Toothless

Hallelujah! Dani finally lost her other front tooth! Don't you just love this toothless grin??

And even though her birthday was 2 weeks ago, now seems like a good time to comemorate the passing of another year by taking a moment to note Dani's pecularities at 6 years old

She starts most statements with "Mom, can I ask a question?" and follows with "It is that....."

They are focusing on sounding out words at school and consequently, she frequently says just the first sound of a word. For example, when requesting a bagel, she'll say, "Mom, can I ask a question? It is that I want a ba... ba.... ba...."

She has developed a love for all things emergency -- ambulences, cops, police cars, fire trucks and sirens. When she grows up she wants to be a fireman. Or a Nascar driver.

When she asks a question which you answer correctly, she says, "Ding ding ding."

She recently started singing to me when she wants my attention "Mom, Mom, put on a hat! Mom, Mom put on a hat!." Don't ask, because I don't know.

If it has to be cooked in the microwave, she wants to be the one to do it.

She loves music -- very loud music. She always wants her stereo volume turned up to 10. She got an mp3 player for her birthday and she walks around, listening to it, randomly belting out half of a line off key. Her current favorites are "I'm No Superman" by Laslo Bane (the theme song for the tv show "Scrubs," when she wants it on, she tells me to turn it to "Scru, Scru, Scru...")"This is my Beloved Son" and "The Lord has Blessed Me with Simple Faith."

She suddenly loves to color. At least once a day, she asks me to print a coloring page (usually of Batman, Superman, a policeman or a fireman) off the computer.

She is absolutely obsessed with Maddy, a friend from school. Most of the pictures she colors are for Maddy. First thing every morning, she asks if we are going to the YMCA at 9:00 becuase that's the time that Maddy's mom works out. Maddy is allergic to peanuts, and while Dani has NEVER liked peanut butter, she specifically won't eat it because if she does and then sees Maddy at school, it would surely kill her!

Her favorite TV show is "Dirty Jobs" on the Discovery Channel. She also likes "How its Made" and "American Chopper," also on the Discovery Channel.

Dani is most especially characterized by being completely maddening one minute and totally adorable the next. And in six years, one thing that has definitely NOT changed is that she is always, undeniably, completely and totally uniquely Dani.

I have FOUR kids

I have four kids now. Not 3 kids and a baby, four KIDS. Brendan is losing his baby-ness and is getting close to being able to keep up with the bigger kids. He has started wanting to sit up to the counter with the big kids for lunch. If we could just get him to talk, he'd be pretty much on par with the other 3, who are actually quite excited for him to talk. He started speech therapy a few weeks ago and whenever Dani comes home from school on a day that he's had therapy, she asks, "Can Brendan talk yet?" If only it happened instantaneously! His therapists are trying to get him to do a little sign language, which the other 3 have picked up on and are trying to get Brendan to do too. The other day, one of the, either Dani or Evan, offered to help Bren with something and took his hands and made him do the sign for help before they actually helped him. If he catches on to this stuff, it will be because of their hard work! He has started to say a few words. "No!" is always very clear, but he will ocassionally say "ball," "go," and "Mom." My guess is that he'll mostly grunt for the next 6 months and then will walk up to me and out of the blue say, "Mother, I think I'd prefer my milk in a blue cup rather than the red this morning. And could you put it in the freezer for a few minutes, I'd like it extra chilled." And then I'll wish he'd never opened his adorable little mouth.

More lost teeth

I was cleaning my room yesterday and Dani came running in to see herself in my bathroom mirror. I heard her gasp and wondered what the heck was going on. After a minute, she came out, blood dripping down her chin and held out a little front tooth. Apparently, she had been enjoying a tasty snack of Fruit Loops and "there was a big CRUNCH" and she came running to see what had happened. Here is her new face:



The funny thing is -- both of those two top teeth were loose, but the one that "crunched" out wasn't the looser of the too. So now the really loose tooth is barely hanging on and migrating to the middle of her mouth, giving the appearance of having just one tooth in the middle of her face

Every time I look at her I crack up -- its the most adorably ridiculous looking mouth I've ever seen. We'll see how long it will take for the other tooth to drop!

Dani turns 6

On Friday, Dani's birthday, she woke up and told me, "I miss being 5." Yep, Dani, those were the good old days.

We had a lovely little birthday party at SciTech Museum with a Batman birthday cake. Dani was so excited for her "science party." We played with all the cool exhibits at the museum and pretty much had the place to ourselves. Brendan loved the hot air balloon display --

Also popular was the stand-inside-the-giant-bubble exhibit

We got to make slime too.

And then we opened presents and went home to beat each other with sticks. A highly successful birthday, I must say.

More converstaions in the car

I swear, I'm not directing our conversations in the car toward doctrinal topics, but lately, the chat seems to drift that way. Today we were discussing what Mormons do and don't do -- mostly to do with the Word of Wisdom and I got these gems:


Dani: ... and then Daddy found out that he was a Mormon and that's why he doesn't drink coffee.


Dani: Do Mormons ride motorcycles? (Dani really wants a motorcyle when she grows up)
Me: They can, yeah.
Emily: But they won't wear tank tops while they do it!

Sick

Emily has strep. She gave some to Evan. Both have been pretty unhappy about being excluded from their usual activities. Emily pouted half the day because she couldn't go to school on Wednesday. When Evan found out he was going to have to miss church he started to cry and tell me that he didn't feel sick. I tried to explain to him that while he felt ok, he needed to take his medicine for a while so he wouldn't get anyone else sick and until then he had to stay home. "How long do I have to take the medicine?" he cried. "You'll be all done with the medicine in 1o days." He sat their pouting for a few minutes and then got up and went away. He came back to me shortly with his antibiotics and a measuring spoon and asked 10 doses of his medicine! Someday, we'll probably fight about going to church. I'm documenting this for that day.

20 minutes of reading every day

It was Emily's idea to read to them and she found "Bad Kitty" because she new Evan loves it. Its nice when doing her homework causes her to be nice to her brother and sister.

Another mess

I knew he was playing in the lazy susan. I knew he had the cocoa container. But the next thing I knew, he was spreading baking cocoa all over the floor. And it as it sort of repels water, it wasn't easy to clean up.

A moment of peace

2 bags of microwave popcorn -- $1

monthly cable bill -- $64.48

separate bowls of popcorn -- 30 extra seconds

30 minutes of no crying, whining, fighting, aruging, kicking, screaming, biting or eye gouging -- priceless

Religious Instruction

Some recent car conversations with Evan

last week:
Evan: Mom, the church is Jesus house.
Me: Yes it is
Evan: But why isn't he there?
Me: Well, Jesus is really in heaven, but his Spirit in the church.
Evan: Oh, cause he died?
Me: Uh, yeah, but he came allive again, but he still lives in heaven
Evan: (quiet for a few minutes) But is heaven in Plainfield?


Today:
Dani: When we all come alive again, will Jesus come with us?
Me: Yeah, we'll all come together.
Dani: But he won't always be with us, right? He won't go to the grocery store with us.
Me: No, Jesus can't go everywhere with us, that's why we have the Holy Ghost
Evan: Mom! In primary, there was the Holy Ghost! And there was a bag and the Holy Ghost was in it!
Me: Oh? Did you learn about the Holy Ghost in sharing time?
Evan: Yes and it says (whispering) Don't go in the street! There's cars!

A few funny things

A couple of cute references Emily made today:

on the way to go swimming at the YMCA, she corrected Dani "No, not treading water Dani, its shredding water" and later in response to how cold it felt even though the temperature was "only" 28 degrees, she informed us "Its becuase of the gushing wind."

and a conversation between Daddy and Dani that occurred because Dani wasn't helping with cleaning the playroom

Dad: Part of being a kid is learning how to take care of yourself when you're an adult
Dani: I don't need to take care of myself, I'll go live with Grandma and Grandpa
Dad: Grandma and Grandpa are going to want you to learn to take care of yourself too
Dani: No, Grandma RUSH

Exhausted

Tough day at the office.

A lovely little morning

No school today! This can be a great thing or an awful thing, depending on how the kids decide to behave. They have decided to be delightful and thus, no school is a lovely thing. They got up and played together without distrubring the parental units until 9:00 or so, at which time we got up and descended the stairs to a clean kitchen (courtesy of last night's babysitter -- gonna use her again!), made everyone breakfast (and there was no changing of stated preferences, in spite of the lack of bread for toast) and then everyone went back upstairs, dressed, CLEANED THEIR BEDROOMS and returned to playing together. I haven't had to yell (or maybe I've just chosen not to becuase of this annoying laryngitis again), no one has tried to tax my patience. I have spent my morning reading blogs and updating mine. Now, at 10:46, I supposed I'll actually get dressed and do some cleaning -- but only becuase I now feel like it. If only everyday could be spent this way, I might become a halfway nice and happy person!

Batman

Dani: I'm a bad Batman, Mom
Me: A bad one, huh?
Dani: Yeah, I'm going to KILL
Me: (terrified, of course) Kill???
Dani: (hugging me) But you still love me, right?
Me: Yeah, I'll even love you when you're a bad Batman that kills.




I love her through all the other crap she does, so why not this too, right

Time out

Brendan has reached the age at which time outs are becoming necessary. We're trying to nip these lovely little tantrum he throws right in the bud. The other night, he was not too happy with the idea of eating his dinner, so in a display of willful independence (just MAKE me eat this food!) he kept shoving his dinner plate across the table. So he was wisked off to time out (I can't make you eat it, but I can keep you from breaking dishes and knocking your cup over!). He was pretty bafffled by the experience. He tried to get out of time out and come back to the table, but dutifully returned when sternly directed to. And then threw himself into a prone position and sobbed for the remainder of his minute. Ah... just the reaction we were hoping for. Dani could see him from her spot at the table and spent the entire time he was in timeout cackling with laughter. I kept trying to explain to her that she wasn't helping things, but she just couldn't stop. Perhaps it was glee in seeing someone ELSE in trouble! When Bren was released from his squalid prison and returned to the table, Dani not-so-slyly tried to get him to throw his plate again!!!! Evil! Evil little sister!