Mooserific!

Quiet ballerinas

When Abby and I arrived at her dance class tonight, most of the girls had already arrived. As I helped Abby take off her coat and hang up her bag, her instructor started welcoming the girls back to dance after the holidays. She asked if they were excited to be back at dance, if they enjoyed the holidays, and if they had fun in the snow. Not one of the girls answered her. Once Abby got her coat off though, she jumped right into the conversation. Abby enthusiastically started telling her about the snowman she made with Grandpa, and the failed snowman attempt with me. She was excited to be back at dance! Once Abby started talking, the other girls quietly started to chime in. I left the room beaming.

Josie’s favorite game!

Our Abby Girl is suddenly very interested in learning to write letters. Well, actually she’s very interested in writing “I love you” signs, “like the kids in the Taylor Swift video.” Progress is progress. Right?

What a day! We had lots of fun today, but it was also highly unusual. The babes decided to sleep in until eight this morning and so were not interested in taking their morning nap. I tried to get all three girls to take an afternoon nap after lunch, but Abby would not fall asleep. After lots of “Mama, can I get up,” I gave up and took her outside to play in the snow while Gwen and Josie snoozed. We came in when they woke up, made some popcorn, and enjoyed an afternoon of dancing. It was a fun day, but tiring. I’m not ready to lose my afternoon nap!

Since Abby got to visit the Festival of Lights and sleep over at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, we decided to use the gift card Tim gave us to Panera. The babies loved the experience. We greatly enjoyed a meal prepared by someone else. Most importantly, we could imagine taking all three girls out to dinner sometime soon. That may sound like something minor, but we haven’t been brave enough to try it yet!

Imagine this, but for 10 minutes straight.

The girls have been super splashers lately. I finally braved the deluge long enough to record a video.

Happy New Year! We toasted a bit early, and just had sparkling grape juice, but it was still fun to celebrate.

My first attempt to replicate Grandma Sue Moose’s famous “chip soup” was a success! For the first time ever at our house, Abby entirely fed herself, stayed in her chair the whole time, and completely devoured every last bite of her dinner. Fortunately, we have leftovers for tomorrow!

Tickle, tickle

The babes, especially Josie, are increasingly working on sounds and words. We hear a lot of ba, ma, and da. They both say ba when we read “Ba, Ba, Black Sheep.” Josie just started referring to John as Pa. Yesterday, Josie very clearly said “no Ma” to me when I tried to offer her some banana. The funniest, and most exceptional thing though is that Josie repeatedly says “tickle.” It’s her default word. She’s a talker and sometimes just walks around the house saying “tickle, tickle, tickle…” I wasn’t sure she actually meant tickle until today when we played a tickle game together. She definitely understands the word and uses it in context too. She just likes to say it a lot. I think she’s just trying it on for size. Tickle, tickle, tickle…

One more picture from a couple of days ago, just because I like it. Cute Josie.

The Christmas spirit just keeps on going around our house! We enjoyed a nice visit and some exchanging of gifts with my sisters, Uncle Ben, and my mom today.

We made popcorn yesterday with our new hot air popcorn maker. Abby and Josie got a kick out of watching it pop the popcorn. Gwen did too until it really started going, and then she cried. They all greatly enjoyed eating the final result though. Thanks to Grandma Susan for remembering something I said last June!

We greatly enjoyed a nice long visit with Grandma and Grandpa Moose at their house on Christmas Day.

This was our best Christmas morning so far. Abby woke up first, and was surprisingly willing to let the presents sit untouched while we waited for her sisters to wake up. Josie was the second to wake, but no such luck with her. She wanted to investigate! We ended up encouraging Gwen to get out of bed so we could see what Santa brought us.

The girls had lots of fun opening their gifts, and giving gifts. The highlights were a toy train set, an indoor trampoline, some very cute animal hats and gloves, and a bright red toy monster truck for Papa, who just wanted a nice German car. (That was Abby’s gift to John. She looked at Papa’s preferred cars at the store and said they were “too grey, too blue, too boring.” She instead bought a fire truck for Josie, a camper with a beach scene for Gwen, and the monster truck for John. No sports cars for her!)

We took lots of pictures, but Tumblr only allows ten per post. (Sigh.) Christmas afternoon coming next.

We enjoyed our annual Christmas Eve celebration with family at our house. The girls had fun helping everyone open their presents during the gift grab. Looking back at the pictures to select some for this post, it looks like Ron was the most excited about his present. Good thing no one stole it!