By Jennifer, on January 25th, 2012
Ruslan has the best manners of my children. He almost always remembers to say please and thank you. If he hears anyone in the house sneeze he runs to tell them Bless You.
 
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Up until recently Ruslan had no interest in TV. Why sit still watching TV when he could be climbing, running and getting into trouble. He still doesn’t have that unbreakable toddler stare in front of the TV, but he will sit and watch for 15-20 minutes. Those breaks when he will sit without me and I can leave the room for a few minutes…life changing.
 
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He still spends the majority of his day being very busy and he runs from one side of the house to the other. He plays for a while and then comes to sit on my lap for break. I love those still moments when he goes from high energy to complete calm, snuggles in and sucks his thumb. And after a few minutes he runs off to his next activity.
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Ruslan makes me laugh constantly – his silly grin, his happy demeanor, but mostly it is listening to him talk. He always has something to say and responds to everything, usually with Otay or Oh! He repeats most of what I say but not in an annoying way. He is repeating to learn and I hear him use the same phrasing later. He generally speaks in complete sentences. He keeps a running commentary of everything that he is doing.
 
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He still loves to wear everyone’s shoes especially his new cowboy boots.
 
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I love watching him play. I love watching him interact with others. I love how much he loves me. And I love him so very much.
 
By Jennifer, on January 22nd, 2012
We finally got enough snow that it was worth bundling the boys to play outside. I asked them if they wanted to play outside in the snow and they jumped up and down and screamed. It took awhile to assemble all of the snow gear and cut the tags off the new snow pants, gloves and coats (I bought the $70 coats for the boys on clearance for $10 2 years ago).
 
They were so excited when we walked downstairs and they stood at the back door pointing at the snow and growing impatient while I put on my boots and gloves. I opened the back door and stepped into the snow but the boys stopped at the threshold and started to yell, “Up Mommy”. Scott herded them outside and they demanded up. Ruslan was sad and Wyatt was typically skeptical of the situation.
  
 We persuaded them to make tracks in the snow and soon they were wandering around the yard.
 Scott showed them that they could pick up the snow and throw it and they were sold – playing in the snow is fun!
 
Wyatt decided to try the snow – the last picture is a new favorite.
  
By Jennifer, on January 20th, 2012
Juliana came home from school on Wednesday with a huge hole in her tights again. When I asked her what happened, she shrugged and then excitedly told me about the small hole that she had in the other leg of her tights. “I had a small hole in this side and I found some string and I used my barrette as a needle and I sewed the hole shut. You can call me Juliana, small hole knitter.”
As I was getting her dressed Thursday morning she told me it was a bad idea for her to wear tights since they would probably get ruined. However the option of pants was unacceptable so I opened another pair of tights.
She is allowed to wear navy leggings under her jumpers/skirts but I haven’t been able to find any completely plain, navy leggings. Yesterday I wandered into the girls clothing section of Target to look for heavy weight tights (also impossible to find plain navy or white in stores at a reasonable price in winter), once again there were none in her size. I walked past the new spring clothes and they there were – plain, navy leggings with the spring outfits. Since she is between sizes at the moment, I bought 4 pair in 2 different sizes. At $6 I was able to buy 4 pair of leggings for the price of a single pair I was close to purchasing online out of desperation. The smaller size fits so I will be buying more in each size and putting the bigger ones away for next year. And next year when I am buying snow pants in the summer, I will try to remember to buy heavy weight tights as well.
Today she wore the leggings and she loved them. After school she told me that even when she tried to poke a barrette through them she couldn’t make a hole…I guess the leggings are Juliana proof.
 
By Jennifer, on January 16th, 2012
Saturday was a cold day and the boys and I stayed at home and they spent the day in their pjs. By mid-afternoon Juliana had already been to the hair salon for a trim and to the movies to see Beauty and the Beast. She wanted a popsicle and I told her to wait for her brothers to wake-up from their nap. I brought them downstairs and we went straight to the kitchen. The boys were so excited and I watched the three of them laughing and enjoying their popsicles. Juliana was standing between them (she wanted to be next to Ruslan since they both had red) so I grabbed the camera.
I am always watching for that elusive opportunity when all three of them are looking at me; this wasn’t it. I was trying to get their attention but the boys wouldn’t look away from Juliana, she was making faces and mommy is not as entertaining. Juliana being silly, a Saturday pajama day, and Ruslan and his awesome bedhead. Since I downloaded the photos Saturday night I can’t stop looking at these two. While far from the perfect photos, they are a perfect picture of life with these three.
 
By Jennifer, on January 15th, 2012
My aunt and uncle brought my Grandma Julie to visit at the end of the year (they live in Erie). I love spending time with my Gramm and I am so happy when she is able to spend time with my children so they get to know her. She played with the kids in the play room, she read books to them, she brought us cookies (yum) and we had fun catching up. We only spent a few hours together before it was time for the boys to nap and they left to spend the afternoon with my parents. And we added to our collection of 4 generation photos of Grandma Julie, my mom, me and Juliana (the first was taken when Juliana was 11 days old).
 
 
  
By Jennifer, on January 11th, 2012
Juliana gets fixated on a tv series and watches every episode on Netflix and then she moves on to another one for the next week or two and she will eventually circle back and repeat. This week Dinosaur Train is the series of choice.
Sunday afternoon she started to watch an episode while I was making lunch . . . → Read More: Random Juliana
By Jennifer, on January 9th, 2012
Juliana went to the hockey game with Scott and I Saturday night, it was her first game and she was very excited. Juliana hasn’t taken a big interest in sports up to this point and she routinely confuses the Penguins and Steelers, so we weren’t sure how long she would be happy at the game. We . . . → Read More: Another Career Option for Juliana
By Jennifer, on January 8th, 2012
In 2011 we moved to a new house which we love! We didn’t sell our old house yet but in December we decided to rent it and had a signed lease by the end of the year (Yay!)
The second biggest event this year was Juliana starting Kindergarten and she is doing great! She . . . → Read More: It was a Pretty Good Year
By Jennifer, on January 6th, 2012
I double-checked to make sure Juliana was asleep before I started to carry all of the presents down the stairs. I placed all of the presents from Mommy and Daddy under the tree. Then I filled the stockings and arranged the Santa piles along the wall. I was so excited for the morning I had . . . → Read More: Christmas 2011
By Jennifer, on January 2nd, 2012
Yes it’s 2012 and I am still talking about Christmas. I got a much needed new computer for Christmas which is awesome! Last week was filled with kids home and one that was sick, a sleepover at our house for Juliana and one of her friends, trying to organize new toys, family visiting, and a . . . → Read More: Santa Delivered
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