Grandpa Greg and Grandma Kathy came for a visit Saturday. They got to watch the boys ice skating and then we had a pretty quiet day at home drawing, reading, and playing games.

It's hard for Beckett to keep still even when playing a memory game on the floor. Always in motion!

More ice skating, sledding and skiing

Saturday Claire stayed home with Reed while I took the boys to ice skating lessons. The week before they spent a lot of time on the ice, falling down and getting up, and it sounded pretty frustrating. Beckett was still game for trying it again but Theo was pretty mad about having to go again. I tried cajoling but eventually settled on bribery, promising him a Winnie the Pooh movie when we got back from skating. There was still a lot of whining in the car on the way (nothing that blasting the Frozen soundtrack can't fix) but when I told him that we would get figure skates this time, and that I would try a smaller size for him (Theo is a size 9 shoe, Beckett is a size 10, but Jeff had gotten them both 10s the week before), he calmed down enough for me to put his skates and gear on. By the time he was laced up in his tan skates, he was pretty happy.

There must be some kind of muscle and brain work that happens when you try something and then take time off before trying it again, because the boys were on their feet way more than on the ice. Another mom who had seen Theo and Beckett last week commented that they were incredibly improved from last week-"they were on the ice most of the time last week!" You can tell from their faces that they were thrilled with their progress. They went up and back again and again, using slow marching motions with just a tiny bit of glide in their steps.

After the 25 minute lesson they didn't want to stop, so I let them go back out on the practice ice, where they kept right on skating. Theo even met another little girl who showed him a few cool techniques. Theo was enraptured.

Saturday night our neighbor Will texted that he and his three boys were heading out for some sledding behind the school around the block, so we trekked out for some nighttime sledding. The difference a year makes is pretty remarkable. Last year the boys needed help getting themselves up the hill, especially carrying their sleds, but this year Beckett just got right up, dropped his sled down, and in one movement, threw himself onto it and propelled himself down the hill. He got some of the longest runs of the night all by himself. Theo liked Mr. Will to push him down really fast.

Sunday Jeff encouraged me to take all three boys to Song Mountain to get Theo and Beckett another ski lesson. Of course, there's no way in hell Jeff would have taken two four year olds and a baby as well as all the snow gear to a mountain for ski lessons, but I did it ONLY because Sara and Preston came along to help. Theo and Beckett's job was to encourage Preston to participate in his lesson, and Sara was a huge help in carrying gear and herding and guiding me around the complex. Reed and I hung out at the lodge while the big boys had their lesson.

Museum of Play

Friday we lucked out to have Claire visiting and have a superintendent's conference day for the boys on an unusual, non-holiday day, so we packed up for a day at the Museum of Play in Rochester.

Reed and Beckett digging while Theo and Auntie Claire were reading at the Berenstain Bears exhibit.

Claire got very comfortable with the Ergo and Reed was so happy that he slept on her for a while. Poor Reed didn't get his nap schedule accommodated much in the last few days, with all the activities we were running off to all the time!

My Theo, stopping to read in a quiet nook of the Museum, which is also a library.

Beckett and I discovered a previously-unknown section of the Reading Adventureland exhibit, where you can pretend you're on a pirate ship and send notes across the sails (or something like that). Beckett loved writing letters and drawing pictures and sending them to me across the sail.

Theo's favorite part of the museum was a SuperYou exhibit he and Claire found where you can put your face in the body of a superhero. He really improved his mouse skills choosing the superheros and accessories out. I also blew their minds when we got back and I put the pictures they had created on their cameras, so they can see them whenever they want!

They got to ride the train all by themselves, a very rare treat.

Very close to crawling! He so wants to....

Snowshoeing

Claire and I took advantage of having childcare for Reed on Thursday to head out to Beaver Lake Nature Center for some snowshoeing. We stopped at the beautiful, volunteer-staffed center where we rented snowshoes and got a map, and then headed out. We seemed to be the only snowshoers out, and except for the clomp-clomp, scratch-scratch of the snowshoes, we enjoyed a quiet, peaceful hike through the woods, over frozen marshland, and up and down hills. It was really fun and I hope to convince the whole family to go out for a daytime or a moonlight snowshoe someday soon.

Wednesday Claire and I took Reed to his nine-month pediatrician appointment. His height was down an inch from a month ago (thanks to the super-accurate measuring technique of simultaneously yanking on his head and foot) and he's up almost a pound. He's not crawling yet but seems so much closer today than he was even Wednesday. He's saying lots of MAMA, DADA, GAGA sounds. Apparently he says mama in an anxious tone when I'm not around. Reed got two more shots, the last round of Hep B and the last flu shot, and he was tested for lead and hemoglobin (both normal).

Visit with Claire

My dear friend Claire came to visit this past week. I met Claire rowing freshman year at Harvard and we have remained friends ever since. Claire is now a board certified OB-GYN practicing in Flagstaff, Arizona, and so I feel very special that she can take time out of her very busy life to come visit us for a week. I took the week off of work to spend time together, which kind of meant more work for me at home than usual! She settled right into the routine here, and the boys took to her right away. I'm not sure I washed Reed's highchair tray all week, and she was as happy to put Reed down for naps as she was to read books to the big boys.