The Sounds of Dude

Alasdair has learned how to put his hands in the air and say "ta da!" and he says it a LOT. And every time he says it its the same sing-songy note. He's got pretty decent pitch! Must have gotten that from me. ;)

A few minutes ago he was sitting on the floor and had one of the girls' pink easter buckets over his head. He was cracking UP! Must have gotten that from his dad. :D

It's Mercules!

Michaela has always had some really cute ways of saying certain words. So cute that I don't bother to correct her. My most favorite one that has gone away since she's learned to read is that she used to say "stuffing" for "something". Like, "Mommy, I need to show you stuffing" or "I spy with my little eye, stuffiiiiiiiing Blue!" Too cute. But one that had stuck with her (until today actually) is calling both Mercury and Hercules "Mercules". Hilarious! We were watching an old movie on VHS the other day and there was a preview for the animated movie Hercules on there and she starts yelling "Mercules! I love that movie!" Makes me crack up every time I think about that. Or maybe it's stuffing else. ;)

Bored Games

Last night we got finished with dinner and bathtime relatively early, so we cleaned up the living room, the kids had a "treat" from their Halloween baskets and I asked Maeve if she wanted to play a game. I figured that we could work on some counting by playing Dora the Explorer Chutes and Ladders. We had a half hour until bedtime, so we could play the game, maybe even get in a book, brush teeth and get tucked in just in time.

Nope.

Who would have thought that you could play Chutes and Ladders as long as you could play, say, Monopoly? We played that game for 45 minutes. Maeve gave up after about 10 minutes, so then it was just Michaela and I. Even she was getting pissed that she had to keep going down the stupid slides and not winning, and she loves playing games!

It also amazes me that my 6 1/2 year old who is pretty darn bright, can not for the life of her figure out how the chutes and ladders board works. She doesn't understand which way to go, she doesn't understand that just because you are touching a ladder or slide doesn't mean you get to go up or down, and she thinks that if you touch the square at all, not just land on it, you get to go up or down.

After last night I know remember why we don't play Chutes and Ladders with our kids. :)

A Michaela Moment

My sister in law is putting together these cute little books about "cousins". Each of the cousins had to answer a bunch of questions and then she'll put them in a book with their photo and names, etc. This will help us all keep the cousins closer since some live very far away. I'm going to share with you Michaela's answers, complete with her own spelling. I let her do her own. :)

When is your birthday? March 19'2002
Where do you live and what color is your house? Foltin and Pinck (Fulton is our street, and that's Pink)
What are your nicknames?
Do you have any pets? What are their names? Pigy and Bene (mind you, they are no longer with us, for like a year and a half)
If you have any special stuffed animals, what are their names and what are they? Suzzy and rabbit (this is my rabbit from when I was a baby. I wasn't aware it had a name :)
What was your first word? wats that
What book or story do you like to read or have read to you? the poler exsperes (the polar express)
What is your favorite animal? Horse!
What did you dress up as this past Halloween (2008)? perinsses! (Princess)
Who is your favorite friend at school and why? Sara
What is your favorite class/subject at school? music
What is your favorite color? pinck
What is your favorite food? nodels and sacs! (this is supposed to be noodles and white sauce, or alfredo)
What is your least favorite food? musherooms
What is your favorite holiday or season? christmas
What is something that really makes you laugh? jocks (JOKES, not Jocks, but hilarious!)
What is your favorite sport/game/activity to get your body moving? socer
What would you like to be when you grow up? ballerina
What is your favorite thing about your brother(s) or sister(s)? ticheling the (tickling them)
What is the most fun thing about having cousins? playing

Get your kids to eat ANYTHING!

Seriously, the trick is chopsticks. My kids will eat anything we put in front of them if they can eat it with chopsticks. Tonight my husband made this stir fry out of some asian eggplant, some pork (usually it's tofu), some bell peppers and some onion. It's not a favorite of our kids. One doesn't like tofu, one doesn't like onions, one doesn't like pork, none of them like eggplant. But all of their plates were clean tonight! DH fed the baby with his chopsticks, and I gave the girls the pair of kids chopsticks that we lifted from a popular chinese restaurant that we'll call "O.E. Fangs". ;) Try it, it works!

We could feed the Poor

Tonight as I was cleaning up the dining area in our kitchen, I realized that with all the food that ends up on my floor in a single day, mostly from Doodie, I think we could feed a small country. I keep trying to figure out how to get my grocery bill down to something less atrocious that it is now, but we haven't been able to so far. Maybe I can just put some sort of safety net below Maeve and Dude and then just dump it in a tupperware container for the next day. We could have "leftover lunch" each day!

But seriously, it's really gross. I actually have to look at what Doodie throws on the floor and compare it to what he started with in order to figure out how much he ate. And then I have to subtract the amount that he smeared in his hair and add the amount back that he grabbed off of Maeve's plate. It's like doing Advanced Algebra at the dinner table. :)

Another Proud Mommy Moment

Michaela is a few pages away from reading book #2 in a chapter book series!! I've been trying to get her to read a chapter book on her own for a few months now, but she just refused. I bought all sorts of different types of series from the book orders at school or getting some from the library, anything from Jewel Fairies to Flower Girls. But finally she sat down and read one in two days and she's almost done with #2! Geez, I hope the library has this series!! :)

You know what I love?

I love coming home from a crappy ass commute on a day when it's pouring down rain and I've just had to stand on the bus the whole way home (not to mention the extra bad traffic because of an accident) and I see Michaela peeking out the window when my car pulls up. I love that when she opens the door I can see Maeve's head bobbing up and down because she can see me and she's yelling "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" I love seeing Doodie waddle toward the door when I walk in and drop everything he's holding, grin the biggest, goofiest grin he's got and say "Mama!"
I love that after I get home, whenever I leave the room my littlest ones panic because they think I'm leaving again. I love that Michaela wants to tell me everything about her entire day from beginning to end in about 90 seconds talking non-stop. I love tucking my kids into their beds at night and having them all warm and cuddly knowing that first thing in the morning when they open their eyes they're going to say "Mommy!" all over again. :)

SO GROSS

So, I just changed Maeve's diaper, right? And it's got this little tiny turdy in it, no big deal. I see worse every single day around here. So I clean her up, put on a new diaper, get her sparkly princess skirt back on and off she goes. At that moment, my nose starts to itch because my crazy loose hairs are tickling it. So I use the back of my hand (not my wiping hand mind you) to itch my nose and all of a sudden ALL I CAN SMELL IS POOP!! Oh, god. On the back of my hand is a smear of poop. I have no idea where it came from, but I know it's now somewhere on my face near my nose. UCK! So i high-tailed it to the bathroom to sanitize my face with bleach. I can't smell it anymore, so that's good I guess.

GROSS!!