Spring Break, Day Five{we made it!}

7 Random Things I Learned This Week:

1. I do not appreciate snow on March 28th. Not even a little bit.

2. Avery & Cayden are such a big help. Seriously. I figured they'd help a little here and there, (when they felt like it) but they make life with a baby so much easier.

Cayden loves to help empty the dishwasher (which is huge because I hate to do it). I don't even mind when the silverware drawer ends up looking like this:

Avery has started walking Josie through the house... such a help on the back:
Both kids happily help with the baby-feeding:

Avery loves nothing more than to read to Josie when she wakes up in the morning or after a nap... a win/win:

3. As big a help as A & C are, it is so nice to get a break from them (that doesn't sound mean, does it?). My mom took them to lunch this afternoon, and they are having a sleepover with their Uncle Joe tonight. It's always nice to have the chance to have an "only child" again, even for a little bit.

4. Now that the auction craziness has died down, I'm in desperate need of a new project. I will definitely wait until we settle into our new schedule of classes this week... and it absolutely has to be something that is done by June 11th (last day of school). I'm thinking about starting a backyard garden. Those of you who know me personally can stop laughing now. I'm serious. Of course it won't be done by June 11th, my number one rule. But presumably the hard work would be done by then?

5. School is good. And it should be funded better. We uncovered a pretty big auction snafu this week, which just highlights the fact that parent volunteers with little-to-no experience shouldn't be expected to shoulder such a huge fundraising burden. That's my rant for the day.

6. New shows start again next week. We don't watch a lot of TV (well.....), but I am so sick of crappy reality shows. Although I have discovered a wonderfully awful new one, "High School Reunion." Trust me... it's pretty bad.

7. Cayden's birthday is 3 weeks from today (seriously, I didn't realize this until this morning). Holy crap. He's going to be 6. And I'm assuming he would appreciate some presents... we better get on that. He is so hard to shop for.

Spring Break, Day Four{noodles and bowling and a broken cell phone}

Although Avery is still battling quite a cough, we followed through with our plans to meet up with friends for some lunch and some good old-fashioned bowling. Avery's been friends with K since preschool but they each headed off to different elementary schools 4 years ago so they don't see each other very often. I see K's mom a lot more frequently so I forget that the girls only see each other every few months, during school breaks. Sometimes they have a tough time reconnecting but they seemed to have a good time today.

After a yummy lunch, we headed up to Hollywood Bowl. As soon as we walked in the door, poor Josie freaked out like I have never seen her freak out before. She was petrified, shaking every time someone threw a bowling ball and knocked down pins (which kind of happens a lot at a bowling alley). This happened once before at an auction planning meeting but I didn't realize it was a deep-seeded phobia of bowling alleys! It took about 4 frames to calm her down and as a result, I didn't get to do any bowling. Maybe it's time for a parents-only night out at the swanky, newly-remodeled Grand Central Lanes. Looks way too nice for kids!

The only thing that seemed to calm Josie down was holding my cell phone. I never have let her get her hands on my phone before, because I was sure she would break it. Sure enough.... as soon as I tried to use it, I realized that the ear piece was broken and now I can only use it on speaker phone. Unfortunately, I know from experience that this ailment is a direct cause of "water damage" (ie. baby drool) and will end up costing more to repair than to replace. My bad.
Oh well, I always hated that phone.

UPDATE: The phone magically repaired itself on Friday. No iPhone for me yet.

Spring Break, Day Three {a good balance}

We're finally starting to get into our Spring Break groove here at the Wagner house. It's only Wednesday so I figure we're doing alright. By the time we have our routine down pat, it will be Monday and we all know what that means (thank goodness).

Avery wasn't feeling well all day, and even took a brief nap, which is very rare for her! I feel awful when any of my kids aren't feeling well but the silver lining with any child's illness is the lower energy level that accompanies it. Avery is currently the easiest (by far) of all 3 kids but it still makes a big difference when she's got even a little less energy. We were planning to go bowling but we put that off a day with the hopes that some friends will be able to join us tomorrow.

We spent the whole morning at home, waiting for yet another contractor to give us yet another porch and fence estimate (at first I typed "force and pence" and could not figure out why that sounded wrong). The guy was supposed to come at 10:30 but never showed. He eventually came by, totally unexpectedly, at 3:30. Is it just me or is that the epitome of unprofessionalism (not that that's a real word)? As far as I'm concerned, I'd be more likely to do both jobs myself than to hire him... so his chances are really, really, really bad.

We headed downtown in the afternoon for some lunch with Daddy and to return a broken necklace that we got Yaya (my mother-in-law) for her birthday. Josie was quite happy to sit by the fountain at Pioneer Place all day and since it was freezing outside, we obliged.

A nice (homemade!) dinner and a walk in between rain showers rounded out the day... nothing that would normally be exciting enough to blog about, but I couldn't break the trend for the week. Oh, and it snowed in the west hills today. It's March 26th but whatever.

Spring Break, Day Two {no school + omsi = chaos}

In an attempt to avoid the endless day that was yesterday, we decided to head out to OMSI for the afternoon. I thought we would be super-smart and go in the early afternoon so we could avoid the long Spring Break lines. Well, typical for me, we showed up at the very busiest point possible. See that white tent in the background of the above photo? That was where the overflow ticket line from inside the building wound around and around 5-6 times. We waited 30 minutes just to buy tickets (bad decision to let that membership lapse!)... and magically, by the time we had tickets in hand, the line behind us consisted of about 5 people and the outdoor tent was no longer needed.

Once inside, the kids had a great time. Cayden amazed me again by getting the infamous ring off of the infamous horseshoes (the whole reason he wanted to go to OMSI in the first place), a feat that I would be sure was impossible if I hadn't seen him do it with my own eyes twice. We also spent a good deal of time in the "baby room," and Josie was actually able to play and interact with other babies! I really need to be better about getting her some playmates her own age that she sees on a regular basis.

Note to self: That's my #1 goal for the fall when Cayden will be in school all day. Better late than never, right?

Along the way, we ran into our old neighbors (along with about 25 gazillion other folks!), which was such a nice surprise. This couple has a son who's 9 months younger than Avery, and the two of them used to play every day until the family moved about 4 or 5 years ago. Avery claimed that she did not remember her long-lost friend at all, but he remembered her and apparently talks about her all the time (aww, shucks). We've done a horrible job keeping in touch and it turns out they are just about to move to Florida, so I'm so happy we ran into them today!

After 3 hours of dinosaurs and paper airplanes and balls and bridges, everyone was tired and ready to go home. I knew that I needed a quick sugar rush and figured everyone else did too, so we made a pit stop at the cafe to get some ice cream. After settling for sharing my Crunch Bar, Josie decided that she much prefers ice cream on a spoon, thank you. The thought of having to bite it off a stick was not her idea of a good time. See how miserable she looks? Poor girl. :)

All in all, today was a big improvement from yesterday... which wasn't a bad day to begin with, like I said. It was nice to have a day at home to get the house organized but the change of scenery today was crucial. All of this has been a good reassurance that this new "unschooling" craze is not for me (not that I ever thought it was).

Spring Break, Day One {and i'm using the term "break" very loosely}

I've been looking forward to Spring Break since Christmas... the thought of not having to shuttle the kids to and from school, the notion that I might get to sleep in a wee bit, the dream of sunny days spent outside. And then there was today. It wasn't a bad day by any means, but holy #*&! it was a long one. Sleeping in? No such luck. Not with a baby in the house, who really couldn't care less if it's Spring Break or March or Wednesday or 2015. And not with a 7-year-old & a 5-year-old who have the most freakishly-predictable internal clocks of anyone I've ever met. Seriously, nothing alters their wake-up time. It's always 6:45 on the dot. The Monday after daylight savings time? 6:45 on the dot. The morning after a sleepover where Avery stayed up until ONE IN THE MORNING watching a movie? 6:45 on the dot. They've become our human alarm clocks because we know we can depend on them. So by 8:00 we were off and running today.

Breakfast
Load & Run Dishwasher
5 Games of Poker
Shower for Me
Webkinz
Laundry
Contractor {Porch & Fence Estimate}
Nap for Jojo
Laundry
At least 5 More Games of Poker
Uno Spin
Snacks for Avery & Cayden
Unload Dishwasher/Reload
Showers for Avery & Cayden
Grocery Store
Gas Station

And before I knew it {???}, it was all of 12:00 noon.

This "break" isn't all it was cracked up to be. I'm hoping to fill the remaining 4 days with some out-of-the-house activities so I don't lose my mind.

***On a really good side note, my mother-in-law had a very successful surgery on her foot today... to redo the not-so successful surgery from last July that has kept her in constant pain ever since. I was so relieved to hear that everything went well today.

The Portland Tram, by Avery

On Saturday we went on the tram for the very first time. We went up and then we went back down. We went with our friend, Linda. I liked going up because I liked how it swung back and forth. I liked going down because I liked the good view. Here is a video of going up if you have never been on. You can see me and Cayden in the window! If you've never been on the tram, you're missing out on a lot of fun.

Happy Easter!, by Cayden

When we woke up, we went downstairs and saw our baskets. In my basket, I had some empty eggs, a book called "Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook" and a Webkinz animal. I also got $5 in my golden egg. There was a list that told us how many eggs we needed to find. I found lots of eggs and we were looking for Josie's but I had some of hers in my basket.

My Webkinz is a frog and I named him Toady John. When you go onto the Webkinz website, it starts you off with a bed, a basketball, and there's games that you can play in the arcade. And you can look for gems.

Avery got 3 Littlest Pet Shop animals and a karaoke CD and $5 in her golden egg. Josie got a book called "Sisters" and a Care Bear. She also got $5 in her golden egg.

Cirque du Soleil

We were lucky enough to get tickets to Cirque du Soleil's Corteo for Christmas from our good friend Linda, and the show was this afternoon. It was truly outstanding and amazing and every other cliche word one can think of. The set is so imaginative and ornate, and the talent of the performers is just unreal. There was live music and singing, which really added to the feel of the whole show. Besides the fact that I was feeling very anxious by the end of the 2 hours, 45 minutes because it was the longest that I've ever left Josie during the daytime (4 hours in 10.5 months; sad but true), I enjoyed every minute of it.

I would have to say that my favorite act was the straps. This youtube video isn't the same version that we saw but you can certainly get the right idea. The woman is not attached to any kind of harness (just like most of the performers throughout the show), and is holding herself up with the straps as she flies through the air doing all sorts of acrobatics. Yikes.

Avery: "It was awesome. I wish I could be an acrobat. My favorite part was when they bounced each other off the seesaw."

Cayden: "My favorite part was when they were juggling."

Andrew's favorite act was a trampoline/acrobatic performance called "Paradise." The men that were swinging the other performers around from 40 feet in the air were strapped to their platforms (thank goodness) and you could see how hard they were working to get the dancers flying through the air.

Other memorable acts included the Helium Dance, Tournik, Chandeliers, and of course the Tightrope Walker. Sorry for all the links and photos but it's truly a sight to be seen. If you're in the area and have the chance to catch the show, I'd highly recommend it (they're here until April 13th). Especially if you can get tickets for Christmas! :)

Thanks, Linda!!

Deep Thoughts in the Wagner House

On Religion

Avery ambushed me as I was putting my shoes one morning last week.

"Do you believe in Jesus?"

7:15 is an awfully early time of day to field such queries, so I went with the standard parent response, "Hmmm...well what do you know about Jesus?"

The quick reply of, "Nothing," was almost certainly a fib. Avery not only has classmates from every populated continent and from several major religions, but is also a master eavesdropper. She may not go to Sunday School, but she knows something about these things.

"Well," I said, having been raised Catholic but having later become a nonpracticing agnostic, "I believe that Jesus was alive and had some important things to say. Some other people think..."

Avery was quick to cut me off with one of her most common, disturbingly teenager-like phrases, which she pronounces as a single word: "I-'on'-care". As in, "I don't care. More information than I care to process right now, old man. I have things to do." Off the hook, I continued tying my shoes.

"Do you believe in God?"

"Hmmm...well, what do you know about God?" (Remember to always start any difficult conversation with a child in this manner. It gives you time to think, while potentially saving you from revealing more information than the poor child was looking for)

"Nothin'."

Foiled again, I responded, "Well, a lot of people believe that God is this...well...like a person, except that God can do whatever God wants, and that God created the Earth, and that..."

"Nevermind. I-'on'-care," she replied, slinking off to play a game of solitaire before school.

On Death

Cayden must have seen how productive our little chat was, because after work he had some more light conversation fodder.

"When you die, you never come back, and everything else keeps going forever."

Conversations like these are never much of a surprise with Cayden. The boy has been fascinated and terrified by the concept of death for as long as he has been able to talk (and maybe before--who knows?). As a much younger child, he would often blurt out, "I'm scared of being dead." It was never a panicked sort of sentiment. Just a statement of fact.

Cayden also believes in something like the Scientific Method of posing questions--state a hypothesis and test it by waiting for an adult to confirm or refute it. "I know I can't play video games," was always his way of asking to play video games until we started ignoring it.

He reiterated the 'question', "You go away forever, and all the other people and the Earth and everything all stay and keep going forever."

"Well," I said, "you don't ever come back. That's true. But nobody really knows what happens. A lot of people don't think you're just gone. Some people believe that you are born again as a new person or animal. Some people believe in this place called Heaven where you live forever and everything is perfect. Some people believe your spirit just keeps going."

Skeptical, Cayden responded, "What's a spirit?"

"Well, you're Cayden, right? And if you cut your hair, are you still Cayden?"

"Yeah."

"And if you get your arm cut off, are you still Cayden?"

Cayden cocked his head to one side and squinted, trying to conceal a smile. "Yeeaah," he said, drawing it out as if to say, "I think I know where you're going with this, but don't stop."

"So maybe if your whole body dies, you're still Cayden. Maybe Cayden's spirit keeps going."

"Huh," he muttered. Then, after a long pause and a grin, "I like that Heaven idea."

So while my mere existence may be enough to irritate a seven-year-old out of her natural curiosity, at least I can still provide comfort to a five-year-old.

Dancing Machine, by Josie

I must dance.
All the time.
Even when the music's done.

Ballet Recital

Avery had her quarterly ballet recital yesterday afternoon. She's been in this same class for a few years now (she does not want to move to the next class, thank you very much) and her totally amazing teacher is the mom of one of her best friends (hence the reason she doesn't want to move on, I suspect). I uploaded the performance to you tube... if I did everything right, you can watch it below (beware, it's a bit long). The girls are used to practicing in front of the mirrors so you'll notice that they don't take their eyes off their teacher (who is to their left) throughout the whole performance. (And I'm beginning to think I use parentheses too much.)

But who will we blame now?

I stumbled upon a very interesting article today from livescience.com, via good ol' Yahoo! Sure enough, it turns out that immigration does not in fact lead to sky-rocketing crime rates as many people (who shall remain nameless, of course) would love for us to believe. According to this particular study, "...concentrated immigration predicts lower rates of violence...." Perhaps even more interesting, the analysis showed that "...first-generation immigrants were 45 percent less likely to commit violence that third-generation Americans." Seems that the motivation to work, ambition, and a desire to not to be deported are characteristics that predispose immigrants (especially Mexicans) to low crime. Go figure.

On a similar note, I've never considered myself a fan of Geraldo Rivera {he always struck me as kind of slimy, even when he got his nose broken during the taping of his talk show eons ago} but I've been hearing a lot about his new book, HisPanic and would be curious to read his take on why Americans are so fearful of Hispanic immigrants. For now, I prefer to read about books than to try and find the time to read the actual books themselves. Better yet, if he could just turn the book into a documentary, I'd be all over that.

Kiss Kiss

All this week, Jojo's been showering everyone with (sloppy, sometimes snotty, open-mouth) kisses! It has to be one of the sweetest things I have ever seen, if I do say so myself.

She is also officially waving "bye-bye" and "night-night." She's changing so fast, it's hard to keep up!

The Really Long Playdate, by Avery

On Saturday I had a really long playdate with my friend S. We went to see "Horton Hears a Who" and then we had a sleepover at her house. We had pizza, tomatoes and carrots for dinner. We went to bed at 9:00 and woke up at 7:00. For breakfast, we had pancakes with syrup.

My mom came to pick me up at 11:00 and we took S too. We played at my house for a while and had lunch. Then, we went to see "Honk! The Ugly Duckling." It was funny. We also brought my friend E. We picked her up at 1:30. We took pictures of ourselves in the car on the way there.

After the play we brought E and S home. I had a fun time with them.

Progress

Slowly but surely, Josie is getting more confident with her walking. She used to just plant her feet firmly on the ground the second she didn't have a hand to hold, but now she'll actually stand on her own for a few moments without freaking out. She is also turning into quite the proficient cruiser (when she doesn't step on her own feet), walking along the couch to get to toys. She is definitely picky about which toys are worth the effort, though. Blocks: yes. Keys: no chance.

In an effort to ease the back pain of the adults in the house, I have introduced Josie to "stick walking." Luckily, we just happened to have the perfect-sized stick, thanks to Cayden who "accidentally" kicked out one of the railings from his bed {arg}. For now, she still needs someone to hold the stick because she leans too far forward, but she's getting the hang of it quickly. The girl just needs to move!

{Photography courtesy of Cayden}

Cayden-isms

Just a few of Cayden's more memorable comments from the past week, because I'll forget if I don't write them somewhere:

"I don't want to go to first grade unless Mrs. B (K teacher) can still be my teacher. I want her to be my teacher every year and in high school and in college. Well... will she be dead by then?"

"Everything has germs on it. Some new things are made from old things so they automatically have germs on them. Or things that they use to make new things have germs on them and get them onto the new things."

"I love being with Josie. I like to spend time with her almost as much as watching TV."

"This is the best dinner ever. And I really mean it this time."

"How do people learn words?" {When I explained that babies learn by repetition, like we do with Josie, he was even more confused.} "No, but how did the very first people learn words?"

Along those lines... "When someone made up the very first word, how did he explain to everyone what the word meant if there weren't more words to explain it with?"

The boy is obsessed with the very first of everything. Where did the very first people come from? How about the very first animals? And you can't forget the very first germs. He makes me tired. But in a good way.

Allergic to Spring

I never had any allergies until the Spring of 2002, when I was very pregnant with Cayden. We went to the zoo in March of that year and I literally thought I'd have to be carried out on a stretcher. Between the pollen and all that wild animal dander, I was miserable. Each year since then, right around the second week of March (I know that because it's always auction time), those allergies have hit again. And hit hard. I have no doubt I could make the situation a million times better by actually taking some medication, but I'm always very hesitant to take anything (especially when I'm nursing) so I just deal with it. And complain.

I love early Spring but man I can't wait for it to be over.

Auction Night Recap

{Unfortunately, this is the ONLY picture I got all night... the school name has been erased}

Well, well... another auction night has come and gone. All those months of hard work and the event was done in about 5 hours! All in all, it was SO MUCH FUN. This was the school's 6th auction and the first that was not held in a traditional ballroom. There was some new blood on the auction committee so the powers-that-be decided to switch things up a bit and host the auction at a bowling alley. In addition to the silent and live auctions, we all took part in a good old-fashioned bowling tournament (our lane came pretty close to winning the coveted trophy but in the end, it wasn't meant to be).

The official numbers have not been tallied up yet, but it doesn't appear that we made quite as much as last year. That could depend on any number of things: the apparent downturn in the economy (even George W. Bush sees it now!), the overwhelming number of awesome items that were procured (!), the $1 shooters (cherry, grape or pink lemonade flavor--yikes), or the fact that folks were a bit distracted by all the fun bowling. Either way, it was an amazing night... just what lots of us parents needed. We came away with a couple of items... an American Girl outfit for Avery's doll, a party for Cayden at the Nickel Arcade, and an outing for Avery & Cayden at the zoo with their principal this summer! We also scored these sweet hand-made blocks that were decorated by the second graders (the top 4 were decorated by Avery herself: A is for acorn, X is for xyliphone, I is for ice cream and O is for obsurvation):

Most importantly (for us anyway), Josie did awesome during her first bedtime without us! My mom came to stay with all 3 kids and we hear that Josie went to bed without much fuss at all. As Andrew posted yesterday, she's been going to bed without nursing for the past week or so now... hallelujah! :)

**For another perspective on auction night (and to see one of the super-cute class projects), check out Crabby Amy's blog (whose name does not suit her very well, in my opinion).**

The New Old King of Bedtime

There are few joys in a father's life that match that of getting a baby to fall sleep. That surprising moment, after much fussing and crying, after the "bundle of joy" has refused the milk, after you have said, "I'll try" without having the slightest clue what you're about to try, when it suddenly becomes apparent that (holy $#&*) this might just work, is exhilarating and terrifying all at the same time. Exhilarating because you have just caused a tiny, illogical little alien to fall asleep by performing some completely random, illogical routine. Terrifying because you know that the very same routine is almost guaranteed not to work next time, and there promise to be a lot of next times between now and the development of rational thought.

Over the past ten months, my own set of routines have managed to put Josie down on numerous occasions, and have failed probably five times as often as they have succeeded. It all started in the hospital when I had the touch. Strange person holds Josie, Josie cries. Daddy picks up Josie, Josie goes to sleep. Daddy is awesome.

Slowly and surely, however, Josie would succumb to the power of milk. Day after day, night after night, you would find her falling asleep attached to her mother. It was only in the most desperate hour when all else had failed that I would say, "Uh...I'll try". My first attempt was to stand in the dark living room, and march in place. Vigorously. Like I was leading a marching band. I would like to say that I had some grand vision with the marching technique, but let's be honest--I was standing in a dark living room with a crying baby, and I needed to do something. We had tried not marching for a good hour and she was still crying. So I marched. And Josie stopped crying and fell asleep.

Of course, within a week or two, Josie had become embarrassed that her dad was marching in place in the living room and decided she would no longer cooperate. Times had changed, and I had no choice but to change with them. So I began dancing. By this time, Josie was sleeping primarily in her crib, and was becoming more aware of her surroundings. So aware, in fact, that she could focus her eyes on a bright spot coming through the door even as I marched. The dance solved this problem. If you were ever an eighth-grade boy at a school dance, this routine should sound familiar.

1. Step right with your right foot.


2. Step right with your left foot, so as to bring your feet together.


3. Step left with your left foot.


4. Step left with your right foot, to again bring your feet together.


5. Repeat.

Yes, I was doing the "I don't know how to dance" dance, which allowed me to jostle the baby in a manner similar to the marching, but which also prevented her from focusing her eyes on anything. As her eyes became more sophisticated, I developed a sexy half-twist to the dance and upped the tempo. Think 8th-grade boy, at a rave, doing the dance to a version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with a house beat. Lame as it may sound, this technique worked for a long time.

When Josie's continued mental advancement ruined the effectiveness of my dance, I was at a loss. I had nothing. My attempts at simple rocking and singing were mostly failures. Then came the announcement I had been waiting for: Josie was ready for cow's milk. She has begun the journey toward a sane bedtime--rocking with her dad, babbling, slapping a book about animals, drinking from a sippy cup the nutritious white juice that nature intended (for baby cows), and then lying down and going to sleep. I'm back, baby. Hopefully for good this time.

My Teacher's Last Day, by Avery

Friday March, 7th was my teacher's last day of school. My teacher's name is Mrs.D-B. It was her last day because she is pregnant. Her baby is due about March 22nd. We don't know if it's a boy or a girl. It is her second baby. She already has a 3 year old girl who is cute.

On my teacher's last day we had an author's tea. An author's tea is where we get all of our books that we wrote and go to the library and read them to our family and there is cookies and apple juice. My mom, my dad, my sister and my brother came to author's tea and I read 6 books.

That day I felt really, really sad because it was my teacher's last day. Mrs. D-B will not be my teacher for the rest of the school year and I'm really going to miss her. My favorite thing about being in Mrs. D-B's class is the "B" Bucks store. "B" Bucks are paper bucks that we can earn if we don't get in trouble. Then you can spend them at the "B" Bucks store and buy things like stickers, "bring your stuffed animal for a day," and other stuff. Instead of Mrs. D-B, my teacher will be Ms. G. I like Ms. G. Ms. G will start being my teacher Monday, March 10th. I will really miss Mrs. D-B.

10 Months...

Wow... it's been a month since Josie's last "birthday?" This month has flown by so fast and Jojo has continued to grow and change so much. She has started "talking" up a storm, with several almost-words in her vocabulary. She can say some variation of doggie, cat/kitty, Cayden, Sissy, night-night, Dada (still no Mama!)... and more I'm sure. We have all but given up on the notion that she will crawl. People told us with Avery that if she never learned to crawl she'd never learn to read, which is clearly ridiculous, so we're not too worried. We've just accepted the fact that our kids don't crawl. Must be something in the genes. Josie still loves to walk while holding onto fingers, although she has shown us that she's capable of standing (and even taking a small step) on her own before she realizes that she's not holding onto anything and panics. Avery & Cayden both started walking between 10-11 months so I don't think it will be too long before Josie's on the go. She is very intrigued by our basement steps so we need to look into a good, strong gate ASAP.

I'll leave you all with a couple of sleeping-baby pictures, just because they're so cute. Andrew will be mortified to see this first photo being shown to the world... he hates the fact that Josie sleeps with a blanket over her face. But, she's done it for a long time now so I think it's fine.

P.S. Happy Birthday Yaya!! :)

Perhaps....

....it's time to move Josie to the big tub. You think?



If that wasn't bad enough, this is how she ended up a few moments later:

Boys Will Be Boys

A conversation I overheard from the back seat on the way home from school this afternoon, between Cayden and his friend Z:

{Amy, I thought you'd get a kick out of this!}

Z: "I love scrambled eggs."
C: "I hate scrambled eggs. I don't even eat one bite when my mom makes them."
Z: "I like all eggs. Except green eggs and ham. You should never eat green eggs and ham."
C: "I've never had green eggs and ham but I bet I wouldn't like them. What do green eggs taste like?"
Z: "They're horrible. You should never eat them, they taste like playdough."
C: "I kind of like the way playdough smells."
Z: "Yeah, me too. And I like the way it tastes too."
C: "You eat playdough?"
Z: "I used to. I would sneak little pieces of it. But only at preschool."
C: "Yeah, me too."

What a Sweetie

Now that Cayden can write (& cut out hearts), he loves to make little notes for the whole family. Our refrigerator is home to several little messages from him that I can't bear to throw away. Yesterday he disappeared into the art room for a few minutes and returned with this sweet little note. And no, it doesn't say "pissy," it says "bissy"... er, I mean "busy." Perhaps I was letting my stress show a little too much!

Our House...

Today is a monumental day for The Wagners Five... It's the 8th anniversary of when we moved into our house! The reason I remember that (besides having a crazy ability to remember dates) is that we moved into each of our last 3 apartments/homes all on March 4th. It's also the anniversary of when we started dating, way back in the 1900's (or "The Olden Days," as Cayden calls them). I thought I would share some of my favorite spots* in our house, similar to the flickr set, "Corners of My Home".

Our house was built in 1906, but has very few original features left. We have 2 windows that are original to the house, and although they do let in some air, I wouldn't dare change them. This set of windows is in our staircase. So much more interesting than blank wall space. I just noticed now that the photo is a tad blurry but I assume you get the point.

It took us a few years, but we have now officially repainted every wall in the house. When we moved in, there was wall-to-wall forest green carpet (that lasted until about March 5th) and every wall was "institutional off-white" (I believe that's the technical term for it). Desperately needing to add some color, some might argue that we have gone a little overboard. The room shown above would traditionally be a kitchen nook, but it got taken over very quickly and is now the kids' art room, one of my favorite rooms in the house. It is great to have a place for Avery & Cayden to put all of their art supplies and having them readily available provides a great deal of entertainment for them. The orange used to cover the ceiling as well but it was only a day or two before I even agreed that it needed to go.

This last photo is one of my favorite projects that we had done. Our dining room used to be a bedroom way back in the day (long before we lived here), so when we moved in there was a standard-sized clothes closet along one wall. It was an eyesore and served no purpose at all. At some point we got the idea to have a china cabinet built into that space. The carpenter we hired had a great eye and knew exactly how to make it work perfectly. We often get comments about what good condition our "100-year-old" china cabinet is in. You'll also notice, it's where I keep my Chinook Book.

{*Most of the very best spots were too messy to photograph last night, so I had to make do!}

We're In Print!

A friend of mine from Avery & Cayden's school is a freelance writer for Metro Parent, a local magazine for... you guessed it, parents. A couple months ago, she asked if she could interview me about different trips we've taken with the kids. I had forgotten all about it until she emailed me to let me know the story had been printed. If you're interested in yet another picture of our kids with a couple of their buddies (pre-Josie)... take a look! The story has lots of good tips for traveling with young ones.

Speaking of traveling with young kids, I'm trying to convince the older kids to forgo the huge blow-out birthday parties this year in exchange for a summer trip. Truth be told, we'd probably take the trip even if they didn't agree to doing away with the big parties, but why not shoot for the moon? Birthday parties have come a long way from the backyard get-togethers of my day and have become a lot of work. Maybe it's just the thought of having one in April, May, and July that has turned me off to the idea. We had already decided that "friend parties" from here on out will be gift-free, so I'm hoping that will help said trip win out in the end.

We're (I'm) thinking of heading to Legoland and SeaWorld, and avoiding the D-Word until Josie is a little older. Shhhh... don't tell the kids how close we will be! Cayden is definitely intrigued by Legoland but promises there is no way he "would ever, ever, ever want to go" to SeaWorld. Oh, and he does not want to go on a plane again. Looks like I might have some persuading to do before summer.

Tae-Kwon-Do Test, by Cayden

Today I passed my tae-kwon-do test. It was kind of hard. I was testing for another silver tip on my belt. Tips are pieces of tape that are colored and you first you get orange, and then another orange, and then silver, and then another silver, and then you get another color belt. Right now I have a white belt with 2 orange and 2 silver tips. I just got my second silver today. When I pass my next test, I will get a white belt/yellow stripe. In my test, I needed to do a roundhouse kick, a rising block and 10 moves of chon-ji:



I didn't need help with anything. I was in the front row because I have the most tips in my class. When my class is done in 2 weeks, I get to go to a higher or harder class.

Easter Bunny!

On a whim, we (meaning Avery) thought it might be fun to introduce Josie to the Easter Bunny and see what she thought of him/her. Much to our surprise, she thought he/she was the best thing ever so we (meaning Avery) decided to pay a small fortune for a photo with Mr./Ms. Bunny.

As a service to our throngs of loyal readers, I felt it was my duty to point out some details in the photo that might otherwise go unnoticed. In other words, I was bored while Josie was napping.

(Note: This is a complete and total rip-off of all the cool photos that Christie creates with an undoubtedly better program than we have at our disposal.)

Welcome, March!

We've been waiting a long time for March! It's been a long, dreary, cold winter in these parts, although the end of February really turned out to be pretty nice. But, March brings along with it the promise of spring... longer days, warmer afternoons, flowers starting to bloom (and sometimes late-season snow but let's not talk about that!).

I'm starting to feel like one of those curmudgeons who complains all the time about the weather. But now that it's March, it will be sunny every day and I promise to stop. :)