In A Blink of an Eye

It seems like only yesterday Greyson turned 5 and now....


he's sporting the facial hair, just like Daddy (though Raif has never had the sweet Charlie Chaplin/Luigi 'stache)!!

Happy Birthday Cooper

To my favorite eternal puppy!!

The Quinncess and Rambo

We had an interesting juxtaposition of activities yesterday. Quinn had class pictures and picked out her prettiest dress to wear (and look it ISN'T pink, we are making progress). Greyson had "Fight Off Bad Habits" day (part of their healthy living series at school) and got to wear camo to school. So now I present to you.....the Quincess and Rambo (neither of them very happy).


PS This will be the closest Greyson ever gets to hunting and/or military service.

Flashback Friday

(Don't we all wish that 70's style would return....)

The Wordsmith

So last week her obsession was numbers. Learning to count to 100, learning to count by twos and fives and tens and even trying a little addition with her brother's head knocking system.

This week it is writing. While we had a little time before school she let me know that she was going to help her doll Sadie learn to write, which is interesting because she has shown little to know interest in it thus far. So after a couple of minutes she came back, all on her own, with the first sentence....


So we need to work a little on our spacing and our subject verb agreement but otherwise a spectacular first shot at writing. She asked me for another sentence to write so I gave her the second one. As always, way to go Quinn!

The Italian Job

My son has a lot of little quirks. One of the most endearing, I think, is the fact that he talks with his hands...A LOT. Honestly, I wouldn't be greatly surprised if our endocrinologist called one day and said they mixed up my egg with some Italian ones. You can always tell how excited he is about a story by watching how much he uses his hands (though I dare say I could do without the endless glasses of milk being spilled at dinner while he shares with us stories of his day).

These past couple weeks in school Greyson's class has been starting to learn simple addition or as they call it 'counting on.' It didn't surprise me in the least that he would use his hands to add...what surprised me is how he uses them.....



Notice anything interesting there? Yes, that's right he knocks his head each and every time he adds then uses his fingers to count on. At first I thought the head knocking was some sort of trick that his teacher taught him at school so I asked her about it at our last parent teacher conference. No, she says, she doesn't know where it came from. At this point I went directly to the source and asked Greyson.

"Ms. Kay says that we are suppose to start with the first number in our head and then count on so I am putting the first number in my head."

Well there you go, apparently he is knocking that first number in (or out of depending on your point of view) his head. Of course, Quinn having to do everything that Greyson does, is insisting on adding too and of course is pretty good at it and of course is knocking that first number in her head too. So I now have two head knocking adders in the house.

I can't wait to see what he does when they get to multiplication!

Welcome Back Old Friend

It just seems like yesterday that Greyson was bringing Corduroy home as part of the friendship series at school and now it is Quinn's turn. And while two years have gone by (really has it been THAT long) apparently some things are still the same around here....


(Just look at those cheeks....my baby has grown up so much in these past two years. Oh my.)

Sign of The Times

In these hard economic times all industries are tightening their credit belts, even imaginary restaurants.

Today I went to dinner at Chez Erim and before I even sat down at the table the waitress asked for my credit card. When I kindly informed her that you usually don't pay until AFTER the meal the chef from the back piped up.

"It's the law. We have to take your credit card before you eat."

"Yes," replied the waitress "we want to make sure you have enough money before you eat."

Ouch.

Raif vs. Me

When I am in charge of snow days, we read snow books, we play snow games, we do learning games.

When Raif is in charge, they do this....

Flashback Friday

So you may remember back in December I told you about the new project I am going to work on - transferring my parents slides into digital prints. Well my parents arrived this week and brought my childhood to me in tons of old cigar boxes...


And so I have started skipping down memory lane. I am hoping to get through them relatively quickly because a) it is actually fun to look through all the pictures and remember all the things I have forgotten b) because this project actually takes little effort, just sliding the slides in and out of our printer and c) Raif has kindly set up the printer by the TV and so I can work and veg out in front of the TV and any excuse to do that is welcome!

So going forward I thought I would share with y'all some of the gems I find while digging through the boxes....enjoy

The Plastic Generation

Greyson is having a bit of a hard time in math at school. He is, how shall we say, less than enthusiastic about addition. So in an attempt to give him a little practice at home I thought I would try a real world application. I was so proud of myself and thought I was so clever. The February Fairy gave each of the kids a coin purse with 10 pennies in it. Then I set up a store filled with Greyson's favorite trinkets - Matchbox cars. Everything was $.05 and under and the trick was he had to buy two things....forcing him to add up what he owed. It started out brilliantly and the store sold its first two items.

"OK, that is $.03 and $.02. So add 2 and 3 together. What does that make?"

"5"

"Wonderful. Great job." (long pregnant pause) "OK, so give me 5 cents."

I just received blank stares.

"This is the point where you give me 5 pennies"

Greyson counted out 5 cents and gave them to me. I filled a bag with his purchase and handed it to him. Then he just stood there and stared at me.

"OK, you can go now."

"But Mom, don't I need to run my credit card through? When do I do that part?"

"You don't need to, sweetie. You paid with your pennies."

"But I want to."

And so he swiped another penny on the side of my cash register and left as a satisfied customer.

Sigh. They really are the electronic generation.

That About Sums It Up

You know how you sometimes see a picture of your child and you say "Wow, that really captured them." Perhaps it the way they hold their head, or that goofy expression or that one true smile.

Or perhaps it is this...

This is how my son goes through life....with a belt that he insists must be two holes two big, half of his shirt tucked in and if you look close enough you can see the top of his underwear peeking out to say hello. Thank goodness BGA really doesn't enforce the shirt tuck in rule for boys or my son would have been expelled a long time ago.

Greyson's Day

Each week during the past two months of school have been "Kid Weeks" in Greyson's class. Each child gets their own week where they get to take home the class' mascot, Danny the stuffed dog. They take pictures with Danny doing their favorite things and chronicle it in Danny's adventure book. They get to have their own day where they bring in an "All About Me" poster, bring their family in and get to bring a special treat for the class. For a 5 year old this is a REALLY big deal.

Last week was Greyson's week and I will give you one guess as to the first place that Greyson took Danny....


Then when his day came he was so excited to bring in his poster.


Raif, Guinness and I got to spend a good half an hour in his class. Greyson presented his poster and introduced us to his classmates and then all his friends got to ask us probing questions like "What is your favorite color?" and "What is your favorite state?"

All in all a pretty good afternoon and I was pleased to know that all the kids loved my Predator cupcakes.

Juggling Act

As you all may remember, I recently started working part time at Raif's office doing the accounting for his company. I am enjoying getting out of the house and using my brain in a productive way again. But admittedly, I have been having a bit of a hard time juggling my two jobs....accountant and Mom. Trying to get work done and still get the kids to and from school, homework done, food on the table and the house clean (well clean to Erim standards) has been a daunting task at best. And sometimes I have had to find some creative means like last Thursday.

Thursday was Greyson Day at school (more about this later) and as part of his day he could bring in his pets. His presentation was at 11:45, I drop Quinn off at school at 9 and our house is 30 minutes from everything AND I had to get some checks out the door for work. The logistics of dropping Quinn off, working, picking up Guinness**, taking him to school and dropping him back off at home before picking up both the kids and heading to the ice rink for Greyson's hockey practice were a nightmare to say the least. So I came up with a creative solution.....


Guinness got to join me at work. Thankfully my husband is the owner and really couldn't say no to his wife. Guinness was quite unsure of himself but I think he enjoyed wandering all over and sniffing everything in sight and I actually got everything done I needed to. I think everyone would be a lot happier if they could take their pets to work!

**For those wondering why Cooper didn't go to school, she is still recovering from her leg surgery and 10 excited Kindergartners were the last thing she needed. But lest you think that she is getting the short end of the stick; the morning when we took Guinness in, Quinn, in her very dramatic way, sobbed on Cooper and promised her that when she went to BGA and had her day she would take in Cooper and not Guinness. Glad to see the little sisters sticking up for each other.

It's All In The Eye of the Beholder

It is February and around here that means a visit or two from the February Fairy.

For those who don't know (and are too lazy to click on the link above). The February Fairy comes every afternoon while the kids are at school and puts a little something in their mailbox (like a little toy or a sheet of paper telling them a fun activity they get to do.) It helps us survive this last cold month inside as the claustrophobic tendencies really kick in.

Anyway, yesterday the kids got these cute little decorate it yourself wands. Both of them were very excited, though for apparently very different reasons. Quinn ran out of her room (where her mailbox was hidden - hiding the mailboxes gives me a good 5 to 10 minutes to pour a glass of wine, my gift from the February Fairy) and exclaimed "Oh Mommy, the February Fairy gave me the cutest, most beautiful fairy wand ever!!"

Greyson at almost the same time yelled "YES!!!! The February Fairy gave me this cool sword with a death star on the top!"

Like I said, it is all in the eye of the beholder.

Happy Groundhog Day

What does a 4 year old wear for Groundhog Day you ask? This...


When I asked why she was in her Halloween outfit she informed me very matter of factly that this was in fact a Groundhog Day ensemble because groundhogs eat pumpkins.

Well you can't argue with that.