Faces

CJ is truly Jean's daughter. Not that I had to tell you that.

Like Jean, CJ doesn't take crap from anybody, including her parents, but especially from her brother. Recently, we've caught her retaliating when Alexander takes something from her or bosses her around too much -- and we're talking serious retaliation here -- biting, punching and kicking. If it wasn't behavior that we're supposed to discourage, it would be funny, because she really lets him have it.

Well, we've noticed recently that she also makes a great "mean face" while she's beating on him or talking back to us. Again, we almost always have to stifle a laugh while we're sending her to the corner. It's a great mean face.

Yesterday during lunch, CJ made a classic mean face because she was told to eat her apple before she was allowed to have any more chips (great parenting!) so I ran and grabbed the camera, and we proceeded to take turns making mean faces. CJ's best effort is not caught on film, but you get the idea.

Whose face is the meanest?

Easy Conflict Resolution

I spoke with a woman this past weekend who was telling me her challenges of raising her 14 and 16 year old girls. She was dealing with sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll. Oh sorry, that phrase just rolls of the tongue. It was sex, drugs, bullying and raging hormones. Everyday she said she felt battle wounded with her girls. Then she delighted in my innocent, and in comparison... easy, challenges with a 2 and 4 year old. Her remark echos in my head, "Enjoy this stage. It is wonderful."

Today, Alexander came up to me (like countless times before) and tells me,"Mommy, CJ pushed me." (Insert any verb: hitting/shoving/tackling/etc.)
My standard reply , "What were you doing right before she pushed you?"
Alexander: "I was trying to eat her arm."
Me: "Okay, then. You stop eating her, she will stop pushing you."

It's great that he hasn't figured out how to lie to me about this YET, nor has he opted for the "Nothing" response. Life is good and I am truly enjoying this stage. :-)

Blogging about blogging

A couple of random thoughts about our blog:

1. I love it. I had to pull Jean kicking and screaming to create this thing, and now she is nearly the sole contributor. Many reasons for that, including:

--Jean is a great writer

--It seems that our readers are more interested reading about Jean and the kids than they are about me -- some of my former co-workers and friends told me that they skip right over my posts to get to Jeans' -- I don't know if they just busting my chops or not, but it hurt ;~)

--I sit in front of a computer all day, and don't feel particularly inspired to blog about the ridiculous things I do in my job. And no one wants to hear about it.

--Jean spends more time with the kids and therefore has more funny stories than I do. Not that I don't have funny things happen, but she just seems to be able to capture them better than I can. Many times, Alexander will say or do something ridiculous, and I'll look at Jean and say, "Blog about that!" It's like Jean is the Secretary of Blogging in the Nittany Valley Administration.

2. I don't feel the need to tell people what we've been doing lately. I'll be talking to my sister on the phone, she'll ask me what's new, and I'll say something like, "We went bowling, took a hike, went to the football game, check the blog, it's all on there." Jean does the same thing.

3. Comments. When we started this thing, a friend told me about comments. He said that we should comment on other people's blogs because that would encourage them to comment on our blog, which would, in turn, be encouragement for us to blog more often. We followed his advice, and he was right. Funny thing is, that may have been the only time he's ever commented. Shame on you Kris. You too Steph.

We do love comments, and I've learned to comment frequently on others' blogs. One of my favorite things to do is to just let someone know that I read their post and enjoyed it -- two words, "Great Post." I always hope that it makes them feel good about their writing skills, and that they will continue to blog about random occurrences.

4. It's weird, but not all of our friends know about the blog. There are guys who I talk to frequently who have no idea that we have this thing. I actually have to verbally tell them all the things we're doing. Maybe I should just give them the URL...

5. Pictures. We've found ourselves taking more pictures more frequently, just because of the blog. Which is great, except I'm soon going to have to buy a terrabyte external hard drive because Jean refuses to delete a single picture, even the terrible ones I take. Big argument in our house.

That's all for now.

Cheese

This just happened as I am making dinner. CJ is flipping through books in the other room, managing her 100'F temperature and finds a book she got from her baptism titled, "The Story of Jesus". She runs to me and says:

CJ: Mommy, a book about God.

Me: Yes, CJ. That book is the story of Jesus.

CJ: Oh, Cheese-Its. I LOVE Cheese-Its.

HA! Back to cooking...

Eye Emergency

The delay in posts is due to our recent family trauma. On Saturday afternoon, Alexander stabbed Zack in the right eye with his sharp fingernail while settling a dispute about toy ownership with his sister. This was a horrible scene. Zack flinging Alexander off his lap to cover his eye while dropping the f-bomb, Alexander proceeding to hysterically cry, and CJ wide-eyed and confused. I swooped into full-mommy action... checking to make sure that Zack was stable (albeit in throbbing pain -- no blood, though), calmed Alexander and then quickly put CJ to nap.

After assessing the situation and then seeing the doctor later that afternoon, we learned that Zack's cornea was scratched. I mean slashed --the scratch was wide and long. Totally gross. It was cool to see through the microscope at the doctor's office (much to Zack's chagrin, but I dig that kind of stuff).

Needless to say, he has been out of commission. His pain is slowly decreasing by the day and this was the first day since Saturday that it hasn't been freakishly dilated. He went to work today, but still can't drive. Good times here in our casa. Stay tuned for more... they say it will take at least 10 to 14 days to recover.

An Improptu Visit to Grandma and Pop Pop's

So this is how we roll. On Thursday, we decided that it was time for a visit to Grandma and Pop Pop's, and the Aunt who shall not be named on the internet. Since said Aunt doesn't read the blog, I should post her name, pictures of her and her kids, and architectural drawings of her house. But I'm a good sister, so I will respect her privacy. But I digress.

The plan was to trick or treat on Friday, eat some candy, and then make the three hour drive. Great idea, huh? What are we, still in our 20's?

The drive actually went fine, and the visit was terrific. It was great to see my parents, and even better for the kids to see their grandparents, aunt, uncles and cousins. On Saturday, we went for a nice hike at a nearby park then spent some quality time at Grandma and Pop Pop's.

As you can see from the pictures, we skipped rocks in the lake, walked in the woods, and hammered in nails in Pop Pop's workshop (possibly the highlight of the trip for Alexander). And we ended the day with lots of ourdoor play, a campfire, and a great dinner.

Horse Update

After missing last week's lesson (due to SNOW!), I was very happy to get back up in the saddle this week. This is more than just a random activity for me. It is a time for some exercise (think non-stop squats and lunges), some fresh air (outside of the stable, that is), and some plain old, fun "me time". I just love the hour a week I get to "play" with a horse.

This week was a new level for me as a rider. For those not versed, you have different paces for riding: walk, trot, cantor, gallop. For the last two months I have perfected the walk and worked very hard to get in rhythm with the trot. But this week, I GOT TO CANTOR. Whoa, Nelly... that is a whole lot of fun. The only way I can describe it is as if you were going from a flat road bicycle ride to all of a sudden flying down hill and having a ton of fun doing it. It was great. Until the trainer started to ask the horse to do some more, the horse was not happy about it and then he went from a cantor straight into a bucking motion. WHOA, NELLY. Good news is that I held on. Not sure if I am more impressed that I cantored or that I didn't just roll off the horse. I'll let the "comments" decide!

Halloween 2008

What a great year for Halloween. So far, ages 4 and 2 are super cool. Both Alexander and CJ were completely caught up in the fantasy world that is Halloween and the joys of candy procurement that comes along with it.

For the last 2 months, Alexander has been steadfast in his desire to be a ghost. He perfected his spooky ghost sounds, "OOOooooOOOOOoooOOOO" and "BOO!" While CJ has changed her mind every time the wind changed its course. For the same two months, both Alexander and I have pushed the idea of being a witch. We bought a witch costume and the prerequisite broom, taught her how to say "I'm going to get you my pretty" in an eerie voice, and really played up the whole idea. Two days before the big trick-or-treat day, CJ locked onto her costume. Yes, she loved being a purple butterfly... much to my and Alexander's dismay.

The sun set, costumes donned and make-up applied --we were off to trick-or-treat. Both kids did great running up to the doors with their neighborhood friends, ringing the bells, mumbling "trick-or-treat" and then grabbing the loot. After about 5 houses, CJ was done. Pushing her on, it only took 6 more houses for Alexander to state, "Mommy, I'm done. Can we go home and eat it now?" My reply? "Yes! Awesome, we're done."