Latest on the Kiddos

Selah -- She has three words now! Mama (I came first, of course!), Dada, and Doe (Joe). Kaity said, "I'm the only person left in this house whose name she hasn't said!"

Joe -- His new favorite word is "tragedy". Everything gets that label. Out of his favorite cereal? "This is a tragedy!" Selah bumped her head? "What a tragedy!" Time to put away the dishes? "This is a complete tragedy!" Good thing that doesn't get old.

Kaity -- Kaity has a speaking part in the children's musical at church. She plays a reporter named Cub. She had her lines memorized the day after she got the script. She is really excited about the whole deal. She and Joe practice singing the songs all the time. ALL THE TIME. Good thing that doesn't get old.

Modesty

Jeff asked Kaity to take his lunchbox into the kitchen. She turned to do it only to find Joe already grabbed it for her. He said, "I can't help it that I'm so considerate."

Indiana Selah

Well, we have quite the adventurer on our hands. Tonight Selah climbed the stairs ... all the way to the top! And when she got there, she clapped for herself. What a ham!

Random Thoughts ...

A few days ago, Jeff made the comment that he liked "sharing tidbits of wisdom" with the kids. Teasing him, I questioned that, saying, "Wisdom or random trivia?"
Jeff - "I've heard it both ways."

***

Kaity pointed out a scar on Joe's knee. He said, "Yeah, it used to be more of an indention."

***
Kaity lost another molar on Sunday. Yesterday, Joe lost his bottom left tooth. Selah has three teeth, and I expect her next top tooth any day now!

***
At the grocery store on Friday, Kroger had a big advertising poster hung over the Christmas decorations. It was a woman thinking about how she wanted to decorate with "candles. Lot's and lots of candles." Really, Kroger? HOW much did you pay for that poster?

***
I decided to join some friends in a weight-loss challenge thingy. I figure it's a win-win situation: If I lose weight, that's wonderful! I can fit back into all of my clothes. If I don't, I'll never have to diet again, because I know it doesn't work anyway. I suspect I'll find it doesn't really work. We'll see.

Veterans' Day

For the soldiers ... Dad, Uncle Jack, Uncle Eugene, Marc (cousin), Joe (brother-in-law), James (friend), Mike (friend)
For the sailors ... Ken (father-in-law), Kelly (cousin), Zach (friend)
For the airmen ... Joe (cousin), Randy (friend), Jerry (friend), Uncle Steve
For the Coast Guard ... Meagan and Gary (friends), Sanna (friend)
For the Marines ... James (friend)

Thank you.

Work?!

Yesterday Jeff and I were discussing the coffeehouse and I made the comment that we should open it when Selah is about 8 or 9. That way she'd be old enough to help and the older kids would still be at home to be used for free labor. Offended, Kaity said, "Hey!"

Joe: "What's labor?"

Jeff and I: "Work."

A pause. Then ...

Joe: "Hey!"

Sigh.

Well, Jeff and I TRIED to go on a date last night. Here's the story:

First of all, I drop Kaity and Joe off with my mother-in-law. That part went well. An hour later at the grocery store, I lean over to pick my wallet up from the floor and my knee goes out! Nice. So keep in mind that all day my knee is swollen and throbbing, and I can neither bend nor straighten it completely. And my favorite little helpers are with their grandparents. Did I also mention that I promised to bake 6 dozen cookies for a friend's bake sale? Yeah. (On a good note, the cookies were delectable. They tasted like thin mints. Only better. There, I said it.)

On to "date night": 
Two days ago, I printed a restaurant.com certificate (got a $25 value for a dollar!) for a Japanese restaurant in Athens. Basically what that meant for us is that instead of paying $15 and getting fast food, we could pay $15 and get a nice hibachi meal, plus leftovers for lunch the next day. Well, arriving at the restaurant we saw a sign on the door that as of November 1 they were no longer accepting the restaurant.com certificates. I printed mine on November 3! Argh. So, not being able to afford paying full price ($40!) we went elsewhere to eat.

After a vaguely disappointing dinner, we were THIS close to the concert hall where we were going to hear the UGA symphony orchestra play ... and our babysitter calls. Selah is screaming her tiny, beautiful little head off. Kim tells us she's been at it for an hour. So we went back home. Selah was, of course, asleep when we arrived, and Kim said she'd just fallen asleep a few minutes before. She was still doing the little catching her breath thing while she slept. Jeff took her, which woke her up, and naturally she was quite pleased to see her Mommy. She grinned and babbled and made Miss Kim feel like a toad. Sigh.

But all in all, we were very glad to have some time with just the two of us, and we'll take whatever we can get!

Nine Months Old

I know I say this every month, but for Pete's sake, time is flying! I gave y'all a bit of an update on Selah recently, so I won't go into all that again. She had her checkup yesterday and the pediatrician is very pleased with her. She grinned at him and practically jumped into his arms. He and the nurse were totally charmed. She's pretty tall for her age, 65th percentile (though I don't put a lot of stock in that assessment). The main thing is that she's growing well and all her gross and fine motor skills are progressing quite nicely. She's very active and is never more animated than when the big kids are around. She absolutely adores them. I made the mistake of telling the doctor that she sleeps really well, ten hours a night, typically. Of course that meant that she had to wake up at 2 a.m. and then not go back to sleep until 6:30. On a positive note, we got to see Daddy this morning before work.

SO proud of herself!

Mold Shakes

After making the kids' lunch today, I called them in from playing outside. I told them that sometimes I had to be creative with leftovers in order to make the most of our groceries, so they had to just eat what they were given without complaining. Then I explained that I had found a container in the back of the fridge with mold in it and decided to make it into something special for them.

Joe thought that a Mold Shake was awesome!

Kaity knew I wasn't serious.

Both kids were giggling and tasting and trying to decide what it could be. Kaity guessed sherbet. Joe thought it was green tea. After they both drank every drop and admitted they loved it, I confessed what it really was.

Avocado!