Who the Heck is Connie Stevens?

And why does Julia love her so much?

One of the wonderful gifts from Christmas was Season 1 of The Muppet Show. The kids loooooove Manama and The Swedish Chef, all the ones that we loved as kids watching the show.

I remember the shows for the characters and the funny things that they did. I don't at all remember that there were guests, but watching it now I see that each show features a guest of some sort. A singer or a dancer.

The second show featured Connie Stevens who sings a song about being a teenager in love. She comes out with way too much makeup, giant (but I'm sure stylish for the time) hair, and a flowing white poodle dress singing and dancing with some of the Muppets who are called "The Mutations" rather than "The Temptations". Julia just loves her performance and asks to see it over and over again. The other day she came home with Andy, bouncing into the house singing this song.

Brendan meanwhile is a mini "Manamana." He loves this crazy muppet who runs around singing "manamana" with his strange yet kind of cute pink backup singers. Brendan asks for him over and over and when he starts singing he screams, jumps up and down and runs around yelling "MANAMANA!!!!!!!"

Ok, just looked up Connie on IMDB - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0828328/

Oh, and yes, that is Brendan wearing Julia's hand me down pink pajamas because really no one would see him in them, that is until I took photos and posted them without thinking too much about it. :-)

Here are some photos of my sleeping beauties taken this evening. Now that they're asleep I'm going to bed.

Soccer!!

This field is very close to us and is always being used, even well into the night, since it's very well lit...unless it's in the 30's and windy.

So, off we went to run off some energy before naps yesterday, and to play soccer.

It's a nice new field, astro turf with long"grass" and very small chopped up bits of rubber so that falling doesn't hurt at all.

Mama!! Those Girls Lied!!!

While making dinner last week Julia was watching Annie. For those of you who don't have children watching "Annie" on a consistent basis, the scene that I am about to describe isn't likely familiar to you.

Early in the movie a man comes to pickup the laundry to take it away for cleaning. Annie climbs into the large basket and hides under the laundry to get out of the orphanage for a day of fun. Miss Hannigan asks the girls where Annie is and they tell her that she's in the bathroom.

Julia came running into the kitchen yelling "those girls lied!!!!!" Telling me all about it and how they were wrong to lie. (We don't really deal with lying at home since it just hasn't been an issue, but apparently it is at school with some of the kids so she's been exposed to the concept.)

Then after we talked about why the girls lied Julia asked if Miss Hannigan was coming to our house. I'm not quite sure what to think of that question.

The Music Man

Brendan started music class the same day that Julia started her ice skating lessons.

I enrolled him because he loooooooves music. He loves to sing, and is the first and sometimes only child in his class to jump up and get down when the music comes on. He loves to sing and dance at home and in the car which makes sense since boy doesn't stop moving.

Apparently music class wasn't nearly as enticing as "basket-e-ball."

The music class is in one of the rooms of a nearby city community center. Unfortunately for me the first thing he saw when we walked in was an indoor basketball court where 8 or 9 year-old boys were playing a game. Brendan ran over, of course wanting to play.

As I steered him to his first music class I was serenaded by "no no no!" and "no mike it" which means "no like it." Not a good start. I'd have to say that the first 43 minutes of the 45 minute class was a constant cacophony of the teacher singing happily and beautifully and Brendan yelling "no!" and clutching me. The only parts of the class that he liked was when the teacher pulled out a bunch of soft balls for the kids to throw around and the big parachute at the end.

As we were driving home I asked him if he liked class and he happily said, "yeah!."

Sunday Morning with Julia

Balls in Time Out

Brendan is all about time out, which is not good for us. Fortunately it's become something that he doesn't find fun or funny anymore. What am I supposed to think when mid-game while playing "basket-e-ball" he decided to put all of the balls in time out?

Future Hockey Player

She's already got the discolored front tooth, so why not enroll the girl in ice skating lessons and see what she thinks?

Two weeks ago Julia had her first ice skating lesson at the relatively new Iceplex nearby, where our Washington Capitals practice. Andy took her to class and was able to take a few photos. She fell a bit but did really well and liked it a lot. Unfortunately she was sick last weekend so she missed class but I'll try to get her over there to practice one night this week after school.

The photos are a little fuzzy.

What Do You Do?

When you pick up your kids at school only to find out that your four year-old daughter is already:

1) talking about "Marrying Maxwell" who is her best buddy, and,
2) is talking about having babies

Luckily those two things don't seem to go hand in hand yet. But she did encourage me to rush home from picking them up at school because the "baby was about to come out of her belly."

Then, you find out that your 2 year-old son had a bad day because:
1) he was "hitting Eamon, a lot"
2) poured out all five kids' milk while the teacher had her back turned for one second, and,
3) was throwing toys all day.

It's been really warm here so the past few nights we have come home and instead of rushing right inside we have had a great time staying outside and playing...riding bikes, playing soccer, running around chasing them as the monster. It's quite nice to have a husband who likes to cook, and cooks well, so that we can stay outside and play, only to come in and be served a delicious dinner.

It seems as though Brendan has gone from very few words to being quite a talker, like his sister. Since there have been Christmas lights we hear him all the way home yelling "YIGHTS!" and "snowman!" and announcing all of the things that he sees. He is putting more and more words together, which helps, and although he's headstrong, determined and stubborn (which I know are all synonyms), he's also a sweet little guy who more and more wants to spend time connecting to us, briefly, before he's off doing the next thing that interests him. I see photos of other friends who have boys his age, sitting down, looking like they're working on projects, but that doesn't happen at our house. He might play with Play-Doh a bit, but never sitting down, and never for long before he's off again.

He used to looooooooove time-out and would happily run to time-out yelling "time-out!" and then declaring happily "time-out" when it was over. I was worried. What do you do when your headstrong child loves time-out? Now he seems to mind it a bit, and genuinely seems hurt when he ends up there because he doesn't want to be away from us. This is a good change. I have to say I'm a quite a bit relieved.

They get along great, and really enjoy and love each other. Julia loves to mother Brendan a bit so once in a while we have to remind her that she's not his mom. But she's such a helper and is so very sweet with him. They are even sharing remarkably well most of the time. He really loves to play with her, especially chase and monster and soccer. At school they had to stop taking Julia to see Brendan after nap because he would cry when she had to go back to her room, so they see each other at the end of the day.

Someone once told me that her pre-teen children loved to see themselves on video as babies so I've been videotaping a lot for the last few years. I need to be better about taking still photos, it's just hard to stop the fun to pickup the camera. Especially since Brendan now coyly covers his eyes and says "cheese" every time he sees a camera.

What do you do?

Christmas 2007

Still trying to hold on to our relaxed Hawaii attitude we cruised home right into Christmas, and Grammy and Grandad were even willing to come back for another couple of days!

We had a really nice, low key, and fun Christmas. The only thing that Julia wanted was "flip flops, wrapped in a present, in clear." This is exactly what she told Santa when he made a pre-Christmas visit to her school and it's the only thing that she wrote in her letter to Santa.

Note, see how Julia's present is wrapped, thankfully Santa is good at following directions.

And what a good thing that Santa was in Hawaii the week before and could find some in her favorite color! Brendan had no clear wishes but got right into the spirit of tearing open paper and playing with everything.

Julia also has been telling everyone that she got makeup. No, Christmas didn't involve a trip to Libby Lu (cringe!) at our house, she got Chap Stick, which she from time to time will refer to as "Chop Stick." It took me a while to understand what she was talking about.

Aloha and Mahalo

Mahalo to my parents who moved into our house for 9 days so that Andy and I could go to Hawaii.

He for work, I to have a vacation, and then finally for us to relax together for the last few days. Hawaii is everything that everyone says it is. It's beautiful, relaxing, simply paradise on earth. We were only on the island of Kauai but that was enough for me. I didn't want to leave. It's very natural and beautiful.

The hotel that we stayed in was beautiful, and provided anything and everything that we needed. There was a large, meandering pool that also had a great winding water slide.

There were about 4 different hot tubs scattered around the windy pool and various employees who would come by and bring you food or drink if you asked for it.

By far the best part was a large, interesting salt water lagoon that was just a beach away from the ocean. It had islands, was varying depths and had a sand beach. It was perfect, for everyone. Adults loved it, kids could safely play in it as parents lounged on the "beach."

So a HUGE MAHALO to my parents for making this possible, and to Julia for making things a bit easier for them. We knew that she was a great helper but it was great for my parents when she could help them speak "Brendan" which made life easier for him as well.

It's Been Awhile

We've been busy and actually haven't taken many photos but here are a few that were taken between Halloween and today. I caught a rare moment of Brendan being still. He loves to put anything on that makes noise or looks different, so here he is in a "grass skirt", chillin on the sofa.

We have been back on the 2-3 week schedule of sickness for Julia which is hard for everyone, especially her. Brendan is just busy all the time.

Julia finished her soccer season in early November and really loved it. More later.

Late but Cute

Nothing Like a Field Trip

To make you feel like an adult. Today Julia's class went to a local pumpkin patch and I went along to chaperone. Chaperone? That's what adults do! Seriously, am I old enough to be chaperoning anyone? Apparently so. The rule at school is that you must be potty trained to go on field trips, so Julia and I were thrilled to qualify, but a bit sad that Brendan couldn't join us. But, we all had a great time. The kids had a blast, there were no accidents, the weather was perfect, and the chaperones had a great time "de-briefing" at the restaurant/bar down the road after we returned.

Happy Birthday Ruby!

This past weekend "Baby Ruby" turned one! She celebrated with her friends at the soft playroom and enjoyed her first cupcake! Happy Birthday sweet Ruby!

In the Halloween Spirit

Brendan and Julia have had a good amount of fun Halloween clothes to wear this year in anticipation of all of the Halloween fun to come. Here's a photo of Julia in her Halloween dress with her favorite tights and sparkly shoes that are oh so much fun! Brendan is finally happy to wear the "Monster of Rock" shirt that for some reason he refused to wear for weeks. By refuse I mean, I'd get it on him and he'd kick and scream and tug at it until I took it off. No need to fight over clothes now, I'm sure we'll have plenty of disputes later on. :-)

Goalia's Season Begins!

Julia started playing soccer on a team this fall and is having a good time so far. With each practice and each game she gets more and more into it. Here she is before the game with Brendan, then warming up, then chasing the ball. We're trying to figure out how to get her to keep her tongue in her mouth while she runs.

Happy Belated Birthday Grant!

It seems as though I'm a month late in posting things that are happening with us. So, about a month later, here are some photos from Grant's second birthday party. Happy Birthday G!