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.