Since I (FINALLY) learned how to upload pictures to the blog the other day, I decided to purpose to take & add more pictures. We’ll see how that goes….best laid plans and all.

So for my picture debut (unfortunately my pics will not be the artistic quality that you are by now used to from Ryan): Rain boots. From what i’ve gathered, they are to Washingtonians as flip flops are to Floridians. I kept meaning to get rain boots while in florida (but never found any small enough), but since the storms were usually short lived & the weather hot, the ground wasn’t actually wet all that often…and since it was hot, flip flops worked just as well as boots would. Here however it’s just kind of damp a lot…and when it does rain, it lingers awhile and isn’t violent enough to keep people out of it. In fact I’ve noticed people seem downright unaffected when it starts to rain…out walking dogs & to the bus stop…sans umbrellas. There has been a decided lack of umbrellas altogether from what I can tell. Guess it’s hard to get stuff done trying to tote those around. So rain boots & jackets it is. Next we’ll have to shop for some raincoats…

Both children 100% picked out their own boots with no input from me. I prepared my ego for the reality that I would probably have to buy spiderman boots. However, Asher with no hesitation chose these rather hip-looking pair (I promise until he was 100% satisfied w/his choice i maintained a neutral expression & said nothing).

Grace not so much but I’ve come to expect nothing less and I love her choice too. They are cool in a different way. It was a fun experiment in personality. She calls them her, “witty tat doots”

Me? Well…I’m my daughter’s mother. I couldn’t decide between lady bugs & flowers. Grace made the final decision for me. Admittedly I saw a woman wearing these at the Farm last weekend & really liked them.

Now i feel like a local.

Lately while Grace is napping and either before or after Asher’s “roomtime”, I sit down with him & work on a letter tracing page. We do one letter a day. Some letters/days he does great & works hard to get it right. Others he’s just silly & still others are really difficult & he tries but I don’t push too hard to correct mistakes. At this point my main goal is working on fine motor skills, not so much actually being able to write letters.

After he finishes the page he then turns it over to draw on his own. He always draws people & for the past week & a half he’s been stuck on drawing “jericho”. Last week we got a book about firefighters and one about pirates who got tied up in rope. They have both been incorporated. Thx to ryan’s help via messenger (thx ryan, sorry to distract work), you will see below: Jericho. The ‘bad guys’ are the small ones on the bottom right lined up along the “wall” (the line with zig zag going down it), the ‘Israelites’ are also firefighters & for some reason the red one is tied up. (the domes on the black guys’ heads are firefighter helmets). You will also note, the balls on the ends of the “good guys” hands are: boxing gloves.