Our Afternoon At The Park

Because the weather is so nice today, and because--let's face it--pinkeye doesn't really make a 5-year-old sick, we headed out to the park after lunch today. Jake rode his bike like a champ. He was hesitant at first, but once he got going, he was everywhere. Still avoided a pretty big hill, but at least he wasn't braking all the way down smaller hills this time. He was very proud of himself by the time we left. This week alone he has tried roller skating for the first time, participated in his first "real" karate class and biked so far ahead of me that I had to call out for him to slow down. I'm proud of my big kid.

Annie, meanwhile, had no hesitation about running ahead of us. She has no fear... Every time Jake got off the bike, Annie tried to climb on. At one point, she sat herself down in front of a mudpuddle and started playing. A friend (jokingly) just told me that it makes me white trash if I let my child play in the mud... I never claimed to be otherwise. :)

Anyway, here are pictures of the kids (prior to the white trash mud incident):

Jake, the pro biker

Annie, the pro dirt player

Brother & Sister Love :)

Brother trying to pull off Sister's head

Home With Jake: Much-Needed Blog Material

Jake came in from playing outside with this announcement,
"I want a new name. I'm bored with the name Jake."

"Okay. What do you want your new name to be?"

"Not Birdman because I don't know Bird Language."

He stopped to consider the possibilities, then said,
"How about Monkey Man? No, I have too many weapons to be Monkey Man."

And finally he decided,
"I should be called Optimus Prime."

"Okay, so should I start calling you Optimus Prime?"

"No, from now on, I'm Hot Shot."

He later decided "Hot Shot" was just a name for a toy, so he didn't want to be that. He's been thinking about it all afternoon and has yet to decide on his new name, so for now, please just continue to refer to him as "Jake."

Or "Sir" will probably work, too.

The Family Share Plan...

Well, now that we've all passed this yucky cold back and forth in the family, we're receiving additional shared resources from the extended family. Jake and Granddaddy are now sharing the "Pink Eye Family Plan." Jake is home today and loving it, except for the nasty drops. Otherwise, he feels fine...and is driving me a little crazy. Side note to Ike: very little is getting done housework-wise. Prepare yourself for disaster...

Anyway, in addition to the pinkeye, Dad also shared some great pictures of the kids from last weekend. Annie spent just a couple of hours with everyone, then came home with us so Jake could have some good one-on-one time with the grandparents.

Here's Jake at Nana's desk on the 28th floor of the Wachovia building. He loved seeing the sunset...and playing "Executive."
Annie and Jake on the hammock, or "The Boat," as Jake called it. We've got to get one of those for the backyard...
Jake and Nana walking the trail at Reynolda Gardens. There's an old building along those trails that my parents once told Jake was a castle ruin. To this day he still believes that, and he likes to search for the king and queen while he's in those woods...
Jake crossing the log. Fortunately, he didn't slip. But wouldn't that have been a funny picture? :)

Girlfriends & Philosophy...

So, now that Jake has lost a tooth, he's moved on to his teenage years...

On the way home from drawing class this afternoon, Jake told me about his girlfriend. Anyone remember at the beginning of the school year the girl whose name rhymes with Annie's? Well, she says she loves Jake now. He says he's not sure if he loves her yet, but he may later. And today she kissed him five times on the cheek at naptime. I told him that I think she's cute, and he said, "Don't tell the Sonic team. They don't like girls." The "Sonic team" is his group of friends at school who play Sonic the Hedgehog all through recess. I told him that eventually they'd all start to like girls too (or maybe some of them will like boys, but this wasn't the time for that conversation). His girlfriend, incidentally, is the only girl on the Sonic team, but she's just "Amy," who apparently just sits around waiting to be rescued. By boys who don't like girls... Anyway, she's also on the "Cheetah Girls" team. Very well-rounded.

So, don't tell the Sonic team. Jake has a girlfriend. It won't be long before she'll be moving her towel over to his at naptime and sitting with him at lunch...

My son has also developed quite a...global sense of self. He's just recently started earning an allowance. In order to earn his allowance, he has to keep his room clean, make his bed, wash windows a couple of times a week (something he enjoys doing!), put away his own laundry, and empty small trashcans into the big one in the kitchen. Seems like a lot when I write it down, but really, I'm pretty easy on him. As long as he keeps his room clean and makes his bed, the rest can fall by the wayside.

At any rate, after having two friends over for different playdates this week, his room is a wreck. I told him this afternoon that if his room stayed the way it is, he wouldn't get his allowance on Sunday. He said, "I'll skip it this week."

I said, "Okay, but that means you won't get your money."

"It's not about the money, Mommy."

"Oh? What's it about?"

"It's about Life."

Huh. And here I always thought he would be a pennypincher... Instead he's headed down the poor philosopher path...

Lost Tooth (Literally!)

Jake lost his first tooth sometime tonight! He and a friend were playing in his room, and when I went in to check on him, the tooth was gone. Jake didn't seem worried, and Satya reassured him that if he smiles all night, the Tooth Fairy will see that his tooth is gone, and bring him money even though there's no tooth.

Anybody got a dollar I can borrow tonight??

Wife Swap: What Not To Do

Okay, this post isn't really about "Wife Swap." But I just happen to have it on while I'm typing and this family eats only raw meat and crazy homemade freak foods.

Wow, my family is normal. This is why I like this show.

Anyway, really, here's the update on us.

First thing: Jake has TWO LOOSE TEETH!! We discovered the first one last night, and at the dentist this afternoon, they pointed out that the one beside it is a little loose too. How exciting! Now I understand my friends' paranoia about their kids swallowing their teeth or losing them at school. I'm tempted to just yank the sucker out myself so I know the tooth fairy will get it safely. What's the going rate for the tooth fairy anyway? I'm hoping it's $1.00, so someone correct me if I'm wrong...

Annie now has almost 6 teeth, and she's talking constantly. Her newest word (that probably only Ike or I could understand) is, "Caterpillar." Yes, it comes out, "Ca-pi-r," but it's her favorite book right now, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It's apparently replaced, Go Dog Go, which is called (in Annie speak), "Gog Go." She actually pushed other books away, saying "No ma'am," and shaking her head.

What in the world am I going to do with her when she's a headstrong teenager if she's a headstrong 14-month-old now??

Okay, and here's the big big news: WE HAVE A DISHWASHER. Look, pictures:

Bye bye, old dishwasher.
Hello handsome husband carrying in my dishwasher!
Hello new dishwasher!! I love you!

Happy Valentine's Day!

This year I will try not to make my son cry.

Happy Valentine's Day to all. I love this day. I don't care how many people say that it's a commercial Hallmark holiday. I see nothing wrong with a day devoted to showing the people around you that you love them...

It's fun to celebrate with the kids, too. Not that Annie is "into it" yet, but she did get pretty excited about the package she got from Nana and Granddaddy. They gave her a Dora heart filled with yogurt-covered raisins (which she can eat! Yay!), and Ike and I gave her socks with monkeys and hearts on them. I'm pretty sure she has a Valentine stuffed animal waiting for her at Granny and Papa's house too.

But the most fun is knowing that Jake is celebrating Valentine's Day at school with his friends. They decorated shoeboxes to put their Valentine's in, and this morning I watched from the observation window in the hall as he ran from box to box putting his Power Ranger Valentine's in each one. I teared up just a little, as silly as that sounds. It's just crazy that he's already in school, doing all these things I remember having so much fun doing.

And don't tell him I told you, but there's a little girl at school he thinks is cute. Not in his class ("NOOO!!" was the response when I asked if there were any cute girls in his class), but in another Kindergarten. Some little girl named Caroline...

Ahh, young love... :)

Enjoy your day.

Cool Slideshows

Druid Annie Prepares For Her Ritual

I can't remember who first suggested that Annie looked like a Druid priestess in her beautiful white coat. But there's something to the idea. And so I give you, Annie: The Pagan Princess Prepares.

First she carefully chooses her tools...



She gathers candles for burning...


She surrounds herself with animal sacrifices...


And then she opens her jaws to eat them*!


The work of a baby pagan** is never done...

*No stuffed animals were harmed in the making of these photos.
**This baby is not a real pagan. She just dresses the part.

My favorite things about Saturdays

I'm on my way to bed, but first I want to post a couple of pictures from our Saturday. I love unplanned weekends when we can sit around and do nothing or go out somewhere unexpected...This weekend we've done a little of both... So here are my most recent favorite pictures of my family. At some point, Ike will have a chance to Photoshop out the red-eye in the one of him with the kids and I'll re-post it. I just couldn't wait. :) And I don't know what was going on with Jake and all the tongue-sticking-out ("tongue-stick-outing??"), but Annie thought it was immensely funny...

Following in her aunt's footsteps...

A picture is worth a thousand words. Does this stir something in your mind, Caitlin? Remember doing this in your room as a toddler? I suspect it stirs something in Mom and Dad's minds...grrr...

So, a picture is worth a thousand words. Another roll of border for Annie's room is worth about $9.95...

What? I thought it looked cool...

Okay, some of you will be shocked and astonished to hear this, but...

I know nothing about fashion. I don't know what's currently in style, but even worse, I don't know what's in style even after seeing it in magazines or on tv. I have no sense of style whatsoever, so I dress the same way everyday: one color shirt, one color (jeans or khakis) pants. No variation. It's safe and usually I do okay.

You might also be surprised to hear this: Ike is a member of the Fashion Police. No, really. Apparently, he thinks I can't dress our kids... Like the time I sent Jake to school in a dinosaur turtleneck and a dinosaur sweater (they were hand-me-downs, I thought they were a set)...Ike explained why that looked bad. I still have no idea.

So here's my question. I'm posting this picture of Annie in what she wore today. To be fair to me, I asked Ike last night (yes, I planned this outfit ahead of time) if it matched, and he said yes. To be fair to Ike, he was asleep on the couch at the time.

So, wait. Now here's my question (not above where I said it would be). Does this look bad? Or stylishly funky?



One color shirt, one color pants... A good rule of thumb for dressing the kids too...

New To The List

Ike and I each have a List (inspired by the "Friends" episode in which Ross & Rachel make lists...yes, I'm showing my age). The List includes 5 celebrities that...well, that if we ever somehow had a chance to maybe meet AND they were way into almost-middle-aged noncelebrity types...they're freebies. Go ahead and do whatever you need to do--no questions asked.

In the past my list has included Ice-T, Colin Farrell, Christopher Lee (yes, the old guy)...kind of a hodgepodge mix of men that got older and older. While at the same time, Ike's list started with Helen Hunt...then moved to Sandra Bullock...then to Natalie Portman...and the newest is Lindsay Lohan. So, in other words, while my list aged, his got younger and younger.

Well, now I've got him beat. And I hear that in Great Britain, he's legal.



Welcome to the List, Harry Potter.

Snow Day!

Jake dressed and ready to go. By the time I got Annie dressed and ready to join him, he was ready to come back in. This is why we're not snow people: that stuff is COLD.
Annie enjoying her first HUGE snow.
That's a smile, not a grimace...
This is Jake in what he dubbed, "Relaxing World." While Annie napped, he and I recovered from our time in the blizzard by reading and drawing in his room.


We've finally recovered from the massive blizzard that hit Greensboro today. I'm pretty sure we've almost got a quarter-inch of snow out there... I've got pictures to prove it.

It's been a fun day, despite the lack of an abundance of snow. But I think Jake will be ready to go back to school tomorrow. Earlier when Annie turned off the video he was watching, he yelled, "I wish I'd never had a sister!"

I asked what he thought we should do with her and he said, "Sell her." When I asked how much we should sell her for, he said, "Cheap. Maybe just free."

Hmm...I think big brothers underestimate the worth of their little sisters...

(I, however, fully appreciate my own little sister. Thanks, Caitlin, for letting me know the pictures weren't working!)