The fake laugh is a Jones trait

Greg rocks a really bad fake laugh and I can't believe how fast Johanna has caught on. I hear this forced laugh from her more than I do a real one. Doesn't she look cute though in all her post eating glory?

Johanna's 9 month photo shoot

Even though I wasn't happy with how Dane's 3 year pictures turned out, I decided to try my hand at Johanna's 9 month pictures. These are the results of session one. I want to try and take some outside as well but this morning there was good lighting in her bedroom and I took a few impromptu shots. She was very precious and very uncooperative. A moving baby target is not the easiest thing to photograph! Here are the results with a couple that I think are especially cute. Of course, I will take any pointers as to how one photoshops out drool!

St. Patrick's Day

We had such a fun morning. Naughty leprechauns invaded our house and turned our pancakes, eggs, and milk green. They were unable to locate a green pig however so the bacon was the same old color. The best part of the morning was when I poured regular white milk from the gallon in the fridge into seemingly empty cups and the milk turned green on contact! This also happened with Johanna's baby yogurt (green food coloring before age 1 is okay, right?) that was green when I opened it. All the kids thought it was a blast but while Nathan and Dane marveled at the magic of it all Aubrey followed me around and said, "How did you make the milk green? I want to look in that cup BEFORE you put the milk in." Stinker smarty pants.

Have a lucky day!

p.s. Sorry about the pictures, they were taken with my low resolution camera phone.

This might sting a little

Aubrey has a loose tooth.

(This would be an appropriate time to gasp, shake your head in wonderment, and marvel at her genius.)

At 6 1/2 years, the fact that she hasn't lost a tooth yet is starting to weigh heavy on her mind. She has had a mildly loose tooth for MONTHS and it continues to languish in its spot, never any closer it seems to coming out.

BUT THEN. Aubrey's dearest and bestest little friend at school lost her first tooth on Monday. Suddenly Aubrey had a mission. She needed to lose this tooth.

This evening, right before dinner, I hear a slam (a chair tipping over backward) and Aubrey runs into the kitchen, hysterically crying, holding her mouth.

"WHAT HAPPENED?!?!?"

"I KNOCKED MY TOOTH LOOSE!!!!!!!!!"

I fully expected to see either another tooth hanging loose or the current one barely in there.

I found neither. What I did find was the current loose tooth in a much looser situation and Aubrey sobbing that it was going to fall out (isn't that the point)? and that it HURT HURT HURT and mommy, I tried to knock it out!!

For your sake and mine I will spare you all the dialogue. It took me a solid five minutes myself to understand that she had decided that that tooth was coming out and preferably today. She then proceeded to open the front lid of her desk (you know, the kind where the front of the desk folds down into the writing surface), BITE THE LID, and try and slam it shut, all in the hopes of knocking out her own tooth. What she did accomplish was rattling her own skull around, hurting her entire head, and as intended, making that tooth much looser. After the initial pain and terror she was quite pleased with her idea. Here are some bits of dialogue from this evening, post tooth-meets-desk incident.

"Mommy, how you doin' grown up tooth mama? I'm almost a grown up tooth girl."

"Mom, isn't it funny that Johanna is getting teeth while I'm losing them?"

"It sure is funny to have a lose tooth. It seems just right for a 6 1/2 year old girl to have a loose tooth."

"I'm thinkin' that Nathan will think it's cool when I have a tooth out."

She is currently standing beside me, critiquing my blog post because it has words underlined in red ("MOM, that means you spelled it wrong!") and constantly wiggling her tooth.

Stay tuned. I have a feeling that the actual event will be a blog post unto itself.

Pictures a plenty

This is mostly a picture post because I was a little camera crazy this weekend but here are some of the funny things coming out of my kids mouths lately. Or the funny things I say because my kids are crazy. Or because I am just going crazy.

When Aubrey gets startled she likes to say, "HEY, you scared the bejabbers out of me!!" I have adopted that one. She also asked me if she could have more chores. Man, I do related to that oldest female child of mine! She started a new art class and makes amazing drawings for all of us. Her understanding of dimension far out paces mine. She is reading like crazy and read a whole page of "Ramona the Pest" to us. She seems so big these days, she is such a cool kid.

Nathan has had an attitude lately and recently had all his pennies taken away for two days for lying to me. (The kids get four pennies a day, each worth 15 minutes of screen time. He lied about drilling a hole into their new dresser with a pen. That's another story.) He has been full of anguish the last two days as his siblings skip on down to watch their daily Phineaus and Ferb. I was feeling kind of bad for him and said I would play a game with him. He said, "No, but can daddy come home from work and play one with me?" Sigh. It is endearing though how much he loves his daddy.

Dane is hilarious. He talks a mile a minute and says, "mommy, mommy, can you get me some milk, mommy, mommy, I need some milk, mommy mommy...." I finally asked him to call me Penelope just so he would stop saying MOMMY all the time. He thought I was nuts. He also drug my favorite blanket into our room this morning, telling me to close my eyes like it was a present, and when I opened them he said, "Look mommy mommy, it's your blanket! i brought it in for me and Daddy and Johanna." Once again, mom is chopped liver. Oh, and the stinker broke a $100 standing wrought iron candle holder yesterday at Hobby Lobby. That's another story.

Johanna is coming up on 9 months old. She is now playing peek-a-boo, refuses to feed herself much of anything, says, DADADADADADADADA all the time (what is it with that guy?), looks like a gerbil when she drinks out of her sippy cup, loves to suck on her very own tooth brush, scoots all around in her own special sit-hands and knees-sit-pivot-belly flop sort of way, and arches her back when I bring her into her room for nap time. She is so smilely and adores her siblings. LIfe is not too hard for our pampered princess. Or Princess Pampers if you like.

Enjoy the pictures!

Ironman

In our house it is a toss up who I see more, Nathan or Ironman. I think Ironman is ferocious and strong and mighty, as I tell him many times a day, but I still obviously don't play the Ironman game right. Here is a sample of a daily conversation with my son's alter ego.

(Nathan, walking out in his well worn Ironman costume.)

Me: "Whoa, Nathan, looking good!"

"NO. I am not Nathan, I am Ironman."

"Oh, right, sorry. Ironman, you look so tough today!"

"MOM, pretend you don't know who I am! Pretend to say, 'Who are you?' "

"WHO IS THIS IN MY KITCHEN?? ARE YOU IRONMAN?!?" (Said with great feeling and super hero worthy emotion.)

"MOOOOOOOMMMMMM, pretend you don't know who I am!"

"Who are you?"

"I am IRONMAN."

"Ironman, you are awesome, I'm so glad to meet you."

"NO, that's not right. You don't know if I'm a good guy or a bad guy. Say, 'Are you a good guy or a bad guy?' "

Sigh. "Are you a good guy or a bad guy?"

"A good guys. Mommy, pretend you don't know what's on my hands. Say it. Say, "What's on your hands?' "

"Ironman, what's on your hands? They look so powerful."

"You don't know if they are powerful. Mom, you don't these things. You aren't a super hero. Say,'What's on your hands?"

"Whoa, what's on your hands?"

"REPULSOR RAYS!!"

"Repulsor rays, they must be very powerful!"

"NO!! Ask me what they do, ask me like this, say, "Ironman, are they powerful?"

"Ironman, what do you do with your repulsor rays?" (Said with less feeling.)

"BLAST WHIPLASH!! Mommy, pretend you don't know who Whiplash is. Pretend you are afraid of him. Say it like this, say, "WHO IS WHIPLASH!?"

"WHO IS WHIPLASH?!"

"NNOOOOO, not like that, like this, "WHO IS WHIPLASH?!?!"

"Ironman,can you please tell mw who Whiplash is."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, pretend to say, pretend to say.................."



Are you tired of this conversation yet? Frankly, so am I. But don't tell Ironman, he might blast me with his repulsor rays.

You da man

Tonight we hosted a pajama party for eight (yes, eight) little girls. Aubrey got this notion in her head around Christmas and it has taken this long to come to fruition. There was dinner, cookie decorating, a movie, duck duck goose, and plenty of improvised fun. It was great, in a crazy, chaotic, shrieking little girl kind of way.

Some friends of mine said they thought I was a good mom as they picked up their girls. You know, because we had a for-the-heck-of-it party and still looked kind of sane at the end of it. But guys, here is the truth of it. I'm not always a good mom and when I am there is a secret behind the goodness. Greg.

I would NEVER have done this party if Greg hadn't been here. No way, no how. He watched the kids while I made dinner. He held a baby while I piled up plates. He pierced juice boxes, spread frosting, and laughed at a HILARIOUS batch of knock knock jokes. When a couple girls were overwhelmed (rightly so) one of us stayed up and got coloring for them while the other supervised the crazy crew. One of us swept while the other popped popcorn. You get the idea. This was not a one man job and it was fun for everyone, including us, because I had Greg doing the whole thing with me. When I told him this at the end of the night, as he was vacuuming up popcorn, he said simply, "We're a team."

So, the cat is out of the bag. If I ever dare to be a good mom it is only because Greg is an exceptional dad. Now you know.

Investment

For a Sunday afternoon craft, I made Valentine's Day card holders with the kids.

To make this...

...it required this:

p.s. I had picked up for about ten minutes prior to this picture.

p.p.s. Verdict: WORTH IT!

The beauty of tradition

Would you believe that its become a Christmas tradition to take a picture of my sister Hannah pretending to punch our mom in the face?

(The addition of brother-in-law Matt in the back is just a bonus.)

All about a Danish

Our little Dane turned three on January 14. Three year old birthdays are so much fun because they GET IT. That means that they understand that they are awesome, that they can say things like "I get to go first-take that from you-eat that-make a general nuisance of myself- because it's my birthday!!" and that the events of the day (or days as our family seems to do) revolve around them.

I always make the kids a special breakfast, lunch, and dinner for their birthdays. Knowing that Dane loves pancakes I asked him what he wanted for his breakfast. He paused to think and said, "Syrup." Later I asked what he wanted for dinner and he said, "Soup." This floored me because making him eat any kind of soup is a full assault battle. "What kind of soup?" I asked. "Syrup soup." Hey, at least the kid knows his own mind!

Dane truly had a wonderful birthday. He loved his cake, he loved his gifts, he loved going to Chuck E. Cheese, and he loved all the special attention. I love birthdays too, it's a chance to really dote on one of the kids and go out of the way to make them feel special. My mom always made a big deal out of our birthdays and they are some of my best childhood memories. I am hoping to repeat that with our kiddos. In a house full of kids it's a big deal to have a day or two devoted only to you! OH, and thank you to all our wonderful family who spent the day with us and made his day special. Grandma Julie, you were missed!

I included many pictures of his birthday as well as the shots I took for his third birthday. I think I have a couple of ones that are good enough to avoid the JC Penneys. Of course the photo shoot ended up with him tantruming and crying in time out but hey, you can't tell from the photos!

Happy Monday folks!