warning: brag blog

Flora is our little artist.  She LOVES "artisting" and is really very good at it.  This is a picture she drew for our new baby neighbor, Logan.  She was trying to draw a dog like the one on her sketchbook cover.  I was amazed at how well she did.    

She's also picking up many "grown up" words and phrases.  She has learned the days of the week and some units of time.  And she asks the meaning of EVERY word she doesn't know -- even some words that she knows how to use but doesn't exactly know the meaning.  Like "probably" and "pretty" (as in pretty good, pretty big, etc).  She keeps me on my toes!  Some of those words are hard to explain!

Scout loves letters.  I think we all know that by now.  And he's basically taught himself to read.  Seriously.  I bought a package of 70 sight words in the $1 Spot at Target thinking it would be a fun thing for us to practice while Flora is at preschool.  He already knew half of them.....sounded out most of what he didn't already know......and I had to help him with about 10 words.  I was shocked.  I knew he could read some words but had no idea he was THAT good.

Yellow and Exit were two of the words he already recognized.  He's been interested in numbers lately too.  He held up a 42 and asked if it was "forty-two."  Then he switched the numbers to a 24 and asked if it was a "tooty-four."

Timber's most obvious skill right now is copying Scout.  If Scout runs in circles, Timber runs in circles.  If Scout sings a song, Timber sings a song.  If Scout eats a banana, Timber eats a banana.  Consequently, Timber is also very interested in letters and numbers.  He recognizes about half of the alphabet and can count to 10.

If Scout wears shoes and pants and no shirt, Timber wears shoes and pants and no shirt.  This could be very useful when potty training time comes around.

Chris can shave!  Who knew???  He actually knows how to use a razor and shaving cream.  I think the only time I've seen Chris clean-shaven was once or twice in college.  And I'm positive the kids have never seen this sight before. 

I'm pretty sure this won't happen again for another 10 years so I took a picture -- just to remind him that it IS possible.  

And I can do this.  That's right -- crossed eyes AND fish lips.  You know you're impressed.

Haha, this is another one of my I-was-so-bored-in-the-hospital-with-Timber pictures.  

Ok, brag blog is over.  In summary -- we're awesome and we know it.   :-)

uh, yeah, i think so

"Mommy, are you sure your potty can handle a 5-year-old bum?"
~Flora, age 5~

know your options

So, we received the bill for Timber's hospital stay.  Wow.  If I had known they were charging that much I might have requested a few more free coffees and granola bars.  Thankfully, insurance will knock a good chunk off the total.  I decided to have some fun with what was initially a very disheartening number.   

After scouring craigslist and ebay, I've compiled a list of things you can purchase for the price of a 5-day/4-night hospital stay:

A Pair of Small Cast Bronze Indoor Outdoor Giraffe Statues

a.k.a. Ridiculously Overpriced Tacky "Art"

A Hermes Birkin Bag

Someone please punch me if I ever pay this much for a purse.

A Fine Large Traditional Stained Glass Church Window

Yes, a LARGE stained glass window.  If only I knew someone who had recently purchased a church....

 Ancient Roman Marble Male Lower Torso 

Because you can never have too many of these on display in your house, right?

 Victorian Style Cast Iron Beautiful Gazebo

 Hm, well it looks more spacious than our hospital room.

 Lowe 180W 115HP Optimax with Side Imaging Sonar
I'm pretty sure Chris would have taken Timber to the local medicine doctor and bought the boat instead if he'd known....

 2003 Prostreet Custom Chopper
Yes, it's pretty.....but where would I put three car seats???

 2010 John Deere 2520
Ah, this is more like it.  There are tons of places to attach car seats on this one!  But would it fit in my garage??  And exactly how long would it take us to get to the grocery store??

 2003 Glastron, 22ft, with extended swim platform
If the fishing boat wasn't your thing then how about this pretty piece of marine machinery? 

And my personal favorite way to spend $19k....

 2005 Challenger 5th wheel w/3 slides
Seriously....how awesome is this????  

We could sell our house, travel the country, and grill every night.  What a life!

So next time the doctors recommend hospitalizing one of my children (well, hopefully there is no "next time".... but if there is.....) I'm going to ask about my options first.  Is hospitalization really necessary?  Could we possibly treat him on a custom chopper or in a cast iron gazebo instead? 

to do

After playing in the front yard for a while last night, we all came inside to eat dinner.  As Scout reached the top of the stairs, he dramatically fell to the floor and moaned, "Mommy, I don't want to grow up!  I don't want to be 20!  And I never never want a wife."  Totally random, totally unprompted, totally out of the blue.

What do you tell a 3-year-old who doesn't want to grow up? 

"Uh . . . okay," I said, "but you still have to wash your hands before dinner."

He seemed okay with that.  It made me think about how overwhelming the big picture can be but it's always manageable if we just focus on the next step.  For example, after grocery shopping and running errands with the kids this morning I came home to a horribly messy house that needs to be cleaned before our guests arrive tomorrow.  I wanted to fall to the ground dramatically and moan about my messy house.  Instead I wandered around the house for about 20 minutes trying to get started but not sure where to start.  Finally, I made a very detailed list and was able to get some things done once I had very simple action steps down on paper.  "Put away groceries," "unload dishwasher," "sweep" . . . I can wrap my head around those commands much easier than "clean the house."

Of course, blogging was not on my list.  Neither was chatting with my cousin on gmail or googling "why can't I keep my house clean" (apparently many other people have the same problem -- I'm not alone!).  And I forgot to put "Make the kids some lunch" on the list so it's now 1pm and they're asking for food.

BUT, I did put away the groceries!  CHECK! 

what's up with us

Timber has been very interested in playing "Doctor" since his stay in the hospital. He knows exactly what to do with all those medical instruments in his play doctor's bag now! Chris is a much more compliant patient than Timber was though.

Flora has a birthday in three days!!! I just can't wrap my head around the fact that she will be 5-yrs-old. Wow. She doesn't know it but her cousins Callie, Ellie, and Toby are coming up to surprise her Thursday after school. She's going to be SO excited!!! She also has her first preschool field trip on Thursday. Since she'll be out of the building Thursday I sent birthday cupcakes to school with her today. I saw a sunshine cupcake craft on pinterest that I decided to copy. I think they're cute!

Scout is an attentive student of his wise friends, Sheep, Squirrel, and Unicorn. If he knows anything, it's because Sheep told him. He has learned how to read and spell many words because Unicorn taught him. Squirrel tells him why the stars are in outer space and which month it is. Sheep plays letter games with Scout and Unicorn teaches him how to add numbers together. I'm really beginning to wonder if there's more than stuffing inside these little guys.