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.