Carousel Love

Maggie loves the carousel at Coral Ridge Mall.

Her current preference is the white kitten with the fish in its mouth but, if he is occupied, she'll consent to the white bunny instead.

But not before shaking her finger at whoever IS riding the white kitten and saying, "No, no, no. That my kitty."

Ready for Summer!

The 80 degree weather during Spring Break definitely put us in the mood for summer.

To use Maggie's phrase, here are the kids "shaking their butt-butt's" in their new swimsuits.

Twenty (Thousand) Questions Courtesy of Ben

Why do the call "fog" fog?

What do bad guys do?

What would bad guys do at the Children's Museum?

How do stingrays sting?
(Me: I don't know. We'll have to check out a book from the library).

Do they have every book at the library?
(Me: Pretty close).

Do they even have books about Wild Kratz? (Wild Kratz is a show on PBS).
(Me: Well, if there is a Wild Kratz book then the library probably has it).

Do dogs die?

Will Sadie die?

Will we get another dog if Sadie dies?

How do bones break?

How do they fix bones?
(Me: We should ask Dr. S, our neighbor. It's his job to fix broken bones).

How do you know he's a doctor?

Why don't we ever see him when we go to the doctor's office?

Do you have a boyfriend?

Why not?

If you shave your head will your hair grow back?

Why do they call it a somersault when there's no "salt" in it?

This Time It Gonna' Work

Maggie has expressed an interest in using the potty. Today she went potty at the Public Library and, in the interest of positive reinforcement, we recounted the tale with great fanfare to Chris and Cate at dinner time.

"Maggie! If you go potty on the potty chair then you'll get to pick out candy," Cate told her excitedly. "And we can have some too, right Mom?"

Maybe it was this statement that provided some additional motivation for Maggie. After dinner she took her diaper off and said, "I go potty now."

So we went into the bathroom and she tried. No luck.

A few minutes later she tried again. And again.

I followed her into the bathroom another time. As I helped her up onto the potty, she looked at me and said, "This time it gonna' work."

And it did.

Tootsie Rolls for everyone!!!

Maybe I need to step up my workout...

The unseasonably warm weather means that we've started walking to school again. Today it looked like rain so I piled the kids into the sit-n-stand stroller, thinking that it would be easier to make a quick escape in the event of a downpour than it would if both big kids had their bikes.

So there I am, pushing 120+ pounds of kids up our street (which is NOT flat, by the way). It's hard work. Cate is seated, facing me, on the jump seat and I notice Cate's looking at me.

"You look like a fourth grader," she says thoughtfully.

I'm too winded to speak but I take this as a good sign. Fourth graders are thin, right? Small. Wiry.

"You know, chubby like a fourth grader," she continues.

Good grief.

He Writes!

I know they say that you should never compare your kids. I try to avoid this but I'll admit to having spent a few minutes worrying over Ben's lack of interest in writing.

In contrast to Cate who would offer to write a grocery list for me or ask me to spell her middle name, Ben simply had no interest.

He knew all the letters and the sounds they made but, with the exception of his name (BEN) I'd never seen him write any of these letters. He rarely sat down to draw with Cate and Maggie and when he did his drawing were of "mazes" or "roads" and didn't include any figures (well, at least any recognizable ones).

Imagine my surprise when, earlier this month, he announced that he was going to draw a picture for his friend Lily. When he was finished he asked how to spell her name and then proceeded to write it, without hesitation, on the paper.

Then a few weeks ago, he began churning out pictures of people--himself, Daddy, our family---complete with elaborate stories about what was going on in each one. He would ask me how to spell "TO DAD" and "LOVE BEN," which he then printed in solid block letters across his pictures.

Some samples of the budding artists' work:


"Our Family"
"Ben"

"Daddy"

Is anyone listening?

At the end of a long day...

Me: I feel so frustrated when I ask you and your brother to do something and you don't listen.

Cate: What?

Me: I am frustrated because you and Ben haven't listened to anything I've said in the past two hours.

Cate (cheerfully): What? Sorry Mom. I wasn't listening.

Making Mud Pies

It was a two-bath day.

And the first occurred at 11:30 in the morning.

Spring Break 2012

We started the break with a visit to Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's house in Webster City. We kept busy with toys, cookies, the playground, cookies, Leon's pizza, trips to the river to throw stones, cookies, and shooting pool at Fuller Hall.

The highlight for the kids was finding a skull (coyote? fox? do I really want to know?) down by the river. They begged to bring it home so that Daddy could see it. I suggested we keep it at Grandma and Grandpa's so that we could look forward to visiting it.

We went to Chicago towards the end of the week, marking the first time we'd taken the kids to the big city.

When we returned home tonight, I asked them about their favorite part of the trip---riding the carousel at Lincoln Park Zoo? Playing in the Idea Factory at The Museum of Science and Industry? Seeing Sue, the T-Rex skeleton, at the Field Museum? Watching the annual St. Patrick's Day parade?

They agreed that all of those things were fun but not as much fun as doing cannonballs in the hotel pool.

(And, yes, it did occur to me that for a 5-minute car ride and $15 at the Iowa City Rec Center I might have been able to achieve the same effect. Kids.)

Watching

I think it's safe to say that Ben and Maggie were mesmerized by the tree trimmers last week. I don't think they moved from the window seat for more than an hour.

Keeping it in the Family

On the way to a special Music Together Pajama Party tonight we had a long discussion about marriage.

The topic came up because Ben said that one of his classmates, Grace, wanted to marry him.

"What did you say?" I asked.

"Well," he said. "I said no."

"Why not?" Cate asked.

"I'm going to marry Cate," he replied.

This, of course, led to a discussion about why people don't marry their siblings. The kids seemed to accept this explanation and we started talking about weddings in more general terms.

As we pulled into the parking lot I sighed and said, "I hope Devin and Micheal get married some day."

"MOM," came Cate's immediate response. "They can't get married. They're brothers."

Not So Tiny Dancer

There is a skirt that I've had my eye on for some time and I ordered it last week when it finally went on sale.

It arrived today and I immediately tried it on. I stood in front of the mirror. I couldn't decide.

I thought I liked it, but I wondered if it might be too full. Too poufy? Too much?

Just then Maggie walked into the room, took one look and me (and my skirt) and said, "Mommy look like ballerina!"

Hmm. I guess that answers my question.