Factoids

Yesterday I came down for breakfast and grabbed a glass of water.  Seeing this, Sam said to me, "Did you know that H2O is the scientific name for water?"

I told him he was pretty smart, and he replied, "I know.  That's because I got glasses."

He often tells me factoids that he learns on his favorite TV show (Zoboomafoo) like: "Did you know that a hippopotamus can open its mouth 3 feet wide?" or "Did you know that dogs are hunters by nature?"

My recent favorite was when he said to me, "Mom, you always need to be sure to give big-horned animals their space....or they will butthead you."

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:

Baby Bump

I figured it was about time to get a picture of the baby's progress. Sorry the lighting is so terrible, but you get the idea. This baby continues to be our most active one yet.  The kids love it when they can feel and see the baby moving through my tummy.  3 more months until we meet him or her!

How do you like your eggs?

Now that we have a fresh supply of eggs coming in every day from our chickens, we have been eating them more frequently so I've gotten to know everyone's egg preferences pretty well. Apparently, there was a study done recently which claims that the way people eat their eggs reveals their personality.  Here were some of the findings:

• People who like poached eggs are more likely to be outgoing and happy. They are also more likely to by female, have 2 children and no more than 1 sibling. 
• Those who like fried eggs are more often young and male. They are also more likely to be members of the skilled working class.
• Scrambled egg eaters are often guarded, have managerial positions, own their own homes and have no children.
• Boiled egg eaters are usually disorganized and impulsive.
• Omelet eaters are often self-disciplined and tend to have tidy homes.

My first impression was that this is a bunch of baloney, but just for fun, I checked for accuracy in my own family. Here were my findings:

• Elena - Bingo. Boiled egg eater.  Impulsive.  Has a strong aversion to organization.
• Sam - Loves fried eggs ("Yolk eggs" as he calls them). They got the young and male part right.
• Seth- Usually eats fried eggs.  Pretty accurate overall.
• Me - Apparently I'm a man.

Well, 3 out of 4 isn't bad. I also checked this with Seth's boss last night, who prefers scrambled eggs.  While he is in a managerial position, he laughed pretty hard at the 'no kids' part: he has 8 children.

Reader participation time! Leave us a comment letting us know how accurate this is for you.

 As promised, here is Elena in her new glasses.  This picture was taken on farmer day at Kindergarten in case you're wondering about the outfit. Elena's at a great age for glasses - she's big enough to take care of them and young enough to be excited about them.  The day she got them, she put them on, looked at Seth and me with a big smile and said, "I'm so happy!!!!"

 

Seth and Craig had a successful hunting trip in Wyoming - both of them got a large buck.  Here's a picture of Seth and his "envelope" as Sam calls it.

 

And here's a great picture that Craig took with our camera.  Looks like our camera's not the reason we don't get a lot of great pictures - it's the person behind it...

 

If you call our house....

Sammy has been taking on the role of receptionist here, racing to answer the phone anytime it rings. And that suits me fine because he can usually get there before the answering machine picks up, unlike me. He's very good at small talk, which the callers sometime appreciate and sometimes do not.  And he will generally continue until I prompt him to hand me the phone. Here's a sample of a conversation he had when answering the phone yesterday:

Sam: Hi.

Other person: Is your mom or dad there?

Sam: My mom is the only one here, and she is reading us books.  My dad's not here because he shot a buck today and he will be coming home tomorrow.

Me: Sam, give me the phone.

Sam: My mom will be coming right up, okay? (He usually says that to the caller before passing the phone off)

Did I mention that he was wearing vampire teeth throughout this entire conversation?  I'm pretty sure the caller didn't understand half of what he said.

In other news, Seth went antelope hunting with his brother in Wyoming this weekend and they both got bucks.  I sure hope the kids like antelope jerky.

Coming up next - Elena's new glasses. I would have posted something sooner, but Seth has the camera and I want to include a picture.

Elena's latest project

This is the wall next to Elena's bed.

 It started when Elena brought home a few school pictures of her classmates. Then she found the box full of past xmas card photos. And she's still not done.

 

 At this rate, we won't need to bother repainting her room.

Our Latest Addition

After having such a great experience with Natalie last year, we decided that we would at least remain on the "emergency list" for the foreign exchange student program as there seem to be a lot of students who need a new family throughout the year.  We didn't have to wait for our new student long.  We got a call the first week of August asking if we would take another German girl for the year.

 

We decided to go for it, so we are happy to introduce to you, Charlotte. So far we have really enjoyed having her stay with us. There are 5 German students in our school so our house has been full of Germans lately, which is a lot of fun...especially when they cook for us :)

 

Here is a picture of Charlotte with 2 of the other exchange students.  Charlotte is the one of the right:

 

 

(Oh, I should probably add that this was taken on "Nerd Day" for Homecoming week at school.)

Cooking With Sammy

Sam was "cooking" outside today with the neighbor boy.  Here's the recipe for what they made.  Sam calls it "Bad Guy Soup."

Bad Guy Soup

• Fill a bowl with dirt.
• Catch as many grasshoppers as you can - in this case, one - and smash them. (If your mom discovers what you are doing at this point, you may have to smash them further to make sure they have been "put out of their misery.") Add to the dirt.
• Add rocks to taste.
• Stir it all together while laughing maliciously: "Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!" until thoroughly mixed.

Though it may seem like it, I'm not exaggerating on these directions one bit.  I thought they were being pretty imaginative, but when they started the sinister laugh, I knew I would have to put this on the blog.

My Turn

As you know, Seth had appendicitis this summer.  Then Elena went delirious with a high fever.  Now I have whooping cough.  Ironically, I had planned to get the vaccine for whooping cough right after the baby was born.  At least it's me and not the kids - I'd hate to watch them go through this. The only disadvantage to it being me is...well, I'm the mom.  And we all know how much gets done around the house when Mom is sick.  Seth has done a great job of stepping up and taking care of things as much as he can, though. I'm on antibiotics so I'm not contagious, but they don't do a lot to help improve the symptoms.  Chances are I'll just have to ride this cough out for the next few weeks.

I figured as long as I'm too sick to get much done, I would update the blog.

The month of July was spent mostly at the pool.  Elena mastered going off the diving board in the deep end by herself without a life jacket.  She was pretty proud of herself.  Sam was also very good at going off with his life jacket.  Unfortunately, every time I brought my camera they wouldn't go off the board so I didn't get any footage.

At the end of the month, we went camping at Storybook Land in Aberdeen, SD with several of our friends.  The kids had a blast.  While we were there, we went to a show with Lakota Hoop Dancers.  At the end, any kids who wanted to come up and learn how to dance could do so.  I was able to get footage of that.  Here are Sam (green tank top) and Elena (white tank top, green shorts) doing a "traditional" hoop dance:

First Day of Kindergarten!

 

Evil Knievel

Not only can Sam ride his bike without training wheels at 3 years old, but he can also pop-a-wheelie (a tiny one) and slam on his breaks to leave a patch on the cement - which is great for his tires.

Yesterday, however, he started to show more of his daring side than I would like to see.  I was talking with my sister and my sister-in-law at the park while the kids were playing when one of them said, "What is Sam doing with his bike?"

I looked over and he was trying to carry his bike up the steps leading to the highest slide on the playground.  I ran over and asked him what he was doing, and he replied, "I'm going to ride my bike down the slide." When I told him that that was absolutely not allowed, he came back with, "Well, can I ride it down the steps, then?"

It's going to be a long time before I'm comfortable letting this boy out of my sight for more than a few seconds.....

After a long day of swimming....

Back to the ER

We have been fortunate that our ER visits have been short-lived and have not resulted in any long-term health problems for any of our family.  Still, I hope we're done with the ER for awhile or, better yet, forever.

We had a very scary morning yesterday.  Elena had her shots on Thursday afternoon and she had a fever of about 102 degrees when she went to bed that night. She hates taking medicine and I was only able to get her to take a little bit of Tylenol and Motrin.  I've learned that if I force it down, she will immediately vomit it back up.

She was sleeping in our room and she asked for milk around 6:00.  After drinking her milk, we noticed her breathing was kind of irregular.  Then we heard her throw up.  I brought a bucket over to her and tried to get her to sit up, but she couldn't sit up and wasn't responding.  Seth turned on the lights and we saw that her lips were blue and she wasn't breathing - it appears that she was choking on her vomit.  I immediately ran downstairs and called 911 while Seth did the Heimlich maneuver.

It took him a few tries until she started breathing, but even after she started breathing she wouldn't respond.  She wouldn't talk at all and kept slipping in and out of consciousness.  By the time the ambulance got there, she was unconscious. They took one look at her and brought her straight into the ambulance.  I went along in my pajamas with nothing but my phone.

Seth's sister lives next door and had seen the ambulance at our place so she ran over and was able to take Sam so Seth could drive to the hospital right away.  In the ambulance Elena opened her eyes a bit after getting oxygen.  When they tried to give her an IV, she woke up quite a bit more (she hates needles more than she hates medicine) - enough that they were able to skip the IV for the time being.

At the ER her temperature read 105.  She chose to take her tylenol rectally rather than orally - yes, she is that stubborn.  Her temp dropped steadily, and after several tests and a couple of x-rays we were able to take her home in time for lunch.  She was lethargic the whole time and she wouldn't talk.  Seth was very anxious to hear her talk again - it was so unlike her.  She doesn't remember anything from the early morning and very little of the ER visit. What she does remember she says it seems like it was a dream.

Her fever continued for the rest of the day, but she felt much better.  We were finally able to get her to take her medicine by getting the chewables, crushing them and mixing them with a little juice. Thank you, Bill Cosby for the idea.

The doctors claim that the incident was purely coincidental and not related to her vaccines, but I'm having a hard time believing them. Especially since the Centers for Disease Control specifically lists a fever for 105 or higher occuring 1-3 days after the vaccine as a possible side effect of the DtaP.

Anyway, life is back to normal, seeming a little more precious.  I am so thankful that Seth and I were both home so I could call 911 while he did the Heimlich. I am slightly terrified of trying to rescue a choking person - I know what to do if I'm the most capable person on hand and I have dealt with minor episodes when my kids were little, but I was very relieved to have Seth there - he did a great job.

I have also never been more thankful that we let our kids sleep in our room if they are sick or having trouble sleeping.  I shudder to think what we would have found in the morning if Elena had been in her room where we couldn't hear her. 

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.  I'm happy to report that Elena's fever is gone and she is back to normal.

Goodbye, Natalie!

Well, this is only about 2 months late. We brought Natalie to the airport for her return to Germany at the beginning of June.  My morning sicknes kicked in on the ride home from the airport so I haven't had the motivation to write a thorough post on here until now.

We absolutely loved having Natalie as a part of our family and it was hard to let her go.  There were many tears at the airport and afterwards.  Poor Sam doesn't do well with goodbyes and he broke down several times throughout the day, saying "Why did Natalie have to go???" 

When we ask Elena if she wants to get another exchange student someday, she says "No.  I just want to get Natalie again."

Here are a few pictures from her last days here.

We made her a "German" chocolate cake for her birthday - delicious!

All the cousins have been missing Natalie as well. We had a big going away party for her the night before we left for the cities. Most of Seth's family made it so she got to have one last night surrounded by our huge family in a small town before she moved back to her huge city full of small families (she knew very few families in Germany with more than 2 kids :)

We decided to spend our last weekend up in the cities and, unfortunately, the whole family got sick except for Natalie. Doubly unforunate was the fact that we didn't all get sick at once, but took turns so it was drawn out over 3 days.  During one brief period where we were all relatively healthy, we were able to visit the brand new fire station where Seth's brother, John works.  The kids loved getting to see the big firetrucks up close.  They even got their own fire hats.  We were so worried that Natalie would come down with it on her flight home, which would have been miserable.  I guess all that hand sanatizer worked, though, because she managed to escape the bug.

Sam hopped in by Natalie for a cuddle on her last morning in the US.

The Phases of the Moon - by Sam

Sam pointed out the moon to me last week, explaining that it was a half moon.

After a minute, during which time I assume he was pondering how the moon goes through the different phases, he said: "Mom, I think maybe a rocket man flies up to the moon with a knife and cuts it in half."

I tried explaining how it actually happens with the moon reflecting the light of the sun and the Earth blocking the light.  Sam came back with, "But how does the moon get cut in half??"

I think we'll stick with the rocket man theory for now.

Our First Camping Trip of the Summer

We had our annual DeCock camping trip with Seth's mom's side of the family last weekend.  I was fortunate to have 2 days in a row where I felt pretty good and we had air conditioning in the cabins so there were no complaints all weekend.

I failed to take any pictures of the weekend, but Elena brought along our old camera.  The battery only lasts about 20 minutes and it frequently loses the pictures you take, but it keeps her happy.

So here are some highlights of the weekend as documented by Elena:

So Thankful

Sunday night I came home to find Seth lying on the couch with a terrible stomach ache.  After a couple of hours, we called the hospital and the nurse recommended we take him in.  We were lucky that I was having a pretty good night (usually I spend my evenings puking), so Seth's dad came to stay with the kids while I brought Seth into the ER.
By about 12:30, they were pretty sure it was appendicitis.  So I went home to get some sleep, while Seth spent the night doing more testing. At 8:30 in the morning, they took out his appendix, and he was discharged from the hosptial by 6:00 that night.
We were fortunate that we went in right away - his appendix was nowhere near rupturing and his recovery has been pretty quick. Normally we're the type to wait it out before we go into the doctor, and I'm glad we didn't do that this time.
It's a little sobering to know that 150 years ago, I would have been a widow by now. To say we're thankful for modern advancements in medicine would be an understatement.

8 Years!

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful and loving husband.  It's been a great 8 years and I hope we get to enjoy many more decades together. I'm too sick to write much so I'll just put up a video.

One of the things I love most about Seth is seeing how much fun he has with our kids.

  

Elena is very excited to help out when the new baby comes - and I'm hoping that excitement won't wear off too quickly.  Helping during the pregnancy, however, is apparently not as appealing to her.  I've learned that children have very little sympathy for their parents.

As an example, here's a conversation Elena and I had yesterday.

Elena (yelling from the living room): Mom, are you throwing up?

Me: Yes.

Elena: Oh......Can you get me a snack?


Seth has since talked with her about helping me when I'm sick, so this morning when I was heaving into the toilet, Elena was  much more helpful:

Elena: Can I get you a banana?

Me: No, not right now.

Elena: What would you like?

Me: Maybe a glass of water.

Elena: Ok - I'll get it.....would you like a jelly bean with that?

Me: No, thank you.

And I'm happy to say that she promptly brought me a glass of water (without spilling). Hooray!

A Memory Like and Elephant

Elena has a great memory, or "membery" as she calls it.  Like many things in life, this has both advantages and disadvantages.

Elena's lastest interest has been hearing stories from when we were little - she asks us (and any other adult) to "tell stories from when you were little."  I'm getting to a point where I'm running out of stories. 

Anyway, the other day Elena had the opportunity to ask my Uncle Paul for stories when he was little. She lucked out there because Paul is a great storyteller, and his stories are never dull.  So she heard all about how he used to go rat hunting by the garbage dump when it was set on fire each night and how he (accidentally) shot a dead man's rear end when he was 12.  The next day she was telling Seth one of the stories she remembered:

"One time, this guy took a newspaper and lit it on fire, and then he was using the fire to burn the hair off his arms.  And then Grandpa Lawrence came in and said, 'What are you doing?!!?'"

Just as I was about to breathe a sigh of relief that she didn't remember exactly what Grandpa Lawrence had said, she corrected herself, making sure to get it exactly right: "No, wait - he said 'What the hell are you doing?!!?'" 

We told her that she probably shouldn't repeat that story to her friends...

There's a baby on the way!

A couple of weeks ago we were headed to Marshall, and Sam suddenly piped up from the back seat, "Mom, I think there's probably a baby ready for you to pick up at the hospital.  We should stop by there and check."  I explained to him that it doesn't really work that we and we skipped the unnecessary stop.

I didn't even know it yet, but he was sort of right.  I was just barely pregnant at the time, and am now offically about 5 weeks along.  We don't really bother to wait telling people because in about a week, I'm going to have to explain why I'm puking all the time anyway :)

The kids are very excited, although I think Sam might start doubting that a baby is really on the way.  His first reaction was, "Let's go to the hospital right now to pick it up."  After we explained that the baby is in my belly, he came over, lifted my shirt and looked into my belly button to try to see the baby. He now checks my belly a few times a day to see if the baby has grown. Every time he checks, his conclusion is the same: "No baby yet." Elena wanted to know how big the baby was, etc. so I showed her pictures of what it looked like online.  According to Elena, "it looks like a lizard."  I reminded her that she looked like a lizard at that age, too.

Elena is convinced it's a girl because "she prayed for a baby more than Sam did." She has already started collecting pretty things to give to the baby - a boquet of flowers, shiny rocks, etc. Sam, of course, is rooting for a boy. He told his babysitter today that the baby would be a boy and he was going to wrestle with him. ("Not until he's older!"Elena quickly reminded him.) When their sitter asked Sam, "What if it's a girl?" he replied, "It won't be."

That's my boy!

While we were at Seth's cousin's graduation party last week, Sam went to the bathroom by himself...which would be fine if he didn't need help wiping afterwards.

As there was no one there to help, he walked out among all the party guests with his pants around his ankles and proclaimed for all to hear, "Can somebody wipe me?!!"

Classic

Every once in awhile those great photo opportunities just fall right into your lap.

Look what Sammy can do!

Elena's still too scared to try riding a bike.  "Maybe when I'm 6," she says.  Today she bumped it up to 8.

I just came across this post, which I started and never finished.  I only started it last August though so I'm not even a year behind schedule....not too bad by my standards.

These pictures were taken the day before my cousin, Ben's wedding.  He was married at a state park which had waterfall and a creek right behind the wedding location.  Knowing the kids would be itching to get in the water, I decided to let them get their fill the day before the wedding.  It worked quite well - the kids swam (or rather, played in the mud) to their hearts content and did a very good job staying out of the water on the wedding day.

It was only after they finished playing in the water that I noticed this sign.  I probably would have missed it completely since it was above my eye level if Elena hadn't started climbing on the wall next to it.

If you can't read it, I'll just sum it up: wading is not recommended due to levels of fecal bacteria that exceed the standards recommended for body contact.  The only comforting words on the sign were "at times."  Let's hope we landed at a time when the bacteria was low.  Just to be safe, we took a very thorough bath afterwards :) 

Twins Game

We brought Natalie and the kids to a Twins game last month.  It rained a bit, but we high enough up that we were by the overhang of the stadium.  Elena still insisted on wearing her poncho, though.  I think the kids enjoyed getting out of our seats to get food more than thtey enjoyed the game, but we all had fun regardless (even though the Twins lost).

 One highlight of the evening was when Elena got to be on the big screen - although just barely.  The camera man was below us and he was trying to get a shot of Sam and Elena, but the people sitting in front of us were equally excited at a chance on the screen and kept standing up.  Since they were all teenagers, they completely blocked our kids.  The camera man kept telling them to sit down, but by the time they did his camera had been cut and the screen gone back to the game. Elena's arm got some nice screen time, though :)

I think the biggest highlight for the kids was the cotten candy - here's Sam showing off his skicky fingers.  Elena took her first bite and said, "Yum! Mom I had forgotten how much I like this stuff!!"

On a related note, we were also able to go to Natalie's first home softball game.  When she was up to bat, Sam and Elena were cheering for her.  Elena's shouted words of encouragement gave Natalie a pretty good laugh: "Go Natalie! Hit the ball, or they'll kick you off the team!!!"

I wasn't expecting these questions quite so soon...

Elena: Where did the first people come from if there were no other people to have them?

Me: Well...God made them - everything came from God.  A long, long time ago there was nothing.  But then God made the stars and then the Earth; and from the Earth grew plants and animals and eventually, the first people.  Before all of that, none of this was here.

Elena: Oh............I wish God didn't make pokies. (That's what the kids call the pine needles that hurt their bare feet when they walk through our back yard)

Five!

I'm posting this over a month late, but what's new? The day after we got back from Hawaii, we had Elena's first "friend" birthday party.  It certainly is hard to believe we have a 5-year old now (who will start kindergarten in the fall!)  She picked a Hawaiian theme for her cake.  It's been so long now so I don't remember any interesting details other than that we took the girls bowling and they all had a great time, but here are a few photos.

Elena also got a second cake, baked by Natalie and her friends - lucky girl!

That's it for now.  I'll try to post more month-old news on here in the upcoming weeks.  I know I've been slacking a bit :)

Samisms

I love when kids are learning a language and they say things that only those who know them best would understand. Here are a few of Sam's:

If he asks for macaroni and cheese, don't make it before checking to make sure he isn't really talking about cottage cheese.

If he wants a "valentine," he means a clementine.

When he says he saw someone riding a popcicle, he is talking about a motorcycle.

"Ice squishing" means ice fishing.

This one only happened once, but it cracked me up: Sam was getting ready for Church and he said he was going to tuck in his shirt "so I'll look sharp." Once his shirt was tucked in he said, "There - now I'm sharpened."

Elena has taken to turning nouns into verbs. Here are 2 recent examples:

Pointing out a No Smoking sign, she said, "There's no cigaretting allowed here."

And her friend, Matthew, got back from a trip to Oklahoma a few days before the tornados hit this past week, causing Elena to remark, "I'm glad Matthew is home from Oklahoma so he doesn't get tornadoed."

"Sister"

I failed to mention earlier that we have a new addition to our family this spring: our exchange student from Germany, Natalie. She joined us in February, and we have thoroughly enjoyed having her here with us.

At Easter, Elena mentioned to my cousin's wife, Anne, that "my sister is sleeping." Anne had a brief panic attack thinking that we had had another child and she had somehow managed to miss it entirely. It was then that I realized that I hadn't gotten around to writing about her on here.

As you can see from the picture, the kids love her! Sam had a little trouble remembering her name for the first couple of weeks. He knows it now, but continues to just call her "Sister". She does not have any younger siblings and comes from a big city so living with small children in a small town is a big adjustment for her. After a couple of weeks, she said that she will miss the small town life when she goes back home (not that she would want to live here permanently :) We sure will miss her when she goes home in June.

Thanks for the help, Mom and Ricky!

I have never been so thankful to be in a town full of relatives that I can call on at a moment’s notice as I was today.

While I was watching our 2-year-old nephew this afternoon, he managed to lock himself into our bathroom. He had already gone to the bathroom 3 times that day without evenshutting the door, so I have no idea what made him decide to shut and lock the door this time.

Since all of our doors have knobs from the early 20th century, our only options for locking them are hook latches or bolts. This door had a sliding bolt a few inches above the doorknob, which makes it impossible to get at from the outside. The hinges on the door were on the inside so removing the door that way was not an option. And the window was locked from the inside so the only way through that was to bust it open, which I didn't really care to do.

Of course, he did it about 10 seconds after Seth left to go running so I was home alone – and getting through locked doors and windows is not my forte. I spent about 5 minutes explaining to RJ how to unlock the door. After trying to reach it once or twice, he just sat down and started
yelling for his Mom, refusing to try again. Fortunately, my brother-in-law, Ricky was working next door and came over to help. The 2 of us (and Sam) spent another 5 minutes trying to get him to move the stool across the room so he could reach the lock, to which he repeatedly responded, “NO! I want my mommy!!” Even having his mom talk to him over the loudspeaker on my phone didn’t help. (His older sister later told me that he’s going through a period
of really not liking people to tell him what to do. Lovely.)

We could see him through the window trying to reach the lock, and his fingers couldn’t reach it well enough to move it. I’m still not sure how he managed to lock it in the first place. After about 20 minutes, I was starting to think that if he didn’t agree to move the stool soon and unlock the door, we were going to have to take an axe to it. Luckily, Ricky’s mind is much better at mechanical problem-solving than my own.

He figured out that he could pry part of the trim away from the door enough to stick a knife through and slide the lock over with that. Then he just pounded the trim back in place and you couldn’t even tell it had been disturbed.

So the door was finally unlocked, and we were able to get to RJ, who was happy and unharmed – hooray!! – and covered in poop. Double hooray. Seth came back from his run about this time,
so he ran RJ upstairs for a bath while I cleaned poop off (and sanitized) the stool, sink, door and floor.

Oh, and did I mention that this all happened at the same time I was supposed to be picking Elena up from preschool? It’s a good thing Seth’s parents live 2 blocks away from the school and his mom was able to run over to get her.

#87 on our to-do list: move locks out of the reach of small children.

Hawaii says hello

Seth and I just got back from our trip with the Knights of Columbus to Hawaii (the big island). It was our first time together away from both kids for longer than one night, and it was wonderful. Of course I missed the kids - especially when we saw something they would have really enjoyed, like all the places to swim at the resort. However, I'm not going to deny that I loved having a week to do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted without much interruption - I especially enjoyed the slow, lazy mornings.

The kids also had a blast staying with all of their grandmas and grandpas. Elena put it well the night before we left. I told her, "I'm really going to miss you while I'm gone, and I hope you have fun." To which she replied, "Well...I'm not going to miss you. And you'll have less fun than me." It probably sounds terrible written out, but she wasn't being snotty - just very honest :) She was absolutely thrilled to have an entire week of grandparents. (I hope that they were able to enjoy it a little as well).

Sam's biggest worry while we were gone was apparently that we would get too close to a volcano. The first time we called home, he asked if we would see hot lava. I said I didn't know, but that we had seen lots of cold lava. He then said, in a very concerned voice, "If you see the hot lava, will you be sure to stay far away so it doesn't burn you?" I figured I would be the one worrying about the kids on this trip - I wasn't expecting it to be the other way around!

We did see a volcano, but we were not able to get close enough to see the hot lava...

One of the highlights of the trip was when we went snorkeling in the lagoon pictured below. We came across a large sea turtle and were able to swim along side it for about 5 minutes. We were close enough that we could have laid our hand on its back (but they are an endangered species so we're not supposed to touch them).

While we had a wonderful time, it is always good to be home. And we have been fortunate to return to weather almost as nice as it was in Hawaii. I would dare say this afternoon was nicer than what we had in Hawaii - although it might just seem that way because I'm comparing it to what we've had in previous years at this time. I love the warm weather, but I think I love it so much because of the winter. There are not many things sweeter than watching everything come to life outside after a long winter.

The weather was so nice at our friend Toby's 3rd birthday party we had to play some games outside. We decided to have a 3-legged race followed by one of those baseball races where the kids spin around with their foreheads on a bat and then try to run.
Frankly, the kids were boring. They were too didn't get that dizzy, and even when they did, they still were coordinated enough to run in a straight line. And we didn't want to make them spin so much that they would puke or hurt themselves.
Enter the Dads. They were much more entertaining.

To really appreciate this video, I think you have to watch it 3 times: first for the overall effect, and then to watch Jason (gray shirt) and Dan (light green) each individually.

And then probably a few more times just to laugh at them. According to Dan, there was a brief moment just after he saw Jason go down where he thought to himself, "Yes! I have a chance!" before dropping himself. If you're wondering what Jason is doing, he is attempting to hold himself up by wrapping his arms around the tree. Seth won the race, but wasn't nearly as entertaining.

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Minnesota Weather

This picture was taken the first week of January. The kids were outside. In shorts. And it was comfortable. As most of you probably know, we enjoyed an unusually warm start to the year here in MN.

One drawback to this was that Sam refused to switch back to pants and long-sleeved shirts for several weeks afterwards - even when the cold weather returned, which is what led to Sam's latest unique fashion trends.

I recall my mom telling me that we girls would change our clothes several times a day, and that my brother was on the opposite end of the spectrum, insisting on wearing the same clothes day after day (along with a belt that he always wore much too tight).

Sam is a mixture of the two. While he frequently decides to change clothes during the day (pulling out every article of clothing he owns in the process), he recently discovered what we like to call his "winter muscle shirt." His new favorite top is a green sweater vest with no shirt underneath. For quite awhile he wore it almost daily along with shorts and cowboy boots. I didn't get a pictures of that snazzy combo, but I do have a shot of the sweater vest.

Fortunately, we have had enough real winter weather since then that we have been able to talk him back into wearing pants.

Speaking of winter, I just want to say how extremely happy I am to have family right next door who are willing to play with the kids outside. A special shout-out to Austin and Madison (even though they don't read this) who pulled Elena and Sam around in sleds for almost 2 hours while I got supper ready.

Here are a couple of shots of our latest snowfall, which has already melted.

Here is Brooke, RJ, Elena and Sam. Those tree branches on the ground behind them are normally about 10 feet higher up.

Our street.

Ice skating

We almost went into the ditch today. I hit an slushy patch in the road and swerved back and forth between the 2 lanes for awhile before regaining control of the car. Fortunately it was a county road with no other cars in sight.

Elena's response? "That was fun, Mom! We were ice skating with the car."

The Power of Advertising II

I was browsing through my old blog posts and came across this one when Elena wanted to get a dog so we could buy a fancy dog brush. I forgot to mention that she topped that about a week later when we drove by the Ford dealership. There must have been a sale going on so they had balloons tied to the cars.

You've probably already guessed it. From the back seat, I heard Elena's voice say, "Mom! If we buy a car, we can get a balloon!!!"

We watched E.T. tonight

I figured if I skipped the "scary" parts with the scientists chasing and capturing E.T., the kids would really enjoy it. And they did; they especially liked the scene where he gets drunk and falls over.

The only problem was the ending. I knew it had a bittersweet ending, but I figured I could emphasize that E.T. got to go hom with his family and all would be well. Elena did pretty well: as she put it, she "almost cried" but was fine by the time the credits were rolling. Sam, on the other hand took the 'bitter' part of that ending a little hard.

When E.T. says "Come" to Elliot, and Elliot replies, "Stay," Sam's little lip started to quiver. After the movie ended, Sam was so heartbroken for poor E.T. that he sobbed for 5 minutes. Every time I tried to console him, he would cry, "But why did E.T. say 'come' and why did the boy say he couldn't go??"

In the end, though, it was nothing a couple of Curious George stories couldn't fix. In the future, however, I will be making sure to pick movies with very happy endings :)

(And I apologize, 12-year-old Sam, if this story embarrasses you 9 years from now, but I think it's sweet)

Happy Birthday to me

I turned 29 last month. I am now too old to audition for American Idol. Fortunately I've never had any desire to do so...

I was gone most of the day on my birthday and I came home to a mini-surprise party with Seth and the kids. The surprise mainly being that they baked a cake for me while I was gone. It was Seth's first time ever baking a cake. He even made the frosting from scratch since he knows I don't like the stuff from a can.

I don't think he realized that a bundt cake is one of the more difficult to make since they fall apart easily, but they managed to correct any damage and the cake turned out very well. I was quite impressed: