THE GREEN(wald) HOUSE … (growing rosemary & raising a little wolf)

Ahh - Spring in Michigan, where we had snow last week.



So we took advantage and made a big snowman and played until we were frozen, then came in for some hot chocolate by the fire - hopefully for the last time this year…

But today it is sunny and beautiful - hooray!

I was glad that the flowers we had ready to bloom didn’t get frozen in the snow.

here are the flowers before - and 2 days later

Sammy is 21 months and is becoming such a fun little boy.

He is so adorable and is really getting into playing on his own. Sometimes he tugs on my pants and requests that I come “pay” with him, but he is usually content to sit and play by himself, especially when Rosie is at school. He loves playing with trains, driving cars along the ground, and throwing and kicking and trying to catch a ball. The usual boy stuff. Occasionally he’ll pick up a doll and cradle it for a few minutes, rocking it back and forth and say “baby” - then he grows bored and tosses the doll off to the side and moves on to something more exciting.

He still loves bedtime and loves going to sleep. He also does the cutest thing every time I put him in his bed - he lets out this long contented sigh. It is like he is thinking “Finally! I get to go to bed!” We have been working on setting limits on nursing, and limiting the number of times he nurses a day. Right now, I have limited his access - so he nurses in the morning, at naptime, at bedtime, and I am letting him occasionally nurse if he wakes up in the night too. Hopefully we can drop the middle of the night one for good very soon. He is still happy in his crib, so I don’t see us transitioning to a toddler bed anytime soon…

He is still very much a mama’s boy. He gets VERY jealous whenever Rosie is sitting on my lap or cuddling with me and he will try to push her away and then throw himself on the ground and whine if he is not successful.

He is still into dumping and pouring things into other things. I did find the big container of pasta and dried beans for pouring and dumping, and that was spread all over the house for about a week straight before I had enough and put it away again.

He loves running and chasing his sister, and being chased by her. He has also been spending a lot of time pretend falling and lying on the floor and laughing and looking at things from that point of view. He loves to run through the house jumping and saying “jump - jump - jump”. We went to the zoo a couple weeks ago and he would run down the path, then stop and lie down and kick his legs and laugh and then get up and run and do it all over again.

Rosie is excited about turning 4 in a few months - and already talks about it and makes a pretend cake where we sing and pretend it is already her birthday.

She has been loving trying to read a lot lately, and likes to sit in bed at night and flip through the little mermaid books we checked out of the library. She has decided she can figure out what is happening in the story by looking at the pictures, and she makes up her own story following the pictures. She LOVES school, and even gets excited to do her “homework” when she occasionally comes home with something (like tracing shapes or practicing writing letters). She usually asks “mommy, can I do my homework right when we get home?” I hope this excitement about school and homework lasts throughout her school career.

She really loves playing computer games, she goes on noggin.com and pbskids.org and she can navigate the sites great, going from game to game, opening and closing windows, it is really impressive to see her computer skills. Joe has been uploading a lot of learning games on his iphone for her too. Games where she can spell words by looking at a picture and choosing the missing letter, and it has an app for practicing writing letters. It is pretty cool - she also loves to go to the “fart machine” app on her dad’s phone. He is so proud. I am not sure it is a good idea to give a 3 1/2 year old unlimited access to a $400 phone - but she is usually pretty careful.

Here is a short video of her playing a game on my computer - she is very good at maneuvering the touch pad…

She still loves to cook and has been really good about helping me with things when I ask her. We do dishes together, she helps me clean and sweep and vacuum. Her participation is usually limited, after a few minutes she usually tells me she is too tired to do any more, and she is ready for a snack (usually cheese, or dried fruit). We really try to have some good quality mommy-daughter time when Sammy is napping in the afternoon. Sometimes we paint our nails, or play a game, or take a bath, or read, or just cuddle and watch TV. She got a couple Dora card games in her Easter Basket, and she had fun learning how to play “go fish” the other day. She loved it so much she exclaimed “It’s my perfect game I never played in the whole wide world!”

We had a great Passover dinner at our new house for family. It was nice because Aunt P, Aunt Arlene, cousins Debby and Alissa did all the cooking so all I had to do was move a little furniture. It was a great chance for everyone to see the new house, and Rosie had a great time playing dress up and beauty shop with cousin Alexandra from NJ.

Easter was quiet and nice at home. The Easter bunny (named Esther, who comes to celebrate the beginning of spring) came and hid some baskets that Rosie and Sammy had fun finding. Then Aunt P, Uncle Lime, Marisa, Noah, Cory and Ari came over to decorate eggs and we hid them in the backyard several times and everyone got lots of chances to hunt for eggs.

Here are a few videos just to give a glimpse into our lives and how cute the kids are. The first one is from dinner just a few nights ago.

I have been amazed by the appetites on these kids lately. Rosie seems to eat non-stop all day long, she is constantly telling me she is hungry, and when I ask her what she wants, she says “Hmm, let me just take a look and decide” and she goes to the pantry or fridge and opens it and peruses the contents before deciding on something. She is still a cheese addict, and Sammy is quickly becoming one too. We seriously go through pounds of cheese every week, Sammy runs to the fridge first thing in the morning and starts chanting “cheese, cheese, cheese”. Rosie knows several different varieties and will ask specifically for gouda, or colby jack, or cheddar, or swiss, or havarti, or string cheese. She also likes cream cheese mixed in with her scrambled eggs in the morning (with spinach too) and she loves sour cream on her burrito or beans and rice at dinner.

This one is from last month and shows Sammy and his attempts to talk, and his personality and how cute he is…

This one is from February, right before Rosie started pre-school, and we were talking about what she thought school would be like and what she would learn…