15 July 2014

Superheroes are still big at our house.  Here's Rose Pink busy with the watercolor pencils that Gia sent us for Christmas a couple years ago.

14 July 2014

 

For the Fourth of July weekend we drove up to visit some new friends who live in Mt. Pleasant, MI. We had a cookout, visited a nearby park, played D&D together and watched as our kids totally disappeared for hours playing together.  It was a weekend full of great food and good company.  We're already looking forward to going back again soon.

28 June 2014

24 June 2014

 This is the first pair of sneakers that Bobo wore.  He wore them for a long, long time, but he's finally outgrown them.  I feel very fondly towards them.

In the evenings, for family scripture study, he reads a verse by repeating it after Mr. Brown one word at a time.  It's so sweet that all of us giggle to hear his little voice pronouncing "Zarahemla" and "Jerusalem".

20 June 2014

Nut Brown lost his first tooth!  He's saving it in a special drawer in my jewelry box.

 

Rose Pink had three teeth out at the dentist this week.  It would have been four but one fell out on its own.  They were all halfway through having their roots dissolve so they are weird-looking.  She's saving them to make a necklace or something awesome.

18 June 2014

Bobo has been taking very late naps lately, and a couple days ago he woke up from his nap at 6 pm, so of course he wasn't ready for bed at 8:30.  He and I hung out on the sofa for awhile after the older kids went to bed.  We read a couple books, played leisurely with the toys he brought over, and cuddled.  I kissed his hair and he leaned up against me and said, 'wub yu'.

Bobo and Rose Pink and I went to see a magician at the library last night, and Bobo was completely fascinated with his tricks.  He sat very still through the whole thing and waved his hands and shouted the magic words when appropriate and was amazed when the magic happened.  The magician was really good, and we all enjoyed it.  We went downstairs to the kids' section after and Rose Pink was looking for books.  Bobo found an electrical outlet with a button on it, and he pushed the button and then he would run over and grab me to 'shock' me.  I made appropriate noises and we repeated this play the whole time Rose Pink was looking for a book about Cleopatra.  We rode our bikes home after.

Early early this morning a tremendous thunderstorm rolled in and shook the house with some tremendous claps of thunder.  It woke everyone up.  Bobo started crying in his bed, so we rescued him and the older kids got up too and we pulled the couch around in front of the big front window and watched the lightning for awhile til the storm blew over.  Bobo was so scared he was shaking and trembling but we cuddled him up and he settled down.  'Boom!' he kept saying.  'Boom!'  I drive east to work so I got to watch the lightning show as I drove in this morning.  Pretty fabulous. Although 5 am is kind of early to start the day.

Grandma and Grandpa are here visiting for a couple days.  :-)

13 June 2014

 Rose Pink, tonight at dinner: "Mom, listen, I can read in other languages and not understand it."

On Tuesday I cajoled her into riding her new bike to the ice cream shop.  We rode all the way there without incident, enjoyed our ice cream and then rode to the park.  On the way back, she told me that she likes riding her bike.  So I think she may be ready to move up to the bigger bike.  It makes me laugh because she had previously told me that I couldn't pay her to ride the new bike, but apparently I can bribe her with ice cream.  And ice cream, at the same ice cream shop, was what got her to go for her first real ride without training wheels four years ago.  Some things don't change.

12 June 2014

Somebody has inherited her mother's teeth and mouth size, and had her first appointment with the orthodontist this week.  Her teeth are coming in all cramped and crooked like mine did.  The orthodontist has some preventive strategies to use so that hopefully when she gets braces she won't have to wear them for as long.

10 June 2014

Nut Brown: This candy has a very distinct flavor.

Rose Pink: Do you even know what distinct means?

Nut Brown: .... no....

Rose Pink: It means, like, unique, like it's own thing all by itself, it stands out.

Nut Brown: So I was right!  This candy DOES have a distinct flavor!

9 June 2014

Last week Nut Brown came to work with me one morning.  Last winter Rose Pink also did once, because she was awake when I was leaving early in the morning, and I took her home at lunchtime.  She was quiet and busy and most of my coworkers were surprised when they realized that my daughter was with me that day.  Nut Brown remembered that, and he was up with me in the morning and asked if he could come with me like she did.  He is a lot more wiggly than she is, and even his version of playing quietly was not as quiet as she was.  But he had a great time playing with my office supplies and making a collage from an old magazine, finding the bathroom and the water fountain and doing gymnastics tricks with the padded stool in my cube.

6 June 2014

Nut Brown and Bobo playing in a sandbox at a school near the church where Rose Pink had her choir concert.  We had a break between rehearsal and performance, so the boys and I ran out to a park to make up to them for sitting through her concert. 

We had a water main break in front of our house this winter.  The city came and fixed it, and dumped a large quantity of sand in the hole they dug to fix it.  This is one of the kids' favorite places to play now.  It's right by the curb and makes Mr. Brown & I nervous, so we built a sandbox for them in backyard, and we're hoping to get sand into it this week.  Also cool toys, like the ones they were enjoying at the park above.

5 June 2014

Rose Pink, examining one of Mr. Brown's D&D miniatures of a yellow slime monster: So, Papa, it's basically a big mound of mucus?

Mr. Brown: Yes.

Rose Pink: I guess you'll have to beat the snot out of it!

4 June 2014

Rose Pink's year end concert with her homeschool choir class.  She's in the middle.  They sang two songs, one in German and one called Brother Come And Dance With Me.  Lately she's been wearing her hair in two ponytails and it's so cute.  She does it herself.  She's really enjoyed choir this year and we'll probably sign her up again next year.

3 June 2014

Rose Pink making a list of license plates that we saw during our weekend jaunt to Iowa.

2 June 2014

Summer is finally here. See kids in swimsuits above!

This week Nut Brown microwaved a pencil (it was the kind that changes colors with temperature) and it caught on fire, very exciting. He had the presence of mind to turn off the microwave, and no harm was done to the house or even to the microwave. My brother Mark gave me this microwave when I was 19.  Pretty soon I'll have owned it half my life... I'm glad it didn't actually catch fire.

31 May 2014

The other day Nut Brown was up before everyone else and left Mr. Brown the above note.

He uses language differently - I always have to pay special attention to make sure I understand what he's telling me.  He came up to me the other day and was very pleased to announce that 'This shirt has no back!' by which he meant, there's nothing printed on either side so there was no way to put it on backwards.

30 May 2014

Bobo is at the point where he's figured out that using words can sometimes get him what he wants, so he tries them out on us a lot, and parrots everything you say to him so he can learn even more words.  We've been practicing 'please' and 'thank you'.  He knows that when I ask him, 'can you say please?' that he's going to get what he wants, so he gives me a big grin as he says 'peeeez!'  I have him say 'thank you' and then I say, 'you're welcome'.  He says, 'welcome!' back to me, and lately when I prompt him for thank you, he says, 'Thank you welcome!'  He's so funny.

This week we had a powerful rainy day on Tuesday, and after dinner Rose Pink's soccer practice was cancelled so she and I and Bobo walked around the block, mostly in the gutter, splashing and singing and getting wet.  It was a lot of fun, and Bobo was totally pleased by this.  I love having kids to hang out with.

Bobo had his two year checkup this week and survived a shot and a finger prick.  Mr. Brown told me that he was anticipating the shot during the entire appointment, so he kept telling him not yet, not yet, not yet... okay, this is the shot.  But he was a trooper for the actual moment.  Physically he's on track and in social development behaves like a three-year-old.  I attribute this to his older siblings.

24 May 2014

My garden is in for the year.  The new thing this year is raspberry bushes, four of them along the back fence. We'll see how they do.  It's still so cold - even this week, supposedly past the frost-free date (Mother's Day) we had morning temps of forty degrees, which could easily have been overnight frosts.  The peas are already coming up.   I have six cucumber plants - I'm hoping to learn how to make pickles this summer.  The kids had a great time digging for worms and helping me plant the seeds and seedlings.  We're all looking forward to the growth. 

22 May 2014

The bench at the table in the kitchen fell over on to my foot and it hurt hurt hurt.  I said ow ow ow ow and are you okay Nut Brown because he'd been sitting on it when it fell, and then I said ow ow ow some more.  Bobo ran over and knelt down and kissed my foot to help it feel better.  So tender.

20 May 2014

Bobo and I were walking down the hall after church today.  He was sitting on my hip and I was feeling very tenderly towards him.  He was tired so he was just hanging out.  When he sits on my hip, he always wraps his arm back around my arm and locks on, and it's very secure and companionable, and I whispered to him, "Bobo, I love you." He turned to me and kissed me very sweetly.

18 May 2014

This past week Grandma was here visiting and I managed not to take a single picture.  She brought lots of activities and games and the kids had a great time with her.  One night we took a very long bike ride down to Treat Dreams, our favorite ice cream place.  Nut Brown was riding in the road behind me, a rare privilege for him.  He was talking about how much he prefers riding in the road to riding on the sidewalk, and when Grandma asked him why, he said, because usually I'm not permitted to ride in the road.  He surprises me with the big words he uses sometimes.

Grandma, the kids are still playing the games outside that you taught them - Red Light Green Light, Mother May I.

15 May 2014

Is it really halfway through May?  Last weekend we dashed down to Davenport for an unexpected event.  Friday morning our friend Holly sent word that she was giving bonus point to anyone who wore the shirts that Spencer & I had made for them (specific to a previous campaign) to the game session that night.  So we decided at 11:30 that morning that we were going to show up that night at her house!

The trip went really well, and it was so much fun.  We stayed in a hotel, ate at all our favorite places, swam in the pool, shopped at our favorite thrift store, and visited our favorite places.  Then we ran out to Iowa City to see family on Sunday, and drove back on Monday.  Nut Brown fell into the duck pond at the park.  Rose Pink began swimming in the deep end of the pool by herself.  Bobo acquired a Batman shirt at the thrift store that he hasn't really taken off since.  (We did get it washed, but he wouldn't take it off last night to get in bed, so ended up wearing it over his pajamas.)

It's fun to visit places you used to live, because you know where all the good stuff is.  Although this time around I was surprised at how much smaller Davenport seemed: my mindset has expanded to fit Detroit.

12 May 2014

Bobo wants to know why he's not allowed to listen to 'Let It Go' from Frozen over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and why are you turning it off, Papa?  I'm going to have a tantrum here on the floor about it.

10 May 2014

 Rose Pink has been busy writing.  See above comic - some of her 'h's look like 'n's.

 Someone gave her some Disney stickers and she was compelled to point out that it wasn't up to date.

Lately she and I have 'reading parties' occasionally, where I bring up my book and we read together on her bed at night.  (Note her Rainbow Fairy book on the above invite -they each have a drawing of a specific fairy on the cover.)

 In case I ever forget.

 

 

And one time she decided to have story time in the watchtower (her room upstairs) and invited everyone.  She has pretty much taught herself cursive - I showed her some letters and she improvised from there.

9 May 2014

Back in March we got a ride on a school bus (the kids were thrilled) down to the natural science museum in Ann Arbor.  They were having a day full of activities in the museum, with special exhibits (owl pellets for dissecting) and lots of silly crafts.  We had a lot of fun together, although Bobo was so tired in the end that there was definitely some screaming.

 

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Bobo is helping to roll out the roll dough.  He gets so frustrated that we won't let him use the sharp knives.

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There's just not much cuter than a baby who sits on the back of the toilet to brush his teeth.

 

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Why Nut Brown is taking gymnastics lessons:

...and his little brother who wants to be just like him.

 

 

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I love his upside down smiley eyes.  He loves having his picture taken.

 

 

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The city has an 'adopt a park' day every April, where you can pick a park to clean up to get ready for spring.  Our family is heavy park users, so I have often wanted to participate.  This year I decided to throw myself a birthday party that involved cleaning a park in our neighborhood.  I set it all up with the city, invited just about everyone I know, prepared treats for the guests, and then spent the next three weeks explaining that it wasn't actually my birthday until May but I was just having the party early.  It was actually on the day before Bobo's birthday, but I wasn't sure he has as many friends as I do.

 





Of course Bobo wanted to help make the cupcakes for our park cleaning adventure.  Mr. Brown also made me cheesecake for a birthday cake - yum.  It was so good.

I had a great time at my birthday party - we raked so many leaves (see all the bags behind me and Mr. Brown?) and the park looked much tidier for our attention.  The kids worked really hard right along with us - I got a bunch of comments especially about Nut Brown and what a good worker he is.  A couple people also brought me birthday gifts, which kind of surprised me, because really the party was an excuse to get some help with the park.  The weather was really nice - I hope I can do this again next year.

7 May 2014

Bobo turned 2!

Grandma and Grandpa sent him a wagon for his birthday.  It had a Spiderman tag on it, which made it extra cool.

Also they sent Batman socks, which he thinks are WONDERFUL.  He loves wearing them.  And when he's upset about anything I just have to remind him that he has Batman socks on and then he's immediately cheerful again.  He doesn't say 's' yet, so he calls them 'ba-ma hok'.  He's so cute.

I got out the clippers to cut Mr. Brown's hair and he decided that he needed a hair cut too.  A definite pro for having older brothers - he got his first haircut because he wanted to be like Nut Brown and get his hair cut even if the buzzer was a little scary.  Now he's pretty cool about the whole thing - I think this is his third haircut.  (So different from Nut Brown, who started getting his hair cut at four months old.)

On his birthday, we sponsored a park cleanup with a bunch of friends.  So he had the best birthday ever- three hours at the park in the morning, plus all the chocolate cupcakes you could eat (because Mom and Dad were busy).  It was definitely a good day.  In addition to the gifts from Grandma and Grandpa, Gia sent him $2 and we used it to buy him some superhero action figures.  Now he takes them to bed with him.  He's so sweet.

Happy birthday, baby boy!  May it be the first of many more!