My Sweet Boy

Noah has big news: a loose tooth. He has been waiting . . . and waiting . . . and waiting to have a loose tooth ever since he started kindergarten and saw other kids losing teeth. He noticed it was loose on Saturday, and by Sunday morning he wanted it pulled out with pliers (his friend Robbie's preferred method). We explained that it has to be much looser first, or it would hurt. So he will wiggle and wait.

A funny conversation we had on Saturday.

Background: The kids have been playing with a silver "rope" type chain necklace they found in my room, it was actually a gag gift. Noah put it on Saturday just before leaving for the aforementioned birthday party.

Me: Take that necklace off, you're not wearing it to the party.

Noah: Awww, I like it mom.

Me: It makes you look like a gangster.

Noah: I am a gangster.

Me (trying not to laugh): Do you know what a gangster is?

Noah: Someone who plays jokes on people.

Me: No, that's a jokester.

Noah: Then what's a gangster?

Me: A person who does bad things, even kills people sometimes. (That was the best I could come up with).

Noah: Oh, okay. (Takes off necklace).

Now I just hope that he doesn't see someone with a necklace like that and call them a gangster. It's so hard sometimes to teach your kids about the bad things in the world without giving them too much information.

Remember These?

Kendall was hanging out on the couch watching TV this morning and I told her that she needed to turn off the TV and play with toys for awhile. She didn't like that idea and said that she wanted to watch TV all day. I told her I'd give her a little while and then she was going to turn it off. About 5 minutes later she came to me and said, "Mommy, I will play with a toy. But I want to play with YOU." I need to be reminded to play with her sometimes, I get so busy doing things and she can be good at entertaining herself. So then she said she wanted a game, so I let her pick something out of our ridiculously full game closet. I almost forgot that we even had a Lite-Brite, it must have been about 5 years since we've used it. It was one of my favorite toys as a kid. We had a lot of fun making this hot air balloon, even though she lost interest about halfway through and wanted me to finish it. We will definitely be playing with this more often. Noah will love it, and Hannah will probably even still play with it.

Here's another fun fact about Kendall: she has an unusually good sense of direction. It started out that she always wanted to go a certain way when we were leaving the house or coming home, and she would get really upset with me if I went a different way. The she started really recognizing the way to familiar places, even if she didn't know where we were going ("This is the way to Target!"). On Saturday, we were taking Noah to a birthday party and while we were standing in the house she asked, "Which way is Jakob's house?" I pointed east. We got in the car, wound our way out of the neighborhood and were then going east for about a mile. I had to turn south for a little bit before going east again, and when I turned, she said, "Mom, you said the party was that way (pointing east)." How could she remember that from inside the house, after all those different turns? It might have been a fluke, but she does stuff like that all the time. At least it could come in handy if we ever get lost!

I love my sweet Kendall! She's definitely the "baby" of the family. Everyone adores her and she almost always gets what she wants. Our biggest challenge with her right now is that she will not stay out of the pantry. We even have one of those locks that flips over at the top of the door, and she climbs right up on the counter and opens it. She has no fear and doesn't care how many times she gets in trouble. So we found a different lock that you can put a padlock through, and we're probably going to buy it. It's pathetic, but we have a padlock that we put on the refrigerator too!

Arg! Can't get spaces in between my paragraphs again!

Spelling Bee Update

So on March 29th, Hannah competed in the AZ State Spelling Bee at ASU. Because of the crazy month we've had, I hardly had any time to help her study, so I was not getting my hopes up too much for her. Of course, she surprised me and won 5th place with hardly any studying! The top five winners all received trophies, and she also won a savings bond and an Amazon.com gift card. I'll update later with the words she spelled, I don't have it in front of me. I know that the word she missed was tatami, she spelled it tatimi. She says she knew the correct spelling and even in her mind thought she spelled it correctly. We're so happy that she's done so well in the spelling bees this year. Great job Hannah! (The photo is right before the spelling bee, do you think she was nervous?)

I promise that my next posts will be about Noah and Kendall. Poor things, they've been very neglected on this blog!

By the way, Hannah was mentioned in the Surprise Today, a local newspaper, and also online in this article:
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/mailstory-clickthru/232029.php

The spelling bee will air on PBS locally on Sunday, April 13th at 5 pm and also on Wednesday, April 16th at 11 pm. Check it out!

It's Been Awhile

Wow, apparently I'm not a very faithful blogger . . . although I'll say that we've had just a few things going on lately and blogging has not been at the top of the list!

First, an update on my dad. He's home now and doing much better. I'll try to summarize: he had some complications after the bypass surgery where the wiring that holds the ribs and sternum back together completely ripped apart, thus shredding the bone and causing the sternum to be completely destroyed. So he had to have another surgery to fix that, but he hadn't been off blood thinners long enough, so they started the surgery and then had to close him back up because the risk of bleeding was too great. At that point we were told that his condition was life threatening and that he had to be kept sedated and intibated until it was safe to do the surgery again, which ended up being 4 days later. We were called to the hospital at one point and told that he was critical and unstable and we were given the impression that he might not make it. I had to get my kids ready and take them to school without letting on that I may be going to the hospital to say goodbye to my dad. I was trying to prepare myself for the worst, but things stabilized and thankfully we didn't have to face that. They were able to do the third surgery on March 29th and it was successful. So now he's home and recovering and getting back to his usual self, minus a sternum. We're so grateful for everyone who did things for our family during this stressful time. We are so blessed.