Max and the Coat of Shame

To finish up Family Reading Month at our school,

there was a Character Dress-up day on Monday.

Maxwell dressed as a Rex, a clone trooper

(because we're sure there is a book somewhere with

a clone trooper in it, even if Max hasn't read it, and because

he really wanted to wear that costume to school),

and Bentley went to school as Nico di Angelo
from the Percy Jackson books.

The instructions given to the kids said that

this was not Halloween Part II, and they

should not spend any money on their costumes.

Bentley wore black clothing, and because we didn't have

a bomber jacket for him to wear, he borrowed

one of my old coats. It was brown. He was happy.

Maxwell, however, had some qualms about the coat.

Max (wrinkling his nose): Where did we get THAT coat?

Mom: It's mine. I got it in college.

Max (disbelieving): Did you WEAR it?

Mom: Yes.

Max (shocked): Did people laugh at you?

Mom: What??? No.

Max (trying to figure this out): Did they think

you were cool because you wore it?

Mom: No. It's a coat. I just wore it.

Max: Huh.

It was really funny, but

I wish I knew what he thought

was so wrong with my old coat.

3 strikes, you're out

We had just enough time this morning to take

a picture of the kids before church.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get all 5 of them

to cooperate at the same time.

I took three photos,

and at least one person is off in each one.
Here's the rundown:

Target Games

I'm usually just a little behind Target.

By the time I'm looking for winter clothing/shoes,

they've moved on to summer.

When the kids need swimming suits,

Target has gotten rid of theirs, and all I

can find are winter coats.

Not this year!

Ruby and I spotted the flip flops yesterday,

and decided to act fast.

She picked brown (????) flip flops,

and later in the day we took the boys

over to choose their summer shoes.

Their toes may freeze if they try to wear them now,
and I suppose there is a very good chance
that they will have lost these shoes by the time
it's really warm enough to wear them,
but for once I feel like I'm in the game.

The score is pretty lopsided (in Target's favor)
but at least I'm finally on the board.

Moving on up (or down)

Milo recently reached the stage where he

will NOT stay seated in his high chair.

So . . . this weekend we moved him to a booster.

Now he is securely belted in (no more standing up),

and he is at the table with the rest of the family.

He seems pretty happy about the move.

Maybe this was his plan all along. :)

Btw, Ruby had the same problem at this age.

You've Got a Friend in Ruby

(Ruby on our walk today.)
This morning, Ruby walked with me to get Jonah
from his piano lesson down the street.
Along the way, we passed a bunch of kids
playing in one of the front yards.
Despite the fact that she had never seen
these kids before, as we approached the home,
Ruby shouted, "HEY GUYS!"
and continued to strut
(she does this hip, hip walk thing)
along the sidewalk.
Most of the kids paused, and one asked quietly,
"Who is that?"
Ruby smiled and announced,
"WE'RE MOMMY AND RUBY!"
The kids continued to watch our progress,
most of them with looks of confusion.
As we crossed the street, Ruby looked back,
waved, and yelled,
"SEE YOU LATER GUYS!"
One of the kids waved, the rest just watched
us walk away. They looked a little dazed.
Ruby assumes that every person she meets
is a friend, and that they want to know her.
I love her self-assurance.

Milo Waving from jenny on Vimeo.

1/12

As promised, here is the first photo in my new project-

12 photos of John and me in the next year.
It's a good thing I'm only trying for 12 photos.

It took an entire month for us to get this one.

Who would have guessed that this project would be

more difficult than Project 52?

photo by Ruby

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

3 of the 4 big kids chose green hair today.
Maxwell was happy with his greenish shirt.

(He was also happy to pinch me early this morning.

Next year I'm sleeping in green pajamas.)

Milo doesn't have enough hair to spray it green,
but we wouldn't want to pinch him

even if he wasn't wearing green.

He's too cute! I love his toes. And the rest of him.

The Fantastic . . . Five

Jonah turned 5 today!

He chose Pirate Island for his lunch date with Mom,

breakfast for dinner, and a rice krispie cake.
Here's a sampling of his big day.

All week long, he's been telling us that he just knew

John and I were going to get him a video game.

Tonight when he opened his video game,

John said something like,

"What? Where'd that come from?

We got you socks!"

I didn't think anything more about it,

until just before he went to bed,

Jonah was searching high and low for his socks.

I had a difficult time convincing him

that his Dad was kidding about the socks.

I love this kid.

I realized tonight that nearly all of Jonah's

life has been documented online, one way or another.

Here's his birthday rundown:

Jonah's Birth Story

Jonah's 1st Birthday and here

Jonah's 2nd Birthday

Jonah's 3rd Birthday

Jonah's 4th Birthday

Hypothesis

(Bentley, Maxwell, and Jonah March 17, 2006)
This afternoon:
Jonah (between sobs) - Maxwell hit me!
Mom (with a sigh) - Max, why did you hit Jonah?
Max (innocently) - Because Jonah said that
everything goes right through him,

and doesn't hurt, and
I wanted to see if it was true.

Whiplash

After the beautiful spring days we had at

the beginning of last week,

we got a couple of winter days.
That didn't stop Ruby and Jonah from

wanting to play outside, though.

Here's Ruby (for once she's wearing boots!

Usually she tries to slip outside barefoot.)-

Jonah got the coat part right,
but didn't change out of his shorts.

I'm pretty sure he scooped up a bunch of snow
in his shorts when he went down the slide.

He walked away a little bowlegged,

and came inside after this.

Most of the snow has melted now!

Hurray!

However I think another storm is on it's way.

Boo.

I'm ready for spring to come and stay.

I'm also ready for healthy kids.

Sickness seems to come with this

back and forth weather.

Making the Cut

Bentley and Maxwell finally let me cut their hair!

(Jonah has had several haircuts this winter, but he got another one.)

before . . . and . . . after

Bentley's hair was starting to curl around his ears.

I think we cut more hair off of Maxwell's head,

than Ruby has ever had on her head.

Why can't her hair grow that fast?

Today was a perfect day for haircuts because it

was warm enough to do it outside.

We have some serious spring fever around here.