I saw a car that had the license plate 44 mpg. The car was one of the first models of a Geo Metro. I had a great laugh about that. And then I sighed. I remember my '83 Audi that got 40 mpg. Those were the days. Now I drive a lumbering beast of a van. Not really, but in comparison to an Audi, it feels huge and clunky. No worries. It still has a sun roof like an Audi, but it works much, much better than that one did.
Here is our 9 days without Papa. I actually am getting used to the long times without him and find things to look forward to while he is gone. Like how about having quesidillas for five straight days in a row. I was in heaven. And I thought T and W were, too. But even mana from heaven can get a little old. W, who happens to LOVE cheese did ask me why we were having quesidillas again. I've never had my kids ask me that before.
Whitney is turning into quite the food critic without much cueing. I guess all kids do. Let me know if these things are normal, though. I made pizza to eat for the first 3 days of Papa being gone. It was home made pizza made with 50% whole grain wheat flour, so it's not to the liking of J. Nor to W. She commented about it. "Mom. I think you cooked the pizza just a little bit too long. It isn't soft like Papa's pizza." Grrrrr.... nothing gets past her or J. The increase in toughness is because there is whole grain in it and I haven't mastered making pizza dough soft with it being a little nutritious, too. In my experience with whole grain wheat flour, it just doesn't happen compared to 100% white flour. Any comments?
The last night before Papa was to come home, I asked Tucker what he wanted for dinner. He requested french fries. I think he was hoping we'd go out. Nah. I cooked them in the oven. But I didn't exactly time it early enough for dinner when they were going to be hungry, so I tried speeding
up the cooking time by broiling them on low for a bit. It did decrease cooking time, but they got stuck to the pan because you need more oil on them if you are going to do things that way. I tried
flipping them over half way through and they were mostly stuck the pan. Whitney was flipping
through the cookbook at the same time looking for the chocolate chip receipe. As she was flipping,
she found a potato salad recipe. Here's how the conversation went. "Mom! I found a potato recipe! Look! You need to peel the potatoes just like this recipe. You should follow this recipe." and then
at dinner there were a few that were cooked a little uneven that landed on her plate. She didn't like
one of them so she said: " I think I'll try peeling them. Oh yeah! They taste much better that way".
Before J left, we had a girls day and a boys day out. I took W to the kids museum and then we switched and J took T. We had an absolute blast! Us girls played with the trains, built a house out of the huge blocks, climbed up the tree house, looked thought the colored plastic blocks up at the lights to see them turn pink, and played with the trains. W also got to pick out five dollars or less of a toy. She was pretty economical and found two things, a ice cream shaped hair bow that is purple and yellow squishy stuff that is kind of like play dough, but dry. We also stopped for frozen yogurt on the way home. So many treats!!
J didn't say much about what he and T did at the museum, just mentioned the trains. However, when it was his turn to take T, it was right around lunch time, so I figured that they would eat out. T was in seventh heaven. They went to Panda Express. They are into pandas, so T was fascinated that there were pandas everywhere. On the sign, on his cup, on the bag, etc.
When we got home, we made dinner together. J started supervising the big kids cutting veggies while he cooks. They actually do very well with it and are good at learning the rules. They are getting some real skills. We had orange wedges for the first time for dinner that night. W didn't like biting off the orange, so she cut it off. And actually did a very good job of it. We were all shocked.
It still cracks me up when kids mimic us. The other day t commented that "papa is on amazon" and W said "papa bought us apps in the app store"
This year I didn't let them eat all their Halloween candy at once, but let them have one a day. Every day they we surprised. One time t said "thank you for letting me have candy!" with such genuine gratitude. Mommy doesn't usually do that. Thank heavens they only had one weeks worth of candy because then w said one day " we haven't had trick or treats in a long time" with such a forlorn voice after we ran out. Then they switched to loving meal bars.
T made an interesting observation about underwear. He informed me that he knows that it is his underwear because his underwear "has straight on the top not ruffles". Hmmm. I would have noticed the cloth pattern first, but whatever.
They have been learning about mammals. One of the characteristics is that they have a back bone and they drink milk when they are babies. One day W came running in to me to say "T hit my backbone!". They also comment that E is a mammal because he drinks milk.
W is getting very good at painting and puzzles at the moment. She can do a 48 piece puzzle on her own and likes it. She also likes the paint with water book I got out and to use a coloring book to paint in instead of color in. She spent quite a bit of time painting in a book and did a fairly good job of controlling water color. I was impressed.
T learned how to check books out. At our library there is a self check out where you have to scan the bar code individually. You have to hold it at the correct angle and at a certain distance from the scanner, so sometimes it is a little annoying. However, Tucker figured out the exact angle and distance.
We are doing a thankful tree. Everyday we are putting things up written on different leaves. I'll take a picture of it up close to remember what we picked this year. The idea is to get excited for Thanksgiving like Halloween and Christmas are exciting to look forward to. I tell them I am getting them a prize. I got them a chocolate turkey. That way we can all be sugar and chocolate addicts together. This week I decided to get rid of the Halloween candy. I let them have a Halloween candy almost every day. One day I skipped and W said the next day "Mom, I haven't had a trick or treat in a very long, long time". Today was the first day without one and T was asking for all sorts of chocolate meal ideas. Chocolate bread, meal bars, making cookies, asking for chocolate bread a second and third time, asking for peanuts so he could have chocolate chips and raisins after, etc. I give them their chocolate chips and raisins after they eat peanuts or some sort of nut. I got tired of them picking out the raisins and chocolate and leaving all the nuts. They also put up on the tree that they were thankful for brownies, chocolate bread and chocolate chips. Me, too. Me, too.
W also melted my heart with some real sweetness. T and W usually observe children that come over or when they go to another kid's house, for about an hour before they stop hoovering nearby and go play independently. I thought they didn't like meeting new people. This is true of the neighbors. But last week, T asked to play with Evan and Noah and W asked if we could put Evan, Noah and Brighton on the tree because she is thankful for her friends. They don't even play with the neighbor kids much since all of their parents work and so they are not home most of the time. Interesting, but good to know that they truely are social, just cautious.
W got really upset with T this morning. All he did was say "W, your strawberry pajamas are getting too small" It is true. They are too small, but she doesn't want to give them up. As apparent by the screaming about his comment and then screaming "They are non-living!" Non-living is a phrase on the Gazilli Science app we have on the ipad. She thought that her pjs couldn't grow too small. I had to explain they don't grow smaller. They stay the same size and she grows bigger since she is a living thing. The DRAMA!
After painting with water about 7 pictures, she wanted them to dry. She knows you can't put water color pictures on the fridge until they dry, but that they have to dry flat and not touching anything. So she spread them out to dry. She had a picture on each bar stool and then ran out of room, so she put the rest on her chair to dry, since there is a towel on that, too. It made me laugh to see her solution.
W finally found Thomas the train! He has been missing for about 2 months. Apparently he chugged into the station that was under the treadmill. The irony of it all!
So we are back to playing with Fiery Flynn and Thomas again. Fiery Flynn got completely covered in Scotch tape because "he is red and bleeding". The Scotch tape was a cast, just like in the Huckle/Busytown movie we borrowed from the library. After Fiery Flynn healed, he got his cast off. I found his "cast" on all the dents on the closet doors and sewing machine. Apparently the closet door had lots of ouches. Very true. That was W that noticed and did that.
Another time they played casts was when Tucker decided he broke his foot. He tied the doll house bedspread on his foot and wouldn't walk on that foot because he needed to ride in a wheelchair, too. It worked even better when I pulled out some rubber bands to play cast with them. Then T had two broken feet. He crawled around a bunch. Then W took over and told her Panda when he was to have his casts on and when he was healed and had to remove his casts. Ok, Princess, no prob.
T and I had a great time bonding over "making bread". He got out the play kitchen stuff and ordered me around on when to put in ingredients and when to stir in the exact way I do it to him. He also told me when it was ok to eat the dough or the bread and had me cook it in the oven. He also brought me on a picnic to the beach, loading up the food, the children and the stuff in his car/bed, in the same way I do. He pointed out the sights to me just like I do and sang me the songs on the CD numbers he likes. I must admit, though, we really bonded and I could tell he had a great time playing with me because he could be the boss and he could decide how to play.
The beach was a bust. The temperature wasn't too bad. In the fifties. And it wasn't raining or windy, so I told the big kids we would go to a beach park. They informed me they had no desire to go to the long, long walk beach if they couldn't get in the water. Agreed. So we went to one that was a short walk. I told them we could build sand castles in the sand and have a picnic. We only got as far as the picnic. There was goose poop everywhere on the beach. I guess when it isn't swimming season, they scoop the poop or something. Or the birds don't hang out there that long. Or.... it gets ground into the sand. Try not to think about it. Tucker wouldn't even walk out to the picnic blanket without following my footprints to very carefully avoid the poop. And it was almost a fisasco when he thought the rock I stepped on was poop. I shouldn't have said anything. We went to the playground instead and played on the train. Tucker fixed his firebox by climbing on the train. Whitney, Ethan and I sat in the dining car and ate fish crackers. Whitney didn't finish her lunch because she was a little concerned about the crows staring us down.
We also went on a flashlight walk. It was kind of short. I thought it would be fun to invite the neighbor kid. I think the neighbor kid had the most fun. His flashlight was super, super bright and made Tucker and Whitney's bright lights look lame. Don't be mistaken. There lights are bright, too. I've been letting them run through the house with them since it is pitch black at 5 pm. When they come up the stairs, I keep thinking it is a car turning in the street. But the neighbor kid's was even brighter. Tucker and Whitney didn't say too much during that walk around his and our yards, but the neighbor kid had lots to say. And his poor brother. The reason I invited him out in the first place is because his kid brother was inside really sick, so I knew he had been couped up all day. But his brother? Looked at us in such a dejected manner out the window, feeling his sickness even more, I'm sure. It was still an adventure. Maybe we try it again as a family later.
They have started playing second pathway. Not sure what that is. There are also often snakes in the second pathway and I'm warned not to go that way. They watched the Lowly Worm movie this week with Papa and I haven't seen it, so maybe that is what it is from.
E is starting to really sit up for long periods of time. He likes it a lot and doesn't even cry when he falls backward with a loud thud.
We looked and T and W baby pictures. E is wearing the same stuff T was his first Christmas. I got out more baby toys for E since he is more interested in grabbing and eating them. T loved it because it was "just like baby Tucker".
We made pizza together and suprisingly, the big kids are really good at it. Tucker flipped the dough over like a pro and W sprinkled on the condiments beautifully.
We went to the library this week. I told them they could pick out a video to watch with Papa while I was at Activity Days. Amazingly Whitney picked out a Jesus movie to go with her Lowly Worm movie. I was very surprised, considering there are lots of Thomas and Curious George episodes to choose from. But I think she just knows I will go for that kind of a movie on a Sunday.
I let them pick one thing out at the grocery store. They have started picking out meal bars. They get very excited about it.
We went on a walk in the rain to use the froggy and meow meow umbrellas. Whitney isn't usually a fan of wet and cold, but she loves her meow meow umbrella so much, she wanted to stay outside longer to use it, even asking to follow the stream down the hill. We were following the stream down the hill and I stopped her at the street so we didn't get too far away from her siblings. She wanted to keep going, but I explained why we couldn't go home. She gets it. She told me that "if Papa were home we could keep going, just me and your buggy" (buggy is my nickname for her that she likes)
E loves to play wild. He loves to be thrown about, back and forward. He also loves TV, especially Pingu and Dora. I have no idea how I missed knowing about Pingu, but I love Pingu. It totally cracks me up. The first episode I saw was the one of Pinga when she was in an egg. Still makes me laugh.
They were playing in the yard a bit when W fell. She fell on some leaves and she said "good thing we have a soft backyard!" They also played gate outside. Playing "gate" means throwing all of their toys over the gate into the backyard. Not my favorite game. But T also started playing "getting ice cream for princess" which looked a lot like gate, but melted my heart.
We had a great time going to the park late one night. The weather was surprisingly warm and calm, it was just dark. Since it was like, 4 in the afternoon. But we had fun playing on the playground by moonlight. Before it got dark we went exploring. I let them pick which way they wanted to go and they really had a blast navigating, instead of me, especially W.
This post is really disjointed since I had to remember really far back, but there you go.
 |
| You write something on the turtles then put them in a pond for good luck maybe? Vietnam |
 |
| The fish market. Closed and empty because it is Sunday! |
 |
| Godzilla is real in Japan |
 |
| Imperial palace in Japan |
 |
| Persistent motor/taxi guy that followed J for a few days. Vietnam |
 |
| post office in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam |
 |
| enjoying a Vietnamese sunset |
 |
| While J was there, he sat next to an American doctor on the plane that invited him to visit him in the hospital he set up to help with agent orange victims from the Vietnam war. It affected J lots, especially since they were people his age |
 |
| Family home evening playing trains with papa's game. T was in charge of the activity. He picked to have Papa show him his game that has trains. It is Ticket to Ride. They lined up all the train pieces on the masking tape I had down on the floor to make them roads. |
 |
| three beautiful children. No one wanted to take this pic |
 |
| slightly better |
 |
| E really enjoying playing with the big kids in the tent. They were hammering on their nails in their tent |
 |
| T with Meow meow |
 |
| Our happy laughy baby |
 |
| more laughy happy baby |
 |
| last ode to fall |
