"F" Week

Another week, another letter. This week is "F" week, so today at school Haley fingerpainted a picture of the letter "F" and some snow. When I asked Why snow? I quickly learned that you should never ask Haley to explain anything.
To the best of my knowledge, we have no animals who currently live with us that begin with the letter "F", so we were stumped as to what to take to school this week. Haley finally decided she wanted to take some fried rice, but I talked her into taking some fruit chews, which we have plenty of because we went to the new Sam's this weekend and bought a box of them that contained roughly 1000 packets.
Scott threw in his two cents as usual, but I didn't think it would be a good idea to take Tigger to school and say "This is my other F'n cat!" I know, I'm such a party pooper!

250 Bad ideas

Today Amber, Arden, Owen and I went to ToysRUs to take advantage of their going out of business sale (don't everyone freak out, apparently only this location is closing). I made the fabulously smart decision to buy a big box of legos. 250 to be exact, which would bring the grand total of legos in our house to 420, since I had been told on several occasions by people who shall remain nameless (but who are shorter than I am-hint) that the 170 legos we already had in the house were not enough for 3 people to play with all at the same time. This picture was taken shortly after Owen got the lid off the box. Well, the mess was made shortly after the lid came off, but this picture had to wait for me to regain consciousness...

I swear, I don't know how he does it so quickly and so quietly

Body parts

Owen knows roughly 15 body parts by name and will gladly show them to you if you ask. We go over them every day and every so often we add a new one.
Some highlights from today's round:

Tongue















Head















Ear















Belly Button















Nose















Nasal passage

P.T.

Tonight Scott and the kids did a little physical training. I abstained. This workout proved several things to us. One, that Haley is surprisingly good at doing push-ups, and two, that Ashlyn is a HUGE whiner when it comes to having her do something she isn't good at. Owen wasn't big on the sit-ups, but he actually put out a little bit of effort on the push-ups.

When everyone was finished, they all had popsicles to offset the calories they burned while exercising.

In unrelated news, we met with Ashlyn's teacher today to go over her progress. By the time they finish 1st grade, kids in Texas (maybe in all states, I don't know) are expected to read at least 60 words a minute. Right now Ashlyn reads 69 words a minute. Her teacher said she is doing excellently in all areas. She also lost her second tooth last Thursday, but I forgot to write about that when it happened. She has now made $2 by what amounts to selling her bones.

Bedtime stories

Every day after school Ashlyn has math homework and reading homework. She brings home two new books and each evening she reads them to us and we all sign her paper saying we listened. As you can tell, Haley and Owen really don't "listen" exactly, but they are present for moral support.

Luke, Becky, Patrick and Ben

My cousin and his wife, Luke and Becky, now have a blog that Becky has set up for them and their two boys, Patrick and Ben. The title is Three Men and a Lady, and I've added them to my links list.
p.s. I totally stole this picture off her site!

Just checking

Last night before his bath we took Owen's clothes off. Actually, he took them off the moment he heard the word bathtub. Anyway, after he got them all off he proceeded to do a quick body assessment to make sure all important parts were still accounted for. (for some reason he cannot get his diaper off, except for that one time he was supposed to be napping but no way are we reliving that moment)




















Much to Owen's relief, all parts are present and accounted for.

The Golden Rule

"Haley! Don't do that to your brother! Why are you doing that?"

"I don't know"

"What do you mean you don't know? Haven't I told you before not to do that?"

"Yes."

"Don't I say over and over every day not to do that?"

"Yes."

"Haven't I told you about The Golden Rule? Haley, what's The Golden Rule?"

"That Daddy can't poop in your bathroom."

"D" Week

This week at Haley's preschool was "D" week. Of course, we have a Dog, so she immediately knew what she wanted to take. We loaded up Max into the car and took him up to school right before it was time to get out. All the kids went onto the playground and we unhooked Max from his leash. Max ran around non-stop and all the kids ran after him. They almost caught him several times, but he is very quick. This went on for about 15 minutes and then it was time to go. In the car, Max is upset because we make him ride in the very back. Here he is trying to look all cute while pleading his case to get into the middle seat with Haley and Owen.

Mr. Gatti's

Haley went to her first birthday party from her preschool class on Saturday. Miguel turned 5 and decided to celebrate at Mr. Gatti's. I took her, and she had a blast. It is kind of like a Chuck E Cheese only I think it's a little better. They have a food bar with salad, pastas and pizza and they have lots of games for the kids. There are also climbing tunnels and bumper cars. Haley was tall enough to ride in them and she did really well driving it around.
Haley got Miguel a Power Rangers DVD because Miguel loves Power Rangers more than anything else in the whole world.

Story time!

Owen finds a magazine to peruse: Victoria's Secret!















Owen has a mild obsession with belly buttons. This book turns out to be a belly button heaven!
Somewhere Scott's chest is swelling with pride...and Nana is developing a headache...

Naked protesting

Owen takes all his clothes off and tosses them out of the crib to protest nap time. Unfortunate for his cause, he eventually falls asleep anyway.

The World's Stinkiest

Today Haley and Ashlyn are both at school, so Owen and I get to spend "quality" time together. After dropping Haley off at school, we went to the Commissary and spent $119.50 on not much, then we went to the post office and mailed a box to Pops. At home, we shared a banana and a pop tart. At that time, Owen stood up beside me and half-way squatted and got a very serious look on his face. This look was the dreaded "poop look". I asked him if he was pooping, and he shook his head no, which is his response to everything. I went ahead and got a diaper and put him onto the bed and Oh My Stars I couldn't even get his pants down without gagging. Owen of course though my facial expressions were hilarious and laughed and laughed.

Now while you change his diaper he talks non-stop about pee-pee. I don't know if he's talking about the act or his actual thing so I just smile and nod along with him. He also talks about balls, but he talks about balls ALL THE TIME so I don't think he means anything specific, which is good for everyone, especially Scott, who is to blame for almost all of the questionable stuff that comes out of my kids' mouths.

Without a doubt that diaper was the worst one I've ever smelled. I'm happy to say we got through it okay, that we all feel better, and that the diaper is tucked away, safe and sound under Scott's pillow.

Haley's homework

Each week at Haley's preschool they focus on a letter. This week is "C" week. Haley and I spent the afternoon going through magazines cutting out pictures of things that begin with the letter C. Then she glued them to some construction paper to take with her tomorrow. She is also allowed to bring objects from home that begin with "C" so we are taking (drumroll) the Cat. Frosty, to be exact. I feel this will probably go down in history as another not so good idea. She also thought that I could bake Cookies, but I said no, because if I am baking cookies then that means no one is watching Owen and he will probably be off somewhere flushing important things down the potty which, though bad, will never compare to the time a few weeks ago when he turned on the water in the bathtub and threw one of the cats in (he waited for me to begin drying my hair with the hairdryer, which would effectively drown out the sounds of the running water in the other bathroom and Haley's protests...but kudos to Owen for being able to get the cat into the water without receiving one single scratch).

So, in summary, we are taking 12 different pictures of things that begin with the letter "C", and Frosty the Cat. We are not baking Cookies or taking Scott's suggestion, which was to take a trash bag and fill it up with all Haley's toys and then dump it out in the middle of her classroom and say "This is all my Crap!"

At least he's using two hands...

I have nothing to say about this except that these cats need to get a little bit faster.

New year, same Owen

After lunch, Owen took his bowl of corn, put it on his tee, and knocked the crap out of the tee with the bat. The bowl fell off, bounced off the bottom of the tee and the corn just exploded out of it. Owen clapped and cheered and then looked at me to see if I was doing the same. When he saw my face he stopped, pointed and shook his head at all the corn on the floor and said "Ewww!"

I am beginning to fully accept the fact that I will never be able to go to the bathroom again unless there is another adult in the house.

Get me some stamps!!

Fed up with the unrelenting "bubble butt" jokes, Ashlyn climbs into a box and demands to be mailed to Pops.

Haley goes to school

On Monday, Haley started preschool at Glen Meadows Baptist Church. We did not write about Monday because it was a traumatic day, what with Mama and Daddy just leaving her with nothing but strangers. She did come out in a better mood than when she went in though. She made a friend, Emily, and another friend, who we think is named Sarah, and apparently there is a Cowboy in her class. I must add that Haley wore her cowboy boots so that everyone there would know without a doubt that she is a cowgirl. This little boy, who we have no clue as to what his name is, even after day 2, apparently had on his cowboy boots, effectively winning Haley's heart and now she wants to get married to him.

Today Haley wore her pink cowboy boots in an effort to further impress everyone, Cowboy included. You can tell in the picture that her face is clearing up nicely thanks to the cream we bought at Target for $14.00 because the $9.00 co-pay prescription cream the doctor prescribed was the totally wrong thing.

So, hopefully it will go away without a trace sometime before she turns 6, so I can get a picture of her by the #5 while she actually is 5. More good news: No one else has picked up this "extremely contagious" rash even though we all kiss and hug on an hourly basis around here. And, no, it was never explained why she got it or where it came from. (I'm placing my bet on those stinking cats who use my bed as a racetrack every night at 3 am)

Mama's maids

Monday was a holiday for Scott, but both Ashlyn and Haley had to go to school. So it was just Scott, Owen and me hanging out here. What to do.....hmmm.....there's nothing to do.....I'm bored.....(this from Scott-Owen does not speak in complete sentences yet, unless MINE! is a sentence but it's probably not).....I don't see how you just sit here all day with nothing to do (um, what?).....What can we do.....blah, blah, blah. Well, Mister, if you need something to do, here's a thought:
p.s. this cured the griping