First Day of 3rd Grade

CBC started 3rd grade, and dressed herself for her first day. Naturally. Enjoy :)

In case you can't see her ensemble in its entirety, she is wearing the same howling wolf shirt Buddy is with olive capris, black argyle knee-length socks, big blue tennis shoes, and a white hat. A neighbor girl bribed her to wear a skirt and a dress shirt on her first day--"girly clothes." Didn't work :)

Buddy Boy and foster dogs!

So glad Superman took this picture of Buddy today. In the future, I am going to milk this photo for all it's worth!

Also included some photos of our latest foster dog, Loki, the Norse god of mischief (aptly named).

We had two others before him that CBC named Jacob and Edward. She expected Jacob to be her favorite; thus, her name. She would have been completely happy if we would have also had a girl to name Bella. :)

Too smart for his own good

Today, Buddy had to go sit in timeout because he hit me with a play sword. Afterwards, we were talking and I was trying to get him to understand why hitting is wrong. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Buddy, how do you think it felt when you hit me? Do you think it felt very nice? How would you feel if I hit you?
Buddy: blah blah It hurt blah blah I won't do it again blah blah Sorry, Mom.
Me: Thank you for saying you were sorry.
Buddy: How do you think it felt when you put me in timeout and locked me in my room? Do you think it felt very nice? How would you feel if I locked you in your room?
Me: Uh. [Secretly thinking, It would be fabulous!] Why are you so smart?!
Buddy: I was just born that way.

Hawaii pictures

I'll post some info about our trip to Hawaii, but if you want to see pictures, I finally just posted some here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.252660181417223.85463.100000197284532&l=fafb907e67

Oh, United Airlines, how I hate thee

Superman and I are on vacation! Sans kids! In Hawa. . . er, I mean, San Francisco. If only our friends the Salcidos still lived in SFO, we might be happy about that!

Why I hate United Airlines:
1-Bad news with no help
("Oh, your flight is even further delayed than when you checked in online and now you're going to miss your connection. Didn't you foresee the future and know that was going to happen?! Go stand in that line over there for an hour and potentially miss your first leg to SFO.")

2-Bad news with pretend help
("Yep, you're going to miss your connection in SFO and there isn't another flight to Lihue until tomorrow morning. We'll put you in a hotel in SFO for the night." [Rejoicing] "Wait, your flight out of Seattle leaves in 20 minutes--I better hurry!")

3-Bad news with no help and no commiseration
(Wait in line for an hour in San Francisco. "You've flown here to SFO to spend the night and we're supposed to put you up in a hotel, but we have no hotels." ['But I was told . . .'] "NO HOTEL. United will pay $65 for one night if you can find a hotel. NEXT IN LINE!")

4-Customer service over the phone was worse. ("So you want to fly to San Francisco. . ." ['No, I'm IN San Francisco.'] Hold music. "So you don't want to take your flight to Hawaii tomorrow." ['Don't cancel those tickets!!!'] Hold music. "Sorry, we can't help you over the phone. You need to talk to aiport authorities." ['I already did; they can't help me.] Hold music. 35 minutes later. "Sorry, we can't help you."]

5-Too many freaking lines. ("Oh, you've waited in line for 40 minutes? Sorry, you're in the wrong line." ['But I was told to wait here.'] "Sorry!"

In the end, after three hours at SFO airport, we decided against booking the $450/night hotels that were ranked above 1 stars, and we got ourselves the last room in a nice, little 1-star hotel for $140/night. Our taxi driver managed to take us in the exact opposite direction of the hotel. The hotel guy was super nice, honestly, and yelled at the taxi driver. Our hotel in Lihue wouldn't refund our night's stay or switch it to another night, which was very sad. But, San Francisco is a lovely city seen through taxi windows going 95 miles an hour :)

And we're leaving for Hawaii (fingers crossed) in 2 hours. Mormor and Farmor are handling the kids, which are handling us being gone with aplomb. Things are looking up.

Check you later!
(I hate United Airlines--they will rue the day!!!)

Thor!

I think we lucked out twice . . . when we took Stormy back to the shelter, the foster lady informed us that they had a lot of little dogs needing foster care for 11 days (until an adoption event). CBC perked up a little and picked out a chihuaha/blue merle mix. Superman came home and said, "What is THAT?! Is that a rat?" Luckily, he is not a giant rat, but he does sort of look like one. Seems to be a great dog! His name was Mannie, but CBC renamed him Thor :)

Easter Bunnies bring pets?!

 
Easter brought us a nice surprise--a dog!! Superman and I had discussed fostering a dog for awhile, and I finally went to foster parent training. The Friday before Easter, I brought home a cockapoo! CBC was in complete shock--we got her on film saying, "Wait, what?" about a million times. She did not believe this dog was for her. The dog was four years old and had just been separated from her puppies--she was the sweetest thing! Her foster name was Sandy, but CBC renamed her Stormy. She was AWESOME! We took her fishing with us, shopping with us, on walks, on runs, played fetch, played hide-and-seek . . . Fabulous with the kids, house-trained, crate-trained, seriously perfect. Well, except for the seizures. The seizures were weekly and were more than we could handle, so the shelter took her back to find her a rescue home that will run tests and find out what is wrong with her and how to help. She was truly so precious to us! I picked CBC up early from school yesterday so she could go with me to return Stormy. CBC cried, I cried, and Stormy cried. Good luck, Stormy! We hope the rescue home will be everything you need and want! We love you!!

Spring Break

CBC got to go to my parents' house in Utah for Spring Break--it was the first time she had flown by herself and she said it "totally rocked." She has asked to be allowed to fly by herself from now on--right, like I'm going to book separate tickets just for her :) Anyway, she made lots of friends and had a great time in Utah. The weather was actually nice--no rain, no snow, no freezing cold. Buddy kept asking where she was and when she was coming home. He called her on my cell phone to tell her to "come home now! You're taking a long time!"

Of course, once she got home, they only got along for, like, 10 minutes.

Keepin' it real

My boss thinks I should start a blog called "Keepin' it real" because I enjoy regaling everyone at work with failure stories in parenthood. Well, here's my most recent spectacular parenting failure--I let Buddy watch "Vampire Diaries" with me. So last night, he was mad at me, and told me he was going to shoot me and "sink my blood." Nice one. Excellent parenting. So proud!

Deep Thoughts

Laughing at CBC's fascinating comments tonight--first, we're watching a recap of the Mariners game and Ichiro missed a catch. CBC says, "WHAT?! Ichiro missed? He's the best! Well, sometimes heroes fail."

And now, we're watching Tron, and the young Flynn jumps off the building as the guard is screaming. She says, "Well, he's gotta learn."

LOVE HER!!

An addition from Buddy--on Sunday, I asked him what he wanted for dinner (usually this results in him asking me, "Is ice cream food?" "Are chocolate chips food?" because I require a "food" selection for dinner). Anyway, he says, "I don't like food. It's not good. I only like candy now. Can I have candy for dinner?" Hmm, let me think about it . . .

CBC's violin recital!!

CBC rocked it at her violin recital--we are so proud! It was the first time she has played individually in front of an audience and she did great. She said she was nervous, but I don't think she looks it--she's a super star!!!

(Can you also tell she has purple and black checked pants with a white and black striped shirt? LOVE the professional ensemble :) )

Last but certainly not least--cousin pictures!

Construction on the Great Wall of China is exhausting work!

And more pics . . .

Misc pics

Since I didn't post for forever, I feel like sharing pictures from Christmas and the intervening months. Enjoy (or don't :) ) ! Mormor and Morfar and Aunt Heidi were here, and we had a blast!

Crows swear?!

Friday, Buddy came home with a new word that we've heard waaay too many times this weekend--caca. We discussed how it's a bad word, but this one seems to be lasting a lot longer than the others. He said it again in the car this morning on the way to church, and I gently reminded him that "we don't say that word" which led to a whole discussion.
CBC: Why don't we say that word?
Me: It's a bad word in Spanish--basically means C-R-A-P.
CBC: Wait, what's the word again?
Me: I don't want to repeat it when Buddy can hear me.
CBC: Just tell me.
Me (quietly): Caca.
CBC: Wait, what?! That's what crows say! And it's a bad word?!
So then we had to hear the rendition of CAW-CAW versus caca. Very nice.

CBC Turned 8!

CBC's birthday has come and gone, with a lot of fun stuff! We extended her birthday for weeks--she turned 8 in the beginning of the month, but we didn't have an actual party until the end of the month because . . . Mormor, Grandpa, Uncle Erik and Aunt Jody and the kids came to participate in the festivities!!! It was so fun having everyone stay at our house, especially since we don't get to see the Hansen cousins very often. We had such a blast! 8 is a really big deal in our religion (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) because that's when children get baptized, so the cousins made a special trip to come and participate in CBC's baptism. Everyone's help was much appreciated, and the slumber parties at night were rockin'! I am so proud of CBC and all she does to be a good person. She is truly a light in our lives.

After the baptism, we all came back to our house and had a combination CBC/Superman birthday party! 41 kids were invited, but (whew!) only about 25 came. It was a puppy-themed party and, wow, it was probably a good thing a real puppy wasn't invited. It was exhausting, but my girl had the time of her life.

Buddy had a great time, too, and is already planning his "speed racer" party--by which I mean he holds it over our heads whenever he's mad--"If you're not nice to me, you can't come to my Speed Racer!" Think I took us all way too far into the "theme" parties! And he's super antsy to get baptized, too--we'll have to plan another huge party in five more years :)
(And if anyone can suggest a more user-friendly and quicker blog option, I am all ears. Trying to move these pictures around took me 20 minutes! Sorry about the crazy formatting, but I don't have 20 more minutes to waste.)

The epiphanies keep coming

We're watching "Chuck" right now and CBC just looked over at me (yes, she should be in bed!) and said, "You know, Mom, sometimes hot people really can't be trusted." Just an FYI for those of you out there who are either hot or are involved with hot people.

Belly dancers just appeared on the screen and she says, "WHOA!" I said, "Those are belly dancers." CBC says, "I thought maybe they were called immodest dancers."

LOVE IT!

Values

This morning, CBC told me that she and a classmate had an interesting conversation on the bus. He told her he'd already decided who was "hot" in their class and he wanted CBC to decide who was the ugliest. She told him no because that was not nice (yay for CBC!!!). Then he asked her who she would date out of everyone in her class. Mind you, she's only turning 8 tomorrow! Her answer rocks, though--she told the boy who was asking that she would date him--because he's smart and because he folds paper airplanes really well! HA! Love it :) I'll update her dating requirements as she ages.