All I Want for Christmas

Today we were listening to Mariah Carey's holiday classic "All I Want for Christmas Is You" in the car. One of my holiday guilty pleasures, really. From the backseat, Annie asked, "who is she singing this song to?" I answered that it was her true love, probably her husband.

"Or God," Annie responded. Then it was quiet for a minute, until she said, "Yup mom, She just said 'baby.' Did you hear that? Probably baby Jesus."

I think I like the song even more now. Also, I love four-year-olds!

Nellie's first first grade report card

Nellie brought home her first quarter report card today. One highlight: the teacher commented that "Nellie radiates the gentleness of Christ." (It's a Christian school.) I was looking through all the "grades" with her in the car, and I read that part out loud. Only we kept getting interrupted, because DJ was loudly calling "bye-bye" to Nellie's friend, Avery, who was already in her house. Nellie responded by turning around and repeatedly shouting, "STOP IT DJ! I DON'T LIKE THAT!"

I tried explaining to her why the situation was ironic, but she just said, "well that's at school, this is at home."

I've said it before and I'll say it again--it's so much harder to love the ones you love, isn't it? If you know what I mean.

First fall fest at LCS (and some bonus cider mill pictures)

At the apple orchard

Annie's freezing in cold storage. Love this face!

On the hayride

In the pumpkin patch 

Pre-race picture - it was a 1-mile fun run

Waiting for the ready-set-go

The girls were nervous...I'm the one who can barely walk the next day! I need to start running again...

So sad not to be running with his sisters. 

Poisoning our kids with whatever's in cotton candy

Very proud of their cool makeup!

Annie, at four and three months

Are you excited to be four?  
Yes!

What kinds of things do four-year-olds do?   
Do big-girl things. Like help with little brothers. Share things with your sisters and your brothers. And if your mom and dad needs things you can share with them. Go to Kid Konnections and go to preschool.

What do you like best about preschool?
Learning how to read, except I didn't learn to read yet. I can't find any books yet. Making pictures for the Brown Bear book.

Who is your best friend?   
Everybody! 

Who are your favorite people to play with?
Natalie. Mommy! And Nellie, and Daddy, and DJ.

What do you love about your Nellie?
Sharing with her.

What kinds of things are you good at?
Sweeping, writing words, being a big sister, loving DJ, singing, tricks, making fires, carving pumpkins, fixing lights [you can see what's on her mind today!] 

What do you want to be when you grow up?
I don't know! I know. A superhero. Wait. I think I just want to be a regular mom. 

Why do you want to be a superhero and a regular mom?
I still want to have babies.

What’s your favorite song?   
Twinkle Twinkle!

Favorite movie?   
That's a hard one. Rapunzel and Jasmine and Ariel! I mean, Aladdin. 

Favorite book?   
Every one we even have! Pete the Cat.

Favorite color?   
Purple

What’s your favorite thing to play?   
Baby dolls

Is there anything else you want us to know about you?   
Annie did this. I love Mommy, I love everyone in our family! Even the dogs. Even the ones who bite.

Fun times fall

It seems kind of funny to be writing this post, since I never even wrote a summer post. Eh, that can come later. We're now one week into fall, and we've already had lots of fun.

Which is a little surprising, really, because fall totally snuck up on me this year. Usually, I'm happy and ready to greet new seasons, but for some reason I was unprepared. Being back on campus with all the undergrads and going to back-to-school events seemed almost...disorienting. Ads for fall clothing and decor seemed out of place, and football was rather unappealing.

I think it's because spring this year came sooooooo sloooooooowly, and then the summer was relatively cool. Plus, the summer seemed to fly by even faster than usual with Nellie at home and a class to teach. I hardly feel ready for cold-weather clothes and long winter nights!

But here we are, and so far the Wernets are making the most of it. Kevin's been doing some hunting, of course, and last Saturday he took Nellie up north for the whole day. She loved it! Then Sunday we drove out to Holland to Our Brewing Company, which is a wonderful family-friendly microbrewery, to watch the Lions game, drink root beer (and other kinds of beer), and visit Kilwins for treats.

Yesterday was the American Heritage Festival. It was sunny and warm, and the leaves are just starting to change. It was a great day to be outside all day! We ate, went on the pontoon boat, rode in the horse-drawn wagon, petted the farm animals, and got sunburns. We're having fires in the fireplace and the house is decorated with pumpkins, leaves, and scarecrows. (And one angry-looking turkey.)

Next weekend in is the fall festival at LCS, and the weekend after that we'll have a mini-vacation/long weekend at John's. We're starting to think about Halloween (Nellie wants to be a bat, Annie wants to be a princess super hero) and Thanksgiving. So, fall, here we are.

Nellie walking with my dad, and learning proper gun safety

Kevin's at home one day a week this semester, so Annie and DJ got their turn to go hiking, too

DJ at the American Heritage Festival

Sister secrets and cornhusk dolls on the wagon ride

Nellie, age 6 (and 2 and a half months. Better late than never!)

Are you excited to be six?  
YES! 

What kinds of things do six-year-olds do?   
They like to do homework and play with their friends. They can write only one capital letter in a sentence, instead of like, 5.

What do you like best about 1st grade?
Friends!

Who is your best friend?   
Avery.

Who is your favorite person to play with?
Leah at school. And my cousins, and Annie.

What do you love about your friends?
Leah and Avery like to play princesses with me. They're really great friends.

What kinds of things are you good at?
 Drawing pictures, reading, saving money, helping Daddy with his work [particularly stacking firewood, which we did today.]

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Um, a teacher. 

What kind of teacher do you want to be?
Fifth grade.

Why do you want to be a teacher?
I think it would be fun to be a teacher. You could get to do the calendar a lot.

What’s your favorite song?   
The "Ode to Joy" song from Psalty 4.

Favorite movie?   
Sleeping Beauty

Favorite book?   
Meet Kaya...and all the Kaya books

Favorite color?   
Pink and purple and blue and green and red. There aren't really any I don't like.

What’s your favorite thing to play?   
Basketball. 

Is there anything else you want us to know about you?   
I really like bats. [Today] I like to have fires. [We're having one right now.] And I like to stack wood. I like American Girl dolls. And milk.

Dinnertime without dad

Kevin's working late tonight. The girls made cornhusk dolls at the American Heritage Festival today, and they've been playing with them all evening. While I was cutting up quesadillas, I overhead them (the dolls) having this conversation.

Nellie's doll (Wood): Did I tell you I do gymnastics? I fell over backward and broke my ankle.
Annie's doll (Hannah): I don't believe you.
Wood: Well I did. Look on facebook. I wrote, "I broke my ankle." Read it!
Hannah: I still don't believe you.
Wood: I did! Didn't you read my text? I texted you that I broke my ankle.

Cornhusk dolls these days.

When I went to bring DJ his quesadilla, he was dipping apples in salsa. Also, one of the girls had brought him his portable Lightning McQueen toilet seat to hold while he waited for his food.

And that's how it goes, sometimes.

Lesson learned

My friend just posted a very affirming (to me) story about how Americans are too quick to throw away food that's reached the "best by" date, resulting in tons of wasted food every year.

And that reminded me of a story. We ate at Cancun Grill the other night with my dad. At one point I looked up, and saw that Annie looked like she was about to cry. I asked her what was wrong, and she said, "the milk smells like...bugs." I smelled it and Kevin (brave man that he is) tasted it, and we confirmed that it was sour. Annie had already taken a good long drink of it.

So the moral of the story is, at restaurants, always give your kids' milk a quick sniff before they drink it. And, maybe bugs smell like sour milk?

Keep calm and carry on

This is what I keep trying to tell myself moving into and through this semester. Life just really revved up for us, with school starting (and all the waking up early, homework, lunch-and-backpack-packing that goes with it), the first day of hunting season (read: solo parenting), teaching a remedial math class and the senior preservice teachers (which is rewarding but not for the weak of heart), and collecting data for my dissertation (two days a week in 7th-grade classrooms).

Yeah.

I'm just really trying to take things one day at a time and trust that everything will happen more or less when it needs to happen, and that I'll have the energy to keep going. Basically, I'm trying not to panic. Every once in awhile, though, I can feel it start to bubble up. Like today. And at these moments, this favorite clip of mine from My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic comes to mind.

Sweet Annie

It's nap time, and I just finished reading Annie some books.

Me: Okay Annie, now I want you to lay your head down and get some sleep. I need to do some work, or my boss is going to say [in a growling voice] "Jaaaamieeeee."

Annie: [Giggling] I don't care!

Me: I care! I don't want my boss to be mad.

Annie: [Serious] But you'd still be my Mom, and I would still love you!

School starts!

First day for Nellie

She likes creative poses

Annie's first day of preschool! Maybe not the greatest picture, but I love it!

The girls (and I) survived the first week of school. Nellie woke up on Wednesday and asked if she could switch to every-other-day first grade. Everyone is worn out, but happy. Today (Saturday) was mostly about recovering. Nellie wanted me to teach her to sew with our little emergency sewing kit, so I passed along everything I know...it took about 5 minutes. But she spent the afternoon mending two pairs of leggings and a hole in Annie's blankie!

And...we gave DJ a [very appropriate] tattoo.

The Blankie

We're kind of a blankie family. I had a blankie as a kid. I basically hand-picked my kids' blankies when they were born, on some advice from more experienced moms that your kids will deal with separation better if they have a special blanket or stuffed animal. So all the kids have a favorite blanket, which anyone who knows us well will know.

I have this theory that we shouldn't make kids give up their baby blankets. Most adults I know have at least occasional sleeping problems, and maybe if we had just kept our cozy blankies around, we'd be alright. Pacifiers, bottles, sippy cups, and thumb-sucking - sure - those have to go. And there are sleepover and summer camp issues to work out, but really, who cares if a kid has an extra blanket in their bed? Not me.

That's not really the point of this post, though. The point is, I can absolutely see the need to keep the blankie in bed. It's pretty silly to see a preschooler carrying their blanket in public places. (Though I have to say, at one-and-a-half, I think DJ is the cutest thing ever when he throws his over his shoulder and drags it around like Linus from Peanuts.) Admittedly, we aren't very good (at all) about enforcing the blanket-stays-in-bed rule.

And we pay the price. Annie's the main culprit. She's lost two blankets already - one at the grocery store and one at a restaurant - which meant finding a replacement blankie, stat. We've held on to this last blanket for a good two years, but least once a week, Kevin and I have to scour the house at bedtime looking for it. Like tonight. Which got me thinking about all the weird places we've eventually found it, such as:

In the seat of our ride-on school bus.
In the babysitter's car.
In the lazy susan.
In the sippy cup drawer. (Yeah, we still have those, too. And DJ drinks out of a bottle. No thumb sucking or pacifiers, at the moment, though. [Shrug])
In an old purse.
In the compartment on the back of the driver's seat in the van.
In Ben Young's bedroom.
In the front hall closet.
In and behind the hamper in our bedroom.
At my parents' house.
Under the kitchen table.
In the toy shopping cart.
In her hand-me-down backpack.
Stuck between couch cushions.

Still, there's no end-date at the Wernet house for life with blankies. It's a good thing one of my skills is finding stuff.

(Not) Suzie Homemaker

As you recall, we live in John's house. We have three kids and three dogs. It's messy. I've found that having John home every few weeks is good motivation to at least pick up and wipe things down...lots of things. But he hasn't been back as much this summer, and as I mentioned in the earlier post, I was working (outside the home - let's face it, it's all work) every day for a few weeks there. Let's just say, things kind of...slipped. So Friday in some miraculous fury of energy, I picked up the house, scrubbed bathrooms, vacuumed, dusted, swept, sorted and organized the kids' collective 100 pairs of shoes, went grocery shopping, did all the laundry, and just generally achieved some level of order around here.

Kevin's response: Wait, is my dad coming home this weekend? [Me] I don't think so. Why, did you talk to him? [Kevin] No, I just wondered why you're cleaning so much.

Emily's response: Wow, it really is clean in here!

Nellie's response: Why are we cleaning so much? Is Papa John coming home? [Me] No, I don't think so. [Nellie] Well, I'm going to write him a letter and tell him that the house is clean, so he should come home soon.

Just for the record, I do clean! I like the house to be clean! And sometimes, it's clean even when there's no one else here to witness it. Okay, rarely, but it does happen.

Things that were great about this (extended) weekend

So, I haven't posted much this summer. Not for any particular reason other than the usual summer stuff--either we're busy working or busy having fun, and there's little time for sitting down at a computer to write about it! But I'll try to do better.

This weekend (I'm counting Thursday, too) was a particularly great one. No vacation or anything, we just stayed home. But I was recovering from three very busy weeks of data collection and co-teaching a graduate course, so it felt so great not to be working nonstop. Also, Kevin came home from his backpacking trip for work. Plus...Dave and Laurel were here! That always makes life a party. And there were all kinds of fun, easy-going things going on, like:

• Celebrating my grandpa's 80th birthday with all my siblings and their spouses, and (almost) all my cousins.
• Building a fire at mom and dad's Thursday morning, because it's Dave's favorite thing and it has been so chilly for a Michigan August!
• Playing on the Wacousta school playground (for the first time in lots of years), where we saw...
• All three kids sitting on a tire swing, singing, "sisters, sisters, and a little brother!"
• Taking naps on three different days, just because I could. And really, really needed to.
• The kids are sleeping all night, in their own beds! So much more sleep! 
• Finishing lots of much-needed household chores, including laundry, cleaning, and grocery shopping - all in one day.
• Having the whole family over for dinner Friday night, including the two new babies!! Also...
• Hearing DJ say, "Tah-to" [what he calls Otto.]
• Boating on the Grand River on the most perfectly beautiful summer day. All the kids were happy.
  

Following boating with pizza and house-brewed cream soda at Eagle Monk Brewery.

Pizza cheers!

Nellie's taking pictures again

Discovered the self-timer

• Enjoying other tastes of the season: zucchini bread and homemade pickles, sauteed zucchini, salads with garden lettuce and tomatoes, basil, and cucumbers.
• Eating outside.
• Building a "toad abode" with Nellie, who is remarkably good and finding toads and frogs and loves them all like her own children.
• Half listening, half dozing while Nellie took out the garbage, dusted, vacuumed, and swept the floors - just because she wanted to.
• Taking a long walk/bike ride this evening, watching Nellie start and stop on her two-wheeler (she says she's working on winning the gold medal in these events, actually), Annie cruising behind on her little bike, and DJ walking--no, almost running--behind her. I'm seeing family bike rides in the very near future.

A little toot joke for a Tuesday evening

Once again, I am writing something random and ridiculous when I should be writing about all the meaningful moments I've missed in the blog so far this summer. Oh well, I'll get to that later.

We've had a lot of toot jokes flying around, lately. I have no idea where the girls got the idea that talking and singing about tooting is hilarious...ahem.

But tonight takes the cake, I think. Kevin went up to tell Nellie (who was in bed) about the Alex Avila grand slam. The girls had been very noisy and giggly, so it was time for a visit, anyway. While he was up there, Nellie said to him (you have to imagine it in a sugary sweet professional voice, like a flight attendant):

"Hi, I'm Nellie from toots dot com. If you go to our website, toots dot com, you can order a new bottom, and all your toots will smell like daisies and rainbows!"

I don't even know how to follow that up, except to say that the grown-ups had a good laugh about that one. I guess we do appreciate a good toot joke now and then.

The girls, regarding boys

Annie: All the boys like me. They all think I'm pretty.
Me: Oh yeah? What boys like you?
Annie: All the boys at camp.
Me: How can you tell they like you?
Annie: They all stand near me.
Me: Maybe they think you're nice. Boys don't just care if you're pretty, they like girls who are nice.
Nellie: Yeah, and we're going to grow up, and get tons of valentines, then get married, and have tons of babies, and the girls are going to grow up and get tons of valentines. It's part of the Life Circle.

So. There you have it, if you're been wondering how it works.

Nellie reads

Why didn't anyone tell me how AWESOME it is when your kids learn to read? On Friday, we went to the library and Nellie picked out two short novels (Junie B. Jones and American Girls). She then read them both over several hours that afternoon. It was the longest wakeful period of time that Nellie hasn't talked since she learned to talk. And of course, I love conversations with Nellie, and I'm sure there will come a day when I wish I could get her to talk to me more, but...it was nice.

We went back Saturday for two new books and her own library card, and again today (Sunday). I think we may be on to something!

Nellie, 5 and 10 months

(We've started the birthday countdown already!)

Nellie lost her second tooth yesterday - finally! If I had a dollar for every time I told her, "the only thing that's going to make that tooth feel better is to pull it out," I'd be a millionaire. Well, I'd have $100, at least. After losing her last tooth, Nellie discovered that her tooth fairy is named Toothie Ruth. She leaves letters with her dollar (in quarters, for gumballs). Nellie wrote her this letter last night:

Hi Toothie Ruth, it is fun to lose teeth. I love it. This time I lost it like this...it was at rest time it was held on with 1 string. I was trying to feel the hole and it fell out.

Toothie Ruth wrote back,

My dear Nellie,
Congratulations on losing your second tooth! Remember to be brave every day. 
Love, 
Toothie Ruth

***

Nellie's first field day was today! She was ready, in salmon-colored capris and a red skirt (both from Grandma Linda...not sure she intended for them to be worn together, ever) with her Prince Fielder shirt. Very apropos. She did say, however, "my tennis shoes are my enemies! I always have to wrestle with them to get them on."

Sibling love

I think Annie conceptualizes giving and sharing as the same thing. She keeps telling me that DJ let her have his cold.

***

While his word "Nenee" stands for both Nellie and Annie, DJ definitely differentiates between the two. I can tell him, "bring this to Nellie/Annie," and he always gets it right. More importantly, he can find their blankies and know which girl they belong to. He's finally earning his keep!

***

Today the girls were supposed to be resting, but were chatting and giggling instead. I told them to stop talking. Nellie came back with, "but mom, we have to talk if we want to communicate!"

***

How cute is this?

***

Tonight, I played a game with the kids where one of us pretended to be a troll and the others tried to get over the bridge. Anyway, when we were done, Annie asked, "when can we play that game again where I'm Princess Adrianna, Nellie is Princess Penelope, and DJ is Prince Fielder?"

Preschooler insight

I just reached into my pocket, found some old used earplugs, and remembered how Annie came up to me this morning and reached out her hand. In it were Kevin's earplugs he uses for shooting and mowing the lawn. She very sweetly said, "here you go mom. You can use these if DJ's crying or something and you don't want to listen."

May is better

If you didn't read the last post, I'll summarize by saying this: April was rough. May is better. We spent a weekend in Traverse City, went to Woldumar's 50th birthday party, got a new niece, spent time with John while he was home for a week, celebrated Mother's Day, welcomed a new brother-in-law, and did some turkey hunting! I also defended my dissertation proposal and just had a fun girls' weekend while the guys are up north hunting (yes, again). We bought a new camera on our trip, so now we have better photos! Actually, I kind of feel like this is a Pure Michigan ad.

DJ's first time walking in the sand

Enjoying the spring weather on the beach (the water was FREEZING!)

Welcome, Alexa, and congratulations to your whole family! Love me some babies!

So does Annie!

Digging a hole for one of three new apple trees.
I am trying to capture the footie-jammies-with-rain-boots look.

Nellie lost her first tooth! At school!

Nellie loves Sparty

My favorite family photo of all times. Annie and DJ weren't super excited about Sparty, though.

Bouncin' at Woldumar

Random cute picture - quintessential Nellie shot

Kev decided I would like turkey hunting. I actually got a turkey! Crazy! And Kevin did too, seconds later!
It was a moment deserving lots of exclamation points.

What is unseen

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2nd Corinthians 4:17-18

Through the course of a month, these verses came up repeatedly in different blogs, devotions, and sermons I encountered. And it was good timing, because it was a pretty bad month. I'm not sure there's a better way to put it! That's one reason for ignoring the blog a bit--not because nothing has been happening, but because too much seems to be happening. But having muddled through (for now), I can look back and reflect on some lessons learned.

Really, it started with the lice. We had been getting notes from Nellie's school every few days that another case of lice had been discovered, so I guess it was really only a matter of time. Sure enough, I found one on DJ, which was a sure sign that someone ELSE had them, because where in the heck would DJ pick up lice? I could go on and on about this experience, but mostly it was just a huge amount of WORK. So. Much. Laundry. You kind of have to wash and dry everything in the house (and car, and just everywhere), on high heat. Not to mention the hair treatments, though I did lots of online research and found natural remedies that were really effective for us. So if you happen to be reading this and, like the former me, secretly think that Good Families Don't Have Lice, beware. 

The day after the first round of lice treatments, we found out that the daughter of a family friend had died, suddenly and tragically. Again, there's a lot I want to say, but I'm not sure I can put it into words. I remember standing in the kitchen and hearing the news over the phone, and all I could think was, "I can't un-know this. I can't ever not know that the world is unkind, and I cannot control what happens to my children." The morning of the visitation, our sump pump broke (very minor drama by comparison, though it meant an unanticipated expense and a morning off work for Kevin). On the way to the visitation, the car broke down. It got to the point where I just kind of expected the next piece of bad news!

And it didn't really let up. A few days later, I came down with the stomach flu for a good three days (though I didn't really know that's what it was until later). It was at the same time as the Boston Marathon bombings and subsequent manhunt that kept us glued to the news for updates. Finally, on Saturday night (this was April 20) I was finally feeling better and I got to leave the house to celebrate Alex's birthday, but it didn't last long! DJ starting throwing up at the party, and we had to make a quick getaway. Both of the girls got sick before they made it to bed. That was the last time they left the house until the NEXT Saturday. I have never seen the kids so terribly sick. Whatever the virus was, it moved s-l-0-w-l-y. Nellie was still throwing up on Thursday, and missed an entire week of school. Again, with the laundry. I washed all the sheets in the house, every day, for a week. And not because I was being fastidious, but because they were covered with some kind of bodily fluid. It was, as Nellie put it, not fun.

Let's just say, the month of April almost did me in. But those verses...it took awhile but finally it started to sink in. I couldn't - literally could not - focus on all these "light and momentary troubles" or I would surely fall into dispair. As it was, I was utterly close to dispair several times. But in meditating on these verses, I started to think about what was going on in the background, sort of like relief art or something. In fact, I thought of it as "seeing in relief." The bad stuff was so clear, so apparent, so visible. But there were a great many blessings that kind of blended in with their surroundings, waiting to be recognized. 

Like discovering the lice problem at just the right time, before a major outbreak was likely (I know a lot about the life cycle of the louse, now, if you're curious). Or going to the dentist (while I was sick) with the whole family, and everyone was cavity-free. Plus the (modest) tax return came in the day before said appointments, and also just in time to pay for the car repair. Getting sick was no fun, but I am SO GLAD that I had it first, and was feeling better when the kids got sick. And there were even sweet moments in the crazy week of illness - a lot of togetherness, a lot of cuddling and rest (though there were also a few up-at-nights), and marital teamwork. 

I don't pretend to understand why everything happened the way it did, but I feel like I came out a little different, somehow. Maybe a bit tougher or more resilient, but mostly, more prone to look for the unseen good stuff, the many little gifts tucked around, or emerging from, the troubles. I need to remember to look beyond and behind the present circumstances, because there is most certainly more to see that holds an eternal weight. It might take the rest of my life to keep practicing this kind of seeing. But it's in writing now, so no excuses.

A few more things they say

After leaving the hospital tonight where we were visiting our new niece, Alexa, I asked Annie, "what do you think, do you want another baby at our house?" She replied, "I want seven more brothers and seven more sisters." I told her (laughing) that meant we would have 17 kids in our family, and her response was, "but Mom, I love my brothers and sisters!"

Tonight at bedtime, Nellie told me that when she goes to heaven, the first thing she's going to do is ask God if she could try some manna.

Earlier in the day, Kevin was talking with her about the apple trees he had brought home. Nellie asked when we would start getting applies, and he said probably not until next fall, because apples grow in the fall. She looked at him like she thought he teasing her, and said, "Daddy, apples don't grow in fall, they grow in spring and summer and we harvest them in the fall."

Just a funny kid story

Tonight I was putting the girls to bed, and I told Nellie I couldn't wait for her tooth to fall out so I could stay up all night and watch for the tooth fairy. Annie said I shouldn't do that, because I would be soooo tired the next day. I asked, "then how am I ever going to find out who the tooth fairy is?"

Nellie replied, "you're going to have to become nocturnal."

Annie-isms

"My body is telling me it wants to watch a TV show."

"For my birthday party, I want ponies, kitties, Minnie Mouse, rainbows....um, what are some other girly things? Oh, makeup, nail polish, lipstick, pink, purple..."

She's ba-ack!

Here are a few things I heard Nellie saying tonight while she was playing basketball with Kevin:

1) Annie, stop! You're going to ruin my reputation!

2) Okay, I am determined to do it this time.

3) Daddy you're pretty good. For a man!

4) Annie: Daddy, you have one hundred points. Nellie, you have--
    Nellie: Ten thousand points? YES! I knew it!

DJ's words

Most of these, of course, are pretty much only recognizable by immediate family members. But they're all cute!

• Mommy
• Daddy
• Nellie/Annie (sound the same, though he seems to know which girl he means when he says "Ne-nee."
• Connie
• Chief
• Maddie
• Grandma
• Papa
• Elmo
• Dora
• Ball (I hear this one a lot. It might also be synonymous with "outside.")
• Eat
• Bottle
• Blankie
• Cheese (not the food, it's what he calls cameras)
• Water
• Take-a-bath
• Whoa
• Doggie
• Milk
• More 
• Uh-oh

Overheard tonight

Nellie, playing a game: "There's a flood! You need to get six inches above the ground! Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero, negative one, negative two, negative three..."

WHAT? I think I mentioned negative numbers once, a few weeks ago. That girl.

And later -
Annie: "Is God Jesus's last name?"

DJ saying "Elmo" (and practicing the "L" sound)

More things they say

Annie: Can I have a computer when I'm a mommy?
Me: Yes. Maybe you can have one when you're a teenager and you have projects to work on for school.
Nellie: Ooh, can I have one when I'm ten? I have lots of interesting things to say on facebook.


Nellie wrote a song (like, physically wrote down the lyrics). It's pretty poetic:

1, 2, 3 the day has just begun

The birds are singing

The sun is brightening

The flowers are blooming

Spring is here

My song has just begun

Annie, to Emily: My tummy is really hurting.

Emily: Hm, what is it telling you? Do you need to drink some water, or go to the bathroom?

Annie: It's telling me...that it really needs to eat some rock candy.

Easter week, in pictures. It was cold.

I was really brave and dyed eggs with the girls - they turned out pretty good!

DJ was all worn out at lunch on Good Friday with both his sisters home.

Easter baskets filled and waiting

Loose tooth! She's hoping the dentist will pull it out at her appointment this week.

Random picture of the girls with their My Little Pony Canterlot wedding castle

Classic.

DJ watching Nellie learn to ride her bike from inside, sporting the only-a-diaper look. Very chic. 

Sidewalk chalk on Easter, at Grandma's house

We pretend it's like this...

but it's really more like this.

Cousins!

Egg hunt. Nellie was as colorful as an Easter egg.