a play couch if not entirely put out to the curb. The chicken on the wall and the curtains will be taken down as we move upstairs. The kids will all be one year bigger, maybe Ewan will decide to wear pants more often. Celia will be reading herself full books (she can do bits and pieces now and is learning more each day). Happy New Year!

All the trees have lost their leaves and now we’ve got the strong winter sun back in our living room in the morning. Ezzy loves it, Fred too. Makes the strong pocket of light look like they discovered their very own sun though and are sitting around it.

Here’s the kids playing with one of their new toys from this holiday. They’re getting better all together, except for the times when Josie gets too bosy, Celia won’t listen to anyone elses opinions and then Ewan feels ignored and given a his two year old tolerance for disappointment he starts to play ‘donut’ and destroys everything.

I got them all in the same spot of grass, just not quite at the same time. Here they’re down in Florida at my inlaws place, more photos to come.

Wow I’m almost back at 52. I think I’ll have to start a new 52 project for next year. I really am appreciating this project, it was challenging enough to keep with it, but not so hard that I fell off the wagon, and I so love having the photos of all three of them in their natural habitat.

For my birthday this month I was graced with a smart phone for the first time. I have long held onto my dumb phone, but I was finding I had pockets of time I really could have been using a smart phone to get things done (like waiting in the car outside gymnastics while Ewan is sleeping) and maybe get more sleep at night. So while I plan to keep the big camera out, here’s the first photo of the three of them at Ewan’s last gymnastics class of the year on the bounce house.

Watch out, we’re making some home made Christmas presents this year. If they turn out as described anyway.

It is a tradition for my kids to take the local recreation gymnastics class with coach Tanya. Josie and Celia both did it for years and this year it’s Ewan’s turn to run, tumble, jump and hang around. Josie and Celia get to tag along and they’re thrilled, always ready to jump right in. Ewan, today, did not want to participate, but it only took a few minutes of watching before he was out of his seat jumping around too. Today he learned to pull his feet up on the bar as you see below. He also loves to show off his rolls down the slanted mat and jumps onto and off of everything. Josie and Celia have to watch out for the little ones, but the class is pretty small so they can practice their gymnastics tricks too on the mat and the bar which is hard to practice anywhere else.

Now that the whole backyard/driveway is ours to play in, the kids have a lot more flexibility with how they play with their toys as all the toys are theirs, and we don’t have to worry about someone trying to drive up or drive away while we’re playing. We’ve also put in that compost bin you see behind Ewan this summer, which has been great at doing it’s job so far, making new dirt. The trees have also been tossing their leaves at us heavily this week as you see them all over the ground. The kids on the other hand think these cones are fantastic hats, goals, and other props. Ewan is waiting for Josie to ‘take his picture’ as he invented the ‘camera’ that Josie is looking through at me, it is a magnifying glass atop a cone. Ewan pushes the button down and says ‘click’ and then runs for ‘picture picture’. Who knows where he got these camera ideas from eh? Celia likes to wear the cone on her head for a ‘cake party’ that the adults are not invited to. They also re-imagined the game of hockey using their big bouncy balls and their rakes as sticks to whack the balls back and forth. Can’t wait to keep updating the backyard into a fun-zone for all of us.