Learning to ride a bike ... in the snow!

We travelled to Iowa for the holidays to spend time with our families. Wesley was quite intrigued with the nativity set below the tree and was content to examine each of the ornaments. We laughed as he pointed to the angels and with delight announced "mon-jee" (which is how he says "monkey")! Evidently, he thought the angels looked like monkeys.



Ever since arriving home from Ethiopia, Jayden has been quite concerned about the fact that he has no bike. He is quick to explain that Emme & Maea each have a bike, but there is none for him. "Emme bike, Maea bike, Jayden .... no bike," he says with a sad face. We kept trying to explain that we can't ride a bike in the winter and he would have a bike in the spring ... but of course, we could not make him understand that reasoning. So as we drove south for the holiday, I called ahead to see if any of the cousins had a bike they had outgrown. Sure enough, cousin Carson had a bike he was no longer using. So on Christmas Eve, Jayden was presented with his "new" bike and he was thrilled .... and wanted to immediately go out and ride the bike. Again, we explained about not being able to ride a bike in the snow and ice.



The next morning ... we came downstairs to find him attempting to ride the bike in the living room. To his credit, he did seem to understand that we cannot ride a bike inside the house. So after much begging and pleading ... Jay and Jayden donned all of their snow gear and went outside to learn how to ride a bike. It was very cold (about 7 degrees) with freezing mist, but the two of them braved the cold for about 2 hours until Jayden had mostly mastered the bike. Here are a few photos of him first learning to ride a bike ...

There is a trimuphant smile behind that hood!!

On Friday, everyone gathered at my sister's house for our annual sledding party with all of the cousins (there are 10 cousins now). Karla provided the sledding hill, Sister-in-law Becky brought the hot chocolate and the butterscotch schnapps, and Grandpa provided the snowmobile for towing everyone back up the hill. Jayden's eyes about popped out of his head when he saw the snowmobile, and he would sled down the hill only so he could get a ride on the snowmobile back up the hill!






One more quick, cute story ... While giving Wesley a bath last week, I watched him examine his reflection in the shiny faucets and then methodically kiss his reflection in each handle and faucet. A few days later while I was typing on the computer, he discovered the shiny bin pulls on the desk drawers. Again, he proceeded to methodically kiss his reflection in each bin pull. While we were visiting Grandma's house, I happened to have the camera handy as he again noticed his reflection in the tub faucets and stretched out his little kissy lips to kiss his reflection.

Shortly after we got home from Ethiopia, I got a note from Rachel saying that the nannies missed "Jayden's sweet nature and Wesley's quirky ways". I think I know what she means about Wesley's "quirky ways".