Eeeeww

We have a bad confluence of events happening in our house this week.

Anya Rashi potty training + Anya Rashi figuring out how to open door knobs by herself = one grossed-out germophobic mama. I guess she thought the training seat looked like an accessory . . .

(Well, I can't be all that germophobic, or I wouldn't have reached for the camera!)

Two great articles

Today it's so cold (-15, with windchills of -40 and more) that school was cancelled! We are all still in our pajamas . . . and during my unexpected day off, I found two really good articles about completely different topics. Kristi -- do they shut down in Alaska for these temps? Just wondering if Wisconsinites are wimpier than Alaskans.

The first article is written by a man who was born in Africa, and is an atheist. Ironically, he believes that the only thing that will solve Africa's problems is Christians and Christianity:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article5400568.ece
For a related video, click over to Kristi's blog: http://werrefamily.blogspot.com/

The second article is about a woman's search for her birthparents. She shares transparently about the process and the wrenching emotional nature of searching, including her adoptive parents' reactions: http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001944.cfm

Make yourself some coffee or cocoa, and enjoy some thought-provoking reading.

A day at the races

Our first Pinewood Derby was a lot of fun! It was really different than I remembered my brother's races. Back in the day, they used a mammoth wooden track, and the scoring was done by . . . well, by a guy saying "This car came in first, that one second," etc.

We knew it was a whole new world before we even walked into the gym -- we could hear the soundtrack from the movie "Cars" playing! The track was sleek, shiny aluminum with a digital scoreboard above the finish line, and everyone could see the "photo finish" broadcast on a video screen. They dads who did all the organizing were really great with the technical touches.

Nathan and Aaron were so excited when it was their turn to race! Nathan's car ("The American") came in 6th, and Aaron's car ("The Land Shark") came in 14th in their age groups. Nathan's good buddy Logan won the entire day, much to the chagrin of the older boys. :o)

Peter's parents and Uncle Matt joined us for the race day, and I think he was just as excited as any of the little guys. We took him out to lunch afterward to celebrate the big day, and he was already planning for next year with Aaron and Nathan.

What purple and blueberries have in common

We are at a very fun language stage with Anya Rashi. She is stringing together sentences, including "Mommy help me," and "Daddy key Superman." This last one was the result of a trip to our local hardware store to make a new house key for Peter. They were out of the regular silver keys in the correct size, so we had a choice between SpongeBob or Superman. :o)

The title of this post is another example of every two-year-old's ability to embarass their parents in front of other people. "Purple" and "blueberries" both come out of Anya Rashi's mouth sounding like "boobies." (!) She's also added another "poo" word to her vocabulary: she loves wearing a little ponytail on top of her head, and she calls it a "poof" . . . which, of course, sounds just like "poo." So we spend a lot of time with her pointing to her head and saying "poo, poo!" to anyone who will listen.

The photos of Anya Rashi are a little demonstration of how hard it is to get a picture of her these days! She is on the move constantly. The first picture is what she does when we tell her to smile for the camera. :o) The rest are the result of me trying to get a picture of her in the new purple shirt ("booby" shirt, if you're two) that Aunt Mary and Uncle Ron gave her for Christmas. Well, technically, the photo shoot was a success -- she's in the photo, wearing the shirt!

In other news, our sons are getting ready for their Cub Scout Pinewood Derby race this weekend! Car making has occupied many hours during the past 10 days, and they have Uncle Matt to thank for their awesome creations. He was such a fun, patient teacher with them, showing them the safe way to use tools and thinking of ways to implement their elaborate design ideas. All three of them had a ball making the cars. We'll keep you posted about the race results!