Got milk?

Some of you may remember me saying Phoebe has a small obsession. With milk. She loves it. It makes her giddy. Sometimes she claps when I put it in the cart at the store. I buy four gallon a week (for all of us, but she drinks a large part of it). Sometimes she'll drink water, but mostly milk. At night she usually wakes up once and asks for milk. She drinks it and goes right back to sleep. I got tired of getting up in the night and getting her milk (though I had the cup poured and ready in the fridge), so I started taking a small cooler to bed with me. It's the same one I take with me when we go somewhere, because she has to have her milk. Last night she asked for her milk at some point and I handed it to her. She drank it and went back to sleep. Then around 5:00 Chloe came in and wanted me to go with her to the bathroom. I did and then she got back in her bed, and I got back in ours. Phoebe was there too (she starts in her bed but ends up in our bed in the night) and I must have disturbed her getting back in bed. So, she asks for more milk. I told her it was gone and we'd get some in the morning. In a whiney, sleepy voice she said "Don't make me mad, Mama". Danny got up and got her milk.

Phoebe singing

Phoebe likes to sing. She often mixes a couple songs together, like she'll start singing Mary Had a Little Lamb, but end it with Row Row Row Your Boat. I tried to get a video of her singing, but she was distracted by her beloved Emma, her favorite, now scruffy, doll. She still sang a little for me. At the end I tell her bye so I can turn off the camera, and she gets a concerned look on her face like she thinks I'm going somewhere. So, here's the singing debut of Miss Phoebe.

Who needs a sled?

We had a snow day today and school was closed. Not a whole lot of snow, but it snowed early this morning and made the roads slick. We had fun playing outside.

Here are a few videos. One of Owen flying through the air, and a couple of Phoebe sliding down the hill. (Sorry the videos are sideways, I forgot I shouldn't turn the camera while taking a video.)

Face your fears? Or not?

Sometimes I think I'm a bit too easy on my children. But then I change my mind and think no, I just love them. When Danny used to say I was spoiling them as babies, I'd always say no, I was loving them. He usually agreed. I bring this up because of one of Owen's fears. He is afraid of a lot of things, it's just his nature. He's a worrier like his Daddy. He doesn't like to ride the bus without Chloe. She makes him feel safe. This is after all his first year of school of any sort. He's excelling in Kindergarten. He just got Student of the Month again and he does great on his work, and enjoys his new friends and the new experiences. Owen gets in bus line before Chloe and when she gets there she says sometimes he kisses her because he's so happy to see her.

Chloe is in the All County Choir and they have just started having two practices a week after school, on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the rest of this month. This means Chloe won't ride the bus home after school, I'll have to pick her up after practice. I don't want to stress Owen out and make him worry (which he would do all day long and be completely miserable), so I go pick Owen up at 3:00 and bring him home, then I go pick Chloe up at 4:30. It's a 15 minute drive to the school. I'm sure some probably think I should make him face his fear and ride the bus alone. I just can't. I don't want him to be unhappy when I can avoid it. It's something I have control over.

Over Halloween a 4th grade teacher at the school had a very scary Halloween monster hanging outside of her room. It was like a real figure hanging down, not a piece of a paper taped to the wall. Owen was terrified of it, and it was pretty ugly. It had no place at school if you ask me. His class used the bathroom outside of her classroom every day after recess. I asked the teacher nicely if she could please move the monster inside of her classroom because my five year old was scared of it. He even cried and didn't want to go to school because of it, and he likes school. She refused to take it down. She said he should face his fears. I thought that was very insensitive. He's five for goodness sake. I am afraid of storms but I don't go outside and stand in one to face my fear. I don't like heights but I don't climb up to the top of a skyscraper. The teacher's aide from Owen's class took him to a different bathroom until Halloween was over and she took the darn thing down.

I can't help it, I will do all that I can to make my children happy. They have enough stress. I will take away every scary thing I can for them. I know I can't do everything for them, but I'll darn well try.

Dante grew wings

Today Dante went to heaven where his body is healthy and his sickness is over. A happier time for him, but a heartbreaking time for his family. Please say a prayer for his parents, Jo and Tony.

Phoeber Weeber

Phoebe was so sweet yesterday and said so many sweet things I can't remember. When we were eating breakfast she pushed her sleeves up because I always push her sleeves up when she eats. After a minute she said "See my sleeves pushed up like this? Push yours up". So I did and she said "Great, Mommy!".

Yesterday evening she wanted to eat some chips and salsa with Chloe. She ate a little bit and then ran to the bathroom. Danny went to check on her and she was brushing her teeth. He asked her why she was doing that and she said, "My teeth are hot". The salsa was mild, but too hot for her I guess.

She is Miss Independent all the time and wants to do everything herself. She alway says "I can do it. I a big girl!". She insists on dressing herself, putting on her shoes, putting on her coat, buckling her seatbelt, etc. Totally the opposite of Owen who would still like me to do all those things for him.

She looks at things in catalogs, or at the store when the others aren't with us, and will say, "Chloe will like that, won't she?" or "Owen would like that, wouldn't he?".

She was eating soup with me over the weekend and it was different soup than we normally eat (Progesso Vegetable Barley). She was eating it and liking it but she got a piece of celery on her spoon and said "What's this on my spoon?". I told her celery and she just said "Oh" and ate it. She did that again with a piece of tomato.

She has to kiss and hug everyone before she goes to sleep and before someone leaves. If after the kiss someone forgets, she says, "And a hug!". I'll take lots of those sweet kisses and hugs!

Happy New Year!!!!

It's always so exciting to start a brand new year, with high hopes for the next 365 days. It's like a fresh start to living and being better. For New Year's Eve, we made pizzas, watched a movie, and then finally watched the ball drop. Then we all dropped into bed. The kids even made it up until midnight. They counted down the last 20 seconds, then blew their horns and we had kisses all around.

Here the kids are with masks we made. Doesn't Chloe look thrilled? Thankfully, her attitude improved as the evening went on.



The boys settled in for the movie:



The girls:



Right after midnight wishing the dog Happy New Year:



Molly:



It was a fun evening. Not exciting as a New Year's Eve party or anything, but I wouldn't have had it any other way.