The Tolberts

A sampling of the questions asked by our children on the way home in the car tonight:

Daddy, where is Poppy?

What is heaven like?

Why did Jonah get baptized?

Do grown ups get baptized or do kids get baptized?

Why did I not get baptized?

Does God have a mouth?

What does God think when we sing Jesus Loves Me?

Does God say Thank You to us?

(and finally)

Does Jesus have a moustache?

(Aaron and Audrey, age 3 1/2)

Dear Nathan,

We miss you while we’re here in Arkansas and you’re in Illinois, but we think it’s so great being here with Nana. The kids have said and done such funny things while we’ve been here, and I wanted to tell you about a couple of them before I forget.

First, we’ve only been in Arkansas one week, and Aaron decided to name his new train engine “Mee Maw.”

Yesterday we walked down to the dirt road to see the cows and horses. It was probably the farthest they’ve walked on their own. Audrey and Aaron threw rocks in the little stream. On the way back to Nana’s, Audrey wanted to jump over every crack on the road and Aaron said, “Mommy, I don’t know if my legs are tired or if Jesus put them on wrong.”

Happy Birthday Audrey and Aaron! What happened to my tiny babies?

We've got some new things going on in the Tolbert household. We're breaking up the cold winter days with an exciting milestone! Last night we took down the cribs and brought  in some twin mattresses. In a couple of weeks we'll move the mattresses onto twin beds. A&A  were so proud of their big kid beds. The change must be getting to them. When Aaron got up this morning, he said he didn't want to use the kid attachment with handles on the potty anymore, he wanted to, "sit on the potty like you grownups!"

So, what else is new? This winter we're trying to get creative with indoor play since we've had snow on the ground for months. We put snow in the sand table and bring it inside, make lots of forts, read even more books, paint a little, cut things with kid scissors, do puzzles, cook (they've played with cookie dough for hours at a time!), and play with toys like cars, Legos, their play kitchen, and shopping carts. Aaron likes to pretend like he's a trash man collecting trash and that he's a pie baker who drives a delivery truck and delivers pies. His other favorite pastimes are asking lots and lots of questions and speaking in rhymes. Audrey's favorite activities are coercing someone into reading books to her, sneaking away by herself to read books to her baby doll, pretending, and pushing Aaron's buttons. Both kids love to play board games. We play Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, and the Hungry Caterpillar game using about half the real rules along with the rules we make up as we go. It's such a joy to take care of these kids every day!

Pictures: Audrey reading to her baby doll Odasysis (she made up the name), Aaron and Nathan playing a board game

I went to check on Audrey today at nap time and this is what I saw:

For reference, that's her pink stuffed pig under her shirt.

Aaron LOVES singing.  Or really, it's more of yelling at this point.  And the best way to sing BY FAR is at Aunt Margo's house playing Rock Band.  No actual video game required, just the guitar and microphone: