A Photographic Interlude

My two little nuts on the Fourth of July, complete with glo necklaces and cakey face.


No, she's not shy. Why do you ask?


Lily in her latest favorite dress. She calls it "the one with the sprinkles on it."


Jack showing off his latest ensemble: 1 black t-strap shoe (on the wrong foot), a diaper with PJ top, a pencil and a pink binky. All the toddlers are wearing this now. The one shoe look is a completely modern take on the whole Michael Jackson one glove thing. Don't you love his sweet little knock knees?


The birthday girl during a frenzy of gift opening. I can't believe she's 5!

Oskar gets in on the birthday action.


Lily's Big Birthday Party. 13 kids. I don't even want to talk about it except to say that it's over and everyone had a great time.

So that's a brief photo essay of what we've been doing for the last few weeks!

My Bad and Some General News

I have a long post written about some of my failure projects, but I have to take a picture of the gargantuan sunrise circle jacket sleeve, and somehow, I just can't seem to bring myself to do it! I can't explain it, but every time I see how long that sleeve is, I actually feel a little sick to my stomach. Seriously. Why didn't I stop knitting as soon as I saw how long it was getting? It's like I thought it would "ride up with wear."

That being said, I am bringing the mutant jacket to knitting night and forcing myself to finish the front hem. If that gets done, I'm going to cast on for the right sleeve and hope this time I'm not so much of a knittin' fool.

So, my apologies for not posting the longer, funnier post yet. I will do it tonight. Or maybe tomorrow. As soon as I can face up to the reality of the jacket mistake, I promise.

In other knitting related news: the Stained Glass Bag is felted and drying in the window as I speak. It looks lovely and it felted, but it barely shrunk at all, which really surprised me. I'm thinking about running for a second round of felting to get rid of a little more stitch definition. Usually, I run my stuff for 5-10 minutes and it's done. This bag went in for 20 minutes and I think it needs another go. I wonder if that's typical of Noro, or just related to the fact that I used towels in the washer instead of jeans, which is what I usually use. Anyway, I'm very proud of the bag and think it came out even better than I expected.

I got the kiddos a pool today and they are outside right now splashing in it with Grammy. Lily will turn five this week. It seems such a short time ago that she was born, it's almost frightening. We will be having a small celebration on her actual birthday, and then she will have a Little Pet Shop themed party this weekend. Unfortunately, only 4 kids can come. I always felt bad for kids born over Christmas because so many children are away at that time so a party is very difficult. It never occurred to me how many people are away during the summer, especially around July 4th! Jack, who was born in February, has a much better chance that his friends will be in town. I will be just heartbroken for Lily if any of the kids currently invited has to bow out.

Let's see, what else is new? I invented a kind of DPN project holder to try and sell on etsy. I love the one I'm using, but I need some feedback from other knitters on the length of needles they use. If you knit with DPNs, how long are they? I use 5 inches, but I think mine are short compared to most others. Anyway, once I get some of the bugs worked out and make some nicer sets (my prototypes are very primitive!) I'll post a picture here and put them on my etsy shop! If you haven't checked out my shop, you can go directly there by clicking the etsy icon on the side of the screen. Just some shameless marketing on my part. Gotta make some yarn money for my dream project (more on that another time, though).

I'm also having lots of fun with Google Analytics! It has a map that shows what part of the world my readers are from. So far, I have readers from the US, Australia, the UK and Iceland! I don't know why, but I get pretty excited seeing people from all over the place looking at my blog. I love comments, too (hint, hint) and would love to hear about your blog if you have one. I want to put some more knitting related blogs in my side bar and get rid of a few blogs I don't visit so often any more.

There's not much other news. I've been very knitcentric lately, so my next post will a kidcentric one. Lily drew a hilarious picture that must be displayed. And I'm going to post about my bad projects, I swear. Seriously.

My Kids Amuse Me

Sorry for the radio silence lately, but after two weeks of adult only time, I'm now in North Carolina for a week with my parents, after which the kids and I will fly home. It is as hot as Hades here. Seriously. I do not kid, it's been about 100 for most of this week. Thank the powers that be for air conditioning.

But...I digress. The kids seems so much older after two weeks away, especially Jack. My dad took him to the barber. I told my parents to get him a "little boy cut" because we didn't have time to go to his usual barber before he left on his trip. My mom called to say my father had taken Jack to the barber and his cut was very short. I said "As long as it's not a 'high and tight.'" She said, and I quote "Oh, it's not, but it's a lot shorter than it was before." When I got to NC, I immediately saw that Jack was sporting a high and tight, contrary to my mother's claim. He looks like a miniature marine. Fortunately, the cut is very cute on him and I'll probably keep it that way until the fall. It also makes him look older.

The kids have been getting up to all kinds of shenanigans at Grammy and Granddaddy's house. My father has a giant Peanut M&M figure that shoots M&M's out of it's side (forgive me, but it is very hard to describe) if you crank its arm up and down. Lily "pressured" him into buying M&M's for it (she asked once) and the kids love getting a treat. In order to keep the candy consumption to a reasonable level, my father took to hiding the Peanut Man and telling the kids he had gone away. Lily somehow interpreted this to mean that the Peanut Man periodically goes away to the M&M Ball. Jack isn't as fanciful and just started hunting for Peanut Man and quickly located him in the closet. My father now hides him behind some boxes.

Now that Peanut Man is sometimes AWOL, Jack tries to get him to come back by holding his hand up to his ear and telling my father "I think I hear candy!" For some reason, this cracks me up. Lily, on the other hand, was happy in the thought that Peanut Man was having fun at the M&M Ball until yesterday, when she caught my father carrying him into his office. She ran out to the living room and told me "Peanut Man hasn't been at the M&M Ball! Granddaddy has been hiding him and moving him all along!" She was very indignant, and immediately left to confront my father. I don't know what he told her, but today she said he was at the M&M Ball again. Ah, to be a child again. Any time one of the kids discovers that Peanut Man has returned to my father's office, they run out and tell us that he's back. It's really funny.

In other big, big news, Jack suddenly started to use the potty four days ago. My mom bought him some big boy underpants and showed them to him when he first arrived. Fast forward to the day I arrived. Jack asked me to give him a lolly. I told him "You can have a lolly if you pee in your potty." He carried on and whined and then went away to play. About four hours later, however, he told my mom "I gotta pee!" and ran into the bathroom. To our surprise, he peed into his potty for the first time ever! He got his lolly, and then he told my mom "I wanta wear my big boy underwear." She let him put them on, but he refused to put pants on and asked to have his shirt off. He ran into the living room wearing only the underwear and said "Ta-Da!"

He's been using the potty one or two times a day ever since. He's also been wearing his big boy underwear for most of the day without incident. Unfortunately, he still usually insists on wearing ONLY the underwear. He did grudgingly allow me to dress him the other day when he got too cold from the AC. He still comes out and says "Ta-da!" when he first gets them on. In order to encourage his potty training, I supplmented the baseball themed underwear my mom provided with Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder. He is very serious when he picks out which pair to wear and discards two or three options before settling on a design. It's hilarious!

I'm knocking on wood that this self-training will last and become a permanent habit. I never thought he'd train this early. I feel like singing and dancing with joy, but I hold it in because I fear the potty training gods will smite me and send him back to the diaper. I'll keep you all posted. Send good potty vibes to Jack.

Cookie Monsters

No explanation is needed for this post other than to say that the kids were eating butterscotch chip cookies during these photos, and they are both little hams. Enjoy!

The Graffiti Artist

As some of you may already know, Lily wrote each of our names on the seats and/or backs of our dining room chairs so we "would know where to sit." With a black GREASE pen. One of the knitting ladies suggested that I take a picture of them for posterity, because it is kind of funny in that "if only I didn't have to reupholster" way.

I took a picture of the one that said "Mama." Unfortunately, the writing has been washed and worn down a bit so it's hard to see (but not enough to avoid reupholstering):



Taking that picture gave me an idea of documenting her various graffiti efforts around the house. So, here is a gallery of her recent work. You will notice several recurring themes. The asterisk is popular, as is the repeated writing of her own name.

Angry Graffiti



In this piece, Lily was exploring her frustration with me after I sent her to her room. As you can see, she put her name in a box with a heart to show that she is good, and crossed my name out to show that I am bad. Crayon on painted plaster wall.

The Gatekeepers



In this piece, Lily has identified the people who are allowed to move the baby gate. They include Mama, Papa and Lily. Jack's name is notably missing from this work. Black pen on wooden gate frame.

Ownership I



This unfinished work explores the ownership of various items around the home. Lily wanted to show the world that Mama owns the lamp. but was caught midway through the piece. The blurring is a result of Jim's failed attempt to erase the magic marker and salvage what was a very expensive Pottery Barn Lamp. Marker on fabric lamp shade.

Ownership II



This companion piece to Ownership I shows that Lily owns the box formerly containing scented drawer paper. This piece was created prior to Ownership I, but was only discovered afterwards, thus explaining its out-of-sequence title. Marker on cardboard box.

Doorway



What a treat! This is a vintage piece, drawn at a time when Lily still confused the order of the letters in her name. Many scholars have attempted to interpret the meaning of the red symbol with little success. Marker on wooden door.

Art and Television



In this piece, Lily attempts to contrast the beauty and symbolism of art against the capitalism and consumerism of television. Or, she's just trying to make the TV look pretty. Marker and crayon on plastic TV case and glass screen.

It's My House



This sentimental piece shows how Lily thinks her home, symbolized by the doll house, is a beautiful place to be. Or, she just wanted to make the doll house look pretty. Crayon on painted plywood house.

Asterisk



A large, stark image of one of Lily's favorite symbols. Magic marker on pine panelling.


Happiness



The title says it all. Magic marker on painted wood door frame.

Very Little Under The Couch This Week!

Imagine how amazed I was when I pulled out the couch and saw this:



That, to me, is a normal amount of stuff that would accumulate under a couch in the space of two weeks. I thought maybe the amount of outdoor play this week was making a big difference...

...until I saw this:



Apparently, someone has stopped throwing things behind and under the couch and has started throwing them behind the chair.! I did notice that Jack's toy bin was a little low this week, but I foolishly thought Jim had pared it down by taking some stuff down to the playroom. The little pile of stuff behind the chair reminds me of a squirrel's secret store of nuts. Which would make sense, since I sometimes believe Jack is a little nuts.

I'm pretty sure it's Jack, but the thought did cross my mind that Lily might be tossing his toys down there to annoy him. I'm going to have to keep my eyes open and see who the culprit is!

Now for the Cute and Funny

I like to balance out my posts with a good one about the kids after I bore you non-knitters with my knitting stuff, so here are some cute shots of Lily modeling the new sweater her Grandma Deeds made for her. One photo also features the matching purse (somewhat stretched out by the pounds of change she poured in there from her piggy bank). Also, it's hard to see, but she insisted on posing with two of her Barbies in a couple of the photos.






That was the cute, in case you couldn't tell.

This is the funny -- here are a few things that the kids said this week that I found amusing:

Lily, talking about how God filled up the rivers and ponds: "He must have used his mother's garden hose!"

Jack's stock response when asked about school: "I play with friends, I play with fun mag-a-nets, I play outside, I have 'nack, I play with fiahfucks." Translation: mag-a-nets = magnets, 'nack = snack and fiahfucks = firetrucks.

Jack, talking about an upcoming trip to North Carolina: "I go walk with Papa to the rainmoo. Papa show me the rainmoo." Rainmoo = windmill. Of course, Jim isn't going to North Carolina, and the "rainmoo" is actually at the home of Jack's other grandparents! He's a little confused. I doubt he remembers the last time he visited North Carolina, but he sure remembers the "rainmoo" in California!

Lily, explaining why she doesn't cry when I drop her at school now: "I don't have to cry if I don't want to." Too bad she didn't feel this way for the last six months.

Finally, time to make fun of myself a bit. Remember that one time that I complained about Jim? And his scraping of cream cheese and two olives? Remember how annoyed I was? Well, I guess I believe in karma because yesterday Jim had good reason to be annoyed with me. He called me at about 8:30 (shortly after he left the house) and asked me to put the steak tips in to marinade. The catch? I was supposed to look on the internet to find a recipe and make the marinade myself.

As some of you may be aware, I am not a good cook. In fact, I can barely make macaroni and cheese from a box. Baking? Love it. Cooking, on the other hand, usually leads to me setting something on fire. Anyway...I was not thrilled about having to find a recipe and put together a marinade, but I agreed to do it and hung up.

Within about 15 minutes I completely forgot about the conversation. I'd like to blame my heart medication or lack of sleep. One or both of them probably contributed to my forgetfulness. If I'm being brutally honest, however, I suspect there was some element of a subconscious passive-aggressive desire to forget about it! Either way, I did not give the matter a second thought until Jim arrived at home and told me he was going out to start the grill. I didn't even remember it when he mentioned the grill! Then he asked "Did you remember to marinate the steak tips?"

Oops. He seemed a little annoyed and he said with a sigh, "I suppose I can try to marinate them while the grill is getting ready." He did and they tasted great.

Later, as I was telling my mom about the incident, she told me you can marinate steak tips in Caesar dressing. Umm, that would have been easy, even for me! I mentioned it to Jim and he said with a tone of annoyance "I know, that's what I ended up marinating them in." Good to know. Perhaps he should have mentioned that option to me instead of suggesting that I hunt down a recipe and make marinade from scratch.

So, seeing it from Jim's perspective, he probably has even more reason to rant about me than I have about him. Although, I would like to mention that those two olives? They're still in the fridge and no one has made a sandwich out of them to date.

Just So I Don't Kill Him

I try very hard to make this blog about me and the kids, with the occasional funny story about Jim. I think I've followed that rule pretty successfully up until now. Today, I am going to rant just a bit.

It has not been a fun morning in our household. The kids are peevish from lack of sleep (all four of us were in one bed last night). I'm peevish from lack of sleep. As a result, when the kids wanted to play in Lily's room, I was happy to let them go. And then...silence. I am angry with myself for not checking out the cause of the silence immediately, because I should know better. Sadly, I continued to update my blog widgets and peruse patterns on Ravelry. After about 10 minutes, however, I thought it behooved me to check on them.

They were not in Lily's bedroom. They had decided it would be more fun to play upstairs in my room and Jack's room. I called up the stairs and asked what they were doing. Lily said "We'll be right down, Mom. C'mon, Jack."

Those words sent chills down my spine. I practically sprang from the first floor to the second in a single bound. The upstairs was messy. The kids had pulled out a lot of Jack's stuffed animals and a few of Lily's, and they were lying around the room like casualties on a battle field. All of the pillows were on the floor, and there were several long pieces of what looked like accordian pleated plastic wrap lying around. Annoying, but a mess is easy to clean.

And then, there was the smell. A fruity smell. I asked Lily what the smell was and she said "We just washed our hands with some soap."

Me: "What soap?"

Lily: "I'll go put it away."

Me: "What soap are you talking about?"

Lily: "The shampoo soap you bought yesterday." She ran off and came back with the bottle of shampoo, now more than a quarter empty. I lectured her and told both kids to pick up the mess and get downstairs. I went down and put the shampoo in the cabinet. Where it belongs. Where the kids can't reach it. Where Jim failed to store it last night after bath time.

And...I noticed the brand new bottle of Mr. Bubble Bubble Bath was missing. Again, I sprang like a gazelle up the stairs and looked wildly around. I noticed nothing unusual, so I begin to interrogate the kids.

Me: "Where is the bubble bath? Did you take that, too?"

Lily: "I decided to hide it."

Me: "Where?"

Lily: "I'm a very curious child." Giggle, giggle, giggle.

Me: "Where. Is. The. Bubble. Bath."

Lily: "I used some to wash my stuffed animals."

Me: "Did you use it all? Where is it?"

Lily: "There's a little left."

Me: "GET THE BUBBLE BATH. NOW!"

Lily: "Here it is." She had hidden it in the drawer under Jack's crib. It was partially open and lying in a cardboard box.



The cardboard box was drenched with soap. Upon closer inspection, there were several animals and pillows drenched with soap as well. The bubble bath? That I bought yesterday and we used once last night? Empty. Because Jim failed to put it in the cabinet, where it belongs and where the kids can't reach it.

Now, I know I share the blame, because I should have immediately looked for the kids when everything went silent. Silence = Very Bad. But I have more, oh so much more to rant about.

I was annoyed by the shampoo/bubble bath lollapalooza, but, mindful of my own contribution, I managed to remain calm. I hauled the kids downstairs so that I could keep them under constant surveillance, and went into the kitchen to make some breakfast for myself. I opened the refrigerator and grabbed some bagels and then looked for the cream cheese.

When I opened it, this is what I found:



That's right, there is barely enough cream cheese to cover half a bagel, never mind two entire halves. Someone had replaced a near-empty container of cream cheese in the refrigerator. Up high. On a shelf that our children cannot reach. I know it wasn't me.

I was also treated to this lovely vision after I moved the cream cheese container:



Doesn't it just make you crave a banana? And right next to that, I noticed a second container. I opened it and this is what I saw:



Yes. Jim made pizza two nights ago and decided he Just. Couldn't. slice up the last TWO olives and put them on the pizza. I guess he figured it was more important to save those two olives by shoving them into the back of the refrigerator in their container. Since neither of us drink martinis, I am not certain what he believed we would do with these two olives. Maybe they would be serve as an amuse bouche? A little midnight snack?

The little seed of annoyance sprouted into a small sapling of rage. That is when I decided to write about it in order to avoid pelting Jim with the two olives and rotting banana when he walked in the door. Mission barely accomplished.

Epilogue: While I was writing this post, Lily took her brother into the kitchen with her where she told me she was getting a drink. In fact, she removed the bubble bath container from the trash, squirted the last few drops into Jim's partially filled orange juice glass from this morning, added a dash of water and gave it to Jack with a straw in it. He, of course, took a big sip. Apparently, bubble bath doesn't taste so good, and makes you drool and gag bubbles. He had his revenge, though. Lily let him go with her to water her lettuce seedling later on and he threw the little pot to the ground, where it broke into a million pieces and splattered dirt everywhere.

I can't believe it's only 2:27 pm.

My Kids, Let Me Show You Them

Jack, eating an apple in his pajamas and winter hat.





Jack, reading Curious George, his current favorite, tied with Richard Scarry's book about vehicles. He has hot cocoa around his mouth.



Jack, so pleased to be sitting with Papa!



How could the child that put together this highly coordinated outfit (black tights, pink skirt and white t-shirt all match colors in the fleece top) put together the outfit below?



I personally enjoy the way the pattern on the tights clashes with the pattern on the skirt.



My pretty, cocoa-smeared girl!

Life Is Never Easy

We've had a, shall I say, interesting week so far.

On Monday, we went to the Children's Museum. Despite the fact that I asked Lily repeatedly whether she had to go to the bathroom, she ended up holding it for too long and she accidentally peed on the floor in one of the exhibits. Sigh. We ended up leaving about an hour after we drove in.

On Tuesday, I was all set for my "day off." Things could not have worked out better. Jim had done the week's grocery shopping the night before, and I had gotten a lot of the weekly cleaning done on Monday when Jack was napping and Lily was playing at the neighbor's house. I cast on a seamless Icelandic sweater this weekend, and I needed a larger circular and a smaller circular. I dropped the kids at school around 8:30 am and came home to do some work. Then I took a leisurely drive to two different yarn stores to pick up the new needles. When I got home, the phone was ringing. It was Jim. It turns out that Jack and Lily's school lost power, and then a terrible smell was coming from the heater, leading them to believe there may have been an electrical fire! They were asking all parents to pick up their kids. By 11:00 am, I was back at home with two kids who were bouncing off the wall because their schedules were interrupted. A very long day ensued.

Today, Jack inexplicably awoke just before 5:00 am and demanded milk. I took himn downstairs so he wouldn't wake up Lily and Jim. As a result of his early day, he was falling asleep by 10:00. That would normally be fine, but today is Lily's ballet day, and he always naps after we get back from class so his nap won't be interrupted. It was too painful to watch him drowsing, so I took him upstairs where he proceeded to laugh and play for 45 minutes.

When we got to ballet, he was so overtired that he was running and throwing himself on me repeatedly. Then he started crawling under everyone's chair. Periodically, he would get in my lap and almost drowse off. Then he would jerk himself awake and start rampaging again.

At home after class, Lily had a very messy accident in the bathroom. I will not horrify you with the details. Suffice it to say that she was too embarassed to tell me at first and she tried to clean up the mess herself. I ended up hosing down all of her clothes in the shower along with a bath towel, and mopping the floor. Ick.

Just now, I brought Jack down from nap, only to see Lily trying to hide one of the down throws in the office. She then advised me that the throw "accidentally got cut." I asked why and she admitted "I wanted some feathers." It looks like I will have some darning to do this evening. Fortunately, she doesn't seem to have gotten many feathers out.

Jim just called to say he's on his way home. Hallelujah.

Easter

Here are the Easter photos!







Above, Jack and Lily dying Easter eggs.









Photos from Easter morning. I love Lily's excitement when she found out the Easter Bunny left her a Littlest Pet Shop toy. Jack was less excited until he found the candy. I couldn't get him to pose for any shots except the one shown here.

Lily was so funny the night before Easter. She told us that she had to leave the Easter Bunny a note and a picture. With Jim's help, she wrote out the note herself. It said "Dear Rabbit I love your eggs." She drew a picture of herself and the East Bunny with hearts around it. She told us she had to leave the note in our bay window so that the Easter Bunny could see it from outside. She left the picture by the refrigerator so that the Easter Bunny would know where to look for the eggs she made. She then placed an Easter Basket )that Jack made as a school project out of a paper plate) in the other window and told us she needed to put carrots on the window sill "because the Easter Bunny will probably be hungry." She made sure the empty Easter baskets were placed in the window as well. Then she said very seriously, "Do you think I'm forgetting anything?"

She told us she hoped the Easter Bunny would leave her a note (he did) and maybe even a picture of himself (he didn't because his identity is a secret). She was so surprised when she saw her toys -- a small plush puppy, some Disney Princess lip gloss and the small pet shop toy. "How did the Easter Bunny know I would like these things?" I wonder....

Jack got a Fisher Price fishing boat complete with life preserver, fishing rod and fish and a Captain. It plays a song when you put the Captain in the driver seat, which Jack loves. We know this because he played the song repeatedly and danced to it.

I gave the kids much less candy than last year. This year, there were a just a few jelly beans, a couple of marshmallow chicks and some chocolate. Still, the kids had enough to jack them up for the entire day before we cut them off. Jack was literally shoving multiple chocolates into his mouth at once, and we had to take away all of his candy to prevent him from making himself sick.

We did have a couple of candy SNAFUs, all my fault, I'm afraid. I put the chocolate bunnies in the guest room closet with all of the other Easter stuff, forgetting that the main steam pipe for the entire house runs through that closet. When I pulled out the bunnies, they were melted flat into the bottom of the box! Jim ran out that night to replace them and ended up going to 5-6 different stores. He was only able to find one, which we gave to Lily because she specifically asked the Easter Bunny to bring her one. As it turns out, Jack would have had his confiscated early on any way, so it was better that he didn't have one. You can see her holding up her replacement bunny in the photos above -- she was very excited to get it.

My second mistake was buying something called Snickers Cream Eggs. For some reason, even though the word "Snickers" was emblazoned across the package, I thought they were chocolate filled with cream. As soon as Jack began to wolf one down, we saw that, amazingly, they were filled with peanuts and nougat. You know, like a Snicker's bar. Who knew? I'm not sure why they call them "cream" eggs, but I should have known better. We had to confiscate those before Jack ate any more because he's too young for peanuts. He ended up eating a Twix-like candy that Jim bought in Switzerland (he was there on business a couple of weeks ago). That was the candy we had to confiscate to prevent him from making himself sick. He consoled himself by eating jelly beans until we took his whole basket away from him and put it out of reach.

It turns out that when Jack is on a sugar high he runs around, screams and throws things. When Lily is on sugar high, she talks nonstop and demands that you play Littlest Pet Shop with her all day long. For those not in the know, if you play pet shop with Lily, it means you must sit next to her and make periodic comments about her play, but you CANNOT touch anything or try to take part in any way. Jim and I put in about 3 hours each of this today. We are very tired.

In other news, when I told Lily she needed to let her "old Dad" have a break, she informed me that "Papa is not old. Grammy and Granddaddy MAY be old, but Papa is not." I told my mom and she was relieved to know that Lily only thinks she "may" be old.

Funny Things My Kids Said Recently

I don't really have anything of much interest to blog about right now, so please enjoy a few funny things that the kids said recently:

"Everyone's invited to my relaxing Disco party!" (Lily, while playing Littlest Pet Shop last night)

"Played with friends, played outside, they wiped my boogies." (Jack, when asked what he did on his first day of school)

"I have to freak out when you leave because I love you, but don't worry, I stop crying as soon as you drive away" (Lily, on why she cries when I drop her off at school)

"Make some cookies?" (Jack's first words upon waking up at 3:30 am a few nights ago)

"Can you take Jack back where you got him?" and, when told no, "Can't we just take him and leave him somewhere?" (Lily, feeling angry towards Jack)

"My ear poking!" (Jack, trying to tell us he has an earache)

"There be stickies?" (Jack's comment when told he needs to go to the doctor for his earache. He did get a sticker at the end of the appointment)

"Cats, Dogs, Bunnies, Sea Animals, the Panda, Quiet Animals and Noisy Animals" (Lily listing the categories of pets in her Littlest Pet Shop)

"You don't need any new friends, you have me!" (Lily's comment when I told her I was going to a knitting group to make some new friends)

Those Crazy Rabbits!

For your enjoyment, some pictures of the kids being crazy tonight:







The kids got into my work clothes closet (in Lily's room) and came out wearing my high heeled shoes. Lily demanded that I take a picture. I know my feet are big, but these picture makes it look like I wear small sloops on my feet!



Next, the kids came out wearing "costumes." Jack is wearing cat ears and Lily claims to be dressed as a fairy.





Here is Lily posing with the cat she made. She painted it at her friend Bella's birthday party, which was held at Plaster Funtime. I dont know if you can tell, but there is a glittery top coat sprayed on it, so it's very sparkly.



Lily arranged her dolls and demanded I take this photo. I love how her pose mimics the pose of the dolls.