THE WOG AND HER FRIENDS DOWN BY THE SCHOOL YARD

The Wog's teachers occasionally send pictures home of the kids going about their daily work at school. Considering I've given up asking The Wog to disclose even the most basic information because she is not remotely forthcoming (or truthful, for that matter, as in the case of her friend, who for the first year of school, when prodded, always told her mother the snack was "broccoli"), the pictures are always a treat to receive. It's a little peak inside The Wog's secret life!

Doing her new favorite work, "The Listening Chair:"

Chilling (literally) with her girls:

(The Wog is in blue.)

The Wog and her sweet kindergarten reading buddy, Leia:

Checking out the "Big Books:"

The Wog and Aubrey eat red bananas while learning about Brazil during Circle. (A rare school tidbit that did make its way home to me: The Wog is convinced Aubrey's twin brother, Liam, can "lift a house.")

WHOSE IS IT? IT'S THE DOODLE'S!

One of The Doodle's absolute most favorite words lately is "mine." The other day at the grocery store, the checkout clerk told us he reminded her of this movie scene:



(No need to watch the whole thing--you'll get the gist of it pretty quickly.)

Follow-up, one week later: The woman who teaches West's "Kidrobics" class told me she had something to tell me today, but she was worried I'd be offended. I'll give you a hint: the sentence started with, "Have you ever seen the movie Finding Nemo?" Yup! Two people in less than one week have commented that West sounds like a bossy seagull!

WHAT MAKES PUTTING ON THE TV FOR YOUR KIDS SO YOU CAN GET ONE THING DONE IN A DAY ALMOST OKAY:

When you enter the room and find them spontaneously sitting like this:



Despite the seemingly comfy pose, The Doodle is nevertheless giving me his Prince (Vaillant) of Darkness stare in this one:


Sometimes they actually sit in their own chairs:

(And how angelic does The Doodle look in this one?)

Look how much he loves her!

TWO FOR THE ROAD FROM THE WOG

A couple Wog anecdotes:

1.
Like most kids, The Wog does not love washing her hands after using the bathroom. She's already wasted enough time, after all. So getting her to do so--particularly if there is anything remotely exciting going on elsewhere--can be a struggle. The other day she emerged from the bathroom and announced, "I really really THOROUGHLY do not want to wash hands." The "thoroughly" continues to crack us up; where do kids learn these things? (From their parents, I suppose...) And for the record, she went back in and washed up.

2.
The other day The Wog went for a preschool development assessment to make sure she is on track. One of the questions was "can she tell a story with a plot." I'm not sure I would have known how to answer this question if, on the way there in the car, she hadn't told me a long, drawn-out story about the dream she'd had the night before. (The Wog has a recurring nightmare that I am throwing snowballs at her; I love a change of pace.) She explained that in the dream I was riding a roller coaster and she was "running along next to [me] on the track." Where was The Doodle, I asked? She responded, "Running on the track too. I'm holding his hand so he doesn't fall off." Is there a better Big Sister than that?

iWog

More pictures from Marc's iphone!

Hanging with Grandpa at Thanksgiving:


Skating, skating and more skating!

Pre-cake:


Post-cake:


Wide-eyed Wog:


Mugging with Daddy:


Out on the ice with her teacher:


Pretzel time!


An on-the-road pit stop:



The Wog loves her new umbrella from Grandma:





(If you are looking for an umbrella model, give us a call. She's obviously quite qualified.)

BIG DOODLE ON CAMPUS

The Doodle may only be 20-months-old, but he already got a taste of college life today during a lunch date with Daddy--Ramen noodles! (Daddy showed him that now only do you eat Ramen in college, you also eat it when you work at a start-up company!)

















Full tummy = happy Doodle!

DOROTHY WOGILL

I finally downloaded a bunch of pics (since Thanksgiving!) from Marc's iphone to my computer so lots of pictures coming up, but this one, I think, was my favorite:



The Wog and sweet friend Brooke are learning to skate! (Don't you love how proud they look?)

THE WOG WALKS INTO A DONUT SHOP...

En route from NJ to CT, Pop-Pop played a new mix of children's music. The songs repeated several times but it wasn't really clear how much The Wog was listening and/or absorbing. Yesterday, she busted out with this:



She knew the words better than I did!

WE GOT A CHRISTMAS TREE!

And somehow I didn't post the pictures. (I had a backlog on one camera that I completely forgot about.) I think it's okay to post these late since the tree is still up!

We left the decision in the hands of The Wog. Here she is, inspecting her choice:


The Doodle got in on it too:


Here he is, on his way as usual!


Pictures still to come of the bedecked tree.

FIRST THERE WAS BRANGELINA...

And now...
The Doodle + his little friend Rooster (AKA Phoebe) =
THE DOODSTER!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, POP-POP!

Polly has volunteered to eat a piece of cake in your honor. West has volunteered to throw some on the floor.

FRIENDS SHARE EVERYTHING...

...especially pink, feathered boas!

COOKIE (DECORATING) WOGSTER

We attended a Cookie Decorating Party prior to Christmas and both The Wog and The Doodle got in on the action.

The Wog was a very intense little cookie decorator:




The Doodle loved pouring out all of the red sugar (which our gracious hostess actually allowed him to do), but he did not love the spoonful of red sugar he spontaneously sampled:


The Wog's cookies were particularly "festive":


Watching Rudolph (or "Runolph" as The Wog calls him) after the cookies were thoroughly bedecked!