Merry Christmas from all of us!

Look who else got glasses!

"Now the whole family is smart because we all have glasses."

That's what Sam said when he got his glasses. I don't know where he got that idea. It's amazing how automatic it seems to be for glasses to give the impression of intelligence, even to a 4 year old. 

I guess when you can't spell, it's hard to understand the concept of a homonym....or is it a homophome? Either way, Seth and I got a pretty good kick out of the following conversation.

Elena: I want to wear my pink dress.

Me: I think that dress is a little too small for you.

Elena: It's not two small....It's not even one small.

Looks like we're getting a White Christmas!

We took the kids to the cities this weekend to go to the Mall of America, visit friends and swim in the hotel. It's a good think we hit the mall fairly early Saturday morning; by the time we left, we could hardly walk through the mall because there were so many people.

 

We had a good time, but the snow slowed us down a bit - especially considering our tires have terrible traction - and we had to spend an extra night at a hotel in Glencoe. 

 

Unfortunately, there was no pool, but Elena went outside and played in the snow in the parking lot for about 45 minutes.  Sam was too cold...it would help if he would let us put proper clothes on him.  He still dresses himself in a tank top and shorts everyday, and no amount of reasoning will convince him to do otherwise.  He tried going out with his snowsuit today, but every step he took went up to his thighs and before long, he fell over and couldn't get up so I had to come out and rescue him.  It reminded me a lot of the little brother walking to school in A Christmas Story. 

 

Back to our trip home from Glencoe: it was a long ride home and we saw a lot of cars in the ditch, but we made it. 

Now we can hunker down and enjoy the snow. And buy new tires.

Smarty Pants

It's amazing to see the clever things kids come up with at very young ages.  Sam surprised me tonight while we were reading a story about a camel.  On the first page, the camel is described as being a small camel with skinny legs and large feet.  

As we got to the middle of the book and the camel was going on a journey through the desert, Sam said to me, "I bet camels have large feet so they won't sink in the sand." Not only did he think of something that hadn't even crossed my mind, but he was right.  That is why camels have big feet.

Seth said he must have made the connection from an episode of Zoboomafoo that talked about how a lynx's feet help them walk across snow.  It's good to see he at least learns something when he watches TV :)

Also, the other day Sam was helping me cook when he suddenly told me to wait while he went to get something.  He came back with his safety goggles. I'll let him explain why:

 

By the way, Happy 30th Birthday today, Seth!

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: