That's how you know it's love.

Occasionally I catch Connor and Sophia having a lovable moment together. A moment like this little cuddle on the couch. 

Most of the time, however, my kids kind of look like this. These are the faces they made when they realized I was taking pictures. 

And one...two...three...

Connor is a special kid. And I do mean special as in kind of strange. He seldom does what I expect him to do and is frequently doing things that I never imagined he would be doing .

For example, last week I woke up and came out into the living room only to find Connor already awake and watching television. This is not wholly unexpected, he does this a lot. He wakes up around 6:00 am and I am more of a roll out of bed at 6:30 am girl.

What was unexpected is that he wasn't watching his usual favorite cartoon, Curious George. He was instead watching a PBS show called Classical Stretch and...well...he was kind of into it.

He was actually doing a pretty good job of exercising along with the host. He was enough into it that he didn't even notice that I snapped this photo.

Being Connor's mom is many things, but dull is never one of them.

Girls, they wanna sing.

I am discovering that there are many and various ways that Connor and Sophia are different. Some of these differences may just be differences in personality, but I am starting to think that some of them are a result of the difference between boys and girls.

Here are some of the things that I am discovering about Sophia that seem like they may be more than just personality quirks.

1. She is a less messy eater than Connor. 
2. She cares more about hygiene than he does. Sophia hates to be messy. If she spills a little bit of something on herself she immediately wants a paper towel to clean it up. She comes and asks to have her hands washed if they get dirty from playing outside or eating a snack. 
3. Sophia can brush her teeth without toothpaste getting all over the bathroom. 
4. Sophia puts her own clothes away. Not always in the right place, but they end up in a drawer. Connor...not so much. 
5. Sophia cares for babies. She wraps her babies in a blanket, takes their temperature, rocks them, changes their diapers, and shares her drink with them. It is like she is a little mother in training. 
6. And my personal favorite...Sophia sings. All. The. Time. She loves to sing. What is most remarkable is that she has learned songs from her favorite movie, Tangled, and will sing along with them when we watch the movie. Connor likes to sing too, but more in a I just made up this song and now I want you to sing it with me, even though you don't know any of the words kind of way. Which is also fun, but different than singing songs from a movie. 

Perhaps these things are more universally true of girls, or perhaps they are just part of what makes Sophia the way she is. I suppose a couple of years from now I'll have a better idea of the answer. After all, a couple of years from now I will be able to report on Elinore's burgeoning personality. 

Finally, some snow.

It has been a very mild winter in Fort Wayne. We finally got our first real snowfall of probably two or three inches. Even though it was a bit chilly yesterday, Connor just couldn't wait to go out and play in the snow. 

 Bundled up and ready to go out. 

 A winter wonderland ready to be explored. I think his favorite part was that no one had walked through the snow yet. He made short work of putting a million footprints in the yard. 

Nothing is better on a cold and snowy day than some hot chili. I made a bowl of Southwest Chicken Chili and it was pretty tasty. Perfect for warming you back up after playing outside!

Yeah...I should have known better.

Last week I had a bit of a baby scare. To be more specific, I hadn't felt Elinore move for a couple of days and it was starting to freak me out.

I get freaked out pretty easily when I am pregnant, but luckily, because of my history, my doctors always take the better safe than sorry approach. As such, when I called and told them that she hadn't moved for a couple of days, they said "get in here."

Ben and I went to the doctor and they did a sonogram to make sure that she was doing just fine. And, of course, as soon as I laid down on that sonogram table, she gave me a huge "you worry too much" kick. Still, the sonogram tech...sonographer...sonogramer...whatever they are called...went through, checked everything out, and pronounced our baby to be very healthy. Elinore was so bored by this whole ordeal that she actually yawned in the middle of it. Which, as a parent, was totally awesome to see. It made the entire freak out almost worth it.

Since that point in time, she has stopped moving for approximately fifteen minutes. I see this course of action on her part as her way of saying "you want movement, I'll give you movement."

After giving birth to, and parenting Connor and Sophia, you would think I would be more careful about saying things like "I just wish she would move more." Maybe some day I'll learn, but after 32 years, I'm skeptical.

Thank goodness.

Connor put a new sign on his door and I, for one, am very relieved.

I have never felt so safe in our house.

For those of you who can't read six year old creative spelling, allow me to translate: No dinosaurs allowed. I tried.

I am not sure what the I tried is about...but that is the beautiful thing about the inner workings of Connor's mind. I never quite know what any of it is about. I do, however, know that it is often a fun surprise.

I kind of like these kids.

It turns out that against all odds, and definitely against their behavior on a regular basis, that I kind of like my kids.

Okay, okay, I totally freaking adore them. I think they are two of the worlds cutest children and I just want to kiss their faces all the time.

Seriously though, don't you kind of want to kiss their faces a little bit?

Yeah, I knew you would.

Nacht der spiele.

Ben likes board games. And by "Ben likes board games," what I actually mean is that Ben owns over 250 board games. I think the actual number may be closer to 300, but in cases such as these, a little ignorance is a good thing. 

I actually don't mind Ben's board game addiction hobby. I always figure that there could be a lot worse and even some more expensive things he could be into. For example, he could be a train guy and could have some sort of elaborate train thing in our garage. He could be painting little tiny trees in his office under bright lights with weird glasses on. Yes, I've given this some thought. He could also be into astronomy or something and be forever buying (or wanting to buy) $1,000 telescopes. 

Furthermore, Ben's fellow board game friends are, for the most part, pretty cool guys. And yes, buy "cool" I mean total and complete nerds who enjoy spending their Friday evenings circled around our kitchen table, talking shop, giving each other grief, and discussing the latest German war game that they all want to play. 

Although there are days that I walk into Ben's office, see his wall of games, and think "wowza, that's a lot of board games", there are a lot of days when it is really cool. Like tonight. 

After Sophia went to bed tonight, Connor, Ben, and I played some board games as a family. The coolest part about these nights is two fold. First, Connor loves to play games with us, he giggles, does some occasional excited screaming, and has a total blast. Second, Connor learns a little bit of German because many of Ben's games are German games. It's a win win. 

Tonight we played the following:

 Night of the Magicians - Ben won...twice. It is a glow in the dark game that you play with all the lights out. What six year old in the world doesn't think that is awesome?

 Spot It - Connor won and we didn't intentionally let him. He is so good at this game it is crazy. Ben doesn't take it easy on him and he almost always wins by a landslide. 

Jungle Treasure - I won (which is why I always agree to play this game)

So, if you are ever bored on a Saturday or Sunday, come on over to the Ockrees and play some board games. The hardest part will be picking out which of the 250 - 300 games you want to play. 

Just another awesome day.

Today was a pretty awesome day. For today, Ben passed his theological interview. I wasn't really worried about him passing this interview, but it is nice to mark another thing off of our "things that Ben must accomplish before he can become a pastor" list. We really need to work on shortening the names of our lists.

In celebration, we decided to take Ben out for dinner.  To make matters even better, we got a check in the mail today from one of our churches that continues to support us as we go through seminary.

Connor thought that a good way to let Ben know where we were going to dinner was to have a scavenger hunt. Connor made a series of signs to lead us on our hunt and asked me to make the destination sign (although he made a small addition). I've provided captions to help with some of Connor's creative spelling.

 Scavenger Hunt Start

 Start and Go the the place where you come in. 

Go to the kitchen. 

 Go to the Garage. 

 Go to the Chinese Buffet (I wrote this one for him).

Then we can go get ice cream. 

A great way to celebrate Ben's successful completion of his Theological Interview and a fun way to spend some time together as a family.