Mah-velous Monday!

The boys coined some new phrases over the weekend:

Alec was helping Marvin use fishtape to pull some old wire out of the wall in our front room. Marvin went around the corner, and Alec said, "Hey, Dad! Do you need the monkey wire in there?"

Before our prayers with the boys last night, Benji excitedly told me that he and Daddy had seen some "fire bees" outside and they were "turning on and off!!".

Too cute!

Today I start my new summer schedule with the kids. After last week of nothingness, it's very clear to me that we all need some sort of routine to stick to even though school's out. It's pretty similar to the school one that we use, but includes time for "weeding and watering" and fun outdoor activities instead of school.

I also have an appointment this morning to FINALLY get a nasty, ugly, very tiny skin tag removed from my neck! Yay!

Happy Father's Day!

To my husband: unique, perfect, chosen for me by my heavenly Father and the father of our three incredible children.
No one but you can teach our boys how to be men.
No one but you can teach our daughter how to be a strong, self-assured woman.
No one but you can answer when they say, "Daddy?"
No one but you can be my perfect partner in this amazing journey of parenthood.
Thank you for being beside me.
I love you!

Extra! Extra!

Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow! Tonight Ava did it again; said "Pee!", we put her on the potty, she peed and then before I realized what was happening, she yanked off a piece of toilet paper and WIPED HERSELF!!!!!!

I am floored. The boys were tremendously hard to potty train, even though I just left it alone till they were ready. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect a child of mine to be ready to potty train before the age of two.

We'll see what happens with this. I really hope it's not just a fluke. It would be so nice to be done with diapers early...
Anyone with girls or early potty trainers got any advice??

Wordless Wednesday

Attack of the pruny hand...

Breaking news!

Wow!! Ava ran up to Daddy tonight and urgently said "Peeeee!". He took off her diaper and sat her on the potty and she peed!

She's been telling us on and off when she poops or pees in her diaper, but we've just never thought about putting her on the potty 'cause she's so little still (18 mos.). The boys weren't nearly ready till close to three.

Hm mm, I wonder if I should try to potty train her this summer using the naked for two weeks method? Trouble is, we have carpet in a couple rooms and I'm not sure I want to clean up pee spots daily.

Any thoughts?

Watching Water

We had a lovely (but VERY hot) weekend. The brand-new slip-n-slide that I purchased at the Goodwill store last fall for $1.99 came out of it's package at last and did not disappoint!

For some reason Ava was terrified of it, despite many attempts by the boys to "help" her enjoy it!

When I saw this face, I knew it was time to call it quits

And then I looked up and saw this at the end of the slip-n-slide, which speaks for itself!

We spent several hours on Sunday afternoon hanging out in the backyard doing nothing but watching the kids play and decided that we're going to try to do that every Sunday.

Ok, Happy Monday, everyone! I'm off to watch The Bachlorette...

Four Weeks

The kittens are four weeks old now. A couple of days ago, we heard one mewing in the boxwood hedge in front of our house. We found it and put it back in the box with the others, but within 5 minutes Polly had taken it back out and put it back in the bushes! She proceeded to quickly take the remaining two out and deposit them with the first one.

We weren't sure what she was doing, we thought maybe the box was just too hot and she was trying to get them cool (it's been 90 degrees lately), or she just thought it was time to introduce them to the wide world around them.

I was going to leave them be until Marvin mentioned that if one of them wandered too far, a passerby may help themselves to it or one of the many stray cats living nearby might decide to do some damage.

The kittens are now safely housed in a very large dog crate on the front porch in the shade, and we let Polly in several times a day so she can feed them, and out so she can visit her "husband" across the street!

They are absolutely adorable; it's amazing that they can grow this much in only four weeks! (I really wasn't trying to take pictures of their rear ends, they just kept tottering away from the camera)

This picture was for size comparison; they really are still very small and oh-so-cuddly!

She's Back!

I decided to hire that cleaning lady again; I thought I'd see what her skills were with laundry

Turns out she'd rather tap dance on the lid

or just play with makeup (Hm mm, a girl after my own heart!)
I still paid her though!
I have a feeling her kind of "housework" is just what we need around here. . .

Funny Benji

Since I"m using this blog as a sort of digital scrapbook, I have to post these funny moments we've had lately with Benji. There are three, bravo to you if you make it to the end of them without laughing out loud at least once!

• A recent conversation: Me, upon seeing Benji's choice of clothing for the day, "Oh sweetie! You're wearing Alec's shorts!" Benji, "Yeah, and I put on three shirts and it's a little weird!" Me, "OK, can Mommy help you?" (trying very hard to stifle a laugh because he just looked so bulky!) Benji, "Yeah. I couldn't open my drawer so I opened Alec's drawer and I thought Hm mm, maybe these are my clothes?"

• Benji and I were on one of our rare trips to the mall. We were in the elevator. Benji, having just pushed the down button says, "Mom, is it going to go fast?" and then, "WHOA! my penis almost fell off!"

• Alec and Benji collect a series of cards called Weird n Wild, they are a compilation of real and fictional creatures and beasts. Benji was looking at them with Papa. He picked up the King Cobra card and soberly announced, "The King Cobra. If you meet him at night, he'll eat your penis."

Clearly this little boy seems to have an interest in his, er, underwear region. . .Will that ever change, I wonder?

Wordless Wednesday

Our front yard peony bushes started blooming last week. In my mind, that always officially means summer's here! I have fond memories of flicking ants off the table at dinner when my brother and I would bring in a big bouquet of peonies for my mom.