Guarino Family Fun: February 2011

It has been rather cold and snowy here for the last few weeks. We've been trying to find lots of indoor activities to keep us occupied. The library is sick of us I think! We've tried out every indoor play place within a 20 mile radius, have crafted, sculpted, cooked and music classed our way through the icky days.

In spite of the dreariness, the kids are great. Will never ceases to amaze us with his "smarts", as we call them. He just baffles us with his extensive memory, dredging up things we've long since forgotten! He is quite the little "teacher" for Ella. He loves to play games, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, and Hungry Hungry Hippos are his favorites! He NEVER stops talking or asking questions, and we're pretty sure that play-by-play announcer is his most suited career. He certainly is getting a lot of practice... We're busily trying to determine the right preschool for him next year. Just so hard to believe he'll be three this month.

Ella is hilarious. She is definitely our little book worm, just devours books, and would sit and let you read to her until you've gone through every book in the house and then would probably exclaim "Again!". She loves music classes, is quite the little singer, loves reciting nursery rhymes, and taking care of her babies. Now that she's really talking in sentences, she and Will are quite the conversationalists. I just love to disappear during the day and hear them chatting back and forth. They have their spats, but they really are great buddies.

The baby is doing well also. We had our 20 week ultrasound last week and everything is right on track. I can't believe we're more than halfway there already! We decided not to find out if we're having a boy or a girl, so the big reveal won't be until June.

In other news, we put our house on the market about 3 weeks ago. It has been CRAZY trying to keep things cleaned up for showings (we've had 7, already, but no offers yet!). We're not entirely sure where we're going if the house does sell, so that's probably a good thing. We knock around the idea of building a house, but that often seems intimidating...

Enough rambling! Here are a few pictures!

Reading together in Ella's room.

After we'd made some homemade applesauce! I'll spare you the pictures of both of them with their mouths wide open "showing" it to the camera. I had to be very specific when I said, "Show me your applesauce IN the BOWL."

A trip to the Children's Museum.
Ella and Nan driving the Smart Car.

Will gassing it up.

He was singing, "Buckle up for safety!"

Benjamin working in the workshop.

The kiddos, minus Benjamin's new little sister Abigail who was sleeping in the stroller!

Flying the orange airplane, like Uncle Damon! Although I've never seen an orange KC-135...

Playing at the bubble table.

Ella was really fascinated.

Will in the wind tunnel. One of the major exhibits was all about air if you haven't figured that out yet :-)

Everyone's favorite, the water room! Will just loves putting his boat through the locks. I found him explaining them to a girl (she was about 7 years old) how it works. "You have to let it fill up from this side so that the waters is higher. Then open this side and let you boat go through to the other side." We've only done this one other time, probably at least 6 months ago and he remembered the mechanics of it. Auntie Stef taught him all about it the first time we went! He'll also tell you all about how "the barges and tug boats go through the locks on the Ohio River right by our house heading to Pittsburgh or Ohio where they go to the Mississippi River, which goes through St. Louis where Anne and Tim and baby Andrew live" all in one breath. He wants to know how everything works and what happens next.

A little brother/sister splash time. I think this was just before Ella dumped that entire bucket of water on her shoes... Luckily we've done this before and brought a change of clothes including dry shoes!