The Weekly Review: Week 41

This week's brief Weekly Review is sponsored by the holidays and being hundreds of miles from home. Wish us luck on our 12-14 hour ride home tomorrow.

Website of the Week

Another great website I discovered recently is Art Projects for Kids which is a blog written by an elementary school art teacher. Again, I just went months and months back in her archives finding tons of great art projects to do with my little ones.

Highlight of the Week

Family. Really, that is what the winter holiday time is about for me. We had two wonderful days spent with both parents focused on the children and with hours and hours of bonus grandparent time. Then we traveled to spend even more time with extended family. Yes, I enjoyed choosing special gifts for special people and watching them open those gifts, but mostly I just enjoyed the time spent with family. I watched my son spend hours building his first big Lego set with his father. I played music with my own father (Dad on the piano and me on the children's new glockenspiel). Ava was delighted with her new big girl backpack and carried her new Hello Kitty stuffed animal around in it everywhere. We sat down for two big family meals and the children are old enough that the focus was on lively conversation rather than just the mechanics of feeding two small children. It was all lovely and I hope you all had amazing holidays as well.

Ava and Michael this Week

Michael is long and lean and looking so much like a little boy these days rather than a big toddler. He's taken to talking to his sister like I do. I didn't realize how often I say, "Ava, baby..." until he starting copying me. Wow, that sure sounds condescending coming from a 4-year old. Ava lets me get away with it, but whenever her brother tries she corrects him saying, "I'm not a baby."

Ava got a kids camera for Christmas and loved it. At first, she just held on to it clicking the picture button as quickly as possible. Then she noticed the viewscreen and would get about half an inch from her intended target and attempt to take pictures that way. After a while, I noticed her slowing down and really watching her viewscreen. She'd start up close, and then back away actually framing a shot before taking her picture. She would then switch to the review pictures mode and check out the pictures she had taken to see the results before taking more. I think I have a budding photographer on my hands.