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!

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.