When Ada is done using the potty, she likes to shout at the top of her lungs, or scream, the results of her potty experience. Such as “I pooooooped!!” in the loudest high-pitched screaming voice ever imaginable. Apparently she does not reserve this treat just for home, but does it at school too! Today I was in the kitchen and she was in the powder room for quite a while, then finally screamed this:
“Mommy!!!!! I pooped and peed! It not diarrhea!”
As always, thanks for the update, Ada!
Roman was Star of the Week at preschool a few weeks ago. For Star of the Week, the kids are supposed to bring in a poster with photos of themselves, and they get to stand up in front of the class and talk about it. We know about this all year long, but nevertheless, I saved this for the _very_last_minute. As in, 10 pm the night before it is due.
So, funny story (or pathetic, depending on how judgmental you are). It’s 10 pm and I go to start printing photos of Roman on the photo printer. It’s out of ink. I switch to the regular printer. Two photos later and it is also out of ink. So I log onto CVS and Walgreens to print photos and pick them up. The earliest pickup is noon the next day. As a last resort, Portman gets up at 6 am (the day the poster is due) and goes to Kinkos to print photos. All 3 photo kiosks at Kinkos are out of order. Luckily the thoughtful guy working the 6 am shift sees a desperate Daddy and prints all 40 photos in hi-def on heavy glossy paper for the low price of regular photos (this normally would have cost us $90!) Daddy rushes the things home, and I throw together this awesome poster. Boy is happy, and makes a super cute Star of the Week!
While Harper and Roman were at school one day, Ada made “da whole family” out of Potato Heads. I distinctly remember Harper doing the exact same thing! Ada wanted me to take a picture of her with “the family,” then she wanted to take one of me!
Recently I reintroduced a healthy eating tactic that I used years ago. It turns out Harper and Roman are now at the perfect age for it (and Ada doesn’t give a sh**!) If they try something new, I make them a badge that reads “I tried something new today!” For whatever reason, this is huge motivation for them, and they are so proud to “earn a badge.” They’ve earned it for trying vegetable soup, spinach casserole and various salads. It turns out they all love salad, even Ada, and I’ve had no trouble getting them to polish off a big bowl of salad with dinner.
Harper taught Patton how to clap while I cooked dinner tonight! I love how both of their faces are just exploding with joy.
We played hooky a few Wednesdays ago and took all of the kids to the Nat’s game. We wanted to squeeze in at least one more game before we leave! It was a beautiful day, which meant that Harper spent almost the entire game whining because she was “too hot.” Roman enjoyed himself, but I think he definitely prefers to go on his own with Daddy!
Patton was clearly not that into baseball!
On our way back to the car, Roman reached up to hold Peter’s hand. Roman loves some boy time.
Poor Roman took a huge spill on the school playground last Thursday. By Saturday we were growing concerned that he had broken something, but there’s nothing that can be done about a broken cheek bone and we don’t think it’s his jaw since he can talk and eat perfectly normally, so we’re just waiting it out for now.
What it looked like on Thursday (it’s hard to tell in the photo, but it was incredibly swollen):
…and on Saturday:
…and Tuesday (check out the black eye!):
We were supposed to have family photos taken tomorrow, but had to postpone them for at least a week because, according to our photographer, “that can’t be airbrushed out!”
Two weekends ago we had our first choo-choo ride of the season at Burke Lake Park while Daddy mentored a high school hackathon. Harper opted out of the trip because she was invited to her BFF Isabelle’s house. I thought she would be upset with me for taking the others to the park without her, but she merely rolled her eyes and said “meh, Isabelle’s house is more fun anyways.” Lord, help me!
Roman and Ada were so excited and cute on the train. We’ve ridden this train what feels like a million times, but each time they are still so excited to go through the dark tunnel (and scream at the top of their lungs), over the bridge, past the water tower and the lake, and back to the station waving to all of the picnickers alongside the track as we go.
After our ride we played on the playground and had ice cream. Both of them fell asleep in the car on the way home, and Ada slept in the car in the garage for another hour and a half!
Back in January we had a nice warm day, and Harper took the opportunity to learn to ride a two-wheeler! She learned on our neighbor’s old bike, and our 10 year old neighbor, Peyton, taught her how to ride it! I sat and watched the magic happen. So proud of my big girl!
She has since perfected the skill and we’ve taken the training wheels off of her pink bike.
Roman is awesome. He is just an awesome, awesome kid. And he says some funny stuff. Some recent Roman quotables:
“I think we should call you Caitlin instead of Mommy, so if we want a cupcake we can say ‘Caitlin, I want a cupcake!’”
“Mommy, can we see if ninja turtles movie is appropriate? Because I really wanna watch it.”
“if you ever wonder, like, who wants a yogurt stick or a granola bar or something, you don’t even have to ask. Because I do.”