Our biggest news around these parts is that the baby is officially on the move. This video is from a couple of weeks ago--whereas Henry would only be enticed to crawl with the promise of Cheerios, this little angel will only crawl towards paper and not just any paper either:
Random paper from the printer? No.
Unused construction paper? No.
Junk mail? No.
David's most prized piece of artwork? Now we're talking.
Mom's latest book? That's more like it.
That invitation we needed to RSVP for? Delicious.
You could lay out something unimportant and something precious to you next to each other on the floor and he would sprint like the little frog crawler that he is over to that important document in a heartbeat, flinging aside the unimportant pages like the recycling they are. His instincts are impeccable. And also terrifying.
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As if this crawling weren't bad enough, quickly after his first foray into forward motion, John Michael decided to outdo himself and showed us that not only is he able to get into untold mischief on ground level, he can also reach anything in his baby-height range as well.
That's right, along with crawling he can also pull himself up on/walk around the furniture. Awesome.
Chris says it's his survival instincts kicking in. Apparently you've got to grow up fast to survive in this house. Bob and weave John Michael, bob and weave!
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With all of the new challenges involved in having an ambulatory baby the last thing I need is surprise dinner-time fly-swarm attacks. And yet, I seem to be getting one per week.
It goes something like this--I'm standing in the kitchen stirring the pan sauce for my current favorite dinner (with brown rice and roasted broccoli) when all of a sudden a fly whizzes by my face, then another, then another....then....they are everywhere. At least twenty. The children are screaming. I'm running around like a crazy lady with my spatula killing them left and right. It's a fly massacre.
It has happened twice now, both times I was making the same meal and I'm pretty sure they are coming in through the vent fan thing over the stove. My hypothesis is that it's the smell of the roasting broccoli that is calling them down from their hiding place in the vent. That begs the question though, does roasted broccoli smell like a dead animal to flies? Maybe I shouldn't be so upset that David gags on it.
And why are giant fly swarms living in my stove vent?
And how do I get rid of them?
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In other non-fly related news, we had our first week of doing Kindergarten at home and it went much better than I imagined it would. David loves "doing school" as he puts it so hopefully that excitement isn't just because it's something new and different to do and will last past these first few weeks.
I'm loving the All About Reading program so far--we've done the first five lessons and he's read two stories in the first reader all by himself and he is beyond proud! The pace is great and he loves the little lessons and magnet letters. I think the activities in the activity book provide the perfect amount of cutting and pasting for his Kindergarten experience--goodness knows I wouldn't be thinking up things for him to cut, paste and glue just so I could throw them away later on my own :)
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And speaking of David's education, I broke down and asked the librarian for a book on "lady parts" as per his request. I ended up going with this one because it had the most appropriate inappropriate pictures for little eyes, but I didn't love the text so we didn't read it.
And by "we" I mean Chris, because clearly this was a talk that daddy should give. If there are any daughters in our future I'll be sure to handle any awkward conversations but for now......sorry honey, it's all you :)
The day after "the talk" David tried to smuggle the book over to the printer to make copies of it so that he could show all his friends at the playground and was very upset that I didn't think that that was a good idea. He seemed to let it go, but I don' think he's really given up the idea so now the book is on the top shelf waiting it's return to the library. I can't believe it's my son that wants to show dirty pictures to the neighborhood children--I thought I had at least another eight years or so before I had to worry about that kind of thing.
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Now let's segue into actual inappropriate pictures of my kids..........wait no, not inappropriate, precious!
Last night I heard Chris calling from the bathroom, "Honey, get the camera! The kids are being so cute!" I'm sure you can imagine how much arm twisting I needed to come charging in, camera waiving.
Summer may be over for you, but here in Florida it's pretty much always time for a lemonade stand.
We teamed up with the boys' best friends who are pretty much their exact ages and temperaments. They provided all the great ideas and the lemonade.....and the perfect location...and the snacks......we provided the stand and the beautiful artwork.
As we watched the children running rampant I told their mom that I love being at her house because it makes me feel less crazy. She said that that wasn't exactly a compliment, but really it was. See, I consider her to be a really good mom and when I see her boys exhibiting the exact same, let's say challenging, behaviors as my own little darlings it makes me feel like it's not just me and that good moms can have crazy kids so maybe I'm a good mom too.
The key to having a successful lemonade stand, aside from amazing signage, is to have five of the cutest boys you've ever seen line up along the road shouting and waving "lemonade! lemonade!" at every passer-by and when those passer-bys say that they don't have any money have the children yell "it's free!" Once the customers have partaken of their free lemonade that's when the children need to go all puppy dog-eyed and look sadly at their cup marked 'donations' and then back up at the customers. Then just sit back and watch the dollar bills start pouring in.
And if someone asks you if your lemonade is 'hand squeezed' or 'hand scooped' just laugh at them and tell them that of course it is 'hand scooped.' We're sure not hand squeezing lemonade for strangers around here--I don't care how many quarters they pay us :)
One hose + one piece of plastic sheeting from Lowe's + four pool noodles + one piece of rope = endless fun. Especially when you have a husband who thinks it's hilarious to tie up his children and fling them back and forth as fast and far as possible. Over and over and over again.
Throw in some baby soap and a plastic pool and you are ready for anything.
We really should have put this up oh....three months ago........then again we live in Florida, so we probably have another two or three months of slip and slide weather left.
Last week the whole family was horrifically, horrifically, horrifically, horrifically ill.....right down to the baby. I'm not sure where it came from, but I'm pretty sure I know where it went--right over to our neighbor's house.....our bad :)
Luckily I had the foresight to not plan a huge birthday party for David because there is no way I would have been able to pull it off. We had a few of our neighborhood friends over for a cook out to celebrate both Chris and David's birthdays and called it a night. There was cake, birthday bunting was hung, and a giant slip and slide was slipped and slided upon so David didn't seem to notice the diminished scale.
He said his favorite thing was playing on the slip and slide.
Boy did he play......
David asked for a strawberry cake so that's what I made--I didn't think it turned out all that great but the kids didn't seem to mind. I think they were mostly impressed with the amount of whipped cream and the ridiculous number of candles--thirty-six in all--five for David and thirty-one for Daddy (in case you needed help with that math).
I think his favorite thing was actually getting new Legos.
I can't believe this little man is already five. Happy Birthday punkin' head.
