The Absence of Solitude

Simon Says

Simon has said some funny things lately. This is just a snippet of them:

When he does something that he knows he should not have done but wants to avoid the consequence he says, "I accidentally did it on purpose."

He told me the other night that he no longer likes milk. I asked why and he said, "It's gross 'cause it comes from a cow's bottom."  I am really not sure where he got this information!

As Allen leaves for work every morning Simon runs up to him and says this every.single.time, "Bye Dad. Give me hugs and kisses. Have a good day and be good when you get home." 

He has asked me frequently since we moved the crib into his room, "How am I ever going to sleep with a baby in here?"

Jillian and Simon often takes trips when they are playing; filling backpacks with all kinds of stuff and setting out on their adventures. The other day they went to Texas and I overheard him say, "Jillian, we have to stop in Erie, Pennsylvania so we can get Chick-fil-A." The boy knows what's up. ;)

He is a silly kid and so very precocious. He can make me cry from frustration and from his infectious smile and laugh. 

I know there was one more I was going to jot down and now I have forgotten it. Maybe it will come to me and I can post it. 

 

Wordless Wednesday

Five on Friday

1. I haven't taken a single picture this week. And so I haven't blogged because a post is always better with a picture, right?

2. Simon got pink eye this week and despite my efforts to contain it to just him, Lauren got it yesterday. I thought I was getting it yesterday as well but I think it may just have been some sympathy eye itching or something weird like that. This is the first time I have had to deal with pink eye in my years of parenting. I have realized three things: It's gross. It's expensive to treat with the prescription eye drops. And my hands are dry and starting to crack form the constant hand washing.

3.A couple of weeks ago I was in charge of a youth activity at church. I decided to do a night of Minute To Win-It games. It was a huge success and the youth really loved it. The night before the activity, I let the kids play one of the games for FHE. You had to start with a cookie on your forehead and then using only the muscles in your face move it into your mouth within a minute. None of us were able to do it one minute but after some practice Allen, Ethan, and Lauren all accomplished the task. (One of the youth leaders did it in 23 seconds on his first try.)

4. The biggest news around here is that Jillian is now potty-trained! Yay! I will only have one in diapers!! She has by far been my easiest one to train and also my youngest. She is doing awesome and this little girl will do anything for some Bruster's ice cream. All my other rewards didn't seem to phase her but once I said, "Bruster's," she was in. I hope I did it early enough that she won't regress too much when the baby arrives in a couple of months. Jillian has had some major changes the last couple of months..no binki, a big girl bed, and now potty-trained. She is a champ!

5. The kids don't have school today due to teacher in-service so I am off to find ways to entertain them here at home since I can't take the pink eye-d ones out anywhere. It's rainy and cold so maybe it is a just good day to watch movies, read, and make some cookies. We shall see...

 

Enjoy the weekend!

 

Wordless Wednesday

Sledding

Last weekend we finally got our first significant amount of snow. It was just enough to go sledding. Since the weekend was busy, I took the kids on Monday because they were out of school for MLK day. We had so much fun! We broke two of our sleds hitting the "moguls" the kids built and we stayed out way, way longer than I ever expected.

Simon did an amazing job this year. He would go down all by himself, get up at the bottom of the hill and yell, "That was AWESOME!" and climb right back up the hill to do it all over again. I was so surprised!

The first run down that Jillian had resulted in a lot of snow in her face (see Wordless Wednesday photo) and it took her a little while to want to try it again. And once she decided she do it again, she would only go down with Ethan and loved it every time.

I was glad we got in a sledding day because by Tuesday the snow had melted! Hopefully we will get more snow soon so we can try out snow-shoeing at the local nature park. It's just been a crazy mild winter here.

 

Toothless

Lauren finally lost her first tooth over the weekend! She was determined to get this tooth out before she goes to the dentist next week. Her permanent tooth was already coming up behind it so she didn't want the dentist to have to pull it. She was twisting and wiggly-ing it and finally got it really loose but then was so scared to pull it out but once Allen got it out she started screaming and jumping up and down with excitement.

 

Wordless Wednesday