Then and Now

4 years ago:

Today:

Sammy turned 4 on Friday.  To celebrate we took the kids bowling and then had a big party at our house.  Sam enjoyed all his new toys.  Seth and I did, too, the next morning when the kids were so busy playing with them that they let us sleep in until we woke up at 10:00!

 

Seth turns 30 this week so we combined his birthday party with Sam's.  His cake sure made a lot of light!

 



"Mommy, do I have a little uterus?"

This was asked by Sammy after I explained to the kids exactly where the baby was and how s/he was being kept safe inside of me (prompted by the question of why the baby did not need a separate seat belt from me). I told them that a uterus is something all girls have, including Elena, at which time Sam asked if he had one.

Luckily he's still young enough not to be offended if Seth and I burst out laughing when he asks a question.  It was really a very valid question, but it sounded hilarious.

Later that day, Elena asked my mom if she "still had her uterus." I guess she has noticed that women past a certain age no longer have children. We very briefly explained that while some women do need to have theirs removed, most women continue to have a uterus their whole life.

So ladies, I would like to apologize in advance if either of my children happen to ask you about the state of any of your reproductive organs.

Repeat

There must be something about that chair.

Happy Halloween and All Saints Day

St. Edward's school started the tradition last year of having a Saints Costume Contest for All Saints Day.  It's a great way for the kids to learn about and look up to people who have lived good and holy lives as opposed to all the crappy role models TV provides for us.

Elena chose St. Bernadette of Lourdes.  We had a fun time making her costume and she won 3rd place in her class. 

I was hoping she would want to be St. Bernadette for Trick-or-Treating as well.  Not only because it would have saved me the trouble of putting together 2 costumes, but also because she looked so sweet. But Elena had other plans. 

At the last minute she ditched her ideas of being either the planet Earth or a skunk (again) when the neighbors gave her a pair of vampire teeth.  So while most girls her age were dressing up as fairies and princesses, we got to dress our child up as an undead bloodsucker. She assured us, though, that she was a nice vampire who would never suck the blood of a human. And no, she has not read or seen Twilight; she came up with that on her own.

Sam decided to be a dragon, which worked out perfectly because his cousin Alex was a dragon last year and still had the costume. He had a great time chasing people around pretending to blow fire.

The kids went trick-or-treating with their friends, Ana and Toby, again and a great time was had by all. Including Seth, who had fun carving pumpkins with the kids.

(Don't) Tickle Me Sammy

Once again, most of Seth's family was home for deer hunting opener.  Our exchange student, Charlotte, even went out with Seth.  She was able to see lots of deer and she really enjoyed herself.  The only part she didn't like so much was watching them slit the throat of a deer that our nephew had shot. Still, she said she would do it again so it must not have been too bad.  Unfortunately they got up super early and I didn't think to remind Seth to get a picture of Charlotte in all her hunting clothes.

In the evening, we all gathered for a big meal as usual.  There were juice boxes galore, and we didn't really monitor how many the kids were drinking.  (After asking the kids later, Sam was pretty sure he had 3 and Elena had 5.) While we were still oblivious to their excessive juice intake, Craig was holding Sam and Seth started tickling him.  Sam was laughing his head off, but I guess Seth overdid it a little because all of a sudden, Sam puked on Craig. Craig handled it pretty well. He said it smelled like Juicy Fruit.

Sorry our kid threw up on you, Craig.  Consider it payback for making fun of Seth on his First Communion: