Downward...

Ally will be starting a yoga class on Tuesday.  In order to ease her nerves, her teacher said she could bring Bubbie to class, so I made Bubbie his own mat.

Ally decided to teach Bubbie some moves.  She told me this one was called, "Down bear."

Five-and-a-half-year-old best friends

These two sweeties.  

They both have their moments.  

Ally gets grumpy and mean; Luke gets whiney and defiant.

But they rarely fight with each other.  

They always treat each other with love.  

They have a special understanding for each other and know what the other needs.

A couple weeks ago, they did have a disagreement.  

They were sick and grumpy.  

Luke wanted to push the button on the remote to start the show, 

but Ally thought she should be able to.  

They fought over the remote and, in their struggle, the remote bumped into Luke's cheek, 

and he began to cry.

Ally stood their shocked and then she began to cry, too.  She tried to get him to take the remote back, insisting he push the button.  

Luke, though tears, was saying, "No, it's okay; you wanted to."  

They both stood there in tears trying to tell the other person to please take their turn first.

Life's surprises

Life can be surprising sometimes.

One of the important people in my life has been my friend Patty.  I met her when I was in my early 20's and began teaching at Townsend.  She encouraged me to try things I'd never even thought about doing.  She took me to see New York City, giving me a tour of the city, a few crazy rides on the subway, and finding an Off-Off Broadway show about Janis Joplin.  She accompanied me to fulfill a life long dream of trying out my language skills in Germany and Austria where my language skills failed me, but I saw things I'd only dreamed I'd get to see.  We camped in bear country in the Smoky Mountains and had a wild weekend in Indianapolis.  And, most importantly, she stood by my side with endless patience as I navigated heartbreaking infertility while working in a very challenging environment.

Although she was 19 years older than me, it couldn't have mattered less.  Until I started a family.  I was suddenly in such a different place in my life.  I was home with babies.  She was past that time of her life and had never had children.

We tried to keep in touch, and we had lunch a couple times a year, but I began to resign myself to the fact that things would never be the same.

But, over the last ten years, while I raised my kids, Patty fell in love with another person who had a big impact on my life, my old principal Ken.  (I struggled so much to use his first name that I still think of him as "Mister" more than Ken.)  As my principal, Ken was always insightful and incredibly supportive.

Ken has two children who he adopted and did everything in his power to help but who still struggle to find their way.  One of his children has three children of her own, and Ken and Patty have stepped in to help raise these three children much of the time.  These kids happen to be nearly the exact same ages as Kate, Anna, and Luke/Ally.

So, my friend Patty, who was childless and I feared I'd was losing touch with, is now essentially raising children the same age as my own.

Our families got together yesterday and our kids all played and went sledding together.  I hope we can do this often!

What do you know, right?

Austin, 7, Ken, Dylan, 4, Kate, 10, Anna, 7, Luke, 5, Ally, 5, and Dave (Trinity, not pictured, is 10)

My favorite photo I took at Patty and Ken's wedding last month.

Scales

Anna was practicing her violin.  I called her over because I wanted to see how much she had learned. I said, "Can you play all the notes?"

She said she could.  She played a note and said, "That's A."

I asked if she could play B.  She played it and said, "That's B.  And this is C."

She played D, E, and F.

Then she furrowed her brow and said, "I can't remember H."

That'll work

Dave and I had to replace the upstairs toilet.  It had been barely flushing for about a year, so we finally got around to buying a new one.

After we'd removed the old toilet, it was time to get the kids from school.  Anna doesn't tend to think things all the way through, so I thought it would be funny if we played a little trick on her.

We took the old toilet outside and hid the new one.  Then Dave had her come up to the bathroom by the hole in the floor.  He said, "Mom thought the bathroom was too crowded with the toilet, so we took it out so there would be more space in here.  The only thing is, we need you to be really careful when you go to the bathroom in the middle of the night so you get all your pee down the hole."

She looked at the hole, then she looked at Dave, and she said, "But, during the day, I can just use the downstairs toilet?"

Sick day fun

Luke and Anna were both home from school sick yesterday.  We were about to play a card game called Farkle Flip for the second time, and Luke said he wanted to score.  I figured Why not? so I let him try.  

He did an awesome job.  I asked, "How did you learn to do those tally marks?

He said he learned from Daddy the day before.  I asked, "Oh?  Daddy taught you?

"No," he explained, "I watched him."

Poor Finley liked the game a little too much.  She got to observe from her crate instead.

You can see the fevers in their eyes, but they're doing all right!

Pout-Pout Fish

Ally was having an especially anxious morning, since Luke is sick and she was going to be going to school without him for the first time ever.  Dave thought it would be helpful if he took a few minutes and read her a book called The Pout-Pout Fish Goes to School again.

The book is about a little fish who's very worried to go to school, because (like Ally) he's afraid he won't be able to do all the things that kids do at school.  Soon, though, he meets a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Hewitt, who lovingly shows him that school is the perfect place to learn all these new skills.

When we first read her this book, Ally commented, "I wish I was a fish."

"Oh," I said, "so you could have Mrs. Hewitt as your teacher?  Mrs. Hirst is a lot like her."

"No," Ally replied, "so I didn't have to go to school!"

"But," I said, "the fish in the book all did go to school."

She looked at me like I was so naive and said, "Mom, this book is fiction."

Growing pains

We were driving in the car yesterday, when Luke commented, "I keep having a growing pain in one of my legs, but it doesn't look like that leg is bigger."

Humph!

Ally has had so much anxiety over school this year.  She has an amazing teacher, and she seems to do well when she's there, but she spends every school morning, and a majority of the night before saying how she doesn't want to go.  We've been taking her to a therapist, and we've tried countless strategies, but we're not really getting anywhere.

Over the weekend, Ally was saying she didn't want to go to school.  To head off any of our arguments as to why school is important, she said, "I don't want to go, because I don't even want to learn reading or math or anything."

Luke said, "Ally, then what are you going to do when you're a mom and your kids need help with their homework."

Ally triumphantly retorted, "That's all right, because moms aren't supposed to give their kids answers anyway!"

Math boy

I've always felt a need to figure out every math problem that comes up in real life.  Whether I'm getting rung up at Target, we get the check when we're eating out, or we're figuring out square footage.

Many times this has impressed people, and someone will look at me slightly sideways and ask, "Did you just do that in your head?"  But, more often than that, it's annoyed people, where they're like Yeah, okay, an estimate would do. My best friend in high school used to roll her eyes and refer to me as "Math girl."

My dad is the same way.  Even though I've been "trained" by Dave to round things up or down to fit into his impression of societal norms, if my dad owes you $35.45, he'll figure it out and he'll pay you the 45 cents.  If his receipt has a 17 cent error, he'll notice and probably say something.

I still figure it out, too, and I'll notice the 17 cent error, as well.  But, for matrimonial harmony, I round to $36 and let the 17 cents slide.

Anyway, Luke has inherited this blessing/curse.  He loves to figure out math problems.  (And he's good at it, too.)  I keep finding little slips of paper lying around the house where he's just written out addition problems in his half-backwards numbers.  

Gotta go

Luke has had some stomach issues this week.  He never got the fever that the three girls all had, but he had a lot of diarrhea.  The way he described it, though, it sounds more like a super power.  "Mom, today there were four times that I had to go to the bathroom in a flash."

Love of reading

"I didn't know what I was missing!"  Anna told me.

Confused, I ask, "What honey?"

"Before I knew how to read," she explains, " I didn't know what I was missing.  I love reading!"

I took these pictures today when the kids were having some hot cocoa when we came in from ice skating.

And I don't want to leave out my non-readers:

Spanking

Ally was too sick to sleep last night, so we were snuggling in bed talking. She told me it was germs that were making her sick, so I told her I was going to find those germs and spank them.  She didn't know what "spanking" meant. 

I told her, but she didn't believe it was a real thing.  Smart kid, I guess.

I mean, it really doesn't make sense when you think of it in the simplest terms; why would a parent hit their child to try to make them behave better?

Basketball rules

Ally was sick, so I was going to turn on a show for her to watch.

When I turned on the TV, wrestling was on.  As I searched for her show, Ally looked at the wrestling.  Thinking it was basketball, she definitely declared, "That's a foul!"

As cold as ice

Kate and Ally are both home sick today.  Kate's feeling worse than Ally.  Ally, wanting something to do and wanting to make Kate feel better, asked if she could get some ice and let it melt so she and Kate could both have really cold water.

I told her that was fine.

She got some ice from the ice dispenser and asked me how ice was made.

I told her that there was a tray full of little boxes inside the freezer that got filled with water and when the water cold enough to freeze, the freezer dumped the tray of ice into the ice dispenser.

Ally said, "It has to get a little warm."

"Cold," I corrected.

"No, warm," she told me.

We discussed it a while, and I thought she might be confused about how there were so many smaller pieces of ice instead of one big.  I thought a picture of an ice cube tray would help, so I grabbed my phone and said, "Let's look up 'ice cube tray.'"

Ally liked the idea, "Yeah, let's see who's right."

She's such a stinker.
We were on a roller coaster together at the Mall of America, and I took this picture of us.
She said,  "Can you take another selfie, but without you in it?"

Luke's stick

I've confessed this before, but I've been known to a swear word slip every now and then.

I've given my excuse for doing so before.  Valid or not, it's because I refuse to yell at my kids when I'm frustrated.  I try to be quiet instead, but when the steam is really building, and I'm just about to lose it, sometimes a swear word escapes through my release valve.

Honestly, I've been so much better, especially the last few months.

There were a couple incidents that brought me the realization that I needed to get better.  First there was this incident almost two years ago where Anna used the word "d*mmit" simply for emphasis.  I became more cognizant of my language after that.

But, I must not have been doing too well, because this happened in spring.

After that incident, I started using a swear jar again, and I only had to pay a few times over the course of the whole summer.  I honestly don't think I swear that much anymore, but my kids must be certified bad-word-sponges, because then this happened:

We'd had a tough time getting ready to leave the cottage.  The kids were tired and grumpy and nothing seemed to be going right.  I was finally loading the last box up, and Finley pushed into it, tipping it over and sending things clattering all over the driveway.  "Fffff" I said, catching myself.  I took a deep breath prepared to pick stuff up, when Luke decided to help me out.  "F*cking A!  Right, mom?  F*cking A!"

Every time one of these incidents happens, Dave says, "That's not my fault."  And, I know he's right.  He never swears.  It's all me.  I try so hard to be the best mother possible.  Every day I think of new ways I can help my kids grow up to be happy and successful.  But, the language.  It seems to be the thing that gives.

I was actually thinking lately that I had been doing pretty d*mn well.  (Kidding!  I just thought it would be funny to put that word in there for emphasis.)  Then Tuesday I'm driving Kate and Anna to get haircuts when the phone rings and Dave relates this story to me:

Ally and Luke had been playing outside with Finley.  Apparently Luke wanted a stick for his collection, but Ally wanted to throw it for Finley, so Luke came into the house upset.  Dave told Luke to go try to solve it, but he returned again shortly, still upset.  Luke was with Dave in the kitchen when, a minutes or so later, Ally came back in the house and yelled, "Fine!  Here's your f*cking stick, Luke!"  Dave was too shocked to say anything, and Luke was too busy pouting to respond.  When she didn't get a response, Ally repeated, "Here's your f*cking stick, Luke!"

So, yeah.  That happened.  And it was not Dave's fault. 

At least my children have a very extensive vocabulary?

Better together

We went to a hotel in Minneapolis over New Years.  Dave and I let the kids watch this Disney show called Austin and Ally.  The characters Austin and Ally are boyfriend and girlfriend.

At the end of the episode, Austin says to Ally, "I'm better when I'm with you," and Ally tells Austin, "And I'm better when I'm with you."

All of the sudden, Ally exclaimed, "I'm better when I'm with Luke!"

Luke and Ally making Christmas fudge

Toasting in the New Year with sparkling juice in the hotel room

Th kids in front of Minnehaha Falls