Cute kids

The other day Ian was snuggling in the bed with Cory and I.  Actually he and Cory were wrestling more than anything.  When things finally settled down, Ian was lying on Cory's arm but wiggled out to scoot over to me.  As he did, he said to Cory, "I need to lay with Mommy.  Your fur is making me too hot!"  Thinking about it still makes me laugh.  Granted, Cory is hairier than me--thank goodness--but certainly not as much as you'd think to hear Ian tell it.

This afternoon, baby Paige was playing on the floor.  She'd been laying there so contently and we'd all been talking to her and playing with her.  Merry Grace was down there, almost in her face, when Paige grabbed a hold of Merry Grace's passy--yes she still has one.  MG thought it was so cool and I played right along saying, "Isn't baby Paige amazing that she can get your passy?"  Merry Grace laughed and said, "She's a Super Power Ranger!!!"  You gotta love this family, where you can be a super power ranger just for getting someone else's passy!! :)

Conveniently Vegetarian

The other night I fixed some kind of chicken dish for dinner.  For the life of me, I can't remember what it was, but it really doesn't matter.  The kids first reaction to my cooking is rarely a positive one.  Sometimes they will change their opinion after tasting it, often not.  *Sigh*  So, as usual, when I was almost done preparing dinner, Elise came in to inspect the food.  After looking in the pots & pans, she looked at me and said, "I don't know if you know it, but I don't eat animals."  I did't know about this and told her so.  "Yes, " she said, "I don't eat food from animals, its pitiful."  Remembering what she'd had for lunch, I said, "Didn't you eat a hamburger for lunch?  That comes from a cow."  She thought for a moment and said, "Well, mainly I just don't eat chicken. "  Ah ha.  How convenient.  Where do they come up with this stuff?

Stubborn

Kids are stubborn when they want something.  I was reminded again today of just how much.  Merry Grace was super easy to potty train.  It was so easy, I'm not sure I can even take credit for it happening.  Then she suddenly decided she didn't want to poopy in the potty and reverted back to diapers, just to poopy.  It was a little annoying, but she would just bring me a diaper, do her business, and then I'd change it.  It was a pretty effective little system she had going.  I tried once just not putting the diaper on her when she asked, but after she didn't poop for 3 1/2 days I finally gave in.  Yesterday I decided to try again--I just flat-out refused to put the diaper on her.  Well, lo and behold, she poopied in the potty!!!  We cheered her on like we'd just found out she'd be the first woman to walk on the moon.  It had been a long-standing thing that as soon as she accomplised that little feat we'd take her out and buy her a baby doll.  So last night after dinner that is just what we did.  She picked a baby doll that cost $2.96 and a pair of Wal-Mart's Halloween crocs.  She was so excited and proud.  I was sure we were on to something good.  Wouldn't you know, here she comes today, walking up to me with a diaper, telling me she needs to poopy.  Once again, I wouldn't do it, thinking we'd end up with the same result as last time.  I was busy cleaning up the kitchen from lunch, when I heard Merry Grace yell "Mama" from the living room.  In response to my "What?", she answered, "I'm poopying in my diaper."  Sure enough, that little imp had managed to put her own diaper on and poop in it.  We had a nice little talk and I put away her new baby doll and crocs until she poopies on the potty again.  The next order of business is to hide her diapers so she can't pull that little move again.  But she's obviously quite determined, so I'm a little nervous about what stunt she may try next.  What a funny little girl!!!

The things they learn...

Somewhere or somehow, my sweet little girl learned a lovely little phrase--"Shake your booty."  I'm not sure where Merry Grace picked this up, but I'm fairly certain it wasn't from me.  Unfortunately she got the phrase wrong and instead of saying "shake your booty" she says "shake your boobies."  I'm not really sure I wanted her walking around saying the real phrase, much less her interpretation!!!  Having said that, I did have a pretty good chuckle the first time I saw her stick her little bum out and go, "Shake your boobies, shake your boobies..."  Now I just have to figure out where she picked up the phrase from--and give them a good smackdown!!!

My entrepreneur

It has probably been a year ago now, but we gave Elise our old digital camera.  It was the first one we ever bought and it is large, clunky, low mega-pixels and the like.  It works fine, but its not really that great.  Well, a friend of ours gave Elise a digital camer after Paige was born.  It is cute, comes with changeable face plates, is smooth and sleek and she LOVES it.  Naturally, her old one became even more of a dinosaur than it already was.  But one man's junk is another man's treasure, and wouldn't you know that Ian fell in love with that old camera.  Naturally, I thought Elise passing it down to Ian was a great idea, but she had other plans.  I caught wind of some negotiations, only to find out that Elise was going to sell the camera to Ian for a hefty price, especially for a 5 year old to purchase.  Then this morning Ian was walking around with this long eraser that he'd gotten from Elise.  As he was telling me about it, he mentioned buying it from Elise.  It turns out that a friend of Elise's at school had given her these two erasers and she came home and sold one to Ian for $5.00!!!!!  Ian has a change jar in his room where he saves money and a few weeks ago he put a $5.00 bill in there from Grandma Dee-Dee for his birthday.  He had taken that money and paid Elise for this eraser of hers.  Apparently she's a little entrepreneur.  So watch out.  If you want something of hers, you will probably have to pay her for it, or at least work out a trade.

Funny stuff

Last night Elise came up and gave me an enormous hug. She looked up at me and said, "Now that you aren't pregnant anymore, I can squeeze you really tight and not hurt you." I just smiled and told her that was exactly right. Then she said, "You aren't big at all anymore. Your tummy is little." Then she started speaking in that little voice like you're talking to a tiny baby or a puppy and said, "Yes, now you have a squishy tummy again." At this point she began squishing my tummy and in a sing-song voice saying, "Squishy, squishy tummy...It's so squishy!" I might have been frustrated if it weren't so true...or if I hadn't been laughing so hard.

While Cory & I were at the hospital having baby Paige, my parents had baby-sitting duty.  They took the kids out for an afternoon at the park.  At the lake at the park, they saw fish and turtles.  When they were telling me about it that night, I said, "I can't believe you saw turtles!!!  We've never seen them before when we've gone."  Elise said, "I think that's because when we usually go we throw rocks into the lake.  This time we threw pieces of bread.  I think the turtles like that better."  I'm pretty sure she's right. :)

The other night, it was getting close to bedtime and I said to Merry Grace, "Why don't you go put your pajamas on?"  She looked at me and with a toss of her head goes, "How 'bout No?!"  She's picking up on the sassiness much earlier than I expected.  But it was pretty funny.

Paige is not particularly funny at this point, but she is cute and sweet.   I finally have a baby who is an excellent sleeper.  Today, for example, she was asleep in her little bed.  I really wanted to vacuum the carpet, but was hesitant because she was sleeping.  But she's so used to being around noise (the older kids are always doing something loud), so I decided to try it and see how she'd do.  So I vacuumed the entire room and she never made a peep.  She did stir a little bit when I vacuumed up a bobby pin, but other than that she didn't even budge.  I've heard of people being able to do that but never believed it could actually happen to a child of mine. :)  

Paige has just been a wonderful addition to our family.  We all love her to pieces.  It's amazing how much fuller the house feels with just one more child.  So often I'm reminded of the line from the song "Remember When" by Alan Jackson: "Remeber when the sound of little feet, was the music we danced to week to week."  I feel like that line exactly describes what our life is like on a daily basis.  It's busy and its crazy, but I can't imagine it any other way.

Baby Pictures

Shannon White (who some of you know) took some beautiful pictures of Paige the other day. We enjoyed getting to hang out with her and her sweet babies a little bit. She was Ian's primary teacher for a while and was so good with his, *ahem*, enthusiasm. So we just love her for that. She is so talented and is able to capture all the sweet baby cuteness. Enjoy!!!

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