Valentine's Day and Beyond

We seem to have developed a Valentine's Day tradition around here...flowers, chocolates, presents, pizza, and ice cream sundaes. Here are Ethan and Olivia with their gifts...Pixos for Olivia and Star Wars figures for Ethan (yes, we are beginning young on that obsession).


Ethan attempting to get out his gifts.

If Olivia receives flowers, then Ethan had better receive the same. He adores "La La" and is quite the copycat. If Olivia does something, he will try his best to do the exact same thing. It is good that Olivia is an excellent role model (for the most part!).

Ethan making his first pizza, with a little help from Daddy of course. Let's just say that I am surprised the oven was able to melt all of the cheese that was piled on top of the pizza.

Olivia perfecting her pizza making skills.

And the build your own ice cream sundaes. Ethan needed no prompting to be creative with his toppings for this!

Olivia and her ice cream creation.

On cold winter days one needs to be creative to find something that both a 4 1/2 year old and a 21 month old is interested in. This particular day it was pudding painting (this was not on Valentine's Day even though Olivia is wearing the same dress).

Ethan was able to keep some of the pudding on the paper as opposed to in his mouth!

Olivia has become a big fan of the new Olivia cartoon on Nickelodeon. She has always been a fan of the books, but now it has been taken to a higher level. Olivia the pig loves her cat Edwin and treats him like a baby. Olivia has begun to do the same to our cat Enid. Enid is an excellent cat with kids, very good tempered and easy going, and has taken the increased attention (wanted or not) in stride.

One routine of Ethan's while I cook supper!

Olivia receives the Highlights magazine for young kids (I highly recommend subscribing to this for your preschoolers!), and this magazine always has a cooking section. This particular month's was to make bear bread from frozen dough. Olivia added their bellybuttons as an extra special feature. These were formed completely by Olivia as she followed the recipe's directions.

And the final random picture....Ethan with his paci. I include this because it was the last time he was able to use his beloved paci. I took it away from him on Monday, and after 2 days of fussing he seems to have completely forgotten about it. Thank goodness that era is over in our house. The paci can be a lifesaver for the first year, and then after that I found it to be an annoyance (always getting lost under the crib at 2 am, needing to check and double check that one is packed in the diaper bag, etc.).