January 11

We took the kids sled riding today. Since we live in the Great Plains, hills are few and far between so you actually have to seek out a sledding hill and since we got 11 inches of snow yesterday, everyone had the same idea that we had and it was one, small, crowded hill but Tyler loved it. Mia went down the hill once with me and then her mitten fell off and she was done. We came home and had hot chocolate with marshmallows AND whipped cream.

January 10

Tyler has been obsessed with Legos since our trip to Legoland. Mia is obsessed with knocking them down - not a good combination. The weather has just been downright miserable so we have had lots of time to play inside and see how high of a tower can we build before Godzilla knocks it down. Mia is starting to talk more. She says more than I can understand but started singing "Row Row Your Boat" out of nowhere. Tyler was like 2 1/2 before he sang anything so I was shocked. It's very cute because she can't sing unless she rocks her body side-to-side. Both of them are very into the Backyardigans and sing and dance around the room when it is on the television. Tyler knows all the hand motions to their songs and things the entire room is his stage.

Mia is still very shy, much more so than Tyler was at this point and it takes her a long time to warm up to people. My neighbor babysat the other day and Mia stood facing the corner of the kitchen cabinets until Tyler woke up from his nap. She loves toothbrushes but still only has 4 teeth. She also loves shoes and her princess snow boots. She hates coats and getting dressed unless it is princess clothes. She loves coloring, Tyler did not like coloring and still doesn't. Mia will scribble on anything (including walls, doors and clothes) Mia loves to read. She will sit in her room and look at every page of every book on her bookcase and will sit on my lap and read for hours. Tyler loves puzzles. He is so good at them. The other day I bought him a 50 piece robot puzzle at the Target dollar spot and he put the entire puzzle together by himself in the time it took me to put the groceries away.

December 31

We took the kids to Legoland today which was kind of crazy. Lots of kids all very wound up from the holidays and the cold weather. The Lego creations were unbelievable and inspiring. We momentarily lost Tyler in the playland (when I say "we" I mean Mike but it was his turn since I lost him in when I was in Arizona at a playland). It was a low-key New Years Eve, we went to dinner and were in bed by 10 pm (when I say "we" I mean me, Mike stayed up by himself). A couple days later, I went downtown for the weekend with my sister-in-law for some shopping, eating, drinking and lots of girl-time. Mike stayed at home with the kids for the first time and made it through in one piece. And now, the very boring part of the year begins, no holidays and cold, dark weather for the next few months. I forsee a trip to Arizona in the near future.

December 26

Here is a picture of Mia in Tyler's new slippers. Mia loves shoes. She always wants to wear them. It doesn't matter if they are two sizes too big or too small. The other day she was walking around in Tyler's rain boots that are too big even for him. Jewelry and shoes, her two weaknesses...

Merry Christmas

Tyler woke up very early and was just about ready to burst when he walked downstairs and saw all the gifts Santa brought. And then.. Mike's video camera was out of battery so we made him wait to open them. Pure torture. Since Mia had a rough night and is just not into opening gifts we let her sleep while we opened gifts together. Tyler got the two gifts he had been asking for a robot dinosaur and a pirate ship. After Mia woke up and had her bottle and the half eaten cookie Santa left she was ready to watch Tyler open her gifts for her. He is in for a rude awakening next year when she wants to do it herself. He has designated himself official gift-opener of the Posch family. Mia's big gifts were dress up clothes, a nice baby doll and rose petal cottage. My big gift from Mike was a super sized slow cooker and two new winter coats. Mike's big gift was his guitar and a video I made him.

We spent the day in our new pjs that Sammy our elf left for us on Christmas eve and just hanging out playing, watching the kids new dvds and eating leftovers. A perfect day. Merry Christmas.

December 24 - PM

We started off the Christmas festivities tonight at our house with Mike's family. It was chaotic but less chaotic than last year so I see that as improvement. The kids actually took turns opening their gifts one at a time and ended up having a couple of hours as a family to simply sit around and enjoy drinks and appetizers. Of course we knew things were going to well when we had both kids in bed by 7pm. Tyler actually left the party went upstairs and put himself to bed because he was worried Santa wouldn't come if he didn't get to bed. Well it turned out Mia ate too many cookies and ended up with a bad tummyache that kept her, me and Mike awake until 11pm with an unrelenting cryfest that almost ended up in an emergency room visit because we could not figure out why she was so hysterical for four hours. It was one of those nights where I actually undressed her to check and see if something was poking her or she had a broken bone or appendicitis and then finally sweet silence over the monitor... That was my Christmas present..

December 24 - AM

As I prepared for Christmas Eve at our house, Mike took Tyler outside to play in the plentiful snow. So much snow in fact that we had Mia stay inside because she wouldn't even be able to walk. Tyler and Mike built their first snowman and without coal (who has coal these days?) we used pine cones and thankfully we found an old carrot.