Kids are funny

Joanna: Do you know where my milk goes down?
Me: It goes down your throat.
Joanna: No, which pipe.
Me: your esophagus
pause
Joanna: Where do my burps come?

VBS Day One: Orange–“Be Ready!”

This week is Vacation Bible School up at the church.  This is the first year in a while I haven’t been working, so the kids and I are involved this year!  The theme this year is “Shake it Up Café” and it’s all (obviously) food themed.  Yum!  The message today was about waiting on the Lord – Be ready!

If you can’t tell, it was also orange day:

Don’t I have the most gorgeous children?

They just fill up my heart!!

I was there too.  :)

James was in the crib room with three or four other little ones.  Natalie was in the two year old room, and they did crafts and sang songs I think.  And Joanna was with the preschoolers, and they have a schedule that’s pretty similar to the big kids, they just don’t move around.  And they get to play outside.  But they have music, crafts, snack, and all kinds of fun stuff.  Joanna is very excited about it, and the other kids are tolerating the disruption to their lives.  :)

I’m with the first graders, and they’re a fun group!  And I get to be in the gym at music time which means I get to learn all the songs and dances.  Yay!

Happy 8 Months, James!

James turned eight months old yesterday!  We realized it, but alas, did not take any pictures, save for the naked bath time ones.  Poor kid.  :)

Isn’t he so handsome?

Let me see what I can think of about James.  He…

• has the best open-mouth smile.
• has two teeth on the bottom.
• may be cutting some more teeth soon.
• can scootch around on the floor.  He doesn’t much unless he sees something he wants, but then he pushes himself along with one foot and grabs with his hands.  It’s very cute.
• sits up very well now.  He still will occasionally loose his mind and fall backward (which makes him cry) but normally he will sit happily playing for a little while!  I LOVE this as my other children were really moving before they could sit up so they didn’t do that “sit and play” thing.
• is a Cheerios-aholic.  He LOVES them; I think they are his favorite food.  He grabs up a handful at a time to eat.
• will now eat purees.  He likes them warm.
• has the most fantastic giggle.
• is wearing size 6-9 month clothes, with a few 12 month things thrown in there.
• I really have no idea what size disposable diaper he’d wear.  Probably a two?  I put a three on him last night b/c he needed a good slathering of diaper rash cream and the three was laying around.  :)
• wears the BG diapers on the middle snap.
• will put anything laying around in his mouth.  This means a lot more vacuuming for me.  :)
• can fit under some of our furniture.
• will put weight on his legs but isn’t much interested in standing.
• like his biggest sister, loves the “Little People” giraffe from the Ark.  It’s the perfect size for holding and chewing.
• Is the most loved little boy.

Sink Tub!

I gave James a bath in the kitchen sink yesterday and it was quite a photo-op.  (Ignore my dirty dishes; there was no more room in the dishwasher.)

I would say we usually give him a bath in the big tub (and often with a sister or two), so this was a bit out of the ordinary for him.  You may be able to see some of the water he splashed out.  He just splashed and splashed and laughed – the best!

The picture is in lieu of a video to show you how he was splashing.  :)  He’s a blur.

Sitting up babies are so fun!!

I have a longing…

I will never ever try to deny I am a material girl.  I like stuff.  I always have.  I struggle with this.  Part of me actually desires to be a minimalist.  I’m torn.  :)

So now that I’ve made that clear, on to the next thing I deeply desire… the next thing I simply must have.  Who wants to tell Matt?

There’s a seller on Etsy who makes these gorgeous CLOTH cash envelope systems – wahoo!!  Cash envelopes made out of beautiful fabric??  Sign me up!!

Another view:

She also sells the patterns, but bah ha ha ha ha!  I’d rather buy one all made up.  The only problem with the wallet is it’s short 1-3 envelopes for my needs.  I may convo her and see if it’s possible to add one.  If not, I’m also kind of crazy about her loose envelopes and pouch:

In fact I can’t decide which I’d like better!  This one would be more customizable, and I like the idea of just having the envelopes I need in the pouch.  (Having said that, I’d have to remember to grab the money out of the “haircut” envelope if I left it at home.)

I could add my coupons to the pouch as well as my cell phone, keys and chapstick, I guess!  I would need to find some sort of gadget for my cards (license, debit, library, you know…) to slip in there as I wouldn’t want a wallet in addition to this.

Thanks for “listening” to me ramble a bit. 

You know I made my own envelopes (out of paper) a while back, and while they certainly serve my needs, they are suffering a little bit from use.  And my wallet is nowhere near as cute as these cloth things!

See?

Here are my envelopes:

If you look really really closely, can’t you see they’re getting worn out? 

It’s terrible, isn’t it?  Embarrassing really.  Somebody tell Matt.  :)

In another fifteen years, I may have to take him back.

Last Friday afternoon, the teller at the bank informed me my driver’s license was expired.  Oops! I simply hadn’t looked at the thing in forever and had forgotten that it was going to expire on my birthday in 2011.  The next day my mom was off was today and she agreed to watch my girls so James and I could drive up to Cleveland to hit the DPS there.

It’s a teeny tiny office, and not that easy to find considering the people of Cleveland clearly don’t need street signs to know where they’re going.  :)  We actually found it just fine, and I joined my place in the back of the line outside.  There really were only 7 or so people in front of me, but the lobby is super-tiny.  I had expected James to nap on the way there but he said no.  So I plopped down on the ground, leaned back against a pillar, and nursed my baby to sleep.  He crashed and I was even able to rerobe and uncover him while he stayed asleep.

Look at those little beads of sweat!  A spot opened up inside, so I carefully gathered our stuff and went inside to sit.  He only stayed asleep a few more minutes, but then he was very happy!  He smiled at  people and was a great conversation starter.  :)

I’m actually not sure what time I got there, but I know I left the house about 8:50, and I was all done by about 10:30.  I’d say that’s not too bad!  My new picture is awful, but it prompted me to make an appointment tomorrow to get my hair cut.  And my name on my license will finally read “Jessica Pence.”  It’s been Cooksey because I’ve been too lazy to go change it!  The nice DPS lady held James while I had the picture taken.  I was hot and sweaty – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

All in all, not a terrible way to spend a Thursday morning.  My mom let me drive her car and I told her it was kind of like a pleasure cruise.  It drives real nice, and I got to listen to my little MP3 player!  James and I stopped by Cleveland Healthcare to say hi to Matt before we headed back to the ‘Wood.  He’d gotten quiet, but I couldn’t tell if he was sleeping (and I guess I just had to know), so I reached my camera back there and pressed the button when I thought it was by his face:

He wasn’t sleeping.  :)  He did fall asleep before we exited the highway though, and he stayed asleep while I buzzed through the grocery store.  He must have been exhausted to do that!

It took me a couple of hours to get cooled off once I got home.  It is just so stinkin’ hot outside!  And I had good A/C in the car.  Oh, my, what would I do without A/C?

 

Move, I think.

The Girls

Joanna came to me yesterday in the get-up and said, “I’m wearing this like Jesus!”

Then later it was a Moby Wrap for her baby.

Poor Matt.  But what a good daddy he is, right?

The girls are always grabbing Matt’s gloves when he sets them down after work.  Mostly they use them as gloves.  Natalie LOVES to put one on and then change the diaper of a Barbie doll… on the changing table.  It’s hilarious and I love it.  :)
I don’t know who had the idea, but tonight they put them on their feet and called them “octopus feet.”  LOVE it!

They’re so funny.