Nothing special 'bout January

I remember learning this song in early elementary school.

There's nothing special ‘bout January
Not a lot going on
There are 31 days of nothing much
I get so bored I yaaawwwwn
Each day seems to drag along
With nothing to look forward to
So I guess I'll sign this little song
‘Til January is through

A friend with a January birthday used to take offense to this song, but it is hard to deny that January is a slow month in the Sparks house. It seems that all we did outside of our normal routine was repeatedly fight against various illnesses! I am optimistically looking forward to the blog-worthy months ahead, but in the meantime here are some January highlights.

E. just started practicing for the Easter musical “Come, Messiah, Come” with his homeschool co-op and our church. He really enjoyed the first official practice and I was really quite surprised that he enjoyed drama, even initially. They will be performing on Palm Sunday and I think he will be a little orphan boy. (Hopefully he doesn't try to drop-kick any of the other “orphans”!) He is doing really well at school and we have officially moved on to first grade work this semester. We have spent a couple of weeks on telling time and after next week he will be totally able to read an analog clock. He wants to learn how to count money, too, but we might hold off a couple of months on that one. Once he learns how to count it, he will only want to spend it too! ;)

S. has been practicing her counting and is moving on to getting down 1-15 ... although normally she starts counting with the number 3. Thankfully she is also expanding her color repertoire and finally acknowledges that there is a color besides pink! I never took the plunge in trying to potty train her by fire after Christmas like I had planned, so she is still just using the potty a few times a day. It sure would be nice to get her out of diapers without all the MESSY work involved. There is an innovative job idea for someone—contractual potty trainer. A lucrative business opportunity that won't ever go down the flusher!

P. is getting so big. She is definitely growing faster than either of the other two ever did. Her little 12-month clothes just keep getting smaller and smaller. I was hoping to wait until spring before she needed to progress to 18-month, but I don't think I can hold it off much longer. ("Fat girl in a little coat ... ." Ok, just kidding; she looks nothing like Farley and her clothes aren't that tight!) Her hair is growing quite quickly, and unfortunately quite unevenly as well. I am in denial that her cute blonde locks need cut, and Tyler is trying to talk me into getting that first trip to the salon in before she has much more of a mullet. On a random note, she is also newly scared of Mickey Mouse.

As for Tyler and me, we bought a new broom and dustpan. Woo hoo—January excitement! Who says that January isn't special?