Happy Birthday, Aunt Kim!

Today is the first day of my mini-vacation. I am taking three days off…added to the weekend and the Labor Day holiday, I will have six days off altogether. Yea! I am SO EXCITED!! We have been looking forward to this for a while. Last night, I reminded the kids that my “six days” start today, and Beanie said, “Mommy, when are you gonna stay home for ten days?” Aww!

Conquering the Playground

Pookspeak

Today, after lunch...

Me: "You can have one piece of chocolate and either a gummy orange slice or two gummy bears."
Pook: "Hmm. You're the mommy picker candier seller, huh?"

"Please accept my resignation..."

Bitty woke up while I was getting ready today. He wandered into the bathroom, rubbing his eyes, and said, "You...you go wort today mom?" I told him yes and then he said, "You not go wort today mom. You...you stay home. Pease?"

I had no idea, when Pookie was a baby, that it would only get harder to leave them!

Bean in Hiding

While I was drying my hair this morning, Beanie woke up and came wandering into the bathroom. Apparently she was having trouble seeing through her squinty eyes because she kept bumping into things. Finally she pulled her towel down off the rack, wrapped up in it, climbed into the laundry cupboard, and closed the door behind her. After a couple minutes, I heard a squeak and turned around. All I could see through the little hatch door was two squinty eyes and a big Beanie smile!

Later this morning, at Cat’s:

Me: “You can’t have Pig here unless you’re going to share him, and I don’t think you want to do that.”
Bean: “I will share Pig with Xi. (pause) But when Lo comes, I will hide him behind my back like this!”
Me: “Maybe Pig would like to go to work with me today.”
Bean: “He does want to go to your wort! But on'y Miss Joan can see him.”
Me: “Is Pig a boy or a girl?”
Bean (exasperated): “He is a girl!”

Whose kids are these?

The last time I checked, I had two little girls and a baby boy. Today when I looked around I found three big kids and no baby! Here's Bitty in his first centerfold shot of the summer. He is so big!

Tracy has drill this weekend so the kids and I have been hangin' out. Yesterday we went to the park for a couple hours to get out of the house.

I was completely amazed when Beanie climbed to the top of the wooden playscape, grabbed the fireman's pole, swung her legs out, and scooted down it. There is a new climbing wall at the big playscape, probably 7 feet tall or so. As soon as she spotted it, she ran over and climbed right up! She paused for a minute at the top, where she had to swing her legs over, but she quickly figured that out. I have photos and video from the playground coming soon.

There is also a new bench swing and all three kids enjoyed that. From the swing we had a great view of the high dive at the pool and they were amazed at the people who did flips and twists and fancy dives. On the phone last night, Bitty told Tracy "and don' forget to buy a dive board an' bring it home so we can dive!"

Pookie's favorite part of the outing was walking down the drainage ditch. It is dry and full of big rocks so it's fun to play in. There's a nice trail that runs alongside and she sprinted up and down that a few times. She really likes to run.

Here's a conversation that I just had with our mild-mannered eldest child.

She was holding Charro, who jumped down, leaving a scratch behind.

Pook: "Jesus!"
Me (cringing): "Don't say that please."
Pook: "Dammit!"

Lookin' for a milk bank...

Since Bitty started spending time with Xi, who still nurses some, he's become fascinated with "mum-mums." Every now and then he pulls up my shirt and says, "Where are you mum-mums?" or, "Wan' mum-mums!" I've told him that my mum-mums don't have any milk but that really doesn't seem to phase him! Last night he climbed into my lap and said, "Wan' lay lite a baby," and layed back in my arms. Then he tried to pull my shirt up and said, "Wan mum-mums!" I told him that I didn't have any milk for babies anymore. So then he said, "Wan mum-mums. You needa buy some!"