1 April 2018

So yesterday (31 March) we're walking and Mr. Brown says, "You know, tomorrow is April First!  And April Fool's Day!"  Bobo says to me, "Mom! Tomorrow is my birthday!" and just when I'm about to explain that his birthday is at the end of the month, he grins and says, "April Fool's!"  Clever boy.

25 March 2018

As part of Rose Pink getting older and starting into the hormonal craziness of teenage years, Mr. Brown and I have been quick to point out to her when she's behaving 'like a teenager', rather than being her usual self.  Our idea is that if we identify the behavior, she'll learn to see it as well so that she can make more informed choices about how she wants to respond to things.  Nut Brown has cottoned on to this as well and now he loves to tease her about how she's such a teenager, so overdramatic, and generally make fun of her.  This drives her nuts, and she responds with more over-the-top dramatics, which he really loves.  This is a new dynamic that I wasn't expecting from him!

23 March 2018

Mr. Brown taught Rosebud the words to "I'm A Little Teapot" and she will do the actions and then sing the last line all by herself - "Tip me over and POUR ME OUT!"  It's so adorable.

20 March 2018

Rosebud loves to sing!  She learns the lyrics to the songs that I sing to her at night, and joins in.  She also learns the lyrics to songs that she hears on the radio or from the computer, and she sings those too.  She surprised Mr. Brown the other day by busting out The Smiths' "Stop me, oh oh oh stop me!"  Lately she's also been repeating, "and a happy new year!" from We Wish You A Merry Christmas.  She loves to sing 'I'm A Little Teapot' and will do the last line "tip me over and POUR ME OUT" all by herself.  Another new favorite is 'knees and toes' repeated ad infinitum, from Head Shoulders Knees and Toes.


When I'm singing to her at night, I will sing a song for several nights, and then after a week or two suddenly she'll join in with me and sing all the words.  It's amazing to listen to her and realize the extent of her interest and her memory.

19 March 2018

This morning Mr. Brown and I were awakened by a little girl who climbed in bed with us and sang Jingle Bells, and then announced, "I'm a kitty!  Papa, you're a kitty!"  To which Mr. Brown replied, "Oh good!  Did you know that kitties like to sleep a lot?" and the little girl said, "WHAT?!"


I cut her hair short on Saturday night while she was watching cat videos.  She likes it and it's very cute but it was so sad to Mr. Brown and me because it made her look that much more grownup!  I may have cried about it.


Sunday night I painted fingernails with Rose Pink on the porch.  Rosebud had hers painted (twice) and Bobo got ladybug/inverse ladybug patterns on his fingernails.  Rose Pink wanted shamrocks drawn on hers with a toothpick, and I mostly succeeded.  She was pleased with it.  Our Hispanic neighbor came over to borrow a wheelbarrow and he has started calling me 'Mama'.

19 March 2018

I spent Saturday outside working in the yard (yay).  The kids did their Saturday chores on Friday so we had a breakfast fire with eggs and pancakes and sausages, which was way fun.  Our dryer died recently so we've hung up a clothesline, which I like better but it takes way more time.  Mr. Brown and I tore down a bunch of small thorny trees that bear unknown and possibly poisonous fruit that died in the frost in January, and I raked the load of mulch that Mr. Brown moved into relative smoothness.  Also I planted some cantaloupe seeds and set up the sprinkler for the garden beds.  Three of my four pecan trees have leaves on them :D and I'm pretty happy about that!




We went for a ride-and-run, and I ran a whole mile, which I haven't done since junior high.  Yay for me!  Bobo also ran a mile, but he did it twice.  He's a champ!  Mr. Brown ran six miles, which is an even longer ways.  He's a champ too! The rest of us were on bikes/trailers.


Mr. Brown and Rose Pink went to see the Lara Croft movie, which is based on one of our favorite video games, and I played Legos with Nut Brown and Bobo for an unexpectedly long time.  Bobo said I could be his girlfriend and assigned me a Lego person and the name Blanca.  I helped Nut Brown build a lego catapult that launched a ball when struck by a falling domino.


The kids finished their schoolwork earlier in the week so spring break started a little early.  They have five weeks off now, and Nut Brown is planning to build a pair of stilts with Mr. Brown, and Rose Pink is going to work on some Personal Progress stuff.  They are really excited for the break.  So is Bobo, who has plans involving video games (lots of them).


Bobo has recently become a very good reader.  His spelling and reading curricula have taught him to sound things out, and he participates in scriptures in the evenings by reading verses basically by himself.  When he does reading practice with me, he reads me the book instead of reading me a couple pages.  He's also started reading signs to us and sounding out anything with letters on it.  I'm so happy for him!


My sister came to stay with us overnight last week, which was super fun.  We're going up to see her for a weekend in April!  And last week I took a half day and we ran over to the Strawberry Festival to see my brother Chris and a couple of his friends.  (Chris's idea)  We had a fun time thinking about strawberries while we watched a dog show, a pig race (Bobo won a blue ribbon because his pig won the race) and a not-so-great magician.  Also we scoped out the chickens and rabbits on show, and watched the intermediate division of calf showing.  It was a good time and it was fun to be with Chris.


At church they combined the Sunday meetings of the youth/children's programs with the Spanish ward that shares our building (sacrament meetings at either end of the block) so now I have extra kids in nursery who don't speak English. Fortunately there's a bunch of people in our ward who do speak Spanish so I'm thinking I'll look for volunteers for a couple weeks to help everybody figure this out and get comfortable.

18 March 2018

The other night when I was putting Rosebud in bed, she decided that she was a kitty.  She crawled into bed and lay down and said, "Kitty hungry."  So I offered the kitty some fish.  We sang some more songs, and she crawled around and meowed a bit.  I bid her good night and gave her a hug and a kiss, and she made her usual unsatisfied noises about Mom leaving, then said, "Kitty drink!"  So I got her a drink, and then she lay down and curled up with her boppy and said, "Kitty nap."  I tiptoed out and she went to sleep.  I just love this little girl!

17 March 2018

Rose Pink got green elastics on her braces at her last appointment in anticipation of St. Patrick's Day!

15 March 2018

Rose Pink got an email address and a laptop for her birthday, and she's been venturing into the online world.  At the moment she watches a lot of hacks videos on YouTube, and she's been trying them out in real life.  Some have worked out but some have been disappointments to her.  I'm glad to watch her grow up in a new way, to learn to negotiate what's true and what's exaggerated and who/what she can trust online.  Slightly scary for me as a parent, but an important step forward.


Mr. Brown has been very firm about how he feels about heels (it's not good).  As part of exploring feminine adulthood, Rose Pink has been very interested in grown-up clothes, and she came out dressed for church the other day in a black sweater, a leopard print miniskirt and high heeled boots.  She looked great!  The boots had four-inch heels, so she was basically as tall as I was.  She looked like she was very excited about how mature she felt. 


Off we went to church.  We get settled in the pew and I look over and find that she's taken off her boots, so I lean over and say, "Put your shoes back on!  If you take your shoes off then your brothers will have theirs off too!"  She slid them back on.  After church, we came home and she took them off and said, "I'm never wearing heels again!  They make my feet hurt SO much!"  I think she threw the boots away.  Mission accomplished.  Sometimes you learn by doing!

14 March 2018

The other day Rosebud pulled herself up on top of the Igloo water cooler on her tummy, stretched her arms out, and proclaimed, "I'm a flying baby!"

13 March 2018

Reading the Book of Mormon with Nut Brown and we come across the phrase, 'one eternal round'.  I say, "One eternal round- because there's no end to a circle, it just goes around and around and around, just like the Lord."  Nut Brown says, "A triangle doesn't have any end either - you can go around and around it.  Or a square.  Or a trapezoid.  I can see why they don't say one eternal trapezoid... that sounds like a spaceship."

12 March 2018

Bobo came in the other morning with a slightly runny nose.  He made a snorting noise as he sucked his snot back up into his proboscis, and then said, "Mama, sometimes my nose makes a caterpillar noise."


He's so sweet in the mornings.  He and Rosebud both generally wake up cheerful and are a lot of fun to be with in the mornings. He's gotten a lot better at playing with her, too - they've both gotten older, and I often see them playing games together.  Lately one of their favorites is climbing into the fire pit when the fire's out and using the burned wood to write on the cinder blocks.  They get very black in the process.  I came home from work and found them at it, and Rosebud had a roasting stick and she came over and offered me a 'marse-mawoow'. (marshmallow)  Super fun to see them learning to enjoy each other.

8 March 2018

Buenos dias, como estas?  Our new passion is working on our Spanish using Duolingo!  Mr. Brown, Rose Pink and I are all investing in daily practice and Mr. Brown, who had years of Spanish in high school, is helping the rest of us practice with each other as well.  It's really fun to work on a language together!

7 March 2018

Rosebud, last night, was sitting on my lap for scriptures.  She likes to have a turn where she repeats part of the words after me.  Last night she was waiting for her turn and suddenly said, "Behold the reign of the judges!" So of course we went through the whole routine for her: "That must have been a heavy rain!  Nah, judges are mostly full of hot air.  Now a rain of frogs, that would be something! Either way, I'd want an umbrella!"  It was so cute to see her pull up a phrase that meant something to our family during scripture time.

5 March 2018

The other night, putting Bobo in bed, he says to me, "Mama, I can see in the dark!  As long as the light's on a little bit, I can see in the dark!  It's my superpower."

21 February 2018

This was a long weekend because of the Presidents' Day holiday.  Saturday morning, Mr. Brown and Nut Brown went to a wetlands festival together, and Nut Brown came back talking about how he got to hold a live snake.  He enjoyed the one on one time with Mr. Brown a lot.  Rose Pink was invited to the temple with some friends, and ended up spending the whole day with them because there was a youth fireside that evening for a visiting Apostle as well. 


In the morning, I worked on moving a mountain of mulch and forwarding our plan to mulch most of the backyard.  We have made a surprisingly good start of it!  Bobo and Rosebud helped me by riding in the wheelbarrow and raking the mulch out while I shoveled the next load.  Bobo is quite a good worker when he settles into it. 


After lunch, Nut Brown did his chores while I moved some more mulch and then we went to the big library downtown.  I love this library for its hugeness!  Nut Brown was not as impressed as he expected to be.  I guess I talked it up a little too much.  It is fun to begin to explore a little more in Orlando though.  And I always love a library!  We accidentally stole some pencils that the kids were drawing with, but Nut Brown decided that we did need to take them back, so he returned them.  When we were checking out, the library employee was super friendly, and asked the kids to draw pictures for her.  I love it when people are friendly to my kids.


On Sunday, I was laying down on the couch with Mr. Brown (he was pretty low all weekend) and the kids came out and decided to pamper us by bringing us lemonade and then playing Labyrinth with me.  We had a fun time together.  Unexpected kindness is touching. 


Mr. Brown and Nut Brown went out for a Cub Scout hike on Monday morning.  While they were gone, the rest of us worked on getting the annual garden in and planted, thus increasing the number of things I have to water every day.  One of the benefits of having a well is that I can water without regard to cost!  My pecan trees have little leaves on them, which I find super exciting.  A friend also gave me some rosemary and chive seeds, so we planted those.  Down here rosemary is a perennial and Mr. Brown has dreams of a rosemary hedge.


After lunch on Monday, we went to the beach (except Mr. Brown).  We scoped out a new beach called Playalinda Beach, and it was super nice.  It's a good rocket launch vantage point, which is why it was chosen for this visit.  One of Rose Pink's friends from church came with us too.  We splashed in the waves, played in the sand, ran up and down the beach, ate snacks, absorbed the sunshine, and had a great time.  We had to leave before we were ready, and then the evening was a little hectic because everyone needed showers when we got home.  Still learning how to plan a trip to the beach!  It was lovely to go.  I am so glad that the beach will get to be part of my children's memories.  It was always important to me too.

18 February 2018

I finally have a new bike!  Mine was stolen off the front porch on New Year's Eve (boo) and I have been riding Rose Pink's bike to work for awhile now.  REI had a garage sale where they were clearing out old inventory, and I bought a brand new Cannondale for half price.  It was still expensive, but it's a really nice bike, and I love riding it!


Also in Adrian's news, we have found a tree company who will dump free mulch in our yard.  They operate a yard just a couple blocks from us and came by and dumped the first load last Saturday.  I'm so excited about this!  Mr. Brown and I spent Friday moving it around the yard, and it's made such a big difference already.  It really feels like one of the roadblocks for moving out with our plans for the yard has come unstuck, and it was just at the right time too. 


The pecan trees that I ordered came in last month, and I planted them and have been watering them faithfully.  They are so small, the kids call them "Mama's twigs".  I'm super excited to be moving out on that as well... next up, sweet potatoes!  The mulch will help with those too.  It's going to be kind of the foundation of a food forest for us, beginning the enrichment of our sandy soil.  Mr. Brown is also pleased because the more mulch he spreads, the less he has to mow. :)

16 February 2018

This past weekend our friends Holly & Michael from Iowa came to visit!  They were celebrating their tenth wedding anniversary with a trip to Harry Potter World and came over to see us as well!  We went to a British shoppe (very small), Lake Eola park downtown (Mr. Brown & I were unimpressed, but Nut Brown badly wanted to ride the swanboats) and then out to dinner at a place that they chose called 'Mrs. Potato'.  It served us hashbrowns wrapped around a filling and fried... delicious!  We played Stipulations while we waited, and it was pretty fun.  This game is right up their alley.  Rose Pink said, "I've just gotten my dream job to fly as an astronaut to Pluto..." and Holly said, "...but you have to ride with Barney the dinosaur!"


On Sunday afternoon we went out to the Orlando Wetlands so they could see alligators, which we did.  We saw one walk across the path in front of us about forty yards away, and on the way back, there was one with its snout sitting right on the path.  He looked like he was waiting for us to pass.  We were a little nervous about being quite so close, but Rosebud was in the stroller so I took Bobo firmly by the hand and we walked past on the other side of the path without incident.  Totally cool!  We love the Wetlands.


We also played Apples to Apples, to the children's great delight, and then Spencer and I played a Sherlock Holmes game with them later.  They are such good friends!  It was really fun to see them.

15 February 2018

Mr. Brown has set up an evening chore chart so the older kids rotate between helping him cook, setting/clearing the table, and washing the dishes with me.  Last night was Bobo's night to help me, and he cleared the drain rack by turning the dishes into ninjas and demonstrating all their special moves to me.  Bet you didn't know that leftover dishes could work together to defeat forks!

14 February 2018

Last night Mr. Brown and I went to play volleyball at the church, and when we got home, we found that the kids had put hearts all over our dresser.  Happy Valentine's Day!