24 January 2014

Some photos from last fall, on one of the days when we were actually raking leaves in daylight.  We seemed to do a lot of yard work last summer after sunset - mowing and raking, I mean.  The interesting stuff (like planting and weeding) I did during the day.

 

22 January 2014

Rose Pink's birthday party was last Saturday.  The theme was snowflakes so we had a snowball fight with a friend's stuffed snowballs, played freeze tag and pin the hat on the snowman.  She had a round cake on which she carefully outlined a snowflake. We made a pinata this year instead of buying one and it turned out to be made of steel and really took some beating before it gave up its prizes.  Lesson learned: duct tape and cardboard are less fragile than they appear.  Mr. Brown and I had a good time decorating it the night before.

One of her friends gave her a 'make your own clip on earrings' project that required using nail polish to color some beads, and while she had the nail polish out she decided to paint her nails.  She opted for 'safari nails' and painted one hand with tiger stripes and one hand with leopard spots.  She had a bandaid on the top part of one of her index fingers, but that didn't stop her - she just painted on top of the bandaid.

Monday was MLK Day, so I got to stay home from work.  Yaaaaaay for federal holidays.  We did the shopping and when we got home I opened the back of the car and the eggs fell out.  Smash!  The kids checked them over carefully and discovered that 17 out of 18 were broken, so we had omelets for lunch and then baked that afternoon!  Brownies (4 eggs), pecan pie (3 eggs) and pumpkin pie (2 eggs).  What we proved was that Browns can consume large quantities of eggs at the drop of a hat.  Rose Pink was so interested in the experience that she wrote a short play about it and asked me to have a line in it.

20 January 2014

 Mr. Brown suggested that Rose Pink try drawing something other than a face from the front.  So she drew the back of his head.  I recognized it immediately.

Note the zombie-like appearance of super-mom.  It's because she's not getting enough sleep.

16 January 2014

 Happy birthday, Rose Pink!

Nine years old!

 Candles on a plate and ice cream on her birthday night, because the cake will happen at her party this weekend.

Jealously guarding his dish.

He looks so much like his papa sometimes.

13 January 2014

Superhero enthusiasm lives on at the Brown house. 

 

Thor, by Rose Pink 

 

Hulk and Thor with fake writing, by Nut Brown 

11 January 2014

The other night when we were reading scriptures, Bobo came into the living room, made his dog woof sound, and then got down on his hands and knees and crawled over and licked our knees.  He was pretending to be a puppy.  Scripture reading was completely disrupted while his siblings scrambled to join the game.  It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen with the three of them crawling around on the carpet making puppy noises and giving us 'kisses' and asking to be scratched on the head.

10 January 2014

We are at the end of "the coldest temperatures in twenty years" this week.  Sunday it snowed all day and we shoveled the driveway three times.  Monday and Tuesday it was so cold that my work was closed and I was put on leave.  It was a lot of fun to be home but Monday we slowly went crazy from being inside all day.  The plows finally came down our street Monday night, so Tuesday we finished shoveling the driveway (again) and went shopping in the afternoon.  We'd run out of bread and eggs and had been eating pb&j tortillas.  The roads were still pretty bad because it was too cold for salt to help melt the snow.  Tuesday night Mr. Brown took Nut Brown to his gymnastics lesson, and Rose Pink and Bobo and I went to a kids' program at the library.  The librarian said to me, "I'm surprised to see so many people here with the weather this cold." I told her that we were all going nuts from being inside for two days straight.  When we came out of the library afterwards, Rose Pink and Bobo ran around playing in the snow (in spite of -30F wind chill) until I couldn't stand it any more and made them get in the car.

We have huge piles of snow at the end of our driveway from all the shoveling, and Michigan is so flat that the kids are using them as 'sledding hills'.

10 January 2014

The kids got a little crazy singing Aching John one morning, and Mr. Brown suggested they draw out what they had been singing.  Here is Aching John with arms made out of spaghetti and a head made out of a meatball.  (By Rose Pink)  They hung their drawings up on the wall in my bedroom and they were there for awhile before I took them down to immortalize.  I'm not sure what happened to Nut Brown's drawing.

Rose Pink hangs lots of things on the bedroom wall.  For Mother's Day there was a big blue sign she'd made with markers on newsprint and signed her name in cursive.  She also hung a sign right opposite the head of the bed under the clock that says, "Wake up Wake up Everyone We're going to have so much fun."

8 January 2014

Rose Pink read the side of the food processor box when we were making applesauce in December, and pointed that in addition to processing a variety of foods, it also apparently processes warranties (unfortunate grammar on the part of the marketers). After she learned what a warranty was, she decided that I needed one:

Just in case you all were thinking we believed in eternal families or some such nonsense. :)

7 January 2014

Some photos from the play the kids were in last week:

Rose Pink in pink, presenting 'amazed'

Nut Brown as a 'boy fairy'

the entire cast

I called for an encore, so they did this thing where the girls sang a little ditty and the boys danced while they were singing, and lay down when they weren't.  Bobo watched with twitching feet and they finally invited him to join, which he did with great excitement.

How do you entertain a toddler while waiting for the entertainment to start?  Take lots of pictures and let him look at himself.

Isn't he so cute?

5 January 2014

The Saturday after Christmas, I finally bought a new bike for Rose Pink.  She and Nut Brown have both outgrown theirs, and she needed a new one so she could pass hers down.  They were both complaining about their knees hurting when we rode downtown.  I called a couple ads from craigslist and one of them worked out. 

(On our way up there to check it out, she decided that we were pilots who got lost after completing our bombing mission. There were lots of radio calls to make and buttons to press and a homing signal to find.)

This bike has gears and handbrakes, so it's a big change for her.  She was all excited to get a new bike until she actually had to get on the bike to try it out.  At that point she insisted that she didn't need a new bike!  After some fussing she did get on and ride it a short ways, and then we paid for it.  The handbrakes will take some getting used to, and it's much bigger than her last bike, but I think it will work out just fine.  It's big enough that I think she'll be able to use this bike for several years before she'll need a full adult-size bike. 

It was a great day to buy a bike, because the weather was pretty warm so she could ride it again when we got home.  Nut Brown was very excited to try out his new bike (her old one) as well.  When we got home, we tried to ride around the block all together.  Not everyone had been diligent about shoveling, though, so there were icy patches in spite of the nice weather.  Nut Brown figured out how to start on his much larger bike on his own, and we eventually all made it home.  I'm excited for next summer and the places we'll get to go.

2 January 2014

One of the great things about children growing up is the joy of watching them learn compassion.  Rose Pink has really grown in this way in the past year.  She discovered that we also reward compassionate behavior, so in addition to the good feelings she gets from being kind, she often gets rewards from her parents.

She gave me an apron, randomly, that she picked out during grocery shopping and insisted Mr. Brown purchase.  I left her a thank you note and she wrote back to let me know that she'd made a sacrifice for Bobo and was expecting remuneration from me.

She has such a soft spot for Bobo in particular, and routinely gives him whatever he demands from her: food, treats, candy, lap time or play time.  Nut Brown is still sleeping upstairs in the Watchtower with her, and they are still reading the Oz books out loud at night. (She reads, he listens.)  He loves it, and it's so sweet to me to see her being so kind.

1 January 2014

Rose Pink and I had kind of a traumatic time at church on Sunday.  With the new year, the Primary president shifted me to teaching a different class, so she had a different teacher on Sunday who removed some of the things hanging up in the classroom and the difference was sad for her.  The lady who leads the monthly activities for girls her age was also replaced that Sunday, and she was sad about that too.  For me, it was tough not to be sitting with my regular class of kids in church, whom I love, but rather thinking about trying to get started with a new group of kids.  It's especially sticky because I know that they're not going to remember me like I'm going to remember them.  I'm really going to miss them next year.  But a bright spot is that the class they've reassigned me to is Nut Brown's, so I'll be teaching him and his buddies next year!

31 December 2013

Some Christmas photos:

 Rose Pink's winter jamas this year.  She loves the feet.

New monsters that have come to live with us.  We all love them very much.

Bobo with the slide whistle from Aunt Amri.  She sent musical instruments ostensibly for him but he doesn't actually get much time with them.

Uncle Chris sent us a paint-your-own train.  Rose Pink came up with the idea of a god train, so we each got to paint our cars for a greek god- our choice which one.  In order in the photo, left to right: Artemis, Hera, Persephone, Poseidon and Hades (painted by Rose Pink, me, Mr. Brown, Rose Pink and Nut Brown).

30 December 2013

This year for Christmas we decided not to give our kids any presents.  It worked out pretty well.  It was a huge load off me, and we still had a great time on Christmas morning opening the gifts from our loving family and friends.  Mr. Brown and I had prepared several family activities for Christmas Day to take up the time usually spent opening presents, but we didn't end up using them.  We played the new games and played with the baby's new musical instruments and painted the wooden train from Uncle Chris.  Also ate a lot of ham.  I love ham.  There was a lot of hanging out around the house and being together.  It was such a nice change to be bored for awhile rather than rushing around to activity after activity.

This is an old photo from first snowfall this year.  See the unhappy baby.  After a couple unlucky adventures outside, he learned to keep his mittens on, and now he has more fun for longer.  Christmas week we got a lot of snow, and the kids and I had a great time outside.  The weekend before it snowed all day on Saturday and part of the day on Sunday.  We shoveled three times before it stopped snowing.  On Saturday Rose Pink and the baby and I walked up to the corner store to buy sour cream (Bobo rode in the sled) and it was a snowy adventure.  I enjoyed it.  I love having the corner store available for emergencies when I don't want to drive, even if we pay dearly for the privilege.

Bobo still loves to cook and loves to be involved in whatever is being made in the kitchen.  Especially he loves it when the KitchenAid comes out because he knows it's going to be sweet and delicious.  He has started using more words (we started talking to him more).  A big one is 'Mama' which he uses for both me and Mr. Brown.  It's a lot harder to leave him in bed crying when I can hear him calling 'MaMA! MaMA!'

He loves music and dancing, and often wanders over to the computer and makes howling noises, which is a request for us to turn on 'What Does The Fox Say?'  He will then boogie down in the living room and try and get everyone else to dance with him.  He has discovered that it's fun to dance when you're taller, and gets up on the piano bench to dance, in the toddler version of dancing on the bar.

He doesn't like baths very much.  He doesn't fight me about them but he rarely wants to stay in very long.  Which is nice, actually.  I borrowed a cue from my friend Heather and trained him to get his hair washed by pouring water over his head.  He fussed the first couple times but now he's resigned and we just get it over with.  Much easier than trying to lay down in the tub and rinse.

There have been a lot of video games over Mr. Brown's Christmas break from school (he finished his first semester with a 4.0 GPA).  We've been playing Deus Ex, Castle Crashers, Starbound and Terraria.  Nut Brown has really been enjoying it.  He also just finished up his latest gymnastics class and got promoted.  Promotion meant being invited to join the 'pre-team' which involves two days a week of two-hour trainings, and we can't support that with our current number of children.  We're trying to get in touch with the coach to see if we can do one day a week instead of two.

Rose Pink was invited to be in a play her friend Cora is putting on for her visiting grandparents.  We've been over to their house twice for rehearsals.  (The play is three pages long.)  Performance is tonight!  Nut Brown is going to be in it as well.

19 December 2013

Bobo put a box of jello in the microwave the other night and Rose Pink quipped, Maybe he thinks it's cook'n'serve.  She is so funny.

We had first massive snowfall this past weekend.  We shoveled twice on Saturday and twice on Sunday.  Rose Pink was in heaven.  She played outside with a bunch of neighbor kids in various arrangements a lot.  Nut Brown went out to help us shovel but didn't really get into snow play.  The baby was so excited to go out - I even have snow pants for him - but he wouldn't keep his mittens on and just cried and cried when his fingers got so cold.  I decided he's not allowed outside in the snow for the rest of the winter.  He won't keep his mittens on but then he's always unpleasantly surprised when he touches the snow and gets upset. 

On Saturday we needed sour cream, so Rose Pink and I put Bobo on a sled and trekked the two blocks to our neighborhood store to buy some.  The roads were horrible, but the walk was not bad.  It snowed all day on Saturday and most of the day on Sunday.  Then we got extra snow - another inch - on Monday night.  We are pretty tired of shoveling.

I'm reading a Nancy Drew book to the kids at night.  Rose Pink is also reading an Oz book to Nut Brown upstairs when they go to bed at night.  Bobo is re-learning to go to sleep in his own bed after a spell of sickness where he slept on us a lot, so Nut Brown is upstairs with Rose Pink and enjoying it.

16 December 2013

This is our baby, eating jam out of the jar with a butter knife.  He badly wants to be taller than he is, but I think he's just about right.  I told him the other day that if he wanted to stay 18 months old for awhile, I was okay with it.  Here are some silly things he's been doing lately:

*when we have a dance party, he climbs up on the piano bench to dance.

*he will hold up his index finger and tell you very seriously, 'wuh'.  Not sure if he means 'one' or 'wait'.

*he's learned how to call for a parent: he says 'ma MA! ma MA!' and expects to see either Mom or Dad in response.  He was sick last week and when he was better he had to relearn going to sleep when we put him in bed, and letting him cry it out was much more traumatic when he was calling 'ma MA! ma MA!' for twenty minutes.

*he goes to nursery and stays the whole time with no tears or fussing.

*he climbs all the way up to the top bunk all by himself.  Fortunately he calls for one of us 'ma MA!' to show us how clever he is once he's up there.  He does NOT know how to climb down. 

*he still loves to cook.  He loves to bake and especially loves licking the beaters.  He likes it when we turn on the oven light so he can see what's in there.  Whenever the timer goes off, there is a thunder of little feet headed for the kitchen to see what new exciting comestible has finished cooking.

*we're getting a little more speech-like noise from him.  He came to me the other day and said, 'sh' because he wanted his shoes on.  He can say 'pop' for the Corn Pops cereal that he likes.  Sometimes he says 'up' but sometimes he doesn't. 

14 December 2014

Our first real snowfall today.  Rose Pink was so excited and luckily had the opportunity to play outside with two different sets of neighbor kids since the rest of us were less enthusiastic than she was.  Mr. Brown and Nut Brown are outside shoveling for the second time today right now, and Nut Brown is dual wielding two snow shovels - always a Ranger. 

4 December 2013

Bobo was up all night last night with a cold, couldn't sleep unless he was snuggled up with me or Mr. Brown, so when he finally went to sleep in his bed at 4:15 am, we decided to sleep as long as we could and were still asleep when Nut Brown woke up.  He used his unsupervised time to 'do nice things' for all of us: he set up a bowl of cereal for Rose Pink with her name attached, filled up Mr. Brown's water bottle for him, and made a sign for a treasured possession of mine that reads 'No playing while the Bobo's awake Mom' - which agrees with the instructions that I gave them for this toy set.  The fascinating bit for me was that he wrote it 'in code' - backwards.  He was very pleased with himself for all his efforts, and it was sweet to see his loving heart.

1 December 2013

Bobo has been learning to go to nursery at church.  I finally found a sub for my Sunday School class and went with him the past three weeks.  I learned that my little guy is very very uncertain in environments that are unfamiliar.  He doesn't like it - it really upsets him and locks him up - when he doesn't know what's supposed to happen.  It does explain why he's so interested in learning how the household works and where things are supposed to go, and why he's always so glad to help.