Language Explosion

Joe went to Toddler class about a month ago.  Since then, his vocabulary has gone from probably 10 words to probably 50.  Some recent ones:

A bunch of body parts, including identifying eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, and toes.  (And head, which is my favorite, because he gets excited and whacks himself in the head.)

A shrug accompanied by a sound that means “Dont know” if you ask him where someone is who’s not in the room

Lola, kitty, Catherine, Rachel, Alice, Daddy, Mommy, Nana, Joe (probably his favorites are Mama, Daddy, Lola, and Alice)

Cup, milk, more, mine, all gone, water, cheese, bread

poop

Sock, shoe

I have NOT heard him count yet, which is interesting because I remember 1-10 being some of Catherine’s very first words

Up and down (these are VERY big)

Some word that refers to his blanket (starts with a b, not sure what it actually is), bed

He hugs and kisses (hugging is very new) and loves to climb all over me.  VERY affectionate, maybe more than the girls were around this age?  Loves the cuddling.  But won’t sit still longer than a moment.

In other news, Catherine lost her second tooth (the other bottom center) and it was lost.  Possibly swallowed with a cookie.  Alice loves to sing lately and is super cute when she does.  And Rachel’s graduating preschool like, REALLY soon and Catherine’s teacher is stalking her.

Tooth!

Yesterday, on Easter, Catherine came up to me while I was sitting here at the computer to again show me her SUPER LOOSE tooth.  I was allowed to touch it if I promised not to pull, so I promised to only touch with one finger.  Can’t pull with one finger.

So I pushed instead.  Back and forth and out it came, into her lower lip.  She was sort of bracing herself and I pulled it out and told her.  Catherine, you just lost a tooth.

There was much excitement.  The new tooth is already coming in and very visible.  She couldn’t put it right under her pillow since she spent last night at Nana and Joe Bob’s house and the tooth fairy doesn’t come there, so she put it under her own pillow tonight.  The tooth fairy has left her $5.  She doesn’t know it yet.  I expect much more excitement.

Cute: Rachel was sleeping in bed with her tonight when the tooth fairy crept in.  Were they setting up an ambush?

In other news, Joe is now saying “Nana” to my mother as well as regards bananas, and Alice has been a handful lately.

Warning

Poop stories behind cut.  Not too terribly graphic though.

Updates

Alice knocked Joe off a bottom stair today.  I was furious.  Poor kid took a header.  I had warned her three times on her way down the stairs not to whack into him.  Guess how much she listened?

This was J’s second header in 12 hours.  Last night he fell on top of a sippy cup and gave himself a bloody nose.  He got promoted to Toddler yesterday, and his new word is “coat”.  When I picked him up today he went running for the coat rack.  In the wrong classroom.

Catherine is very bothered by the injustice of getting tasked with cleaning up most of the messes the girls make.  I just want them clean and it is too much trouble for me to divide it out, so R and A take terrible advantage of the fact that she’s the only one who listens and she gets stuck with it.  This is a longstanding problem I haven’t solved yet.

R fell into hysterics earlier when someone mentioned “pants” and didn’t want to leave school today until she’d hugged a boy named Justin four times.

Another shot at meal planning

It’s been a while since I did and I really need to start again.  Going to try to do a weekly plan and adjust as I go along:

Saturdays: pizza or something else “fun”

Sundays: red meat or a casserole

Mondays: seafood

Tuesdays: chicken

Wednesday: crockpot

Thursday: leftovers

Friday: chicken fingers

So this week, I’m going to do:

Pizza

Spaghetti casserole with ground turkey

Some sort of seafood, whatever looks good at the store

A rotisserie chicken bought on the way home with fajita veggies

Vegetarian chili

Leftovers

Chicken Fingers

Kid updates

Catherine’s first tooth (bottom right center) is REALLY loose.  Sob sob, it feels like just yesterday she GOT that tooth!  There’s an actual gap widening between it and the next tooth (probably since the new one’s forcing its way in) and her gum is a bit swollen and painful.  I told her that won’t improve til she gets it out.  Sean has offered to pull it so she won’t let him near it.  Aww, just like my dad!

Rachel went with me Sunday morning to Sean’s half-marathon at the beach.  It was cold and very windy and she was a total trooper and good company.  Glad I took her.  Favorite part (besides seeing Sean) was watching the marathoners start.

Alice had an epic fit yesterday because I wouldn’t let her wear a dress she dropped in the toilet.  Oh, Alice.

Joe can now say Mama, Dada, NO, banana, uh oh, uh uh, vroom, bye bye, cup, and some semblance of his sisters’ names.  He’s so flipping cute and charming.  Can go upstairs but not down.  Still taking two GOOD LONG naps per day most days.

Carrollton Corral

Notable for:

1) My correct prediction that it was all a PTA cult drive to get us to sign stuff and give money and join the PTA RESISTANCE IS FUTILE WE ARE PTA YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED.

2) That said, the kids were adorable in their jeans and bandanas and cowboy hats, and Catherine looked for us frantically, and then saw us and started literally quivering with excitement, jumping up and down and waving.  She was about the most excited kid on that stage, or at least the worst one at holding still.  It was very cute.

3) They sang a bunch of Western songs including “Deep in the Heart of Texas” (Alice loved clapping along), “Don’t Fence Me In”, and “Happy Trails”.

4) Mid-song, Catherine extracted herself from the group of 100+ kids and went to the front of the stage, said something to her teacher, hopped off the stage and was led out a side exit.  I hopped up and went running after her, wondering if she was sick or something.  Nope.  She had to go potty REALLY REALLY BAD.  ONLY MY KID.  Not one other kid moved from their place during this concert.  I am so saving this for her 16th birthday.

5) I actually recognized people, including her friend Katie and Katie’s family and some of the kids and parents from her birthday party.

6) Rachel loved it and is counting the minutes until she goes to kindergarten.

7) Joe would not sit still, thrashed about the entire time, wanted down, wanted up, wanted his own chair, wanted to kick me in the face, but also spent the entire time charming the socks off the two elderly ladies behind us.

Updates

Alice has been refusing to go to bed lately.  And has figured out how to open her doorknob guard.  Sneaky.

Joe flipped out this morning when I set him at the table at daycare and walked away with the bananas for his sisters.  Not because I was leaving, because the bananas were.  What he didn’t notice is that I’d already peeled one ans set it in front of him.  I had to turn back, pick it up, and put it an inch from his face for him to notice it.  Once he did, he immediately stopped yelling, took it, and shoved it in his mouth.

Catherine’s birthday is in three days and her partyi is in 5 and I am worried about letting her down.

I caught Rachel up past her bedtime reading in her bed last night by the closet light.  I’m not sure how much she reads but she was very intent for a while.  I sort of like not knowing.

Oscar Fashion

Above expectations:

• Jennifer Aniston.  Wow.  The red.  She looked very much like herself but absolutely the best I’ve ever seen her.
• Jennifer Garner.  Also a surprise (like Aniston) since she usually looks fine but meh.  But I loved the purple and the fluffy thing.
• Stacey Kiebler.  Wow, has she classed it up.  My favorite of the metallics.
• Catherine Zeta-Jones.  Didn’t expect much just because I haven’t seen her in a while, but she looked gorgeous.

Met expectations:

• Halle Berry.  Always looks good.  Looked good.
• Queen Latifah- and that’s a good thing in her case.  I liked her ponytail.
• Charlize.  Of course.
• Jessica Chastain.  I’m not really sure who she is or where she came from, but she was very classy but not extraordinary.
• Adele.  I expected awful and matronly.  That’s what I got.
• Helena Bonham Carter.  Crazy and unkempt.  Par for the course.
• Sandra Bullock.  I’d like to see her try color someday.

Below expectations:

• Anne Hathaway.  She’s been bugging lately.  The short cut makes her nose look huge.  The dress was harsh.  The cutouts on the back weren’t sexy because SHE isn’t sexy.
• Kristen Chenowith.  Too much fake tan and eye makeup, and the hair was too harsh.  This makes me sad since I love her.
• Reese.  It wasn’t bad, but not up to her usual standards.  The black band on it messed it up and the color wasn’t spectacular.
• Naomi Watts.  WTF is that?

A Story about Ear Piercing

No, I haven’t done it to the kids yet.

So I took C and R out today.  I’ve been craving Five Guys and heard a rumor there were My Little Pony leggings at H&M.  So we went out after groceries to Hampton Town Center.

They were super well-behaved.  Didn’t eat a ton.  Rachel likes peanuts and can crack the shells.  Up for walking around the outdoor mall even in the cold and drizzle.  Went into Claire’s just for fun, and there was a little girl there, probably between C’s age and R’s, getting her ears pierced.

She was with her mom.  One was done, and she was sort of whimpering about the other and it hurting.  (No real alarm, just nerves.)  She was really cute.  The girls were FASCINATED and walked right over.  I made a big deal of loudly telling them how impressed I was at the brave girl.

C went up to the piercer employee and said, “How do you do it?”

She turned around and lowered the piercing gun and put it right up where C could see the giant-ass needle.  Literally six inches from her face.  C’s eyes about bugged out of her head.

“I NEVER WANT A NEEDLE IN MY EAR!”

“ME NEITHER!”

Had to hustle them out- didn’t need them scaring the little girl any more.  But they would not stop talking about it.  Very strong impression.

I remember at this age or a little older, begging to get my ears pierced.  I do not think I’ll be having that conversation with C anytime soon… probably not for R either.