A few things that happened today

1. Conversation with Cat

"Mom! There was an earthquake and the buildings and hos-ti-bals fell down and people don't have clothes or food or medicine!"

"I know, isn't that sad?"

"I need to bring my money. Or your money. To school."

"How about some of my money and some of your money?"

"I think just your money."


2. I Promise I Don't Starve My Child

Jack ate an apple on the way home from the park this morning. When I got him out of the car, the specimen on the right (yes, all that's left is about half of the core) is what he finally threw down after almost choking (on a seed, perhaps?). Is that the way they eat them in Cambodia, Suz?



3. 20 Months Going on 4 1/2

After Cat asked if she could color, Jack ran to me, excitedly saying "Color! Color!" I said no (they had a lot of cleaning up to do first) and Jack responded with "Why!!" [Growl.] Cat has taught him well.

Waking Sleeping Beauty & Playing with Cookie Dough

We enjoyed a great day with no school yesterday. Jack even treated me to extra sleep by sleeping in until 8:20!! I was so happy!

We spent over 3 hours at the playground, thanks to a simple picnic lunch, and had a blast! We met several friends there, and happened upon one of Cat's friends from her preschool last year.

When we got home, Cat was so tired that she crashed during her quiet time, even though I told her she didn't need to take a nap. (She is sleeping on the bed she made for her baby sister.) Jack woke up from his nap first, and tried for a few minutes to wake up Cat, with no success. (I let him because if she sleeps too long, it makes for a difficult bedtime!)

"Wake up, Cat."

"She won't wake up, Mom."

"Maybe if I try this side... wake up, Cat!"

"Wow, all this waking Cat up has made me tired."

Did you notice that Cat is wearing multiple dress-up outfits (she usually dons at least 2), a sparkly sash, blue boa, sleeping on a purple pillow and blanket she got for Christmas, and covered with a pink crocheted baby blanket Oma gave her? I immediately started laughing when I found her sleeping like that.

Once we managed to wake the sleeping princess, we finally made the play-dough cookies I've been meaning to make for weeks! I saw this recipe and knew it would make a good activity for an afternoon at home. Cat loved it! She didn't want to stick with the instructions, though, and made several creations of her own. But they baked up just fine, and still tasted great!


I was excited about this activity with Jack because when we play with actual play dough, he plays with it some, and puts it in his mouth intermittently. I was hoping that with this he would also play with it some, but he really just put it in his mouth and ate it, then tried to crawl across the counter for more. There's no fooling this kid. The fork helped him "play" for a few extra seconds.


Side note: I was very proud of my idea to tape parchment paper to the counter to reduce the mess and clean-up, but didn't realize that parchment paper is so non-stick that painter's tape wouldn't stick to it! So it came off within a minute or two. Oh well.

Playdates and Jack's New Word

This week has been two things: busy and COLD. Yep. It's been in the 20s and 30s most nights here, and it is expected to get into the teens in the next few days. But no snow. :-( I didn't realize how significant the uncharacteristically long stretch of cold was for us until I realized what Jack's latest word is: COLD! On Thursday I was getting him in the car and telling him that he needed a coat because it was cold, and he said back to me, "COLD!" Yep.


We hosted two fun playdates this week. One was for Cat right before school started back. It was her half-birthday, a big deal for her since she's one of the youngest in her class and her two good friends at school are already 5. So we had over a few families (I think the final count came to 15 children) and shared half a birthday cake. The kids played and played and played, and even went outside for a little while, and it was a great way to end Winter Break. (Note: this was also my first time starting and maintaining a fire--the fire never got to be really big, but I started it and kept it going all day long! I was really proud of myself.)

The other playdate was for a friend's birthday, so a few women came over with their little ones (since the older kids were back at school by that time) and we all enjoyed good conversation and yummy breakfast food while the kids played and played and played. Gotta love it!

Weekend Update

On Friday, Cat convinced Ben to take her along to Jacksonville, where he had planned on watching the FSU/WV Bowl Game with two of his brothers. She said, "we can have a Daddy Daughter Date!" (Translation: "I want to go play with my cousins.") So, being the dutiful father that he is, Ben took Cat along, too-small-for-her FSU Cheerleading outfit and all. They both had a blast, especially since FSU won!

Before leaving the house...

In Jax, before the game started. Go Noles!

In other news, Jack is staple-free! We got up Saturday morning and returned to the ER to have the staples removed. This was a much easier process than having them, uh, stapled, and we walked out feeling pretty good about the whole thing. About an hour after returning home, though, he fell from a dining room chair, hit the back of his head on the tile, and opened the wound back up again. I'm pretty sure this will be a long healing process for him...

Cat Did It!!

At the beginning of 2009, we set the goal for Cat to "begin learning the Articles of Faith." We decided to really attack this goal at the beginning of the school year. I enlisted a good friend, and together we compiled 14 FHEs to teach the Articles of Faith (including an introductory lesson.) So each week, we did an FHE where we practiced the Article of Faith for the week, sang the song, and learned about what it meant. Then, every day on the way to school, we would sing all of the Articles of Faith we had learned up until that point. (This was a bit of a battle at first, since Cat wanted to listen to the one Hannah Montana song that she loves, or to Wicked, all the time. But once she understood that we could listen to those things after we had sung the AofF songs, she was okay. After a few weeks, she was the one reminding me that we needed to sing her songs if I forgot.) Well, after about 4 months, she knew them all!

We finally got around to making the video tonight, after the excitement and craziness of the holidays died down. But here's proof. A 4 year old can learn all of the Articles of Faith!

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING VIDEO IS 6 MINUTES LONG, AND SHOULD PROBABLY ONLY BE VIEWED IN ITS ENTIRETY BY THOSE WITH A GRANDPARENT-TYPE TITLE.