Sassy Little Thing

On Sunday, Little Miss was all excited to see her little friend at church. She literally chased him down, pinned him against the door and laid one on him. (See photographic evidence above.) He, in turn, immediately burst into tears and tried to get away. This was after she had already tackled him on the floor and smooched him. What can I say? She knows what she wants. Sassy little thing! She must get it from her grandma. ;-)

Hello out there!

So, it's been a while. In my defense, my computer is basically dead and has been dying for the past 4 months. You'd think I could get some help around here since I live with a computer guy and all, but instead I get a few minutes use on the laptop. So here is a very quick update (sans pictures since I don't even know how to get them off the camera onto this computer) and hopefully sometime soon I can start getting some semi-regular updates like before.

Little Miss - Just turned 10 months. She is living up to Avena baby standards weighing in at around 23 lbs. She is walking everywhere, climbing stairs, and pretty much just being a tornado. We call her "Destructo" regularly because if there is any way she can get to it, you can bet she will and you can bet it will be destroyed. She loves to eat all the "real" food like pasta, fruit, guacamole and steak despite the fact she only has 3 teeth, one of which you can't even count as a tooth yet because it barely made it's debut.

Little Man - Is 3 1/2 and is bored to death most of the days. He is in speech therapy twice a week and is excited to start preschool in the fall. He started writing his name from memory and saying prayers completely on his own. (And I might add that they are really good, heartfelt, prayers covering everything from being grateful for his family to saying thank you for the ceilings.)

Little J - Had a birthday in March and turned 7. We weren't able to do his party until the first weekend in April, though. This year he wanted a Super Mario themed party, which at first stumped me. But it turned out fun, with games like pin the mustache on Mario, Yoshi's egg hunt, and an obstacle course that included striking your best Mario jump pose and fighting the Goombas. They each had coin boxes and got coins when they completed a task and each took home a goody box that included fun Mario things including fake mustaches.

Big J - Is 9 1/2 and recently informed me that he had "got himself some puberty" because he was "sprouting some armpit hair." He was quite proud and I know I need to have "the talk" sooner than later. He is about to earn his Bear in Scouts, is about to have his first piano recital in a few weeks, and has kept busy with sports, reading and finding creative ways to use his pocketknife.

That's all I've got for now, as I'm about to run out the door for a meeting. Time flies when you're having fun!

7 Months

Updating the Update

Most of you will probably think this is a really boring post, unless you are my parents and possibly my sister, so I won't be offended if you skip it :-) Since I began updating in my last post on Little Miss, I thought I would give an update on the update.

Little Miss is a fully fledged crawler now. Which is a happy thing because the frustration level has gone way down. Believe me, she thinks she's all that. She also is completely proficient at bringing herself from a laying or crawling position into fully sitting up on her own. She is into everything! Today she was trying to crawl into the shower with me.

I took her for her 6 month appointment and she is pretty close size-wise to where her brothers were at this age. They all still had a little bit of weight and height on her, so I can still refer to her as my petite little girl even though she weighed in at 20 lbs. 6 oz. and 28 inches of pure cuteness!

6 Months Old

Little Miss turned 6 months old yesterday. Craa-zy! She is still a happy little girl and brings her family a lot of joy. She rolls all over the place and is very efficient at getting what she wants this way. If we turn our back for 20 seconds, she is outta here! We have found her "hiding" under the futon, our bed, and the coffee table. Little Miss is thisclose to crawling. She gets up on all fours and then does "the rock and flop" while she tries to get everything coordinated. She's very good at scooting backwards while up on her knees, she just hasn't quite gotten the forward thing down yet. She's 19 1/2 lbs. She loves to give us kisses where she totally grabs our face and lays it on us. Nice slobbery, stinky kisses. What a happy little baby!

The Rock

and Flop

Surprise!

I Feel Old.

Tonight Big J came home from a birthday party, got a drink, and then point blank asked me if Santa was the one who left presents on Christmas Eve or if it was us. It totally took me by surprise and I could tell he was already having some strong emotions about it. I asked him why he was asking and he said that a girl in his class told him it was the parents that left the presents not Santa. GRRRRRR. I asked him what he thought and he said, "I don't know what to think." It was at this point that my brain went into a coma and I stood there and just looked at him and tried not to cry. Luckily, my husband came in around that time and broke the tension long enough for me to regain some composure. I decided that if he was old enough to ask, then he was old enough to know. Even though I didn't want him to know.

So, I basically told him that Santa Claus was a tradition that was passed down to represent the spirit of Christmas and the spirit of giving, but that there was not a person named Santa Claus that came to your home and left you presents. We tried to make it seem cool like he was now "in the club" and had the grown-up responsibility to continue to keep the secret from the younger kids that didn't know yet. We told him that as long as he "believed" then Santa would still bring him presents. I think he was really disappointed, though. He cried. I cried. We hugged.

This of course led to a discussion that there was not a giant rabbit that filled your Easter basket and that there wasn't a little fairy that left you money for teeth. The more we talked about all the characters the funnier it got.

His next question? "So are you and Dad the ones who eat the cookies we leave out?" Heck yeah!

I think in the end he was ok with it, but I am really sad to have that part of his childhood be over. Waaaaaaaa!

Volcano of Vomit

Two days ago Little J threw up at school and had to come home. I asked him if he had made it to the bathroom or atleast a trash can, but he didn't. He puked right there in the classroom during center work. His description of what happened is still cracking me up.

He said he was about to tell his teacher that he felt like he was going to throw up but right then his "mouth opened really big like this" (he demonstrated by opening and even put his hands up to show how big it was) "and then it was like lava coming out. Like a waterfall. It touched every part of my mouth!" I asked if it got on anyone else and he said that 2 kids jumped up on their chairs and a little bit got on another kid's jeans. Yuck! Poor janitor that had to clean that up. I should give them a little Christmas present to say thanks.