Jonny's Vacation

Jonny at the beach in Florida

I loved the Oceaneer's Lab and Club and I really really liked the servers.
In the Oceaneer Lab I was always playing Kung Fu Panda games.  In the club I really loved to do the slide. Slide slide, slide!  And I liked to see some magic tricks.
In Scuttle's Cove I was burying one truck and I liked searching for fake monkeys.  I did digging for whale bones but I didn't get anything.
I liked to see Toy Story 3 and Tangled. 
I loved playing Mario Cart Wii. 
With Jacob well I was going down the slide with him.  

We played a memory game where you dance and get prizes if you get it right, but if you get it wrong nothing happens.
It was a Mickey shaped pool. The water slide was warm but the pool itself was  average.
The Oceaneers Lab was awesome.  So, so awesome.
That's all.

Simon's Vacation

Simon with Daisy Duck. They met by chance on the way to the bathroom.

Train boat. Just the train and the boat.

Games! Finding Nemo- arrow keys on the computer.

Movie- a movie where there's a bad guy that's trying to hurt the good guys. Toy Story and Woody and Buzz Lightyear!

I goed swimming outside. The pool looked like a circle. It looked like Mickey Mouse.

James's Vacation

James, zonked out on the train ride home.  Foot rest is not in awesome mode.

I liked the train.  There were foot rests that could recline to "awesome mode"  and it was pretty helpful to conserve heat in the night. Then we put on some movies to watch in the night. I had bascially a sleepless night so in the morning I was napping a lot. Then we got off and waited to get the car and we drove to McDonald's for lunch.  I had a 1/3 of a pound cheeseburger then we checked in at our hotel and went to the beach.  Then for dinner we went on a walk at a boardwalk at Cocoa Beach and then went to a restaurant.  I had another cheeseburger that I thought would be small but it turned out almost as big as what I had for lunch.  I don't think I need to tell you what happened in the night but I will give you one word: BARF
Next day we got on a shuttle bus and went to our cruise ship.  Then we started sailing there were a few clubs for kids like Oceaneer Club and Lab.  There was a tweens club called Out and About that I liked better than the Club or Lab. We did games like dodgeball and scavenger hunts and it was fun because we got to go around the whole ship instead of staying in one room.  When we played dodgeball one time it was so windy when I threw a ball the wind pushed it back and hit me in the face. Luckily head shots did not count so I did not get myself out. For the scavenger hunt we did, we were not allowed to use the elevators because it was during the dinner rush. We had to collect things like a packet of salt or pepper. We had to count all the stairs from deck 1 to deck 11- A.K.A. Aloft, the teen's club.  We would count up to deck 3 or something and then we would lose count and so we would start again.  Once we got to the top, but on deck 7 my legs gave out and I fell down to deck 6.   
The next day we stopped in Nassau our parents got off the boat and we stayed on the ship.  I went to Out and About.  We did a scavenger hunt the rest of my siblings went to the oceaneer club.
Next day there was so much storming we couldn't land at Castaway Cay so we had a day at sea.   I went to the Oceaneer Lab and made flubber it's this squishy stuff that you can make out of glue, borax, and water.  
So the next day we did stop at Castaway Cay. They closed down the Oceaneer Club and Lab and did Scuttle's Cove, which is like one big club for the kids on Castaway Cay.  I mostly built sandcastles with one of my cousins- Jacob.  After that Jacob's parents picked me up and took me to the beach.  We went on little boats. Then we went swimming (all together).  We saw lots of fishes.  They were probably 6 inches long. They were white and had yellow eyes and the water was cold.  Then we got back on the boat. 
The last day we had dinner at Animator's Palate.  It was this restaraunt that was all black and white. In the middle of our dinner all the pictures of Disney characters sprang into full color it was totally awesome. 
The next day we got off the boat at 8.  Then we said our good byes to our relatives got on our shuttle and went back to the hotel. Then we took our car got some lunch at checkers (I didn't get a cheeseburger that time.)   Then we went back to the train station, got on the train and headed back home.

Amelia's vacation

Amelia dancing and wearing pirate teeth at the Pirates in the Carribean dance party

I loved that cruise.  The ship had a 2 swimming pools and some fun clubs. One of the clubs was called the Oceaneer club and the other is called the Oceaneer lab.  I had so much fun there.  Everybody has there own waiters that go to the same restaurant with them.  My waiters were really cool.  Their names are Geffery and Imade.  Geffery can do good magic and Imade is really, really good at origami.  I have 2 girls that are my cousins that went on the cruise with me.  There names are Cameron and Abby.  I went to a Royal Ball with them and we always sat together at dinner.  We had so much fun together.  I swam in the Atlantic Ocean with them.
I watched Tangled and Toy Story 3.  My brother James didn't come to either of them. 
I learned how to make cookies and I found a match in a memory game and I drew Pluto and I also tried to make a postcard.  It was  so much fun.

Creativity

We just got back from an awesome vacation/family reunion and I won't mention it because I want to do it justice in another post.  But this little bit from tonight is too funny to put off.

On Sunday nights, we have a little club, the RCG which stands for Reverent Church Goers.  If you are reverent at church, you may attend the club and play board games and have dessert.  Tonight Amelia was griping because she didn't get invited (James was the only attendee today.)  Since Christmas is coming and Santa is watching, her mixture of complaints and confessions were a bit garbled but here's the gist of what she said:
I've been naughty for years and I NEVER get any coal.
I don't care if I get coal.  I'll whittle it into something I LIKE!
Gary wants you to know that the last statement was made AFTER she caught him shopping for coal on Amazon.com.

Simon Says

"I challenge you to karate on knees! It's like this:" (Simon gets on knees and flails arms and head wildly.)

A Bad Idea

As you well know, we have been busy potty traning Simon.  Things were going very well.  He graduated to underpants and even attende the exclusive Wegman's Kids Club (grocery store babysitting- yay!)
Then 2 weeks ago he got this idea that threw a wrench in the whole thing.  It results in hour long potty dances, leaping, and wild (self) spanking manuvers which always end in disaster.  The idea: people don't actually have to go potty.  They can choose to hold it forever. Sigh. 

She's got the look

I have often thought of writing a post but thoughts are seldom put into words. 
I overheard Amelia talking to James:  if Mom were a food, she'd be a doughnut.  If she were  a number, she'd be googleplex.   I think this meant really good stuff.
This from the girl who totally hated me the day before.  She spent the entire ride to church yelling about how she'd never come to see me when she's a grown up because she hates me so much.  She's moving to Austrailia.  This behavior was similar to, but not to be confused with the boys who were screaming about moving to Africa when they grow up because they hate me (and baths) so much.  They have the misguided opinion that they have not invented baths in Africa. 

I was out visiting teaching Thursday night and my companion and I were talking about stuff and she said "you know that 'mommy look,' the one that mom's give their kids and the kids know they are in trouble, so the sit up a little bit straighter and quiet down?" I have often heard of this look and wondered how I could get one because if the kids are Licking the pews or wrestling on the bench, I'd love to have a look that would stop them in their tracks.  So I acknowledged that I have heard of the mommy look and wished I could do it.
Akward pause.  "oh no.  You're really good at it.  You mean you didn't know you do that?!  Yours is good."
I think I died laughing when she said that.  I guess it's my hidden talent.
When I got home, I found that my new found mommy look had been required in my absence.  Gary's brother Dave had returned from his mission that day and they wanted to have a Skype chat.  I really wanted to be there for it, but VT took longer than I thought it would.  I hoped they would still be talking when I got back, but no, the boys were in bed and Amelia was just finishing her native american chickee (dwelling) that was due the next day.  I was so thankful her project was done, the dishes were done and the house was quiet. I could tell Gary had been working hard in my absence.  (Not that these things are good indications of hard work- if the baby had cried nonstop, he couldn't have done any of those things, but he still would have worked hard.) I asked how the call had gone.   Not good.  The kids were super crazy and after 5 minutes, Dave called it quits.  Hopefully this weekend we can try again.  I'll use my new talent: death ray glare and we'll see just how effective it is (or isn't.)

In the Name of the Lollypop Guild

On Friday and Saturday we performed our first three showings of The Wizard of Oz! Imagine my surprise an hour before showtime when I was with the orchestra and I looked over and saw James with a...



...mohawk!



"We represent the Lollypop Guild, the Lollypop Guild, the Lollypop Guild, and in the name of the Lollypop Guild, we wish to welcome you to Munchkinland!"

If you want to see the show, this Friday and Saturday are your last chance. Contact me and Tracy to get the details (or you can comment here and we will get in touch with you).

Epiphanies

I guess I have had a few epiphanies in the last day or two.  So I will share them with you.
1) Emails have been flying fast and furious regarding the classroom "fall festivals"  and I have been ignoring them because I have been too busy sewing costumes for halloween and the Wizard of Oz (you really should go see it this weekend and next.)  Last night the epiphany came.  Elementary schools make a big deal out of holidays.  I am doing homeschool kindergarten for Jonny.  I had better make a big deal out of the holidays.  So instead of going to bed I stayed up to make bat and ghost cookies and print out Halloween crafts.  After the kindergarten Halloween party I threw today (toilet paper mummies, decorating sugar cookies, stenciling pumpkins, don't eat pete, etc) Jonny's enthusiasm for learning is restored.  And I'll remember my lesson for next time.  It won't be a "Holiday" party- it'll be Christmas.
2) When you remove your bathrooms' wall coverings to make Halloween costumes (it was vinyl/fake leather looking stuff) you have bathrooms in need of urgent painting.  Oh well.  I have been looking at that fabric and thinking "Halloween" since we moved in. 
3) Since I had all this fabric hanging around (literally) I really wanted to make everyone matching cowboy outfits.  I thought to myself this Halloween will go down in family history as "that awesome Halloween we were all cowboys" or "that dorky Halloween that we all had to be cowboys."  Until this morning (when Amelia left for school in cowgirl vest and skirt and James pointedly left his outfit home) it did not occur to me that it could be both of those at once. 

Other news-
-James is the cutest member of the Lollipop Guild and I can't wait to go see him tomorrow on stage.  I'll take some pictures of him BEFORE applying the stage makeup.   He's also really enjoying math.
-Due to schedule conflicts, I took the kids to the church Trunk or Treat solo.  I instructed the kids to stick together so I could hand out candy.  I was a bit nervous as I manned my post handing out boxes of Nerds.  Toward the end of the night, I could hear the crack of cowboy guns and I knew my little posse was nearby.  Sure enough they came into view together, obedient in all things (for that night anyway.)   I got a lot of heartwarming reports on how Amelia looked after Simon helping him keep up with the over-eager older boys. She sure has grown up over the last year.  I am impressed with her maturity. 
-Simon chooses to use the potty by himself almost all the time now.  I'll give him a reminder when I notice him standing funny but that's not often.  It's a relief to have him at this stage of potty training.  I won't call it done yet, but he's really close.
-Jonny is doing awesome in his swimming class.  He is in the floater level and loves it.  He has always been enthusiastic in the water.  The best parts, he says are when he gets to try the 12 feet deep water (with life jacket) and the secrets his teacher tells him.  (here's one of the secrets: astronauts train in the water)
-Rachel is a sitter now.  She can balance by herself for a while and even play with a toy.  She is also experimenting with food.  So far she likes avocados but not green beans or oatmeal.  (Yes avocados.  It helps my scrawny babies put on weight and maintain their growth curves.) 
-someone broke the on/off button on the camera so no pictures for now. :(

The Difference One Year Makes

Last year, I was shopping at Costco with Simon when he had an epiphany.  You can but things at Costco.  I guess he just thought you walk past a bunch of things that you can't buy, to get to the food that you can buy. 
I think he said something about a tv being turned on and I said they left it on to make people want to buy it.  Then he exclaimed "You can buy tv's at Costco?!" like that was the most incredible thing he ever heard.  As we proceeded through the store, he asked incredulously if we could buy all sorts of things including pants.

Contrast this with today's excursion.  We had just dropped off Amelia at a birthday party and were on our way home.  Jonny and Simon asked if we could stop at Costco.  So we went in and window shopped down all the aisles that I never turn on- the ones with toys and seasonal gadgets.  We admired Christmas ornaments and wrapping paper.  After each item, Simon asked if we should buy it.  I said no we're just looking.  Then we went down the toys aisle and pushed buttons through packages and things.  Simon went from "should we buy it" to "can we buy it."   As we neared the end of our jaunt, he got desperate.  "BUT I NEED IT!" he cried.  I just had to laugh when I saw what it was he was referring to:  a game of Star Trek Scene It. 

Which one is different?

Below are 3 great things.  You decide which one is different and why: 
The true answer will be revealed tomorrow and the one with the closest guess will receive a surprise in the mail.



Holy Thursday!

We just received Jonathan's Catholic kindergarten home school kit. He missed the kindergarten deadline by a few days, but he's ready. If we do accredited kindergarten for him, he will have the option next year of entering first grade or repeating kindergarten at school. The only accredited home school kindergarten in the area is affiliated with the Catholic church.

As you probably know, we belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Tracy called the school before we ordered the kit to find out about how "Catholic" the materials are. The man on the phone said not to worry; there may be an image here, a sentence there, but for the most part the materials are strictly academic and non-religious.

I'm sorry to report that the gentleman, perhaps unknowingly, broke the ninth commandment. Or the eighth commandment, depending on your denomination. Whichever one says "liar liar pants on fire." (Okay, I don't think he meant to deceive us. It's all about your point of view.)

Actually, it's not that bad, and we can substitute those materials that are not in harmony with the gospel with materials of our choosing. And we have had a few good laughs already. For example, if you're Catholic, you might not find anything funny about the term "Luminous Mysteries," especially when appearing in a kids' coloring book, but believe me.

As another example, there was a rosary in the box. For our non-Catholic readers (which I believe is all of you), a rosary is a bead necklace that helps Catholics count the prayers that they recite. It has a crucifix at the end of it. We focus on the resurrected, living Christ so we don't even use crosses, much less crucifixes, so Jonny may or may not have seen one before. His reaction to the rosary was priceless:

"Why did they send me a dead Jesus necklace?"

good job!

Yesterday, I propped Rachel up on the free standing musical potty, for a silly joke.  Simon came in to see what was going on and I challenged him to a contest, to see who could use the potty first, Simon (age almost 3) or Rachel (3 months.)  He eagerly agreed, and scaled the big potty. 
The three of us chatted and laughed in the bathroom for a few minutes and then I picked up Rachel to get her dressed.  Imagine my surprise (and Simon's horror) when I discovered she actually had wet in the potty.  News spreads fast in our house, so the bathroom filled with revelers.  Simon's take on the situation? "I'm not good jobbing you!"

Road Trip to Upstate New York

Last weekend, we hit the road for a trip to the Finger Lakes in New York for a few days of relaxation and adventure.

We camped at Cayuga Lake State Park and I highly recommend it, if you are ever up in that area. Our campsite was right across from the playground and the bathrooms. Close enough to observe, but far enough to be out of the din. I loved that some of the kids were old enough to head over by themselves. A tiny bit of freedom and they loved it. While hanging out at the camp site, Amelia wanted to pretend superheroes. She said no one wanted to play with her and asked me to come up with a super hero identity. I said I would be "Rainbow" (always my secret spy name when I was a kid) and my power would be to shoot rainbow hoops at people and when they were hit they would suddenly feel calm and cooperative. She said "that's kind of boring, can I change it?" Gee, I wonder why no one wanted to play that game. Actually, Jonny did want to play. His super hero identity was "the Electric Cheese" and he shot cheese lightning at people.
On our way to the camp ground, we stopped by Palmyra, New York where the Hill Cummorah and Sacred Grove are. It was special at times.
Like the time when Simon happened upon a large Christus in the Visitor's Center and was so surprised and excited that he ran to James, pulling him and yelling "come and see! You got to see!"

When Jonny decided that the path to the Hill Cummorah memorial was too wimpy and he wanted to climb straight up. It was steep, but he, James and Gary (and Rachel) did it.

When Simon became very impressed with the flowers in the Sacred Grove and wanted his picture taken with them.

Talking the Jonny about how the largest trees in the grove were probably there when Joseph Smith was.

Listening to Amelia try and impress the missionaries with her knowledge of the gospel.

 

Here are a few examples frm the other times:

Each of the historic houses had floor fans in it and this attracted Jonny and Simon like moths to flame. "Yoou must build a jacuzzi!" (from Muppets in Space, spoofing Field of Dreams)

Someone talking awfully loud about using the potty in the Sacred Grove. That sounds worse than it is. They didn't want to use the potty in the Sacred Grove they just talked about it while we walked and I felt bad for people trying to have a spiritual time there.

We also saw the Peter Whitmer farm- this was where the first meeting of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was held. I loved seeing it in person and thinking about all that went into the planning of the first meeting. The visitor's center here had art work depicting the many stages of planning that went into that first meeting. I LOVED the art. It was unique to this location I have not seen it at any other church site.

The missionaries there encouraged the kids to run races to the trees and back while we waited to go into the farm house. If you look close enough, you should see all of our runners.

We enjoyed swimming and canoeing in Cayuga Lake on a couple of days. Jonny loved swimming (with coast guard approved life jacket) out to the buoys that marked the swimming area. James enjoyed swimming too. Amelia pouted because floaties were not allowed (only life jackets) and finally agreed to go in the water as I was bringing the boys out. I got a good laugh when just as I exited the Lake, she marched up to me and yelled "there- I swam to Mom. Are you happy?!" but then she and I swam aound a little bit and the boys, who were done swimming played the the playground. 
I really enjoyed canoeing in the lake. It reminded me of the many summers we camped at Rucker Lake when I was growing up. My dad would take all the kids for a long weekend of canoeing and kayaking and swimming in the Sierras. I have very fond memories of those camp outs. So I thoroughly enjoyed paddling around with the kids, two at a time.  Cayuga Lake is very large compared to Rucker Lake so we stuck very close to shore. James was a natural with the paddle. Amelia needed a little coaching and turned out to be quite good too. Jonny and Simon sat in the middle on a cushion, looking cute. I enjoyed watching Gary take the kids out too. It was fun hearing Gary and Jonny and Amelia cheering when things went well. He and James practiced manuvers together for a few minutes before we left. One Star Wars trilogy later (the old set) we were home, very grateful for the break from the norm.

PS- For those of you who are curious, Rachel handled camping like a pro. She slept beautifully at night and was pretty cheerful (given her age) during the day.

Here's a few snapshots of James and Amelia adoring Rachel.

And since I complained about not being able to do Amelia's hair, I must document that she DID let me do it for church today- "braids up" is what my mom used to call this hairdo

A Burning Question

For one of James's cub scout requirements, he needed to talk to a wild life conservation officer on the phone and ask what they do. We checked the local phone book and came up short. So we hit the web to find a likely candidate. The first wildlife conservation officer (whose phone number was listed) happened to be in New Hampshire. He placed the call. A woman answered and she didn't have time to talk, but noticed her co worker had time on his hands so passed the phone off to him. He was kind and generous with his time and chatted with James for about 20 minutes. The best part of the call came when James asked this burning question:

Have you ever been in a situation where you come to a King Cobra and it is spitting venom at you and you have to decided whether you want to tranquilize it or not?


The part of New Hampshire he called apparently has a big problem with nuisance bears, not King Cobras.

Raby

Now that Rachel is 3 months old, she has been around long enough to have earned a few nicknames. I'll post a few, with origin
Raby: part Rachel, part baby (creation of James or Jonny)
Rachel Iris Cutie Pie-ris: Jonny's invention
Rachel Papayrus: derivied from above
Eye- ris: because she has such huge eyes
The Princess: as in do not disturb the princess
Rachelina: Gary's pet name for her- how could I forget this one?  Oh yeah, he was on a trip when I wrote this post the first time.
It's hard to tell who Rachel's biggest fan is. Everyone likes her a lot. Jonny especially shows a lot of love (and I must say it is the cutest attention seeking behavior I have seen yet.) The other day I was trying to walk from the living room to the kitchen, holding Rachel and some other thing I was trying to put down. Every time I took a step, there was Jonny. I would try moving to the right to get around him and he'd move to the right. So I'd try to move left to get around him and there he'd be. I almost tripped a few times because my arms were full. I was about to get frustrated when I realized what was going on. He was following Rachel on his knees, bowing to the floor and mumbling "hail. hail." Like the Ewoks do for C3PO.

About Hair and other girly stuff

Here's a post I wrote and forgot about last month... enjoy

There’s a first time for everything. A first time to get urinated on while weighing your child in a doctor’s office. (did it really have to take 5 kids for that one?!) To be told that you should take cooking lessons from the school cafeteria. To leave your debit card in the ATM and drive away. I hope our money is still there when all is said and done.

Having a stubborn girl means a lot of things. It means that for 2 years I couldn’t fix her hair without having her rip it out immediately. It means that for years she went around with horribly clashing outfits and I was powerless to sway her opinion on what makes a good matching ensemble. (as many colors and patterns as possible, please) And it means that playing barbies together was miserable because no matter what I made them do, pretty princesses didn’t do that. Well now it means that she wants to do her own hair her way. And I am not allowed to “tidy it up” anymore with out an all out war. Of course I love my daughter. I also love good grooming. And I want to teach it to her. How to carefully part hair. How to comb it smooth. How to make it symmetrical and how to put in rubber bands so that it doesn’t make huge tangles at the base. But she doesn’t want to learn that. she already knows it all and she doesn’t want me to say another word about it.
I remember really well when I figured out how to do hair. I was in between second and third grade and I usually wore 2 braids, one down each side. I was in my room and I did one of the braids. I went to the bathroom to carefully examine my handiwork. At the top it was a mass of snarls out of which came a decent braid. I decided that the top part looked like a rose (a brown hairy one) and ran to show my mom. She made appropriate noises and I went away pleased. I don’t know if I insisted on doing my own hair after that. I know it wasn’t too long after that that I got a really ugly haircut, one of those middle aged woman ones that looks great on 40 something ladies and terrible on a small child. Perhaps the two events were related.

Anyway, I found myself wishing that Rachel had a full head of foot long hair. So that I could innocently talk about hairstyling with Amelia. I can have conversations about matching outfits while I dress the baby, pointing out how to choose tops and bottoms with similar colors or patterns and she is very receptive to this type of teaching. Jonny I can be direct with. This shirt and this pants match because of x y and z. He says great! And forever after that is how those clothes are paired up. Every now and then, he asks for a compliment on his out fit. (does it look good? YES!) If I try that approach with Amelia, she’ll tell me blue and purple stripes make a much better match with yellow and red fruity pants, thank you very much. But somehow when I talk about choosing a matching outfit for sister, it makes much more sense. And she has been matching her own outfits better too. So I guess today, I wish Rachel had an awesome head of hair for a 2 month old. So I can talk all about hairstyling with out having to say a word to Amelia. What about Barbies you ask. Don’t they have awesome heads of hair. Aren’t they meant for hours of combing and styling fun?! You are forgetting one simple thing: pretty princesses don’t do that.

How to Silence Your Kids

We checked out this Star Wars Cook Book from the library and made the Death Star Popcorn Balls for our family night treat. I had to use a candy thermometer to cook them and they took about an hour longer to prepare than I thought they should, so the kids were up super late when eatting time finally arrived.
We passed around the popcorn balls and tried to bite into them. It has never been so quiet at the table in our house. We chewed and chewed and chewed trying to enjoy these monster treats. We laughed at the faces we made trying to pry our mouths open. I truly worried for my fillings. Jonny left a once in the middle to brush his teeth. He said he had to brush them twice to get them clean.
As I ate (and enjoyed the quiet) I thought that I would save the recipe and serve popcorn balls again, when I need to do some serious talking with the kids. There'd be no way they could talk back or disagree. They would be my captive audience because their mouths would be stuck shut.

Writings

Amelia wrote a poem, to mail into the Friend Magazine.
What Jesus Did

Jesus once was on the earth.
He started there by birth.

He grew to be a big, strong man.
He taught people in every land.

He taught people to do good.
He taught people the best he could.

He taught us to love everyone.
We know he is God’s begotten son.
Here's the one she didn't want me to send in to the Friend:

Things I learned in church:

1. Heavenly Father dose not love me. Plus everybody else.

Sigh. I think the first one is a more true representation of her feelings, but she does like to stir things up.

I love to see the temple

Here's a blast from our past. Last year we took a family trip to California to visit relatives. We swung by the Oakland Temple one Sunday afternoon. You may notice one of these things is not like the others... we call it "the temple face."

Do I really want to say this out loud?

You may not want to read this post. It's going to be a little gross. But not as gross as the maggotty thing I had to remove from the back porch last week. The exterminator called it "nature at it's best" and offered gloves, while keeping a distance. "I hate maggots" he said, "but if you've got 5 kids I guess you can handle anything." I hate maggots too, but that's not the point. This post will not be as gross as that thing was, I promise, but really it's not for those who have not potty trainned someone recently.
Simon has the mechanics down. He has a plethora of rewards in place. Thus far, he hasn't had the moment where he realizes why he should care about using the potty. Sure stripes on karate belts are fun. Candy is fun (it also makes moms chubby, so we're cutting that one out.) Surprise packages in the mail are alluring, to older siblings. Not to the young one though. But today he figured out why he cares about using the potty. And it is painful to admit.
I hesitate to document it, but there are those who will wonder why he is in diapers again.
You see as of late, he has become a nudist. He loves to run through the house naked. Or play with his fisher price people, lounging in his skin. I really try to keep him in clothes and it's only once every few days that it becomes one of those "laughing wildly while I try to dress him" times. So I have not been too concerned. You may remember Amelia going through this phase at the age of 3 (or 4) when she loved to hide and pop out at people naked (mostly me, I think.) She loved the shock value.
So it is with a little apprehension that I admit that he reminds me of Amelia and it is with much reluctance that I admit that they both remind me of myself as a kid. (when Simon attempted to eat a bag of brown sugar for breakfast this morning, I think I would have joined him, if I was about 28 years younger. I don't think I would have chased my siblings around covered in brown sugar slime though.)
But I digress. Because that pales in comparison to tonight's display. He ran around in nothing but underpants after his bath (pull ups, please- he's not ready for briefs.) I told him to get dressed.
I was not surprised a few minutes later he ran past stark naked- (sometimes I feel like a Charlie Brown grown up- like what I intend to say comes out as that "wa wa wa" sound that no one can understand, much less obey.)
I was totally unprepared for what he gleefully yelled as he ran past. "Look at my bottom! Look at my bottom!" He shouts in a sing song voice as he chases Jonny (always the victim- sigh) Jonny is of course running for his life because he DID indeed look at his bottom. So I look too. and there it is- what Simon calls his "poop tail." I refuse to allow poop as a weapon. I have to draw the line somewhere. So here is the line:
____________________________________________________________________

Pass the diapers, please.

a note from Jonny

More Photos of Newborn Rachel

Here are more photos of newborn Rachel. They were taken by my dad (thanks Dad!) and are better than the ones I took but I forgot to blog these at the time.

Joy School Class of 2010

Thanks for a great year!

self designed camp out

The side benefit of sleeping under your bed in a sleeping bag (not my personal choice):
when you throw up in the night, your clean bed is ready and waiting for you.

Photos of Rachel

I know Gary put up a link to pictures of Rachel right after she was born, but I wanted a few here on the blog too. I hope you enjoy!

Supercalifragilisticexpealidtious

There. I did it. I said something! I find that sometimes, when life gets a little overwhelming, I tend to shut up. And the longer I go without saying anything, the harder it gets to think of things to say. So I am using a little trick I learned from Mary Poppins. That word, the title of my post (that I am not going to attempt to spell again) is the word you are supposed to say when you can't think of anything to say.
Now suddenly I have lots to talk about.
Rachel is here and she's wonderful. She doesn't sleep much at night, but she is a very pleasant companion in the wee hours because she does not cry just for fun.

The basement is drying out after the pipe burst. We'll just clean the carpet a few more times before we send back the dehumidifier and put Jimmy's flooring and furniture back in place.

Jonny read a verse from the Bible last night, almost entirely by himself. We need to give him more opportunities to read. It's hard though because he is slow and at scripture time, no one wants to be reverent while he stumbles his way through.

People say that potty training children tend to regress after the birth of a new sibling. Simon is no exception. He was dry most of the time, until Rachel was born. I realize this is not so much that he'd rather regress, but that I have less time and motivation to chase him into the potty every hour or two.

James and Amelia love tap dancing class. It is interesting to watch them learn in their own styles. James tries to do each move as fast as he can to get on, to show how smart and good he is at it. Amelia prefers to do each move slowly and carefully so that she can get each step exactly right.

More later- hopefully not too much later!

Kiddo #5

Our new baby, Rachel Iris S., was born yesterday afternoon at 12:49 PM. She weighed 7 lbs. 1.7 oz. and was 20.25 in. long at birth. She and Tracy are healthy and beautiful. They'll probably be in the hospital until tomorrow (Thursday).

You can view some photos of Rachel and Tracy.

Prank Kit

James ordered the Prank Pack from the latest scholastic book order. He came home from school yesterday with a disappearing ink pen, a manual, and the teeniest whoopie cushion I ever saw.

This morning as I was making beds, I came into Amelia's room and noticed her bed was a mess. This was not unexpected since she woke up super early after nightmares. (I sympathize) The unusual part of the bed mess was that the lower half of the fitted sheet had come undone. As I pulled off the wad of blankets I saw that the fitted sheet had been folded in half and very carefully tucked around the top half of the bed. I had to laugh. James had attempted to short sheet Amelia's bed. Unfortunately, he had used the fitted sheet instead of the flat sheet and it did not have the desired result. Better luck next time, dude!

Patches

Last week or maybe 2 weeks by now, my sister and her family came to visit. I will save a post about that for when I can do it justice. Here's a little hint: you probably don't know about most of our vacations or visitors because I always save them until I can do them justice.

Here's one of those things from today that made me sigh. I was half way through cutting Simon's hair with the clippers when the power went out. So be warned. The next time you see him, he may be a little patchy. At least his smile will make up for it.

A few other quick things to share:
Gary asked Simon who is growing in my tummy. The answer: "a cousin" He likes cousins, so I think that's a good thing.

Jonny is a 2 wheel bike rider now! Maybe I'll even take a picture documenting it for you. Oh- no promises. I never did find the picture I promised you that I drew of my dad.

Amelia lost another tooth! That is good. She needs a little more space in her mouth. Unfortunately, the tooth fairy was running late and Amelia woke up to find *her tooth* still under her pillow. I wish the tooth fairy was a little more punctual. It would save a lot of tears.

Happy Easter

Amelia made this adorable card that I think is appropriate to share with all:

text reads: Do I wish you a... Happy Easter? On the back it says "yes" but that didn't scan well.
Happy Easter to you all!

Jonny wants a pet

Yes, Jonny wants a pet. He suggests an anteater. And I'd gladly go along with it, if it would get the ants out from under my table. Yesterday, I caught him catching ants and forcing them into the traps (they don't work.) Simon is a little more gentle in his approach. He talks to them "Ants, do you want to eat poison?" "Oh yes I do" he answers in a tiny voice (don't worry, he knows PEOPLE DON'T EAT POISON.) This morning, Jonny told me maybe the Easter Bunny would come squish them for us.
James told me he read a book about giant ants attacking a city. He thought it would be scary for me. I told him I would love ants that are big enough to shoot with a gun. Both he and Amelia are making huge strides in their table manners, in an effort to keep food off the floor.
So why have I written 3 posts in one night? Well, I finally gave up on the traps and vigorous cleaning. (10 days should have been enough time don't you think?) Don't get me wrong. I'll still clean, vigorously too. I'll also use ant spray. It stinks though. You should see me running around with big rubber gloves, a hot pink shower cap and a bandana to cover my nose, spraying the dickens out of those little bugs. (maybe not) That's what I did after I tucked the kids in bed. But did I mention it stinks? So I have all the windows open, trying to air things out and I'm not going to bed til things smell good.

Short Sale Shimmy, but I forget which chapter

Some one did not get the message that we finally bought our house. That someone was an obnoxious lawyer who sent 4 letters this weekend, telling us our home was in foreclosure and up for auction. Don't you love how letters like that arrive on the weekend when the sender is closed? Turns out it was a bank error. Everything is fine. But still, it took a few days to find that out.

Catch Up

There's so much I thought about saying over the weekend. I forgot it all by now. I hope by writing, I'll remember SOMETHING.

Simon asked me a few weeks ago what the walrus says. I made what I thought were appropriate grunting noises. He told me "no. Goo goo ga joob." (can you tell we got Beatles Rockband in the last few months?!)

James got tap shoes for his birthday and he loves stomping around in them, for a few minutes at a time. He is signed up for a late spring tap class at the rec center and couldn't be more thrilled. Well, I guess he could be. Amelia also chose the same tap dancing class for her birthday present. Boy was he mad about that. I let them each choose one class from the catalog and they weren't allowed to tell which one- to prevent copycats but they are both fascinated with tap dance and ended up choosing the same one. Did I ever tell you James likes to bake? Biscuits are his specialty. They turn out most of the time. He baked brownies for fhe. They were from a box and they turned out well. He can also heat up canned and frozen veggies but he never eats them.

Amelia can often be found reading the Friend magazine. She loves doing that more than anything but most especially baths, homework and chores. She consents to the hula dance practices. "It's just like taking medicine" (she says.) She LOVES to be on stage. Her hair is getting close to princess length, just how she wants it. Thankfully, she did not give in to the pressure to be bald. Millie (as she now prefers) has turned out to be quite a helper. She has learned to load and unload the dishwasher and even does it every now and then, by her own choice. And since she is so helpful, I really feel like being helpful too. Like when she hollers that her room is too messy or showers are too scary or what ever. I am glad that our relationship can go both ways.

Jonny and Simon love "scooter time." Since it has warmed up, we take the scooters around the block after lunch. Ahh- I am so glad to have the scooters out of the house these days. Since Simon got one for Christmas, I let him ride it in the house only until the weather warmed up. It didn't seem fair for him to have a present he couldn't use. I think I could have taken a beginner's timid riding through the house. Well it turned out Jonny liked the scooter more and he was fast. The faster the scooter went, the louder it echoed. Thinking about it now, I guess I am the one that likes "scooter time" the most.

Jonny loves to pretend he's a baby. It's a good thing Simon loves to play "daddy" because I don't have the patience for 4 year old babies. He and Simon also love to pretend to be "Busty the Dog" (Gary has a theory that he chose that persona because it has no /r/ /l/ or /sh/ in the name) Simon is "Puncil the Bear." They wear around their hooded animal towels and have high times together.

Baby girl will be making her appearance in roughly 7 weeks. She seems more active during the day than my last 2. I hope that means she won't be a night owl. Still no name, but at least she's healthy. And speaking of babies and pregnancy, it dawned on me that this time around I've been craving "Bruce's Yams." Yes, yams. They seem to sneak into my shopping car more often than not as of late. (I seem to have only one food fetish per pregnancy. They were 1. cucumbers 2. ice cream 3. baked beans 4. coleslaw 5. yams)

Since the weather was warm last week, we ate dinner in the yard one night. I handed Simon a sandwich and told him it was ham. He gave it back and told me he does not eat hamster. I told him it was pig and gave it back. He ate the meat and left the bread.

I am super happy to see all of the spring bulbs coming up in my yard. I have no idea what any of them are, but maybe when they bloom I'll recognize them. Okay, I wrote this last week. They are daffodils (the yellow kind and the white kind) and hyacinth (purple and pink.) And I love to see them bloom in the yard. The kids have to be talked out of picking them to bring to me. While I love the sentiment, but I have to tell them they look best in the ground or else the yard will be bare.

Variety Show Drama

You probably didn't know that the kiddodiddo's school is having a variety show next month. You also didn't know that the kids have a book called "the Berenstein Bears and the Trouble with Grown Ups" where Brother and Sister put on a skit for their school's variety show.

When the fliers went out, Amelia was so excited to be in the show (because of the book.)
She hasn't had dance lessons or singing lessons and she doesn't play an instrument. So what could she do for a Variety Show?
Hmmm. How about a hula dance with her friends? That's what I did in 1st grade. So we got together a group of friends. By the time of the first rehearsal, the group of 7 was down to 2. Amelia and her friend Lexi have had a few practice sessions (read: disasters on wheels. ) I don't know how to hula, but I found directions on the internet and have been trying to walk the girls through. They can hold it together (some what) when they aren't too busy giggling and chasing eachother.

Today was the first Variety Show rehearsal for real. Once Amelia saw the other acts she was afraid. Very afraid. So afraid that she changed her mind. But once she vented out all of those feelings, she realized that practicing everyday (like taking medicine, she said) wouldn't be so bad. In fact it might help. So we might have a hula dancer after all. One that has now been scared into taking things seriously.

Hair Dos and Don'ts

In the last few weeks, the kiddodiddos have been obsessed with the following list of words:
mohawk
geezer
goatee
bald
Everything is more funny is one of those words is involved.
The last few haircuts I've given Jonny, his simple request has been this: make me bald. Just wait 20 years I tell him.
Friday I was giving James a haircut.
His request: make me bald.
Just wait 20 years I tell him.
He persists, but the shortest I am willing to go on top is the 3, with 2 on the sides and 1 on the edges. It's not too bad for a mom cut.
He begs me to go down to a number 1 all over. I tell him that Dad knows more about men's hair and if he wanted it that short he would have check with Dad first.
Saturday night, I came home from the quarterly ladies meeting at the church and Gary is asleep. He mentions something about James "having your razor fall on his head while he was in the shower." It was a nice, new razor and pretty sharp but if it simply fell on his head, it would not have done what it did. (Did I mention that James is in to telling whoppers these days?) Anyway Gary called him on it. Turns out he tried to shave his head. Thankfully, he's not very good with a razor yet.
At breakfast on Sunday morning, James came to the table with a hat on. I told him I heard about his haircut and he said "Yeah I was hoping it would grow back over night." 4 chunks taken out, front and center. Sigh.

There is an old saying that goes something like this:
If your mother's father didn't go bald, neither will you.
I took human anatomy in college. In the class, the teacher debunked that myth. I can't explain it all in detail because I forgot by now. I believe Gary also debunked that myth on this blog. But if there is any truth to it, Jonny and James should be very happy in 20 years. As evidence, I provide a little piece of my early childhood.
Uhh- I lied. I can't find the picture right this very minute and I have Joy School to prepare and too much laundry to fold to hunt it down. So it'll have to wait. Trust me though, the picture I drew of my dad at a very young age is worth the wait.

The Split

At church yesterday our ward was split, along with five others in our stake. They made six wards into seven plus a branch, for a total of 11 wards and one branch in the stake.

For our non-LDS friends, think of it as redistricting in the LDS Church. In the LDS Church, you don't pick a church or congregation. You attend the congregation to which you are assigned geographically.

Yesterday's split was done very neatly. Everyone met in their old ward's building and there was a webcast with handouts. The handout had low-resolution hand-drawn maps that must have taken hours (note: next time, call me!). But it also had lists of who is in which new ward.

The most common rumor--that the new boundaries would more or less follow next year's high school boundaries--turned out to be true, at least in our part of town.

They asked all the members of each new or reorganized ward to stand and sustain the stake presidency in the changes. When our new ward (which is the new ward in the stake) was asked to stand, we were almost the only ones in our building who stood. There was also a single woman and a visiting high counselor and his wife. This in yesterday's congregation of 400+ (two wards).

We live in a town where we used to live, as you may know if you were a frequent reader of The Short Sale Shimmy. We're actually going to be in a ward with more people we know than we knew in the short time we were in our old ward since moving to the new house in September. So we're pretty happy about it, though we made some good friends in the old ward too.

Top Vacation Spots, Central PA Style

Not photoshopped:

Farmer Jon

Several months ago, Jonny sprouted some lettuce seeds in Joy School. He has been tending them through the winter. He decided to serve the lettuce with tonight's dinner, so the missionaries that are coming can enjoy it too. He sure enjoyed harvesting his crop.

Happy Valentine's Day

"To every thing there is a season" and it feels good to have found the proper season for this little gem. I think that whoever made a pink aluminum Christmas tree was misguided. It was obviously meant for a more lovey day... like Valentine's Day.
Sending lots of love to readers near and far: Happy Valentine's Day!

Success?!

This morning, Simon actually used the potty. He's been trying every morning this week. I have sat huddled next to the toilet reading him "the Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash" over and over waiting for something magic to happen. Finally, this morning I heard a lot of excitement while I was in the shower. Gary had set Simon up with a drink on the potty. Jonny and Amelia were there to read to him. And he finally did it. Here's a picture of the proud little guy in his ka-potty best:I am pretty proud too. It was a group effort today. He is not ready for the intesity of true potty training and neither am I, but when he's in the mood for a box of Nerds (the current prize) he knows what to do!

The Short Sale Shimmy (Part 6): The Beginning

< The Short Sale Shimmy (Part 5): To the Brink



It worked! We finally own our house.

It almost didn't work when the title company couldn't figure out how to open the documents that the mortgage company sent. But the title company's office in another town figured it out, printed the documents, and drove them in the snow to our town so we could close.

The Short Sale Shimmy (Part 5): To the Brink

< The Short Sale Shimmy (Part 4)

If everything goes well, we are less than five hours away from finally owning our house. It's about time:

• Ten months ago we decided to get a bigger house.
• Seven months ago we offered to buy this house.
• Five months ago we sold our condo and moved to this house.

Is this really going to happen? We'll see. We were already delayed from yesterday because of the weekend's giant snowstorm. If we don't close today, we might be delayed again by today and tomorrow's nor'easter. We're so close that it would be really sad not to make it.

Meanwhile, we're dealing with the snow. School is closed for the whole week, but work is as busy as ever. It's a busy time to close on the house, but at least we don't have to move this week too!

Another Snow Day

A few days ago, I promised myself that I would do "potty training in a day" for Simon on the next snow day. I just didn't expect it so soon. With 2-3 snow days promised, it would seem to be the perfect opportunity. The only question is: do I feel brave enough to follow through?

Snow Day!

Last night, I had a hard time sleeping, because I was expecting the "school is cancelled for snow" phone call at some random time in the early morning. I was so excited. I love snow days and look forward to every one!
This morning, I got dressed to clear the snow from the driveway and walks (Gary is in CA for a few days) and I got 2 surprises. One good, one not so good. When I opened the door, there was my neighbor Mr. Vic shoveling the driveway. He said he didn't want us to get trapped at home with sick kids or something. What a thoughtful person. I looked around to grab the shovel and join in and it was no where to be found. Then I remembered that 2 days ago the kids asked to borrow the shovel, snow brushes, ice scrapers, etc to build a huge mound of snow with the remnants of the last snow. They left everything in the back yard. It was now buried in snow and I couldn't find any of it. After some searching, I gave up and set the kids to the task. 10 minutes later, James triumphantly handed over the snow shovel.

When I got out of the shower this morning, I found Amelia in the middle of changing Simon's diaper. I offered to take over (it was a messy one) and both Simon and Amelia refused the help. Ahh- it's nice to have big kids!
Speaking of big kids, we woke up Sunday morning to a nice surprise. James was in the middle of making hot biscuits for a special breakfast. Gary came out in time to help him grease the sheet and stick them in the oven. He mixed the dough, etc all by himself. Everyone enjoyed the tasty, hot biscuits. I was so proud of him for taking on a project like that and pulling it off well.

Down and Derby

We went to James's Cub Scout Pinewood Derby this morning. Everyone had a great time.

Here are the cars lined up at registration:

Here is a close-up of James's classic wedge (red, white, and blue):

Here is James having just lined up his car for one of many races:

And here is James with his awards at the end:

The certificate he earned was for Best Wedge Car. And it was the best wedge car. What you might not have also noticed was the ribbon and medal on his uniform:

That happens to be the award for First Place! Yes, James won the Pinewood Derby! I never had a good car when I was a kid, and I was always upset about it. James is a good boy and I knew he would handle this well. But today, he didn't have to, because he won all the marbles!

On the car, he did almost all the work himself. The most dangerous stuff (chisel, belt sander) was done by me, and Tracy and I offered minimal help on other things, but he built it almost independently. I'm so happy that he had fun building what turned out to be a fast car.

Girl Scout Cookies

I asked Amelia if she wanted to sell Girl Scout Cookies to the neighbors (the orders are due tomorrow) and she said "Why would I want to sell cookies and make someone ELSE rich?!"
I explained that her troop would get some money for field trips, etc and she was okay with that.
If any of you locals are interested in cookies, let me know TODAY and I'll order some for you, with home delivery at the end of February.

James Revolutionary Idea

In school, James has been learning about ancient Mali, where the salt trade was very important. On the way to cub scouts last night, he said to me something like this:
I think I need to consume more salt. Salt is a preservative right? If I eat more, I will be able to preserve my energy.

So there you have it. If you are low on energy, eat more salt.

On a side note, last night was my first night as Wolf Den Leader. I've been assistant for a few months now. For the closing activity, we were supposed to do this cool button on a string trick, where you wind the string tight and then pull and the buttons spins and makes vibration noises, etc. I tried at home and couldn't get it to do anything cool. I passed out the buttons and string and told the boys- I'm counting on you to make it happen. I want to see the cool trick. We tried and tried and aside from a compliment on the quality of buttons, nothing happened. The boys were good sports about it though. When we were pulling into the driveway, James politely asked "Next time, can we do something that works?"

Another Celebrity

I can't believe my luck! I have another famous relative, this time on the opposite coast. Uncle Bruce can be seen here,
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_francisco&id=7228226
about 30 seconds in, when they show the boat head on, he is the one walking across. I sure miss seeing Bruce in person, so am glad to see this glimpse.

Celebrity!

We're related to a celebrity! Uncle Dave is currently serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, so it was quite the surprise to see him on this video!
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-395656?ref=email

He appears in the 29th second, on the left hand side! We at the Kiddodiddo Ranch are so proud of him and the service he is rendering. The kids were very worried about him, when they heard about the earthquake in Haiti, but we explained Uncle Dave is in Florida, teaching Haitians, not in Haiti itself. We are so excited to see him at the end of the year!

Birthday Wishes

Amelia announced this morning what she would like for her birthday: a pet and a goatee.
I think I'll get her the goatee.

Simon's Hand

Here's Simon's hand!


He saw me scanning mortgage documents and wanted a turn.

The Short Sale Shimmy (Part 4)

< The Short Sale Shimmy (Part 3)

We are now approved on paper by both banks to complete our short sale purchase. It turns out that one of the banks did try to foreclose on the current owner, but her agent talked them out of it for now. Now we're getting busy signing things, copying things, and e-mailing things.

I guess it could still fall apart, in which case it would probably get foreclosed. So it's a good thing we saved all our boxes...either for packing or for building a new house, or both.

Overheard

Jonny and Simon are watching a potty training video- it's one they happen to love it features "The Pocket Snails" and has a song at the end where the diapers sing and dance and say good bye.
Today when the dancing diapers appeared, Jonny cried out "Oh no! Here is the evil diaper and his minions!"
I happen to know that phrase does not appear in the video!