This week the boys had another play date with Charlie. I am so happy that there is a nice, polite friend who lives in the neighborhood. You really can't find a nicer boy than Charlie. When Nune called to see if they wanted to go over, I told J that he needed to make Charlie's thank you card first. What a great way to get him to quickly make a card without complaint.
After they had been there for a couple of hours, I called to see if they were ready to come back home. Nune said they were playing nicely and she sounded like she thought I was crazy to think they would be done. She asked though, and Justin was ready to come home. We walked home and he went straight to his room. After a bit he came downstairs and was ready to be with people again. He talked about how much fun they had and wanted to know when they could play again. Being around people just seems to take a lot out of Justin and he likes to be alone to recharge. He can't always monitor when he needs time alone so I try to be aware of his needs. If he goes too long without alone time to recharge he can get quite ugly to be around.
We celebrated the new year by going to bed at the usual time. Aren't we wild and crazy? I am happy to report that 2014 has brought warmer temperatures our way. By warmer, I mean RELATIVELY warmer. Outside it is hovering around freezing and indoors our heater can keep the house warm easily enough that it sometimes cycles off for awhile. I am enjoying our heat wave and hoping that we don't go back to the single digits again.
On New Year's Rob made a turkey for dinner. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and green bean casserole. My favorite part, as usual, was the leftovers.
I got to talk to Meredith on Face Time and then I told J and R that I had talked to her and that she and Jordan got back to New York safely from their travels. Justin wanted to know how come we always have to go visit people and no one ever comes to visit us. We talked a little bit about Rob's job and how one of the benefits of his work is that they pay for our airfare to go back to the US. We talked about how expensive it can be to travel otherwise. It didn't take long for Justin to start crying and begin to worry about Meredith and Jordan. If they don't have enough extra money to visit us, they must be poor. Meredith teaches, so she doesn't get paid in the summer. He wanted to know what Jordan does at the museum and how much money she makes. Is there a way she could do extra work, like give tours, so they could have more money? What could Meredith do in the summer so they can get money? How can he help to supplement their income? I tried to explain to him that while they don't have lots of extra money, they have enough for a place to live, food, etc. He wasn't completely convinced. Then he started to worry about Cho, Amy, and cousins. Can they afford to buy new toys and clothes? Since we are ahead of them (time zone thing) next year should he leave things out that Santa could take to them when he gets to Oregon? Could we somehow give them some money so they are okay? His other brilliant idea is for them to talk to their bosses about giving THEM money to come visit us. Rob's job pays for our airfare, surely their employers would too if they explained that we live in Armenia. Poor sweet boy. When he grows up, he will ask his workers where their families live and give them airplane tickets so they can visit family.
I hadn't realized that January had so many birthdays in it. Justin told us on the 2nd that it was Super Frog's 11th birthday. He and Ryan celebrated along with Super Frog and some of the other stuffed animals during the day and after dinner we sang Happy Birthday and enjoyed a birthday cherry pie.
The next day Ryan informed me that it was his dolphin's 12th birthday. He and Justin spent the morning making presents with construction paper and tape. Luckily, we had only eaten half of the pie the day before. We stuck the candle back in again, sang Happy Birthday, and finished off the pie.
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| Some of the construction paper projects from Super Frog and Seahorse Dolphin's birthday. |
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| Getting along so they can play on the iPad. |
