Bunny Ears

We have a surfeit of bunny ears at our home. The children had headband style bunny ears from previous Easters, but this year Grandma Vicki sent them masks with bunny ears on them. The boys totally loved the masks. One night I found Bentley asleep in bed with his mask on.






The mask doesn't look comfortable to see out of, but the boys don't seem to have a problem with it. They wear them for hours. Viva has worn hers a little.

Rat-a-Tat Cat

I mentioned last week that Bentley's new favorite game is Rat-a-Tat Cat. He plays it daily with as many adults as he can cajole into playing. Jake has started to like the game, too, and so asks to play with us. Sometimes he's my partner, sometimes he plays all on his own (he does a good job!), and in the video below he partnered with Bentley.

Here is a little background on the game so the video makes more sense. Each player gets four cards placed face down in front of them. At the start of the game you get to look at the outside two cards, but the inner two cards remain unknown. When it's your turn you can either take the top card from the discard pile or choose a new card. You can then swap that card with any of the four cards in front of you. When you swap out an unknown inner card you risk getting rid of a good card which your opponent will then scoop up.

The goal of the game is to get as low a score as possible. Cats have low scores (0-5) and rats have high scores (6-9). There are three specialty cards: draw two (instead of one card, you can draw two), peek (you can find out what your middle cards are!), and swap (you can swap one of your cards for one of your opponents).

At any time you can say "Rat-a-Tat Cat" and end the game. All other players get one more turn and then the hand is scored. I love to go down quickly. Bentley hates it when I do that. He likes to hold out for only 0s and 1s in his hand--often not swapping out high cards until he gets one of those two cards. He won't swap a 5 for 9 and then later swap the 5 for a lower card. He'll keep the 9 until he gets a 0 or 1. This means you can catch him with lots of high cards in his hand.

Enjoy Team Boys against Grandma.

Rough Start

Most mornings at our household are acceptable. A few are good. Occasionally we have a great start to the day--which is remarkable given that there are three preschoolers and a night owl mommy in the household. Once in a while we have a very rough start to the day.

Like this morning. I was in my bedroom typing up a blog post. I could hear some minor dissension coming from the children's bedroom. They were getting dressed. I ignored the static. It continued. Then it radically escalated.

I, and soon after Kara, arrived in the bedroom to discover a half-dressed, crying five year old male, a naked three year old male, and a still-in-bed three year old female. According to the girl, the younger boy had pushed the older boy and he'd fallen and hit his head on the wood corner of her trundle bed. Ouch.

Why did the three year old male attack the five year old male?! Uh...because they are boys? I grew up with two brothers close in age and there was a lot of pushing and shoving and fighting. Not every minute of the day, but certainly most days involved a tussle or two. I think it's a sign of affection between brothers when they beat on each other.

In this particular case, there was a precipitating event. The older brother did something with the younger brother's underwear. The details were not clear from my investigation. The stories, something about a pair of Wally underwear, did not mesh. The bottom line is that the older brother was teasing the younger brother (again) and finally the younger brother reacted. Predictably. Violently.

Both boys got lectures. (Like that's going to change their future behavior.) No major damage was done to the five year old's skull. Incidentally, the three year old claims he did NOT push the five year old into the bed frame. (In his reality he might have pushed him, but falling on the corner of the bed frame wasn't connected. Can he be blamed if his brother is clumsy?)

Kara went back in to talk to the boys again because there was more static. She told Jake if he was going to be difficult today (he's been easily upset lately) that he could just stay in the craft room on his own all day. His response? "Oh no, don't you talk to me. I'll throw a book at you." It's going to be long day. I think I'll go buy some chocolate. And ear plugs. And shin guards. And a hair net. (Jake likes to smear his tears and snot on my face and in my hair. YUCK! It makes him giggle, but it makes me...wet, sticky, and snotty. Not my favorite experience.)

Cherubs

Last night Kara and I went out to dinner with some women from our ward. Since Matt is currently in Barrow that left Opa in charge of the kidlets. Well, two of them. Jake was with Grandma Karen and Grandpa Tim most of the evening. He returned home at bedtime. Opa says the children were well behaved. He even took a photo to prove it.


I'm impressed that he caught all three looking at the camera and smiling. (What bribe did he use? Chocolate? Extra bedtime stories?)

The Playground

Matt has taken Viva to the playground a couple of times this spring already and maybe the boys, too? However, Monday evening was our first trip of the year with the grandchildren. They were very eager to go. We had to drag them away.

When we hit the playground Viva and Bentley raced for the swings. Jake was less enthused. He eventually agreed to swing, if I didn't push him too high.



Then they tried out the rest of the equipment.





We ended the trip with a final visit to the swings. Jake was much braver when Viva was onboard with him.

BIKES!

I (at the behest of the trio) dragged the bikes out from under the porch last week. I filled the tires with air and elevated the seats an inch or so. The kidlets were very excited to be able to go biking again. It was cold outside, but the thrill of the ride was worth the cold.



The first afternoon of biking led to some major crashes. Jake and Viva don't always steer well. One of them had forgotten how to brake. Crash! Bang! Ow! They survived. There have been fewer crashes this week.


Okay, so there's no bike in the above photo. The kid was biking (hence the bike helmet!), but then he decided to kick around the soccer ball instead. He's quite good.

Viva 3.0

What are Viva's favorite things?

* books, books, books!

* fancy dresses

* casual dresses

* bracelets, bows, boots

* ballet (she'd like to try it)

* long hair (she hates brushes)

* pink & purple

* princesses (she's one)

Viva is a girly girl. Her mama loves that about her.


Kara took the photo above, kept it on her camera for months, and finally back posted it. I’m reposting it so you all can enjoy it. Isn't she cute times 3.0?

Superboy or Karate Kid?

The Karate Kid


Superboy

Puzzle Progress

My extra effort in working with Jake and Viva doing puzzles has already paid off! They are asking on their own to do 48 piece puzzles. They need a little help at the start sorting the pieces into border and center pieces and some encouragement to get the border put together and then they finish the puzzle off on their own. It's great that they like puzzles since we have enough to stock a day care center.

I purchased a new 100 piece puzzle featuring robots for the boys and all three kidlets helped put it together. Jake started the puzzle. He and I did the border. Then Viva asked to help. I left to do a chore and when I came back Viva had finished the large green robot on her own. Bentley asked to help and Jake wandered off. Bentley is quite fast at piecing puzzles, so the puzzle was quickly finished. Jake wants to do it again without his siblings.


The new puzzle was made by Crocodile Creek. It has extra large pieces which is nice for young children. It was slightly cheaper than a 100 piece Ravensburger puzzle, but not quite as nice because the puzzle pieces are a little harder to snap together, still it was a very nice puzzle. I'd purchase from this company again. Unfortunately they have a very small selection of puzzles unlike Ravensburger which has hundreds of quality puzzles for sale. Ravensburger is a German company that has been making games and jigsaw puzzles for over a hundred years.

Later that day Bentley and Matt started a 300 piece Disney Pinocchio puzzle that they bought in Las Vegas. Kara helped him finish it the next day. Jigsaw puzzles are a great, quiet activity for the entire family.

More about Viva

Last week I wrote about how Viva feels about boy activities: leave them to the boys. Today I thought I'd post on how Viva rates gender neutral activities.

Drawing: enjoyable, but not for hours like Jake and Bentley.

Painting: yes--it's fun to make a mess.

Crafting: a hands-on good time!

Shopping: leaving the house? For sure.

Hide 'N Seek: if you insist.

Card & Board Games: keep them short.

Story Time: yes! Yes!

Wii Time: yes, usually.

iPad Time: it's my turn now.

Biking: let's go.

Dragon Tiles

For Christmas we gave Bentley the game Snap. The game has 36 interlocking tiles that snap together like jigsaw pieces. Each tile has part of a red dragon, part of a green dragon, and part of a yellow dragon on it. The part may be a head, a tail, or a middle section. (The dragons look more like fancy worms than dragons.)



The object of the game is to build single color dragons with at least one head and one tail on every dragon and no open ends. The longer the dragon, the more points you earn. There are three special tiger tiles. Lay down a tiger and you rescore any finished dragons the tiger tile borders. Build a new dragon that borders a tiger and you score double points.

The first game I played with Bentley was slow going. I played my tiles and his tiles. At the end of that game, I thought I'd be stashing the game away for a couple of years. However by game three Bentley was beating me without any help.

We've played quite a few games since Christmas. Bentley is usually the scorekeeper and he needs only a little assistance.

Recently Bentley asked opa to play with him. Bentley had taught opa the game a few weeks ago. I offered to play with Bentley instead and he rejected me. I pressed the issue. Bentley told me that I had lost the last seven games to him. Really?! Seven. I think not. Maybe four. Or five. Definitely not seven.

I was insulted so I suggested that we all play together. Bentley likes to follow the rules, so he questioned whether a three player game was kosher. I pulled out the instructions and looked it up. "2-4 players. Ages 10 and up."

"Did you hear that B?" I asked. "You're too young to play. You can't play again until you're 10 years old." I almost had the boy in tears before I relented.

Bentley is good at the game. He's competitive and feels no guilt at stealing my half finished dragons. I hate it when I start a dragon and he completes it. When he's busy stealing my dragons he's not creating his own dragons for me to steal. So annoying!

Also, Bentley is very lucky. He almost always draws at least two of the three tiger tiles. One game he had all three tigers after his second turn! (You draw three tiles to start and so always have three in your hand.) Three tigers was too many, even for Bentley, so of his own volition he threw one back in the draw pile. It's hard to build dragons when you don't have any dragon tiles.

Having been challenged by the five year old I was determined to win the game with Mark and Bentley. With a little luck and a tiger tile and some serious begging (please don't steal my dragon!), I won! Take that B boy! (He was a good sport about my win.)

Of course, it's taken me too long to get this posted and now Bentley has moved on to a new favorite game, Rat-A-Tat Cat. It's a card game that requires you to remember four face down cards while you swap them out in an attempt to get the lowest scoring hand. You can Rat-A-Tat Cat at any time and challenge the other players to show their cards and beat your score. Mostly we have fun with game, but once in a while Bentley gets really upset if I don't give him enough time to discard his high point cards. B boy tends to trade out only for 0s and 1s which can be a mistake. Of course, B does have above average luck, so he often pulls it off. There's only four 0s in the deck and he usually has at least two of them.

As a grandma I'm not above manipulating a game now and then to help out a preschooler, but I don't usually need to because Bentley is good at games and, as I've mentioned, quite lucky with his draws.

Happy Birthday Mommy!

I tried to get the kidlets to form hearts with their hands and this is what happened:


I interviewed the children separately to find out their answers to the following questions:

How old is mommy?
V: I don't know. 48.
J: 5. I don’t know. You tell me. 24.
B: 17. (He told me he heard daddy say mommy was 16, so now she must be turning 17 he reasoned.)

What does mommy want to do on her birthday?
V: Decorate the house.
J: Get presents. Get cake. We'll all eat cake!
B: Have some friends over.

What do you want to do on mommy's birthday?
V: Wrap presents.
J: Get her presents and eat cake.
B: Watch her open presents.

What birthday gift does mommy want?
V: A princess doll.
J: A telephone. Band-aids. Cat toys for the kitty. A new kitty.
B: A dress.

What does mommy want for her birthday dinner?
V: Spaghetti.
J: Cake. (The only accurate answer.)
B: Pizza.

What is something special we can do for mommy on her birthday?
V: Wrap her presents with a bow.
J: Get her presents.
B: Decorate the house.

What do you want to say to mommy on her birthday?
V: Happy Birthday?!
J: Happy Birthday to you.
B: Happy Birthday!
Did I word this question poorly? I was hoping for messages of love.

Okay I'm giving up on the birthday themed questions. Once I mentioned the word birthday all three children went into birthday ritual mode and even though they were interviewed separately, they gave very similar answers.

Here's my second round of interviews later in the day.

Tell me something nice about mommy.
V: It's her birthday.
J: She makes dinner. She kisses me.
B: She makes cookies for us. I love her.

What do you like to do with mommy.
V: Eat cake. Read books.
J: Play games. Sleep with her.
B: Play games. Read stories.

Why is your mommy the best mommy?
V: Because I like her.
J: 'Cause she makes the bestest food. Is that a good answer?
B: Because she does lots for us: she helps me finish my puzzle.

What does mommy collect?
(What does mommy have a lot of?)
V: Children.
J: Dresses.
B: Earrings. All kinds of jewelry. How about shoes? Skirts and pants.

Why do you like mommy?
V: Because she kisses us.
J: Because she makes my peanut butter and jelly and hugs me.
B: Because I love her. She takes me places where I want to go. Most of the time she lets me go to Grandma Karen's.

Finish the sentence "My mommy is _______.
V: beautiful.
J: good.
B: good. Did I get it right?

I quit. It's impossible interviewing preschoolers. I did my best.

I love you, Kara! I hope you enjoy your birthday. I know it will be filled with lots of love, hugs, kisses, and wrapped gifts.

Nap Time Protest

The past week or more Jake has been proclaiming that he's not going to take naps any longer. For a while he was okay with being the only nap taker in the house. Now he's starting to protest. The problem is that he still needs a nap. Unlike his siblings, he easily falls asleep most afternoons and he's hard to wake up after two hours. He needs more rest than his siblings. And if Jake doesn't nap what will he be doing during quiet time?

Viva will happily look at books on her own in her bedroom for two hours in the afternoon. Bentley plays a game or two with great-grandma, grandma or daddy (on the weekends) and then he quietly occupies himself.

Jake likes to draw and he might be willing to draw for two hours every afternoon, but he'd still interact with Bentley and the house would not be peaceful and quiet like Kara and I NEED it to be for a short time every afternoon. Forget the kids, we still need nap time.

Sorry Jake, we're going to keep on enforcing nap time as long as we can.

Here's how nap time went this Sunday afternoon:


Viva was allowed to spend her quiet time looking at books in our bedroom. Usually she's in her bedroom sitting on the top bunk surrounded by twenty to thirty books. Some afternoons Bentley joins her after he plays his games.


Bentley played Rat-A-Tat Cat with his father. It's a great game--quick and challenging. Bentley wins a lot of the time. He's pretty lucky when it comes to good draws.


Jake fell asleep in the craft room, his new napping spot. You can't see him in the photo, but Rameses is sleeping next to Jake. This is one of the bribes we use to get Jake to take a nap. Rameses loves to nap in the afternoon, so he's the perfect companion for Jake.

She's Not a Boy!

Viva is not a boy. This distinction is made crystal clear daily because she lives with two brothers. Their behavior and interests provide a foil for us to view Viva against.

Bentley and Jake have many typical boy interests. They like collecting cars and monster trucks, playing with swords, making guns from Legos, creating new train layouts, reading about dinosaurs, throwing balls, building block towers, playing rough, etc. Viva participates in some of these activities...a little...but she doesn't ever choose these activities herself.

Our Viva is all girl. Her brothers have failed to entice her to the dark side.

Scissor Happy

Last week Jake spent a couple of afternoons happily cutting up magazine advertisements and great-grandma's newspaper. (He asked her permission first.) It's cheap entertainment. The only problem came when it was time to clean up. The first afternoon he had created a pile with a couple hundred little pieces of paper and he found the idea of cleaning them all up overwhelming. His mom said if he didn't clean up his mess, he'd not be able to cut again the next day. That was such a vile threat that he manfully attacked the pile.

Science Fun

Kara recently purchased a science activity book by Usborne. She let the kidlets take turns choosing activities from the book to do together. Bentley chose rockets, Viva chose volcanoes, and Jake refused to choose.

Kara and the trio made rockets from straws, lightweight cardboard, and tape. The children liked playing with the rockets. They had no expectations of how they would fly. Kara was not impressed with the rockets. They did not really soar or fly. When thrown they traveled a short distance before crashing, but as far as gliding, no, they didn't.

Next was foaming volcanoes. Foaming volcanoes are created by partially filling a jar, vase, or glass with white vinegar, adding a couple drops of dish soap, a drop or four of food coloring, and a shake or two of glitter. Mix well. Then plop a heaping teaspoon of baking soda into the container. Just like magic the volcano erupts and lovely, glittery foam flows up and over the container rim.

This activity was a big hit. The children requested many repeat performances. They did it with Kara a few times, they did it with me twice, and they showed off for their dad, too.

Mosiac Art (& Jake the Hoarder)

Jake received a mosaic art kit for Christmas.

Yes, Christmas.  Which was 3 months ago.  Jake is a bit of a hoarder and takes delight in keeping his presents stashed and unopened - it took us about a month to convince him to break into the first one, and there have been tears involved in convincing him to break into others since then.  And I wish I was kidding but I'm not!

Anyway, hundreds of little magnetic foam blocks, and about 20 different pattern pages - it's like paint by the numbers, but with foam blocks!  We've had fun working on it, although he normally wants quite a bit of assistance - it's tiring to do such a big picture alone!  Luckily for him, in addition to the adults at his disposal he has a brother and sister eager to help him out.

A good way to pass an hour quietly!

Twin Cuteness

I didn't want this lovely picture to simply become buried in the picture archive, so here it is for your viewing pleasure.  The twins, bonding while Bentley was off in Vegas with Daddy!  I wish it was ALL smiles and hugs around here - but I suppose that just wouldn't do.  Docile charming toddlers?!  Who would wants that ALL the time?  :-)

Back at the Blocks

This week was a block building week!  Bentley built a new creation on the train table every day.  Jake built many "Eifel towers" (so he called them) and then knocked them over.  Even Viva got in on the action and built a rather jumbled looking wooden city - unfortunately it was hit by a instrument of destruction before being immortalized by the camera.  :-)

It is amazing to me how they can ignore a toy for weeks and then suddenly become passionate about it.  Fickle little creatures, I love them though!  There is just too much for them to do and not enough time - the busy life of a toddler, right?!

Do You Hear Me?

For weeks now Jake has been driving his mother and I crazy with his unrelenting need to be acknowledged. He feels that we don't always listen when he talks to us. Of course we do! What could possibly distract us from listening to Ever So Adorable Jake? Oh yeah...his big bro Bentley is quite distracting. And his ever present twin Ms Independent Viva occasionally demands our attention--but not nearly as often or as insistently as Jake does.

Because Jake is convinced that we don't listen to him, he has taken to asking us "Do you hear me? DO YOU hear me? DO YOU HEAR ME?!" He repeats his query so quickly we don't have time to respond.

I try to listen when Jake talks. I try to sincerely respond to his questions when he gives me a chance, but I'll admit it, sometimes I am distracted and I don't hear him. When the children are all together, there's a lot going on.

Jake, I'll try to do better.

It's Viva's Turn

As usual, we have multiple posts about Bentley. He's the oldest and leads the way in new skills and adventures. Jake gets quite a few posts about him, too. He's quirky and loud and in your face. We neglect Viva. Often we simply post photos of her in a cute dress.

I know this isn't right. There's more to the girl than her wardrobe. A lot more. But it's hard to put in words who Viva is or what Viva does or how Viva thinks. As I've written before, she's an enigma to me. What makes Viva tick? What fascinates Viva? What are Viva's favorite things? She keeps most of that info to herself.

Thursday at the toy store Viva played with the baby doll in the playpen. (Is this because she likes dolls or just because she doesn't have a baby doll playpen at home?) She also played a lot with the doll house built like a tree house. She rearranged the furniture and I had to drag her away when it was time to leave. We were late for their play date. It was Viva's fault. (Not really!)

Saturday at the museum she stuck her arm into the gap made by the rotating exit doors and got it pinched pretty hard. This is typical, unpredictable Viva behavior. She's hands on.

In some ways she's the easiest of the three kidlets to have around. She's the most independent. She likes doing things on her own. She enjoys time alone reading. She doesn't need company and she doesn't need entertaining.

But what motivates her? How can she be bribed, uh, incented to do what you want or need her to do? That's a tough question. I'll get back to you next week...or next year.

Since this is a post about Viva, here's the requisite Cute Dress Photo. Mark titled this collage "Old Time Actress Viva".


One thing I do know about Viva--she's a ham in front of the camera.

Saturday Afternoon at the Museum

Kara recently purchased a museum membership and since we share a household (I think that's why) Mark and I were included on the pass. I have to admit I am a bit of a museum snob. When I travel to major cities I make a point of visiting a museum or two or five. I insist on it. However, I have not spent much time at our local museum. First, the museum owns no paintings by major artists and second, I'm not much into native history or anthropology.

However, the museum now houses a science center, the Imaginarium, and science is way cool, so when Kara invited me to go with her and the kidlets last week to meet cousin Anna and the little cousins, I went. Anna and her children and cousin Tiernan gave us a tour of the Imaginarium showing us their favorite stations. Anna bought a family pass a couple of months ago, so they've been a few times already. Jake and Bentley have been to the museum with Grandma Karen, but Viva had not yet been there.

Then this Saturday (just days later--not years as is my usual practice), I went again. I suggested to Mark that we take the children to view the school district's annual student art show. The children all thought it was a fine idea. Bentley thoughtfully viewed all the art. Viva was easily distracted after the first 20 pieces. Jake was distracted by Viva. (It matters who you keep company with!)

Nonetheless it was a good visit. We saw the artwork. We got some great ideas for artwork to do at home. We visited the science center (at Viva's suggestion) and opa took this great photo below:


The highlight of the adventure? It was walking to and from the truck to the museum. The sidewalk was lined with a short cement retaining wall and the children all thought it was great fun to walk on the wall.

Flower Art

Aren't these gorgeous flowers?!  Bentley felt inspired to create them in his sketch book during Sacrament meeting last week.  Lovely!

There was a small meltdown when he wanted me to "fix" his flowers - he drew one on the front of the paper and one on the back, and those were for two seperate people.  How to get them apart?!  Oops.... :-)

I told him we could copy it.  Crisis averted!

Box Fort

Back in January when we got a new dishwasher, the kids got their first box. I did a short blog on it titled The Big Box. Later in the month I purchased two nightstands and a small chest of drawers for the bathroom and they all came in boxes which were not as large as the dishwasher box, but still large enough to accommodate a preschooler and a foam chair.





Then in February we got a new fridge. When the delivery guys called to say they were on their way, Kara asked if they had extra boxes they could bring. They generously gave us two other large boxes, two stove boxes. I retired one of the nightstand boxes (it was pretty beat up) and then with the remaining six boxes and one play tent tunnel I created a beautiful box fort for the kidlets. Okay, it's not really beautiful, but it is fun.


I’m quite proud of my cobbled together boxes. I used 3/4" pink ribbon, packing tape, and a paring knife (our utility knife needs to be replaced!) to create my masterpiece. The trio first used it for airplane trips to Las Vegas and Arizona. Vegas and Arizona? I assume that’s because that’s where we in this household have vacationed most recently. Even at their young age they know Barrow is not a vacation destination.

Then they used the fort for playing in with the cat. The cat really likes the fort. He is the only one allowed to climb on top of it. When the cousins, Kolttan and Cheyenne, came over I encouraged them to place some cave drawings in the fort. Then the kidlets added more artwork.

I cut new holes in the fridge box and Jake, Viva, and I practiced tossing balls in the holes. Viva crept closer and closer to the box until she was reaching her hand in through the holes, so I put down a long piece of tape on the carpet and told them they had to stand behind it when throwing their balls. Viva wandered off and Jake and I kept at our throwing practice. The cat sat inside the box laughing at us. Sometimes he stuck his head out of one of the holes. He had no fear of being hit by ball, so bad was our aim. We need more practice. Here is a different use for the new holes:


Kara and Mark wanted to retire the fort because it takes up a lot of space and the children only play in it for a short time each day, but I convinced them to let us keep it for a few more days. It's true that most days the children don't spend hours in the fort, but they are busy kids. They've spent a lot of time lately reading and eating and napping and getting dressed and drawing and doing science projects and playing games and so how much time is left for playing in their fort?! They like it a lot. They want to keep it. It's going to have to go someday soon though because it really does take up the entire family room.

Dragon Checkers

Opa downloaded an iPad ap called Dragon Checkers. It's a pretty standard checkers game, but you get to choose from eight different dragons to decorate your checkers. The dragons roar on command (a button) and at the end of the game the winning dragon not only roars, but spits fire. Jake is currently obsessed with the game.

Here's what Bentley told me about Jake and Dragon Checkers: "Jake's playing both sides himself because the computer is too easy to beat. I don't play with the computer because it's way too hard for me."

Are you surprised to learn that Jake is better at Dragon Checkers than Bentley? I was until I watched Jake play. He's taught himself how to play with the help of the computer. The computer will not let you make an illegal move--go backwards or jump sidewise--but it does not teach you the goal of the game. Jake thinks the goal of the game is to clear the board of pieces so you can see the dragon spit fire.

Technically the goal is to clear the board of pieces, however, most players try to clear off their opponent's pieces and they try to preserve their own pieces. Jake takes off all pieces. He clears the board until he gets to the final dragon screen. He always claims victory because he made the dragon spit fire.

Bentley has a much better grasp of the game (as commonly played!) and he knows that you pick one side as your own and then you must decimate the other player, usually while preserving as many of your pieces as possible. The computer has this same goal and so it can be a fierce competitor.

This morning Bentley begged Jake to play a game of checkers with him. At first Jake refused because he much prefers to play against the computer. Finally he gave in and played, but it did not go well since Jake clued in he was losing--because Bentley was winning.

Jake's version of Dragon Checkers is much nicer with every game a win.

Bentley, his cat, and their bed time routine

I know, I know... he's not technically one of the kids.  But he is their cat!  So he deserves a cute picture or two on the blog!  Rameses (despite the idyllic picture) does not always have an peaceful life - it is not easy being adored by three small children.  Particularly when they are being rambunctious.  

All of the kids love their cat, but I'd say Bentley is the most enamored!  A few days ago he was wandering around the house singing to his cat all day: "Pussy cat, pussy cat, I love you, pussy cat pussy cat, yes I do... ".  Do you know that one?  You would if you heard it - it's a classic!  I'm just not sure where Bentley picked it up.

Every night the cat sleeps next to Bentley.  If he isn't there at story time he meows at the door to be let in soon after prayer, and the kids of course jump up and oblige him by opening the door!  Rameses and Bentley share a pillow, and in the last couple weeks it's been getting out of hand - I go in to check on my cherubs and find the cat has the whole pillow and Bentley has none!  

So I did what any reasonable person would do.  I tracked down another pillow, to put next to Bentley's, so he and his kitty cat could each have their own.  And still be together.  This worked well for a few nights, but they're back to sharing.  Bentley tells me his pillow (he took the new one I gave them!) is the softer one, so the cat likes to share it.  I think I'll have to track down a king size pillow for the buddies next.

The cat's only not so charming habit?  He licks Bentley!  I catch him grooming my child, while he is asleep (and sometimes when he is awake) - giving his hair and face a nice bath. Yuuuuuck!  Bentley tells me he licks the cat on his head, and that he likes it when the cat licks him.  I've tried telling him this is definitely not normal behavior, and doesn't the scratchy cat tongue bug him?  But no.. he says it tickles, but just a little.

Despite his buy in on the non conventional grooming I'm still trying to stop it.  I think it's weird!

That quirk aside, Rameses has been a brilliant addition to the house.  My kids are in love and so am I.  My husband?  He still claims he's not a cat person.  I know that's not true, but I let him say it.