Holiday Train

We went to the Holiday Train at the Indianapolis Zoo with Graham and Andrew and family. They loved it! We walked around the zoo after we saw the indoor train. The polar bear was very happy but there were very few animals out in the cold and even fewer visitors!

SNOW!

We had big snow yesterday, along with a lot of the country. It is beautiful out! Julien is very excited, as you might imagine. They went sleding at school yesterday. Julien's teacher called Julien "the ghost rider," everytime the sled went down the hill, Julien seemed to be on it. This morning when we were shoveling the drive way, Julien made himself a snow car and started work an a snow house/igloo.

Silly Reindeer Dance

Need I say more...

Restful Visit

I'm a little behind on my posts. These photos are from Thanksgiving. We had a very restful visit with Bill and Jan, it really felt like vacation! In the photo of Bill and Julien, Julien had painted himself as Rudolf-the-Red-Nosed-Reindeer.

Fun with an exercise ball

Julien had fun with my exercise ball.

Thanksgiving

Jan, Bill, Willem and Shana came to our house for Thanksgiving. I made the dinner (with help from Julien and Richard), Shana made fabulous pies, and Jan brought amazing cheeses she had brought over from a recent visit to Paris (she got in Wednesday night and they drove down to visit on Thursday!). Julien decided to dress up as a bat (with face paint) for the day. He also decided to sit at his own little table (somehow that made it more exciting) and gnaw on a huge leg bone. When I asked him what his favorite thing to eat at Thanksgiving (other than pie) he exclaimed "Chicken!" Not quite, but close..

Night Time Story

Every night when we put Julien to bed Richard reads Julien a story and then I lie in bed with Julien in the dark and tell him two stories. It is a long process, and it seems to be getting longer as time progresses. He has started to frequently get out of bed a couple times before finally settling in.

Last night after our second story, which was about Thanksgiving, the conversation continued:
A: "good night"
J: "But the story's not done!"
A: "Yes it is. We were done eating and we all went to bed."
J: "But it's not over. It continues all the way up until I am big and strong like Daddy!"
A: "That would be a long story."
J: "Tell me."
A: "OK, I'll tell you the quick version. When you turn five you will go to kindergarten, when you are six you will go to first grade (this continues all the way up until..) When you are 18 you will go to college for 4 years and then you can decide if you want to continue being a student as a graduate student, or go to work."
J: "I will choose going to work."
A: " And what will you do for work?"
J: "I will be a paleontologist. And I will work with the paleontologist in the Geology Department."
A; "you mean Steph who gave us a tour of the fossils in the Geology Department?"
J: "Yes, Steph. I will work with her."
A: "And will she teach you stuff?"
Long pause
J: "I won't be a kid any more so I will know a lot. I won't need her to teach me."

Jake

Julien had a play date with his friend Jake this weekend. First they set up the indoor play tent in the basement and got into the sleeping bag together, then they had a pillow fight (until Julien bit his lip), and lastly they built different kinds of vehicles. It was one of Julien's best play dates so far!

Make-Your-Own

We had dinner over at John-Paul & Elissa's house. Their sons, Graham and Andrew, are two of Julien's best friends. Not only did we have make-your-own pizzas (with prosciutto, kalamata olives, etc), we also had make-your-own chocolate sundays. What could be better!

Prehistoric Creatures

Last weekend we went to a "Prehistoric Creatures" workshop at the Children's Museum. Julien had been looking forward to it for months. It was fun, but we had thought that Julien might actually learn something about dinosaurs. Instead he knew the answer to every question.
Teacher: "Some dinosaurs only eat meat. Does anyone know what they are called?"
Julien: "Carnivores. They eat plant eaters"
T: "Right. And what are plant eaters called?"
J: "Herbivores"
T: "Right, and humans eat both plants and meat."
J: "We have pointy teeth in the front for tearing and teeth in the back for grinding."
T: "Right"
Julien wasn't the only one answering the questions, but he knew the answers to the more technical questions. We did all get to go behind the scenes into the Paleo lab and all the kids got to touch a Triceratops skull fossil. Afterwards one of the assistants came up to me and said "Julien must really like dinosaurs. I think he could teach this class!" In any case Julien had fun. Afterwards we went for a ride on the carousel.

The Jockey

Here is Julien dressed up as a jockey. We have been playing "horse race" every night.

Tornado

Some of you may have heard that we had tornado warnings yesterday. Supposedly there were a couple touchdowns on both sides of town. I was having walk-in advising for students freaking out before registration. I was almost done for the day but I still had a line of about six students when the sirens went off. I saw two of them and after a call from Richard saying that there was, in fact, a tornado heading towards Bloomington I announced that we should all go to the basement. This was met with great despair and hair tearing-they were frantic to meet with me (one student was even in tears), so I agreed to talk with them in the hall way. When I was done, I went down to the basement. I work in a dorm, so I was the only adult in a room full of college girls. It was incredibly loud. I was down there for about half an hour until we were given the all clear. On the way home I stopped by a sushi place and got us all sushi and udon noodle soup for dinner. Yum. Despite Julien's usual lack of openness for new food, he loved sushi! Anyway, Julien and Richard were driving home from daycare when the sirens went off, so they quickly drove home and hung out in the basement. Julien thought it was fun. After dinner the sirens went off again, so we spent more time in the basement again. Julien and I lay in the guest bed and read books. The next morning we found debree in our yard, bits of insulation.

It was a weird evening.

Colors

By now almost all the leaves have fallen, but they were quite beautiful a few weekends ago. I am a little behind on my posts. Julien has taken to racing when we go for a walk in the woods. It rather remarkable how long he is able to run. Eventually he slows down and starts poking sticks in the dirt.

First Bicycle!

Julien got a new bicycle, his first one ever, from Grandmum Kathy and Grandad Rick, and boy, was he excited! He could hardly breathe! When Richard told him that Grandmum picked it out for him he exclaimed, "Grandmum is a great lady!" I think Julien has shown off his new bike to every neighbor that has walked down the street. He is more cautious with it than he is with his tricycle-he's still getting used to it.

Kathy and Rick

Kathy and Rick visited for an extended Halloween visit. It was very fun. We rented a mini van and the whole family went down to Kentucky for a little adventure. We had lunch at Lynn's Paradise Cafe (fun, but a long wait) and then went to Churchill Downs to the Kentucky Derby Museum. We ended up going on a tour of a horse race. Julien LOVED it and now loves to play horse race. He asked the tour guide lots of questions. "How fast do the horses ride? How many races does a horse race? What kinds of horses are they?"

Trick-or-Treat

On Halloween night we went trick-or-treating with Margaret, who was a sunflower. Margaret and Julien held each others hands the whole time. They were very cute. Afterwards Julien spaced out eating candy and then put on his scary vampire teeth. He did a slapstick routine for all of us and we laughed till our sides hurt.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Julien was very happy to be a raccoon for Halloween, although a few people told him that they did not like raccoons. We went to a "trick-or-treat in the woods" on Saturday where they had (unskilled) actors dressed as fairy tale characters. The first scene we came across was little red riding hood & the big bad wolf. Julien refused candy from the wolf. Then we moved to the three little pigs, who looked quite freaky in their masks and were not very little. Again he refused candy. One of the pigs slipped a candy into Julien's pumpkin and Julien grabbed it and threw it on the ground declaring he didn't want their candy! The next stop was Jack and the Bean Stalk, and with a little cajoling by Jack, Julien accepted a candy and was then ready for the rest of the festivities.