Teaching is in their genes

Yesterday we didn't do Rex's homework right after school. Then he was playing SO well with his sisters that I didn't want to interrupt (this being the afternoon that grandma left, so a lot of drama was possible).

So this morning he did his homework while I loaded the dishwasher and Leia ate her breakfast.

Leia was showing a little interest when she found out it was math (*proud thoughts*) so Rex explained it to her and she ended up doing the homework with him.

He was explaining that the little squares were ones and the long bars were tens...

It was so cute.

What a knob!

Everyone with kids has to have the obligatory mykidlockedthemselvesinaroom moments.

We had one tonight.

Belle was SO tired that it was all crying and hitting and whining so I put her into her room with a towel in her door to avoid the escape-artist antics that she is so well known for.

Eventually the noise stopped and she was obviously asleep.

I went to open the door to give her free reign when she wakes up in the night, only to find that the door was locked from the inside. I have run into this before when she was inside and awake, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, and didn't want to have that happen again.

So I decided to unscrew the knob and turn it around.

Funny thing. Even with one knob off, the door is still locked - from the inside.

Then I had the bright idea of taking out the other half of the door knob.

I poked it partway out and just before it was ready to fall to the floor, I realized that the last time I put a towel in her door, Belle fell asleep right in front of it.

I was holding this locked doorknob piece with two fingers, one from each hand, through the doorknob hole deciding which way to swing the thing to cause the least amount of damage to my baby if she was, in fact, in front of the door.

Then the knob slipped.

Without any strategic swinging of the knob.

Fortunately, it clunked straight on to the floor.

And the door was still shut.And locked.

I tried using the screwdriver to work the thing open, but having minimal experience with the mechanical workings of doorknobs, I didn't know that wouldn't work.

SO, I pulled the doorknob off my door and, with it in the unlocked position, I opened the door.

Now, this may be where you think the story ends, but don't navigate away to another blog just quite yet.

Yes, I am long-winded. I know. Deal.

So I decide to reverse the doorknob, like I have been planning since we decided which room was hers. Really quick.

Did I mention that none of our rooms have overhead lights and that we only have four lamps, all of which are outside of Belle's room?

Twenty minutes later - I KID YOU NOT - I finally had that little bugger screwed onto the door.

Thanks to a little help from the light of my cell phone dangling from between my teeth.

And I still had to put MY doorknob back together. That took much less time, actually being able to SEE what I was doing.

What a sad story.

Now it is over.

Oh, and Belle was actually in her bed and stayed asleep through the whole ordeal.

Home, Sweet, Home

So here is our new house. The white curtains in the HUGE window over the front door are now maroon to match the shutters.

This is the view I have while standing at the sink in the kitchen.

My wheels. All of them.

I have ridden the girls up to the bus stop twice (70 lbs of girly-girls) just to coast down with Belle in the back. Soon I'll get up the courage to go on a real bikeride.

Another angle on our house.

Looking out my bedroom window.

Looking down the street. Our house is on the left, just out of the picture.

The view from the hammock in the backyard.

More corn and houses in our backyard. Too bad its feed corn, or I'd have eaten a few ears already.

We have been frantically unpacking and organizing (and throwing away). A few days ago we had BOTH cars parked in the garage. I'm pretty sure that both of them are back out tonight. I have installed curtain rods on all the windows, except for the family room, and am working on using the curtains we already have and deciding what else we need to get our windows dressed.

Oh, and did I mention that a spa came with the house? Yes, we have a recreational body of water in our backyard. No drownings yet, but some of our water toys have fallen into the cracks between the deck and the spa. Daddy? Can you climb through the mulch and spiders and dirt to ge my squishy ball so I can throw it at you again? I promise I won't miss this time.

It has been fun finding all my tools, which have been in storage for over two years, but I am sad because my favorite one (the router), along with all its accessories id nowhere to be found. Easy to steal if you are an unethical moving man. I just hope that I am able to get new stuff for the price that we insured it all for. We'll see.

Commander in Chief

I am sending my kids to school on Tuesday. We need to support the (if not our) president and show our kids to respect the government. I'm pretty sure that the five or ten minutes that the kids will pay atteniton to will not go very far in the brainwashing that some parents seem to be fearing.

First Day of School Pictures

I finally found my camera cord while looking for something else that I still haven't found.

The kids at the front door, all ready for school.

My big second grader.

My anxious and excited Kindergartener.

My poor baby who has to put up with mom for two more years!

Walking to the bus.

Waiting for the bus.

More waiting (we were there pretty early).

Getting on the bus.

Bye, bye, bus.

I have pictures of their return on the cell phone, but have run into the same problem: how to get them off. I'll figure that out tomorrow in between my three trips to the bus stop.

From the mouths of babes...

Interview with Belle, 3.5 years old
These are direct quotes.

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Saying princesses things

2. What makes mom happy?
With a smile

3. What makes mom sad?
mean makes you sad

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
he he he, like that

5. What was your mom like as a child?
Ice cream

6. How old is your mom?
I don’t know, can you tell me

7. How tall is your mom?
this huge

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
doing golf balls and going to picnic and going to a birthday party and going toChristmas and going to grandma’s house and another one grandma’s house

9. What does your mom do when you're not here?
cry

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
when she was big she was famous

11. What is your mom really good at?
doing princesses

12. What is your mom not very good at?
not doing hitting

13. What does your mom do for a job?
sitting down

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
pizza

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
that you play with people

16. If your mom were a TV character, who would she be?
the girls with the beautiful dresses (Project Runway)

17. What do you and your mom do together?
sitting

18. How are you and your mom the same?
you are a baby and I was a baby

19. How are you and your mom different?
different of dressing up

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
loving to hug and kissing also

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
hugging daddy

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Serena’s house

First Day of School

Just put the kids on the bus for their first day of school. I had to hold the Belle back by her collar to keep her from getting on the bus too. She just keeps repeating "It's not fair!" about not going to school and not getting to ride a bus. These next two years are going to be long ones. I hope that someone directs the kids to where they need to be once they get to school. We've never been there. I think I could get there if I tried, but we literally have NEVER been there. Maybe driven past it once. I guess we'll find out around 12:45 (they didn't really give us an afternoon bus time) how it went when they get home.

Rex is starting 2nd grade. According to a friend's daughter, his teacher is a very strict old woman. That could be a very good thing for our limit pushing 7-year-old. He met a little friend at the bus stop who is starting Kindergarten. They were both being shy and ended up having fun together. Interesting

Leia is starting Kindergarten. She is in the afternoon class, but for the first two days of school (Thursday and Friday half days- weird) she is going in the morning and returning with her brother. Good intro to the riding a bus world. I don't think she had time to be nervous since the bus came and we basically had to run across the street to get them on in time. Anticlimactic if you ask me. She's already been to school so it is no big deal. She did tell me that she didn't know her teacher and wanted to know if she(or he) was nice. I'm sure she will flare her big blue eyes and remain speechless for a while this morning.

Now I have to go pull Belle's fingers out of the fan she is playing with and clean up the cereal she spilled on the floor. This one kid at home may turn out to be harder than expected.

*I can't find my camera cord, so no pictures for now, but rest assured: I have plenty*

Deep Thoughts

We don't like dying. It might kill you. -Rex over breakfast

Argh!

Last week we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. During the course of dinner Leia poked Rex in the eye with a fork. Seriously. His eye ball is very red and looks irritated, but he seems to be fine.

Just tonight, Rex was going to get his jammies and Leia kicked him in the eye. It is red and puffy now and will surely turn into a great shiner just in time for the first day of school.

What will she come up with next to try and relieve him of his vision in that right eye?

On a positive note, on the way into the hotel room this evening, Rex displayed his Braille reading skills by reading our room number with his eyes closed.

Overheard Lately

Leia- "Let's play skunks!"

Belle- "I'm going to be a kitty."

Rex- "No, you have to be a princess so we can stink you!"

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Belle- "When we are grownups we can see Jesus."

Heather- "No, we can just see really far."

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Belle- "Cheater, cheater, princess fire!"

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Belle- "Boys are mean and girls are happy."

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Leia- "I wanna live in the middle of nowhere so I can have space for camping."

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