In Africa they don't say Excuse Me

This was Joseph's follow up to me telling him at dinner not to interrupt when we are talking. We said he has to say "Excuse Me", and then we will tell him whether or not he can talk. He says in Africa, they say "Boo-Ah" and they raise their hands. And at school they don't say "Excuse Me" either, they raise their hands. He then went on to speak of China and other important international topics.

Crazy Hair

The kids have all had crazy hair lately. Joseph's head is riddled with cowlicks and no matter if we go short, medium, or long, it just doesn't seem right. And the girls, well, we are trying to grow their hair out and have no bangs which means they typically have half their hair up in a pony tail or pig tails. But when the rubber bands come out for bedtime, or grow loose with napping or playing, their hair is rather frazzled. And so Joseph got another mediocre haircut this morning, and I'm thinking the girls will go in soon just to get things trimmed and evened out. The haircut for Joseph this morning was not only a fun visit, but also a safety measure to make sure that we have rid his head of the two nits that were found in it at daycare on Friday. It was going around the schools in December and after the holidays a family brought it in to daycare so since then they have been doing regular checks. They called on Friday and told me that "Joseph wasn't doing so good" and I have to say when they said it was lice I was relieved. I was thinking they were going to say something like "he's puking like crazy and needs to go home" or "he has a high fever and needs to go to the doctor" or horror of horrors "he's having a temper tantrum and won't stop screaming". I have to say, I might prefer a few nits to any of these other scenarios. If lice was creeping and crawling all over his head I suppose I would have a harder time with that. 10 loads of laundry later, 5 heads washed with RID shampoo, and 1 thorough inspection of Joseph's head and I think we're done with this hiccup to what was already going to be a busy weekend. Nothing left on the agenda for today though, other than putting away all of those lovely loads of laundry. Not my favorite thing to do, but I'll take it over cleaning up poop or puke or having everyone actually feel lousy. Plus I can watch Grey's Anatomy, Parenthood, House, The Good Wife, or any recorded shows of my desire while matching socks and putting away shirts. That is, unless all the kids wake up. I'd better go....

Q is for Quelf

Joseph has show and tell every Wednesday (though we did not realize this until recently, so we've missed the past few Wednesdays, which I gotta be honest, irritates me slightly. Kind of like missing homework, only not so much). Well anyway, this week the letter for show and tell is Q. We've done R before, and that was fun because he brought in raisins for everyone in the class. And then we had M for monster, and I think it was O for Optimus Prime (as opposed to T for transformer). And this week, well this week is Q. Q! There is q-tip and quarter of course, though I could see something going terribly wrong with these items, which removes them as candidates to take to class. Quail and quill. Neither of which we have in the house. I thought of making a Quiz (or actually friends thought of that, I just like the idea) but I'm not sold on it because it's not really "show and tell" it's more "look what I came up with". And so far after looking through our things tonight our best ideas are the Quack Quack Quack book or the Riddler who has a Question Mark on his shirt. Now if it was Jay and I doing show and tell, we would go with Quelf. It's a board game and it is fabulous. At first I was skeptical (I was tired the first night we played, and as my to be brother in law pointed out, I wasn't winning which doesn't put me in the best of moods) but I have to say it is quite an amusing game. We played around the table at the Grogg house in Winona two nights in a row, and if we didn't have to come home we probably would have gone for a third round of singing love songs to each other, speaking of ourselves in the third person, crying like willow trees, and wrapping ourselves in gift wrap (actually, I refused to do that. I took the penalty of moving back two spaces). We're back at home, and on the way home we stopped twice for Joseph to go potty (much preferred to the alternative). The second time it was for the big p double o - p. He thought at first that we were going to make him go on the road, but we explained that we were going to go inside somewhere. We ended up at Starbucks (though no need for a drink as I had already had a latte from McDonalds) and as I was trying to speed Joseph along for fear that there was a line forming outside the door, he asked who would be waiting. I said other little boys and daddys (we were in the men's room...twas the only one available). He asked what their names were and I responded with "I'm not sure" to which he exclaimed "you mean they are STRANGERS????" I said yes, strangers sometimes go potty too. We really need to start writing more of these conversations down, as the comedy just doesn't Quit around here. (he said something Quite funny to his cousin Oliver over the weekend, something about "no not him, someone taller") But alas, I did not document the moment and now have to rely on my very unreliable short term memory. Que sera sera...

Um, No

That was my response to the director at daycare when she asked if I was expecting. She then went on to explain that Joseph had told all of his friends yesterday that his mommy was having a baby. A baby boy actually. And when they asked where the baby boy was going to sleep, he said, in Hannah and Leah's room. Because there are already cribs and baby things in there. When we told Joseph last night that I was not having a baby, and we asked him why he thought that, he said, because you have a belly. I then said, but Daddy has a belly too Joseph, that doesn't mean you are having a baby (laughing). He then said, but you have nipples (more laughing, but trying to maintain composure). To which the reply then was, well you have nipples too Joseph. I'd like to think that he told this short story because a friend in his class is going to have a baby sister soon, and he was just trying to keep up with all the chit chat. We'll have to see if this story fades with time, or if it becomes more of an epic tale. Either way it falls under comedy. That kid. So funny!

Fun at the Field Museum

I took the kids down to Chicago to go to the Field Museum today with my family and cousins....Joseph was excited to see Sue the T-Rex which he had been looking forward to for a while. He also enjoyed all the other dinosaurs, exploring the ice age, playing in "the jungle", and walking the streets of Tahiti. After lunch we went to see the gems, which I thought he seemed overly excited about, but then I realized that he thought I had told him that we were going to a gym. Needless to say he was a bit disappointed to find himself in a room full of diamonds and topaz. So we only stayed there a short while and then went in search of mummies, which we found, and ended the day in the children's play area. Hannah and Leah enjoyed this part the most (or perhaps second to lunch) because they got to roam around, and crawl through big tree logs on the floor. Leah passed out on the walk outside to the car, Hannah was asleep within minutes once belted in her car seat, and Joseph tried to convince me 10 minutes later on the way to Aunt Gina's that he had finished his nap and was ready for the Tinkerbell movie. I told him he needed to sleep at least an hour and he said, "no mommy a short nap, two hours". I agreed to this bargain, and Joseph held up his end of the deal by sleeping all the way home along with his sisters. Sister's are now asleep again, Joseph finished writing out the letter "J" on all of his valentines, and is now playing with his bat cave, transformers and evil Dr. Porkchop with Jay while I quickly summarize our day. Which reminds me....Jay completed another successful polar plunge! Probably the warmest ever (45 degrees outside) but the water was plenty cold and the costumes were better than ever. Pink leotards! Quite amusing....as was the conversation I had with Joseph while reading him a book tonight. We were reading Franklin and his Secret Club from the library for the first time, and he asked "Mommy, who ripped the pages?" I replied with "probably someone else who had the book before us" to which he said "I bet it was the Oviraptor, the one that eats the other dinosaur's eggs. I bet he did it". Maybe, but that would make it one very old book.

Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl

A little chant Jay does around the house this time of year. In preparation for today's super bowl festivities we've spent the weekend mostly at home. The kids have been pretty entertained with rotating in some different toys, removing a basket out of the girls room that Leah and Hannah kept fighting over, and racing on all our toys with four wheels in the family room. Joseph has been very into playing with his sisters lately, as well as being the protector of remotes and putting things in high places they can't reach when he see's them being "naughty". Leah keeps taking Hannah's pacifier out of her mouth, and will even reach into the crib to do so and then squeal and do her fast walk out of the room before she gets caught. Hannah will sometimes return the favor by swiping Leah's teddy bear and then hiding in the corner behind the rocking chair. They do nice things for each other too, for example giving the items that they take away back to the other one. Hannah wins the award for sneakiness today though. We had just finished lunch and baths for the girls, and had placed them in their white shirts and black pants in preparation for naps and Steelers shirts over the top, when all of a sudden I hear slurpy drippy noises coming from the dining room (I was cleaning up in their room). I walk into the next room and what do I find? Hannah Lu with cheesy mac all over the floor, her face, and her pretty white shirt. Leah was watching, teddy bear in arm, thumb in mouth. I screamed for Jay (who was upstairs with Joseph) to get Leah (note to self, figure out a way to distinguish holy cow there's a messy disaster scream from oh my gosh somebody is injured scream) and quickly wiped up the very orange Hannah before any more spread across her body. Thankfully the Steelers shirt will cover most of the mess, and we are getting ready to retire most of these clothes anyway. After all the season is almost over, and the girls are getting bigger. Here's to hoping for a Steelers win, not knocking over any refrigerators, and that no Packer fans take out their frustration on our house or vehicles!

Blizzard

I have to say I expected more, but I guess our friends to the south got a bit worse. We got enough to not be able to get out of either door in our house this morning (Rosco had to hold himself a bit longer then usual while Jay attempted to get his arm and a small kid size shovel out the door to dig out enough room to be able to get his body outside). And it was also enough to cause all the local schools, stores, and many businesses (including the office that I work in) to close. Jay spent about three hours outside plowing us out and helping neighbors with clearing out their sidewalks and paths into their houses and garages. He even raked some snow off the roof (Rosco was extremely jealous watching him do all this). I stayed inside with the kids and got some work done while they enjoyed movies and some coloring. Joseph got to go to his friend Ruthie's house behind us after the path was cleared, and now we are enjoying some quite time while everyone naps. Jay and I don't really nap, we just kind of lounge. Hope everyone is enjoying the big dig out in their area!