Jennifer Woodbury

Ready for karate.

Lucy has had a hard time transitioning into her naps lately. She really hates to think she's missing out on something that Claire is doing downstairs, so I have started taking both her and Claire upstairs after lunch to read together before putting her to bed. It has become one of my favorite parts of the day, even if neither one of them ever actually lets me read to them (they are far too busy "reading" to themselves).

All of my errands seem to revolve around the locations of my children's activities. Claire's ballet studio this year is right around the corner from Trader Joe's, thus Trader Joe's Tuesdays were born. Claire dances while Lucy and I go grocery shopping.

I joined a gym in January… how cliché is that? It wasn't because of some grand New Year's resolution though. Basically I just needed access to a treadmill. It finally got too cold (by my own admittedly weak standards) for me to run outside.

Except for a fresh coat of paint and a new rug, Lucy has had a mostly hand-me-down room her entire life. But after a trip to IKEA for a new picture frame, it’s finally clear who this room really belongs to.

It's amazing how inspiring a cardboard box can be to kids. This one, which was by the door waiting for me to drop it off at the post office, was hijacked by the girls to make an imaginary lemonade stand on a snowy Saturday morning.

Finally, it snowed!

On Friday night, when the snow was supposed to start falling, Ella got out of bed and called down the stairs for Matt. I impatiently asked her what she needed, thinking it was just one of the usual bedtime stall tactics. "Never mind" she quietly replied and turned to get back into bed. I softened a bit and asked again what it was that she needed. "I just wanted to ask Dad if I could help him shovel tomorrow," she said. It was the sweetest thing. Ella has been Matt's shoveling buddy since she was two years old.

Of course, Ella did help shovel in the morning, as did Claire. We even gave Lucy a little plastic beach shovel to carry around. I didn't think Lucy would last long in the snow but she was one tough cookie, taking determined little robot steps in the snow with her clunky boots. She even went sledding with me in the backyard and didn't start crying to go inside until it looked like her nose was about to freeze off.