is your kid red or blue?

Conversation with Grace while driving home after school:
G: "Mom, hey, ummm oh what's that guy's name?"
M: "Which guy?"
G: "Y'know, the first black president of our country?"
M: "Do you mean the guy Barack Obama?"
G: "Yeah!!! That's the guy! Tell me all about him."
M: "Uh, okay. Who told you about him? How do you know about him?"
G: "My teacher told us about him! And if I learn more and can talk about him on Tuesday I can get some tokens!" (Tokens are part of the reward system of this particular classroom)
M: "Well, he is not the president of our country but he's running to be one. That means that in a couple of months when the grown-ups in our country vote they can choose between him and another guy, John McCain, to be the president."
G: "Oh, I know who I'd vote for (and now clenches her hands into fists and 'raises the roof' and chants):
Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Obama!!!!!

wild nights

These pictures were taken over the last few nights. Its no wonder the kids have been a bit cranky...

who knew blackberries could be so fun?

Last week we went across The River to pick blackberries with a good friend. I was surprised at how much fun it was for everyone. Jimmy really got into the picking and did a pretty good job at only picking the black ones. Grace was thrilled she could carry her Very Own Bucket. And Nate and I couldn't resist bringing home far more than we planned on. Our friend Ann had a great time too and made some tasty cobbler the next day. As for us we did two blackberry fold-overs (kind of like a half pie/turnover situation) and blackberry ice cream. To quote Jimmy, "so nummy."

what really happened

You may have noticed the last two posts consisted only of pictures and really not much story behind them. That is because it has been a crazy transition time for me. With Jimmy out of the crib (by the way he actually took a nap today, first time all week, I think it was in the crib but I didn't dare check) somewhere in my mind that means he is certainly no baby anymore. And with Grace going back to school that means she's gone all day long (yes, I know this is a good thing, but I've never been one to adapt to change really well).

It was a mad-house when we got to school on Monday (picture the day before Thanksgiving at the grocery store or the day after Christmas at the mall). The kids were wild, most of the parents were in a rush so they left, and the teachers didn't have a clue what was going on. What should have taken 10-15 minutes at most took us almost an hour. We finally got Grace to her classroom, found her seat, and then it was time for J and I to go. We said the normal stuff (love you, have a great day, see you after school, etc) and she said, "Mom, please don't leave me.... here". Uggghhhhh!

However, I calmly told her that she'd have a great day and that we'd be right there when school was over. Then we quickly left her room and found our way back to the car just in time for me to cry. And since I'm letting it all out today, I did cry once more and it certainly wasn't just a tear or two. At one point I thought to myself, "Well, I could always pull her and home-school." HA!

Luckily my sanity arrived and thoughts like that don't exist any more. Of course she had a great day, of course it is a great school, of course I'm not going to pull her. But its still a long day to have her gone. Today the reality of it set in on Jimmy and it was his turn to cry (no, he didn't see me cry the first day thank-you-very-much as he was very involved in his board book while buckled into his car seat and I had on my sunglasses and looked straight ahead). We left her running around with the kids (yes, they were adequately supervised, just in case you were wondering) just before the bell rang, and Jimmy just cried and said "Gwaacie". It really was sad. And several times during the day he'd say, "Go get Gwaacie?"

I should probably read that book, Who Moved my Cheese?.

first grade here we come!

 
 
 
Watch out world, here she comes!

no strangers in the night

Last night was Jimmy's first night to have his very own Big Boy Bed. As you can see he enjoys sleeping in it.

 

back to normal

Jimmy is much better, thank you very much. I know this for lots of reasons: he constantly throws the couch cushions all over the room, he insists on doing everything himself, he seems to try Gracie's patience, greets our pet fish every time he enters the room, and causes general mayhem and destruction all day long. On Friday when I went to get him after his nap this is what I discovered:

 

 

He somehow opened the closet door and got this box inside his bed. He was very proud of himself and I must admit, I'm pretty proud of him too.

mr. cranky-pants

 

Our poor Buv is one sick little guy. He's got a serious sore throat (all red and blistery, yuck!). Its just a virus that happens to be going around, but it is miserable. We've had a hard time convincing him to eat anything. And when any of my children (and myself for that matter) don't eat on a regular basis they tend to be a bit irrational. Combine that with a fever and you've got yourself an unpleasant afternoon (or evening, or morning, or late night, you get the picture). Grace has been pretty nice about his situation. Apparently the first night he was sick she sat by his bed and prayed that he would get better. I thought that was really sweet, but of course sweetness doesn't last forever and during the day it was back to the usual bickering about possesions. Thankfully she's off to play at a friend's house this morning and Jimmy has succumbed to a morning nap. I'm hoping we're on the mend.

lincoln-ites

Saturday brought a 24 hour shift for Dr. Nathan at the hospital. So the kids and I crossed The River and met my parents for an outing in Springfield. We met them at the Lincoln Memorial Garden. It was very nature-y. Jimmy even walked into a giant spider web. Grace screamed (in a nice damsel-in-distress sort of way) and Jimmy just pulled on the web and began to unravel it. It was a great moment to illustrate the difference between these two.

From there it was on to other Lincoln sites - the tomb (Grace was totally disappointed she couldn't see "his dead body") and New Salem (this is a frontier town where Lincoln used to live). Our verdict on New Salem - never go when it is over 90 degrees with matching humidity (none of the homes have electricity, they are very 'authentic', this makes many of the workers there 'cranky.'). Really we couldn't help but compare it to Nauvoo and though one is 'politically-historical' and the other is 'spiritually-historical', they both are from the same time period and Nauvoo is a much more pleasant experience. However, New Salem has a gift shop (great for trying on hats and taking pictures and an ice cream shop, mmmmmm).

musical animal identification

camping, revisited

Its been over a week and I have sufficiently recovered from the ill-fated camping trip to post pictures. You will see the crowded contents of our car, a very wet tent, a frustrated camper trying to light a fire that would just smoke and smoke until it faded out with a gleeful camper at his side, some more wet parts of the tent, visiting wildlife (someone's dog kept coming back to our site, I think he smelled our s'mores), kids playing in the river, a captured tadpole (sadly the funeral for this particular tadpole was held later that evening), and excited Naturalist with her new tadpole, an eager river-explorer trying to drink the river water, etc. I guess most people had fun on the adventure. Maybe next time I'll have fun too.