Total Blackmail

Today I decided it was time to sort out my pictures for 2009 and get them printed.I found this little gem that I am sure will come in handy in the future!
(In case you didn't know, that's Amelia in 3 pairs of pajamas and card board glasses that she made and decorated herself.)

The Short Sale Shimmy (Part 3)

< The Short Sale Shimmy (Part 2)

Good news! Both banks have verbally approved our purchase of the home. I'm not going to rejoice too much until we see something on paper, but unless someone's flaming trousers are suspended from a telecommunications cable, we are going to own this house. Huzzah!

Christmas Greetings!

I remembered how well things went when I tried to take a nice picture of the kids for a Christmas card, so this year, I thought I'd get each one individually.

Merry Christmas, from the kiddodiddos to each one of you! We love and miss you!

Simon wanted to sing "go, go Joseph" because he made up his own words. Also because he was Joseph for the Joy School Christmas program and got confused on which biblical Joseph he was. He actually got the other Joy Schoolers to sing "Joseph, Joseph is it really you?" over and over during rehearsals. Maybe next year he'll get it sorted out.

What you see here is take 18 and that's as close as it got. When we were done, she shook her head and said "I tried my best." I think she improved it.

The videos turned out cute, so I thought I'd try all the kids together. Here's what happened, the kids insisted I put this one on too :

Yep. That's Simon punching Jonny in the face because he started saying "cheese" before he was ready.

Long live the king!

Last week, we had an ultrasound to check on the health of our new baby. The baby is healthy, growing well and scheduled to be born in mid May. I am grateful for the news.
We did also happen to find out the gender of the baby and here's what our kids had guessed:
Simon: girl
Jonny: boy
Amelia: boy (but I really want it to be a girl)
James: boy
Jonny and Simon were at a friend's house during the ultrasound, so they didn't find out right away. When Gary and I picked them up, we talked about the baby for a little. Jonny said "if it's a boy, I will play with it and if it's a girl, I will take care of it" (actually he may have said that earlier in the day.) So when we told him the news, he was prepared to be happy either way.
In order to tell the big kids, Jonny and I made and frosted cupcakes for a special snack, with the frosting color being the clue as to which gender the baby is. He had fun with that, especially licking the knife when we were done.
The kids were a little late coming home from school, because the stopped to play on the way home from the stop. They were trying to chip off an icy patch on the side walk, but they only had pencils for tools. It took a while. When they came in, they took the cupcakes, but were more interested in telling me their adventures with the ice patch than anything else.
I told them, that their cupcakes were a clue to something Daddy and I learned today, and Amelia said "that's nice" and kept eatting. James got huge eyes, looked at his pink cupcake and announced "it's a girl." He was right and he kept munching. Amelia started screaming and jumping up and down excitedly. When she was done, Jonny said "I have more exciting news: we bought King Vitamin (breakfast cereal) at the store!" That cleared the table. Suddenly, all the boys were jumping up and down and screaming for love of the King and his crunchy goodness. Amelia was equally excited.

Here she is!

I liked this shot best because you could see the whole profile, including lips. And check out that arm... I think she'll give Popeye a run for his money!

The Future

Yesterday, I asked the kids to tell me 5 things they would like to do in the future. They didn't come up with 5, but here's what they said.
Here is what they said
James: don't know
Amelia: invent a time machine, learn a foreign language, invent a new kind of food
Jonny: be a turtle with weapons... and a blue mask
James: yeah- I'm with Amelia building a time machine. That would be cool.

Kid Speech

There are a few sounds Jonny hasn't figured out yet. /r/ mainly, but /ch/ and /sh/ also give him some trouble. Normally I think it's pretty cute, unless he's asking for Chex cereal at the store (you can use your imagination.) Today I had to grin when he asked me what a "wino" is. I had to stop myself before answering "It's looks like a hippo with a tusk on it's nose."

One I Haven't Heard Before

When you are big and fat like a termite mound, then the baby will be born!
- Jonny, age4

I am Thankful for Sharing

I thought my 300th post would be profound or thoughtful, but I guess that's not really the KiddoDiddo Way. Because Gary is blogging from the library and I am at home, it turns out that my 300th post is this:

I am thankful for children who are learning to share. After breakfast last week, I found Simon's pal Chicky's beak stuffed with Wheat Chex and raisins and I was glad that he was caring for his little friend.

PS The kids did get over the Swine Flu. Glad that's done!

Google StreetView at Hersheypark

The Google StreetView trike has photographed one of our favorite places: Hersheypark! Check it out!

A Few Photos

Here's a few photos of Gary and James in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. They did a great job. Watching my sweethearts perform was a huge payoff for all of the nights away at rehearsals.
I didn't take these photos, I had Jonny and or Simon on my lap and couldn't do a camera too. Milan was kind enough to share the photos he took with the cast and I sorted through hundreds to find ones with my guys in them. Thanks for sharing!

Here's Gary popping out during the Jacob and Sons song that introduces all the brothers. He was Levi.

This is Gary whistling to start off There's One More Angel in Heaven. It has a western flavor. The guy who had the solo for this was really good, sorry no pictures of him, he's not in the family-diddo.
Here is poor Joseph, stuck in jail. The children's choir came and sang that song with him. They sounded really pretty. James is in the red, second from the middle on the left. Simon got really excited to see him on stage.

The children's choir sang to wrap up the intermission. It was a song called All God's Critters Have a Place in the Choir. It was really cute. James is in the red, to the right of center in the front row.
Gary was invited to be in the Horus Chorus and here he is, 6th if you are counting from the left. I don't think he prefered this costume, but he did sound nice in the group.

This is Those Canon Days, a comical French sounding song. Gary is all the way to the right. He had solos to start and end this song. He did great. The whole scene was very well done and was a reported crowd favorite.

The whole play was really well done. I am grateful they got the chance to explore their talents and try new things.

Oink! Oink!

Just found out we've got the Swine flu floating around the house. James had it last weekend. Jonny and Amelia came down with it this weekend. Poor Gary is out trying to get some Tamiflu, as he is coming down with it today. Me? I'm fine. I had my Swine Flu shot weeks ago, thanks to a my thoughtful obstetrician.
Lest you think I am uncaring, hogging all the vaccines for me, James came down with swine flu the very day he was scheduled to have the shot. Amelia got the shot, but got sick anyway (though she was only REALLY sick for 24 hours.) Jonny and Simon were to get the shot today. Simon got the shot, Jonny (already sick) got the nose culture to prove once and for all what has been knocking out our family one at at time.
Please keep our family in your prayers.

Green Thumb!

In Joy School, Jonathan planted some lettuce seeds in a cup. The lettuce has started to grow! It's hard to see the sprouts from these photos, but they're there. In the closeup photo, you can see one little white sprout.


Jonny wanted to give this plant to a cousin for Christmas. I told him that wouldn't work out since the plant would not survive being shipped that far. Instead of breaking down into a tantrum, he handled it like a big boy and resolved to give his plant to Mom instead. What a sweetie!

So much to say...

There is so much I can think of to write about that this in going to be really long winded and you really don't have to read it all. I'm afraid I might scare away the few people who read this blog (LOVE YOU!)

Gary and James are off at their first performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I opted to take the kids next weekend to see it, in the afternoon, before they are tired, hungry or cranky (tall order I know, especially on the middle one) but I am kind of sad that I can't be there every time to see my sweethearts on the stage. They have worked like dogs on this show, trying new talents and skills. I hope they come home happy with their performances tonight.

Report cards came home this week, and Amelia's has a surprise inside- her teacher wrote her a note on hot pink paper "Amelia, you ROCK! Keep up the AWESOME work!" She brought home average marks and I am extremely pleased with her adjustment to the full school day.

James also brought home his report card and he was a bit surprised by some of his marks. It seems that his dislike for handwriting (and the resulting short words/partial sentence answers) have finally caught up with him. Don't get me wrong, he is extremely bright, he just hides it well when he writes. Hopefully, he will understand the importance of writing as well as he speaks. (He had a poetry assignment- one of those month long big project ones and it was like pulling teeth to get him to write down anything substantial. Finally, I had him explain each of his one word lines without writing it down, and he said amazing things. I said "did you hear that?! Write down the thing you just said!" As we talked through the assignment, it came together really well. He got great marks on it- I'll have to put some of it on here, when he brings it home.) I think that he sees written work as a way to fill a blank on a paper, not as a way to communicate ideas. Anyway, enough about that. He got great grades on math, social science, music and PE.

I am 13 weeks pregnant and happy to be pregnant. Around moving time, the baby was threatening to miscarry and that was an added stress. Things have settled down now I am hoping for an uneventful 14-40 weeks.

Had my second turn at hosting Joy School. I usually read the lesson plans the night before (I know, procrastination.) On Tuesday, I talked about the kids with a nature walk we would be doing on Thursday (it was in the lesson plan to inform the kids.) Wednesday night, I read Thursday's lesson plan it called for an 85 minute "nature walk" that was to include a petting zoo and a wienie roast. (By my definition, a nature walk means walking on a trail, looking at nature.) Now I KNOW Frying Pan Farm would have made a great location for this event. However, I was not going to pull it off at the last minute, in the middle of a rain storm. (not to mention, pregnancy has put me off hot dogs. Even the sight of someone eating them is enough to send me over the edge.) So, I set up a tent in the back yard and we observed nature through the little mesh windows and then roasted marshmallows over the George Foreman Grill- just FYI, it is not hot enough, even when set on high. That's okay though. The kids were really patient TRYING to roast their marshmallows and in the end, they ate them warm and tough.

Monday, an appraiser came to check out the house. This one represented the second lien holder on the house. The first appraisal (for the mortgage holder) went well and so they decided to go along with the sale, but the second lien holder must also be convinced before the deal can go through. Hopefully, we'll hear back good news in a few weeks.

I got asked to be the assistant wolf den leader and am excited about that- unfortunately, the scouts meet at night here and Gary will be out of town, unavailable to watch the smaller kids. I think I'll have to get another parent to fill in for me because the Amelia really feeds off the energy of the wolf den and it would be absolute chaos if she came along.

While we don't make a huge deal about Simon being lactose intolerant, he is starting to notice something is different. If there is cheese/milk in a dish, I usually prepare him a little bowl of the same food with soy equivalent. Sunday, I left a bowl of shredded cheese on the table untended, and when Gary came to finish setting things up for dinner, he found Simon there, munching on a huge pile of cheddar cheese. When he took it away, Simon protested "I want REAL cheese." We were hoping that the cheese wouldn't bother him and we could call off the whole "lactose intolerant" thing, unfortunately that was not the case.

Simon loves saying "poop" when it's his turn to say the prayer. He always finds a way to sneak it in. I like Jonny's prayers better- he says "we are thankful for tickles." Here's another story about Jonny, he asked if he could look at my piggy bank and I said sure. There is a Chuck E Cheese token and a penny in it and it's pretty sturdy, so I was not worried. Jonny has a Chuck E Cheese token too, that he likes to carry around, and I am always finding it places. So later in the day, when I found a Chuck E Cheese token, I gave it back to him and he said "Can I have the one back from your piggy bank then? I lost yours, so I put mine in there." I was surprised (and pleased) that he was willing to give up his own Chuck E Cheese token to fix his mistake, so I gave him mine too. Now I'll just have to take him there so he can use them.

Jimmy's third grade did a very patriotic Veteran's Day Program, all veterans were invited to attend and several showed up, in uniform. My favorite part was when they sang the military songs and had the veteran's stand as their song was sung. The kids really got into that and sang their hearts out. After that, they read each one's name and the kids brought them flags. My favorite part was when this very old marine gave the little girl a kiss on the cheek when she handed him the flag. I heard lots of moms say "how sweet." How sweet indeed and how grateful I am for the men and women who have fought to protect our freedom. Truly, they are our national treasure. Thank you to Pop and Cousin David and all you other veterans who have served our nation.

And now to reward you for making it to the end of my long and rambling post, here is a photo snapped of the kids playing in the autumn leaves. They really wanted an action shot, so everything is a little fuzzy, (except Jonny's widow's peak!)

And for those of you who are as sleepy as me (therefore- no filter on my brain: I'll probably wonder why I wrote all this in the morning) Here's a more restful pose, taken one night after the kids had fallen asleep.

Sweet dreams!

It would have been nice to know

I went a few places today- the doctor's office (heard the baby's heartbeat!), to eat lunch with Amelia and James at school- I figured they could use some cheer (different lunch sessions, so we had to go twice), dropping off James at play rehearsal.
SO WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME THAT SIMON HAD WRITTEN ALL OVER MY BUM WITH A BRIGHT MAGIC MARKER?!
Really, I'm surprised about 2 things:
1 That I didn't I notice when it happened. (I sure noticed the "art work" on the table this morning and confiscated the pens.)
2 My kids didn't take the opportunity to tease me about it. Were they being nice not to say anything, or did they just pass it off as a weird mom thing?

Throroughly Traumatized

Yesterday (or the day before) I noticed that James's fish was sideways and motionless on the bottom of the tank. I dropped in a piece of food and it swam (in an exhausted/only half of it moves kind of way) aiming for the food and gave up before reaching it's goal. I haven't seen it move since, and I have been checking. So tonight, I broke the news to James that his fish had been sick and died. There were tears and more tears by all, especially as we sang hymns and eulogized Skipper the fish. He was a good fish. When it was over, I explained that we must bury him (to much protestation- Can't we just pretend he's alive and leave him there? Do you remember what happened to the Jack O' Lantern?!) So we agreed that although we could not leave him in his tank, James could keep him in the freezer until he's ready to bury his pet.
I brought Skipper upstairs and offered to scoop him out, but James wanted to do that. So I gave him the spoon and prepared paper towels and baggies (to preserve the sanitation in my freezer- I hope) and as he scooped out the fish, it gave one half convulsion and the kids declared it a miracle. Skipper lives on, for a few hours or days I do not know. I just feel bad that the kids have longer to contemplate his demise.
*Update: Skipper gave up the ghost this morning, right after the kids left for school. I am not looking forward to this afternoon.

Happy Halloween

Could it be? Am I actually getting the Halloween post up in a timely manner? Here's a photo from trick or treat night:
I'd send a prize if any of you could guess what they are, but I really don't think you could. Amelia- Mulan, Simon- Spiderman, Jonny- "the red, bed ninja tiger" (but you can't tell because you can't see that he has red pants sticking out from the bottom of his too small costume) James- shadow ninja (but he lost his black gloves, so please tell him he is more scary without them.)



I'm including a couple of videos from James and Amelia's costume parade. It was really a book character parade (I found out the night before), where the children were supposed to dress as their favorite book character and carry a copy of the book. Amelia was Tinker Bell and James was Klaus Bo-da-lair from A Series of Unfortunate Events. (I really don't like that series- it annoys me. That's why I'm just guessing at the spelling of Klaus's last name.)





(I tried taking a still photo of Jonny's Joy School parade and learned my lesson.)

So here's a video of the class singing "the Mean Old Witch with a Hat" accompanied by the teacher.

Enjoy!



This morning, Simon woke up me and Gary with a request for help putting on a tiger costume. When Gary was finished putting it on him, he said "I should get candy in my tiger costume." Right idea, wrong day:)

The Next Kiddodiddo

I'm happy to announce that kiddo number 5 is on the way! The due date is in May. We do plan to find out "what it is" (gender) in a couple of months. We're pretty excited!

No Particular Theme

Amelia loves doing preschool for Jonny and Simon. She subjects them to it as often as she can. Sometimes it's a cute coloring page, sometimes it intense grilling on which day of the week it is. The best part (for me) is when she sends home a note: Please talk to Simon about his behavior at school.

James has "football class" for his siblings in the afternoon. He teaches them plays and they kick the ball and pass it and run around some. The best part (for me) is watching them huddle to get directions from the coach. I'll have to take a picture of that sometime.

Amelia has several hard of hearing students in her class at school and there is an ASL interpreter who attends each day to translate. Some of the kids have sign names and I think Amelia's is really funny: it's a sign language "A" rapidly tapping on the side of the throat, to indicate the amount of noise she makes with her voice. The name was given to her by the deaf kids and I think it's quite descriptive.

Some of you have asked how the move went- so far so good! We really like the new house and the space. It seems that everyone is more relaxed, with room to do their own things. The after dinner wrestling matches/crazy time has all but disappeared. (no I did not organize or sponsor that special time of day- it just happened night after night after night.) The kiddodiddos love playing in the backyard and being able to go outside when they choose. The jacuzzi is a huge hit, especially for FHE. The new school is excellent and James and Amelia are making friends. (We all miss our old friends though- if only we could kick the colds so we could visit!) Now if only we could schedule a closing on the house...

We're Even!

Jonny's long anticapted birthday has finally come and gone. He has been looking forward to his birthday since March. Over the weekend, we celebrated the "big 4" with our special guy. I realized that I did not blog about one birthday this year, so I thought I try to find pictures and catch up.

Here is James turning 8! This is not the cake that SOMEONE licked the frosting off of... this is the replacement.

Here is Amelia so excited to blow out the candles. Isn't she cute? (age 6)
Here's Simon, with his fancy cake plate. I chose this picture because he was extremely worried about the candles on his cake and didn't look happy in the rest of the photos. (age 2)

And finally, here's Jonathan, wearing a Ninja Turtle mask, blowing out the candle on his cake. (age 4)

(and while I'm digging through old photos, this is the first day of school, from LAST YEAR! Notice the extremely short bangs- I forget which of my little hair dressers did that. We have a lot of happy memories of that school year. Hopefully this year will be just as good. Sorry no pictures. I forgot to take them.)

The Sweetest Thing

Jonny and Simon make a great pair. I really enjoy their interactions when the biggers kids are away at school. Today they made up a new game to brighten my day. Basically, they jump off the stairs and race to kiss mom and then do it again. So while I was packing boxes, I was smothered in smooches by my cute little boys.

Like father, like son

In the spring, Gary played his clarinet for a local production of the musical Crazy for You. Since Daddy was participating, the kiddodiddos really got into it. James memorized all the words to all the songs. He knew all of the characters names, and when I took him to go see the final performance, he explained a lot of things to me in whispers.
When Gary got an email announcing the auditions for their latest performance, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat all of the kids got really excited and wanted to try out. James was the only one old enough (many tears were shed over that), so last weekend, he and Gary set off to audition for the play. James sang "Slap that Bass." I would have paid money to see that! Gary sang "I can't be bothered now." He also had to do a little dance. I would have paid money to see that! (Well I did see that, when they practiced, but on the stage it would have been different.)
They both got parts! James will be in the children's chorus and Gary will be Levi, one of Joseph's brothers.
I am excited to see them explore their talents. I already knew Gary could sing, but I had no idea it interested Jimmy so much too.
You can wish them luck, (but PLEASE don't tell them 'break a leg!')

Swimming

The kids and I spent days in August at the swimming pool. I didn't want to pay for swimming lessons since last year, at least one the kids was always crying poolside instead of in the water. I figured if I exposed them to the water enough times with out any pressure to perform, they'd figure things out on their own. They did!
By the time the pool closed for the season, Jimmy could do a pretty good freestyle and backstroke and an imitation butterfly. He can also dive off of the diving board! It's a nice standing dive too. He can also do a flip. I think he spent most of his pool time in line for the diving boards. I am amazed at what he taught himself to do.
Amelia taught herself a freestyle and to swim underwater. She doesn't have much stamina, but at least she is not afraid.
Jonny wears floaties in the water an loves to jump in from the side. He did that over and over. One day he explained to me (mid jump) "I'm getting baptized!" He can really get around with floaties on. He also said he loves the feeling of being underwater and bobbing up to the top.
Simon did not like the pool at first. I think mostly, he did not like to be cold. After awhile, he would wade or toss a ball in the pool, but enjoyed being on the pool deck even more, especially when there were pretty butterflies to chase.
Sorry there aren't any pictures. They would have been cute. You'll have to use your imagination!

Some things I'd much rather blog about

Here's a brief recap of some of our summer fun in California:
-the pedal boats at Stow Lake on Grandma's birthday (even if Amelia said she and Jonny thought they might drown)
-the Exploratorium with Molly and the girls- they were real troopers, staying the entire day at the museum. I loved the shadow room that takes pictures of everyone's shadows. We really got in to that.
-trying to carve a totem pole in John and Molly's back yard (while it didn't work, it sure was a lot of fun)
-Alameda's fourth of July parade- after years of hearing about it, we finally went. The best part was my siblings running commentary on the parade entries. The best entry, in my opinion, was the dad on roller blades, pushing his daughter in a Mr Magoo car. She will remember that for a life time. The cub scouts on bikes were cool too
-watching Ginger's homemade films- Chocolate Rain anyone?
-watching the baby turtles eat snails. Really, the best part of that was the shrieks of laughter and the running nature commentary by Amelia and the cousins
-playing with my old fisher price little people with the kids
-doing yard work with my parents

What's the hold up?

When Amelia got her cast off, I planned to take a picture of all the kids lined up, hands in the air (roller coaster style)to show off all of their beautiful straight, unbroken arms. Unfortunately, when Amelia got her cast off, her arm was anything but straight. The doctor assured me that was normal (because of the extent of the damage) and that her arm would be straight after 2 to 3 weeks of normal usage. Over the course of 3 weeks, her arm relaxed from a 90 degree angle to a 30 degree angle (0 being straight.) It never progressed past that point, so she went back to the doctor.
He also told me that it was the worst broken arm he has seen in the last 5 years, including the years he spent at a trauma center. He said he has never had to refer a child for therapy on a broken arm before, but there is a first time for everything.
For the last 10 days, Amelia has been seeing an occupational therapist. She explained that the scar on the outside of her arm has matching scar tissue underneath the skin, preventing the arm from straightening and that the muscles, etc have shortened as a result. She gave Amelia (and me) a routine to follow twice a day including heat, massage and stretches. She also made a custom splint for Amelia to wear off and on through the day and all night (of course Amelia's sensitive skin reacts to the splint, but what can you do?) The good news is that it is working- her arm opens to 10 degrees now. It looks almost straight. Hopefully, it won't be long before we can put this long and drawn out chapter behind us.
So anyway, I'll give up on the whole straight arms picture for now and move on to things I'd rather remember, like the fun parts of summer vacation or the first day of school.

Cheese!

During the sacrament service at church last week, Simon had an unusual request. When Gary passed him the bread he said "I want some cheese with my bread."

Flashback!

I was just cleaning off a shelf and loading the contents into a box when I found a scrap of paper where I had scribbled a note to myself about a blog post.

Imagine that it is 2 years ago. Jonny is about 2 years old, a young 2. He was sitting at the table enjoying breakfast of milk, seconds on milk, and probably thirds on milk too, also a bowl of cereal that he looks at while he drinks milk and then dump in the trash. He started talking about the Titanic, which Jimmy was really into at the time. Here is what he said:
The Titanic sank down into the water. The icy water. The ICY water. (shivery voice.) We can go on a boat too. My bathing suit is in the car.

I was really surprised that he had so much to say about the Titanic and that he wanted to ride on a it. At least he thought it out, planning for his bathing suit.

A Word to the Wise

Jonny (age 3.5) just gave me an important warning. I don't know how important it could be since he used a fairly silly voice, but here goes:

"Dad, if you walk to work naked, the ArcGIS will start to get mad and tell all the workers!"

This is wrong on so many levels.

Going into business

James has tried a few get rich schemes. His latest involves what he refers to as J and J Transport. It is a service where he carries his customers on his back anywhere that they need to go. His rate: 2 cents per month. His service comes with a guarantee- if he drops you, he will give you 5 cents. Jonny was the first one to get his money in and has been enjoying piggy back rides off and on throughout the month. Amelia knows a good deal when she sees one. She prepaid for a year of J and J Transport.

Today, the kids decided to go into the restaurant business. Jimmy made up a menu. Amelia is the manager. Jimmy is the cook and waiter. Jonny is the janitor. I ordered "surprise entree" with a side of fruit and "swamp dessert"
Surprise turned out to be a ham sandwich. It was well made, with mustard and NO MAYONAISE, served with grapes on the side. I did not get so lucky with Swamp Dessert. It turned out to be half a cup of granulated sugar with globs of honey stirred in and a teaspoon of oats on top.
After trying to choke down a few bites, I came up with a scheme of my own. I asked if I could bake my Swamp Dessert. I got approval "as long as I did not add more than 4 tablespoons of extra ingredients." I stirred in a few of those cookie ingredients (you know- flour, vanilla, etc) and turned it into a cookie dough which I baked and called Baked Swamp Dessert. They were good. I could not talk the kids into trying them. I guess choking down some raw Swamp Dessert was enough for them.
If you would care to dine at the Kiddodiddo's Restaurant, please know that their rates are reasonable. If you are over 12 years, it's free. If you are under 3 it is free.

vocabulary building

Last week, we had a few dinner conversations that turned into vocabulary builders.
Gary was explaining a funny thought he had while driving home from work. It was about some duties he had to perform at church (where he used to be ward clerk.) He said something like this:
Some churches have layman clergy. But our church also has "lay accountants."
After he got through the explaining what a layman is, Jonny said, after a thoughtful pause: That is like Spiderman. He has a job, but he doesn't get paid to be Spiderman.

The second conversation began when Jonny was trying to tell us that he "go-ed" somewhere. Gary explained that he should say "went," because "goad" means to tease someone until you get a reaction.
A few days later, I was reprimanding Amelia for teasing her brother. She responded (in a rather lofty tone) "I don't tease. I goad."

How old are you?

Simon's birthday is coming up soon, so I thought it would be good to teach him to answer the typical little kid question, "How old are you?"
The conversation went like this:
Me: Simon, your birthday is coming. You are going to be 2. Can you say "I'm 2?"
Simon: no.
Me: You are one and you are going to be 2. Can you say almost 2? When I say How old are you, you say "almost 2" ok? Simon, how old are you?
Simon: How old you, Mommy?
Me: I am 30.
Simon: NO! You are 2!
Me: No, I am not 2, I am 30. How old are you?
Simon: Not quite 2.

Black Licorice and Handedness

A poll and discussion on a MyFamily site made me want to poll the general public on the following question:

The Short Sale Shimmy (Part 2)

< The Short Sale Shimmy (Part 1)

"Act now! For a limited time, you can double your salary and quintuple your rent in only six years! Call 1-800-GRAD-SCHOOL to find out how!"

Today we learned some not-so-good news about our future home. Three weeks ago, the seller's agent was preparing the short sale packet to give to the bank. The title company helped with some documents, including the HUD-1 form. The seller's agent noticed some errors on the HUD-1 and called the title company asking for corrections. They said that their person who normally does the HUD-1 was gone and whoever was filling in made the mistakes.

The next action that was taken was yesterday--three weeks later--when Tracy called our agent to see if there was any word. We were curious because our agent said the soonest we would possibly hear back was three weeks. It's a good thing Tracy followed up, because when our agent called the seller's agent, she realized that she had failed to follow up with the title company. So nothing has been done in three weeks, there is no correct HUD-1, and the bank has not even seen the short sale packet or our offer yet.

<cry type="anguished" gratuitous="true">
AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
</cry>

The good news is that the seller is still amenable to renting the house to us, so we will probably move in on or about September 22. I have no idea when we will finally own that house, but if Hope and Change solve this problem like they are solving the rest of our nation's problems...then I'm going to need a few refrigerator cartons to build our next house.

Movie Recommendation

While I have not actually sat through the entire movie Muppets in Space, I have it on good authority that it is really funny. Here's how I know.
Someone (who shall remain nameless) wet the bed twice in one week (highly unusual.) The reason, "I was lying in bed thinking about Muppets in Space. I was laughing so hard and then I was all wet."
SO go check out Muppets in Space, but make sure everyone is wearing Pull-Ups to bed for the next week, just in case.

Translation

We read the following verse 2 nights ago, while studying in the book of Daniel
Daniel 3:29
Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort.

James: Wait a minute. Did that just say their houses will be made into poo? They will be cut into pieces and their houses will be made into POOP?!

The kids are still laughing about that one.

I feel like Elmer Fudd

In the spring, I rented a garden plot and planted a few vegetables. (Well, I planted more than vegetables, but the ants kept eatting the seeds.)
This summer, it has been more than I can do to keep up with these plants. The zucchini provided more than 30 pounds of food, before dying while we were on vacation. The green beans produced over 15 lbs before finishing up. The peas were good too. Now all I've got left is a pumpkin plant and 3 productive tomato plants. Pounds of tomatoes. Unfortunately, they had a growth spurt while we were on vacation, just missing the tomato cages I set up. The look like huge overburdened spiders, with legs spread in every direction. Once, while the kids and I were walking up to our garden plot, we saw a cute little bunny bouncing out. It enjoyed many of the green beans. Now it is lunching on my tomatoes. Each one that reaches ripeness on the vine is covered in bunny bites. That rascally rabbit is ruining my crop! This bunny is patient. It won't settle for almost ripe. It waits until they reach perfection and then samples each one. It doesn't finish what it starts, so I am left with a bunch of inedible tomatoes. I picked a bunch of the almost ripe ones, in hopes they will ripen on the counter.

How do the kids feel about the garden? Well, there's a bunch of whining, but they have settled into jobs they like. James mans the hose, to water. Jonny takes the picked produce to Amelia, to guard (from Simon.) Amelia is the veggie guard and bathroom escort (she walks Jonny to the port o potty sometimes and takes it seriously.) Simon stumbles around alternately picking underripe vegetables and getting soaked with the hose. Gary, while not a kiddodiddo, has done his share of helping with the weeding and funding of the project.
Last time we went to the garden, Simon got excited and yelled "Garden! Garden! It's my favorite!" I was so happy to have someone to share my joy, not just tolerate it.

Chef's Surprise

Amelia had her friend Abbey over last week. Jimmy had a Dominic over too. (these are best friends from school.) While the boys pillow fought (for 2 hours straight) the girls decided to get creative in the kitchen. I tried to keep out of the way, but I could hear the discussion in the kitchen as Amelia and Abbey created their very own recipe. It had raw oats, brown sugar, granulated sugar and honey. They measured mixed and stirred for a very long time. Then they got spoons to eat their concoction. "This is disgusting!" Amelia cried. "Yeah- lets just eat the sugar off it," Abbey agreed.
Once the friends had left and things had calmed down, Jonathan and James wandered into the kitchen. There they found the 2 bowls filled with Amelia and Abbey's creation. There were two of them, so they sat down to eat it. They ate and ate and ate. "This is good" James said. "Mmm!" said Jonny appreciativly. They ate every last bite of it and wanted more.

Simon Talking about Games

Simon has many of what I would call Pandora's Boxes. These are places and compartments that we do not normally allow Simon to access. One of Simon's Pandora's Boxes is a cabinet full of games, most of which are for people older than 22 months and all of which are choking hazards with fragile boxes.

On Sunday after church, I unlocked and opened the game cabinet so the older kids could get out a game. Simon made a beeline for the cabinet, grabbed the Animal Crackers matching game, held it up, started parading around, and gleefully said one of his most coherent things yet: "It's my favorite! It's my favorite! I'll match tiger card!"

He's getting big fast, and he's very cute!

(By the way, don't worry about Simon eating Tums. Poison Control said that as a chemical, they're not harmful in the least. They could be a choking hazard though.)

Guessing Game

We had just come home from our vacation and had not unpacked the suitcases. I was making lunch in the kitchen when James ran to me yelling "Simon got the Tums!" So I ran to Simon, grabbed the Tums and cleaned out his mouth. It is to his credit that he did not protest when I stole his "treat." He knows Tums are a no-no.

So here's the guessing game: How many Tums fit in these sweet cheeks?

The Short Sale Shimmy (Part 1)

Ladies and gentlemen, we have an accord. Actually we have two. Tracy told you about one of them, in which we sell and move out of our 3-bedroom condo in late September. That contract appears to be rock solid, except that we goofed the closing date and need to do an addendum (note to self).

The new contract is to buy our next home, a 4-bedroom house a few miles northwest of our current home in a town where we used to live. It will be our first single-family detached home, garage, and private yard since we were kids. The house is fairly spacious, and the yard features some nice trees, a jacuzzi, a gazebo, and a hammock stand, but no hammock. The seller can use the hammock but wanted to leave the large lawn stuff behind. The neighborhood has little crime and good schools. The kids will still ride the bus to school for now.

Now the fun and adventurous part is that the house we're buying is a short sale, meaning the seller is asking the banks to accept less money than is actually owed, in order to avoid foreclosure. Therefore, even though we and the seller have signed a contract, it's really no good until the banks approve. That will probably take about a month, according to our agent. But our agent and the seller's agent think the offer is good and the banks will probably accept it. Plus, our agent says that the other agent is really good at pushing short sales through. We'll see. The real adventure will begin if one of the banks is not happy with the offer. We have options, none of which are good if the banks don't accept our offer. So it will take nerves of steel, as well as lots of Tums in my case.

You must be sick of that post about Amelia's broken arm...

but that's all you're going to see for awhile. Immediately after getting her cast, we left for California. Immediately on return from our trip we found a buyer for the Kiddodiddo Ranch (a 3 bedroom condo.) We are currently (frantically) looking for a house to move into before the start of school. So wish us luck! Maybe I'll be posting again soon- or maybe I'll catch you up on everything once this whole headache, I mean summer vacation is over.

Amelia's Arm Surgery

The surgery on Amelia's broken arm went well. It took longer than expected, because the break was complicated. There was just one break, but it was a curved break right above the elbow (see the x-ray from Tracy's earlier post). Moreover, the broken bone pieces were poking into the muscle, so that when the surgeon initially straightened it out yesterday, the muscle was pinched in there. No wonder Amelia had a very hard night of sleep.

Today the surgeon realized what had happened with the muscle, so he had to cut open the arm to sort everything out, which he was not expecting to do. We were told to expect one hour in the OR, which turned into three.

Now Amelia is asleep at home, still under the effects of the anesthesia. Tracy is out gathering medicines for when the anesthesia wears off.

Thanks very much to all well-wishers and especially to those families who have watched our boys today and yesterday while we have helped Amelia.

What Gary Didn't Tell You...

...is that the orthopedic surgeon asked if he could take home a copy of this x ray for his wife and kids who are begging him for a trampoline. AND that they don't give you a "mild scolding" when you say trampoline in the emergency room. They tell you "trampolines should be burned to the ground!"

On a more sentimental note, he also didn't tell you that this morning, Amelia woke up and said "I want to make everyone breakfast in bed, because they have been so nice to me." Even in her pain, she is grateful and she is thinking of others. (No, I didn't let her make breakfast in bed for the family. She can barely move.)

Pray for Amelia

Please pray for our little Amelia. She broke her arm in a trampoline accident yesterday. It's a 100% break of the humerus right above the elbow. She was and still is in a lot of pain. I am awake at this hour because Tracy and I just gave her a round of pain medicine.

Later this morning she will undergo surgery to put pins in her arm to help it heal properly. They were unable to schedule it yesterday. They were quite busy at the hospital with similar injuries from the first day of summer break...er, summer vacation.

Even though it's a bad 100% break (x-rays coming soon), at least it's a fairly clean break. The surgeon said he doesn't anticipate any complications, permanent effects, or healing time beyond four weeks.

If you ever have your child seen by an orthopedic surgeon and staff for a trampoline accident, you will endure mild scolding from each staff member and from the surgeon himself (or herself, but in this case himself). They are anti-trampolines, which is charitable of them given the business they get from trampoline victims.

Finally, yes, when Amelia is more cheerful later today or tomorrow, we will take her picture together with Simon, who gets his arm cast off on Thursday. :-)

Talky Baby

Simon is really talking a lot now. He is putting two or three words together frequently. But he really surprised me a few days ago with his longest sort-of-complete sentence I have heard yet, when cheerfully asking for one of his favorite delicacies:

"How 'bout that soymilk!"

Keep in mind that Simon is not yet two years old, so that's pretty remarkable in my opinion. Also, Simon is lactose-intolerant, so he's our only soymilk consumer.

I was trying to decide whether Simon had put together a sentence of four words or five. The brand we use calls it soymilk. But there are more than twice as many references on the Web to soy milk than to soymilk. So what say you?



UPDATE: it looks like Silk only uses soymilk when referring to Silk Soymilk, their capitalized brand. When they talk about soy milk without mentioning the brand, they do say "soy milk." I'm not saying they're right or wrong--because it appears that no matter how you answer the poll, they're both right and wrong!

Cidade Maravilhosa

In April I was fortunate enough to return to Brazil for the first time since my mission. I went to a trade show in Rio de Janeiro, also known in Brazil as "A Cidade Maravilhosa," the Marvelous City. Besides answering questions at our booth, I had time to see the city and take some photos with a super lo-fi camera phone.


Rio is very different from the parts of Brazil I lived in--Manaus, Rio Branco, Porto Velho--but I have a feeling that 11 years have made a lot of differences as well. It seemed so clean and prosperous, as compared to what I experienced in the North.

It also seemed a lot safer than I anticipated. The only Brazilian who I talk to on a regular basis nowadays gave me a Rio safety tip: "Never ever go to Copacabana Beach!" Good advice, except that that's where my hotel was. However, I did not feel threatened at all. I did use my money belt, I avoided going out after dark, and I looked over my shoulder frequently. And it was worth the trouble.



These photos are an insult to how beautiful Copacabana is. The beach, the water, the mountains, the buildings, and the people all make it a wonderful experience.


Of course, Copacabana is more than a beach. It is also a neighborhood, maybe not the fanciest in Rio, but decent, busy, and a nice place to be. The photo above is a nice little corner store near the hotel that had great deals on bottled water, cookies, drinkable yogurt, and other Brazilian staples. (Most of the time I did not drink bottled water. The hotel and conference center were modern enough that the tap water was fine.)


I stayed at the Pestana Rio Atlântica, which I can highly recommend. The room was not fancy but adequate and had air conditioning. And the view from the rooftop pool is incredible. Unfortunately my room faced the city instead of the beach...you have to pay more than my employer pays in order to get an oceanside room. If you prefer a purely American hotel, there's a Marriott down the street.

But any decent hotel in Copacabana will have English speakers, which I did not really need. My Portuguese was pretty rusty on the first day, but I caught on and did pretty well for the rest of the week. I'm nowhere near as good as when I lived in Brazil, but I can get by with relative ease to get around town. Brazilians seem to appreciate the effort to speak their language, and they are typically patient and willing to speak slowly as needed. Now, dealing with technical language at the trade show was a different story. That was very difficult for me, but fortunately we had a Brazilian at our booth as our go-to guy and me as an able backup, with our two gringos on Alert 5. (One of our "gringos" is actually less gringo than me, having spent half his life in Latin America. But Spanish is of little use in Brazil.)

After the trade show ended on Friday, my flight did not leave until Saturday evening, so I had most of the day Saturday to see the city. I saved some money and had a different experience by taking the subway and bus instead of taxis that day, and it seemed very safe during daylight hours.


There is a little train that you can ride to the top of Corcovado, the mountain that is the home of O Cristo Redentor--Christ the Redeemer. The train ride itself is fairly scenic as it winds through the Atlantic tropical forest and up the mountain more than 2000 feet high:


At the top is the statue of the Savior:


This was an inspiring moment for me. After being away from my family for a week, this was a good spiritual boost to have a very large reminder of our Savior and all he has done for me. I have read that many people see this statue and think "Welcome." In this place, in this land where I was one of His representatives for a couple of years, the impression I got from the statue looking down at me was "Come Unto Me."

The statue sits on top of a pedestal that has a little chapel inside. I thought the trilingual signs saying "no photos of the inside of the chapel please" were sufficient, but most people did not. The Christ has the marks in his hands and feet. He also has a little heart carved on his robes, which I guess must be a Catholic thing.

The view from the top is wonderful:

This photo is to the east. In the distance is Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain).

This photo is to the southeast. Beyond the little mountains is Copacabana Beach, where my hotel was.

This photo is to the south. To the west of Copacabana is a lagoon and Ipanema Beach.

This is to the south as well and proves that I was there.

I also took photos of Maracaná, the world's most famous soccer stadium, but it was cloudy that way and the photos on my lo-fi loaner phone did not turn out.

I took the train back down the mountain and took a bus back to Largo do Machado, where there is a nice square:


Largo do Machado also has a subway station, and I took the subway and another bus to arrive at O Pão de Açúcar--Sugarloaf Mountain. I took the Bondinho (tram) to the top of Morro da Urca and then to the top of the Sugarloaf, 1300 feet high, where the view is stunning. The view from the Morro da Urca isn't bad either:

That's Botafogo Beach, to the northwest, as well as a helipad.

This is looking down one side of the Morro da Urca. The white spot on the side of the hill is a rock climber.

Then I took tram #2 to the top of the Sugarloaf:

In this one, you can see the Cristo Redentor in the upper right portion of the photo.

There's Copacabana Beach.

The Pão de Açúcar has some nice walking trails with beautiful vegetation and lots of shade. I took advantage of some peace and quiet, and I even found places on the trails where I could neither see nor hear anyone else. It was very nice.

Soon it was time to take the trams down and go pick up my stuff at the hotel in Copacabana and then go to the airport, for the short flight to São Paulo and then the long flight home. What a nice week this was, but how wonderful to return to my family.

What else...the heavy traffic surprised me. They have a real traffic problem in Rio (worse than here by far) and the subway is not extensive enough. If you go to a convention at Riocentro, realize that it is a long taxi ride from Copacabana, so plan for an hour or more to be safe. And it will set you back R$77 (about $35) for a fixed-price taxi, R$50-60 for a yellow taxi...There are lots of good restaurants in Copacabana, and many of them have all kinds of delicious food and menus many pages long. There wasn't a ton of Brazilian food in that area, but there was a good churrascaria and an Amazonian restaurant with weird food unlike anything I saw in Amazônia...Most places take Visa and Mastercard. I tried lots of ATMs before I found one that would take my Visa debit card. The one that worked was a Citibank ATM...AAA in the U.S. is a great place to get an inconspicuous money belt. You don't have to be a member, but you get a discount if you are...That's all the random tidbits I have.

I had a great time in Rio de Janeiro, and I'd like to go back again someday.

James

So what is Jimmy up to, you might ask. Rightly so. He does not appear on the kiddodiddo site so frequently as his siblings. He's not as outrageous, so he's not a headline maker. Looking over the last several posts, I realized something was missing: Jimmy's baptism (or more correctly: James's baptism)

It hurts to type it. He has always been Jimmy. Since the day he was born. I don't think I ever called him James in the hospital or anytime since. It feels foreign to call him James, but he insists. Or rather he is more polite about it and is very grateful if you remember "James."

James was baptized in March. It was a special occasion. He asked Gary and me to speak, about Baptism and The Holy Ghost. I was so surprised he invited us because he hears so much from us already. But it was his special day and I wanted to make sure the baptism program went the way he wanted it to. We sang:

"I like my birthdays every one, each brings a special joy to me but I can't wait until I'm eight for then I'll be baptized you see.

To be baptized as Jesus was by one who holds the priesthood true and thus obey God's holy laws is just the thing I want to do.

When hands are placed upon my head then I'll receive the Holy Ghost and if I listen carefully, I 'll have the blessing I need most."

and then he was baptized by his father. I am so proud of James and his decision to be baptized.

Many thanks to all who came to make it a special day for our family. (Don't you love all the bunny ears in this shot?!)

Cool Places to Visit

Over Memorial Weekend, we went hiking in Shenandoh National Park. We climbed to the top of Hawksbill Summit. It was a lovely trail made even better by the lack of whining. The kids were super- duper hikers and I loved the whole experience. From taking pictures of wildflowers on the trail (they didn't turn out so well) to watching birds soar at the top. Thanks to Gary, for picking a great trail and to the kids for making it so pleasant!
Here's another cool place you might like to go: Cheerios Land! I was upstairs f0lding laundry and Jonny came to tell me a great way to get rid of ants in my garden. Throw Cheerios all over for the ants to eat so they would leave the plants alone. It would be like Cheerios Land, he told me. "What a problem solver he is," I thought. "I wonder what brought that on?" When I came down the stairs, I didn't have to wonder anymore!