Hugs over time

November 2004, April 2005, September 2006. At least she can wrap her arms around him now!

Chirpie and the Mermaid

Kenzie drew this picture of a mermaid, and then wanted to add Chirpie. She found the dog and set her down on the table next to the notepad. She studied Chirpie...then drew, looked, drew. She got out a different color for the nose, the eyes, all the while concentrating to draw her portrait. I think she did a great job! When she was done she told me this story. I had to type very fast to keep up with her mouth.

Once upon a time there was a little mermaid and Chirpie and then they swam out to see what was happening because they heard a noise. And the noise was somebody sailing across the sea. And she swam to look. And they stopped. They put an anchor down and it hit the mermaid's head. And it hurt her. So she had to go home and she said, "My head hurts because I saw a ship and they threw an anchor down on my head." And Chirpie said, "woof."

She should have said, "that's okay Mermaid. We'll go back." The puppy said that after they came back from the ship. And then they took the anchor out. And the mermaid was better at once. And she saw a human that once had a dog like her, but it was a different color. It was blue. It was the size of her Chirpie.

And afterward the mermaid had dinner and then she went to bed. When she went to bed she saw the ship again. Because it had gone under her bed. It had gone over her bed, not under her bed. Over her bed. And Chirpie saw a mean crab and she had to run home to the mermaid and woke the mermaid up. Chirpie told that to the mermaid that the crab was chasing her. And then after a while Chirpie felt bad. Then Chirpie saw the crab again sleeping in his shell and then he shaked her. And then the crab woke up and kissed her on the cheek. And the crab chased her again to her bed. And where was the mermaid?? The mermaid was out with the prince. The prince had fallen into the water and the mermaid had to jump in and save him.

Chirpie had gone looking for the mermaid. She saw her singing a song to the prince and she heard the prince's groove, so she dove back into the sea and stopped right at Chirpie. Chirpie accidentally ran into the crab and the crab turned Chirpie into a mermaid. And then the mermaid stopped at the crab and said, "why did you turn my little dog into a mermaid? She had to stay the way she is." So the little crab got Chirpie and turned her back into a little dog. And then the mermaid came and saw Chirpie as a little dog.

The end.

~Kenzie

Boots

Kenzie and Mason each got new boots for the winter. Kenzie wears her bright pink metallic boots as often as she is allowed. Mason loves his frog boots that were a birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa. (But when you ask him who they came from he consistently says, "MIKE!")

New blanket

Grandma made Kenzie and Mason each a blanket. Kenzie's is "perfect" (as she says) in bright pink hearts. Mason thinks his is pretty good too.

Cool cat (by Kenzie)

Kenzie's bedtime prayer

Dear God, Please help me to make better choices. Like not hitting my little brother. I know what to do. Help me to say, "Mason, please don't take that from me. Mason, please don't take THAT from me either. Mason, pleeeease don't take that from me." Amen.

What did you say?

We were all in the car this morning. I decided to prep Kenzie for her dentist appointment this afternoon. The conversation went like this:

[me]: Kenz, you get to go see the dentist this afternoon.
[Kenzie]: Why do I have to go to the dentist?
[me]: Because he needs to look at your teeth and make sure they're in good shape. People who eat a lot of candy sometimes have bad teeth. When Grammy was a little girl she ate too much candy and then had to have gold put in her teeth.

[Kenzie]: Yeah, I know. I don't know where Dorothy was during that time.

...pause, nobody said anything. Cindy almost drove off the road. We exchanged glances as if to say, "did she just say what I think she said? Was she referring to her great grandmother that she's never met?"

In response, and likely because she thought I don't know my heritage as well as she does, she replied, "That was her mom."

Picking your nose is gross!

Whenever Mason picks his nose we say, "Mason, that's gross!" ...to the point where he has a routine. He places his finger up as far as it goes and then tells us, "gross, gross, gross!" (It's very endearing.)

Cindy was driving in the car with both kids in back. She heard Mason proclaing, "gross"...over and over. She kept saying, "yes, picking your nose is gross" but that didn't seem to appease him. Finally she turned around to notice that he wasn't in fact picking his nose. He was pointing at his sister...who was picking her nose.

The Angel that's really...not

Here's another picture of Mason in the vintage Angel's uniform. The uniform title couldn't be a worse descriptor of his 2-year old behavior recently.

Birthday frog

Becka bought a dancing birthday frog. At first Mason was terrified of it, but he has unfortunately grown to love it. It is highly annoying - play this clip about 500 times and you'll understand. Strangely Cindy isn't phased...

Teaching ballet to an ox

Kenzie gives Mason a lesson in ballet and herself a lesson in patience.

Happy Birthday Mason!

Mason wore the uniform that Uncle Randy received for a father/son night when Grampy was playing for the Angels. Here Kenzie makes a subtle correction to the question, "How old are you?"

First day of school

Kenzie started school again--same teacher, same school--but for 5 days a week compared to just 3 last year. This year she has 6 girls and 2 boys in her class. Luckily, Aidan isn't one of them!