My babies

They'd still rather be together than  separate.

Anna

Anna, winding up the cord on the vacuum cleaner:  Momma, when I grow up, I'm going to make a vacuum cleaner where the *cord winds itself*!!!!

Me: They have vacuum cleaners like that.

Anna:  Oh, then I guess I'm not as smart as a scientist like I thought I was.

Me (feeling guilty): Oh, yes you are...

Anna (totally unfazed): Can we get one of those vacuums?

Here are some pictures of Anna with her best bud.

Luke, age 5 1/2

When the kids do projects, I sometimes write their age or grade before they put them in their memory bin.  

Luke, using this idea, made me a picture and put *my* age on it.  (Not *exactly* the same...)

Insightful?

When I cuddle the kids before bed each night, I ask them questions.  

"What was the best thing that happened to you today?"

"What was something that made you said today?  What was something that made you feel proud?"

And I often like to remind them how much I love them by asking variations of, "What's something that makes me happy?"

Saturday night I asked Ally, "What makes Mommy happiest?" 

She answered, "Me! And Lukey and Kate and Anna and Daddy and God and Finley." 

I gave her a squeeze and said, "You've got it, sister!!"

Anna, however, had quite different answers.  I asked her, "Anners, what are three things that makes Mommy happy?"

She immediately answered, "Me!"  Then she paused for a moment before continuing, "And a clean house... And beer!"

King me!

I was playing checkers with Luke.  He's actually quite good, but we'd reached a stalemate.  We both had three of our checkers kinged, and we were just moving around the board avoiding each other.  The game was going nowhere.  He started asking me to go easy on him, "Play easier, Mommy." 

I kept telling him no.

Soon his sisters were all watching and wanting a turn.  Anna was hyper; Ally was crabby.  I felt like this could go on for the rest of the day.  Luke begged again, "Play easier, Mommy!"

So, I made a subtly bad move, putting one of my checkers in danger of him jumping me.

He jumped his checker over mine and taunted, "Moron!"

(He likes to keep a tally of jumps when he plays.)

Shocked that he even knew the word, I asked, "Did you just say, 'moron'?  Did you call me a 'moron'?"

"Yeah," he answered.  "That was a bad move.  You went right where I could jump you!"

"Lukey," Ally said, shaking her head, "you asked her to play easier, so she did that on purpose!"

Hello Lila?

I was putting Luke to bed last week when he looked at the Hello Kitty he's slept with since he was a toddler and said, "Kitty has a small body and a big head, just like little Lila Lulu."

Lila

Sweet Lila.

Last fall when I was helping with recess I talked to Kate's first grade teacher.  She was about 7 1/2 months pregnant and hadn't finalized plans for who was going to watch the baby when she went back to work.  She preferred an in-home daycare but hadn't found one with an opening, and she was hoping to avoid a daycare facility.  

A couple days later, I ran into another mom who mentioned she'd also talked to this teacher, and we both joked how we should watch the baby.  

I don't know if the other mom was initially serious, but it got me thinking.  Yes, I loved my free time during the day to catch up around the house, run errands on my own, help out at school, write when I felt like it, and do yoga, but I did miss having a baby around.  I wasn't sure I wanted to give up all my time, but maybe half and half.  I decided to talk to the other mom more about it.

It turned out that the other mom wasn't actually ready to take on a baby 2 1/2 days a week, but I couldn't get the idea out of my head.  I talked to Dave about it, and he said... well, he didn't say much.  He knows not to bother trying when I have an idea in my head.  The other mom agreed to take Lila for half of Tuesday so Dave and I can still have a date on his day off.  

So, Lila is here the other four and half days.  She's a happy, easy-going baby. 

And, the kids adore her.

Lila arrives about 20 minutes before they have to leave for school, so they try their best to get up early and get ready quickly so they can spend as much time with her as possible.

Luke likes to share his little hamster stuffed animal with her, because it's small, like she is, and Ally always tries to show her Bubbie, because, well, what in the world is better than Bubbie?

Giving her a bottle is a really special job, and they are so good at keeping track of whose turn it is to do so.

Although they rarely get Lila her entirely to themselves, even when it's bottle time.

I'm surprised by just how much Anna loves her.  She wants to be around her every possible second.  She says she wishes she were hers.  (I got clarification.  "Do you wish she were your daughter or your sister?" Sister.)

Whenever Lila's mommy comes to pick her up at the end of the day, Anna is disappointed.  She'll usually be holding her and she'll yell, "Sorry, Lila's not here.  You might as well go away."  Lucky for Anna, Lila's mom let Lila stay an extra hour one day last week while she caught up with things at school.  Ally and Anna played with her and read her books the whole time.

I waited a week or so before I let Finley actually get close to Lila, but once I did, it was obvious that even Finley adores her.

Everyone loves Lila.

Ally's list

Oh, Ally.  She's so feisty.  And she feels so persecuted.  When I came into the sunroom this morning, I found this list.

Ally said that Bubbie wanted to know who was mean to her, so she made him a list.  I would feel sad that I'd been listed, but at least it's better than Anna, who's on 11 times.  Anna and Ally, those two just can't get along.  They're both just a bit too feisty.

(Actually, I guess Ally's list is better than the spreadsheet like chart Luke designed for the same purpose a couple months ago.  Hopefully this is just a symptom of their age and not a sign that my children have futures as informants.)

New math

I've mentioned before how Luke has a mathematical mind, how he, like me, spends time thinking about math problems, just moving numbers around in his head until they make sense.

Yesterday morning he was walking in the hall, kind of in his own little world when suddenly he said, "Mom, 100+99+16=215 because you have to take an extra one to make the 99 into 100 but then that leaves the 16 with only 15."

Yep.

French toast

Oh, Ally!  Again with the drama.

Ally: Mommy, what's for dinner?

Me (happily, because for once they won't have to stifle their displeasure): French toast.

Ally (throwing herself down in devastation): Ugh!  I don't like French toast.

Anna (actually trying to help, but also forgetting what French toast is):  Ally, honey, you love toast.

Ally (still on the ground because life is too much for her to handle while in an upright position):  Yeah, but not with the French on top!

Ally wanted to see why Lila liked the vibrations.