Who would like to hear what the Collings have been doing for the last month? Meeeeee!!!!! Katharine, at least, has become one of the girls. The third little red IKEA chair is now officially hers; she drags it into position for FHE and raises her hand when the girls do (and calls out when they do, too). She

vigorously begins leading whatever music hits her eardrum; she climbs on anything and everything (we're at the point in the cycle again where we're grateful we only have folding chairs); and she loves to play with Eli and Julia. She's quite the little rough-and-tumble kid, so she and Eli get along great. She's also starting to hold her own in the scuffles. She rips Eli's glasses off her face and stretches them out to the point that we make a weekly (sometimes bi-weekly) visit to the glasses shop to get them straightened out again and she makes good use of those five sharp teeth when her sisters are doing something she doesn't like. And now that she's one, she gets time-out for it! Someone showing up to our Primary Program practice the Saturday before Katharine's birthday with the flu and spreading the love, we were too sick to celebrate the week of.

But she wouldn't stand for that forever, and she ended up with two cakes and a few toys.

(She doesn't really just hang around in pajamas, but Justin takes pictures of her instead of dressing her when he's home with her one Wednesday morning a month while I go to a school meeting.)

Another big deal the past month was the transformation of our food storage and coat closet into a Book Nook. Whitney got the ball rolling one day when she was baby-sitting Brian Mumford and my house was already a shambles. We put the kiddies in these totes and went to work. It went from this....
to this...

To this!

Ta Da!!!!!!! It's my favorite room in the house. There's a little half door and butterflies emerging out of the book case into a glorious flurry of imagination up the wall and ceiling. Inspiring. And the girls love it. And we have a dollar store here with wall decals, one of which said "Once Upon a Time...." something, something, so it says that above the doorway. A nod toward the library we'll have someday....

Who could these blonde beauties be?

The Collings girls! You were fooled, weren't you? I got this excellent find (plus two pairs of glass slippers, plus a cool hat-box style carrying case) at the St. Aedan's toy tag sale for only $1. Justin thinks it was a dollar very ill-spent. I say it brings me far greater laughs than either The Three Amigos or Cold Comfort Farm. (Actually, only Justin gets any laughs from the last one).

Katharine's belated cake, and Ethan, Julia's classmate and friend from Primary on whom Eli has a MAD crush.

Another pair of Katharine's pajamas.

I've been doing a lot of lecturing lately. And then I read Teach Ye Diligently and am trying to lay off.

Katharine sucking on a bubble wand while popping bubbles with her feet. Multi-tasking at a young age. She has a bright future before her.

A picture for my mom. Her photo faves are weird facial expressions that include a smile.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we removed our brains and headed to New York. Actually it wasn't because we were temporarily brain-dead, it was because my sister Jini was in town visiting a friend.

We went to Central Park ("The Giselle Park" as the girls have christened it) and climbed on the rocks and ate hot dogs and rode on the carousel. The weather was nice but windy and I'm pretty sure the colds that have been circulating round this home for the last three weeks began here. I absolve you, Jini.

Katharine waved at all the dogs she saw, but was truly spellbound by the pigeons. She was whipping around in her baby backpack for better glimpses of those babies.

The aforementioned hotdogs.

A not aforementioned pretzel.

Our girls' carousel fixation has turned up before, but this was my all-time favorite. Instead of the standard, annoying, carnival music, this carousel played classic tunes like "Let's Go Fly A Kite", "Sing, Sing a Song", "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head," and other favorites. We could sing along with every one.

Actually it was after Central Park that we removed out brains and decided to head downtown with the other 30 million people who inhabit New York to see the shops. This is Rockefeller Center.

And this, girls and girls, is The American Girl Flagship shop. It was a ZOO. WORSE than a zoo. My goodness. They have three huge floors of all the dolls and all the displays. We got separated in the mass of bodies and so spent quite a bit longer here than we intended. I was with Eli and after exploring the entire first floor without seeing the rest of our party thought they may have headed to the second. Up the escalator we went. Eli for most of the time had been a little bit tense; I thought she was overwhelmed with the sight of so many dolls with so many accoutrements. As we turned the corner on the mezzanine the answer turned up. "There I am," she said with relief. "There's a girl with glasses." Oh! I'm so happy she saw her! How sad to be in a warehouse of dolls proclaiming to be just like you and finding that, no, in fact, you are hopelessly different! Thank goodness for American Girl Molly.

Saying goodbye in the parking garage. Only $15 for the whole day! What a steal!

Whew! Are our readers as exhausted as Katharine?

Just one more narration! We have a little advent calendar made up of twenty-four little drawers in which we put a slip of paper with a scripture, a song, and a fun thing to do. Last night was a caroling party for our home and visiting teachees.

Only Justin's companion and his family showed up. We're trying not to take this as a sign we are losers. Frank Durazzo, pictured here, used to jam with Michael Bolton. He can't read music but he can really shake up those keys, man! It was tons of fun. Thanks to the Popes and the Hustedts for filling out our numbers!

And now my story is all told.