NND

The boys opted out of naps today. Both of them. It was a painfully long afternoon. From this point forward, I will refer to days like these as NND (no nap day) and no further explanation will be necessary. There were, however, some remarkable moments worth mentioning. I can even look back on them fondly.

The backyard had been unexplored territory since the snow.

Untouched until now.

It will all be gone soon. But it sure was fun.

I wonder if Liam will remember it next year.

We broke out the paints this afternoon. Liam was in paint heaven.

Stamina. For real, he was at this one painting for 15 minutes.

Ben pulled out all the stops today with multi-brush, color mixing combos.

Very impressive. If I do say so, myself.

**Highlight alert** (Aunt E, take note. This section is for you.)
Liam uses scissors for the first time. I thought he loved the painting. Scissors are a whole new world for this two year old. Scissor heaven is one happy place.

You can't see his hand on the scissors in this second photo - but I promise it is there. We worked on this for a good while. He got the hand placement down right away and could easily close them. Opening was obviously harder but he was getting the rhythm down - in large part, due to Ben's help. Apparently, they sing a song at school when they are cutting. "Open, close them. Open, close them." etc. Kinda sing-songy. A bit repetitious (ha) but I really think it helped Liam. He kept asking for more, more. Love the concentration. So fun.