January/ This and That

Here's a little of this, a little of that, pictures from January and whatever else pops into my head. Just to keep things from getting too hodgepodge, we'll organize these little vignettes according to family member, starting with the youngest:

Evie

- Eve rolled over (tummy to back) for the first time 1/10, and seemed a little taken aback when it happened. She's done it many, many times since then, but it still never really seems intentional
-The thumb started to beat out the pacifier as her preferred method of getting to sleep, but she wouldn't suck her thumb if we were holding her, and a battle to get her to sleep would inevitably ensue. One day I put her in bed wide awake to see if she had mastered her thumb-sucking enough to soothe herself to sleep. And by golly, she did it. I cannot emphasize enough what a relief that was, it freed up about two and half hours in my day that had previously been spent walking her to sleep. Since that day, all I have to do is sing "Soft Kitty" to her and lay her down. "Soft Kitty" is the song I was singing to her the first time she ever laughed, probably because it ends with "purr, purr, purr," but it also makes a good lullaby. Oh, you've never heard "Soft Kitty?" Well, I'll sing it for you sometime.
-At her five-month appointment, Eve weighed 12 lb 8oz, and regained her original position in the 50th percentile for weight (after having dropped to 25th at her previous appointment.) And her 75th percentile head size ranking is nothing to sneeze at, either. She's just an all-around plump little dear. I call her 'Evie, my stout-bottomed lass.'

"So I have cankles. Don't judge me."

A common scene at our house: Charlie and Antonia jockeying for a 
position on whichever side Eve happens to be looking,
with the loser trying his/her darndest to draw her attention to the other side

There needs to be a cute word to describe a thumb sucker,
besides "thumb sucker." Something like  'chumbawumba'

Antonia

-Antonia started gymnastics, and LOVES it. I think it's the perfect place for her to jump her jiggles out, because everything is padded, so it doesn't matter that she falls down every two minutes. Antonia has so much zest for life, it's impossible not to smile watching her do something she loves, and watching her bounce around at "gymanskits" with a huge grin on her face is one of my life's purest pleasures.
-She loves to listen to music, especially music that she can sing along to, although her favorite song does not fall into that category. Her favorite song is "Another Postcard" by the Barenaked Ladies. NO ONE can sing along with that song, I've been trying to learn those words for years. "A British chimp in the ????" What are they saying!!
-As always, she keeps us continually entertained by the way her mind works. Here are a few Antonia gems:

Me: (singing) "Sometimes you feel like a nut...sometimes you don't."
Antonia: But sometimes you do.
Me: But sometimes you DON'T.
Antonia: But sometimes you DO.
  There's no disputing the fact that Antonia has inherited the Hall tendency to want to argue with everyone about everything...

Me: Tell me a story. Tell me the story of "Tangled" (her favorite movie. )
Antonia: Ummm...There were some mean guys and they had swords and, um, then they had a dream, and then they didn't get mean anymore.
  (In one scene of the movie, the ruffians/bad guys sing a bar song called "I Have a Dream," and then realize they should help Rapunzel, and not "get mean anymore".)
Me: (When I'm done laughing) That's the whole story? Aren't you forgetting something?
Antonia: No, I'm NOT.

Me: Where are your shoes?
Antonia: Hmmmm. That's a good question. What do YOU think?

Antonia only fairly recently started getting dressed independently. She usually gets dressed in the morning at the same time Charlie is getting dressed for school. One day, several hours after getting dressed, she said--looking uncomfortable-- "Mom, my underwear feels tight." Upon further inspection, I discovered that she had one leg through the waist of her underwear, while her body was through one leghole. What amazes me is that she was walking around like that until almost lunchtime.

Sisters, sisters

Charlie

-Charlie received the Marvelous Marlin award, which is basically like Student of the Month, and we went to a little awards ceremony in the school cafemagymatorium. They called his name, he received a certificate from the Vice Principal and then he stood on the bleachers with the other kids while all the moms took a picture. I have to say that while I'm proud of him for doing something that his teacher considered remarkable, I wish I knew what that something was. Plus, there are only twenty kids in his class, so half of them will get picked as Student of the Month anyway; how remarkable of an achievement is that, really? It just seemed a little meaningless to me. Charlie clearly had no idea why he had been picked. I think kids can benefit more from specific commendations for specific achievements than these generic awards for being "marvelous" or whatever. Oh, hey, soapbox! I was beginning to miss you...
-While Antonia likes to argue in the moment, she doesn't really care if you point out to her (later) that she was wrong about something. Charlie, on the other hand, does not take much pleasure in being corrected. He may have inherited a little of that from his dad (some may remember "The Look" of days gone by,) but like his dad, I'm sure he'll outgrow it and become wonderfully humble. And sometimes he does handle it pretty gracefully, but just as often he gets really upset. Case in point: one day he was telling me about a book at the library that had all these songs in it which he said he knew. "Like, 'Oh My Darling Porcupine' and 'Take Me Out of the Game and Buy Me a Hotdog.'"  He did NOT want to listen to my suggestions that the actual songs might be "Oh My Darling, Clementine" or "Take me out to the Ballgame."

Charlie's Meaningless Marvelous Marlin Award Ceremony.
I think I should have gotten an award for not letting Eve fall out of the baby 
carrier, which was clearly not engineered for people of my stature.
 I had all those straps pulled as tight as they would go. I really did.

Charlie colored this picture at the beginning of the school year
and I finally got a picture of it to post.
Because this drawing is my fafrit.

Charlie found this sheet music in the scratch paper pile
and decided to add his own musical style.
Clearly there were not enough dynamics for his tastes.

Adri

-I got my hair cut (see above photo.) You might be familiar with the postpartum phenomenon of shedding copious amounts of hair, which hits at around three months; well, I did a little math and I realized that if my hair were half as long, then there would be half as much hair piling up around the house and clogging the drains and getting in Eve's mouth.
-For Christmas I received the best hairdryer I've ever had in my life. Although, I should point out that my last hairdryer was with me for 13 years, so it's not like I've had a lot of hairdryers. But this new one does the job in half the time. So I did some MORE math, and I figured out that with half as much hair, I can now dry my hair in ONE-QUARTER the amount of time! And what have I done with all this extra time?  Hmmm. That's a good question. See the next bullet point.
-At some point earlier this year I volunteered to do some cutting for Charlie's teacher, and impressed her with my not inconsiderable cutting skills. And she began to send home bins of laminated teaching materials. And I started to watch a LOT of British television, via Netflix, with my paper cutter and scissors in hand. So much British television that I now say things like "Good job" instead of "good thing." As in, "Good job I'm paying that extra seven bucks a month for Netflix unlimited streaming, eh gov'?" Here are a few of my favorites you should check out if you think that the Brits have more clever writing and intelligent characters (could be the accents) than what can currently be found on network television: "Upstairs, Downstairs," "Inspector Lewis," "The Last Detective," "Monarch of the Glen," "Wallander" and "Lark Rise to Candleford."
-I finally learned how to clip in and out of the road bike that I acquired a LONG time ago. I was more or less forced to find an alternative form of exercise since injuring my knee in Ragnar a while back (if you've talked to me for five minutes ever, I'm sure you've heard me complain about it. I'm not really the 'suffer in silence' type.) I had my doubts that I could love cycling as much as running, but I'm getting there. Nothing beats a good sprint to the thrumming banjo of Mumford and Sons. It is so fun to go FAST, and fast is what you can do on a road bike. I dubbed my bike the Dolce, because--like my high school/college car--it is a "Sweet Ride." Also, 'Dolce' is printed right on the bike; but that's just a coincidence.

This is how I like to think I look
when I'm on the Dolce...

...But it's probably more like this, actually.
Still pretty cool, though; right? Go Canada!

Will

-Will finally convinced someone he needed an ipad to really be the most awesome band director possible. As it turns out, the person he convinced was his principal, (not his wife) so the school bought "the band program" an ipad. And "the band program" brings it home every night to make sure "the band program" is really getting its money's worth. I know I was a little skeptical about how useful it could really be, but I have to admit that it IS pretty handy to be able to mess around with jazz chord substitutions from the comfort of one's bed.
-Will is a great Dad to three kids, and has probably handled the transition with more grace than I have. It was a telling moment when the bishop asked us during an interview how it was going with three kids and we both answered at the same time; Will said "Not too bad!" and I--with an audible sigh--exclaimed "It's been hard!"
-We inherited an awesome electric drum set from Will's jazz band drummer, who recently upgraded to something fancier. (I think I mentioned that before.) Charlie gets the most time on the drum set, but Will has also enjoyed it. We've even had a few jam sessions with guitar and piano students. It's nice for Will to have the opportunity to branch out from air drumming :)

I love it when Charlie writes us notes.
Charlie and Antonia's sad faces say it all about their mean parents,
who don't let them play on the phone and ipad all day.