This week, I want to remember (1/23-1/27)

Monday, January 23

• It's Lola's birthday!
• We didn't do a whole lot, because Lolee girl wasn't feeling well. She cried a good portion of the day saying, "I hold you Mommy! I hoooooold you!" So, I would pick her up, snuggle her, and carry her around with me doing whatever needed to be done. At rest time, she even let me rock her to sleep--which is a real rarity these days! I was glad God gave me another day to pretend she was a little baby again--she really is transforming in front of my very eyes into a beautiful, independent little girl.

I couldn't get a smile out of her....

 So....I enlisted an ally.

The bond between these two....

....is absolutely precious.

• Cameron came home from school, telling me all about his day.  "Mom, we played Star Wars! I was Dark Vader (sic), Waylon was Luke Skywalker, and Ty was Princess Leia." (I got a big laugh out of that one!)
• Colin and I played Scrabble after dinner. He's pretty good for an eight year old!
• Cameron read his first complete book while I was making dinner (like, a real one with more than one word on the page) and we were all pretty excited for him! Now that he made it all the way through, he just wants to read "one more" all the time! Yay for readers.

That night, Grandma Jane came over to give Lola Belle her presents--a couple 

of very neat Leap Frog toys.  A little house that does and says tons of things....

(We agreed that the angels on the wrapping paper looked like Lo!)

And she got a toy that looks a lot like my new toy, a Kindle Fire! 

She and her nappy hair love it.  She calls it "Tinnel!"

Tuesday, January 24

• Thought of the day: playdates are good for children. But even better for Mommies!
• Lola woke up still sore, but feeling much better! Her mood was improved greatly, which made the day much more delightful.
• We stopped for lunch and when I asked Ethan how his steakburger was, he proclaimed: "It's FRESH!"
• After baths, the boys did this for about 20 minutes:

• We watched a bit more of Star Wars (the original movies--Daddy got them on Blu Ray for Christmas!) before the boys had to go to bed. They love, love Star Wars, which is great because so does their Daddy! It's so cute to see the four of them bond over yet another thing.

Wednesday, January 25

The day Ethan woke up (way too) early, was grouchy most of the morning, and then--after I noticed I hadn't heard him for a few minutes--I checked on him around 10:30 in his room and found this:

The days my boys said these things:

Cameron, getting dressed for school, comes to me in his underwear, distressed:

"Mommy, these undies are NOT right! Something is just very wrong."

Me: "Cameron....those are Ethan's undies."

Cameron: "Whew! Mine have much more room in the legs."

Ethan, during learning time: "I'm going to color the water blue." (chooses a violet crayon) 

Me: "Are you going to color it blue, Ethan, or purple?" 

E:  "Blue." (reaches again for the violet.) 

Me, holding out the two crayons: "Ethan, which one is blue and which one is purple?" 

Ethan, studying them for a moment: "Eeeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo...."

Colin, after school: "Mommy, we've had snow, then sleet, then rain today!"

Me: "Yep. And it looks like it is starting to sleet again."

Colin: "We're having three kinds of pah-sip-ah-tations."

The day Lola wore pigtails--real ones, near her ears instead of at the top of her head--for the first time! 

I didn't get any close up shots of her, but you can kind of see them in this
shot of the kids playing Legos after school:

 

Thursday, January 26th

Ethan poured the milk on his cereal. All. By. Himself. (It was a big deal!)

 Ethan also helped me bake banana nut muffins.  Then, he helped clean up! 

This child washed ALL the big dishes (you know, the ones that don't go into the dishwasher)

 by himself, and did a great job getting them clean.

As soon as Lola heard the word help, she was up--and on me like white on rice.

  The dishwasher door opened and bam, she was on it, saying, "I help. I help."

Then, she started saying something even cuter--"Here Mommy. Help you."

After school, the boys came home and we played more Legos.  I got up to check where Cameron was (and go to the bathroom) when I found him in there. And immediately, my nose told me he had just done some bid-ness, if ya know what I'm sayin.
Me: "Shoo, Cam. You kinda stunk the bathroom up a bit, bud."
Cameron: "You know what else I did, Mom? Warmed up the toilet seat for ya."

Friday, January 27

Ethan, Lola and I spent this day getting ready for Ethan's 5th birthday party! In the morning, we cleaned up the house.

Just after I finished vacuuming everything, I found this:

Lola had found the salt. And opened it. And dumped it. A lot of it. 

And these two pictures were two of about 12 I could have taken. 

She left a nice trail from my office floor (above) to the kitchen (below).

Sigh. So everything got double vacuumed. Extra clean, I say! 

We did lots of errands--a trip to CVS, a trip to the grocery and the meat store, etc. When we got home, we had some supper and the baking began! Ethan requested cupcakes--chocolate, of course! (He is his mother's son!) So Lola helped me bake.

Anytime the mixer (or any small appliance in my kitchen) starts to whir, 

she comes flying over and says, "I see! I see!"

After the cupcakes were in the oven, it was time to make some pizza dough. 

Homemade pizza was the special request of the birthday boy!

Lola loves to watch the dough kneading through the window of the machine.

Then, much to my boys'--who had been literally pacing the floor for two hours waiting--delight, Grandma 'Nette and Grandpa showed up! It was immediately time for games. We were so thrilled to have them make the trip down for Ethan's party and spend the weekend with us.

Scrabble it was!

Ethan's birthday party was the next day--more on that later!