More old park pics

At the park a few months ago

At the zoo a few months ago

Dinner at home

Old Disney

The kids were all just terrorized by a collection of classic disney big bad wolf cartoons, the girls both in hysterical tears, and even Parker looking a little wobbly. When I came in the room a wolf was chasing a little pig with a meat cleaver. Theyre watching Shawn The Sheep now, and all is well.

Parker gets a hit

Tball live blogging

That's Parker on the right, guarding 2nd base.

iPhone blogging

There's an app for that.

Anker blocks

Easter egg hunt pics

More phone pics

Random phone pics

Dinner at fentons

This video perfectly encapsulates the personalities of my children.

Car Nap

Some people in this house need mid day naps.

Elizabeth is just one of them.

Leaping

Parker is participating in a research study for Leap Frog, a company that makes electronic "learning" toys. I thought it would be fun for him, possibly the only time he would ever get to play with something like that, and he gets paid too!

After having no success at the football game (what was I thinking), he is quite happy playing something called Mr Pencil which asks the child to do inane things like trace letters and draw curves lines. But he loves it. We put his age at Kindergarten at first, but then he asked if we could move it to 1st grade.

Then, it turns out our unit was bad so I had to get a new one and set it up again. This morning, I told him that I set it at 2nd grade since 1st seemed easy. He responded that he had set it at 4th grade on his own and changed the background image from some tree to a baseball.

Then he said, "It's still pretty easy, mom."

No, duh, Parker. No frigin' duh.

Growth

Elizabeth has been taking gymnastics since November. Each day when we get there, I try to convince her to go hang out with her friends, other kids in her class. She always declines and hangs out with me as long as possible and then runs off to go to the spot where the teacher meets them.

So I was quite surprised when today, she turned to me as soon as she was undressed and said, "I see my friend, can I go wait with her???" Then she ran off and gabbed with the girl until class started. It was like a glimpse into the future. And I gotta say, I loved it.

Conversation

Every day when I pick up Parker, I chat with a grand dad who picks up his two grand kids, one of whom is in Parker's class. He's a very nice guy and he has tried very hard to figure out who is Elizabeth and who is Miranda. He almost always gets it right.

So today he says to me, "So what are you gonna do about Parker?"

I respond "What about it him? Did something happen with him?"

He says, "No, I went on the field trip last week and talked with Parker a bit. I didn't know he was so advanced. Are you going to get him into a special program?"

Since most of the parents I hang out with at school know about him, I was a little surprised he didn't.

I told him our strategy which has been working thus far is to "ignore it completely."

He said, "Hmmm, not sure you'll be able to do that for too much longer. I mean, he isn't obnoxious or anything but when I asked him what the square root of 144 was at lunch (trying to think of something he couldn't possibly know) and he said, after about 2 seconds, 'um 12', I was shocked. He'll need to be challenged in some way."

I said, "Yeah, but he's really learned all this on his own so I think he'll just keep challenging himself."

He nodded and smiled and that was that. Until the parents at the next school start asking these questions.

Puppies.

Because we like a little crazy around here, we are currently fostering two 6 week old chihuahua mix puppies. They are from the Alameda City Animal Shelter. Mom, the chihuahua, had eight puppies. She herself only weighs about 10 pounds, but the puppies are already over 2 pounds each so god only knows what daddy was. They are tiny, shaky, and not too much trouble at this point. We have them for 2 week which is about 1 week too long.

Miranda spends all waking hours in the pen with them. Elizabeth joins her much of the time, but Miranda would sleep with them if I let her. Which I won't.

Parker hasn't even looked at them. How I can have one child who is so crazy for animals and one who could not care less is crazy.

Puppies are a lot like babies, which is why I don't really care too much for them either. They sleep a lot. Eat and poop. And suck on things. And whine. Good thing we have a big house now.

But...Miranda is happy and that is why I got them. For her.

Index Cards

And speaking of Aunts, Parker has been very into his bday present from Aunt Amy these days. She gave him index cards. Hundreds and hundreds of index cards along with 20 or so that had suggestions for what to do with them. He did some of them (making houses, airplanes, cards, money) early on when he got the present, but today alone he did two of them:

1.) Label the House. Make Signs for the Objects around the house. Tape them on the objects. Ask Mom or Dad if it's ok.

So now, I not only can see the Fridge, Calendar and Dining Room table, I can refer to them by their proper names, "Fridge, Calendar, and Dining Room Table."

2.) Hanging Hooks. Cut out C shapes. Hang them from each other. How long a chain can you make? (There are illustrations too on this one.)

He made one to hang in the entry way to his room with a sign that says, "entering Ace's room" on one side and "leaving Ace's room" on the other. Yes, he is referring to himself as Ace lately. Which is funny since we actually considering naming him Ace but decided that would be really mean if he turned out to be a total loser.

So I'd like to officially thank my little sister, oh giver of life, for the complete and total mess of index cards that I have picked up many, many times in the last few days.

Sorry Kackleen, Amy, Monica, Betsy, Grammy and Ginny

Miranda: "I wished I lived in Reno."

Me: "Why?"

Miranda: "Because then I could live with Aunt Lori."