The Pressure!

Jake and I had this discussion last Friday morning.

Jake: Is there anything for me to do today?

Me: No. Not that I can think of. (I didn't recall any special activities scheduled for Friday.)

Jake: Can I finish my Lego truck?

Me: Sure.

Jake: After breakfast. I have to have breakfast first.

Me: Yeah. We should eat first.

Jake: After reading.

Me: Reading first is good.

Jake: After my chores. I have to sweep the floor first.

Wow. How did the morning go from Lego playtime, to eating, reading, and doing chores? We are a stay-at-home family so that the children can have plenty of time to follow their interests.

Three things to accomplish before playtime should not be too much to do, but lately Jake sometimes takes more than an hour to finish a meal. Thursday he was lamenting to his mother that he had no time to play in the morning. (If you spend two hours eating a small plate of food, you take up all your free time before noon.) Jake had a bad day that day. He made too many poor choices and spent a lot time in time out. Maybe he was overwhelmed by the new chore chart? He could not see the end in sight and so he quit trying?

Bentley has more school type activities to accomplish in the morning than Jake does, but he knocks them out quickly and gets his chore done first thing and even manages to eat his breakfast (not his favorite meal) in a timely manner. Then he's free to do what he likes. Legos. Box games downstairs. Puzzles. (He did a 300 piece on his own Tuesday afternoon.) Typing. (B thinks it's a fun computer game so he does it in his free time.) Whatever he wants to do. Skating? Reading? Drawing? Playing with Lincoln? Free time!

Lego Score

Last month opa purchased a few sets of Legos from the Lego site when we got back from Florida. I posted earlier this month about those Lego sets.

At the time opa purchased a set each for the children, he also picked up yet another firetruck set that was on sale. It was regularly $40 and he got it for $24. When the box was delivered to us by FedEx the outer box was accordioned--like it had been put in a trash compactor for a short time. The Lego box inside was also in sad shape.

Mark called to complain because you expect new products to look...new. That's not unreasonable, right? Sometimes the boys like to cut the boxes up and put them on their walls. (Their mother doesn't like it when they do this, but nonetheless she allows it.)

The customer service rep said she'd send a new Lego set out the next day and that we could keep the first set. Okay--now we had two sets. We couldn't sell one because that really wouldn't be appropriate when the Lego folks had been so good about giving us a new set. So we gave one set to each boy and they had a great time over a two day period making their new Lego firetrucks. It was a lot of fun for one low price!

Almost There

This isn't the best snow shot we could post, but the boys are cute! Jake wanted his photo with Bentley on Sunday, but then he decided it was too cold out and so only let opa take a couple of shots.

The snow bank behind them is where our terraced perennial garden is hidden beneath a huge pile of snow. The snowblower throws snow from the driveway onto the terrace. Where the snowblower isn't adding height to the snow layer and the yard isn't terraced to start with we only have a little more than a foot of snow on the ground. That's surprisingly little for a snow season where we've had 129.4 inches at the airport--our house has seen considerably more than that. 3.4 more inches at the airport and we tie the record set in the winter of 1954-55.

3.4 inches is totally doable. Anchorage's average seasonal snowfall is 74.5 inches and by March 19th we've seen 66.5 of those inches. So Anchorage averages another 8 inches of snow after March 19th. We only need 3.4 inches and this is not an average year. We probably won't bust the record out of the snowbank, but we should definitely top it by a few inches.

Hard to believe that spring officially starts Wednesday. I predict that we will not be doing an egg hunt in the yard this year.

Girl Scout Cookie Time!

It's a good time of year.  The time when we find Girl Scout cookies at the grocery store!  I think Lincoln was pretty pleased about it all.

Lincoln - 67% of the way to 1!

Lincoln is 8 months old today!  It's hard to believe, but that's what the calendar says.  

Lincoln is:

vocal!  he has quite the jabber box on him.  when he's in the mood he likes to talk talk talk (and not quietly either!).

happy happy happy!  except for when he's not, of course.  but he's generally cheerful with big toothless grins for whomever says hi to him.

a joy to have around.  who knows if he's thrilled to be the 4th child, but he is a great 4th addition to the home!  his siblings think he is great, and he returns the love.

a voracious (and open to new foods) eater!  if you're holding him and eating at the same time he'll either a) reach out to try and grab your food right out of your hand, or b) lean forward with his mouth open, fully expecting and hoping that you'll send the next spoonful his way!  the only food so far he's been so uninspired by that he couldn't take more than a few bites?  carrots!  foods on the yum list?  everything else! the more exotic likes include chicken coconut curry and lime sorbet.

close to walking!  well, we think so.  he could surprise us all and take months to "get" there.  he has the balance but doesn't trust himself yet!  he's always running the chairs around the kitchen, using them as walkers.  he can cruise along the furniture with ease.  and he can crawl FAST!  definitely faster than Great-Grandma can walk... :)

last, and obviously, he is cute cute cute!  love those squishy cheeks and the hair that's starting to show some body and personality.

Can't wait to see how our little guy develops in the next few months on the road to 1!

Viva and *The* Look

Yesterday I was looking at a picture of baby Viva on the wall and I suddenly saw it - her trademark angry eyes look, on her baby face!  Check it out:

Granted, it wasn't really hard core.  But she was only six months old and still working on developing the look, so I give her full credit..  

Proof that *the* look is something you either have, or you don't.

For comparison, here she is showing us those pretty eyes at Disney World:

I know, a repeat picture.  I'm embarrassed.  But it's hard to capture her trademark eye look that she gives on a daily basis.  She makes it twice as intense and turns around (with a growl!) before I can get the camera to the on button.  So not a team player!

The Tastiest Treats are the Forbidden

Since getting his first mouthful, Lincoln's obsession with cat food has grown.  I console myself that at least Rameses is an indoor cat and that surely limits germs to SOME degree, right?!

Everytime the mudroom door gets left open (and with 3 small children and 5 adults around that does happen on occasion!) Lincoln makes like a speeding bullet and zooms on in.  He knows he doesn't have time to mess around and heads straight for the tasty treats in the far corner of the room.

On this particular occasion I had just fed him.  Oatmeal and TONS of Cheerios.  Not even a full belly can deter him from this special treat.  

I love the kid, but I'm not willing to try the cat food myself and see why it's so appealing.  Is it salty?  I know it's crunch and hard!  I'll have to ask the cat.

We're thinking we need a) a cat door going out to the mudroom (but if the door's left open that still won't help!), or b) a bowl of cheerios next to the cat food.  Although I'm not convinced he'd pick the Cheerios.  Hopefully this is a phase that will pass quickly.  Cat food breath on a baby?  So not good!

Klepto Easter Bunny?

This past week Genevieve stopped at Pier 1 with me after dance class.  I had some Pier 1 "cash" that was expiring and needed to use it up!

I found a lovely "Easter tree" - it is very sparkly and has glitter all over it.  Genevieve thinks that it is perfectly gorgeous.

So gorgeous, in fact, that she commented:

"This is SO pretty!  I sure hope the Easter Bunny doesn't decide to take it home with him when he stops at our house!".

I love how her mind works.