We Are All Enlisted 'til the Conflict is Over!!!

My children have learned a new vocabulary word - diarrhea. Although Annie calls it gas-a-rhea. I hate potty-talk. I despise the "f" word. In our house, we "pass gas." Although I am pretty much tired of anyone passing anything.

Andy woke up in the middle of the night joining our household of sick. Looks like another few days of quarantine for us. Although I don't quite understand how when he is home sick from work he gets to sleep in a quiet cool bedroom (although he does have to move from room to room to find that) with drinks brought to him, yet when I am sick I still get to take care of 3 kids, keep up with laundry, make meals, and exist on even less sleep than normal...someone care to explain that one to me? Although I did get to run and get my hair cut and buy toilet paper since we were down to our last roll - all by myself!!!

Dressed Like a Princess

It took a lot of work to get Annie to put on clothes Sunday morning. Ben loves getting ready because on Sunday mornings he 'shaves' just like Dad and then dresses in a suit just like Dad. He loves Sundays!!! Annie just doesn't like to get dressed at all in this current almost 3 year-old stage. I finally told her she would look like a princess. Apparently she also felt that way and needed her broken crown on. Ben asked if she wanted to dance. I put on some music and they danced the morning away - until the little McDonalds crown fell off her head one too many times!
What sweethearts! They are such fabulous friends when they are both happy!!!

Mr. Independence!

Ben and I decided a few weeks ago it was time for the training wheels to go. They kept turning on our walks when he'd go fast and just seemed like a pain. We've been working on it in 10-15 minutes increments. A friend suggested starting them going down a slight hill to get some momentum. We started with that, but he did much better riding in the dirt in our front yard (because we killed all of our grass...on purpose). Once I figured out that he needed one pedal always on top, I taught him how to turn his tire to accomplish that. Now he is even more sturdy that he was with the training wheels! Dad got to see him for the first time Sunday night - being a a daredevil on the church ramp behind our house! Way to go Ben!!! He likes to go off the edge instead of straight down the ramp like he used to.

I figure if I can teach him to ride without the training wheels and jump off the diving board in a week - reading is going to be a breeze...right... I'll just go back to eating my warm chocolate chip cookie with Blue Bell vanilla ice cream and dream about the future!

Hip Hip Horray for BEN!!!

He did it! No more man-eating vacuum in this pool! It was a process and we all worked together. Thanks Aunt Jamie for working with Em and Annie while we played with Ben!

1. First, Andy took him into the deep end to blow rings (he puts on a scuba mask and blows rings from the bottom that get bigger as they rise; it's really cool!).
2. Then I stood about 5 feet away and told him to swim to me. Okay!
3. Then I went halfway from one side of the deep end to the other.
4. Then he and Andy swam across the deep end.
5. Then they started seeing how deep they could go and if Ben could touch the bottom. So they did that for a little bit.
6. The convincing moment was a stoke of brilliance (mine, of course!)!!! I asked Annie to go jump off the board and had Ben watch underwater to see how far down she goes after jumping off the board (it's seriously less than a foot!).
7. As soon as he watched her, he was off and running out of the water and jumped right off came up and swam to the steps!!! It was incredible!!! They were performing for the camera!
We started a new game last week (are you ever too old for games while jumping off the board?) where the person in the water would "set" the volleyball and we would hit it. Everyone was busy with other things, so I did the self toss, approach, and hit. Andy had the camera on infinity so there is a 5 picture series of this moment - but I'll just post the crowning moment! I must admit that my steps are still there - they just have an extra 50 pounds since high school...!
After a long day in the pool, we love to have dinner with Grandpa grilling. The kids have their make-shift table to eat. Then we all shower, put on jammies and drive home to bed! It's the perfect summer Saturday!!!

Wait Too Long

I left Emily eating today and went to help Ben and Annie with something else. I got a little bit sidetracked. About 5 minutes later I wondered why Emily hadn't called me. I went back in the kitchen to find out I had waited too long. She still took a 3 hour nap after I moved her to her bed though!