What I Just Heard

From Tjabe: "Maggie's gonna have balls."

He was referring to the cupcake with round sprinkles on it vs. the one with oblong sprinkles, but he was probably right in either case.

What I Just Heard

From the kids while they were making and eating breakfast:

Tjabe - "Super trooper, lights are gonna find me, but I won't be blue, cause somewhere in the crowd there's you."

Maggie - "Shining like the sun..."

They're being raised on Abba, by the way.

Best Food-in-the-Nose Story Yet

Tonight Maggie and Tjabe were goofing around during dinner, putting rice on (and in) their noses and completely playing off each other. We were discussing with them why it's not wise to put things up your nose, and why it's not polite to play like this at the table (I feel like we've had these lectures before...), and we were focusing mostly on Tjabe, since we're working with him on being a good example for Maggie. When we finished and glanced back at Maggie, she was sitting quietly, looking around with a "look at me" smile and waiting for us to pay attention to her. She had stuck a shrimp, tail first, up one nostril, and the body was poking out like a lopsided rhinoceros. I wish I could have gotten a picture, but I was laughing so hard I was crying and Sam was trying to lecture her with a straight face, while scowling at me for my lack of support.

Tjabe's cooking debut

Tjabe likes to play around in the kitchen, and sometimes when I'm making dinner I'll let him experiment with his own recipes. Tonight we got it for everyone to enjoy. Here's the recipe he created:

Sugar Chips:

1 triangle cut from an uncooked tortilla

1/4 t. poultry seasoning

1/4 t. salt

1/4 t. beef bouillon powder

1 t. sugar

Cook the tortilla, then sprinkle the remaining ingredients onto the middle of it. Spread out the sugar and enjoy.

I should mentioned that I only cooked the tortilla and provided the videography. And a little counsel with the quantities ("Whoa buddy! I think that may be way too much!" when he wanted to use 3 teaspoons of bouillon).

Poop and stuff

For those of you who live for my potty sagas, here's one. This morning Maggie said she pooped at the end of breakfast, so I rushed her to the bathroom. She hadn't pooped yet but she pooped almost immediately when I put her on the toilet. I was so excited! This was only the second time she had ever pooped on the toilet. I was beginning to see hope. Then I let her run around naked for a couple of minutes while I finished clearing breakfast dishes, because I was going to give her a bath. During this time I heard her say she went potty. Okay, I thought, maybe she wasn't done. So I went to where she had been climbing on a living room chair and saw that she had actually sat on the arm of the chair with her rear end hanging over the seat of the chair, and pooped again. And we're not talking nice dry turds. I whisked her into the bathroom, cleaned off her hiney, and let her stand at the sink and wash her hands while I started cleaning the chair (luckily the cover comes off and can be thrown in the washer). While cleaning the chair I heard her say she went potty again, and sure enough she had peed all over the stool and bathroom floor. I cleaned this up, sat her on the toilet to finish, and went back to working in the chair. She got up, went to wash her hands again, and peed again all over the stool and bathroom floor. Apparently this is one of those downhill days on the potty-training roller-coaster.

Happenings

Since I found out I do have a (albeit small) reader base for this blog, I feel somewhat convicted to post more. I'll try to bring everyone up to date a little bit, and maybe even do better at keeping it that way.

Sam - Still working a lot, teaching and doing part-time administration at Petra, and has begun doing web design in his "spare time." He's also still the Ultimate [Frisbee] coach at Petra, as the team will begin their second season this spring. Plus he has a few other things in the fire and a doting family at home to entertain.

Me - Home with kids, ours plus a few more usually. I think I stay pretty sane and love being around my kids, even when they drive me crazy. I think we still want a couple more, eventually. I'm just practicing having 2+ kids with everyone else's.

Maggie - Just turned two, potty-training (with good and bad days), very maternal to anyone younger than her or any animal (sometimes aggressively), loves playing with her big brother, and does not like being disciplined. But often has to be because she still has a temper and this stubborn streak she got from her aunt(s?). And no matter how stubborn she is, I will always win.

Tjabe - Great kid, often good at playing with his sister, likes to be in charge, and has gotten REALLY into chess. Sam taught him to play about a month ago, maybe a little more, and he plays it all the time, often against himself. He has gotten two chess books, one of them being Chess For Dummies, and he is constantly poring over them and memorizing the diagrams of moves. He has the chess notation down, so he will play a game with himself (or with Maggie, which means he plays for both of them and she runs around doing other stuff) and chart each move. For example, he'll draw two columns on a page and under his column write each move in chess terms (Q-E1) or whatever it is, and do the same for the opposing player, so he can look back and study his moves. Can we say N-E-R-D? But I love it and I'm glad he's found an intelligent hobby. His lifetime goal at this point is to beat Daddy. Whenever we have company over he asks them if they want to play chess, then follows this up with "Are you very good?" as though that will determine if he really wants to play them. So if anyone wants to play chess with him come over and he would be in heaven. Or he can play you online. I'm often encouraged when I see what appears to be fruit from our 4+ years of disciplining him. Then sometimes there are days when I'm not. But overall I like to think he's growing into a respectful obedient child, or will have reached that point when he's 20 or so.

Tjabe

Here's Tjabe playing with PhotoBooth.

Maggie's birthday

Here's Maggie opening gifts on her birthday. New bracelets were the big hit!

Maggie and her friend (who has the same birthday and was also turning two) dressed up as princesses and had a little shindig at our house.

The entire royal court.

This Fall

Here's Maggie the duck at Halloween. Tjabe decided not to dress up this year.

The kids at a local farm "picking" pumpkins.

Lunchtime Drama

Half an hour ago:
The three four-year-old boys were yelling and fighting with each other, the two-year-old boy was sitting in his high chair at the table and had strewn macaroni and cheese all over the dining room and wet his pants (my fault for not being able to get him in time), the one-year-old boy was playing peacefully, and I was with Maggie in the bathroom, cleaning her up from pooping in her underwear and trying to keep her from smearing it all over the toilet seat.

And why do I want five kids again?

Now:
All but one four-year-old boy is sleeping peacefully, and the boy awake is reading quietly on the couch while I get some work done (and type this post).

Ok, maybe five is doable. Check with me again around dinnertime.

Feigning Sickness

Wow, I haven't posted in a while. Sorry.
Tjabe has been complaining of a stomachache off and on for a while, so we're cutting different things out of his diet to see if it helps. Nothing major yet, because we're not quite sure when his stomach is really hurting and when he may have just eaten too much (or just be trying to convince us and himself that it hurts). But what kid would want his stomach to hurt? Here's our conversation after lunch today. He'd been complaining of a stomachache earlier and was heading over to a friend's house after lunch to play. I wanted to be sure he wasn't contagiously sick before sending him over to Blake's (you're welcome, Addie) so he got the Inquisition. At this point he doesn't know that he's going over to Blake's yet. I'm trying to keep him objective in his answers.
"Tjabe, does your tummy still hurt?"
"No, not anymore."
"Does anything hurt?"
"No. But I feel just a little sick."
"Sick? Like you're going to throw-up sick, or stuffy-nose sick?"
"No, just a little sick. Like I-have-to-lie-on-the-couch-and-watch-Kipper sick."
At this point I know he's fine. He apparently doesn't get to watch enough movies and has found a way to try to wrangle some more TV time out of us.

Too funny not to share...

... and seems pretty accurate: Why Having a Toddler Is Like Being at a Frat Party
I especially like #'s 9 & 3. Thanks for the tip Heidi!

Finally some pictures!

Busy summer so far...

About a month ago we released our butterflies, which we grew from caterpillars in a mini-pavilion in our house. Thankfully it got warm enough in time to release them outside instead of having all of them live their lifespans within the pavilion (and me having to deal with ten butterfly corpses). The butterflies were very tame and would let you hold them, at least for the split second before they realized they were free.

This was an innocent butterfly that Maggie snatched up from the grass before he had a chance to fly away. We think he survived her manhandling.

Maggie and Daddy

Fourth of July:

Maggie loved the sparklers, as you will see.

Fire-breathing baby!

Learning how to hold it

Tjabe decided to let his frog Oliver have a turn at the sparklers

Stomping on "poppers"

A visit to G & G K. at the end of June:

Tjabe

Today Tjabe exclaimed to his friend Austin: "I got a haircut! See, it's short, just like Daddy's but without the hole."

And on another note, I will try to post recent pictures soon.

Maggie

Me: Maggie, these are fruit snacks. Say "fruit snack."

Maggie: Toot crap.

Ticket

The other day Sam and Tjabe were driving and saw a police car that had pulled someone over. Thence began a conversation about laws, the job of the police, and tickets (which Sam explained as a "grown-up spanking"). Tjabe came home and sat in a chair for (not exaggerating) ten minutes, silently pondering all of this and occasionally asking a question about breaking the law. I think he is either terrified or convinced he wants to be a policeman now.

Costco

Tjabe, at the dinner table tonight:

"When I'm a daddy, when I go to work, my work is gonna be at Costco." Pause. "I'm serious. I'm gonna be a Costco man."

This was after his harrowing experience at Costco this afternoon, where he found a new hero. Tjabe always carries the receipt from the checkout line to the receipt checker at the door. After getting our receipt highlighted, we were walking out when a strong wind blew the receipt out of his hands, back into Costco, and far under a vending machine. So far under, in fact, that we couldn't even see it. He was in tears (he takes his duties very seriously), and I needed the receipt myself, so we eventually found someone who could print us out a duplicate. Needless to say, that person saved his day. Did I mention that this experience was harrowing only to Tjabe?

Tjabe

The other night during dinner Tjabe suddenly perked up (from eating quietly, amazingly enough) and announced: "I just swallowed a toot! It came out and then went back in my bottom!"

New Boots

Today Maggie is wearing a skirt handmade by Aunt Beth and new boots. Fabulous!

Workin' it

Fun With Grandpa Part II: The Grandaughter

And here she is rocking the adorable skirt Aunt Beth made her:

"Bird"

With Ben in the background

Fun with Grandpa Part I: Tjabe's Mad Football Skills

From our visit with Grandpa K. last weekend...

(We call this one "Frat Boy on the Lawn")

Stink

Somewhere in my house is a sippy cup with just enough milk in it to really stink, whenever I do find it.

Can you tell I'm into my kids?

It's so fun having a girl, because now I can do this...

Snacking on pretzel sticks

Tjabe's first sleepover

Last week Tjabe had his first sleepover with buddy Blake. They spent the three hours before the sleepover playing at the bounce house (or whatever you want to call it) and running around, so by the time they got to my place and into bed they were pretty tired. I did overhear some whispered conversations from their respective beds in Tjabe's room before sleep took over, and managed to capture some of it below for your reading pleasure. Keep in mind, they were whispering, so they had a hard time hearing each other.

T: Blake, I’m sorry for messing up your fingerpaint. Will you forgive me? (pause)

Blake, I’m sorry for messing up your fingerpaint. Will you forgive me? (another pause)

Will you forgive me?

B: YES! I said yes, yes, yes! Now it’s OVER!

B: Tjabe. Sometime you should come to my swimming lessons. (pause)

Tjabe. (another pause) Sometime you should come to my swimming lessons. You can watch what I do. We do really cool stuff.

T: Sometime I will.

B: What?

T: I said, sometime I WILL!

[later] B: Did you like the pizza we had tonight?

T: Yes.

B: Yeah. The cheese was good.

Then a discussion ensued about Legos that I couldn’t keep up with.

And here they are with freshly-brushed teeth.

Words of Wisdom

The scene last night:

Maggie is crying and screaming on the couch because I won't let her play with the phone (which I'm talking on). Did I mention she has a temper and was especially fussy yesterday?

Tjabe is sitting next to her.

Tired of the screaming, Tjabe kneels down in front of Maggie, puts his hands on her shoulders, looks her squarely in the face and states: "Maggie, you will not get what you want by crying and screaming."

Spoken by the voice of experience. Now if only I could be that calm all the time when I say it.

Pictures I've been meaning to post

... but keep forgetting.

This is what Maggie looks like on the way back down after she's been tossed into the air.

Tjabe dressed up

Maggie in her Christmas dress, with her beloved toothbrushes

Tjabe cooking dinner (pancakes)

A conversation...

I just had with Tjabe. He had been sitting on the toilet, reading Go Dog, Go! and doing his... duty (he he, I said duty - thanks for laughing, fellow Scrubs fans). Anyway, I peeked in to check on him, and here's what followed:

T (enticingly): Hey Mooooom-my... look in the toooiii-leeeeet...

Me (looking in at two complacent "products"): Oh good job buddy! Now let's get cleaned up.

T: But hey Mommy, look at that one (pointing to the one sitting on top of the other in the toilet). Isn't it coooool?!

I didn't see anything particularly cool about it, just an ordinary every-day turd, but I occasionally like to be supportive, so I agreed with him. Are little girls like this too?

Random holiday shots, all out of order

It’s late, so I’m not going to say a lot, but you all just look at this for the pictures anyway, right?

Someone turned four, and we made him a rainbow cake.  It looked so cool.

Maggie got a tutu for Christmas from surrogate grandparents Cathy and Karl.  Thanks, guys!

Our advent tree, which I mentioned in an earlier post.

We got a Betta fish for Maggie, since we got Tjabe blocks for Christmas.  Of course, he loves the fish and she plays with the blocks.  Is any gift really just for one kid, when you have more than one?  We’ve named him Mott, since those are sounds Maggie can say.  Tjabe came up with the name all by himself, but to make sure we spell it right he pronounces it “Mot-t-t.”