Whining and fighting and complaining! Oh my!

Well, we failed miserably on our goals from last week: to sleep all night and to not complain.  Caroline and I got sick this week with a nagging cough that has made sleep short and not restful.  She sounds far worse than I and it always sounds worse coming from a little one anyway.  She did get a pillow in her bed for the first time tonight in hopes that her head will stay elevated and she'll cough less.  In the past I had always put blankets under one end of her mattress to help elevate her head.  However, every time I did that she would inevitably sleep the wrong direction, elevating her feet and totally defeating the purpose.

Caroline's cough has also somehow made it to her voice box and caused it to be incredibly whiny.  Every time I ask her to do anything, she says in a very whiny, defiant voice, "No! Mommy do it." or "No! Mommy get it."  That and wanting to be carried everywhere, I'd say it has been a rough week.

"Hi, my name is Caroline.  I am not a happy camper this week, but I do love my fabulous red glitter shoes that are several sizes too big.  I wear them all the time and usually on the correct feet (but not today!)."  :)

The boys seem to be fighting more with each other as well.  It started small on Monday as they fought over a bag of baby carrots.  Henry held the bag and handed them out one-by-one to Josiah.  They ended up eating a bunch of baby carrots but I think it was mostly because they were determined to each get the most from the bag.  I finally had to take the bag away from them just to end the feud.  And ironically, when I put 3 baby carrots on their dinner plates they act like they cannot eat all 3.  "I ate one, can I have dessert?"  By the end of the week they were fighting over everything.  Henry seems to think that he can muscle toys out of Josiah's hand instead of merely using his words to ask for said object.  That is our issue with all the kids.  If they would only use their words FIRST instead of grabbing things out of their sibling's hand this would be a much more peaceful house.  I know one day they'll do it.  They will probably be 25, 27, & 29, but it'll happen.  One day.

We brought out a classic and did a little fishing.  Then this pleasant scene turned ugly and now this game, with only one working fishing pole remaining, belongs to Caroline ONLY.

Monday we had workmen come to reattach our bathroom sink to the countertop (under mount sink).  All the kids were fascinated to watch them work.  This contractor man has come over before and is very friendly and nice.  Due to detaching the pipe from the sink bowl, it produced a foul odor in the bathroom to which Josiah announces that the men smelled.  Then he said they were making a mess and it wasn't nice.  So we had manners lessons a lot this week.  (And they even cleaned as they fixed, too.)

Josiah was able to complete his Awana book this week.  At least his leaders signed all the pages.  I, however, have held out on signing his last page because he has to accomplish five days of picking up his toys/clothes, coming to dinner when told, AND NOT COMPLAINING.  He didn't have an issue with any of the items on the list except for the complaining one.  He's going to earn those two remaining non-complaining days and I'm going to love having a couple of non-complaining days around here.  I've contemplated on keeping his last jewels that he'll get on Award night until he completes the book to my satisfaction.  Some may consider that too harsh, but I am not a fan of complaining.  And I do not want to raise a complainer!  This week is Awana store where he gets to spend all the points he's earned this spring.  Being that this is our first time to do this, we have no idea what to expect, but he is super excited.

Josiah has also been humming the Star Wars theme all week long.  He's dressed up as Darth Vader for many of the days as well.  Then he likes to hold out his hand as if he is lifting me up by my neck (from a distance).  I am then to dramatically grab my neck and get on my tippy toes as if he were picking me up with "the force."  Then he tries to move me left or right by moving his hand.  I tell him he doesn't have that much "force" to do that.  I am no ballerina.

This picture brought to you by "Mommy has run out of creamer and NEEDS to have some decent coffee."

Finally, we began the house hunting process this week.  I was so looking forward to looking at houses.  We talked to the boys about proper house hunting behavior: stay with us, don't run, don't touch their furniture, don't get on the beds, don't close doors, look with your eyes, not your hands, etc.  And then we walked into the first house.  All three kids went wild.  They ran all over, opening and closing every door, yelling in excitement, touching the very breakable goblets on the staged breakfast nook table, up and down the stairs again and again.  It was too much.  So after that house (which we didn't care for anyway), we had a long talk as we drove to the next.  House #2 they did much better.  Caroline didn't quite take our conversation to heart, but at least we understand she lacks a lot of self control.  The boys did well until the end when one boy decided to open the homeowner's hutch in the dining room which held all their expensive, breakable China.  By house #4, Todd and I took turns looking around individually while the boys looked longingly at the house from the car window and Caroline shouted "Stairs!" because we all want "stairs!"

House hunting has become our obsession.  It seems Todd and I are on the websites constantly looking for houses, seeing if any new ones are coming on the market.  We are making ourselves crazy and frustrated even though it really has only been a week of looking.  This could have made us (me) slightly less pleasant to deal with which may have had something to do with all the fighting around here this week.  Maybe a little.

So, we are standing by our original goals again: sleep all night and no complaining!  I think I am going to start using the phrase, "use a pleasant voice" a lot.  "Did you talk to your brother with a pleasant voice or did you rip the legos out of his hands?" "Did you use a pleasant voice or did you use your foot to kick his face?" (yep, we had that this week)  Henry has muscle power.  Josiah has agility.  And they each know how to use it to their advantage.

Stop the Screaming!!!

This has been the week of yelling and screaming and saying "NO!" and crankiness from our little darling baby girl.  I think the root of it is a lack of sleep.  Since converting her crib to a toddler bed, she has gone to bed fairly well (fairly), but then she doesn't stay asleep.  She will wake up and come visit us anywhere from midnight to 3 a.m. or 5 a.m.  She doesn't pretend to rest in our bed anymore either.  She comes right out with "Cheerios?" or "drink?" and "TV?"  We have had a week of lots of crankiness all day long.  That, in addition to saying "NO!" to anything and everything we dare ask her.  By Saturday night, I had had about all I could bear of the not sleeping well and the saying "NO!" to everything.  She didn't want to go to bed, she didn't want to stay in her bed, so I gave her one warning which she did not heed.  And then I turned her bed around.  With her toddler rail portion up against the wall, she was confined to her crib again.  We all slept very well that night.  All. Night. Long.  :)

Caroline also likes to just yell and scream.  Some of it is out of anger, some joy, some excitement.  When we go to the library now and she sees a book or video that she recognizes, she will scream its name at the top of her lungs.  "PEEEEEEEP!!!!!!!"  or "KITTTTTTTYYYYYY!!!!!!" (when Henry found a Hello Kitty book) or "CHOO CHOO! CHOO CHOO!! CHOO CHOO!!!!" when she sees a Thomas the train video.  She all of a sudden has no volume control.  At home she often yells, "BUG!!!"  Although when I go to investigate, my typical response is, "No, Caroline, that's just dirt."  I always thought we'd have a clean house....

She loves her babies and her stroller

We ventured to Costco this weekend with all 3 kids.  We will not do that venture again for some time.  Henry and Caroline were just loud.  I finally took them both back to the car.  So this is Henry being punished.  He looks like he's really sad to be in the car.  I think it was more punishment for me because I had to answer 100 questions about what all the dials and buttons on the dashboard do.  "What does this one do?  Can I push it?"

Caroline did crack me up a few days ago.  I was working on a letter and she was sitting quietly next to me taking apart a stack of post-it notes.  Since I was actually accomplishing something, I let her continue with the destruction.  After taking apart the entire stack, she stands in her chair, throws her hands up in the air, and excitedly exclaims, "I did it!"  Yes, dear, you did it.

She also now requests a "tail."  I put her hair in a pony tail the other day just to see what it would look like and she thought it was the greatest thing.  So, now when I ask her to come to the bathroom to do her hair, she will actually excitedly go to the bathroom and say, "Tail!"  :)

Josiah had a very good week.  When he went to Awana on Wednesday, they took his book to see what all he was owed in terms of patches and jewels.  Then at the end of the night, he got an envelope with all his patches, jewels, and hang glider wings.  He was ecstatic.  He started putting the jewels in his hang glider wings the second he got in the car.  Then when we got home, he wanted me to iron on his patch immediately.  I did iron it on and he was beaming.  He thrives on awards like these.

Then on Friday, our last day of CC for the semester, he was awarded with a History Memory Master certificate.  I had no idea they were going to give him that, and he was thrilled.  The students who were total Memory Masters (all subjects) got certificates AND medals.  He thought it was a big deal to get a medal so now he has something to work towards next year.

The boys decided to play pretend a game of "house" this week.  Josiah was "Daddy."  Henry went out on a limb and played the "4-year old son."  Caroline was "Mommy."  And I was cast as the "Maid."  It was all going well until they boys thought "maid" meant total servant.  When I would not cook for them (as maids only clean), the game quickly ended.  Next time, Todd needs to come home from work so he can play the role of "Chef."

We had a good end to our week.  At church today, it was "County Fair Day."  They had a very condensed version of a county fair.  Caroline spotted the Batman bounce house quickly and kept yelling, "Do do do do do do do do Ba-Ba" (her version of the Batman tune).  After eating, she got to go in it and she totally enjoyed herself, but then when asked to come out (by the operator, no less), she smiled sweetly and said, "NO!" and kept playing.  I had to get Josiah go pull her out.

The boys loved the tractor-train ride.  It was driven by our music minister and he didn't mess around.  This was no slow kiddie tractor-train ride.  He would start off slowly until he got to the area of the parking lot with no people and then he would go fast and turn quickly.  The kids were loving it.  Caroline threw a fit when we wouldn't let her take a turn.  She did like her balloon flower, but then she kept banging it on everything on the walk back to the car and by the time we got to the car she had popped two petals and the stem.  She was not a happy camper.

The ropes they are holding were totally useless - in no way a restraint.

So, our goals for next week are to sleep all night, every night.  To say "yes" a little more often than "no."  And to not complain so much (this from a little unnamed boy).

A Memorizing Master!

The day after Easter, Josiah and Henry kept play-acting Jesus going to the cross, dying, being put in the tomb, and then finding the empty tomb.  Josiah, (always our play director), got to be Jesus, Henry was the Roman soldier, and I got to be Pilate.  Caroline got to be the women who found the tomb empty, when she chose to cooperate.  Otherwise, I changed roles and found the tomb empty.  Josiah did this all day long.  It did strike up a lot of conversation between the boys and I about heaven and what it takes to get there (faith in Jesus as the Son of God and acceptance of Him into your life).  This prompted them to have very nice prayers in the evening for people they wanted to see in heaven with them.

Then out of the blue, Henry recited John 3:16 for me and I had no idea he knew it.  ("For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.")  I asked him where he learned it and at first he said I had taught him, although I  never formally did so.  Then later he said they put it on the screen at church and they say it there.  He knew the whole verse, though!

Since Josiah missed Awana last week, he made up for it this week.  He recited 4 verses, spoke about a missionary couple we know (who they are, where they live, what they do, etc.), and sang the song for all the books of the New Testament.  Then he added another verse at the end that we didn't even go over.  I have no idea how he did that.  He is bound and determined to finish the book.  He has two more weeks to do so and he should make it.  I think all of the memorizing he does for his CC work has helped with Awana as well.  He is very good at memorizing!

Thursday he did his Memory Master at our CC director's house.  He said all of the history sentences to her and she said he did very well.  It is good practice for him to be tested by another.  Next year we'll try to do two subjects and eventually work our way up to all of them.  I think he liked playing in their son's room after the memory master best of all.  He had Star Wars legos and he was very nice to let Josiah and Henry play with all of them.  Now the boys have a new item on their wish list.

Caroline is still not sleeping through the night - we had her visit for 2 1/2 hours Tuesday night (midnight to 2:30am); then Saturday night she came in our room to sleep at 3:30am.  She and Henry came one after the other, so they somehow slept next to each other in my half of the bed and I had a sliver down the edge of the mattress.  If she doesn't visit us in the middle of the night, she has been waking up at 5:30 am.  This is at least an hour and a half earlier than she's used to, so she has been a bit on the cranky side this week (as have I)!

Storytime at the library this week had to do with April Showers.  It was rough because Caroline was so tired from waking up early that she was less than cooperative.  Henry is never very cooperative there.  But they did make a cute hat.  It was a rainbow hair hat and they all liked this one.

Hat on backwards, of course, because that is hilarious to all 4 year olds.

Thursday morning we went to a different playground.  It is part of a Memorial Park which has a monument commemorating the different military branches.  I'd know more if I could ever finish reading the information plaque.  Basically it is a very tall concrete monument shaped sort of like the Washington Monument, but with spaces throughout.  There is also an opening so the kids enjoyed going inside the hollow monument, which proved to be a great place to hear their echos.  I knew my children were loud, but now so does the couple that were sitting close to one another on the park bench next to the monument who have probably decided to forego having kids.

Saturday we did the Texas Children's Hospital Fun Run. We had to park off site and then shuttle to the hospital.  They used school buses to shuttle us and you would have thought we had just won a million dollars to see Josiah's excitement over riding a school bus.  They had 3300 participants and they let them start running in waves of 100.  We were in the far back with all the other families with strollers.  At one point in the race you could choose to go the 1K route or the 3K route.  Todd was running ahead with the boys and they chose the 1K.  Caroline and I were running/walking/looking at the scenery together and we chose the 1K as well.  A 1K is only 0.6 of a mile, so I found it quite humorous that halfway through our race they had a hydration station.  Of course we had to stop for water.  Caroline leisurely drank a few sips of the water, and slowly dumped the rest of the water in the trash can before throwing the cup away.  Like any good fun run race, they had medals at the end.  The boys then found themselves in 7th heaven at the buffet station.  Apples, bananas, chips, granola bars, breakfast bars, and fruit rope things.  I think they went back for seconds, thirds, and fourths.  And what is better to do after eating all that food, but to bounce in bouncy house rides.  Caroline loved the little bouncy house "obstacle course" for kids her age.  She was beaming the whole time.  The boys even made a Home Depot toolbox at the end.  Henry said it was one of the best days.  We were thrilled that the rain held off because it was supposed to thunderstorm all day and it ended up being just really overcast (which was great for the race).  We ended it with another super-fun bus ride back to our car.  

Not sure why they have glum faces - they were very happy to finish the race and go do all the fun stuff.
They don't like stopping for pictures.

Next week is Josiah's last day of CC for the year.  Not the last day of kindergarten, I have to remind him, just the last CC meeting for the year.  :)

Finally, Todd's parents celebrated their 50th Anniversary this weekend.  That is quite a notable accomplishment.  I'm embarrassed to say I had to go all the way back to Josiah's first birthday to find a picture with both of them in it at the same time (that wasn't blurry)!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Easter!

Caroline had a rough start to her week with a stomach bug.  She was up for several hours early Sunday night and early Monday night.  Then the bug worked its way through her system for the remainder of the week.  She finally seemed a lot better on Saturday.  Her appetite seemed to come back, and to make up for a lack of eating throughout the week, she joined Todd and I at midnight Saturday night.  I laid her next to me and after a while she whispers, "drink."  "You want some water?" "Yes"  So I get her some water.  A little bit of time passes and she leans over again and whispers, "Cheerios."  "You want some Cheerios?"  "Yes"  So I get her a bowl of her Cheerios.  When I hand them to her she points to the TV, so I turn that on.  I drifted in and out of sleep until 2 a.m. when I put her back in her bed for the night.  She was still sitting up, eating and drinking as if it was the middle of the afternoon.

Her sickness prompted me to have her nap in our bed so that I could prop her up on our pillows instead of having her flat on her bed (which seemed to cause her to throw-up at night).  She did that for several days and then started napping on Henry's bed.  She loved the new nap routine.  I wouldn't have minded it if she would only nap longer.  Her 2 hour naps have turned into 1 hour naps and I really need to them to last 2 hours.  That's when we get our phonics and math lessons done without her "helping."  After half a week of no longer napping in her crib, on Wednesday, she decided she didn't want to sleep in the crib at night either.  She screamed (and I mean screamed) when I put her in her crib Wednesday night.  Thinking about it, when the boys were her age they already had a younger sibling who was sleeping in the crib and so they already had their own big boy bed.  Thursday night we converted her crib into a toddler bed and she is very happy with the situation.  She still isn't sleeping long enough, but I remember the boys went through a transition period of not sleeping long as well, but eventually they went back to their old routine.  Her first night in the toddler bed, she got out once.  I put her back and told her that if she got out we would put the side back on and make it a crib again.  She stayed in bed!  When the boys got their big boy beds Josiah got out well over 90 times the first night.  Henry got out about a third of Josiah's number.  Caroline - 1 time.  Girls.  :)

Caroline likes to be a little helper with everything.  After she finishes eating her meals, she takes her plate, dumps the uneaten food into the trash can (before I can save it for the next day), and then throws her plate in the sink.  And I mean throws.  We always make sure to give her plastic everything until she learns to place things gently in the sink.  She's a little nurse to everyone.  Every time someone gets an injury, she goes up, puts her hand on their back and says, "Ok? Ok?"  Then when she gets an injury, not matter how slight, she says, "Kitty? Kitty?"  She has a love for Hello Kitty bandaids at the moment.

She was happy to get her summer shoes this week.  It's been so warm here and putting socks on the kids just seemed cruel.  For her shoe-obsessed self, she has taken great delight in putting them on, taking them off, putting them on, taking them off.  She now asks if she is putting it on the correct foot and will listen to my instructions and fix it if wrong.  She is leaps and bounds ahead of the boys in this department.  Both of them seem to consistently put their shoes on the incorrect feet (and they could care less about it as well).  I am constantly saying, "Switch your shoes."

We did make it to the park one day to test out their new shoes.  It was a huge blessing that Caroline wanted to swing herself.  I didn't have to bend over and hold on to her and the swing while trying to swing her at the same time!  :)  They also love the handicap swing and she insisted Henry push her in that.  They were pals that day.

her buddy

They held hands all on their own.  

The boys dressed up as ninjas for the first part of the week until it got too hot to wear the ninja masks on their heads.  That and their ninja weapons got confiscated for all of eternity after a poke to the eye.  I try to give them chances, but I know the outcome anyway.

Fortunately (?) they moved onto a less aggressive activity mid-week.  I told them to take a potty break and when they didn't return, I found them in the bathroom with water running (for quite a while I imagined) and soap bubbles everywhere.  They were giddy with themselves.  It is exhausting around here some days.


Todd had Friday off from work so we took advantage of it and went to a restaurant that he and I love, Sweet Tomatoes.  It's a salad bar buffet with soups, baked goods, and a make-your-own ice cream sundae station.  We were super happy that all the kids did very well.  The boys loved it.  Henry kept calling it Sweet Potatoes despite many corrections.  He finally said, "I like calling it Sweet Potatoes."  He ended up eating a sweet potato there as well.  He took a bite and said to Josiah, "You HAVE to try this.  It is so good."  They do have amazing sweet potatoes there.  Caroline enjoyed one herself.  The boys had a good time with the ice cream station.  Each chose rainbow sprinkles and a brownie muffin on the side.  I think that sealed the deal with them and they've been asking to go back for just about every meal since then.

Easter morning began at 5:30 a.m. with Josiah.  His early start turned from excitement to crankiness and lots-o-attitude after 2 hours.  It ended up being a very cranky morning, lots of meltdowns and defiance by all.  Fortunately, after about 3 p.m. everyone seemed to chill out and we had a good afternoon.  We made Resurrection Biscuits with the boys.  We let them do the work and I helped some.  I was super happy they turned out because I wasn't convinced they would (because of us not wrapping the dough around the marshmallow and sealing it very well).  We did an egg hunt in the front room.  In addition to regular plastic eggs, I got a dozen of the confetti eggs thinking it would be a good alternative for Caroline who can't have the chocolate.  But they didn't exactly explode.  More like they were cracked and dumped.  Fortunately, Henry was quite eager to vacuum afterwards.  It ended up being a good day as it should be when we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord.

Resurrection Biscuits - marshmallow in the middle which melts making an "empty tomb"

Confetti eggs

I tried to take pictures of the kids before church.  It was actually lightly raining and cool so we did them quickly.  I have no idea why Henry thought surfer dude was a good look for Easter, but he went all out.  I was just happy that he wore those pants because they were too tight for him, but he sucked his little belly in and said they fit.  Now on my list is "khaki pants, husky size."

hang loose

surfer dude

The kids are really looking forward to next week when we do a fun run at Texas Children's Hospital.  We picked up our packet on Saturday and got our t-shirts and bibs.  I think they're more excited about all the free food and entertainment afterwards, so maybe they'll run faster to finish.

He is Risen.  He is Risen Indeed.

We Love Aunt Claire

After finishing Charlie & the Chocolate Factory last weekend, Josiah spent all of Monday acting out scenes from the book.  He dressed up as Willy Wonka (basically he wore Caroline's purple jacket since Willy Wonka wore purple).  Henry was Charlie.  I was Grandpa Joe.  Henry and I would be invited into the chocolate factory and then after winding through the house, we'd make it to the big open area where everything was edible with the chocolate river.  Caroline, not understanding how this whole acting thing works, kept stepping into the chocolate river.  So, then I'd switch from Grandpa Joe to Augustus Gloop's mom and pretend Caroline was Augustus going up the pipe.  She was more fun to play than Grandpa Joe anyway.  At least I got to work on my fake German accent.

I spent the first two thirds of Tuesday answering the endless loop of the following questions, "When is Aunt Claire going to get here?" and "Is Aunt Claire here?"  and "Cwaire, Cwaire" (with pointing out the window).  In the weekend that she was gone, Caroline somehow switched from calling her Momma to calling her Cwaire, which is much cuter anyway (and slightly less confusing).  We got to take her out to Hippo Ice for dessert.  They puree fruits/chocolate/coffee, freeze them in huge blocks, and then put them under a shave ice machine and shave off the fruit/coffee/chocolate.  Todd, Claire, and I really enjoy it.  Caroline wouldn't touch it, Henry ate a bunch and then said he didn't like it, and Josiah barely ate any because he didn't like the texture.  Too "fluffy."

We got to spend time at the park before Claire had to leave on Wednesday afternoon.  It was a beautiful day and I thought it would make a lovely picture.  This was the best we got.  Apparently the kids didn't understand that it was a beautiful day and the potential existed to make a lovely picture.

The weather here really has been beautiful lately.  Low 80s most days and the mosquitoes haven't come back yet.  I've made the kids walk to the library twice this week just to take advantage of it.  Although, really, they don't walk much of it at all.  All 3 of them climb onto some part of the stroller and I push 100 pounds of children to the library and back.  Really, I don't mind it, though, because if they walk then the walk itself can be incredibly slow.

Claire helped the boys start their circular globe puzzle, but had to leave before it was finished.  After finishing it, I took a picture to show her and as soon as the photo had been taken, Henry accidentally let go of the puzzle globe, and we all watched it roll off the table and crash to the floor.  Only half of it fell apart; I enjoyed putting it back together so we could show Todd when he got home.  Thank you Ms. Kathryn for the puzzle.  It was a lot of fun putting it together.  I'll be on the hunt for more 3D puzzles in the future.

From the moment Claire left on Wednesday, the kids have been talking about when she's going to come back.  We're on that endless loop now.  Josiah and Henry both said they are going to move to Boston when they grow up so they can be closer to her.

Josiah is still doing an amazing job with his Awana verses.  This past Wednesday, he said 5 verses.  He is flying through this book in a few months rather than a year, he is so motivated.  He is also learning the hard lesson of delayed gratification.  He has earned quite a few patches and jewels at this point, but they do not have all of them in stock at the church, so he hasn't received any as of yet.  It is a very difficult lesson to learn because he LOVES his Awana vests and the bling that decorates them.

Josiah is also working on his Memory Master for his CC work.  The kids have the opportunity to test to see if they have memorized everything from the entire year's lessons.  Josiah, being that it is his first year, has definitely not memorized everything, but he is working on doing just his history sentences.  It is good practice for him to have to say them all in front of his parents (individually), his CC tutor, as well as the CC director.  He pretty much knows them except he forgets a couple of dates on some of them.

Hopefully Josiah will find all of his memory work fulfilling, because on the way to the store with him yesterday he said, "You make our life so difficult."  That's always a blessing to hear.  Upon further inquiry, he is upset that I am making him and Henry buy a new umbrella to replace the one they decimated.  Really, I am asking for $2.50 each to buy a $5 umbrella.  Although, Josiah's on the hook for a new grabber as well since he destroyed that.  He kept hitting it on the driveway and I warned him to stop and that he'd break it.  He did not heed my warnings and now it's broken.  He seems to not mind buying that since he can get a fancy one that lights up.

This is a little girl who has two older brothers. Ninja turtle mask and castle Lego set.

It is hard to believe that Easter is next week already.  Hopefully next week will go better than last night when Caroline joined us at midnight and proceeded to revisit her dinner from midnight to 2:45 a.m.  She woke up this morning asking to eat and drink right away as if she had not just had this horrible night.  Then during the day today Josiah has been moaning that he doesn't feel well.  We couldn't tell if it was a ploy to get me to let him watch TV (that he had gotten taken away) or if he really didn't feel well.  When he didn't eat his Papa John's pizza tonight, we knew he really didn't feel well and an hour later he had a fever of 102.9.  I'm praying his is a fever only and not another night of a stomach bug.  He already told me he won't be able to do school for a few days.  He has amazing insight into the future.  At least we'll be able to finish our Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle book.

Rodeo time

Caroline started her week off with some accomplishments.  She had her 2-year check-up at the doctor's office and the nurse asked me to undress her down to her diaper.  In my attempt at compliance, Caroline decided to totally freak out and scream bloody murder about undressing.  I was highly unprepared for this reaction and couldn't stop laughing at the absurdity of it all.  So, I undressed her with feet and arms going every direction.  We took her to the scale and she yelled, "NO!" when asked to step on it.  (I've desired to do that myself at the doctor's office.)  So, I tried to sit her on the baby scale.  She somehow got the disposable paper barrier out from under her and threw it across the room while yelling, "NO!"  We did get a height and weight, but I'm not putting any money on the accuracy of them.  She calmed down by the time the doctors came in and was fine for them (one was doing his residency) thank goodness.

Another accomplishment was that she got a new trash bag ready for the trash can while I took the full bag outside.

She has also decided that she needs to go pee before bath time much like the boys do.  She runs to her potty and sits for a while and runs back to the tub.  Yet, on Tuesday, Todd was waiting for her to "pee" and he heard the little music go off on her potty...twice.  So she actually peed on her potty for the first time totally on her own.  It is the only time it has happened, but it would be nice if the third child potty-trained herself.  We could totally go for that.

She has also started to be very generous with her food.  When she gets her food, she will either walk around the table giving a piece of it to each boy, or she will hold the piece of food out in her hand and say, "Siah? Siah?  Renry? Renry? Uhhhhh. Uhhhhhh."  For her to share her marshmallows is pretty big.  She is quite the fan of "mar-marls."

The rest of our week revolved around Aunt Claire, all the kids' favorite person.  We picked her up from the airport on Wednesday.  Caroline gave her the furrowed brow "I-have-not-warmed-up-to-you-yet-so-don't-look-at-me" look the entire ride back to our house.  And this was no small furrowed brow.  It was as deeply furrowed as she could make it.  An hour later, Aunt Claire was Caroline's new best friend.  Caroline quickly dubbed her, "Momma."  (I am "Mommy" to distinguish.)

We had to bring Claire to the rodeo, so that's how we spent our Wednesday afternoon.  We knew it was big, but really had no idea just how big.  Both boys insisted on holding Claire's hand while walking from the car to the rodeo.  There were many puddles on the sidewalk to navigate around, but neither boy was willing to let go of her hand to make the navigation easier.  :)

The slightly long walk to the rodeo.

There was a huge carnival area right when we walked in.  Josiah tried to get us to spend time there, but I pushed forward and said I wanted to see animals.  We were there for hours and only managed to see a small corner of the livestock show and a tiny portion of the Kids' area (with it's own little kid carnival).  In the livestock show we went into a petting zoo enclosure.  It was a fairly small enclosure with a lot of people as well as pigs, llamas, donkeys, ducks, goats, sheep, chickens, kangaroos, and a cow (which was sleeping smack in the middle).  Josiah and Claire loved it.  Henry was laughing nervously the whole time.  He kept jumping away from the pigs (which were tiny in comparison to the other animals), but loved the deer.  He is scared of big dogs, so I was pretty impressed with him going in and doing as well as he did.  I think he wanted to be with Claire more than anything.  He even got a hair brush out of the bucket and brushed a few animals.  Both he and Josiah said on a nearly constant basis, "I love you Aunt Claire."  or "Aunt Claire?" "Yes," she'd say. "I love you."

Henry feeding ducks and chickens

Josiah with a goat

One funny llama was very wise and followed Claire to the food dispenser.  Claire put her quarter in, turned the dial, and the llama had his mouth at the ready to catch all the food from the machine.  It got 50 cents worth of food and then followed Claire around for a while nudging her for more.

Her llama eating from the dispenser.

Llama looking for more food

Josiah's favorite part of the rodeo, in his opinion, was the snow cone he got on the way out.  Caroline got a taste of the snow cone and became a quick fan.  Claire and Josiah were both very generous with giving her spoonfuls of theirs.  We ended our rodeo day with a high-pitched scream from Henry while at our car.  He had gotten his fingers caught in the car door.  He says he did it to himself, but we didn't witness it.  Three fingers had deep indentations on them and they looked bad.  He cried a good bit, but in the car on the way home he was easily distracted by looking at pictures on my phone, so we were certain they weren't broken.  Poor kid.  He seems very accident-prone lately.

Back at the house, Henry only wanted Claire to give him a bath, dress him, brush his teeth, read to him, and snuggle with him in his bed.  So, Todd and I graciously stepped aside and allowed her to do all of these things. :)  We even got to go out to dinner by ourselves the following night which we hadn't done in 9 months.  It was a treat for us to have her visit, but that's partly because she was doing all the work with the kids.

Friday, Claire drove to CC in her own car because she had to make her way up to Dallas for a conference.  Caroline was super upset the whole way to CC.  "Momma, Momma" she shouted.  Then in her absence this weekend, Caroline has pointed out of our front window and said, "Momma."  Fortunately, Momma is coming back for another day and a half next week before heading home again.  These are going to be some heartbroken kids when we drop her off at the airport.

Over the weekend, Todd started reading Charlie & the Chocolate Factory to Josiah.  Josiah enjoyed it so much that they finished it in two days and watched the movie of it while we ate dinner tonight.  I love that we can read chapter books to him now and Todd does a great job of reading those to him.  We finished Pippi Longstocking last week.    

So that was our week.
One last picture of this cute kid.

Helicopters, Batcopters, & Stars

Our week started out really well with the kids deciding they needed to clean the house on Monday.  They used a lot of baby wipes cleaning all sorts of furniture, windows, shoes, etc., and who was I to stop such progress.  Henry got a paper at church last Sunday which had 7 stars on it.  If he engaged in serving others each day of the week, he could color in a star a day (and receive some sort of prize for it at church).  That prompted a lot of serving at the beginning of the week.  Josiah capitalized on it and had Henry serve him. Henry got him markers, got his milk for him, threw trash away for him.  Then Josiah would say, "Good job Henry, now go color another star."

A cleaning frenzy - all our shoes are now clean

They also had a moment of not such great getting along.  Mid-week they got a package from Grandma & Grandpa with a police officer costume and a pirate costume in it.  Josiah immediately picked the police officer costume and had me call him Officer Cockrell for a few days.  However, I have since confiscated the handcuffs due to "improper play" (not for the reason below) and they may never get those back.  One day, Josiah was dressed as the cop again and Henry pretended to be The Penguin from Batman.  He held a closed umbrella and Josiah tried to arrest him and stick him in jail.  After a while, Josiah wanted to switch characters.  Henry did not.  Josiah saw it wise to grab the umbrella from Henry.  Henry did not appreciate that, and in the fighting they totally destroyed the umbrella.  Now neither is very happy that they will be forced to buy a new umbrella the next time they earn or are given money.

Aye, matey.

Officer Cockrell

Josiah announced that he was going to to name his children after restaurants.  "Which restaurants?" I asked him.  "McDonald, Hardee, and Wal," he said.  (Walmart)  God bless the girl he marries.  Todd and I always gave each other veto power on any name we did not like.  I think his wife is going to have to institute that rule as well.

Caroline has surprised me a lot this week.  She sat down and did puzzles much better than I was aware she knew how.  She likes her name puzzle the best and can recognize a "C" anywhere.  One evening I was talking to Todd about how hard it has been to get her to eat vegetables (besides broccoli and sweet potatoes).  She ate all vegetables as pureed baby food, but not so much the real thing.  Then as I was talking to him, she was eating the raw cabbage off of my plate.  The next day she took a bite of a baby carrot, chewed it up, and then spit it back out on her plate.  But she used to not even touch them, so that's a step in the right direction.  She also got her first "manicure."  I painted the nails on her right hand and she was fascinated by it.  I won't paint her left hand just yet because she sucks that thumb all the time.

Hard to see it, but her fingers are painted

Caroline also got her first lesson in getting things stuck in her hair.  She and Henry were in their time-out squares for some infraction.  She picked some of her time-out square tape off of the ground (blue painter's tape).  When her time-out was over, she came over to me and had tape stuck to her rear as well as in her hair.  I could have probably gotten it out of her hair if she cooperated a little more than she did.  But she just kept saying, "Ow." and pulling away from me.  So I cut it out.  It isn't noticeable at all - I keep trying to figure out where I cut it and can't tell myself.

This weekend we went back to the local trail and walked to the park/playground again.  I noticed Josiah on the seesaw with a little girl and I went over to eavesdrop on their conversation.  It was pretty cute.  They asked each others ages and how many times they had been to that park.  Josiah offered up that he was from Hampton.  Then she left abruptly when her sister called her.

Saturday morning we went to Hobby Lobby, a craft store, to see about getting pinewood derby cars for the boys to make and decorate.  They each picked out one car, although they found about 100 items each that they wanted in the future.  Josiah colored his as a Batman car.  Henry likes green, so his car was the same.  After the making and decorating, there hasn't been a lot of playing with them so maybe this week we can make a ramp and race them.  That is the original intention of them anyway.

sanding them down

coloring their cars (see the bat symbol on Josiah's)

Todd has finished the nights with the kids with helicopter rides.  He puts each one on his shoulders and "flies" them around our house all the while making quick turns and fun engine noises.  The kids love it.  He gives them two rides each although for them they would prefer if the rides were never ending.  

Blurry picture, but you can see the joy on Josiah's face during his "lift-off"

Henry used his birthday money (before the umbrella incident) to buy a new Batcopter.  I think we now have the Batmobile, the Batcopter, and some sort of underwater Batman thing (I can't remember the name).  3 Batman Lego men.  I think we are set, although I'm sure the boys will see another kit someday and just have to have that one as well.

Josiah drew the Lego Ninjago characters as new decoration for his bed.

Henry drew Mickey Mouse, a Ninjago scene, a window so he could look outside, and a picture of him and Caroline.

This coming week is very exciting for the kids because my sister comes and they get to take her to the rodeo.  It should be a good time!

And one last picture of the kids - they insisted I take a picture of them at dinner and it turned out pretty well.

Henry has orange marker all over himself.  Just another day around here.