M-e-n-a

I gave Mena some colored pasta to glue on the paper where I'd written her name. She can spell her name and she's learning to write her "M." She enjoyed the activity and was very careful to not get her fingers in the glue when she dipped the pasta.

Morrill Hall

We spent Saturday morning, January 21st, at Morrill Hall. The dinosaurs were fun to look at. The ones under glass in the floor threw Mena for a loop. She thought she'd fall through the floor and didn't want to step on the glass even when we showed her we wouldn't fall through. Maggie loves the freedom of being able to walk around by herself, just like Mena. We never told the girls to hold hands; they just wanted to! We finished our family outing by going to Amigos for lunch. Mena especially loves getting a rootbeer float when we go there.

The Beatles

Mena and Daddy are dancing to "Get Back" by the Beatles. Gene was thrilled when Mena started singing this song and asked him to turn it on the radio!

Growing Girls

The girls each got new shoes and were very excited. Mena is now in a size 9 1/2. She'd worn her old tennis shoes down so I could stick my finger through the hole! Maggie also got new shoes since hers were wearing out. Maggie is still in size 5.

Maggie has also gotten 2 new teeth in the last month.  We discovered her lower right molar around the new year and then discovered the upper right molar towards the middle of the month.

Since Maggie's getting older, I let her drink some rootbeer out of my glass while we were watching tv.  She wasn't sure at first since it's the first time she's tried to drink out of a glass without a lid.  Then it hit her lips and she pulled her head back.  I lifted the glass back up to my level.  She licked her lips, discovered it tasted good, stood on her tip toes, and opened her mouth as wide as she could to reach the glass again!

Sunday School

Mena is on the far left in this picture. Her Sunday School class made crowns when they read the Wisemen story.

Later when we were home, I sang the chorus to "Go Tell It on the Mountain." Maggie was dancing and Mena was singing with me. When we stopped, Mena asked me, "How do we get to the mountain?" I said, "We climb the mountain." She again asked me, "How do we get to the mountain?" I then asked her, "How do we get to the mountain?" She replied, "We climb the sycamore tree." I think she was remembering the Zaccheaus song :)

Quilt Museum

On January 6th, we took the girls to the International Quilt Museum on UNL's East Campus. The stairs were small enough that Maggie walked up her first flight of stairs. She thought this was pretty exciting. The girls enjoyed looking at all the picture quilts. There weren't many visitors so we let the girls walk on their own and we followed them around. Mena also was excited to use their bathroom (public bathrooms are more fun than our bathroom at home). I had quite a few visitors tell me how great they thought it was that we had brought our children to a museum. I thought it was normal to expose our kids to stuff like this. I always liked looking at the quilts at the state fair so I thought this was nice.

New Year's Eve and Puck

We started New Year's Eve by cuddling in bed since I wasn't ready to get moving. After we got going then Mena and I went to pick up our new guinea pig that I found on craig's list. I asked Mena what we should name him. She said, "Aemilia." I told her, "He's a boy so we need a boy name this time." Mena then said, "Boy Guinea Pig." "That's what you want to name him?" "Yep."

Grandma and Grandpa Frye took the girls on New Year's Eve. I thought I'd get stuff done or go do something, but the first thing I did was take a nap! Gene and I went to a friend's house for the evening. On New Year's day I was able to put away all the Christmas decorations and clean up the house before we got the girls back at supper time.


While the girls were gone, I got out my book of Shakespeare to find a name for our guinea pig. I decided on "Puck" a fairy in a Midsummer Night's Dream. When Mena came home I told her his name was Puck and she seemed to like it.  The neat thing that I later realized is that A Midsummer Night's Dream is what we saw at Shakespeare on the Green last summer.  So the guinea pig is named after a character in the first Shakespeare play that Mena saw!

Coloring

Maggie was so excited when I gave her crayons to color for the first time. She made lots of marks on the paper before she thought to start chewing on the crayons.  Her finished picture is in her scrapbook.

Frye Christmas

Peyton got a new DVD player for Christmas. He and Mena enjoyed watching his movie together. The girls enjoyed all their gifts!

Christmas Morning

Mena was very excited to find her Christmas gifts that Santa left. She waited somewhat patiently for Daddy and Maggie to get into the room. The new bath towels were a hit. We were surprised how long Maggie left hers on her head. They loved playing with all their new toys. Then Daddy pointed out that there were more gifts in the stockings and Mena got excited all over again! It was a great morning! We were up at 6:30 am!