27 April 2013

Bobo is one!

Here are all the reasons that he is the best baby ever:

1. Not  colicky (once we figured out that he was allergic to milk)

2. Chronically constipated, which means no blowout diapers!

3. No earaches.  Not a single one.  Spring babies are the way to go.

4. No rolling over.  We finally taught him to roll over when he was about ten months old.  It meant that he stayed where you left him, and also that he never tried to run away while you were changing his diaper, because he didn't know how to roll over! 

5. He didn't really start putting things in his mouth until recently.  He'd pick them up and look at them and then put them back down.

Thanks to Grandma & Grandpa for the jeans! 
They are awesome knee protectors when crawling around outside!!

 

 

6. He's OUR baby.

 

Bobo has been such a sweet little guy to have around.  He loves to talk and walk and play chase.  He also loves to read books of any sort with you.  Whenever Mr. Brown is cooking, he goes into the kitchen and fusses until Mr. Brown picks him up and tells him what he's making.  Bobo is fascinated with the food in the pans - it's so fun.  He has two words: cracker and 'hot!'  And he finally got his first haircut a couple weeks ago - it was just a trim over the ears.  He has the least hair of any of our babies so far.  He loves loves loves to go outside, and whenever he sees anyone getting on their coat or shoes he immediately scoots over to pester them so that they'll take him outside.  He eats graham crackers and raisins and bananas and potatoes and pasta and anything else we'll let him have.  Also bacon in very little pieces.  For his birthday cake, he got brownies, because we wanted to make him something without milk in it.  (Sleeping- he's not so good at it, so we're still avoiding milk)

 

We love you so much, Bobo!

25 April 2013

 It's 'Take Your Kids To Work Day'!

 

 

 There were a bunch of activities going on at the Arsenal, including vehicles available for climbing on.

 

 

In the morning, my office sponsored an activity where the kids were split into teams and had to run an acquisition program that built/procured a lego vehicle.  I thought the activity was pretty cool, but I think it was a little over the heads of my kids.  Nut Brown didn't understand why he couldn't just play with the legos but had to 'buy' pieces with money, and why no one would let him spend all the money he had buying pieces.

 

 

Mr. Brown took the kids out for lunch while I went to a retirement luncheon for a friend, and then in the afternoon I showed them off to my colleagues at work.  General consensus: I have awesome kids.  I couldn't agree more. 

They hung out at my desk all afternoon and played with my office supplies.  Lots of drawing and cutting and stapling.  Also telling stories with some random stuff I had laying around.  My calculator became the remote for a weapon.

 

Rose Pink called Mr. Brown from my phone.

 

 

Initially when I invited them, they didn't want to come ('you have a boring job, mom - you sit at a computer all day').  But when it was time to go home, they kept asking for five more minutes.  Rose Pink is excited to come back next year.  I'm glad they had a good time.  It was really fun to have them with me!

16 April 2013

Bobo has his first word: cracker.  Mr. Brown started giving him graham crackers and now he will ask for them and repeat after you when you say, want a cracker? he says, kakaeh, kakaeh.

Feeding him his jarred baby food the other day (we just discovered that he also will eat raisins!) I fed him sweet potatoes and found that the next jar in line was squash.  Nut Brown wrinkled his nose and said, 'Baby, you've been veg-tacked!'

Bobo LOVES to help you cook.  He always wants to know what's in the pots on the stove, and what's going on in the mixer.  He tries to grab the hot pots, and we make the sign for 'hot' and say, no, baby, it's HOT! hot! and he waves his hand like ours and says, 'hah' and looks very pleased with himself.

15 April 2013

I wish I had a photo for this post.  Bobo has started taking toddling walking steps- just a few.  I told Mr. Brown that I didn't want to encourage him because I like having a crawly baby underfoot, but I forgot how much fun it is to help your baby learn to walk and how excited they get, so Bobo has been getting more practice than he actually wants.  He still regards himself as a crawler, although he also cruises much more than he used to along the walls and furniture, and will take a single step to help bridge a gap.  At this point he's also pretty much mastered stairs, even to the point of knowing he has to turn around to go down them.

One of my favorite things about Bobo is how he pedals his legs like mad when he's excited.  When I come home and he scoots across the floor to me and asks to be picked up, when I pick him up his little legs are just going and going and going.  I say, "Go little feets go!" because it makes me laugh.  When he's excited about something, it's a whole-body explosion.  He loves it when anyone will play peek-a-boo with him around corners or around my shoulders when I hold him.  He is SO much fun.

It was warm and sunny today and Mr. Brown let him go outside and crawl around and play, and Bobo thought he'd died and gone to heaven.  Although crawling is sure hard on your clothes when you're outside, so hopefully he'll get better at walking and save us a few bucks.

He's still waking up in the middle of the night, usually about 5 am, and he has a bottle and then snuggles into my elbow and goes immediately back to sleep.  I have to admit, as long as it's 5 am, I don't mind the middle of the night cuddles too too much.  Sometimes he wakes up at 1 am or 2 am, and those make me a lot grumpier.  We've tried a couple things to get him to sleep all twelve hours, but without much success, so we're just waiting it out.  At 5 am, it's like having most of a night's sleep and then immediately taking a 2 hr nap without getting dressed in between.

Last night Rose Pink was sitting on my lap, playing with my hands and started making them into a completed electrical circuit that she used to "fix the flickering lamps".  My wedding ring was the on/off switch for the circuit. 

I teach the 8 year olds Sunday School class at church (two boys and two girls).  It's an interesting class because three of the four kids are homeschooled.  Yesterday we had some extra time at the end of class so I let the the boys make the magic markers into swords and they started a sword fight.  Rose Pink watched them for a minute and then inserted herself into it by directing one of them to be the attacker and the other the defender of the princess (herself).  She tried to get the other girl (the public school student) to participate as well but the other girl said somewhat disdainfully, I'm not a princess, and declined to play.  Rose Pink looked at her for a moment as if thinking, then what's the purpose of life?  I'm so glad imagination lives at our house.  Fortunately, the other girl's opinion didn't stop her from playing.

7 April 2013

Rambo likes to dance.  He's been a ready and willing participant in our family dance parties from a very early age, and whenever he hears things that trigger his sense of rhythm, he bounces up and down and grins.  It's so cute to watch him bob around enjoying the music.  Favorite dance songs: Dynamite by Taio Cruz, Gangnam Style Chipmunks, Gold Digger by the cast of Glee.  Bounce bounce bounce.  We turn it up loud and dance on our lovely wood living room floor.

6 April 2013

Nut Brown was balancing on the exercise ball the other night.  Mr. Brown said, wow, Nut Brown, that's amazing! Good job balancing! and Nut Brown said, and I can do it while wiggling my ears!

He came into the kitchen the other day holding a rolling pin and the ice cream scoop and said to Mr. Brown, I know how both of these work! Then he explained to Mr. Brown how they go together and how they work.  It does sound like we have a budding engineer.  His favorite toy at the moment is the snap circuit board Uncle BJ sent for Christmas.

5 April 2013

So yesterday the Child Protective Services lady came by our house to do a 'home visit' and she interviewed all of us separately and at the end told us that she didn't see any reason to open a case file on us.  Phew.

Nut Brown and Rose Pink helped us make the point, however inadvertently.  When she asked Nut Brown how he was punished when he was bad, he said, 'I'm never bad.'  Never? she asked, surprised.  'No,' said Nut Brown.  'Sometimes I need to be corrected, but I'm never bad.'  Kudos to Mr. Brown, who's constantly told the kids that a bad decision does not make them a bad person.

When the doorbell rang, Mr. Brown left his farina (hot cereal) cooking on the stove because he was expecting it to be the neighbor girl at the door.  He got into a discussion with the case worker on the doorstep, and when he finally agreed that she could come in, he thought for sure the farina would have burned in his absence.  But Rose Pink had stirred it, finished cooking it, and turned off the stove, so it was done and edible instead.  Mr. Brown pointed this out to the case worker as an illustration of why we trust our eight-year-old to walk around the block with the baby.

We are so relieved that it sounds like all this is over and through.  Hopefully.

2 April 2013

Rose Pink is fascinated with orange huskies at the moment.  Here is a self-portrait with husky.  Her own personal husky is named Goldy and has copper fur just like Rose Pink's hair.  You can tell that this is Rose Pink by the teeth (still missing her two upper front teeth!).

 

She's been making lots of drawings of huskies to decorate her bed (top bunk) because we are about to move the kids back into the echo chamber with the baby.  She hung all her drawings up so I couldn't get any to show you.  The huskies that she drew are all wearing collars that say 'SARCH', which stands for 'Search and Rescue Crime Huskies'.

 

To celebrate moving back into her bed, she's throwing a party (note the husky at the top of the invite):

We had a tea party in the kitchen, and then we went into the echo chamber and welcomed both Rose Pink and Nut Brown back to their beds.

30 March 2013

This morning we rode bike/scooter/stroller to an Easter egg 'hunt' in a park in our neighborhood, and Rose Pink helped Nut Brown practice 'right and 'left'... as in, 'passing on the right! No, Nut Brown, the RIGHT! THE RIGHT!'

There were lots of eggs. Plus a playground. It was lots of fun, and a beautiful day, and our friends the Truscotts, and we all enjoyed it!!!

29 March 2013

This morning Mr. Brown called me at work and said, the kids all decided to walk around the block and they left me at home!  It's a beautiful day outside, and Rose Pink decided soon after getting up that she was going outside.  Bobo pretty much refuses to be left inside any more whenever anyone goes outside, so Mr. Brown put him in the stroller for Rose Pink, and discovered that Nut Brown, who had not been anywhere near dressed five minutes before now had on shirt and pants and was going along with Rose Pink and the baby.  Mr. Brown sent them off and came inside and called me.  It was such a funny way to start the day, and so exciting to see the kids excited about being outside as it is finally starting to warm up and feel like spring.

Mr. Brown called me back half an hour later with the news that the police brought our kids home, in the back of a squad car.  Apparently someone called in because a) unsupervised children b) a baby in the charge of an eight-year-old and c) a boy without socks or a coat on in cold weather.  The policemen were rude and the kids were terrified.  Mr. Brown was furious.  He called the police station to complain.  He and I are both upset and concerned because the police are filing a report with HHS about our kids, and we're frustrated that because we trust our kids to walk around the block, that makes us suspect in someone's eyes.

We have less actual crime in this country than ever before (and our town is a very safe place!) but more paranoia about bad things happening.  It's frustrating to us that we choose not to buy into the paranoia and try to help our kids have the freedom of the neighborhood, but are slapped down and frightened into participating in helicopter parenting.  It's not as if they don't know their way around the block.  We've walked it together a hundred times together this winter.  It's not as if they haven't walked around the block by themselves before.  They've successfully navigated its four sides dozens of time without Mr. Brown or me.  And Rose Pink has also given great pleasure in the past to her baby brother by taking him out for a walk when Mom and Dad were too busy.  We live in a quiet neighborhood, and they weren't crossing any streets.  Also, anyone who thinks that Nut Brown should have been wearing a coat will find his parents in complete agreement.  But some fights with five-year-olds are not worth having.

So irritating.  Hopefully nothing else will come of it.

27 March 2013

Tonight it was warm outside - um, like, forty-five degrees - so the kids and I went around the block with Bobo in the wagon and Nut Brown on roller blades.  Then Nut Brown got his scooter out and scooted up and down the driveway while I worked on my bike (another flat tire) and Rose Pink made snow cones out of our last remaining snow that's hiding in the shadow behind the porch.  Then we went around a different block to sell Rose Pink's snow cones.  Nut Brown announced us with his bicycle bell on the scooter and I sang ice cream truck songs and Rose Pink acted as the carney barker.  We didn't have any takers, but we did have a nice walk.  Then we came back and Rose Pink said, a sunset! (it's 7:30) so she and Nut Brown took turns 'riding off into the sunset' by going down the driveway and coming back.  All this time Bobo sat patiently in the wagon.  He'd rather be out than in the house, even if all he gets to do is sit.  Can't wait for it to really warm up.

watching tv together on Saturday morning

my baby doesn't suck his thumb, but he sucks on his left index finger.

25 March 2013

 

 

Gimme that camera.

23 March 2013

It's that time of year...

(except it's only forty degrees outside)

the time of year when fathers run alongside bikes and encourage and cajole

actually Nut Brown got on the bike and just pedaled off.  Now we are practicing stopping by not crashing.  It was really remarkable how well he took to it.  He is fast.

Also Bobo is extremely pleased to be allowed on the ground outside.  Go Bobo!  Walking is so awesome!  (He's not quite walking, but loves his push toy.)

17 March 2013

 Happy St. Patrick's Day indeed.  We got two inches of snow.  Not that it's really a surprise because it's still winter here, but when you think about the actual date (middle of MARCH) one feels like maybe it should be a little warmer than it is.  Rose Pink only bothered to go out to play in it in the evening, which should tell you something.

Here she is finishing up A Wrinkle In Time.  Right now she's reading Superfudge.

We hosted a St. Patrick's Day party today for my Primary class (six eight-year-olds) and it was fun.  I planned exactly two activities for the two hour party and the kids had a fabulous time 1) making cookies; 2) frosting cookies and 3) making a lot of noise in the playroom upstairs and in the basement.  I asked if it was a fun party and they shouted, Yes! 

15 March 2013

Who could resist that smile?  I love how it turns his eyes into upside down smilies too.

 

 

He's crawling more than scooting now and I love to watch him go left-right-left-right across the floor.  He gets so excited to go outside.  And we moved the couch so that now he can pull himself out to look out the front window, and boy does he enjoy that!  He also LOOOOOOVES the tassel on Rose Pink's winter hat.  Whenever she puts it on, he demands that she come over so he can kiss it and chew on it.  He gets into cabinets and one of my favorite sights is watching Mr. Brown make dinner while Bobo gets into the pot cupboard under his feet.

13 March 2013

On Monday I stayed home from work and we had a lovely day.  With daylight savings on Sunday, the kids 'slept in' and the baby got up and played in our room with us until the others got up.  He is so cute and funny.  What's not to love about a cuddly baby?  (It helps that he slept through the night before.)  We had breakfast and did homework and the baby had a nap, and then we went shopping and didn't go over our budget, and then the baby had another nap, and then we had hot dogs for dinner (highly anticipated) and then I fixed the tire on Nut Brown's bike and he started learning to ride without training wheels and then we went to the thrift store and found what we were looking for and then we came home and had root beer floats (those of us under 30 anyway) and then everybody went to bed.

Mr. Brown and I had a horrible weekend for sleeping (Bobo was up all night on Friday with gas because his parents weren't paying attention and gave him dairy! and then decided to be up on Saturday night as well just because) and were feeling so distant.  It was lovely to take a day to reconnect with each other and with the kids.  We seriously have the best kids around in our family.  Everyone else's are nice but not as nice as ours.

The weather on Sunday was so WARM.  I hear birds in the morning now!  It may very well eventually be spring again!

The Batbaby

12 March 2013

What was waiting for me when I came home:

 

 

Love my little man.

11 March 2013

Here are my dear children going outside to play when it's melty and icy outside.  WE ARE SO READY FOR SPRING.

10 March 2013

Because make-up is still meant to be used creatively... I mean, really creatively.  I'm so glad that she's still a little girl.

8 March 2013

Nut Brown's favorite place to draw is on the floor.

 

 

This morning he came into our room at about 6:45 and crawled in bed to cuddle with us.  He read off the numbers on the alarm clock as they changed - 'six five two, Mom!' and continued to read them after the alarm went off  'seven zero zero, Mom!' and I got in the shower.  So I know that I was washing my hair at 'seven zero seven' this morning and that Bobo got up at 'seven zero nine', which is when the clock watching stopped.