There aren’t a lot of preschool choices here for kids who aren’t living in poverty or with special needs or for families that don’t believe bible verses should be on the syllabus. I’ve heard there are a few spots in a preschool class at the main elementary school without any strings attached…except kids have to be in class five days a week for a full school day. Plus? I’ve seen the rooms at that school, and they are cold and rundown and not any place I would want to spend my time. I definitely don’t want to send Anya there.

Luckily, there is one more option. Blue Mountain School.

Andy, Anya, and I went to BMS Wednesday for the morning, and we had a really good time. The environment was warm, and cozy, and loving and full of fun things to play with. There was a shelf holding wicker baskets full of pine cones, finger puppets, mardi gras beads, bits of fabric, and sea shells. There were lots of wooden puzzles, blocks, dress-up clothes, books, a wooden kitchen, a kid-sized table set with a tin tea set, and a cozy corner with fluffy pillows and a canopy. The wood floors had snuggly rugs in the play area, and one wall had a big sliding glass door looking out on the play area and woods. For snack time, the kids and teachers sat down to wooden bowls of fabulous-smelling oatmeal delivered in papa bear, mama bear, or baby bear portions. The teacher and aide seemed as at home in the classroom as the kids and were really interested and caring with the kids.

Anya didn’t want to leave. If not for the lure of the library, we’d probably still be there.

For Christmas, Grandma D. gave Anya a kid-sized table and chair set. As a bonus, Anya also got a really great box. As you can see, it’s the perfect size and shape for napping. (Note: This picture was taken a few weeks ago right after Anya had taken a nose dive on the one rug at daycare and gotten a huge owie on her nose. She looked like Rudolph but is better now.)

In other news, we got a lot of snow.

This afternoon, Andy, Anya and I went down to dig out the car. Anya played in the back with one of us while the other shoveled. Andy did most of the work, but I managed to be the one shoveling whenever the neighbors drove by. One guy honked as if to say, “Dude, why are you playing in the car with the kid while yer wife is shoveling??” Eventually we got a path cleared to the road, and we all climbed in for an adventure.

We drove the mile up the street to the convenience store, Andy bought a 2L of coke, and we went home.

After we got back to the house, Andy started to boil some water to make lunch. Then we ran out of propane.

Soon, Andy gets to strap the propane tank to his back and carry it to the car and go get a full one and lug it back home. He also gets to haul a bale or two of hay down to the sheep. He’s such a lucky guy! While he’s out having all that fun, I have to stay in the house while Anya takes a nap. Bummer. Maybe I’ll knit some snow shoes.

When I visited my parents at Christmas, my mom and I decided to work together to make a blanket for my brother. Our assignment was to knit (Carol) or crochet (Mom) a bunch of squares that Mom will then stitch together. The materials?

Bags and bags and balls and balls of cotton yarn that Mom made from unraveling a whole heck of a lot of sweaters bought for cheapo at the Goodwill while she was staying with me when we first moved to VA.

Having just finished up another knitted/crocheted quilt, I know how hard it is to get the squares all the right size. Mom said we should just shoot for squares that were 8″ wide. So, my first one is really long and, um, not 8″ wide. Oh well. Then I made the green one. It, I am proud to say, is 8″ square. The creamsicle square I just finished is 8″ long and about 7″ wide. So, I turned it sideways. Of course, my Mom tells me she is making her squares all 8″x8″. Show off. She’s also finished at least 6 squares to my 3. (SHOW OFF!)

I’ve started my fourth square in purple and burnt orange. It’s looking to be maybe 8.5″ wide. I suppose if I was doing the same pattern on each one it wouldn’t be so hard to keep things the right size, but I’m trying to do each one differently.

Anya is addicted to lotion. I had to hide my bottle on top of the shelf in the bathroom, and her bottle of baby lotion is in a kitchen cabinet. It was on top of the microwave, but she pushed one of her little chairs over and started sweeping her hand back and forth over the microwave pushing everything off in hopes she’d get the bottle. This morning I gave her a couple of dots of lotion and she wanted more, as usual, and I said maybe later, and she started the bawling and the crying and the whining and the repeating of, “I NEED MORE BABY LOTION!” This is probably her first five word sentence and the first time I can remember her using “I” correctly.

On Wednesdays I usually stay home with Anya and work when she’s napping and after she goes to bed at night. Today (in between lotion episodes) we sat at her little table and made stars out of playdoh. MommyStar, DaddyStar, AnyaStar, GrammaStar, BubbaStar, Yay-yeeStar (sitter), Kay-keeStar, Ney-neyStar (kids at sitter). Then the stars started hugging. “Mommy and Daddy Star HUG!” Then the playdoh was dirty and had to be held in the mist of our new humidifier to take a bath.

We normally go to story time at the library on Wednesdays, too, but guess what? We are snowed in again! Friday night we got a ton of snow. Saturday and Sunday we shoveled a path from the house to the car. So, we aren’t really snowed in, but the truck is so no story time. It’s definitely an easier hike with a path but still not fun. We got more snow yesterday, and Friday’s forecast is another doozy.

2010 Goal Update: Mom and I have started working on Craig’s blanket; Andy finished putting down the floor in the basement but still has trim and painting; and I think hiking up and down our driveway so many times takes care of the “monthly family hike” for January. Go team!

Using skills honed when writing performance plans for folks in my group at work, I decided to put together some measurable, finite goals for all us here for 2010. Some people were more cooperative than others, so I may have had to make some stuff up on my own.

Dad

+ Quit complaining
+ Help Mom paint the bedroom by Mom’s birthday
+ Get the floors done
+ Finish painting the kitchen
+ Fix the microwave handle
+ Build a pond and waterfall in the yard

Mom

+ Sew Carol a knitting needle case before the end of January
+ Get three estimates for bathroom remodel
+ Make winter pajamas for Anya before September
+ Make two jumpers for Anya
+ Work on Craig’s afghan with Carol
+ Finish Carol’s bathmat

Craig

+ Do well in school
+ Learn to juggle flaming torches
+ Teach Chewy to run an agility course
+ Bench press 300 pounds
+ Write memoirs
+ Join a woodwind ensemble

Carol

+ Finish Anya’s year 1 scrapbook
+ Finish Anya’s year 2 scrapbook
+ Enter something in the county fair
+ Work on Craig’s afghan with Mom
+ As a family, go on a hike or camp once a month
+ Complete a 5k walking race

Andy

+ Finish the plant room
+ Finish laying the floor, putting in the trim, and painting the “hallway” area of the basement
+ Refinish the floors in the sun room and Anya’s room
+ Take a beginner’s blacksmith class
+ Finish prepping the wood for the kitchen / living room floors
+ Get the generator fixed up

Kenny

+ Make a five course meal from scratch
+ Paint a picture for Carol
+ Learn to play the guitar
+ Go on a date with the captain of the cheer leading squad
+ Get an A in English
+ Ride across the country on a bicycle

Anya

+ Ditch the diapers
+ Learn colors
+ Learn shapes
+ Learn to ride tricycle
+ Paint a picture for Mommy
+ Learn to play the bongos, eukelele, and recorder

We’re very lucky because two of my friends have children a few years older than Anya, and they are always giving us things their kids have outgrown. I can’t even begin to list all the wonderful things we’ve been given, but among the recent gifts was a bag of books. The books have been sitting in our car about a week until today when we tobogganed them down our still very snowy driveway. Right around the point where we reached the shoveled out part of the driveway near the sheep, Anya hopped off Andy’s shoulders and investigated the items in the little purple sled we borrowed from daycare. She found a book that interested her so much that she didn’t even care that Andy and I had already walked the rest of the way up and gone into the house. He and I peeked out the windows and watched her staring at her book. She’d walk a few steps and then look at the book some more. Walk a few steps. Read. Walk. Read. It looked like she was talking to herself, and then I realized it was a music-making book and she was singing. I’m not sure what made me more happy, that she is such a big girl she can walk up the driveway alone or that she was so excited about her book that she was oblivious to her surroundings.

In other news, we took Anya to a Santa story time at the library two weeks ago. She thought Santa was okay, but the candy canes…those were fantabulous.

While all the other kids sat quietly and listened to Mrs. Clause read stories, Anya got up and ran around and looked at everything in the room. And when we all sang Jingle Bells, Anya got down and boogied.

Boy oh boy does that girl love to dance. Too bad she’s got Andy and I as her dance instructors.

I talked to my parents yesterday, and they were sad because there were no pictures of our recent projects. So, here ya go!

The kittybox room is finished. Huzzah! So far, though, it appears as though Big Kitty is the only one to have mastered the kitty door. Finishing the plant room will have to wait until spring.

After I took this photo, Anya ran over by Andy to pose. I liked this picture better. The “soil” is all fairly leveled out, and I’ve dug the first path between rows in the berry patch. Only four more paths to go. Won’t plant anything until spring, though. Well, maybe some daffodils.

What good are kids if you can’t put them to work? This morning Andy moved about 25 buckets of gravel from our parking spot to other parts of the driveway. I figure there are about another 100 or so buckets to move.

That’s it for now. Andy’s next project (after / while finishing the gravel move) is to finish off the rest of the basement where the kitty boxes have been (lay floor, paint, install trim). Winter is coming, so I’m not sure what he’ll be up to next. Perhaps I can get him to start knitting!