Funny Faces

Oh what do you do in the summertime? How about  - be silly.

Or how about be super cute and pose for the camera.
I gave Lydia a haircut. She won't ever keep ponytails in, so long hair seemed pointless, always a mess and in her face. So I cut it short and it is so cute.
I know that the picture of Lydia is blurry, but it was the cutest smile and even blurry it still looks good.

Loose Tooth

Do you see the one that is not like the others? The one that is leaning forward? Eager to fall out?

Tom is so excited to lose his first tooth, but he doesn't want us to yank it out.
Kids get so excited about this. Now Becca and Lydia are walking around, wiggling their teeth saying that they are going to lose a tooth.

This is not rain - it is condensation on the windows  - all the moisture in the air. It is on the outside of the windows. Growing up in Idaho we had this on the inside of the windows on winter mornings and I remember wiping a circle clear to watch out, waiting for the school bus, and writing in it while waiting.

This target has been drawn on the window for the kids to shoot at with their nerf gun that Tom got for his birthday. Lydia seems to love it the most and is constantly bringing it to me so I can reload it for her.

Charlie is our resident photo taker.

Update on Lydia with her potty training. She is doing really well, but most days there is at least one mishap. She is so funny that often she will strip off all her clothes to go potty and then puts them all back on - I'm not sure why she has to take her shirt off too.

Jeremy has been studying at home this week and it has been nice having him around more. He hasn't been studying as well as when he goes to the library to study, but it has been nice for the kids to see him more. Yesterday he took a break and took the kids to the pool then he came back and studied more.
He is halfway through his toughest semester (at least I hope it doesn't get rougher than this) and then he has one more semester before he starts clinicals.

The Joy of Bugs

This is a cricket, a very large cricket. I don't know who put him in the jar, but it was the girls that were carrying him around in this large mason jar.

Becca really likes her bug, but only if the lid is on. At some point either she or Lydia took the lid off and Becca got all worried that he would get out in our house.
But she wouldn't put the lid back on herself, she got one of the boys to do it.

Lydia loves to carry the bug around. This isn't the first cricket they've caught and put in captivity. Last time Lydia was very possesive of it and wouldn't let anyone else carry her bug.
This time she was more willing to share.

They are conscious of the fact that bugs can't live in jars and after an hour or two they set their bug free.
Becca didn't want to have anything to do with the release. She's fine with the bug as long as there is glass between her and the bug, once the lid is off she backs up.
Lydia was the brave one to release the bug back into the wild.
After I took the lid off she shook the jar upside down, and shook and shook.
The cricket wouldn't let go and just fall out, so I just set the jar down and let the bug crawl out on his own.

Farewell to our bug.

We had a joyous time with you.

Joys of Children

It was raining so hard this afternoon and the thunder was loud.
After a few unsuccessful attempts to play monopoly (Lydia scattered the piles of money, they couldn't find a dice) the boys gave up and decided to go out in the rain.
They pulled out the rain ponchos and went in the backyard to enjoy the rain.
They found a frog, made it a home in a bucket with leaves and rocks.
Then they came in to put their swim suits on, no more trying to stay dry in the rain, they wanted to enjoy it fully.
Oh the joys of being a child.

The boys were invited to a birthday party today and Becca was so sad she was not invited.
I didn't want her to be sad all afternoon so I offered to buy her a pack of gum.
I never heard another word about being sad she didn't get to go to the party.
"Oh mom, thank you so much for buying me my own gum". This simple thing really cheered her up. I don't buy gum much and my kids love gum, so this was a real treat for her.
I love that her problem was so easy to fix.
Oh the joys of gum.

Lydia is doing awesome being potty trained. It's fun to watch when she senses she needs to go, she stops whatever she is doing and says, "mom, I go pee" meaning that she needs to go.
Oh the joys of kids who potty train themself.

karate and pottytraining

The boys had their first karate lesson today. They were so excited. I told them about it last Friday and it has been all they have talked about the last few day. And now, tonight after their first lesson, Tom is already counting down the minutes until their next lesson on Thursday.

Lydia has decided to potty train herself. For months she has 'played at' using the toilet, meaning that some days she'll ask to go on the toilet and I help her and then days and days go by with no interest. I've never encouraged or discouraged her, I just help when she asks.

Yesterday morning as I was getting her ready for church she refused to put a diaper on and insisted on wearing underwear. I obliged her, although I was very nervous about the idea - I didn't want to end up with a big wet spot on my lap during the middle of church.

At her request I took her to the bathroom at least 4 times for the 3 hour duration of church. She never did have an accident and successfully peed each time she went to the toilet. All my kids were telling her what a big girl she was and praised her. She would smile big and knowingly, feeling like she really was one of the big kids.

That night she asked for a diaper to wear to bed. This morning she went straight for the underwear again. She never had an accident all day and again at bedtime asked for a diaper.

What a kid. Not quite two years old, yet very self motivated. She is funny - when she uses the toilet by herself (when I don't go in the bathroom to help her) she takes off all of her clothes, even her shirt. I'm not quite sure why she takes her shirt off, but she'll come out of the bathroom and throw all her clothes at me and ask me to put them back on her. I guess she still wants me to help with some part of the process because she is more than capable to get dressed herself.

In fact, most mornings she dresses herself and then comes in to show me that she is dressed for the day. Sometimes this is where my laziness pays off. Mornings are slow for me and often I'm still in my jammies a few hours after getting up, often because I like to get my morning chores done before I get showered and I don't want to get dressed twice, once before shower and once after. Anyway, so I don't really think about getting my kids dressed either.

Despite that, or maybe because of that, each of my kids (well, maybe not Charlie) from a young age have gotten themself dressed in the morning. I say not Charlie because most days I have to tell him to get dressed and he is the oldest of them all, so he follows my bad habit.