Cats

Oliver climbed in bed with us the other morning with this sneaky smile on his face.  I said "Don't you look like the cat who swallowed the canary."
He goes "Meow" and laughed.

Why did I buy presents

Why did I buy Christmas presents - Oh yeah, so the kids could have boxes.  To be fair, it's the 23rd so they haven't opened any presents yet.

Christmas Break

So the stomach flu is going around our house just in time for Christmas break.  Good thing the kids are able to find things to do when we are stuck at home.
Yes, that is Elliot wearing Jades PJ pants and Michelle wearing my shirt bra.  This is why I call them my bras that don't need me.  And Claire in my shirt and boots.  Oliver not pictured - it was his day to be sick.

Oli's Purse

Here is Oli's favorite new toy.

Yes, it's the red purse on his shoulder.  He calls it his Choo Choo purse.  Here's why:

He keeps his new train in there.

How?

The kids had some chocolate ice cream cones.  I get they are going to get chocolate all over their shirts.

But how does one (and by one I mean Elliot) do this?

This is the back of his shirt.  The back!

Update

School starts a week from tomorrow (17th).  I know most people say Just in time or Not a Moment too soon, etc.  I say a month too late.  The kids have been at each other every day for the last month.  No matter how many things we go do, about half an hour after we get back the "I'm bored" starts then they start fighting.

Michelle and Elliot found Futurama on netflix and assumed since it was a cartoon they could watch it.  They call it Future Drama.  We discovered some of the wonderful phrases Michelle has picked up when we watched Percy Jackson - The Lightening Thief last Friday.  There's a line where a kid says "Kick his Ass" and Michelle laughed and stared repeating it.  The she said "But my favorite is when Bender says Bite my shiny metal ass."  We explained (between laughs) not to say that.  I'll wait for the call from her teacher.

Value of a Dollar

Claire and Elliot eared money cleaning out the playroom.   Claire found a Dora puzzle on Amazon she wanted to buy with her money.  I told her it cost ten dollars so she counted out 10.

She counted 10 coins. 

Thankful for Small Favors or Just Dumb Luck

Last night Claire (3) decided to turn the hot water on in her bathroom, full blast, plug the sink, and go to bed.  Now, of course, caused overflow and then flooding down to the main floor and then the basement.  At first I was furious and frustrated and worried about damage but once it was cleaned up I started thinking about how much worse it could have been.  Normally, Jade and I go to the basement and watch a movie or TV.  This day, however, I received (from amazon) a book I have been waiting for since last year.  So instead of being in the basement, I was on the main floor where I heard the dripping from the ceiling into the laundry room right away.  This was also lucky because I had the radio on earlier.  The only reason it was off was because it was too laud and I couldn't hear what Jade was saying.  Instead of turning it down, he turned it off.  Later, my book was so good, I didn't even want to get up and turn it back on.  Otherwise, I wouldn't have heard the dripping.  If I look back even further...I saw the book I was waiting for at the grocery store on Monday.  MONDAY.  It was not supposed to be out until Tuesday.  Someone at the grocery store made a mistake.  If I had not pre-ordered the book and known it was too late to cancel, I would have bought the book Monday and been done by Tuesday and we would be back in the basement with a loud movie.  One other possibility was if I hadn't been to lazy on Monday to go to the basement and get our last netflix movie to put in the mailbox, we would have had a new movie to watch last night.  I like to make my book last as long as I can so if we had a new movie, I would have watched and we never would have caught the leak about 20 minutes after it started. 
It remains to be seen just how much damage there will be but at worst, a few spots of drywall will have to be replaced.  And luckily we are experts at replacing drywall.  The water only went into the laundry, bathroom, and the only room in the basement that isn't finished.  We got really lucky and I need to remember that while I spend hours sucking water out of the carpet with a SpotBot.

Elliot

While Claire and Oliver were sleeping I went outside with Elliot so he could practice riding his back (Michelle and Elliot both learned about a week ago).  He brought two identical Shrek dolls from McDonalds outside with him and set them on the driveway facing each other and said "They're having a staring contest".
Then he faced them toward the street and said whichever one watches him the most wins.  I would take a picture but one of them is already lost.  i wonder if it's the one that lost the watching contest.

Irritation Replaced Picture Taking

Yesterday, Claire freaked out because there were some ants on the floor (she actually runs screaming from the room).  I wasn't home but my babysitter sprinkled some cinnamon around their area (a home remedy for ants when you have kids who eat things off the floor).  Oliver must have seen her do this because this morning when I was downstairs vacuuming Claire came running down screaming about ants.  By the time I got to the kitchen Oliver had shaken a whole container of Ground Ginger on the floor.  When I told him no, his response was "Whyyyyy?"  I was too irritated (since I had just swept this spot less than half an hour before) I cleaned it up before thinking about taking a picture. 

Oliver

I just want to write a few things about Olivers personality so I don't forget. 
He doesn't like to eat at the table.  He prefers to put all his food in a bag and carry it around.  He also loves to put the food bag in a backpack or truck or electric bike and walk/ride around with it.  the worst part is he doesn't eat it, just carries it. 

He also like to put food in any open container and add water.  I caught him up at the bar pushing strawberries into a water bottle.  When I asked if he was putting strawberries into the bottle he looked right at me (with his hands on a strawberry on top of the bottle) and said "No".

If you tell him to do something he always says "Whyyyy?" in this high pitched little voice.

I can't keep him out of any cabinet that isn't locked, which pretty much means the high cabinets.  If we turn all the stools over, he drags a chair.  If we turn all the chairs over, he drags over a toy or, even worse, a scooter, to stand on. 

Sad Trees

So we had a heavy wet snow last night and when I got up this morning Claire pulled me to the window and said "Look.  All the trees are sad."
The trees have bloomed (as it is May) and the heavy snow bent the branches down so they look like frowns.
Just a few minutes ago she pointed out that the trees are happy again (the snow has melted off). What makes it even funnier is she really believes the trees were sad and now they are happy!

Claire

We went to the zoo a couple weekends ago and after walking around for about two hours Claire looked at Jade and said "Daddy, I'm running out of gas."

A couple days ago she wanted some help with a computer game.  After getting frustrated at not getting what she needed on the first try (it's made for very small children), she said "You just have to keep trying."

She's 3.

Age

We were at my sister Jeannie's house and her birthday was the following day.  She asked Elliot how old he thought she would be tomorrow.  Michelle yelled form the other room "How old are you right now?"

Butter Anyone?

Turn your back for one minute....
(the butter was in a mini bar refrigerator in the basement)

Things that don't occur to children

Matching socks
Matching shoes
I tell my kids to put on socks and shoes and they grab whatever two socks and shoes they can find.  Socks don't match, two left shoes two sizes too big.  Can I really blame them though when this is what we found on Saturday:

Yes, this is 7 shoes - none matching.  How is that possible?  Four kids 6 and under:)

What kids say

Elliot came running in the kitchen right behind Oliver screaming at him. I told him to calm down and what was wrong.  He yelled at me "oliver is ruining my awesome technology"
His 'awesome technology' was a headphone cord wrapped around a Pringles can.


Claire came in our room this morning, right up to the edge of the bed (by my face) and whispered "I can't get the milk and I really want chocolate milk."  I laughed and said "You're so adorable I can't stand it." And she replied "Yes you can."

Musical Beds

I can't remember if I posted this subject before but...
Every night is a game in our house.  It's called musical beds.  Well, beds is not exactly true.  It's more like musical sleeping area.  It's always a mystery who is going to be where.  I would like to clarify that we have never allowed or encouraged the kids to sleep anywhere but there beds.  However, these are a few of the places we find them:
Claire in the hall closet.
Michelle under the desk in my office.
Claire in the playroom on the floor by the computer (she said she just had to play one game)
Elliot in a tent on the main floor.

I would put up the picture of Claire if my computer would read my card.

Things Kids Say

1)  We were riding in the car and I had bought Michelle and Elliot kites.  Elliot was talking about wind and Michelle stopped him saying "The only way you can know if there's wind is with a compass and all the ones at our house are broken."

2)  We went to Red Lobster (of Red Monster as the kids say) and Michelle was talking to the host about the lobster in the tank while we walked to our table.  She asked "So you keep the lobster in there until someone picks it to eat?" and he said yes so she said "Like a pet and food."

Weekend Project

So I know Elliot is getting bored out of his mind at home (he is very ready for school finally) so this is what I did this weekend.

Yes, it is a mini climbing wall.  I have lots of handholds loft so I am going to do the adjacent wall next week.

So it happened again.

Yes, that is hair all over the bathroom floor.  I'd like to blame the shot glass but it only contained coins.

Elliot "helped" Claire with her hair.  She told him it was in her eyes.  This is after I took her to get it "fixed" at the kid hair salon.  I forgot to get a before photo.

For the record Claire is the third child to cut her own hair/have a sibling cut her hair.  One more to go, I guess.

Hand Foot Five

Claire came up to me looking like this

and said "Hand Foot Five"
She then gave me five with her hand foot. 
Those are my boots on her feet and her boot on her hand.

Oliver and Doors

Olivers diaper leaks almost every night - trust me, Oliver being the fourth kid, we have tried everything to prevent this and have now accepted it as a fact of life.  So now when I get him out of his crib I put him on the floor to walk downstairs for changing by himself.  For some reason, before he can go downstairs, he has to close all of the doors on the second floor.  he holds his sippy cup in one hand and closes all the doors with the other. 

Other Things the Kids said

Claire came in our room one morning - maybe 4am and said he blanket was broken.  Jade went to put her back to bed and found she had no blanket at all.

Michelle was walking to the park with Grandma and Dad lamenting the move from North Carolina, where she had a pool, to Colorado, where she doesn't.  She made clear to Grandma that it wasn't her fault we had to move.  When Grandma asked whose fault it was Michelle looked at Dad out of the corner of her eye and said I can't talk about it right now.

I'm sure there is lots more I am forgetting but...

Been Busy

I have been to busy lately to keep up the blog.  I should have been writing things down because the kids said some funny things over the Holidays.  Looking through photos I recalled Elliots conversation with Santa.
Elliot asked if Santa drove a car (to where we were getting the photo) or he took his reindeer.  Santa said his reindeer so, of course Elliot asked where they were.  Santa said they were hidden.  Then Elliot ran over to tell me even though I was only about five feet away.  Then he ran back to ask Santa if he wanted Chocolate or Strawberry milk on Christmas Eve.  Santa likes Strawberry.