Kids Live Here!

How to tell children live in this home:






Why, yes, that is a frog in our fan. Which one do you think is responsible for this?

By the way, the fan looks dusty, but I promise it isn't. I'd freak if I had dust blowing around!

Hello Again...Again!

Ok, trying again. Things are really busy here, but I'm petrified that if I don't make the time to blog, I'll forget the things my kids do. So, here's to another go at making an effort to blog and read blogs.
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Just in case you thought life might be easier at my house with Lolly than Linus, I present How to Know You've Lost the Sippy Cup War, Vol 1.

I've tried casually to introduce the sippy cup to Lolly a few times. She's less than thrilled with them. I tried again today. I believe this qualifies as a fail: I handed the sippy to Lolly. She handed it back, shook her head no and said, "bot bot."

More proof:
While Army, Linus, and I sipped on the most delicious milkshake ever (we split it, one sip in and we all knew splitting was a huge mistake!), Lolly was finishing off her lunch. She had a huge lunch--pasta, turkey, carrots, peas, and crackers. The kid can eat! Once she ate her last bite, she looked at a piece of bread and began her efforts to let us know she wanted it. In the meantime, I asked her to point to the light. "No, no, no" she said as she shook her head. I repeated, "Lolly, where's the light? Show me the light." Since "no, no, no" didn't work on me, she tried another approach. She lifted her palms, shrugged her shoulders, and made an "I don't know noise." Army then asked her if she wanted bread. Immediately she shook her head yes. After he gave her a piece, he asked her to point to the light. And she did. Then she laughed. Little stinker! She already knows how to bargain.
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A little Linusism:
Linus asked for cinnamon toast for breakfast. I'll admit I usually cut her sandwich into however many slices she wants (or even shapes when she was younger or on holidays). She asked for it to be cut into quarters. Since I knew that meant more chances for her to spill the cinnamon, I said no. She grinned and said, "Ok, then, how 'bout fourths?" :P

Well Hello Again!

I finally remembered my blog address, so here I am. Just kidding. We've had a LOT going on. In the past few weeks:
*Linus had surgery
*Linus had surgery issues
*Army had a birthday
*I took the girls to my parents to celebrate my dad's birthday
*Linus cut the ever living daylight out of her finger
*Linus had more surgery issues
*Linus started first grade. FIRST GRADE!!!! How'd that happen?
*Linus had a project for school
*My dad spent a week in the hospital in congestive heart failure (he's still there)
*Linus had another project for school (seriously--two in the first three days!!!)
*I've had four meetings
*I've been preparing for Lolly's first birthday, yes it's been a year. She'll be one (sob!)

Sooo, I've been busy. I've checked blogs, but probably only once in the past few weeks. I've got a load of emails to return. I've got more work to do with Linus, and I've got to finalize things for Lolly's birthday. Thankfully we only do family for first birthday parties. I can't imagine planning a huge party right now.

Oh, and did I mention I had house guests for a total of eleven of those days (not eleven days straight though).

I should be around more now though, complete with first day pics, birthday pics, pics of Big L's new haircut, etc. :)

Catfish Anyone? How 'Bout a Side With That?

Two years ago, I posted my first real post here. Things haven't changed too much at my house...
Here's the first post:

An Extra Dose of Embarrassment!

(at the time this occurred, Linus was about 3)

I took Linus to lunch at a local restaurant that I love in the town where my parents live. It was just the two of us. Here's our conversation:

Linus: Mommy, look at his pecker.
Me: Linus, let's play I spy. I spy with my little eye something green.
Linus: Is it the leaf, Mommy? Look, he has a pecker too!
Me: Ok, Linus, your turn. What do you spy?
Linus: I spy something blue. (then a guy walks by and she looks in his direction). Look Mommy he has a big pecker!
Me: (thinking...blue...blue...find something BLUE!)
Linus looks in another direction and says, "and he has a small pecker"
Me: Um, blue! Uh, could it be that chair?
Linus: No
Me: (BLUE, BLUE, find something blue!), could it be that picture?
Linus: No, look mommy, his pecker is hard and looks old!
Me: Linus, shhh, we'll talk about that later!
Linus: Why Mommy, don't you see his pecker?
Me: Linus, ssshhhhh!
Linus: Look, Mommy, his pecker is different colors! And llllooooooonnnnnggggg! Then she points up near the ceiling.

I looked up and there was a parrot! The restaurant has fake trees with lots of parrots! She was talking about the parrot's beak!

Whoosh, big sigh of relief! Still embarrassed, but sooo glad my 4 year old princess doesn't know that kind of pecker!


And here's what just happened at our house:

Linus used a back scratcher and attached some of the hook rings from Lolly's toys to create a fishing pole. She'd "catch" other items by attaching them to the rings. When she hooked a cat, she announced that she caught a "catfish." When she hooked a sword, she caught a "swordfish." Then she decided to cook her catfish. I asked what she was cooking, and she said, "I'm cooking catfish with a side of potato wedgies."

Poor girl, she's got great ideas, and she even has a pretty extensive vocabulary, she just gets the words wrong sometimes.

ROARRRRR!

Lolly has a new trick. She imitates everything, and I do mean everything. She's pretty good at it too.

For a while now, she's been making a "roar" noise which she learned by imitating Linus. She just started crawling a few feet, stopping, lifting up to a kneeling position, putting up her "claws" and saying "ROARRRR!" Then she drops back down to all four and crawls some more. It's so cute hearing her sweet little baby voice try to roar with effect. :)

Extra Effort

We went out to dinner tonight. It was actually our first time going out to dinner in quite a while. We went to a quaint little burger place that has a deck that overlooks a beautiful waterfall. Linus was mesmerized. Lolly didn't care about the waterfall at all...the cafe lights on the porch held her attention. Well, that and food.

On the way home, we had to drive through a very dark area. Because there's little interference from city lights, you are able to see the stars very well. Linus announced she that it was so clear and beautiful that she could see God. I was touched. Until...

Me: You do?
Linus: I sure do. I can hear him too.
Me:You can?
L: I sure can.
Me: What's he saying? (Will I EVER learn?)
L: He's saying that he's disappointed.
Me: Really? (Right about then we were passing some road construction where they're cutting into the trees--looks like they are expanding the road. Linus is a big tree hugger, so I thought she was going to make a comment that God was upset that they were cutting down his beautiful trees).
L: He said he's disappointed that you took away my puppy and bear (stuffed animals) today.
Me: He was? I was disappointed in your behavior too.
L: Um, Mama? He was disappointed in YOU not me. He was disappointed that YOU took away something that your child loves so much.

MORE Sweet Lolly!

Linus and I were discussing how much I love her this afternoon. She'd open her arms and say, "This much?" and I'd say, "No, more." After a few rounds of this, Sweet Lolly starts making the /m/ sound and signing "more." She's been able to sign more for a few weeks now, but so far it's only been when she wanted more food. :)