Child Prodigy

I have mentioned before that I have a child with psychotic powers. No. Wait.... That's not right. Psychic powers. There you go! Kari can read her younger siblings mind and tell me exactly what she, er, I mean, they want. I haven't yet found Kaitlyn's special powers, but it seems we have a prodigy among us. Dylan can read.

Check out the speed and ease with which he turns the pages.

Look! He even enjoys it!

Its a good thing that my "special" children do not have a mother who suffers from delusions of grandeur (for her children, of course).

*Check out those teeth growing in. Cute kid :)*

HD

Some of you have been asking "What does a little boy, covered in green frosting while eating a cupcake and talking baby gibberish look like in HD?"

Really?

None of you?!?

Well, since I know someone out there has been pondering this very same question, and isn't currently brave enough to raise their hand for fear of judgement and persecution, I am going to post this video. Courtesy of Pickle's fabulous camera... Birthday related, yes. Cuteness related, definitely.... Therefore, completely postable after the aforementioned birthday.

I rest my case.

Christmas in March

I love my mother. Any one who knows her would tell you she is kind, compassionate, thoughtful, creative, crafty, stubborn, intelligent, talented, driven... Goodness the list goes on and on. Anyone that knows her also knows that there are times when she is, well, late. She has gotten much, much better in the recent years. Perhaps it is because she doesn't have small (or for that matter teenage) children to get ready. This year, I convinced my mom not to mail her Christmas box(es) before Christmas because we wouldn't be around to receive them, and therefore there was no rush. And, my mother, being who she is, then continued to round up gifts until there was no room left in the box, and then send them on their way. This being the case, we had a bit of Christmas in March. Thanks Mahm/Grandma!!!

The girls were ecstatic! One of their favorite things to do is divide the gifts into piles. Then, the mess began.

Kaitlyn said "Oh my gosh" as she opened everything. I actually have no idea where she got this saying, because although I do say it, I don't say it often.

This video is courtesy of Pickle (who was still here at the time). Again, Kaitlyn with the "Oh my gosh". I also love Kari's reaction to her magnet. Don't let her fool you mom, she loved all of her gifts. For whatever reason, this one didn't strike her as super exciting at the time, but she has put it in it's place of honor on the fridge, and refuses to let Dylan play with it.

Ironically, this is the picture you can see me taking in the video, entitled "Super Excited Face".

The first half of this video you have seen before (just from my position/camera). I do love the randomness of Dylan crawling through. But, this is for you, Grandma... Kari was super excited about the dress, purse, and pennies. It has assumed its place of honor next to her apron :)

I don't remember what Dylan/daddy were opening, but I do so love this picture :)

I love the beginning of this video. Dylan comes right over to Pickle and tells her a thing or two. Also, you can see a difference in the girls. Kaitlyn opens presents like a sprint... She opens them all as fast as she can. Kari is more of a marathoner. She opens them individually and savors them :)

Kari with her tray. Grandma got a new wood burning kit, and took the time to personalize this boring wood tray with Kari's name and a few designs. It took her a minute to see what it was, but she has also since put this in her "special" cabinet with all her treasures arranged inside.

Kaitlyn got a Monkey's Jumping on the Bed play set.
And Dylan got this cool steering wheel thing.


Please disregard Pickle's finger. She removes it halfway through. Also, please disregard my child who has no butt, and therefore cannot keep her pants from falling down and showing her Snow White Panties. Hey, no one ever said we were perfect :)

Among the gifts Kari loves and adores are a set of kitchen utensils... They are a whisk, ladle, spatula, etc, arranged on this Lazy Susan kinda thing. She carries this around the house, and constantly "cooks" and "feeds" people. The other night, Kari came downstairs from being in bed for a total of, oh, 3 minutes, saying she couldn't sleep. Me, in all my motherly wisdom said, "Well, you haven't been trying for very long. Maybe you should go back and try for a bit longer." To which she replied "I think if I had my kitchen utensils (which she had left somewhere downstairs) I could sleep better." Sure enough, after the precious utensils were safely and carefully placed back on top of the dresser, she was out in 3 minutes flat. Hey, the girl knows what she needs.

Thanks a ton Grandma, for yourthoughtfulness, no matter whether they got here in December or March. We love you!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes....

Its a song.

I think.


Anyway, remember yesterday how I was talking about the differences between boys and girls? And, remember how I blamed it on society that we no longer know the difference between the two?

That just proves my point.

(Name that movie. No really... I can't, for the life of me, think of where that comes from.)

Kaitlyn decided to grow a beard, just to show you that she can, and that men and women really aren't that different after all.

Just Kidding... Kaitlyn has a problem with crayons... We are still working on the "paper only" thing.

Gender Neutral

I have an acquaintance (yes believe it or not, I do know some people). One day, as we were talking about our children, I quoted something from Dora. I often do this because I am completely lacking in the grown up reference materials section. Plus Dora happens to be more on my level. Rather than assuming he didn't respond to my commentary because it wasn't, in fact, all that funny, I said something like "That's right. Your oldest is a boy. And your daughter isn't really old enough to be into that kinda stuff yet." His reply was something along the lines of "We try to be pretty gender neutral at our house. I know who Dora is." Oh. Ok.

I know we as a {air quotes} society try to make everything politically correct, and gender neutral, and as unoffending as possible. And in some ways, I think that is good. However, I think there are obvious differences that can't be ignored. And, I think these differences are put there for a reason. Whomever you believe is responsible for creating us all, he created us differently because we compliment each other. I am not just talking about male and female (although we do seem to fit nicely together). But, all different types of personalities, and races, and talents, and abilities. In general, who wins all the races in the Olympics? Black people (or people of African American descent... or whatever is the preferred reference these days). Am I saying that a white person cannot beat a black person? Absolutely not. I am just saying, in general, we are different. When was the last time you saw a women lifting a gazillion pounds? Not very often (notice, again, I didn't say never). In general, men are stronger than women. You know what? That's ok.

The other thing that bugs me is the whole different standards thing: men and women are held to different standards when trying out for the same thing. Now, if you truly believe that men and women are the same, why the difference? And, if they aren't, why allow someone to do something they physically can't. Imagine, if you will, your house catching on fire. You pass out from smoke inhalation, and a fire person comes in to save you. But, this person can't actually life your 150 lb butt up (because you have been eating too many chocolates) and is forced to drag you outside, not only making your fabulous new Jimmy Choos dirty, but also giving you multiple bruises and contusions that may have been avoided had said person been able to lift you up. (Lets ignore the fact that you could stand to loose some weight for the moment anyway). How does that make any logical sense?

We were all made for different purposes. We all have a talent, or something that we are good at, that someone else, one day, will need us for. According to Kari, mine is telling people to turn off the tv. And, lets face it, as a mother, that is an awesome talent. So, lets not say we aren't different. Clearly, we are. Lets just learn to use what we have to help ourselves and other. Now, that being said, I see no reason why we can't all just get along. One of my friends posted this the other day, and I thought it was cute.



I think I am done with my soapbox for the day. Hope I didn't offend anyone with my incoherent babble. Sometimes, I do have grown up thoughts. Notice, however, it still did include a cartoon reference... Oh well :)

Dry Run, AKA No Touchy

Believe it or not, I like to camp. I wouldn't have thought so either, basing my decision on the fact that the only camping we really used to do was Girls Camp: A week in the middle of the summer with just girls in hot, humid Virginia. Can we say "bugs" boys and girls? However, I have found that with family and friends, and not in the middle of the summer, but in the mountains, early in the spring where the weather is cool and the company is enjoyable (also the marked lack of bugs), camping can be quite an enjoyable experience. We have used it several times to meet with the in-laws, somewhere between their house and ours. However, because of this and that it has been at least a year since we have gone. We have scheduled a camp out, in the up coming future, and in preparation ordered a new tent, the old one not being big enough to fit our growing brood and accompanying stuff. Hubby, being the smart guy that he is, suggested a dry run set up to make sure everything was there, and that we could assemble it relatively simply. These are the resulting pictures thereof.

The girls are so helpful.

Half way up. There is a center section, big enough for me, hubby, and all our gear, and there are 2 smaller sections on either side: one big enough for 2 small girls in sleeping bags, the other big enough for 1 small boy in a pack'n'play. There are also 3 separate doors, and 2 removable walls. Sounds pretty good, don't it?!?

Also, I love in this picture how Kaitlyn is defying gravity.

Yes, I have super children. Thank you.

The Dyl man got to chill with the other Pickle on the porch while all this was going on. Until this picture, he was infinitely happy... Too bad I didn't capture that on film.

All set up and ready to go.

This was one of my favorite parts of the day: Dylan crawling around on the tent/tarp. But there seemed to be this invisible force field. Where ever this green stuff was, he couldn't seem to get past it. I suppose it was his kryptonite.

They had a great conversation about weather, politics, and favorite recipes.

Man oh man, this girl is cute :)

Taking it for a test run.

How cruel am I that I still find this absolutely hilarious?

What afternoon in the sun would be complete without a picnic?

Family togetherness. Ain't life grand?!?!

I am such a bad mother....

At one point in the proceedings, we all went inside, and were debating whether we wanted to take afternoon naps inside the tent. Dylan crawled right up and snuggled next to his daddy. I couldn't resist a few pictures.

He eventually did venture out onto the grass, and apparently got used to it. However, everytime I look at this picture all I can think of is his poor curly legs...See... It just doesn't look all that natural.

As we approached the end of the afternoon, I went to get the broom to sweep out the tent. Dylan is such a good helper.

The End.

I heart Piko

I mentioned last week that my husband and sister contrived to surprise me with a visit. Apparently, my sister decided she couldn't live without a visit with my children (I don't kid myself. No one loves me just for me anymore....) and contacted my husband, instead of me, to arrange good times/places/etc. They came to an agreement, and on the day her plane arrived, my husband told me a lie. A little white lie with a good intent, but a lie just the same. I asked a few normal questions, such as, "What time are we meeting him? What exit are we getting off on? Why is the sky blue? Why do men have nipples?" to which I got vague, increasingly frustrated responses. I started to wonder. To hubby's credit, I didn't know anything about it until the day we left, and I certainly didn't know what, exactly was going on. I suppose I can forgive him this one time for lying to me.... Honey, if you are reading this out there, I forgive you. But, that doesn't mean I am giving you permission to do it again. :)

As we drove into the airport, I said, in all my genius-ness, "We aren't meeting someone from work, are we?" Duh.... Here's your sign! Hubby still refused to tell me exactly who we were picking up, and as I sat there pondering who it could be, my older sister walked up beside me :) It is always nice to be surprised by something pleasant, and a visit from my sister certainly falls into that category. Disregarding the fact that I had half a loaf of bread and 1 gallon of milk to my name, I was super excited!!!

What kind of cool, sisterly things did we do, you ask? Well, we stayed up every night, waaaaay past bedtime, talking, watching movies, playing Liverpool, etc. She fabulously watched my children whilst I ran errands (not knowing she was coming, I had a decently full week planned). We watched New Moon (yes, you may go ahead and judge me if you like, but it was a decent movie {if not leaps and bounds better than the first} and even though the adolescent love "unsureness" gets on my nerves, it's a pretty good story line). And, well.... that's about it. It was not the most exciting week of my life (I am sure Pickle would say the same), but it was fun just the same, and it ended much too soon.

Yesterday she left to fly back home. It was sad. I teared up (yes me), and the girls continue talking about Pickle today. Before she left, however, I managed to pile all the children on the couch with her to take some pictures. Strangely enough, while the children did fun things while she was here, I rarely got any pictures of them together.

The picture shoot started out just peachy keen for the Dyl man.

He was super excited, can you tell?

This one turned out decently though.

We Love you Pickle!!!

Unfortunately, this picture was horrible of the other 3, but Dylan was pretty cute.

Also unfortunately, the flash did something funky. This is the best I could do.

I wish I knew how to photoshop.

PS- for those of you wondering, my sister's name is actually Mickelle. (Combination of my parent's names Mike + Kelly = Mickelle) Growing up, we had a hard time saying her name, and it somehow morphed into Pickle. She liked it so much she went through at least a few years in grade school (correct me if I am wrong Pickle) writing that as her name on all her school papers. It faded in high school of course, being that being nick named after a vegetable soaked in vinegar is sooooo uncool, but has picked up again. I have taken it even one step further (because I always have pushed the limits of coolness) and call her Piko. An interesting evolution, to be sure, but my sister just the same.

Cuppa Joe

I may have mentioned before that Kaitlyn has a juice addiction. To the point where she goes through 5 or 6 cups a day. Thankfully, it is well watered down (past half and half). She also must have a cup first thing in the morning. Much like a cup of coffee, she finds our dispositions much improved once she has had her fix.

The other day, in our haste to complete the juice transaction, we missed the hand off and it fell on her foot.

Who knew juice was so heavy?

The Baby Whisperer

You never know how handy it is to have someone with supernatural abilities, until you have one. I, for instance, have a 5 year old with the ability to read her siblings minds. I found this out when Kari informed me that Dylan wanted frog cupcakes for his 1 year birthday. "How do you know?" I asked. To which she responded, "He told me." Oh. Well. Ok then.

This was Kaitlyn's contribution. She sat at the table playing with her place mat saying she was hungry and where was dinner until I was obliged to use all the patience I had left in my body, and tell her to get down from the table and go play until I told her dinner was ready. It was an excruciating experience, really... Judging by her response that is.

A work in progress.

The honorary frog birthday cupcake.


Happy Birthday to Dylan :)



Don't worry... He caught on pretty quick :)

Dig right in dude!

Love the "talking" in the middle.

It helps to get the whole hand in there :)

More talking, with a bit of percussion added in. Just for good measure :)

Kaitlyn. What can I say about Kaitlyn? While she didn't seem to enjoy her own birthday experience quite as much, she certainly made short order of Dylan's cupcake.

He was doing really well with eating the frosting, so we were trying to "introduce" him to the cake. I like how he praises the cupcake God's in the middle :)

Hiya birthday boy. Cute green beard!

Still needs a hair cut.

What cupcake experience is complete without a little bit in your hair?

Still going.

Yum!

These next 3 pictures are my favorite, for reasons I don't feel like I can explain.

Maybe you can see why....

Sorry this picture is weird. The flash didn't work, but the smile is

so great, I couldn't leave it out.

And, prolly my most favorite.

The End.