Important question

When I was rocking Mason to bed tonight, Kenzie was running back and forth down the hall. Every time she ran by, his head popped up. I came out and reprimanded her for being so loud outside his door when he was trying to go to sleep.

Not two minutes later, as I was downstairs, she beckoned me from the top of the stairs (just outside her brother's room): "Mom!!"

I yelled back, "shhhhh!"

She replied in a loud voice, "But, Mom, why does Jello wiggle?"

Fearless

We got a new play structure from Craigslist. Mason has no respect for gravity. He immediately scaled it, then took one giant step down the slide. Cindy caught him, which delayed a lesson that will come eventually. He went back up, came down knees first (no pants...squeaking skin). Up again, down sideways. He ignores all coaching on the subject, it's just too much fun.

Kenzie enjoys it too...but much more traditionally. She has fun giggling at her brother as he acts crazy.

...by the way, yes, this is yet another picture of her in her white ballerina dress. If she had her way, she'd wear it every day. She mixes up the tights - she started the day with black, then went to blue, then to purple.

If not the white dress, she wants a skirt and tights. (Only carefully selected skirts...I bought her a cute ruffled pink skirt for Christmas that she consistently refused--yes, refused--to wear.) So, she and I went shopping today to get her some more "approved" skirts. She did let me buy her a pair of jeans too. Now that she's in a 4 they come in slims, so they fit. It's nearly impossible to get her into a pair of baggy jeans! Oh boy, what's going to happen when she becomes a teenager??!?

Bath lesson

Growing spunk

From Grampy...

Julie and Cindy dropped off Mason and MacKenzie as they had a dinner
engagement with Carol, Mike and Mary. Mason is getting so big and eating on
his own. He climbed into the high chair three times for food. It is fun to
watch as he hasn't figured out how to get his feet into the correct holes.
We have to help with the final move. He has also mastered the cowboy on the
back of the horse routine. The first time he got on I told him he forgot his
hat. My straw hat serves as the horse-hat for all riders. He spotted it on
the floor near the horse and tried reaching it from the horse only to go
ker-plunk on the carpet. He winced a little bit but put the hat on and
climbed back on the horse. He gets frustrated because he hasn't figured out
how to engage the noise from the ears of the horse but he will use his sign
language to say please and start whining until you squeeze the ears. He
understands every word you say to him and will amaze you when you mention
for him to do something. He'll do it and you wonder, "Did he really
understand what I said?"

His sister is going to get her up comings before long. She tried to take her
sippy cup from him and he would have no part of that. She wrestled but he
held on and won the race. She retrieved his cup and made the exchange and
everything was then OK. She bops him from time to time just to pass the time
away but the day is nearing when he will start passing the time of day on
her. He is strong.

We (Grammy) went through the dirty dipper change routine. As he knew his
sister was going on the big white ring, he wanted his dirty diapers changed.
Grammy directed him by showing him a clean diaper and he laid himself in
front of her and waited until everything was cleaned up and his new diaper
was on before getting up. I think that is a first as he is normally a
squirming mass of movement.

On stage

From Grampy...

Ever since we received an invitation to Eric Ode’s SURPRISE Birthday Party and subsequently received an OK to invite Kenzie, the hush has been on to keep it a secret. We took Kenzie to church with us on Sunday and she found a way to wriggle her way through all the kids during the kid’s sermon to locate herself directly in front of Eric, as he plays the piano during the service. It was all we could do to convince her that our pew was on the other side of the aisle and perhaps she would better serve herself with us.

When it became time for Kenzie to leave for the party she was more than excited. Her Grammy and Phyllis Steinle took her to the Buckley Grange Hall. Eric was surprised that members of his old band were on stage and ready to play, as well as about 100 family friends and neighbors. Eric started the program with the Hokey Pokey. Grammy danced the Hokey Pokey with Kenzie and Grammy returned to her chair. Kenzie stayed on the dance floor the rest of the evening. I arrived a couple of hours later (football playoffs) and Kenzie was dancing solo to any and every tune the band played. She’d wander over to our table and take an occasional sip of apple juice and then she’d return for more dances. She danced with any and everybody and tried every new step she saw someone else dancing to. Eric and the band took a break near the end of the evening and during that time Eric wandered to our table. His sister reminded him that he hadn’t played “I Love My Shoes.” He asked Kenzie if she would sing with him and she said she would. A few minutes later the band gathered and Kenzie had followed Eric all through the audience until he returned to the band stand. She walked on stage and he lowered the boom mike and while on his knees the two sang “I Love My Shoes.” Everyone was well entertained.

We thought she would close her eyes on the way back to her mother’s. No way. Actually, she wanted to stay at our house overnight as we had the “big bed.” When we arrived at Julie’s, Kenzie told about her evening and the fact that Eric had said to her, “You rock, dude!”

Awww....

Wouldn't this be a sweet picture if the cat didn't have a look of terror on his face and if Kenzie wasn't holding onto his throat?

Determined

After a "challenging" day with Kenzie yesterday we went and bought three books. One is called "Stop Struggling With Your Child," another is "You Can't Make Me (but I can be persuaded)," and the last is "Raising Your Spirited Child." It's like peering into her mind to read the definition of a Strong Willed Child. They teach that parents need to not engage in power struggles and refrain from saying things like "you must" or "you will." It goes against my own strong-willed core to hand over control to a three year old, but at this point I'm willing to try!

Although it's not intuitive, it does seem to work. This weekend she spent the night at Grammy and Grampy's so she could go to Eric Ode's (AKA her Rockstar) 40th birthday party. On the phone to her beforehand I said, "Hey Kenzie, I'd love to hear about the party. Maybe when you come home you can tell me about it." Her reply, "No, I don't want to do that." I softened, "well, you can think about it." Miss Determination: "Mom, I don't want to tell you about the party." So, conceding the victory, I said, "alright, honey, it's totally up to you." We said goodbye. A few minutes later the phone rang, "Mom? I do want to tell you all about the party when I get home." Hey, maybe this hocus pocus can work!

Grammar police

From Grampy...

Kenzie phoned me this morning and we had a nice cordial chat and during the conversation she asked me what Grammy was doing. I talked with her about what she was doing and then mentioned that Grandma would be home later. She immediately turned into the “Grammar Monitor” and told me in no uncertain terms that she was Grammy and not Grandma and that she was going to phone Grammy when she returned home and tell her that I had called her Grandma. She then hung up on me. You know what? About dinner time the phone rang and Grandma picked it up and Kenzie was in a telling mood. She told Grammy all about my “sin of the day” and really scolded me through Grandma on the phone while I was eating dinner. It was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud. Don’t ever tell her anything you should have kept to yourself or slipped while telling her.

Crosta and Coquita

I asked Kenzie to explain the picture she was drawing. I typed as she rambled off this story.

[referring to the creature on the left side of the page] "It's a Crosta. A crosta is a large animal like a dinosaur except that it swims and it lifts people by the neck. It's long and it has a shell. It swims in the water very good. He has hair too. He is like a horse. He is a horse. A crosta is a horse. He has hair on the top of his head. And says, "meeeeeeee." He has a little nose and a long tongue and he has a uvula in the back. Okay, Mom. And he has two noses. And he has two long tongues too.

Spelled "O-E-B-D-P-S"

It's Pepper's birthday today.

It has a long neck and it stretches down to its tail. He has a long tail too. It touches into its hair.

The picture is for Pepper's birthday.

It has two long tongues. It has long feet. Like five of them. Five legs. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Seven, I mean. Mom, he has one leg and one tail. Seven. He has a long tail too.

He is dressed up like a jaguar. He has fur and he is a jaguar. Jaguars have three tongues. And then it has three legs. It has seven legs, Mom. And then it has a scribbley tail with rabbits on his tail. He has rabbits on his head. Mom, he has rabbits on top of his hair. Jaguars don't have hair. It's like a jaguar, but it's not a jaguar.

There are two animals Coquita [on the right side of the page, spelled ONZI] and Crosta. A Crosta is like a jaguar but it's not a jaguar. Do you know what a coquita is? It's an animal that swims in the river. It's like a turtle but it's not a turtle. Can you say "TUR" and then "TUL?" A turtle has a small head. And he has small eyes.

What happened to my baby boy?

I finally broke down and gave Mason his first haircut. I've been staring at him all weekend. Without those cute little curls he looks like a kid!

Happy birthday Nathan

We went to Moses Lake to wish Nathan a happy third birthday. The ride over was a nightmare. Kenzie lost her DVD privilege early on. As far as punishments go, that was about as dumb as they come. For the rest of the trip she was on a rollercoaster of emotions…excited to see Nathan…bored…excited to see snow…irritable …bored…sleepy…excited that she could irritate her little brother…filled with “why’s” of a typical 3 year old and…bored.

Nathan had a pirate-themed birthday. All the party pictures are here. Kenzie and Mason also got in costume.








I'm happy to report that the kids were on their best behavior on the ride home.

Pirate princess rockstar

Nathan got a new guitar/karaoke machine for his birthday. Kenzie demonstrated by singing her "I Love My Shoes" song. Okay, it's really Eric Ode's song, but she loves that song. She'll chant "I love my shoes. I love my shoes. I love my high top, jump shot, stop-on-a-dime, flying full-throttle, nothing-to-lose, I love my shoes. Someone stop the presses, this is frontpage news. The headline says, "I LOVE MY SHOES!" (Notice Mason taking lessons in the foreground...)

PEPS Play date

Look hard to see pouty-face (Kenzie).