Memorial Day Weekend

We had a fun weekend, sprinkled with the occasional fight thrown in to make us fear the upcoming summer vacation. I took Midge, Leo, and baby boy to go see Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Midge and I have read the books. I liked the older brother Roderick. We decided to make fruit pizza. I can't wait for the berries of summer.

For whatever the reason the kids have had so much energy lately. I knew that I needed to let them use some of it up or they would destroy the house so we headed over to a favorite park.

Little Miss has to always swing before she slides down.

Midge took all of the following pictures of baby boy.

My baby boy is getting so big. He smiles so easily know and loves to coo and talk.

We have a fun little baseball game too.

Barbie even plays on our team.

I love with the exuberance with which my kids play. Ken and I laugh that while sometimes it would be nice to have quiet, demur children it wouldn't be half as much fun.

The big news around our house is that Little Miss is starting to figure out the whole potty training thing. In the beginning her stubbornness got in the way. She simply didn't want to do what we wanted her too, and we knew she wouldn't figure it out until it was on her terms. On the very first day of potty training she used the potty twice, but then she refused to go again. Instead she would hold the pee until we put a diaper on her when she went to bed. It was frustrating because we would have her sit on the potty and nothing would happen and then she would walk away and she would have an accident. (Speaking of which I found a great product called pig pads. They work great at pulling the pee out of the carpet. When Ken worked at Jerry's they had them to clean up spills. I convinced the paint department to sell me some.)

Then yesterday she was standing next to the potty and started having an accident again I quickly took her to the potty and she got a few drops in the potty. She jumped up and said, "I went on the potty". I thought I would tell her she hadn't done anything, but we decided to go with it. We had a little celebration party, got out the stickers, and motivational marshmallows, high fives and a piggy back ride from daddy.

Everyone went on to other things and then about 15 minutes later I caught her going potty again, this time for real. She was so delighted with herself and we threw another little potty party. Ever since then she has done great - it has clicked as you would say.

A conversation with my Eight Year Old

Eight Year Old: My breakfast is cold. Why didn't you tell me it was ready?

Mother: I did you ran upstairs instead on listening to me. You need to listen to me when I am talking to you.

Eight Year Old: You need to talk to me when I am listening to you.

Mother: (pulling out hair, and sighing in exasperation) Child because become a lawyer when you grow older so you can use all of that ability of yours for good and to pay off my therapy.

Buyer's Remorse.

Leo climbed into bed with me this morning and said, "I want my money back". After some questioning it has been determined that his older sister has opened up a Rock Shop. Apparently her rocks cost $2 a pop. Should I state that these rocks were obtained free of charge. If we can just channel that genius.

Life as a baby

I suppose you are wondering what it is like to be a Woodward baby, well it is a lot of work.

There is a lot of trying on new clothes and hats.

Holding hands.

Playing with my siblings.


Nap Time

What is it about kids and their dads? All of our kids will crash out on dad, but they won't sleep with mom unless they are snuggled in a blanket and have been rocked to sleep.

There is some staring out the window.Staring at the wall. Staring at...Talking to mom. Laughing at mom. Being a 2 month old is very serious business. Peace out it's time for another nap.

Little Miss Sass

Love this girl to death, but boy has she been dishing it out lately. Today I decided to take her to the library for story time. We pull into the parking lot and I tell her what we are here for. Her reply, "I'll just stay in the car". As if the only reason we drove all the way over here was so that I could sit on the floor with a bunch of 2 year olds and sing Einsey Winsey Spider and then fight for the chunky crayons to color my little picture.

I convinced her to get out of the car by allowing her to push the buttons in the elevator.

Did you know that there is actually a button that sets off an alarm when pressed? Well we now do.

I mean who thought of placing that button next to all of the other buttons at a 2 year old height level? (The button is a bell with a line through it - like that is supposed to stop a 2 year old mind, "Man well I was going to press the button but thank goodness they put the line through it now I won't be tempted at all".)

Any who we made it in to the library and when I asked her if she wanted to join the group of kids singing and listening to stories she looked at the group in disgust and replied "No thanks."

Instead we selected our books and played on all of the computers before the other kids got out of their group activity - maybe there is something to this.

Then while all of the other kids were getting books Little Miss moved in to play with the toys.

Little Miss has one rule regarding toys.

#1 Rule If I touched a toy within the last 30 minutes it's mine.

Today she ran around and gathered up all of the dinosaurs. One little girl ran up when Little Miss was playing with her plethora of dinos and snatched one. Little Miss was astounded at her audacity and huffed her exasperation. When the little girl came in for another snatch she jumped in front of her, put one hand on her hip, pointed her finger, looked her dead in the eye, and said, "These are my dinosaurs, turn around, and go back to your mom." If she could have added a finger snap and a flip of her hair she would have.

Her brother isn't immune to her attitude. For whatever reason those to are able to push one another's buttons within seconds of him coming home from kindergarten. It usually begins with a comment about her stinky blanket and ends with a "You're stupid" and a timeout on the stool.

You may be wondering where all of this attitude comes from and frankly Ken and I have a pretty good idea. We know that she has learned this from a family member, someone she looks up to, someone who has had great influence in shaping the little woman she is turning in to, we blame it entirely upon her older sister Midge.

Our Week In Review

We had a visitor in the backyard a little baby possum this past week. The kids wanted to keep it. I tried to remember it is a step up from a rat.

Midge had a concert at school about the solar planets. It was a really cute program. Be aware that the picture below is just the third grade class.

Leo had his final soccer game and celebration party. He wanted me to make a soccer cake. Here it is halfway done.

The finished cake.

At the party they had a pinata.

The kids were thrilled to get their candy.

Waiting for permission to go in for the booty.

Leo with his best bud Leo. These two were quite the soccer players. At the end of the final game the score was tied 6 to 6. Leo kicked a great shot down to our Leo who was standing by the goal. Our son kicked it in during the final second for a goal and we won the final game.

Leo's team. He even liked playing with girls this season.

Coach Jason awarding him his trophy.

Lining up for the cake.

His tongue matches his shirt.