Korben and the RULES
1) I heard an urgent "Mommaaaaa" from the kids bathroom and hurried in (because nothing urgent is ever positive in the bathroom). I found KJ, sitting on the toilet, with the hand soap in his hands. "Mom, read right here. What does this say? This says 'keep out of reach of children.' what do you think that means? Is this safe?" He was very concerned that I would just leave something so dangerous lying around in the kids' bathroom.
2) KJ came home from school on Friday after TWELVE kids had been at our house for a playdate. He looked around at the mess and informed me "Mom, if there are going to be a lot of kids here, I think its a good idea if they practice the 'only get one toy out a time' rule, don't you?" yeah, that might have been wise.
3) While a friend was visiting, KJ was showing her his kite. The kite he got for his birthday. In May. That his parents still haven't let him take out of the package (in our defense WE WERE MOVING). I thought bemoaning that he hadn't gotten to fly it would be the extent of the conversation, but he had something more urgent to talk about. He read her the kite safety instructions. Like "don't retrieve from power lines". After going through the list with her, he commented "don't you think they are forgetting a few things. They should have put 'don't fly kites in the house' and maybe should have said 'don't fly kites in fire'. Those would be good rules to add." I think I see a future for him in this!
CBUG makes us LAUGH.
1) Cbug got in the van after school one day as the "interrupting robot". Only we didn't know it. While some of my children would have announced "I'm an interrupting robot." and cracked themselves up at the idea, not Cbug. He just climbed into his seat, took out a book and started looking at the pages. UNTIL. Lou tried to tell me something. Midway through each of her sentences, Cbug (while not looking up and still turning pages) would blurt out "IN-TUH-RUP-TING." in his best robot voice. She'd try to tattle and he'd just say "IN-TUH-RUP-TING". I'd try to correct him, but he'd interrupt me, too. I was laughing so hard, I nearly had to pull the van over. His delivery was impeccable. I don't know where he comes up with these things.
2) On the way to Church on Sunday, we were talking about Harvest Sunday- an
annual event to raise money for missionaries. We talked about how some people go on short term trips to tell people about Jesus, but some people choose to move away to another country for a long time, just like Uncle L and Aunt S. KJ asked "How do some people decide to be a missionary?" That question, (coupled with a talk I'd had the night before on helping our kids identify what they were created to do) launched me into one of my best parenting monologues ever. It was about how every person is created differently and we are all created to use our gifts to teach others about Jesus, wherever we are. And Daddy and I want to help each of them discover what THEY were created to do. It was compassionate, it was sincere, it was biblical, it was empowering. OR so I thought. Until, Cbug called me back to a humbled parental state by responding "Ya know those big trucks? Not the regular big trucks but the big trucks that have something attached to the back? I'd like to ride in one of those."
crickets. crickets. crickets.
Lou and her Successes
1) Our little Lou is getting pretty smart when it comes to working people. At her preschool each semester they do a little assessment for each kid, just showing the parents wheat we can work on at home, what they have learned, etc. Last time Lou did one they asked her to count and she said she could only make it to 9 and then "forgot anything after that". This time, she apparently couldn't remember some of her letters. When I got the sheet, I didn't make a big deal out of it, but I pointed to a couple of the letters and said "Lou, what is this letter" and she told me. So I said "when your teacher asked about that letter, did you tell her what it was?" She grabbed the paper out of my hand, studied it up one side and down the other and then with a wave of her little princess hand declared "I do NOT know WHAT this is talking about!" and went back to playing.
2) We went to KJ's school carnival on Saturday. I was already cracking up at Lou because she was wearing polka dot flats that were two sizes two big. But then she decided she REALLY wanted to do the cake walk. It was mostly bigger kids and grown-ups and there were doing about 35-40 people in the circle at a time, the line was long, and I told her she'd have to wait in it by herself because i couldn't take the stroller over there. i was certain she would pass. But, nope. She carried her little ticket, through the line, found herself a number to stand on and paraded around the circle like she BELONGED THERE. And guess what, she WON herself a cake. AN ENTIRE cake. Now, I'm not entirely sure if she won because she was a full 2 feet shorter than all of the other contestants, because she looked so cute in her polka dot flats, because she nearly came UNGLUED when she saw that it was a pink cake with sprinkles up for grabs in her round, or because the lady running the game actually drew number 31. Regardless, she was THRILLED . I thanked the lady in charge by saying 'This made her whole day" and Lou told me later "Momma, this made my WHOLE day SOOOO excited."
Little Bear
He's six months old and I've finally chosen a blog name for baby C, Little Bear. (which you might see as "bear" or "lb" or "little b". who knows.) It is a tribute to his playful baby bear throaty growl with which he pleasantly communicates. Its also a discrete shout-out to the middle name that our oldest two wanted to give him- Robin. And because he's snuggly bear adorable, of course. Except in the middle of the night. Around September he decided sleeping through the night was overrated. Which might have to do with the fact that he just cut his first tooth. I hope that's what it was, but if so, it took 2 months for him to get that tooth through. He's started eating more foods and loving anything we give him, so maybe he was just hungry. He really likes to pull hair and eat jewelry. He loves for his siblings to play with him and their current favorite game is to sing "trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat" until he laughs so hard he nearly chokes. He's learning to go with the flow, but really prefers to be in his bed for naptime. His happy place, though, is being outside either in the stroller or sitting in the grass (trying to eat it, of course). Fun times for our littlest man!
