Meeting the teacher

This is Leanna ready to go to orientation. I thought she should dress up for the first time meeting her teacher. Can't hurt right? Tom made fun of the dress, but it's one I wore as a girl myself.

She was the only one dressed nice, lol. I don't care, she looked adorable. It turns out that her teacher is sick, and may not even be there for the first day, so we met the substitute. She gave a very short speach. Man, welcome to 2006-a new district policy prevents schools from giving the kids snacks. No bringing in birthday food either. I immediately thought of Jaime and that maybe it had to do with allergies. But no, because of district test scores not being high enough, they decided that things like snacks are taking time away from education. So the kindergartners have to go from say10:30-11 am, whenever they leave their house, about 5 hours or more to 3:00 without a snack. That's a long time for a kid that age. The teacher said, give them a really big lunch! She also suggested we complain to the school board.

We were also warned to be on time with picking up the children-or they will call children & youth services! As the teacher said, you don't want that! There are 28 kids in EACH morning and afternoon kindergarten! Wow! Less than half showed up for our orientation. Other than that it was boring stuff, they'll teach them letters and numbers and how to write their names. They need a bookbag big enough to hold a folder but not the kind with wheels because space is limmited for hanging them. (Which is ok Nanny Sue because I had bought another smaller bookbag-Princess!-because the one with wheels seemed too akward and heavy for her little body. We can save the bigger one for another year.)

All the other kids were quiet and almost invisible. Leanna was her usual self-little miss curiosity. She kept whispering questions to me. We did a full circle around the classroom twice afterwards so she could look at everything. I'm not sure if that's good-she's curious and eager to learn and observe her surroundings-or bad-she was the only one not just sitting there listening to the teacher! I choose to remain guardly optimistic!

crafts

Yesterday Leanna and I finally made one of those bead things you iron on top of. It makes a design and the beads melt together(could be used in a window or as a coaster or an ornament, etc.). I bought it from A.C. Moore for a dollar, and we finally had a bit of time where both her brothers were sleeping. I had a million things I could be doing, but I figured spending some time together would be a better option. I still felt guilty though. It took her a bit to get into making it-the beads are pretty small-but she's really proud of the end result.

just a thought

It's strange to think that 2 year old Justin can use a word like "blog" that wasn't even invented yet when I was his age. My kids weren't even born in the same century as me. (Can't you just hear that being used teenage insult? You guys are so last century!!)

anticipation

Every day Leanna asks how many days until her orientation and how many days until school. It's cute that she's so excited about it.

new shoes

Pipi Longstocking there! She always has a stray hair escaping though!

So the other night we met Nanny Sue to buy some school shoes for Leanna. It was a last minute thing (unless she told Tom earlier and he just didn't bother to mention it to me until last minute?) So I forgot to bring along socks or tights for Leanna to try on shoes. Unfortunately Walmart still doesn't provide those little stocking things for you to try on shoes yet. Leanna's last pair of sneakers don't fit anymore and all the other shoes are sandals or flip flops. So Nanny Sue bought Leanna some socks also so she could try on the shoes.

Then it turned out that Leanna is VERY particular about her shoes. She has this thing about shoes being too tight. Sometimes I think it's based in reality-like her sandals where the top part pushes down into her skin. But most of the time I think she just says that out of habbit. At first Nanny Sue was dutifully getting a bigger size of shoe every time Leanna said they were too tight. So then I had her try on a pair that were very obviously too big-and she still said they were too tight!! So then Nanny Sue was on to her. It took a while, but Leanna walked away with a pair of black dress shoes and pink and black sneakers. She really wanted a pair of guady (sp?) pink slip on shoes but Nanny Sue flat out said, "No way! Those are ugly!" She also wanted some cute boots, but that wasn't what we were shopping for. I'd post a picture of her shoes, but I don't have a camera yet!

That night Leanna tried to sleep with the sneakers on. They were too big and kept getting tangled in the blankets though. She really really likes them. Thank you Nanny Sue!

playing with grass

These are from last week, Timothy enjoyed just pulling the grass out. And he's stopped trying to eat it, which is a plus for me.

$

A child, like your stomach, doesn't need all you can afford to give it. -Frank A. Clark, writer (1911- )

My cousin Karissa

"Here is a shot of Rissy flying through the air during the BESFI competition... dancing to her own choreography to the piece called Alexander the Great. She actually tied for second place with her friend....."
I'm posting this picture because it's a neat picture and because it cracks me up that when my Aunt emailed it(with accompanying picture) all I could think of was she flies through the air with the greatest of ease, that daring young girl on the flying trapease! Now I can't get that song out of my head!

So totally Jaime's fault!

So in her blog Jaime's mentioned buying stuff off ebay......and that reminded me of buying stuff off ebay. I haven't been there in probably about 2 years(not since we were living in F. H.). It's very addictive. That year I bought a bunch of Christmas presents from ebay. You can find all kinds of things there-like this: http://reviews.ebay.com/BABY-BLING-SWAROVSKI-CRYSTAL-PACIFIER-BINKY-BLINGS_W0QQugidZ10000000001412533?ssPageName=BUYGD:CAT:-1:SEARCH:5

That's just funny. Can you imagine?
So I hope I do not find myself buying too much. I'm actually very good at not spending on myself, however I've always had trouble saying no to the men in my life, and now that I'm a Mom, it is very easy to spend on your kids! If I do, I am completely blaming it on Jaime!! Bad, bad Jaime!

The almost-kindergartener!

I'm all excited now!

Guess what came in the mail today! The info on kindergarten-finally! She will have afternoon kindergarten. There's an orientation thing next week for you to meet the teacher. We won't need the bussing info-it'd be silly to walk her to the bus stop would be about the same distance as walking her to the school itself. The packet just had her room and bussing info, the teacher's name, orientation info and a page from the school district saying that they will be measuring all kids' body mass indexes (BMI) and sending home letters to kids whose BMI is greater than 95% or less than 5%. And it also had her cute little name tag! I'm all excited! She was too, but not as much as I am. I think she will really enjoy school.

Works for tea too

"Coffee is real good when you drink it it gives you time to think. It's a lot more than just a drink; it's something happening. Not as in hip, but like an event, a place to be, but not like a location, but like somewhere within yourself. It gives you time, but not actual hours or minutes, but a chance to be, like be yourself, and have a second cup. "

Gertrude Stein

Two brothers in a tub

Guess who else got drenched that night?!

10 months old

Yummy bathtub and crawling up the stairs, he can't walk yet, but he can make it all the way up the stairs! I suspect we have another trouble-maker on our hands.

Kissing bunnies

That's Brownie on the left and Monkey Fantastic on the right.

Now where did Tom leave his keys??

Justin strikes again!!

Cleaning Nan's house

Even the kids helped with the cleanup at Nana L.'s house this weekend. It's a lot of work! I myself did only a tiny bit of scraping on the garage-my main job was just keeping the kids out of everyone's hair and harm's way. Leanna wasn't over there very often, but she did express sadness that someone else would be living in the house. And I guess she asked Nanny Sue who would give her vanilla cookies now?

So much to say

Justin's been speaking in paragraphs lately. It cracks me up, because he does it when he's excited and the words tend to slur together. It can be very difficult to understand him, but it's really cute.

Backing up your pictures

Not a long article, just a discussion forum. They talk about the best places to store cds with pictures on them and types of cds/dvds to use. I thought it was interesting that they don't recommend you buy the cds that are supposed to last for 100 years (because he thinks technology will have changed before then so it'd be a waste of money).

My baby!

My baby took two tiny steps yesterday. We were in the bathroom and he took two baby steps towards Leanna before sitting/falling down.

stuff

Our house is trashed! All the furniture from Tom's grandmother's house is just sitting in our living room. The kitchen is still kind of a mess with the extra fridge(but it looks like we will finally be getting rid of that-found someone to take it!!) and the baker's rack sitting in there. I have to figure out where to put it and what to put on it. (Thanks for that Sue-I really do like that one though!) The lady acrosss the street gave us some kitchen stuff not long ago and I haven't had a chance to put that stuff away yet-now there's more! I think our dishwasher is starting to die (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! That's almost my favorite appliance!) Our house is so disorganized, I can't stand it. If we can ever get to it all and clean up, the place will look much nicer. But right now Tom's exhausted and I'm exhausted and we're not getting anywhere fast. I'm not even getting the basic chores done. There is no room in the house that doesn't need work done right now. There's just so much to clean and to throw away and rearrange-and I have all kinds or things waiting for me to get done. Boring things like clothes sorting and organizing toys. Putting away baby things that Timothy is starting to outgrow. Geting out the fall/winter stuff. There are so many things I want to make, as presents and just stuff I want to create, but no time to do it.

Then there are the parenting chores like working on getting the kids to bed earlier. I'm ready to take a page from my Mom's book and the next time someone tells me (as though I don't know. As though it hasn't been on my mind for the last two years!) she's going to have to start going to bed earlier because school's coming! I think I will have to pull their tounge out of their mouth and wrap it around their head. Consider yourselves warned.
As a Mom who worked the second shift, Leanna used to go to bed when I went to bed. She would nap during the evening, of course. But she had to get up to come pick me up from work, and her father wasn't going to do the whole bedtime routine when I wasn't there, especially not if she was getting up a few hours later to get in the car. And anyway I missed her so much while I was working, it was nice to have a little time with her before we went to bed. I know several other mothers who worked second shift whose children also went to bed when they did, probably as a result of their jobs. I wonder how common it is.

After I was laid off the routine was already established and very hard to break. I had been working on it and was starting to make progress when unemployment ended and I had to return to work. Then it was right back to square one because I was working all evening again. And pregnant again, so I was very tired. And then the same story all over again, I had decided when Leanna turned 4, in preparation for school we would work on getting bedtime back under control. We talked about it in advance and she understood. I was starting to get the bedtimes earlier and she was starting to fall asleep earlier, we were on our way. But Justin got older and very difficult to manage. He'd be bouncing all over the bed as I was trying to read bedtime stories to Leanna. Which would get her all wound up and frustrate me. I would have to stop and deal with him. And I was pregnant again and very tired. After Timothy was born, forget it! Everything flew out the window for a while. And now I am just thoroughly mentally and physically exhausted!

Sure, I've always had this image in my head of how I'd like bedtime to go. This wasn't how I wanted it to be. I'm only human. In real life it doesn't always work the way it's supposed to. They are on a schedule, just not the typical one. Generally the kids sleep in later in the morning, so they don't actually miss sleep because they go to bed later than most kids. I am not argueing that I think they should keep this sleep pattern. I do think it would be good for them to get to bed earlier. It might help Justin to nap better, or more regularly. But then again, they would also miss out on a lot of time spent with their father that way. They would barely see him otherwise, since he's gone most of the day into the night and most of the weekends. He gets annoyed that they love to come out on the porch with him when he smokes, but I'm guessing that they might remember more fondly those little moments with Dad than some of the bigger stuff like zoos. I guess I'm partly defending myself here and partly just explaining that it hasn't worked out to be as awful a thing as I would have though before having kids. The fact that they don't have a regular early bedtime has had it's advantages too. That said, yes, I am once again working on getting them used to an early bedtime. Yes, I am well aware that children need routines, schedules, and lots of sleep(especially before school). Never fear, concerned parties everywhere-it'll work out.

Swiffer Contest-Leanna

Leanna's picture is posted on http://www.melanielynnehauser.com/wordpress/
also. You have to scroll down a bit to see it though.

The Zoo

We went to the zoo Wednesday. Tom didn't have work, and since I've been bugging Tom about never being around, he asked what I wanted to do. So we tried the Lehigh Valley Zoo (the old Trexlertown Game Preserve). Tom's never been there and I haven't gone since elementary school. I looked at their website the night before, so I was excited about seeing kangaroos. I don't think I've ever seen them before. I've been to the Philly Zoo twice in my life and it'd be nice to go with the kids, but it's so expensive. Anyway, we had no idea what to expect. The price wasn't bad, about 20 for us all to get in. We brought a stroller for Justin and I carried Timothy in the sling. We bought a one time use camera since we had none. When we dropped it off to be developed afterwards, that's when we borrowed another camera from Dan's again. We paid for Leanna to do a pony ride, which she enjoyed. She was a little scared while waiting for it, until I reminded her that horses are my favorite animal and I thought she was lucky to get to ride one. Suddenly she was more excited to do it! We ended up paying an extra 2.25 for me, Tom, and Leanna each to see the kangaroo exhibit. The first time we walked by we just looked. Leanna was too busy chatting with the girl collecting money to go see the animals. I turned around from looking and Leanna had gone from shyly smiling at the girl to sitting in the chair next to her. I got a picture of that. Then Tom wanted
to leave, so we actually ended up coming back later to see them. It was pretty hot and they were just lying around. We did see a baby poking out of the mother's pouch though. Do you know what most of the conversation with our guide centered around? The fact that kangaroo females are pregnant practically all the time. They are basically pregnant except the day they give birth. They can hold off the birth until they are ready(it's protection against giving birth during a famine or an unsafe time). Tom liked that! He wanted to know if they could teach me how to do it too.

We fed fish and black swans. The kids really liked that. When we saw camels I teasingly asked Justin if he wanted to ride one. He considered and said yes! Unfortunately for him, that was not an option. Leanna liked going inside the Indian teepee. It was also neat to see an Emu. Like the Wiggles sing about. Leanna got the most out of it, obviously. When we were leaving I asked her what her favorite part was. She said the camels, the fish, and the lady! That's Leanna!

Not the color of my choice.........

Sitting on the couch, twirling a strand of hair, Leanna suddenly exclaimed, "Mommy, I don't like my hair color." "No?" I asked. "I want it to be grey..........like Grammy's!"

Missing having a camera of my own!

We borrowed a camera from Dan's again yesterday. I'm just tired of not having one. 5 months is a very very long time to wait. So I'm just taking pictures of any and everything. Because I can!

The terrible Two

Generally a very happy boy

More sleeping shots

These pictures were taken with a three megapixel camera, by the way.

Trying to put him to sleep

Thank goodness for that!

We had a bit of a scare the other day-thought Justin accidentally swallowed this:



It's the top of a lid to my Winnie the Pooh teapot. It keeps coming lose! The poor teapot has seen better days. Luckily, it turned up elsewhere and I didn't have to watch his poop. I found it unbelievable that that would go down anyway!

mahwwidge!

These two Barbies got married today. Yes, technically they are both female. But Leanna doesn't have any kens or GI Joes yet. It does seem somehow fitting that they are a couple-I mean, check out the green pantsuit on the one barbie! The other one was just overcompensating by not wearing clothes at all.

In the second picture Leanna switched and decided to pose with the more modernly dressed Cinderella barbie. 5 seems to be the age of the Barbie. I'm certainly having fun with it anyway.

They called this "camping"

playing with toys

One of our most used toys here-the fisher price little people house. All three of them play with it. Kids are always fascinated with the potty in it.

Timothy, reminding me it's time for a change

I really don't know

When asked what these barbies were doing, Leanna replied, spins twirls and splits! Duh. I didn't ask why brunette barbie was stuffed in the trunk.

We have a situation......

Last night Leanna had apparently wrangled permission from her father to have not one, but two chocolate cupcake packs. I had only given her one and she went upstairs to reconfirm with her father that she could have two. She came down and was interrupting and trying to get my attention. I was feeding the baby and reading a book and wasn't about to jump up to go get another cupcake, and a frustrated Leanna threw her arms about, in a wide circle, exclaiming, "Mommy! You don't understand my cupcake situation!"

wedding band engravings

Some are sweet, some are strange, some are funny.........

Leanna

Last night Tom watched Leanna and Justin while I went out with Timothy and my sister and Mom. Justin was ok with me leaving because he was busy watching Tom and his helper work in the bathroom. He merely asked for an extra kiss when I let him know I was leaving. Leanna was devastated though. She cried and had to be forcibly pulled off my body. Sometimes she's ok with me leaving, other times it bothers her. Last night for whatever reason, it was a very big deal. When I came back she sang a song she had written for me.

I love you Mommy, oh yes I do.
I don't love anyone, as much as you. (Here she stopped to inform me that this is the part that I may not like)
When you left, you broke my heart!

Speaking of breaking your heart! Awww. How can you not love a kid that writes you a song? Such a sweet kid. I love my daughter!

Awwww, he's breaking dishes already!

Friday, not yesterday, but the week before, Timothy broke his first Corelle "unbreakable" dish. That's a milestone in our family, I should record it in his baby book.

I really do wish they made better baby books. All of them seem geared towards the first child only. I know, generally people fill them out in much more detail for longer periods of time with their first born children. But what about those of us who try to do the same for the others too? And some of them have an awful lot of stuff in there that isn't very useful. I mean, the doctor's office keeps a record of immunizations, and they hand you little booklets in the doctor's office for keeping track of them and they send you some in the mail. Do we really need to record it again in a baby book? Isn't the point of the baby book supposed to be interesting things that the child/future adult will one day enjoy looking at? There are plenty of other places they can go if they need a list of when they got their shots. It's just a waste of space in a baby book, as far as I'm concerned. And they generally list the same milestones-first smile, first steps, first words, etc. What about the first time they were quiet for just a little too long and Mommy had to come check on them? (with space to record what was found) Or the first time it really sank in that this child was yours, really! Some of them ask who the child looked like at birth, how about leaving space to continue to record that, because different people appear in your child's face/body language/actions as they grow. You forget that stuff later, that's why you blog it or put it in a baby book. And if your parenting isn't entirely mainstream, there can be a lot of blank spaces in there. It seems as though a lot of it is outdated. Here's a baby book, Baby's First Tattoo: A Memory Book for Modern Parents, that offers many different parenting observations: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743224450/104-2081027-8950326?v=glance&n=283155

But that's too mean spirited for my taste. It's a cute gag gift, but I definitely wouldn't recommend it as THE baby book. Maybe the baby book is on it's way out of style.

Replacement camera

It looks like this is the camera we'll be getting as a replacement, covered by the warranty.

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/sony/dsc_h5-review/index.shtml

Don't know exactly when we'll get it though, probably about a week.

Sorry

I hate to do it, but I had to turn on word verification for commenting.......all the sudden there's been huge amounts of spam. It wasn't a problem until about a week ago. I'm tired of deleting it all, so now you'll have to type in some letters to be able to comment. Sorry!

He's online!

Go see Justin's picture posted as my entry for the swiffer contest at:

http://www.melanielynnehauser.com/wordpress/

Shoe Quote

"I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes, I had one thousand and sixty. "

Laura P.
Oooops, I meant,
Imelda Marcos

My sweet affectionate boy

I noticed that Justin's been voluntarily helping me a lot lately. When I go to take the trash out he's been coming over and trying to hold the garbage can down so I can pull the bag out. Then he runs over to the cabinet to get a new trash bag and tries to put one in. He will run to get me the baby's nuk if he sees it laying somewhere. Last night when I went upstairs to gather pjs and stuff Justin noticed that the baby pooped. So he ran over and brought his Daddy the wipes and a diaper and told him, "baby poopied." And even more amazingly, Tom changed the baby. (Oh that reminds me-Last week, one day Tom changed Justin 3 times! That is a milestone. Tom doesn't do diapers.) Just in general, I've been noticing Justin making an effort to help out. It's really sweet.

Getting Ready

Leanna and I went to the library last night and got a bunch of books on kindergarten. She's excited so far, I haven't heard her express any fear about it. It's really great that there are so many books out there on the subject to help her get an idea of what to expect. We were reading some of them last night. She impressed me with her eye for detail. She wanted to know what all sorts of things in the illustrations were for. She noticed in one photograph that several chairs were stacked instead of spread out at the table and wanted to know why. In an illustration from Miss Bindergarten gets Ready for Kindergarten (a classic) Leanna wanted to know why that animal was eating it's pencil? Then at the end of the book when a picture showed the classroom finally ready-and there was a jar full of pencils-Leanna commented that they better not give one to that beaver! But how would he write? I love that she notices all that stuff.

Work & anger

Aunt Cindy was talking about what her kids might remember from their childhood. she mentioned that her oldest daughter told her that one day when they were supposed to be napping she wasn't tired. So she started looking down but saw her mother coming up the stairs, and her mother's face looked so angry that she was scared and she went and hid. And Aunt Cindy said that she felt bad that this was one of the memories that her daughter had of her and of childhood. But she said, I was really angry then. I had no help and every time I turned around there was something else to be done. It was an angry time.
Hearing her say that actually makes me feel so much better. Especially because it's coming from someone like Aunt Cindy. I mean, you can find all kind of stories on that topic in parenting magazines and articles, but it's somehow different coming from someone you know. And especially someone so very religious and into gender roles coming from God himself. Stuff about how while the kids are young is a tough time on a marriage because women generally feel very resentful towards their spouse or life in general. Because no matter how you slice it, women always have more to do. "Working" or stay at home or any combination in between, women do all the extras. Even with an enlightened spouse/partner. When both work, the man comes home and relaxes from his job, the woman starts the second shift at home. If a woman goes to part time after having a baby co-workers are often resentful of her "extra" time. Yet for a woman, extra time is usally extra time for her family, not for her-if a man has extra time, it usually does mean extra time for him. And if the woman doesn't work outside the home, then the job is 24/7 generally-with no time off for a to and from work commute, no period to relax from the stresses of the job. And frequently because she isn't earning income, the woman doesn't feel she can ask for help with the chores or kids.

Lets just ignore the chore aspect of it-the actual watching and caring for the kids and the household duties-who keeps track of doctor/dentist/specialist appointments? Who makes them and takes the kids to them? Who gets and gives the medications? Who keeps track of the childcare supplies like diapers and wipes and shampoos and vitamins? Who keeps track of when they need new clothes and shoes and socks or when it's time to put clothes away because they are no longer seasonally appropriate? Who knows when the baseball or soccer games are or the music lessons or scouts? Who makes sure the child looks presentable before taking them to see relatives or even to the store? Generally it's the woman who keeps a running tally of all this information.

My point is not that men are evil or even that all men are like this. There are always exceptions, for one thing. And while I think the vast majority of men do fit in with the above picture, I think that it's partly out of ignorance and social expectations. It's not entirely their fault. It wouldn't occur to them to do many of the things I mentioned. And sometimes women do enjoy being the one to do more of the child related stuff. But still-this puts an awful lot of strain on a woman doing it all, and often the fact that it isn't acknowledged or appreciated is what makes it really hard. I'm not pretending to have the answer here. I'm just saying that it felt good to hear someone else voice that it made her angry too. Sometimes just hearing it said can make you feel better.

A fun night for all...........

Things started off slow yesterday. My Mom had a headache on her birthday and everyone was a bit tired. I was really cranky from running around the house trying to get it cleaned and keep the children fed/changed/clothed. But finally my sisters showed up and started to help so the place got decorated and we were able to clear off surfaces for food. Laura had made an angel food cake decorated with whipped cream and strawberries, cookies with peanut butter cups on top and also deviled eggs. She gets really possesive of those eggs man! If you want to eat some I recommend you wait until she's out of the room. I don't know what she plans on doing with them, but she doesn't like it when you eat them! Leanna is finally big enough that she can blow up balloons herself-she was excited about that. It wasn't too hot outside, that was nice. And Tom only "worked" a half day with Jerry on Saturday, then they came over here and Jerry actually helped Tom clean up the backyard. So it looked nice for a change, and Tom wasn't doing all the outside cleaning at the last moment like usual. Claire graced us with her presence for longer than usual, and was surprisingly pleasant. Even while being squirted with a hose. Yup, Tom hosed her down!

Mimi and Uncle David came for a while, and one of the best parts of the night was when Mom, Uncle David, and Aunt Cindy were all reminicing about their childhood. They have some funny stories to tell! It doesn't matter how many times I hear those stories, they're still good. And I've been hearing some of them since I was a kid. I wish our video camera was working-I'd love to get them on tape. That's the sort of thing you want to preserve for posterity. Aunt Cindy had written little birthday poems for Mom and Uncle David(they're a day and a year apart) and we enjoyed hearing those. She had written them neatly on parchment style paper and they were all rolled up like a scroll. There was a red velvet cake for Uncle David too. Laura had bought my Mom a card that played SuperFreak, and later Tom played Runaround Sue (he said-it wasn't so recognizable to the rest of us) on the guitar. After the birthday party he was giving Claire guitar lessons in the living room. My other favorite part of the night was the balloon fight. Simple stuff like that can really be the best. Much better than expensive party favors or hired clowns. I should explain that this was no ordinary balloon fight though. Oh no-we had a full contact balloon battle in the kitchen. Everyone was laughing hysterically. Leanna got mad because people weren't throwing balloons specifically at her. Or at least not as often as she wanted. Claire was the first to leave, she had guitar lessons waiting for her, Leanna wandered in and out, then Laura and I eventually left too. And the adults-my Mom and Dad, Aunt Cindy and Uncle Bob-were still going strong with the balloon battle. You know, I was just reading somewhere that kindergarteners laugh an average of about 125 times a day, and adults only 17 times. I think we all got in our fair share last night. I picked up Laura's camera and took a few pictures. I wish I had pictures to post here, but Laura wouldn't share. She says she will email me some, but I'll believe that when I see it. She's promised that one before! I really really miss having a camera!

Special Day

Leanna got up today and announced to Justin, "It's Grammy's Birthday!" to which he responded, "Grammy's birthday outside!!" (Because he knows we will cook on the grill).

Who's the fairest of them all?

Last night Leanna brought a hairband downstairs and placed it on her Grammy's head. They decided it looked like a princess hairband, and both tried it on. When Grammy tried it on again she asked, does this make me look like a princess? And Leanna proclaimed, "No. You look like the grandmother of a princess!"

interesting ice-dancing

Ok, it's a little long, but ummm, Mom and Sue I think will get a kick out of it at least. I know Laura will, maybe Claire. The rest of you, I have no idea. Ahh, watch it anyway. It's an unusual performance!

I'm Gonna Keep That Gray

A woman who decides to keep her grey hair. And feels good about it.

I'm not positive I won't ever dye mine, but at this point I'm letting them creep in. Too tired and icky to do any real blogging, so you'll just have to skip over all my links.

Trees vs. Children:are nut allergies taking over the plannet?

Warning: It is definitely slanted against kids with allergies.

People with a sweet tooth have an innate preferance for fruits

I actually think this has a few decent tips for using the info to your advantage.