Storytime

Up dog

Ryan brought home a joke from work the other day and was so excited to try it out on the boys. It goes like this:

The first person says: "Man, it smells like up dog in here."

Then the other person responds: "What's up dog?"

The boys thought it was so clever and funny. They tried it on each other even after they knew the punchline and they would laugh and laugh. They tried it on Grandpa and all the neighbors. It was the best joke to hit our house since either of them were born.

So, today we were in the van coming home from errands and Tyler turned to Olivia and said, "I think it smells like up dog in here." She very matter of factly responded, "Me too." I wonder what she was smelling that she was calling 'up dog'.

The pot calling the kettle black

Following tradition, Tyler got new shoes at the beginning of the school year. He got nice shoes that were a reliable brand. Tyler wore through his first pair, and his second pair and a few weeks ago, finally got his third pair of shoes during this school year.

Carter also got new shoes at the beginning of the school year. Unlike Tyler, he has kept the same pair of shoes. They are starting to look a bit worn and his shoelaces are beat up from mistreatment. A few mornings ago, he came to me with one of his shoes and said that he felt something poking his foot. He handed me the shoe and it was apparent that the shoe was starting to break down from months of wear on an eight year old foot. We concluded that it was time to get him new shoes but that he would have to wear these shoes until we could arrange a time to go shoe shopping.

Tyler, who was watching the conversation, looked at him and said, "Maybe you should take better care of your shoes."

Dreaming of a white Christmas

Olivia has been asking me when we it will be Christmas again. I have reviewed the list of birthdays and holidays to try to give her a timeline, yet she still proves to be anxious for the holidays to return.

And why shouldn't she? We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We had a lot of time together inside because it snowed almost everyday for the ten days before Christmas. We were able to spend time with our dad and our brothers playing games and building snowmen and it all came to a climax on Christmas with some great presents from Santa.

Yesterday, we woke up to snow. It was beautiful because it was not sticking to the roads but it was sticking to the lawns. It fell for most of the day.

When Olivia woke up, she excitedly announced, "Mom, it's the holidays!!!"

Then she spent the better part of the day singing, "It's a jolly, jolly Christmas. It's the best time of the year."

We only have eleven more months to go. Keep singing!!!

Courage

Tyler has been studying Martin Luther King, Jr. in school for the past week. He has come home each night willing to share everything that he has learned. He has been a very good student and has reminded us that we are very lucky to live in a time when people are more tolerant of each other.

His teacher, Ms. Albert, sends home a paper periodically to tell the parents what the kids have been learning. This week it was all about Martin Luther King, Jr., of course. She asked the kids what they had learned about fear and courage through the study of Dr. King and then she published the answers.

She asked Tyler: "What does fear have to do with courage?" Tyler wisely answered: "When you're brave and you stand up for yourself you have courage. Even if someone is laughing at you, you still feel like you have courage. You have to have lots of courage so you can not have fear, then you can lead other people to do what's right."

Audrey is eight months old!!!

Audrey waves Bye-Bye

This is one of the new tricks that Audrey has learned.