Jokes

Luci is at the age, or maybe it's her personality, where she plays with language and says lots of funny stuff. Here are a couple.

On Max and Ruby, Ruby was decorating a beautiful tree. Max was decorating with rubber snakes for garland, worms for tinsel, etc. Luci said, "That's not a beautiful tree, that's a Yuckiful tree!"

Yesterday, I was laughing out loud about something I was thinking about that wasn't 3 year old friendly. Luci wanted to know what I was laughing about . I said I was just telling a joke to myself. So she said, "Self, Knock, knock" "Self, who's there?" "Self, banana" "Self Banana who" "hahahahahah"

Getting tough

Ok. Cleaning for me is definately first on my list of dislikes. So it frustrates me to have to clean up after myself and 3 little ones (sometimes 1 big one too.) So here is a strategy I learned from Parenting with Love and Logic. Give them a time limit to clean their own things, when times up you clean, but you just take it all away. They have to earn it back.

I wasn't sure if it would work, still not sure if it will long term, but here is what happened even before I was done with their room...

They wanted to earn back the Dancing Princess night light. Grace said they were going to clean to earn back everything in the boxes. I wasn't sure if she was for real, but after she was done with the kitchen, she said she would do the girls' bathroom. I said she could do ours, and she she did.

They fight over who gets to mop. Maybe I should have started this a long time ago!!!

The turd

Luci said to me the other day in her best depressed voice, "Mom, I'm sad that Daniel is a turd." Not knowing where she got that I asked her who said that? She told me I did. Then I realized a conversation we have been having lately. Daniel's name in the neighborhood is "Baby Daniel," even though he is now a toddler. So I told the girls he is not a baby any more, he is a toddler. She remembered it as he is a turd.

This is not far from the truth sometimes though. The other day I gave him a 1/2 of a graham cracker. He ate it and asked, in his own little grunts, for more. I gave him a 1/4 the second time. He threw it on the floor and asked for more. He wasn't happy until I gave him 1/2. So I'm assuming he prefers squares over rectangles.

(By the way how do you spell turd?)

Lights Parade

Last night we went to a Christmas Lights Parade. It was a lot of fun. All of the entries were decorated with lights like the car above. There were much more spetactular examples, but the camera card was full. We did fix Daniel's pants right after this picture. He had a great snowsuit on as we were leaving the house, but on his way out the door he fell somehow and had blood Goooshing out of his mouth. There were puddles on the floor and all over his snow suit. It was crazy. But he is ok. He also had mittens. But, he makes a game out of seeing how fast he can shake them off when I put them on. He never complained though so I guess I shouldn't worry.
The night before the parade we went to Crete for a chili cook off and a scavenger hunt through the businesses. We listened to Christmas music in the car between stops. At one store the owner was so amazed because Grace and Luci found the item the fastest of all the contestants, including adult teams! I was a little bummed the prize promised at the end of the hunt was just an entry for the raffle. (Not what I was expecting and we didn't win.) But nonetheless, the girls had fun and figured out most of the clues before we arrived at the stores. At this age it's the process not the product that is so much fun. And according to my story that is the end and it was a great night.

Ken's story, however, might go a little something like this: Horrible. Terrible. Never again. Daniel and I in the car, Daniel screaming every time the ladies left the car, non-stop screaming, metal chairs falling at the cook off, everybody looking, Luci and a brand new friend accidentally unplugging the cable from the Christmas show, never going to do this again, and so on and so forth. (You can't expect them to be the best all the time, now can you?)

But he does agree the lights parade was the bomb.

How 6'5 ices an ankle

How patient 6'5 applies heat...

(Note the bathtub toy)

Thanksgiving

Gorgeous Thanksgiving centerpiece, right!? Thank you, thank you. I did it myself. And how about this bar table? Isn't it great how the leaves are just randomly stewn about as if they fell right off the oak and into the living room? I realize I have a lot to learn, but I think it is so fun to decorate for holiday feasts. Here are a couple more t-day pics at our place.