Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Quotable Quotes

Our neighborhood has several pre-school groups that rotate houses. They are organized by age. David is in the group of 3-4 year olds that will all start kindergarten in a year and a half. Here are a couple of quotes from the last time it was at my house.

Ivory: "Hey Guys, come and see what I brought for Shell and Toe"

Lydia (to Alexis): "My name is Lid-DEE-ah"
Alexis: "It's just a really hard name, o.k. Lid-ah-la?"


And, totally unrelated to pre-school but totally related to quotable quotes, last night I heard a dad tell his son while giving him bubble gum, "Don't swallow it, o.k.?" It reminded me of the first time I gave Olivia gum. She was probably 3 or so. Here's how the conversation went.

Me: "Don't swallow your gum, ok?" When you're done, just spit it out in the trash but don't swallow it."

A little while later I noticed that she didn't have her gum in her mouth anymore.

Me: "Where did your gum go? Did you throw it away?"
Liv: "No"
Me: "Did you swallow it?"
Liv: "No"
Me: "Where did it go?"
Liv: "I just put it down my throat."

My tutorial about how to handle gum chewing likely would have been more effective if she actually knew the meaning of the word 'swallow'.

Gotta love kid quotes!

Monday, February 15, 2010

Valentine Fun

Liv's class was encouraged to bring a creative container to collect their valentines. Here is what she came up with (inspired by an idea that Jodi told me about):

Her very own "Valentine Crush" soda. Here is the nutrition label:

Our neighborhood also had a Valentine party for all of the age groups that participate in joy school. They had games, a craft, a valentine coupon for parents, and a table to exchange valentines. David had a lot of fun! (isn't that valentine holder cute? They made it at the party.)
Since Valentine's Day was on a Sunday, we skipped the romantic date and had a fun family Valentine dinner (of pink pancakes, pink milk, pink straws, etc.) complete with party favors. This was my attempt at being festive:
(We don't have any photos of Sean or Warren because Valentine's Day isn't really their thing quite yet...although Warren did insist on buying both boy and girl valentines and he gave the poster that came in the girly valentines to a cute girl in his class. Maybe Valentine's Day will be his thing sooner than I think) Happy Love Day!

Friday, February 5, 2010

This one's in a hurry...

to grow up.
I'm not sure there's any stopping him. The more he can do on his own, the happier he becomes. It always amazes me that each little person comes with a unique little personality. Here is our Brig at 7 months:

I love his eyebrows.
and his eyes.
and his nose.
and his mouth.
and his cheeks.
and his chin.
all of him really, but oh the eyebrows. They make me laugh. They are a little bit crazy and a lot bit expressive.
He got his first tooth just one day shy of 7 months. He is constantly feeling it with his tongue.
He decided he is big enough for stairs (thank goodness for a practice stair)
He has made it all the way up the big stairs (with supervision), but he has not yet mastered coming down. (He did make it all the way down once, too, but not in the way one would have hoped. He was not so much supervised for that one. We had the "Briggy knows how to crawl now so we can't leave him places" talk again so hopefully the next time he comes down the stairs it will be on purpose.)
He has also decided it's time to start pulling himself up with the aid of furniture. He used to get stuck standing up because he couldn't figure out how to get down, but he figured it out. Sometimes the landing is a little rough, but he doesn't stay stuck anymore.

He has also learned how to clap--even if it's still a little spastic, and he loves a good game of peek-a-boo. He has a contagious laugh and love to give (very slobbery) kisses complete with sound effects. We love this little guy. A lot. I often hear, "Can I hold that little boy?" from the kids. One trait he didn't come with so much was a love of sleep. I don't understand it one bit. What's not to love about sleep? We are figuring out how to instill that in him. In the meantime, he is worth the lack of sleep. And then some.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Blue and Gold Banquet

Blue and Gold Banquet is a chance to celebrate the Cub Scouting program. Each boy was supposed to bring a birthday cake (scouting is 100 years old). Sean wanted to do a wolf cake since he is the rank of a Wolf. He did participate slightly in the decorating, but it was a little tricky to frost since it was a cut and paste (with frosting) design. He helped me cut the cake and position it, then he did the eyes, ears and nose after I put the brown frosting down. He was pleased with how it turned out.
This year the banquet was pizza and salad. The boys (and their families) loved it! We are grateful for fabulous scout leaders. They make scouting fun for the boys and keep everything organized so the boys earn lots of awards and progress in a timely manner. They have been great for us first-timers. We have been able to navigate the Cub Scouting waters with relative ease which is a very good thing, because if you've done the math, we will be doing this for A LOT of years!