CBC First Day of School & Working on Home

Ahh, the first day of school. CBC was sooo ready for 2nd grade to begin, and she really enjoyed her first week. With only 6 boys in the class and 18 girls, I think her teacher is going to have her hands full! I took the day off and took CBC to school--we went out to breakfast at McDonald's as a family, and then Superman took Buddy to school while I took CBC. Apparently, Buddy cried his little eyes out when he realized he didn't get to spend the day at home with everybody--poor baby (uh, excuse me, poor "big boy!" I have been taken to task regarding that several times this week--"Mom, I not a baby! I a big boy!"). CBC, on the other hand, didn't cry and wasn't even really nervous. She just takes things in stride, that's for sure. I totally forgot to take pictures of her in class (who is honestly surprised?!) and so I had to settle for pictures in front of her after-school program later that day. She doesn't get her violin for a month--"Mom, seriously, I already told you--we won't get it for a month or a few weeks. Stop asking!"

Oh, three more things! After taking CBC to school, I came back to work as Superman's servant on finishing our guest room. He and Morfar laid most of the hardwood, but Superman and I finished the job. Wow, it looks nice!! Then on Saturday, we went hiking (shocking, I know!) on Mt. Rainier--first time we have ever been there, and it was beautiful. AND . . . I stopped drinking soda this week! I had a dental appointment and it really made me realize it's time to grow up and stop living like a teenager. (I also started flossing every night, for those of you who care.) I had my last Diet Pepsi on Tuesday AM and started drinking water shortly thereafter. Yay for my bones and my teeth, but wow, this is proving to be extra hard on my sweet tooth so far. I have really been sucking down the candy. Maybe not so good for my teeth, but at least I'm not sucking down 3 or more cans of soda every day . . .

More pictures from summer

Summer, we will miss thee

How can summer be over already? School starts in one week, and I think we're about ready to get back into the learning groove. It's been a really fun summer, even though the weather in WA hasn't really cooperated. We had about a week of extremely hot temperatures when we all slept in the master bedroom with the a/c in the window, but other than that, it's been off and on rain. I'll have to post some pictures soon, but I wanted to get caught up before procrastinating this any longer.

In July, we combined a work conference in Anaheim, CA with a family vacation by driving to Utah first. We visited Superman's parents and mine, and then Morfar and Mormor traveled with us to California, where we went to the beach and Disneyland, visited some good friends, and absolutely loved every minute of it. My conference was really good, too! Everyone at the beach forgot sunscreen, with CBC and Mormor getting the brunt of the sunburn. CBC's was so awful because she body surfed for 4 hours straight without coming in. I forget sometimes how much she loves water. Buddy had to re-learn grandparents' names, because once again he called them all Grandma. So we have officially switched over to Morfar (literally, mother's father) and Mormor (mother's mother). That seemed to help :) Morfar and Mormor took CBC home with them for two weeks, which proved to be very difficult on Buddy, but she had a great time.

On the way home from Anaheim, we stopped in San Jose to visit my brother and his family, which was an absolute blast. I wish they lived closer so we could see them more often! Two weeks later, Morfar and Mormor drove from their house in UT to our house in WA with CBC, carting a U-Haul behind them filled with furniture and a piano for us. If I haven't mentioned it a million times, my parents are so good to us! While they were here for a few days, Morfar helped Superman put a hardwood floor in upstairs (no rest for the weary!).

Since they've left, CBC has gone back to camp and enjoyed a Mariner's game, bounce houses, laser tag, swimming, etc. Buddy switched daycares, which went a little easier than I had feared. We miss our old school, but now I can pick him up earlier than before, which makes his day a little shorter. He told me he was sad on Friday after I picked him up, and when I asked him why, he said, "I miss Mormor! I want to go to her house." We're glad we'll be seeing them again at Christmas!

We've enjoyed the lake with family, gone to the fair, ridden bikes, played at the park, and did yard work like nothing else. Summer has also shown us what a big boy we have living with us--Buddy's vocabulary constantly surprises me ("Mom, that is so lame!"), he was potty-trained in May, and was bottle-free by July (and, yes, that was painful for all of us). Ever since CA, he is absolutely obsessed with Buzz Lightyear and Woody, and is always shouting, "To infinity and beyond!" while jumping off various items of furniture.

CBC has grown another million inches and made new friends everywhere she goes. She is reading like a champ, too! We have really enjoyed this summer, and I'm a little sad to see it go, but I'm excited to see what 2nd grade in our new school brings us. I especially can't wait to hear CBC play her violin :)

"Eclipse" and "Scooby-Doo"

What do Eclipse and Scooby-Doo have in common? Both have vampires, of course! Here's Buddy's interpretation of Robert Pattinson's Edward Cullen (sorry about the air freshener by his ear :) ), along with his version of "Whew, we made it!" from Scooby-Doo. As you can see in the video, I had to prod him, but he had been doing it all day long on his own. Everyone who has kids or pets knows their ability to stop performing as soon as the camera comes out :)

Equality is in the eye of the beholder

Buddy's new phrase is "NO FAIR!" and he picked it up from you-know-who (and, no, I do not mean myself!). He shouts this all day long now--just for the last three days. "Okay, let's go brush your teeth." "Already brushed my teeth." "Here, open up." "NO FAIR!" It's pretty entertaining until he starts hitting walls and throwing toys. Funny thing is, as a firm believer in individual responsibility, I really value fairness, but understand that it's impossible to implement more often than not. At any rate, I'll be mindful of his feelings about trying to be fair :) Now, if we could only teach CBC about not taking her brother's toys (he does have totally awesome cars), we might hear "NO FAIR" a little less!

School's out, OCD's in?

School ends this week, and CBC couldn't be more excited. Enumclaw has this great summer camp program where the kids get to go on field trips to a lot of fun places, play games, and swim each week. She loved it last year and is super excited to go this year. Even more fun is that she has a new best friend, Hayle, who has invited her to a water park to celebrate her birthday. And the amazing thing (at least to me!)--I REALLY like this kid! As in, she shows up to play, and I don't want to send her home 30 minutes later! She spent about 6 hours at our house one day and we all had a great time. There was no fighting, no crying, no whining, and they played outside almost the entire time. Other best part is that her parents are both police officers (mom is police chief!) so I don't have to worry about CBC when she's over at their house. Now if I could only figure out how to get them to move closer to us. . .

OCD has returned with a vengeance, though in a new form. For the last 2-3 months, CBC has been waking me up at least once every night because she misses me, and is sad she can't see me in the morning, and it goes on from there, culminating in her sleeping in our bed, and/or me sleeping on the floor. In the beginning, it was easier to be patient (and feel sad for her, too!), but I am losing it now. We've tried different tactics, but nothing worked. Her brain just gets control of these impulses and can't let them go, and now I'm fairly certain it's become a habit--that her body just wakes up by itself all night long. Anyway, last night I offered her a dollar (NOT a quarter :) ) for every night she sleeps in her bed the whole night. She told me a dollar wasn't much money (WHAT?! for sleeping?!) until I pointed out that there are ~180 nights before Christmas, which could mean $180 for the dog. That seemed to hit home. And may I say--she didn't wake me up at all last night. Cross your fingers!

Already?

Buddy's new vocabulary word? Already. As in, "I already brushed my teeth" and "I already ate dinner--ice cream now?" I forgot how interesting it is to watch 2-yr-olds start telling those obvious falsehoods that everyone else knows is false. Not sure where he picked up "already," but he is definitely getting mileage out of it. He's no longer into the green shirts, but now his focus is on peeing outside and running around at warp speed. He wanted Superman to play hide-and-seek with him, but it took us forever to figure it out--he kept saying, "I count to three!" until finally I realized he wanted to count to three (which really meant counting to five) while Superman hid. Hard to hide a 6'2" frame in 5 seconds, but entertaining to watch :)

Rat Part Deux

Superman and the kids climbed into the crawl space in search of the rat (or rat family, knowing my luck). The kids loved it and enjoyed seeing all the rat poop and footprints. Superman laid sticky traps (the idea is that the rat will be lured by the food onto the sticky trap, which will be so sticky they then can't escape--supposedly humane, but then the box says to throw the rat and trap away, wrapped in a plastic bag. Hello, rat still alive!!!) and poison. Well, when the sticky traps were checked a day later, all the food was gone and nobody was stuck on any traps. The next day the poison was obviously taking effect because Superman emailed me at work to tell me he found a rat clinging to life. He quickly dispatched it to a better world, and then left it out front for the neighborhood cats to eat. Like that would be a tasty meal. Anyway, when the kids got home, they wanted to see our "catch," which CBC then described as "heartbreaking." I swear, she is such a tender-hearted person. Anyway, she told me she said a little prayer and then told herself the rat was "in a happier place, where he can run and be free." The bad news is that this was much smaller than the rat I saw outside, so there are (were?) at least two rodent inhabitants.

Do you honestly want my $0.25?

Wow, a little extra excitement at our house--CBC swallowed a quarter. Yep, she swallowed an entire quarter. With absolutely no problem. She found one in her backpack, put it in her mouth, and before she knew it--gone! She related the story of telling her teacher thus: "So I went up to Ms. Kitz and I told her I found a quarter and put it in my mouth. She said, 'Go on.' Then I told her I swallowed it and she said, 'We better call the nurse.'" I laughed so hard at both of their nonchalant reactions--teachers must seriously hear everything! Anyway, the nurse called Superman; he called me; I called the doctor's office; and Superman took her to get an x-ray. Shiny quarter, settled right in her stomach. So for the last week, we've been examining her "piles" (ahem!), with no one being the richer. We never found the quarter, so Superman took her back for another x-ray today, and all is well. It "passed" without excitement, and now I can throw that "special" fork away. My co-workers will no longer call her my little piggy bank :) Amazing that OCD girl could put money into her mouth--think of the germs.

SO GROSS!! And yet fascinating. . .

A rat by any other name. . .

How lucky are we?! We have a pet rat! The only problem is, the rat lives underneath our house and surely has more friends than we are interested in taking care of. Kind of exciting, but really not so much. . .

Buddy Boy and the Green Shirt

So, you know how two-year-olds are famous for their stubbornness? As you already know, we experience this daily, but yesterday was a new low (or a high, depending on who you are in the story). Buddy is obsessed with wearing green. He only has three green shirts and he wants to keep one of them on at all times. Well, yesterday, they weren't so easy to find (blame the laundry!) so Superman had to force him, amidst much screaming and carrying on, to wear a different shirt. Well, Superman reported that he cried and screamed so much in the car on the way to day care that Superman eventually pulled over, stripped the kid clean of his shirt, and took him to day care shirt-less. That is how strong-willed my cute little boy is. Can anyone say "trouble ahead?" :)

Garage Sale Madness

So we had our first garage sale. VERY exciting. CBC and I got up early to get everything organized--I had no idea how important this was to her until she started selling :) Seriously, the kid talked to anyone and everyone, encouraging them to buy this and that, marking things down price-wise, and offering them deals. It was very entertaining! My favorite part of the whole deal was when she would comment on our things to people, such as "yeah, that toy doesn't really work that well" or "that toy is really annoying; that's why my mom wants to sell it" or "well, it's kind of broken, but you can fix it really easily." LOVED IT and LOVE HER! She's so much fun! Anyway, we made $100, got rid of some stuff, and happily took two boxes to Goodwill. Super success!

Buddy, though, was not so helpful. He wanted to keep his toys, so he kept getting everything down, playing and scattering toys. He eventually threw (figuratively) a tantrum and threw (literally) toys at visiting shoppers. That was exciting, too :)

Planner Extraordinaire

Superman has officially been recognized for all his hard work in Enumclaw with a title change--he is now the Planner (versus one of two Assistant Planners) for the city! We are so proud of him--he has sacrificed a lot of family time for work in the last 6 months and he definitely deserved this. Super job, Superman!! :)

Potty success and Take Your Kid to Work

So Buddy boy is a success with potty training! And he knows he's successful--he loves to go to the bathroom and then tell you what a big boy he is :) He's also quick at demanding a sucker in return for his good behavior.

In other news, Take Your Daughter or Son to Work Day was April 22nd this year. CBC got to enjoy a half-day at the University of Washington. We put her to work shredding, which showed her office expertise, and then she did an office supply scavenger hunt. She was a pretty cute employee, and it was obviously a highly successful event, since she still couldn't tell anyone what I do for a living, but she could definitely say she wanted to work for the University of Washington!

THE DOG

I kept thinking I was forgetting something when I was writing last night. I forgot to update about the dog! If you're following this blog at all, you'll know that CBC wants a dog more than almost anything else. So Superman had until the weekend of April 24th to report back to CBC--and he said she could get a dog!! (BIG shocker--go Superman!!!) CBC has until Christmas to earn enough money to buy her own dog. We are paying her to do chores around the house, and can I just say that I should've been doing this for years?! Neither Superman nor myself did the allowance thing growing up, so this is kind of a test run, but it's working so well! I get help with the dishes and the laundry and cleaning and everything. Love it! Anyway, she also has to read a book picked out by Superman by Christmas, but if she follows through, we're going to get a dog. So exciting! Now if we could just find the right one. We need a hypo-allergenic dog since Superman is super allergic, and we really want a poodle mix--like the labradoodle or the goldendoodle. So far, I keep hearing they're $1,000 so I'm thinking that's not going to happen. I don't think CBC could ever do enough chores to earn that much money! If anyone has any leads on a poodle mix, please pass them on!!

Buddy using his big vocab and his painting skills

Where does the time go?

How did May sneak up on me? I am somehow surprised by May's arrival, without all the nice sunny weather I am wishing for. I've been trying to eat healthier than normal (which for me would mean eating a vegetable a month or cutting down to 4 Dr. Pepper's a day--okay, slight exaggeration but you get the point). Anyway, I've joined a gym that I visit occasionally (and if any of you have suggestions on how to get by on less than 5 hours of sleep a night successfully, I would love to hear them!) and I go jogging with a good friend at least twice a week during my lunch break, but I am seeing no results at all. Makes me super frustrated, and then apathetic, followed by wanting to go back to my old habits. Ah, whatever.

This post is probably going to be a long one 'cause we've been SUPER busy at our house. Two weeks ago Superman got sort-of fancy tickets to the Mariners, so we enjoyed them (see pics). Kids were pretty great most of the time and it was fun to see them get so excited. Food was good, too :)

Then we decided to dig into another painting project, so we painted our great room (kitchen and living room combo). Coincidentally, the color we agreed upon was "Twilight"--I personally find that pretty darn hilarious. Once we put it on a wall, we realized that was a crazy color for so much space, so we went back and had them darken it. You can check the contrast out between our original wall color and the new one in these pictures. Let me know what you think! All I know is my husband is the bomb and is seriously able to do pretty much anything--I can honestly say I am amazed at his skills and talents. I am also jealous, but being the lackey comes with perks--I'm in charge of Buddy, so I get to take 3 hour naps with him to keep him out of Superman's hair :) I LOVE our new color; hope you do, too! And I hope you enjoy the funny pics of the kids painting. Buddy was killing me in his tidey-whiteys today after church :)

In other news, CBC was picked to be included in a music program within our school district, so she'll actually be attending a new elementary school next year where they will teach her to play the violin. We are so excited!! She and I checked the classroom out this week and enjoyed having some extra Mom/Daughter time. Her OCD has been affecting her again, and manifesting in different frustrating ways. Makes me feel bad for her, and I really need to remember to be way more patient. This new school is a definite blessing because she's been having boy/girl issues with her best friend that have been painful. Those of us who are tomboys can relate to how painful that is--it's not our fault when we can do things better than the boys! She's started reading a Choose Your Own Adventure Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew from my collection, and is really enjoying it. She also jumped off the diving board again in swimming lessons. Fun!

Buddy's vocabulary is increasing daily. This week, he came in from the ride home from school and said "I missed you!" to me before I had said anything else. Absolutely made my day. So cute!! I'm not so great with the video in this blog, but I'll try to put one in that shows him talking. Funny!!! He is responding to something CBC said about him not being stupid. He's doing well potty-training and has found a new love--Trix cereal. This morning, he ate three bowls, which is really a lot for Buddy, who can get by on one gogurt a day.

Last thing--next week is the Mother's Day program in church, and I will be playing the piano for the kids in sacrament. I have a feeling it will be entertaining for all :)

Okay, a couple more funnies

This weekend we had a lot of fun together as a family and a few funny stories came out of it.

First of all, I have to admit that sometimes I forget how enjoyable it is to watch kids learn new things. Buddy has picked up on size differences, and is really doing his best to make sure we don't treat him like a baby. We had pizza yesterday for dinner, and Superman fixed Buddy's plate with a half-size piece. Upon seeing the pizza, Buddy got kind of agitated, wouldn't take it, and kept saying, "NO! BIG one." So Superman gave him a large piece, which satisfied him.

Then this morning, CBC called me from the car and asked me why I picked a job that makes me leave so early in the morning. Kind of threw me for a minute. Then she asked if she could take her Book of Mormon to school to show her friends, which made me feel like a successful mother for about 3 minutes. Then I began to worry that somehow I'd get a call from the principal regarding religious materials at school. Guess we'll see how it goes :)

But most importantly, CBC had "the talk" with Superman about what she needs to do so that she can get a dog. She gave him until Friday to decide, but then asked if she could have his decision right then :) We had to remind her that he had the whole week to think about it. She is so excited about being reponsible enough to have her own dog again! When asked why she needs a dog, she said she wants a friend that is always there for her, that she would like a toy that she can always play with (!), and that everyone else has one. We nixed the last one for a reason, so she then came up with that she would teach Buddy not to be afraid of dogs.

A few choice selections :)

The other night the kids were taking a shower (okay, they were just playing in the warm waterfall). Buddy didn't want to get out, and cried and cried. I was trying to console him by keeping him occupied, and CBC announced that "some kids just feel like they don't have a life." Hmmm . . .

A few weeks ago, I bought New Moon (the movie) and let CBC watch it. It's now her favorite movie and she is definitely on Team Jacob. At the part where Bella crashes the motorcycle and Jacob takes off his shirt, CBC said, "Boys always do that" (making me think, which boys are you hanging out with??)

And then after the second or third time we watched New Moon, she informed me that she thinks her roommates in college are going to love her because she has her own copy of the movie. I'm sure they're going to love her for a whole lot of other reasons, but the movie definitely won't hurt :)

One of the funniest this week was when CBC commented on my new role at church--I am the new primary pianist (all the kids between 3 and 12). She wanted to know why in the world the primary would need a . . . um . . . shall I just say that we've used this other word a lot in potty-training Buddy? :) Of course I had to explain the difference between the two words which really DO sound similar!

And, finally, a word from little Buddy. UHWATT. Huh? He repeated it over and over until I finally got it: "A LOT." He uses it whenever you give him drinks--he wants more in his cup, not just a "baby" amount. Sheesh, who knew 2-yr-olds already had a clue that someone was getting more than they were?

How to Train Your Dragon

We went to the movies this weekend and saw How to Train Your Dragon (super fun movie for anyone interested). All four of us enjoyed it, excepting the part with the huge dragon--Buddy actually hid behind the seats in front of us so he couldn't see the dragon anymore. My favorite part of the after-movie discussion was when CBC said she loved the name "Night Fury" and she suggested we name Kid #3 (don't get excited folks, she's just planning far, far ahead) Night Fury. Which, after being up from 3-5 this morning with CBC, I acknowledge would be a perfect name for any of my kids. I keep chuckling about it--can't you just picture a little redhead named Night Fury Close?

Now if I could just figure out how to train my dragons :)