Happy Artist

Last night was Lydia's school's art show. Lydia was excited to receive a ribbon for her clown. She also showed her small clay pot. After the art show was the music performance. She had fun singing songs with the first, second, and third grades.

Mom is moving her office :-)

Mom jokes that her recliner is her office. Other than the couple hours a week she teaches a live seminar with a microphone online, she does all of her other work for her jobs from her chair. She uses her laptop, keeps a bag with books and files behind her chair, and has the printer set up under the table beside her. However, Sydney is bringing this to an end. Sydney is constantly playing with the printer, pulling stuff out of her bag, etc. Mom has tried putting appealing toys out, putting pillows/ blankets in front of the printer and over the bag, etc. Nothing has worked. Mom is relocating most of her work stuff.

Click the following to view Sydney up to no-good :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-JAhy3pxTU

You know potty training is going really, really badly...

when your kid secretly puts on a diaper. Remember a few months ago when Mom and Dad said Morgan was giving up diapers forever. Well, after about seven days they decided that they would rather pay the $50 a month and change diapers than deal with one more accident. It didn't go well at all. They decided to give it another try yesterday. By 1:00 yesterday afternoon, Morgan had used the potty five times and had three accidents. It went downhill from there. She had about another four or five accidents by the end of the day. She didn't have much interest in it.

This morning Mom woke up determined to keep trying. She really wanted Morgan out of diapers well before she starts preschool in the fall since she has to be potty trained by then. She thought all was going well about 10:00 am when Morgan hadn't had any accidents, but she was confused because Morgan had only gone in the bathroom once. She picked up Morgan and discovered that Morgan had put a diaper on herself. That's probably not a good sign that she wants to cooperate with the potty training process. However, Mom thinks it's impressive that she can change herself... somehow the preschool may not agree. Mom and Dad may keep trying, but it's not looking good at the moment.

The Art of Delegation

Lydia has been earning extra money doing work around the house. She can earn $1 for gathering, washing, drying, folding, and putting away a load of towels. She recently asked Mom if she can have the little kids help her and still get paid. Mom didn't see a problem with it as long as she was still in charge of making sure it all turned out ok. She has somehow convinced Seth and Morgan that they love folding laundry. She has trained Morgan to be an expert washcloth folder and has Seth doing a decent job folding towels and putting them away.

Seth's Big Morning

This morning Seth went to "Kindergarten Round-up." It's the kindergarten screening process at his school for next year. He had his hearing and vision checked. He also went with the kindergarten teacher to be screened for his kindergarten readiness. The teacher knows Seth, and she came out and said, "Seth, it's your turn." He went with her.

When he finished, Mom asked him how it went. He told her the teacher asked him silly questions. He said she said, "Seth, we'll get started." She then sat down and said, "What's your name?" He couldn't figure out why someone would call him Seth then ask his name. He said she then asked him his address when she had it in front of her on the paper. He didn't understand why she kept asking him stuff she already knew.

At the end, he met with the principal. When Mom and Seth were leaving, he said, "Seth, it looks like you and Mom are ready for kindergarten." Seth said bye. He then looked at Mom and loudly asked her why the principal called her "Mom" instead of "Jenny." Then he said, "I think it's because he can't remember your name." Mom thinks he's probably right.

Sydney Pictures

Our Knitter

When we saw Dessa last month, she taught Lydia how to knit. Lydia is hooked!

Coloring the Easter Eggs

What we've been doing...

Mom's winter quarter classes ended a couple weeks ago. She usually teaches about six classes between her two schools at a time, but she'll only be teaching about three or four in the future. She decided it would be good to go to Hobby Lobby and get some decorations to put over the cabinets. It's funny how those projects turn out. At this point, she's gotten stuff to decorate the entire kitchen, living room, some furniture, etc. Much to the kids' dismay, the family has lived at decorating stores and furniture stores. Dad has spent his evenings on top of ladders, carrying furniture, and hanging pictures. The curtains Mom bought on ebay should be arriving soon, and he'll be hanging curtains next week. Mom is convinced that the family is going to start sending out applications for her to get another job if she doesn't stop the decorating soon.

Weekend in Louisville with Nana, Michael, and Dessa

We had a great weekend last weekend visiting with everyone!

7 Months Old

We took this picture of Sydney last Saturday at the zoo when she turned seven months old.

Seth in the News

The local newspaper reporter interviewed Seth and his two co-authors/ buddies about their book/ preschool project last week. Mom asked his teacher how it went, and she said Seth talked A LOT :-) You can click on the article to read easier.

11 Years 3 Months Until He's Driving A Car..

Seth got a big bike today. He now has a bike as big as Lydia's. He's able to go much faster on it. It's amazing how fast and well he goes to only be four years old.

Teething Baby Enjoying the Beautiful Weather

The Meaning of St. Patrick's Day

Mom is not a morning person. She tends to work fairly late at night on her job, and she struggles for the first hour or two of the day :-) This morning as Mom was pulling Sydney and Morgan out of the van at Seth's preschool, Seth started questioning her on St. Patrick's Day. She was tired, and told him that it's just a day when you wear a green shirt. Of course, he wasn't satisfied with this. He kept questioning, but Mom couldn't really come up with a good, quick answer while she took everyone into preschool. The incident was forgotten for a few hours.

When she was making lunch, Seth yelled from the living room that he now knew what he was supposed to be doing on St. Patrick's Day. Mom was curious and went into the living room. The news was doing a story on DUI arrests. They were showing clip after clip of people wearing green shirts wildly drinking at bars.

Dada

Much to Dad's enjoyment, Sydney clearly said "Dada" this evening when Dad was dressing her. We're not sure if she's really old enough to officially talk yet, but we're calling it her first word.

"Cuse Me Sideee Gace"

"Cuse Me Sidee Gace" is Morgan speak for "Excuse me Sydney Grace" which is Morgan's language for "don't touch me, don't roll on me, don't pull my hair, don't pull my clothes, and don't touch the crown!" You can see the look of displeasure in her face during bedtime stories.

Heat Wave :-)

The temperature hit the upper fifties where we live today, and the kids were so excited! Mom and the little kids went to the zoo today, and the kids all played outside when Lydia got home from school. They couldn't be happier. We had so much snow in February that it still hasn't all melted. It was very strange for Mom to be outside in almost sixty degree weather watching the kids play in the snow.

Ramblings About No More Library DVD's

About a year ago, Mom said no more to getting movies at the library. It sounds like a good idea to get the kids movies there, but the movies are inevitably not returned on time, and at a dollar per day per movie, the fines add up quickly. However, last Saturday Mom forgot why she quit getting kids movies at the library and picked up some cool educational movies for the children.

This afternoon (a day late) mom realized the movies needed to be returned. She drove up to the side of the library on her way to pick up Lydia and the babysitter from school, and asked Seth to hop out and put the movies in the book/DVD return slot. She watched him run across the grass and go to the big, wooden flag collection container instead of the book return slot. She yelled, "NO SETH... NOT THAT ONE" but of course he didn't turn around to ask "not that one what Mom," until after he threw the movies in the flag holder. Mom didn't have time to deal with it before going to the school. She decided to come back.

She picked up Lydia and the babysitter and drove back to the library. Of course, the library was closed due to budget cuts. While the babysitter was earning money for sitting in the van watching, Mom took apart the flag collection container (no flags inside) to retrieve the movies. Her back is still sore from putting the big wooden thing on it's side. However, no permanent damage was done to her back or the container.

She was glad to be done with her DVD headache until tonight. Lydia was very excited this evening when she said, "look Mom, I found the movie you needed." Mom returned one of the kids' movies instead of the library movies. She'll be going there in the morning to return the correct one and retrieve the other one.

Family Pictures 2010

Sydney

Morgan

Seth

Lydia

On-The-Move

Sydney isn't an official crawler yet, but she's gotten very good at moving around the room. She uses a combination of rolls, dragging, and scooting herself to get where she wants to be. She can get up on her hands and knees so we're expecting her to really crawl soon.

One of the first times Sydney got off her little playmat (blue and green mat in the background,) Mom found Morgan dragging Sydney by her feet back to the mat. Morgan explained to Mom that the mat was Sydney's spot, and she was putting her back. We've now worked out with Morgan that Sydney is free to roam as she pleases :-)

Lydia and Grandma's Afternoon at Cooking School

Lydia and Grandma spent last Saturday afternoon at a cooking school near Cleveland. They took a class on making pasta and sauces. They had a great time! Lydia loves to cook, and she has been looking forward to the class for months. We've tried one of her recipes since she returned, and we look forward to trying more.