Hello everyone, meet Fred.

Fred is a new member of our household. I never thought I'd have a fish, but alas, we do.  And actually, I enjoy having him.  Too bad he probably won't live long because we aren't springing for a filtered tank or anything, not even a big bowl.  He is just in the biggest vase I have.  I have to change his water every couple of days. (MAN! Goldfish are dirty little fish!)  But the kids love to watch him.

How did we get a fish, you ask?  Cole won him at the carnival.  Yep, it's back in town.  We went there Monday evening.  Cole threw seven balls at a table full of tiny little bowls of water.  If he didn't even hit the table, the attendant let him throw it again.  And he made one! Yay Cole!

There weren't very many rides suitable for their age this time, but Cole rode the train of trucks three times.

Lyla wanted to go on the carousel, but it was a loud one so when it started she wanted right off.  Rick ended up holding her the entire ride.  But she and Cole played the duck game. You basically pick any duck and then you get a blow up prize.

Cole picked a huge soccer crayon and Lyla, of course, picked up a ball.

Of course?  Yes.  Lyla is a huge fan of balls. Any kind.  She calls most of them soccer balls though.  Even a basketball is a soccer ball to her.  Our neighbors have a full size goal in their backyard and she tries her hardest to make it in the hoop.  It's pretty cute.

Lyla has a new obsession - clothes.  Well, really pajamas, underwear and swim shorts mainly.  She wants to wear them all day long.  We endured some screaming and crying for a few days because we wouldn't let her wear them out of the house, but now she understands that she can wear them at home but not anywhere else. There are plenty of days when as soon as we get home she runs to her room and grabs them to put on.  We compromise too.  I will let her wear the shirt over her clothes.  She likes to wear Cole's swim shorts too. It would probably be one of her swim suits but I have managed to keep those hidden...

She piles on the clothes too.  For example, today she had on two pairs of underwear, pj pants and pj shorts.  Theshorts are pink polka dot and she calls them her baby clothes because she has a baby doll that has similar bottoms.  Also, I have learned she LOVE, LOVE, LOVES polka dots.  She wanted me to put on a polka dot dress I have just this morning.  And her favorite shirt is polka dot.  She cried and cried and cried the other day because I wouldn't let her wear her sliver and white polka dot dress to the park.  Yep, polka dots are her friend.  She says it now too, just so she can be clear as to which article of clothing she is referring to.

Here she is in her pj's with the pj shorts over her warmer ones.  She was clasped onto daddy because she didn't want mommy to put her to bed. She wanted daddy.

And she thought it was great fun. :-)

We have a blessed amount of rain lately.  The kids may not like the thunder but boy do they love the puddles!

A neighbor has a statue of a dog in her front yard. Lyla and Cole love to go look at it.  Well, after playing in the rain puddles, Lyla got the courage to actually walk up to it.  I told her it wouldn't move because it wasn't real, but she still took her time.  But once she realized it really WOULD NOT move, she was all over him, petting and kissing him! 

 Lyla is really talking so much and she and Cole are starting to interact in their play more and more. That is obviously sometimes hard when Cole wants to play alone and Lyla just doesn't understand, but for the most part they want each other around.  This is a video from early December which is just one of the many examples of how they also love to get on each other's nerves. One or theother loves to poke the other almost every time we are grocery shopping.  Lyla will try to take whatever toy Cole is playing with or tackle him just to get some interaction and Cole will do the same to her.  It's a love/hate thing I suppose.

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The weather has been nice so we have been going to a lot of parks.  On this particular day, we had bought Cole some shoes that he thought were "So Awesome!" because they didn't have laces or velcro.  He loves them I think because he can take them off so easily.  Both my kids are not really shoe people. They take them off almost as soon as they can.  Anyway, he was showing them off to send a picture of them to daddy.  This picture just cracks me up. 

He was pretty cozy with the camera this day in general.

A couple of weeks ago the kids and I made a last minute trip to Houston to return some shoes of Rick's to DSW.  So we made an afternoon of it at the mall nearby.  The kid play area was really awesome I will say. It is so fun to watch them play and explore new things.

Cole has been going to new Kindermusik classes by himself where they practice imaginary play and incorporate music.   Lyla and I join him for the last ten minutes or so.  It has only been two weeks (two classes) and his imaginary play at home as practically tripled. I'm thrilled!  No more needing mom to make up the story lines!  Every day I see him maturing and his understanding of things continually amazes me.

Speaking of maturing, he went potty all day today!  He has done this before, but then decided he just didn't like it so let's cross our fingers this sticks. I'm thinking it just might because he knows the prize at the end of a week is an airplane from Cars 2 that he has been wanting for weeks.  It was also a lot easier to get him to go, though he still is getting used to stopping play to go to the bathroom.  I'm so proud of him for today though!