Immediacy of memory

I think I often view the world much as my children do (whatever has recently happened is how it always is and has been). Here's an example: Suzy often makes dinners that the kids love. Mac and cheese, waffles, lots of types of pasta's, corn on the cob, things with Chicken.

The other day I made "chicken stuff", which is basically cream of chicken soup with a few extras over pasta. Kate could not get enough of it, but just kept saying how much she loved it.

The next day in the car, Kate says, "Mommy, I don't know why, but my body just likes things that daddy makes". She was trying to be nice about it, and said, "but don't worry, I like some things you make to, but its just my body likes things daddy makes." (I cook about once every 4-6 months).

Nacho Night

We were having a Nacho night with some friends. As I was talking to one of them in the kitchen, I heard the sound of glass breaking and looked over to see that Faith had dropped the new pencil holder (a mug) on the ground. I had just finished cleaning it up and sat down on the couch, when I hear my oldest daughter yell out from the backyard "Faith peed her pants". Sure enough, on our back porch was a little puddle. After getting her in a diaper and hosing down the patio, Suzy walked back into the room (It had been maybe 5 minutes since she'd left). I think she shouldn't trust me with our kids.

A few minutes later, Grandma English brought by a beautiful new dress she had just finished sewing for Faith. She left, and we had smoothies soon thereafter. Faith somehow dumped out her entire cup on the floor and her new dress (luckily the smoothie was white, so the dress is easily cleaned), then managed to track it onto the rug. I love that girl (she's the same one who continues to turn and run into walls, chairs, people, you name it). She takes after her daddy.

Also, there is a small alien in my wifes belly. Its pretty cool to track his elbow's (foots?) progress across her stomach. We think he's trying to get a good foothold to propell himself out. Hopefully on Sunday.

Pioneer Day

Yesterday was Pioneer day. We worked very hard all day to talk about the Pioneers and all the hardships they suffered. While we were getting done with the Zoo, and the kids were complaining about walking, we used the very effective technique of telling them to instead imagine the pioneer children and how far they had to walk (has that ever worked?).

Anyway, Kate's prayer last night "...and thank you that we're not pioneers".

At least we know they listen sometimes, even if the lesson they learn isn't always the intended one.

Peeps

Yesterday, we went to the Zoo. It was pretty busy, but for my first time we got to go around lunch time. Apparently this is also lunch time for the animals. We were looking at a bobcat, when the zoo attendant opened up the back door and tossed in some dinner. Which happened to be some little baby chicks (already dead). The bobcat started to immediately tear into this delicious feast. Unfortunately, I was also holding Kate at this time, who saw the whole show. I was thinking it would be very interesting, she however was very distraught about the poor little "peeps". We tried to convince her that they were marshmallow peeps, but she wasn't having any of that, she knows a dead chick when she sees one. This did present an opportunity for us to tell her about the circle of life. We also got to see an Ocelot eating a rat, and some penguins eating some fish. I thought it was pretty cool. I'll try to post the video of the Bobcat later.

Ringtones

Today, we were playing a game with the favored "Uncle Marshall". His phone was on vibrate, and sitting on the table. He received a text while we were all sitting around the table (the girls eating watermelon, us playing "Ticket to Ride"). Faith immediately looked up in surprise and said:
"You Tooted!"
Then:
"Say 'Scuse me"
Uncle Marshall obediently made his phone say "Excuse me".

Cinco de Mayo

Fairy eating flowers

In the ongoing Rosetta and Jonathan series (the story of two amazing fairies), they recently fought an evil witch who had turned some other fairies into...FAIRY EATING FLOWERS. Each time one of these flowers ate a fairy, they produced another fairy eating flower. Of course, this happened as Rosetta and Jonathan were explorying a jungle for new plants.

Kate drew the above picture as a representation of a Fairy eating flower. Notice the beautiful vines (representing a jungle) and the sharp teeth on the top of the flower. She is an ARTEEST.

Interesting affects

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100713/sc_livescience/invisiblegorillatestshowshowlittlewenotice

Dancing Queens (princesses really...)

I think my favorite part comes at the 1 minute mark...

Raisins

Yesterday, while on the phone with Suzy she told me about a fun little experience. We had just purchased a large, Costco sized box of raisins. She walked into the kitchen, after a 2-3 minute absence to find a large pile of raisins on the floor, and the kids nowhere to be found. She subsequently found them. In our bathroom. With another large pile of raisins (the other half of the box emptied) on our bathroom floor.

Luckily, she'd just mopped our kitchen floor so those raisins are good to go.

Kate kindly informed us that it was Faith who did all the raisin dumping. Which begs the question of what Kate was doing during this time...laughing? encouraging? who knows. I think I'm going to buy one of those security camera systems for the inside of our house.

ps - Faith went Poo in the Potty yesterday! All by herself! She came and told Suzy, who went and checked. Since its one of those portable step stool/potty devices, and not flushable, it was easily verified! Go Faith. She was very excited to tell me when she came home that if she goes poo 3 times, she gets a toy from Grandma!

Interesting article

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/07/the-rout-of-obamanomics/

kateanddade

Kate loves to do surprises for us. Today, she vacuumed the floor, cleaned up the upstairs and made her bed. I had my laptop open, and she is just learning to write/type/read. She wanted to type a surprise for me, and only needed help a couple of times finding some letters and the backspace button (she had the screen turned away from me. Her masterpiece?

kateanddade

Kate and Daddy. For some odd reason, I may be biased, but I thought it was cute.

Uncle Marshall Mustache

Faith, who is learning new words every day, pointed at my goatee and said "mustache!" (Faith seems to have one and only one volume, and that volume is usually turned all the way up).

I of course am very appreciative of my Faith's vocabulary advancement and smiled and let her know that yes, that was a mustache (She's known that word for a while, since we distinguish one of the Grandpas with the moniker of "Papa Mustache").

She then told me what kind of mustache I had...excitedly exclaiming "Uncle Marsho mustache!" . Suzy was there as well, and we both busted up at this. Faith has only known me to have a goatee. Marshall has not always had a goatee, but probably for the last year or so.

I guess we know who the favorite Uncle is.

Bones vs Cartilage

Kate and Suzy were sitting on the couch. Suzy stood up, as she did Kate's ear got squashed and bent against her shoulder. Kate states, "Its a good thing my ear is made out of Cartilage mommy, cause you would have broken it". Needless to say, they had just finished reading about the human skeleton.

Suzy heard Kate vacuuming this morning. Later, when she got in Grandma's car, Kate said, "I like doing surprise cleanings." Grandma says "I know, I've heard about it." Kate finished, "I like cleaning our house because our house is always messy."

Suzy's comment on this, "Oh yeah, and whose mess is it!"

This evening, Suzy and I were in the computer room when we realized that its been awhile since we've heard from Faith.

As Suzy walks into our bathroom where Faith has her feet in the sink..."Faith what are you doing?"
Faith: "I not doing anything"


Yeah, Right.

The sink is filled with water. Which is now very dirty because of her feet. And also, our toothbrushes are in there.

Suzy rinsed them off, so we're good to go.