Levitation

I'm teaching my boy to levitate.  He's a fast learner.  In this picture, he's about 8 feet off the ground.  It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it.  Really--you just throw yourself at the ground and miss!

Mis-Hearing Commercials

My oldest daughter was really excited the other day.  She heard on the TV that they were holding a contest, the winner of which would be flown with their family to Hollywood to meet the star of Disney's Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus.

The reason she was so excited?  She thought she heard, "Many will enter, you will win."

I had to bring her back down to earth and explain to her that what it really said was "few" will win...

Animation-ish

One more quick post for the day...

I just heard about this software and wanted to share. I think it would be something cool for my kids to play around with, though it may be a little over their heads at the moment. Well, over the 3 y.o. and 1 y.o. heads, but maybe not the 6 y.o. and probably not the 9 y.o.

It's called "Animation-ish". It just looks cool. Try it out.

I downloaded the trial and tried one quick "wiggle-ish", but I was on a laptop that didn't have a mouse hooked up to it and had to use the touch pad, which is on its way South... So my result was less-than-desirable, but still kind of fun. Here it is (I hope this works, but if it doesn't then right-click here and save the AVI file to your local disk--be sure to have "repeat" turned on, because the video is only 3 frames long!):

Thank You "Angry Asian"!

I know that I already sent you an e-mail expressing my thanks for the stuffed animals that you made and sent to my kids, but I thought I would follow up with a blog posting since I saw that you had the animals featured on your blog.

My kids  (well, my girls anyway)  saw the pictures on your blog and reported back to me, "Our animals are famous!  Their picture is on the computer!"

First there's Zack.  I picked the horse for him, before his sisters had a chance to pick out any of them for themselves.  He's one boy among lots of girls, so I have to look out for him.  :-)  I tried getting a better shot of him with the horse, but he was having too much fun grabbing it and slinging it down to the floor.  Unfortunately, he hasn't taken to it.  He's got lots of toys, and has focused on other things that make more noise when they hit the floor.  Fortunately, though, that means that he's giving the horse every chance to survive, and keep from getting sent to the glue factory.  Or at least the recycled fluff factory.

Next, Ella.  I think she was next to pick an animal, but only because she was home and the older two had not returned from school, yet.  As you can see, she loves the pink pig.  What you can't see is that the pink pig now has a cape on it.  I think it fits quite nicely, and is a welcome addition to the pig's wardrobe.  The pig thinks so, too.

I don't recall at the moment if any of the animals have gained names, yet.  I'll have to write you back  to let you know if I find out.

Now for Emmie.  She chose the monkey.  The picture on the left was taken at the bus stop one morning.  Emmie can take a "friend" with her to school for nap time, and I think the monkey has accompanied her each day since his (her?) arrival.  Some of the stitching on one, maybe both, of the arms is coming loose--I think I can sew it back up if I can ever get the monkey off her back.  Ok, sorry, bad pun.  But you know what I mean.

I don't have a picture of my oldest with the cat.  But if you would,  imagine that there is a picture of the most beautiful 9-year-old girl here with a big smile on her face, similar to Emmie's or Ella's, or Zack's for that matter, holding the stuffed cat.  Truth be told, that's a bit contrived--she's more into her American Girl Doll at the moment, but did think it was cool to see pictures on the famous animals on your blog.

And for any of my two other readers of this blog, the story I'm referring to (if you've made it this far) can be found here.

Careful What You Wish For!

I was just going back over some older posts. I really should be careful about what I write on this site... "That much closer to being a diaper-free family." Ha! As it stands, Ella only wears a diaper at night now, but Zack goes through them like they're going out of style!

Emmie's Poem

The other day, Madeline and Emmie were trying to remember one of their favorite poems from a book that my mom has. The poem is called, "I Went to the Store", and it was written by Jack Prelustsky. This whimsical poem is about a person who goes to the store and gets all sorts of things that he didn't go there for. Here are the opening lines:

I went to the store for a pear and a plum. The fruit was all gone, so they sold me a drum.

The rest of the poem is similar, and like I said, the girls love it.

Well, the girls couldn't remember the poem, so Emmie offered this one:

I went to the store to buy some more. When I got home, I found out I was poor.

Pretty cute and creative, if you ask me!

Kidding Around

The other week, I was joking with Emmie when she was whining, "Whaaat's for diiiner?". With a smirk on my face, I said, "Food." Emmie whined again, "What kiiind of fooood?" Without missing a beat, Ella replied, "Meat." I think Ella is going to be a comedian when she grows up.

"Let Me Be Your Wings" Video

Here is a video of Emmie, singing "Let me be Your Wings" from the animated movie Thumbelina:

She won't allow other people to watch her, especially if they're smiling at her, so I had to hide upstairs and shoot the video from the second-floor balcony... [She says that if someone is watching her she gets nervous.] In the video, Emmie is looking at Madeline, who is in the next room (kitchen). At the end you can hear them both laughing after Emmie runs off-camera.

Zackary Clayton

Melissa and I and our daughters have a new addition to our family: Zackary Clayton was born last Tuesday, June 12th, at 6:07 PM. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 8.9 ounces, and was 19 inches long.

The delivery was relatively easy according to Melissa, who was able to pose for a picture shortly afterward: Unlike the previous two deliveries, the epidural actually worked, much to Melissa's delight.

The girls are, so far, happy to have a baby brother. Especially Ella, our youngest daughter. She is becoming the little mommy. Several times we have heard, "Give him to me." She loves holding him in her lap, and helping to give him a bottle.

Emmie, our middle daughter, loved rubbing her face next to his and giving him kisses.

Madeline loved holding him, too, at least until her arms get tired.

Here is a picture of all of my childred shortly after Zack was born. It is also a rare occasion that got caught on digital film: all my daughters are quiet and getting along with each other!

[In honor of Zack's birth, the site has gone blue!]

Out of the Mouths of Two-year-olds

"Boys have peanuts." -Ella, when describing the difference between boys and girls.

New Glasses!

No, not me--Madeline.

Melissa and Madeline had eye appointments on the same day, one after another. The doctor, a friend of ours from church, let them look and see in each other's eyes.

We knew from an appointment earlier in the year that Madeline's vision was getting to the point (already!) where she would need glasses. We decided to wait then, but not this time.

One trip to Costco was all it took pick out a pair--Madeline saw them right away, too. They are light metallic pink (of course!) with little flowers at the edges--you can't really see them too well in this picture.

And already she has come home from school with one of the temples bent at a severe angle. She claimed that she didn't know how it happened. I was able to gently bend them back, though, so they're as good as new again.

I don't think the name calling has started, yet, but four eyes are better than two any day!

Emmie's Soccer Trophy

We signed Emmie up for soccer. To put it nicely, that was a mistake. She never really got into it. But I'll spare you the details, other than to say that the only way I could convince her to go to her last soccer game on Saturday was to tell her that this was the day that they were handing out trophies. So she's very excited in this picture! :-)