Wide open

Whose job is it anyway?

Kenzie tends to focus on what her little brother is doing quite a bit. If/when he missteps, she promptly reports it. Rather than have a tattle-tale, we have been known to tell Kenzie to "pay attention to Kenzie" and not worry about what her little brother is doing. Although we try to get her to deal directly with him, I've even said, "it's not your job to boss him around." A few days later that came back to bite me. Mason was painting his highchair with yogurt and Kenzie beckoned me with a tone of authority, "Mom, will you come in here and do your job???!?"

For an almost-four-year-old, she worries about things that I sometimes think most little girls don't (shouldn't?). Sometimes when we get in the car she'll ask me, "Mom, do we have enough gas?" Or she'll make sure that I know where we're going..."are you sure?" Don't ever forget to buckle your seatbelt or you'll hear about that one the entire trip. The lesson to me has been: don't introduce her to any rule that you're not willing to enforce all the time.

Tonight she went to the dog park dressed in a pink t-shirt. Before she ventured into the field she told Cindy, "Look for the girl with the pink shirt. It has flowers on it." I swear we've never lost her!

Archives

I've been uploading old pictures and converting some video. The blog now starts before I actually started blogging (November 2005). A few fun ones are:

Kenzie learning to walk

Twins Plus One video

Kenzie's first music video

Mason's first month

Posing with love

First, the end result:

which was preceeded by, "Kenzie, please don't make him smile - let him do it on his own."

Squirmy fish [video]

Grammy and Grampy came over to our campground at Lake Easton. The lake was closed, but we found a little pond right off the freeway. We caught one little fish. Kenzie found him to be very squirmy!!

Preschool class

The whole class...aren't they cute? Luke, Nathan, Emma, Christa, Reagan, Aidan, Mianna, Kenzie

Center stage [video]

Kenzie's school had a concert. Kenzie is on the left in a light pink dress, just behind the girl in the turquoise dress, at least to begin with:


Then, there's the performance. Listen up...


Finally, the conclusion.



Later when I asked Kenzie why she needed to be in front, she said, "well, I was in back but I was afraid people couldn't see me back there."

New favorite toy

A great find, the best 50 cents I've spent at a garage sale...a golf set! Mason takes it everywhere. He likes to sit in the back of the car and use it like a stick to poke the driver. It came with about five balls of various sizes and colors. It doesn't get any better than that!

Shiner #002

Since I've taken the blog to new lows with the post this morning, I thought I'd share the bloodspatter from Mason's tumble this afternoon (pictured to the right). He tumbled off the concrete stairs (the back stairs this time), requiring a bath to cleanse the blood.

I wasn't there, but from the evidence I'd say that heads bleed a lot. He's got a lump that'll probably turn purple and merge with the one that was almost fading. At least it was on the same side of the head.

The "real" Mother's Day post

Alright, so here was the best story from Mother's Day. Last night I censored myself, but thought better of it today. It's my journalistic duty to share this.

We had a softball game yesterday. We were short players, so luckily Mason agreed to be strapped into his stroller the entire game. Between innings he kept giving me the "stinky" sign by pinching his nose. Great, I thought...you'll just have to wait.

After the game, I took him out of the stroller and as he turned around I saw some dirt on the back of his knee. Oh wait, that's not dirt. And, no, he didn't sit in anything, that's coming from the inside of his shorts. I instinctly started breathing out of my mouth.

There's not really any place to change a baby on a softball field, but knew that we could adapt. I went to the car to get the diaper, wipes and a new pair of shorts. "There's the diaper," I thought. Now, the wipes and change of clothes. What? No wipes, no change of clothes?

I found a paper towel. That's close.

I saw him playing with his sister on a vacant softball field, asked him to lay down and soon remembered that fiber-filled glass of juice that he had downed earlier. It was all coming back to me. Really.

The paper towel wasn't much help. By this time, the sun had caked the smelly substance to the back of his leg. The parts that the shorts had been covering were still fresh and mushy. Sorry, but it's true and you need to know it because you can imagine what happened when that bare little bottom came in contact with the freshly-mowed grass. "The shorts are already a mess," Cindy said to me. So, double-teaming him, we used whatever we could to wipe off the major substances.

Nobody told Kenzie (who has a very sensitive gag reflex) to stay upwind. Yes, you guessed it, she began vomiting in center field. The full-on wretching, gushing type.

Finally we headed to the bathroom and doused Mason with cold water and liquid soap. Luckily they had a hand-dryer/blower too. It all worked out. But, really, Happy Mother's Day. And, thank God we don't have to play a game on that field.

A story for Mother's Day

I asked Kenzie if she would tell me a story for Mother's Day. She replied:

"I only had one left. I already gave it away to Grampy and Ama. [pause] Well, I could tell you another one if I maked up one. It's called the Shipped One. Do you know what ships are? They go way high up into the sky and soon they hit a star and a moon. They hit it really bad. They're bad guys that collect Aidan and Luke. And that collects two mermaids because there are two spaceship guys and two mermaids. You know what that means? It means that there are seven. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. And there was blue water. It was in the daytime. Oh no, actually it was in a dark, dark night. And there was lightening and thunder and wind. Wind, wind, wind. And then a huge rocketship came down deep into the water and soon the pilots went down deep into the water and they caught the mermaids. And the mermaids had huge fins. And you know what they did to the pilots? They shot their huge magic bolts at them. And soon they disappeard into the sky. The pilots did because the mermaids shot a big bolt at them from their tail."

Happy Mother's Day!

Circle of life...to the dinner table

Tonight we ate "the fish" from the fishing derby. Kenzie took it out of the fridge, rinsed it, dried it and seasoned it.

She also opened the belly up, peeked inside and said, "Mom...where's the worm?"

Crammed weekend

Kenzie spent almost the entire weekend with Grammy & Grampy, starting with the train ride from Seattle (to Sumner!), the fishing derby, and finishing up with church. I asked her, "Kenzie, when you're away, do you miss us?" She said, "of course I do Mom." (As if to say, "you're being ridiculous, but I'll patronize you if it'll help your ego.")

While she's gone, Mason loves being an only child. We took him shopping for 4-1/2 hours on Saturday and he was such a sport. He hung out in the stroller most of the time, catching the attention of anyone who would look his way. He raises his eyebrows, smiles his big cheesie grin, tosses his head back, and locks eye contact. He really didn't tire of it, even though he missed his nap.

Saturday evening we picked up Kenzie from Grammy & Grampy's and headed to Carol's. Becka officially wins Craziest Cousin award by voluntarily taking Devan, Kenzie & Mason to Chuck E. Cheese by herself. And, having such a great time they closed the place down. The kids had a blast and fell asleep as soon as we got in the car!

Kenzie then went back to Grammy & Grampy's to spend the second night because we had three softball games today that she likely would not have enjoyed. Mason, though, loved hanging out on the fields all day. As soon as we drove up he started saying, "ball, ball, ball." When he got in the dugout he grabbed two balls and was in heaven. He would throw, drop, fetch, hold...whatever as long as he could play with a ball.

Between games I took him out to the car and told him to take a nap. Facing me, he put his head on my chest and went to sleep. I woke him up 40 minutes later and we played the last game.

And, best of all, both were in bed by 8:00! What a fun weekend!