Three little monkeys

They work!

Finally, enough time has passed for the cement to dry, so Kenzie went out (in the dark) to try out her new, aptly named, Monkey Bars.

Night terrors, courtesy of yours truly

I have started saving for the therapy sessions that will inevitably be brought on by the elevator scene at my work on Mother's Day.

At breakfast this morning Mason said he had a dream. Kenzie asked if it was a good dream or a bad dream. Mason replied, "bad dream." Quickly and innocently, Kenzie prompted him, "oh, was it because of that day that we got locked by Mommy's elevator?" Of course, he eagerly said, "yes." But, in all fairness (to me), the nightmare was about somebody pouring cereal and milk over his head.

Home run

Progress! That is to say that the bat and ball have moved outside. Even if it's only to the deck, at least my dishes are no longer in jeopardy. Some day we'll make it to the grass. (I thought it was fun to look back two years ago when we were wondering why we said, "swing batter" instead of "swing bat.")

Yard fun

Bob is helping "us" fix up our new yard for the kids. We're putting in bars for Kenzie (and someday Mason) to twirl on, a tree fort, and...my favorite...an 80' zip/trolley line! The two trees for the zip line are marked in the picture below. The one in the foreground is going to have the fort, AKA "launch pad." Instead of just a square, it's going to have six sides. Bob, who can build anything, learned that we were considering six sides and cheerfully said, "why not 12?" Wait, maybe that wasn't just cheer.

We put sticks on the ground under the tree to map out the edges of the fort, then moved onto the bars.

Ok, Cindy and Bob moved onto the bars and I moved onto other things. Like my new ice cream maker that didn't come with instructions and has taken me two days to figure out, but yum!

We're all excited, not the least of which is Little Missy, who headed straight outside as soon as everyone left...

Action

Ball, ball, ball...that is the central theme to Mason's entertainment. In church today Pastor Dave asked the kids what they did this last week. Mason raised his hand and said, "We found a green ball in the car." He loves to entertain himself with anything that is round and can be thrown.

So true

Grandma and her girls

May fun

Foto by Mason

Cindy and Kenzie on the mower...as captured by Mason who has a new friend, the camera. Hope he soon makes friends with the focus button.

Please pardon a little indulgence

I try to keep this blog fair, balanced, and ... well ... tolerable. Nobody wants to hear yet another parent boast about how amazing their kid is.

If you fall in that category, just ignore this post, because I'm about to violate that principle.

Kenzie just got her test scores back from Stanford kindergarten test, which is the standardized test that all the kids take. It's on a scale of 0 to 99, with the average child scoring a 50. She got a 99 (!) on three out of the six areas, including total reading, word reading, and sentence reading. Yes, that's our little reader. She did great on the other areas, with a 95 in battery and 89 in sounds/letters. Her lowest was math, at a 76. Cindy was ready to wage a math-a-thon to intervene when I reminded her that she's still in the upper quarter of all kids across the state and it's probably not time to panic just yet. But, I do think I see a stack of flash cards on the counter...

Shoppers

Drama.

It was Sunny Out TODAY! I played a Drama. It was fun.We did Alice in wonderland.Grammy and Ant Carol.Maybe i can go next time.

That's my Grammy

Grammy and Aunt Carol are in Mexico. Perhaps in celebration of Grammy's 75th birthday in a few weeks, they decided to go...parasailing!

Sister power

Kenzie told me, "Sometimes I teach Mason words that aren't really words. Like 'ka, hu, wa, ki.' And then I say, 'good job, Mason, you counted to twelve in Japanese.' He doesn't know it isn't true because he can't speak Japanese."

Elevator nightmares

I took the kids to my work for a couple of hours yesterday. It was Saturday, Cindy had a workshop, and I had to get some things done. They did a good job entertaining themselves, drawing pictures, writing on the whiteboard, and looking out the window. The more time that went on, the more focused I became on my work. I was tuning them out quite effectively, as a matter of fact. I had told Kenzie that it was okay to walk around on two conditions (1) that she didn't lose her little brother and (2) that she didn't go through any doors.

And, just to be safe I told her, "if you get lost, just yell for me." Good advice, it turns out, since she forgot rule #1.

Some time passed. It was quiet and they were doing fantastic! I was able to get quite a bit of work done. Then suddenly I heard a faint, yet panicked, "Mommy! Julie! Julie! Mommy!!!!" I bolted out of my chair, not sure which direction to head as the voice was so distant. I could hear the desperation in the voices as I darted through the office. Finally I found them on the other side of a security door, locked in the elevator lobby. They were both on the floor screaming through the crack at the bottom of the door. Tears were streaming down both their cheeks as their little bodies quivered. I felt terrible, hugged them, and told them I was sorry. Kenzie said she was sorry for yelling, but she really needed to get my attention!

We spent the afternoon being thankful for being reunited and grateful for avoiding the "what if's..." Such as when Kenzie told me, "Mason wanted to go exploring on the elevators but I told him that we probably shouldn't." Oh my...finding two kids in a building with 22 floors...

This one will stick in Kenzie's log of my worst parenting moments. She already told me, "Mom, I had a hard time sleeping last night. I kept thinking about being stuck by the elevators and what would have happened if you hadn't come to save me. So, I played my musical snow globe to comfort me. After a couple of times I was finally able to go to sleep."

In church today, Pastor Dave called the kids up to the front and asked them to describe a time when they had been upset. Since this was so fresh in Kenzie's memory, panic raced through my body as I envisioned her telling the entire congregation about how Mommy neglected them and they locked them alone in a scary place in her office. So, my greatest Mothers Day present is the momentary amnesia that overcame her. Happy Mothers Day to me.

Here they are describing the incident to Cindy.

Warning: Kid zone

Kenzie's friends Olivia and Mia, who are in her class, both have little brothers Mason's age. We enjoy having them and their parents over. But, holy tamales, six kids can make a mess. The girls always end up dressing up with dresses, scarves, jewelry and make-up and the boys dress down...as in to their skivvies. We can't figure it out, but Mason and Diggery inevitably come down in their boxers.

Buzz

We did it. Mason's first trip to the Barber Shop. He looked at Field and Stream magazines, admired the dead ducks on the wall, and watched three guys before him line up to get sheered. Let's check that one off our list of accomplishments and next time we'll go back to Kid Cuts where he can sit in the airplane chair and watch Elmo. I'm honestly not sure which is worse.

He looks cute and feels like a fuzzy little stuffed animal. Kenzie told him he's Mr. Handsome, our fuzzy little Prince.

Three little kittens

Kenzie, Olivia and Mia perform an impromptu Three Little Kittens.

Kittens?

Our kittens have grown into cats, but they're living the high life.

Trims

You can see here Mason's self-inflicted hair cut. He took a couple of swipes out of the right side of his bangs. This picture was taken about a week ago. You'll notice there are no up-close-and-personal shots since then. Not because of the cut he gave himself, but because I decided to help the situation. As you can see, it already looked horrible. "How much worse can it get?"

Squirmy 3 year old + dull scissors + impatient mom = bad idea

We're heading to the salon tomorrow. I'm just wondering if they'll buy the notion that he gave himself the entire cut or if I'm going to have to fess up. Maybe they'll just get out the sheers and won't notice.

New boots...for mommy

I got these crazy giraffe boots, haven't even stood up in them yet before both kids had taken them for a stroll. I swear, nothing is sacred any more. Mason even tried on my new swimsuit! Come on!

New bikes

Grampy found the kids new folding bikes.

Why do all our outdoor toys end up indoors?

Bearly

We learned it wasn't just our car that was jacked by the sleuth. They messed with our neighbor's car too, putting paw prints on the top of their hood! The scratches on our bumper go down to the bare fiberglass, through all the paint! Dang...bad, bad bears.

No sign of them last night, but we heard that a neighbor spotted them as early as 9:30. Time to go on our lookout...I snuck into Kenzie's room a couple of times last night because she has the best vantage point.

Dear Smokey...

I realize that the car quite possibly smelled of fresh rhubarb. We used it to bring home several stalks that our friends had just given us. We did bring it into the house last night, but suspect that the smell lingered. We suspect this because there must have been something very tempting to our mama bear.

Today we see strong evidence of her trying to get into the car. The rear bumper is scratched, there is mud all over the window and side of the car, and a rather conspicuous, large paw print. It looks like she tried from every angle to get in.

The "helpful" Department of Fish and Wildlife should add "don't transport food in your vehicles" to their list of how to live with bears. Now we're getting personal, Smokey.

No, I didn't take this picture...although I am tempted to organize a (safe) stakeout.

May Day

It's been a week. Usually I post immediately if something is interesting or worth sharing. But, sometimes I apply a filter: I hesitate and decide that perhaps it's not appropriate for wide-spread syndication. Not very often does this filtering happen, but occasionally. And, as the kids get older I think about how much is "too much" to share.

So, a full week has passed. And now the filter is going away. I must share.

Mason was outside in the rain. Cindy was upstairs in Kenzie's room. She looked out the window and saw him standing in the neighbor's yard...pants DOWN around his ankles, left hand covering his business, right hand holding his frog umbrella over his head. "What the heck!!" she thought as she darted down the stairs to learn how his belt had become faulty. She ran outside. His pants were still resting on top of his shoes, so she wrapped her coat around him and scooted him back in our own yard. "What is going on?" she asked him. He candidly replied, "I pooped." Thinking he had messed up his pants she inspected his drawers, only to find them clean. Without seeing full evidence, she said, "show me where." He escorted her back to the neighbors yard and pointed to their new log. Dumbfounded, she went into the house, grabbed a baggie and made him dispose of his new creation. He was not pleased, and neither was she. The neighbors, however, found it very amusing.

Bear? oh no big deal

Here's the note I got from the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

It's not unusual to spot bears in your area. This time of year they are out looking for food. Specifically berries and things like that, but if they come across a food source people have left out, they will take it. Items such as bird feeders, unsecured garbage cans, pet food dishes and uncleaned BBQ's are all attractants that you will want to address on your property.

If you'd like more information on bears in Washington you can find that information at http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/living/bears.htm.

Ok, guess we're settling into this country living. Better go clean the BBQ.