AARR!!!

I happened to take the kids to the library at the tail end of the story hour. We missed everything, but fortunately they had a couple pirate hats left.

Lear quote: "Hey, Ella, look! I found our long-lost worm family! Mr. Wormy, Mrs. Wormy, and their baby centipedes!" They then brought the family inside, comfortably tucked in a gift bag filled with leaves.

Ella quote: "Mommy, stop playing music! You makin' my ears hurt!"

Just a quiet moment at home.

If you weren't already convinced by their looks, here is further proof that these are Cory's children. I took this picture on a phone, which is why it's so blurry.

Lear quote: "You know, Mommy, Heartland Elementary doesn't just have Kindergarten, it has first grade, too." (We're thinking seriously about putting him in a language immersion program at another school, and I think he thinks we don't already know he can keep attending the same school.)

Ella quote: "Mommy, do you think we should get a Bump-it?" Heck, NO!!

I forgot to mention...

For those who don't know yet - it's a girl! Good thing, too, because we have a million cute dresses to recycle.

Good Idea, Bad Idea

Good Idea: Painting my bright blue bedroom a more neutral color.

Bad Idea: Letting the kids help out.

It's a good thing they clean up so well.

(I guess the kids weren't the only ones having fun.)

Preschooler speak

This is an actual conversation that I had with Ella yesterday:

Me: "Hey, Ella, what's daddy doing downstairs?"

Ella: "He on da pew-tah-wah."

"The pew-tah-wah?"

"No, Mommy, pew-tah-wah."

"Pew-tah-wah?'

"No, no, no. Say it right! Pew-tah-wah!"

"Oh, you mean computer?"

"Yes!"

"Ella, say what I say: Com-pu-ter."

"Com-," "Yes,"

"pu-" "Good,"

"ter."

"Great! Now say it again."

"Com-pew-tah-wah!"

And, to give Lear equal time:

Lear: "Mommy, all six of the yogurt lids said 'Please try again.'"

Me: "So?"

"We got some defective yogurt."

"Defective? We didn't win anything, but the yogurt was still good. Where did you learn the word 'defective,' anyway?"

"Spongebob."

(It was a very proud moment for me.)

Ella's first haircut!

Thanks to my friend Kristen, Ella has had her first hair cut! I've been reluctant to cut her hair, because she was bald until she was two or so, and when those curls started coming in, I was so giddy with delight that I waited. This was actually all Ella's idea: she gets sooooo jealous whenever Cory and Lear go together to get their hair cut (it's like a father-son activity for them) and she's been nagging me for weeks about it. She may be only three, but she is already a champion nag. She sat very still while Kristen snipped and sprayed, and now her hair is evenly cut and she even has bangs. Now, hopefully, the nagging will cease for a few months (until she finds something else she wants, anyway.)

Ella quote: "I don't like curly hair! It makes me look like a boy! I want flat hair like Mommy!"

Lear quote: "Well, if there's no more frozen smoothie mix here at Costco, I guess we'll have to buy all the ingredients manually."

Mom: "Lear, do you even know what 'manually' means?"

Lear: "No. Did I use it right?"

Mom: "Pretty darned close!"

OMSI

So obviously, I've been dilatory in making posts lately. Pure laziness, I'm afraid, and the fact that I thought I didn't have any pictures to post - but I found some taken while we were visiting Oregon. My parents took our family to OMSI in Portland - the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. I used to love the place when I was younger. Our Oregon trip was great, actually, mostly because my mother takes my kids off my hands - she plays with them and feeds them, and I'm left with nothing to do but snooze in front of the TV. And I'm ok with that.

OMSI has interactive exhibits, which the kids really enjoyed. I'm not sure what Lear's doing in the picture, but he's probably learning something science-y.

Ella is holding some kind of carbon dioxide and soap bubble. It's pretty cool. The bubble sort of degrades on it's own, which the progression of pictures shows.

Lear quote: "Don't worry, Mommy, I'm sure Papa's toe has grown back by now." (We were discussing why Papa only has nine toes. It took a little while to explain why toes, unlike toenails, don't grow back.)

Ella quote: "Mama, you're so boo-ful. I wub-oo." You can hear my heart melting thirty feet away.