Sister vs Brother

Here are the best pictures I could imagine to depict the differences between our 2 children. We went to the fish hatchery at the Nimbus Dam. The kids each had a cup of food to feed the rainbow trout. Emmie delicately sprinkled a few pellets of her food at a time with grace and flair. Clay chucked his food all at once with extreme gusto and a grunt. Having a boy and a girl so close in age helps me appreciate the differences between them. I could never choose one over the other and I'm sure glad we get to experience both.

Trip to the Doctor

We took the kids to visit the doctor. The nurse asked them to take their clothes off and gave them sheets to cover up. She told them they were capes. Instead of wearing them Superman style they wore them Little Red Riding Hood style. By the time the doctor came in they were wadded up in a ball on the floor and the kids were bouncing around in their underwear. The kids are healthy as ever.

Here is Clay showing off his band aids and muscles. We told the kids the blood pressure cuff was checking for muscles. Clay had to have his kindergarten shots. Can you believe it's already time to register him for school beginning in August? Scott told him shots were something all cowboys and army guys needed to get. Clay had 4 shots in his arms! He was so brave and didn't even flinch for the first 3. The last one was a doozy and put him over the edge. The one with tetanus is the most painful of all of them.

We took the kids to Mimi's for lunch for being so brave. Clay's poor arms were so sore he couldn't lift them. I had to feed him like I would a baby. He actually really enjoyed that and ate a ton. When I was trying to eat a bit myself he was impatient and tried to eat without help.
The poor guy broke out in a rash at bedtime. Then he was up in the middle of the night shaky, feverish and feeling like he was going to throw up. He was sick the next 2 days. He's always been sensitive to everything. When he had the chicken pox shot when he was 1 1/2 he actually broke out in chicken pox. It just doesn't seem fair. But now he's ready for kindergarten and he can't wait!

Clay's Hot Wheels

The Oscars

Using the computer here is like attending the Oscars. What? Have you heard at the Oscars they have people who are paid to be nothing but seat fillers? When one of the attendees gets up to use the bathroom a nicely dressed seat filler runs and occupies the seat. That way when they do an audience clapping shot they have no empty spaces. Or maybe they do it because the stars like a nice warm seat to return to. This is what I have to deal with. We have our computer in the dining room. (Please ignore the Christmas linens. I'm getting to them.) I start by pulling over one dining chair to the computer. Then I get called away. When I return my seat is occupied. I pull over another chair and begin again. Shortly, I'm called away once more. Another furry little seat filler takes my chair. These are my Oscars. I have 3 chairs and the one I get is way off to the side. When the children are home from school it gets even worse!

New Kid by Friday Update

Here's a bit of an update. We started this yesterday, a Wednesday. I figured we needed more than 5 days to do this. So "Monday's" instructions are very simple. 1. Say it once and walk away 2. No warnings or reminders 3. Keep a happy tone and pleasant face. OK the toughest part would seem to be expecting the kids to do anything after being told only once. The trick is not letting them move forward with anything else until it gets done. It worked. Clay threw his clothes on the kitchen floor because he was mad about something. I told him to pick them up and went back to reading (this book). Of course he ignored me. Then he came back a few minutes later completely forgetting the clothes on the floor. He wanted me to help him put his pants on. I told him no. He looked at me weird. Then I gestured at the clothes on the floor. He mumbled something and scooped them up and put them away. Whoa, it actually worked and didn't take that long. There is a warning that things will get worse before they get better. That's a good sign that the power is shifting from kid to parent. Things are definitely getting tougher but they are improving with each battle.

The hardest part of this is trying not to repeat which happens out of habit and keeping any reactions to horrible behavior or a nasty attitude bottled up. Today is day 2 and Clay actually went up and got himself dressed with a smile on his face. First he came back naked after I told him to get dressed. I was a little nervous. What was I going to hold back to keep him from going forward. I was on the computer looking at pictures and Clay naturally wanted to see. So HE showed me what I needed to hold back. I asked, "What were you supposed to do first?" And he smiled and ran up and dressed. Boy oh boy if this is all we get from this book I'll be happy. We'll see what "Tuesday" brings.

I am making Scott read this. We need to be united in our attack. He hasn't yet. Maybe I should employ step one! Dr. Leman does say these principals work from ages 2 to adult. I'm having wonderfully evil ideas now.........There are specific solutions for specific problems in the back of the book. One of the things that puts Scott through the roof is the state of disaster the kids' rooms become in a blink of an eye. Santa kept the kids on their toes and the rooms were immaculate for a whole month. Christmas passes and the pigs move home. Scott will be sorely disappointed that Dr. Leman waved the white flag on this issue. He says his kids, as perfectly reared as they are, have toxic waste rooms. His solution is to set a 2 day a week clean room rule. If the rooms aren't clean on those 2 specific days he will hire a sibling or neighbor kid to come in and do it. The kid gets paid out of the slob's allowance. Plus, how humiliating to have someone else go through your stuff? Sounds awesome for teens! I'm not sure what to do right now.I'm not quite ready to institute allowances. I've read children should do things because they are part of the family and that is that. They should get an allowance whether they do the work or not. But I'm having trouble instilling the innate desire to help the family in my kids. I must have children who are the exception to the rule. Yeah right! This sounds like socialist propaganda. I am definitely going to have to rethink this belief. It's obviously something I read BEFORE I had children. Stupid silly naive me.

Roller Disco

Laser Teaser

Mom and Clay Day

Clay and I were trying out our web cam. He was having fun posing with me. He was really sliming me with his kisses. One time he actually bit my cheek. That was about all I could take. It was a little like being mauled by a puppy. Clay loves his mommy. He's not missing being able to go to preschool because he gets to spend every day with mom. What will happen when he does get to go to school everyday? Clay will probably cry and get clingy. I will of course be celebrating with a good book and while eating bon-bons! And then I will clean the bathrooms in peace.

Have a New Kid by Friday

Before....

After...(I wish!)

We haven't actually started this book but this is the plan. It's the solution to all our problems. The inside flap states, "After you read (this book), you'll tell yourself, "I can't wait for my kids to misbehave. I'm ready for them!" I promise." As long as I don't have to pretend my child is "special" anymore to get out of the store with my self-respect I'll be happy with whatever I get. We'll keep y'all posted.

The First Loose Tooth

Emmie's two bottom front teeth have been shifting all over the place the past few weeks. Now they are obviously loose. Emmie said they feel cottony. Then a day later we saw a big tooth crowding in behind the loosest one. I'm sure they 'll be falling out soon. Emmie is not letting anyone near enough to yank on them.We thought we better get one last baby tooth grin but Emmie was being a stinker about showing off her teeth. We got it eventually. Mom always wins.

What Could be Cuter than a Sleeping Kid?

Is there anything I need to say about this? What an angel.

Date with Dad

Whenever we take the kids to dinner they fight, whine or create a general scene. Scott wanted to take the kids to The Old Spaghetti Factory and I told him to go for it. Even in this loud kid friendly restaurant we've had a ruckus or two. After dinner he called to tell me the kids were absolutely perfect and have never eaten dinner so politely not even at home. So what does this say about me? I must incite the horrible behavior they normally have. What am I going to do about it? I'll let Scott take the kids out often to have dinner without me. Being all alone will be my sacrifice for a happy family. (Evil-LOL)

One Becomes Two

We have teeny tiny starfish crawling all over the glass of our fish tank. We started out with a few and over time they invaded. They are only as big as the diameter of a pink eraser on the end of a pencil. We've always wondered how they multiplied so quickly. I finally caught one becoming two the other day. They just split right in half and grow more legs.

The picture above and the one below are not of the same starfish. They don't change rapidly enough to even see any movement. It seems they know to keep still until we are not looking. This picture below even shows it's tiny feelers as it is dividing. On the lower left of the picture there is a white dot. That's a baby snail. I didn't even see it when I took the picture until I blew it up. The starfish look really spongy but are very crusty and hard.

These are our clown fish. Of course the large one is named Marlin and the smaller is Nemo. I was doing some reading and discovered the largest clown in the group is always the female. The rest are all males. If the female dies then the largest of the remaining males becomes the new female. Ooooh, Aaaah!

These are some of the rest of our fish. We have a scopas tang, the largest one here, a blue hippo tang (Dorie of course). We have some other interesting fish and creatures but they never stop moving and getting a picture is nearly impossible without it being too blurry.

Jamba Juicers

Lala Delma gave us her nice juicer. Scott brought in a 20 pound box of apples, we had some big fat carrots and the kids went to town. We ended up with 4 liters of juice. It was pretty easy and the kids had fun. I caught Clay using his fingers to stuff the apples down inside the machine twice. Good thing his fingers are short. Delma told us her favorite was an apple and carrot combo. She's right it was better than straight apple. Emmie was all business making the juice and Clay ate as many apples as he juiced.

Mr. Clay's Last Wild Ride

This is the ride when Clay called it quits. He was through because it was just too scary. We couldn't figure him out. He is such a dare-devil all the time. All we can figure is if it was his idea to throw himself down a scary hill at top speed he'd be scared but determined to do it again and again. Since it was our idea he was having no part of it.

Sledding as Seen through Annie's Eyes

I videoed my first trip down the hill. It was a little faster than I thought it would be and it ended hard. There were some good spins towards the bottom.

Woah Dad!

Scott took off down the sled run he had dug out while we watched from below. He was doing fine until he sailed over one of the moguls at the bottom and slammed his head back against the hard packed ice. He laid still at the bottom when he finally came to a halt to catch his breath. Clay watched and said, "Oh, Dad must be dead because he's not moving." I told Clay he better run down and take a picture of dad and make sure he was really dead. Of course Clay wasn't at all worried about his dad being dead. The kids have already informed us Scott will of course be the first to die in our family because he's the oldest (AS FAR AS THEY KNOW!). Death is such a nothing to them right now. They know you go to be with Jesus and you don't come back and that's as far as they think about it. Clay took these pictures and to his surprise Dad wasn't dead after all. Phew, we still had a ride home! Actually we almost didn't have a ride home. Scott went into his, no longer, zippered pocket to retrieve the car keys and they weren't there. After a moment of panic from Scott and an equally long moment of disgust from the rest of us Scott found the keys in his gators cinched down around his boot. The disgust was mostly on my part because this wasn't the first time Scott had nearly lost the keys on a trip out to the middle of no where and probably not the last.

Snow Day

We had a great day in the snow! We drove a little over half an hour up the road to Omo Ranch and went sledding. It was too crowded for our wild children so we found our own hill on the north side. The snow was crisp and fast. Scott had a hard time digging in a good run because the snow was so hard. At the bottom there were many moguls that sent us flying. Emmie was a good sport and never complained when I landed on top of her. Once she was thrown forward and was snagged out of the air with the tow rope around her waist. The moguls at the bottom were so slick and icy they were perfect for the kids. They sat down and slid down one after the other on their rumps. Clay enjoyed that but he didn't want to ride in the sled. No broken bones, bruises, scrapes or frostbite! What a great day!