Rhino

Bennett’s new movie obsession is “Bolt,” which he’d seen at the theater, and then got from my dad for his birthday and watched a couple of times. In the last 2 weeks, though, he’s decided that this movie is hilarious and he wants to see it all the time.

The hamster in the movie, Rhino, is really entertaining, and Bennett started imitating him. Here’s a clip from the movie (horrible quality, but it’s all I can find) – double click on it to watch on YouTube, and to make it brief, skip ahead to 2:10 and watch until about 2:30.

And here’s Bennett’s version.

So Creative

Tiny bit of business first: I moved Alyssa’s modeling contest info to the sidebar…please still vote for her daily!

Luke is my creative kid…he is always coming up with a plan to make something out of paper that you wouldn’t think is possible (like clothes for a stuffed animal), making signs for things (arrows to point Santa from the fireplace to the Christmas tree), and setting up toys/furniture to make a hideout or tent. Honestly, it can be exhausting to meet the materials requests some days, but it’s definitely one of the things I love most about him.

Last weekend, he created a new “leash” system for his stuffed dog, Pup, which he’s had since he was about 1 (and my mom bought it for him; I think that’s part of the reason he’s still pretty attached). Over the last couple of years, we’ve had yarn leashes for various stuffed animals in our house, but they don’t last long and I don’t like having a long string of yarn hanging out in the playroom. He came up with a plan to use something we already have: lanyards. We have a bunch of them from the boys being in the Cardinals kids crew every year. Luke put a beaded bracelet (the kind they make at school on a pipe cleaner) around Pup’s neck for a collar, and then hooked the lanyard onto that. It’s perfect! For Bennett’s dog, Spot, they’ve also used a watch around the dog’s neck to attach the lanyard.

isn't that cute?

Apologies to Bob, who asked for less Cardinals gear in the family pictures…I swear this wasn’t on purpose. And yes, even the stuffed dog has on a Cardinals shirt.

This Calls for a Celebration!

Last night at dinner, I put a tiny serving of corn* on Jack Henry’s plate, because I always give him a tiny serving of whatever vegetable* we’re having that night.  Every night, he ignores it or plays with it (he used to gobble up every vegetable* I put on his tray, and then, like many toddlers, decided one night that he wasn’t going to eat anything he didn’t want to).

When the meal was almost over, Luke asked me, “Mom, did you take Jack’s corn* off his plate?  Because it’s gone.”  I rushed over to his high chair and looked at his plate, and checked in his seat, and by gosh, it WAS gone!  Luke quick checked the pocket of Jack Henry’s bib for good measure, and it wasn’t in there, either.  So he must have eaten it!  We had a big impromptu celebration, complete with lots of clapping, which he loved and joined in with, and lots of “good job, Jack Henry” ’s thrown in there, too.  He was beaming.

And he finally got to have some dessert with the other boys…he usually has to sit there and watch them eat a little treat after dinner without having any because he’s not tried everything on his plate.  (Side note: times have changed around here…I wouldn’t have dreamed of letting Luke have dessert at this age, but since Jack Henry is learning so much from his big brothers, it seemed appropriate.  Besides, HE ATE A VEGETABLE*.)

*All right, all you purists out there…I know corn is a starch and not a vegetable.  But in this house, it’s still included in the vegetable group because it’s one that gets eaten without complaint from the two older boys.  And, there’s fiber and trace amounts of vitamins and minerals in it, so that makes it a vegetable to me.

Birthday Recap

Yesterday, I turned 22 32. Time flies when you’re having fun, right?

We had a great 4th of July evening with the Swinigans…click over to her blog for some cute pictures! Jack Henry very reluctantly got his picture taken with our family, but when the Swinigans sat down to get their picture taken, he hopped right up to join them. Also – Luke asked me if he and Norah could be alone (code for “please keep Bennett and Lucy away from us”). We should have said yes now, because the next time he asks, they could be teenagers and the answer will most definitely be “no!”

pictures like these *almost* make me sad that he won't be a big brother again.

he's so good with babies!

we don't get a whole family picture that often!

On Sunday, my boys gave me a breakfast birthday treat from Krispy Kreme, complete with a candle and singing.

Luke gave me one of my presents last week, but I haven’t shared it yet:

he made this at summer school in his "fit kid" class.

We went to church, and after lunch and putting Jack Henry down for a nap, I went out and did some shopping. I’ve bought myself two new pairs of shoes this week, and they couldn’t be more different from each other but I love them both! I got this pair at Target, and I feel like I stole these Privos – I got them for $25 at TJMaxx! I think they’ll be so comfortable this winter. Oh crap. I am getting old. I just bought a pair of shoes for comfort. I’m just going to pretend that the Target pair completely cancels out that last thought.

Matt and I got to go out for dinner last night, as Zach and Michon watched the kids for us. We sat on the patio at Bravo and had a great meal…I can now say that I highly recommend the Insalata della Casa (seriously. amazing.) and the Chicken Parmagiana Milanese. Since a 2000 calorie dinner wasn’t enough, we finished off the night with dessert at Oberweis. Yum.

This afternoon I used one of my birthday gifts (that I requested, not that Matt just bought for me, because that would be bad): My Fitness Coach. I’m excited to do more with it, but today I did a 15 minute cardio (which Luke and Bennett did with me – that probably won’t happen again unless our living room magically grows to twice the size it is overnight) and a 15 minute yoga session, mainly because I just wanted to see what each was like. I think I’m going to like this game!

Next, I’m going to scrub my floor…seriously, someone should call the authorities if I don’t. I’m generally OK with the 3 (or 5 or 10) second rule, but right now, heck no – if anything touches the floor it needs to be burned. That should be some good exercise, too.

(Detailed pictures of how to assemble grilled meatloaf are up on Three More Bites, too, if you’re interested!)

Dear Man at Church,

We don’t know each other, but you sat down the pew from me today. And during the sermon, you clicked your pen over, and over, and over again, almost to the point of me needing to move and sit somewhere else. I’m sure you’re a nice guy, but next time, please bring a pen that doesn’t make noise.

Thanks so much!

Happy 4th of July!

It’s rainy, but that’s ok…it hasn’t rained for weeks. And rumor has it that it should be dry by fireworks time tonight, so that would be perfect!

The big boys are spending the morning watching a classic for the first time: “Wizard of Oz.” I’ll likely be up in the middle of the night with nightmares about witches and flying monkeys. We’ll see.

Jack Henry enjoyed licking a beater for the first time this morning as I was working on dessert for tonight, when we’re having dinner with the Swinigans. On the menu:

Warm Italiano Spread (featuring tomatoes that I GREW IN MY BACKYARD…more on that soon)
Grilled Meatloaf (pictures of prep on the cooking blog by tomorrow)
Salad
Fruit
Sugar Cookies for the kids
Boston Cream Pie

Happy 4th, everyone!

I’ll Do It Myself, Thank You!

This is pretty much what it’s like every day trying to get Jack Henry dressed…he insists on doing it himself, and then, as you’ll see at the end of the second video, he gets distracted by something and just walks away from the process.

In other Jack Henry news, we are currently in the “don’t-you-dare-try-to-buckle-me-into-my-carseat” stage (lovely) and the “do-not-give-me-a-snack-I-will-get-it-myself” stage (also wonderful). While I do really, really love to see typical toddler behavior developing in the absence of any meaningful language (gives me assurance that everything’s OK!), this is just plain frustrating.

Current Events.

I used to call myself a Republican. Now I think I’ll just stick with “conservative” since that seems a better descriptor, lest someone think by “Republican” I mean “hypocritical, unfaithful spouse.”

Seriously, Republicans, can you please, please stop letting me down with all your righteous talk and subsequent infidelity? It’s getting embarrassing.

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Not sure if you’ve heard yet, but Michael Jackson died last week. Yeah, I’m serious. I can’t believe that no one is reporting on it (banging head against the wall). We did have an MJ music immersion for the family last weekend…everyone loves “Beat It.”

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Albert Pujols continues to be both an amazing ballplayer (with last night’s two homeruns, he’s only the 7th player in history to hit 30 homers before July 1) and an amazing person. Check out his work with Compassion in his native Dominican Republic. I love that you get the sense that he’d be doing these things whether he was wealthy or not, and even with the wealth, whether there was publicity for it or not. I like him.

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In current events in our own home, our two oldest children tried to burn down our house last night by putting their new “pool noodle” swords up to the light in their bedroom. The lights on their fan get extremely hot, and Luke’s sword melted to one of the bulbs and was smoking pretty badly. Seriously, kids can turn anything into a weapon of mass destruction. New rule (that I didn’t think I had to make): nothing is allowed to touch a light bulb.

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I got to meet blogger Sara and her family this week! It was really fun for me to meet someone that I feel like I know because I’ve read her blog for so long. She was just as sweet in person as she seems on her blog…I’m so glad that Heather and Sara let me crash their reunion (they’re college friends).

Hey, Do Me a Favor…

My beautiful (and much younger than me!) cousin Alyssa is a model, and she’s in a nationwide online contest. She’d love your vote! It’s so easy to do…it literally takes a couple of seconds and you don’t have to sign up for anything!

Just click here to vote for her.

I’ll leave this posted at the top of my blog for a few days as a reminder, because you can vote once a day.

Thanks so much, and good luck, Alyssa!

Are You a “Yes” Mom?

I’m really not. There, I said it.

But this is something I’ve been thinking about lately…and then I read this post on Jill Savage’s blog, and I knew that I had to take the challenge. (Please read her post – she’s not talking about permissive parenting, but about being less selfish and more OK with your house getting messed up in the name of fun with your kids.)

Are you up for it? Will you be a “yes” mom with me, at least for the month of July? I’m going to try to keep track of a few things I end up saying “yes” to that normally would have been a big, fat “no”. I’ll get back to you with those later in the month.

Leave me a comment if you’ll do this with me!