Tricksy Little Hobbit

Attached are photos of a great Christmas break with fun of new friends in Connecticut, family in Colorado (both mine and Adam's) and my sweet roommates in Colorado. We were only briefly in Colorado just after Christmas, so I didn't get so see lots of friends and focused on family, but it was good.

Adam has been reading the Hobbit every night to the kids and they love it - I find them having pillow fights or acting out some part of the book constantly and disgustingly saying "Precious" a lot.

Adelaine has recently added a new level to her wit, which both delights and scares me. It began when she would fart and we would say, "Adelaine, did you fart?". She would shyly say, "I don't think so" so sweet that you really thought to yourself, "Wow, maybe she didn't fart or maybe she doesn't know if she did.". Well, yesterday I realized that this "I don't think so" phrase is just a clever cover up for things that she neither wants to lie about nor admit to. Yesterday she was driving Lukas crazy by making up complete gibberish about how horses live in snowflakes. She was totally straightfaced and went on and on very convincingly. Lukas KNOWS horses don't live in snowflakes, but when someone goes on THAT long THAT seriously about how horses can live in snowflakes, you have to wonder (I suppose). So, he started saying that Adelaine was lying. She calmly and shyly said, "I don't think so." Lukas insisted that she was lying. SHe calmly laughed and said, "I didn't hear myself lie. I don't remember lying." (again...I'm fearing my future when she comes home past curfew neither admitting nor denying where she has been "I don't remember drinking alcohol"...etc etc) Lukas continued to get angry calling her a liar. She kept calmly looking at him and saying "Lukas, you are so funny. You are such a jokester."

How can he respond to that? You are angry with someone and they keep the act going to the point where they are acting like you are even in on the act. I both wanted to give her a high five for getting even with Lukas for all the ways he gets to her while also wanting to dump cold water over her. I suspect the rest of my life will be a mixture of these 2 feelings toward these 2 kids.