Maggie's Dinner

Here is Maggie at dinner last night.  This is pretty typical when she doesn't take a nap.

Ornaments

Today Tjabe and I decided to use some stuff around the house to make Christmas ornaments.

Catching up

Sorry about the delay.  I should probably post some of these before Christmas comes and I get really behind.  These are in reverse chronological order (kind of).

Maggie turned three!  She had some friends over and celebrated with a dinner of spaghetti followed by a pink and purple cake with pink frosting, white letters, and pink and purple sprinkles.  Just what she wanted.  Oh, and many, many, many gifts.

This was my project one morning.  It was intended to be a group project with Maggie and her friend but they got bored about 1 minute into it and I ended up doing it myself.

Dr. Maggie (under the warm clothing) on Halloween.

Dr. Maggie and the firemen.

The chosen pumpkins

The carved pumpkins.  Can you tell whose was whose?  Mine was dark green.

What I Heard

Last night Sam stopped reading the book he's been reading to the kids at a cliff-hanger part.  "Oh, that stinks!" he exclaimed, referring to them having to wait until tonight to see what happens.  Tjabe's response was "Huh?  I didn't do it."  Poor kid always gets the blame when things stink around here.

Maggie's Singing Debut

Here's Maggie singing an original song entitled "And So We Do."

First Things

Off to school

Yesterday Tjabe had his first day of kindergarten, and Sam had his first day of the school year.  Tjabe was excited, and upon returning home I got out of him some of the things he did in his class.  I think he will have a great time, and I'm excited to hear from him what he's learning.  Maggie probably missed him, but we were busy most of the day with other kids, and when we picked Tjabe up (he goes for a half day)  we continued to be busy.  They seemed to fight more than usual yesterday afternoon, so maybe that's her way of missing him.  Then last night before bed Tjabe showed us his first loose tooth.  He kept getting out of bed asking us questions about his tooth, and what would happen when it fell out, and how he should brush his teeth when it's gone, and other things concerning him about the process.  I don't feel old enough to have a kid in kindergarten that's losing his teeth.

This afternoon

I cleaned the oven, did a bunch of dishes, and was just cleaning the vase for our beta fish Mott.  Mott was residing happily in my big glass pitcher during this process.  Maggie came out from her room, where she was "napping," to let me know it was time for her to get up and that her underwear was wet.  She showed me into her room, where she had dumped out the Duplo wagon and peed in it.  While I was checking all the legos to be sure they were dry, she wandered out of the room and shortly after I heard a big crash.  I didn't react, since crashes are at least a daily occurrence here, but paused in my lego inspection when Maggie came running in, screaming and crying hysterically that she didn't want Mott to get her.  This gave me reason to head to the kitchen, where the floor was covered in water and Mott was flopping on the floor, apparently in a very threatening way.  We managed to save him, but my favorite pitcher is no more and I may have a permanent puddle of water under my dishwasher.  Now I'm off to disinfect a Duplo wagon.

Fun

Maggie and I played a game today called "Find the Poop."  If you haven't played it yet I highly recommend it.  Maggie comes out from her nap holding a poopy Pull-Up and pillow with poop on it, and my job is to go into her room and run my hand and nose over everything, trying to figure out what else she got poop on.  If you pull your hand away and it has poop on it, you win a point.  Then I get to clean her, her bedding, and the other mystery objects.  It's especially fun right after putting fresh sheets on her bed and giving her a bath.

Stuff

I finally got around to photographing our newly-painted kitchen.  If you care, here they are:

And an updated one of the kids, powdered sugar included...

And finally, here is Sam enjoying the video feature on his new iPhone, filming one of his favorite subjects.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsptmGvj1Ac

A Big Boy

I was reminded today how grown-up Tjabe is now, and what a typical boy he is.  This morning he played outside, which included "fishing" with a stick in the marsh and catching various "fish" (long soggy wild grasses).  Then we went on a walk around the neighborhood where he rode his two-wheeled, no-training-wheeled bike the whole way without help.  Now he's playing at the kitchen table with Sam's old Cowboys and Indians toys.  And this September he's off to kindergarten...

Pictures Pictures Pictures

Fast asleep...

...and suddenly awake

If she could dress herself every day, this would be it.

Random face-painting they did themselves (Tjabe gave them "sunglasses)

Maggie decided to take a nice wallow in the mud.  It was a few minutes before I discovered her, and a few more minutes before we actually took her out (she was having so much fun!).  She discovered that if  she plopped down on her bottom mud would splatter everywhere, so she was doing this repeatedly and laughing.  It took a while to get all the mud out of her clothes.

Easter Sunday

Pictures

Winter fun

 Reading to one of many babies

Reading to one of the little girls we watch

Dentist

Tjabe went to the dentist for the first time yesterday.  I'm pretty sure it was a great experience for him.  I wasn't actually in the room with him, but I could hear him from the waiting room chatting away with the hygienist and dentist.  Here's the certificate he got - I love the picture they took.

Superbowl Halftime Review

The kids review of the Black-Eyed Peas halftime show: Maggie dancing below, and Tjabe:  "We should get some of those costumes that light up, Mom."

A Rational Mind

The other day I was driving with the kids in the car when we saw one of those big helicopters (the kind with a propeller in front and back) flying - obviously I don't know the technical name.  I asked Tjabe what he thought it was carrying, then suggested that maybe it was carrying some trucks.  "No Mom," he said.  "That wouldn't work.  I'll show you when we get home."

When we got home a few minutes later he sat down at the table with a pen and paper and drew this:

then proceeded to explain it to me (very patronizingly, I might add).

"See Mom, a helicopter is only 6 and a truck is 10, so it wouldn't work to have a truck inside a helicopter.  See, 6 and 10."

***********************

Our whole family was at the gas station and Sam was out pumping gas when I asked him to clean the back window.  We watched him from inside and, as he was scrubbing, Tjabe said, "Wow!  He's really good at that!"  I smiled and agreed, then watched Sam start squigee-ing it, leaving a big streak of dirt.  I let out a little groan, and Tjabe said, in an admonishing voice, "It's okay, Mom.  He's doing a good job." Bless his heart.

What I Just Heard

Tjabe: G[a little girl that he's been playing with], come look at this big poop I just did!
Me: Honey, she doesn't need to see your poop.
T: But she must!  [Pointing G to the toilet] Isn't it great?!

Christmas 2010

Tjabe's Birthday