A Favorite Invention and the Newbery

I have been learning a lot about dressing little boys since having Caleb in March. One of the things that aggravates me most is his white shirt coming untucked on Sundays. So, this Christmas we got him one of these and it has worked like a charm. They are kind of pricey for a baby shirt, but totally worth it! I love it.

Now I just have to find him a tie that works with his big head and fat neck and we'll be set!

In other news, I am so excited that the 2010 Newbery award and honors books were announced today! My good friend and neighbor runs the mock Newbery group on Goodreads so has gotten me into reading the new kids lit books. Here are the winners for 2010:

The winner:
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.

The honors:
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jaqueline Kelly

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick

Out of the ones that I've read I like Where the Mountain Meets the Moon the most, but I still have to read Claudette Colvin so we'll see.

Family dancing time

For the past week or so we have had family dancing time after dinner. Emily often initiates it by running around in a circle singing her own song if music's not already playing and yelling sporadically, "Come dance with me, Daddy!" (After he joins she'll yell for me too, but he really is the funner one to dance with.) Caleb loves this dance time as much as big sister. This is an 18 second clip, but the dancing went on for much, much longer. I don't know how Emily kept the music going!
Emily is wearing a white tank top over her pink shirt because she wanted to wear a "bib" (apron) just like Daddy. I'll have to make her a real one one of these days. For now, her imagination is big enough that the tank top suffices.
That weird noise in the background is the ice cream maker. Joseph has been working hard on perfecting his strawberry ice cream recipe.

Jack be nimble Jack be quick

I'll post a video of our racquetball simulation soon, but I like the way this video looks. What I've done here is recorded data of me walking around the motion capture room. Then I force corresponding points on the simulated human to follow my motions (letting all other points dangle free within physical and natural constraints). If you only trace the head, feet, and hands, you can do pretty well in tracing out human motion, but that's not what you see here.

She's Won This Round...

So, the potty training is going well... a little too well.
We have our sticker charts, as I have shown earlier. So far Emily has filled three of them and loves the prizes that she's received. I think I might not make any more though. Emily was quite desperate for the third prize (some play cups) and did some pretty sneaky stuff to get them. First she tried pulling off a sticker from the second chart and putting it in a square on the third chart. That one almost fooled me - I figured it out while she was in bed though and set things right. Then she figured out another strategy. Today she would go potty and then run to her chart and say, "Oh, Mommy, I need three stickers!" And I would tell her that she couldn't have any more until she went potty. So she would think for a minute and announce, "I have to go potty!" And then my hands were tied. What could I do? Tell her no? So she would go potty again and the cycle would begin again. Needless to say, she got those cups in record time.
I think she is permanently trained even without rewards now. She stays dry through naps and tonight she even woke up and went by herself, so I am expecting her to be mostly dry in the morning. She's a stinker, but she's also such a sweetie. I'm glad that this has been a relatively painless process.

And on a totally unrelated note, I love this shot of Joseph dancing with Caleb and Emily dancing with her doll. What a cute little gathering!
The whole time I was standing taking pictures, Emily was yelling, "Come dance with us, Mom!"

It's cold in Austin!

So,
A couple of days ago my own mother made fun of me for complaining about 45-degree weather. She told me that my little sister Steph was dealing with 7-degree weather in Utah.
Today, though, I noticed that Austin and Orem are BOTH 18 degrees right now. It IS cold here!
(Okay, so our high is supposed to be 43 and theirs is 32, but right now it is just as cold here as there.)

18-month-old Emily enjoying her first snow day in Utah (Dec. 2008).

The Potty News...

Because I'm sure you're all so interested. :)

Today Emily got the prize she has been working so hard for. She filled in her potty chart and got a diaper and shirt for her baby doll!
It has been hanging on the wall in plain sight (but out of reach) for the last week.
The first couple of days of this process were pretty patience-trying and wet and stinky and had me doing a lot of laundry.
She's caught on really quickly though and I am so excited by the thought of saving $40 a month.
Hooray for only changing one set of diapers! 2010 is going to be a good year!

Happy New Year!

Emily's new year's resolution: POTTY TRAINING!
Caleb's new year's resolution: Walk.

They both did well last year - Emily learned to chew and talk and Caleb was born healthy.
Those guys are so dedicated when they set goals. :)