Greetings, 2013!

Things we're looking forward to and hoping will happen this year: Ezra hearing better once he gets tubes in his ears (Feb. 13), Oliver not biting anyone anymore, Ezra developing even more interest in and tolerance of his brother, and Oliver learning to use the potty (Please? It's got to happen, right?). Oh, and both kids going to sleep with minimal stalling and crying - and Oliver sleeping till 6 am or dare we dream, even later...

Okay, enough griping about little things. All the emotional upheaval after Newtown has left me feeling a lot more tolerant and patient with these boys. It's such a precious thing to be able to squeeze them, feel the warmth of their skin, their squirming bodies constantly in motion except for rare moments when they relax and squeeze back, or better yet, actually initiate kisses. One of Oliver's latest bedtime stalling tactics is to kiss both my cheeks and eyes. That - as you can imagine - is a pretty effective stalling tactic.

I've deactivated my Facebook account because it was sucking up way too much time and occupying too much of my brain power with mostly inconsequential things. So I'm hoping to blog more often and post pictures here for our family and friends who still check this blog occasionally.

We had a very fun Hanukkah and the kids were inundated with gifts and chocolate. It's going to take a while for them to realize we've gone back to day-to-day life when presents and a constant stream of sugar are out of the ordinary. Gabe and I went to Ezra's class at day care and talked to them about Hanukkah and taught them the dreidel song, and then plied them with Hanukkah gelt. In gratitude, they all drew us pictures of menorahs and dreidels. Very cute! And Ezra started getting into the spirit of gift-giving by drawing us countless pictures of robots and then wrapping them up with toilet paper and scotch tape.

Aunt Lisa came to town (her first time in Seattle!) on Christmas Eve and stayed for five days. It was great. We drove an hour into the Cascades and went sledding and had so much fun. We sledded down tiny hills, but they were fast enough for all of us to have a lot of laughs. The snow was incredibly deep and powdery - but clumpy enough to make a terrific snowman. We tried to recreate the fun on New Year's Day, but it was 25 degrees and the snow was icier and we (especially Oliver) called it quits a lot sooner. But it definitely did our spirits good to get up into the mountains and remind ourselves of one of the main reasons why we moved here.

The rain let up and the sun came out and Lisa, Ezra, Oliver & I went to Bainbridge Island. Lisa was particularly impressed that the sun shone. :-) It is rare, but not unheard of! Lisa also graciously babysat for us while we went to see "This is Forty." Thanks, Lisa! After she left, Oliver said, "Where's Lisa? I want her to come back."

We're going to Santa Fe in a week and a half - can't wait for some more sunshine and some good Mexican food and to take the boys on more hikes in the mountains - maybe even sledding again! Oh, and can't wait to see Noni, Mickey & Katy!

Love,
Ash (and Gabe, Ezra & Oliver)