Our Four Ring Circus

Jun. 26, 2007

Emily's New Do.

Emily has super fine hair that gets horribly tangled and breaks very easily. Wearing it long just wasn't working so I took her in today for a new style. Here she is:

The many sides of Emily.

Emily the way you would generally see her (heading out).

Like all of our children, Emily was born a red head. She seems to be transitioning to blond but is currently a very nice strawberry blond.

Emily started the day dressed but intervening circumstances dictated that she take her shirt off. That happens often with her.

The sad side.

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Jun. 17, 2007

What do you make of this?

Posted in Clown Alley

Chase came to me with an interesting hypothetical a few minutes ago. He said, "Mom, if you was a boy but you forgot you was a boy and you put make-up on, how would you get it off?"

I suggested 'you' might try a wet wipe.

I don't think I'll tell 'you's' dad as men tend to read way too much into these things.

Grammar is going to be an uphill climb with that boy.

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Mar. 25, 2007

A few kidisms

Posted in Clown Alley

Emily is nearly two and half and spends her days watching and learning from those around her. She has apparently observed several legitimate uses for one common household commodity: toilet paper.

The other day dh watched her enter the bathroom and remove a section from the roll. First she wiped her bottom with it. (Thankfully she was fully clothed). Once satisfied that the task was complete, she proceded to blow her nose on the same little wad of tp. Then she finished up by wiping her mouth with it napkin style before depositing it in the trash. It takes a lot to offend the sensibilities of a 2 year old.

As we were all getting ready to leave for art class on Friday, Chase lamented that we couldn't take daddy's 'new' car. It is, as he put it, the 'coolest car ever'. I plan to remind him of this when he turns 16 and is in the market for a car of his own. Somehow I doubt the coolest car EVAR will still be a 1990 Ford Taurus station wagon.

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Oct. 1, 2006

The latest from Chase

Posted in Clown Alley

    There is an unspoken understanding in kiddom that the appropriate amount of carrying-on as the result of an injury is dependant upon several objective factors the primary one of which is the presence of blood.

    When a child falls and hurts himself, the tears will be directly proportionate to these variables. Initially, most small children will look around and make sure they have an audience before deciding whether or not to make a fuss. Assuming an audience is present, they will then survey the severity of the wound. If the skin is unbroken, the tears will most likely fall very briefly. If a child should look down and notice blood, however, a sudden gush of drama issues forth.

    Last night as Chase was getting ready for bed, he made his nightly visit to the bathroom. Reaching down to flush the toilet, he failed to clear the corner of the vanity countertop and he put a good scratch right on the top of his head.

    The tears came immediately but soon subsided. Then I noticed that his typically snowy blonde mop was quite wet with bright red blood. I just knew that if he found out, the carrying-on would continue for a good 15 minutes so each time he attempted to put his hand on the wound, I quickly caught it and put it down. I attempted to keep him oriented away from the mirror but he out-witted me and got a glance anyway.

    As soon as he spotted all that blood, his sadness immediately turned to genuine excitement. "I've got to show this to Brendan", he said, and off he went to show his brother. Then it was off to his sister room to show her his impressive wound.

    His reaction was hilarious. About the time you think you've got this whole kid thing figured out, they change all the rules.

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Sep. 17, 2006

Chase

Posted in Clown Alley

Chase has always been a quick study. I learned this early on when it was time for him to give up his bottle. I was very concerned that it would really be hard for him - he seemed so much more dependant on it than my first two. I told him he was big now and didn't need a bottle anymore. We boxed up the bottles to send off to smaller babies and he never looked back. No asking, no fussing, nothing.

A few months later, he potty trained himself in two days including staying dry all night. I was amazed at my good fortune.

But I never anticipated that he would virtually learn to read just as fast.

He is 4 and so I've started going through "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". This is our second week of school and on Wednesday we were working on lesson 6. In it, Chase learned to read the words 'me' and 'se' (see).

I made a big deal out of his ability to read these words when his dad got home and he showed off his new skill reading both 'me' and 'se' without a hitch.

Thursday as we sat down to do lesson 7, he turned to me in all seriousness and said, "Mom, why are we still working on this book, I already know how to read."

I guess my little exercise in confidence building worked. Four years old, 5 sounds and 2 words in his repertoire and he thinks he's a master of the printed page.

This is my entry to win a camera in the "Capture the Educational Moment" Contest sponsored by Spunky and Academic Superstore.

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Aug. 21, 2006

Yes, it's all over the carpet...

Posted in Clown Alley

Emily 22 mo.

No, it isn't paint (thankfully). It's Desitin. And not only did she smear it all over her face and in her hair, but she managed to pack so much up her nose that it is still showing up 18 hours later.

Her big brother decided to experiment with the deoderant about this age. Luckily, Desitin is far kinder to the skin on ones' face.

Chase after "deoderizing" his face - 23 mo.

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Jun. 13, 2006

Summer Do's (& Don'ts)

Posted in Clown Alley

DH took the boys for a haircut Saturday. I should have been suspicious as he has threatened to do this before. In the past, I have always put my foot down because I like to get portraits made in the summer but I suppose it had to happen eventually. Here they are with their buzz cuts. I personally think certain head shapes do buzz cuts better than others and we don't have the right shape. The pastor's wife remarked that you just can't look at them without smiling. Great. The clowns in our circus just got a whole lot funnier (looking).

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Jun. 3, 2006

Brendan's Brush with Baseball Greatness

Posted in Clown Alley

We've had an action packed week of baseball. Alyssa and Brendan both participated in their final week of playoffs. Brendan's team made it to the championship game which was no small feat with 13 teams in the division. While they lost the championship, we were all very excited just to have gotten that far. Brendan had a great hit in the semi-final round that went right over the third baseman's head. It resulted in two RBIs and, though Brendan hadn't ever heard of an RBI, he was thrilled to have made two with one hit. He has recounted the story several times now but cannot seem to get quite the right letters in quite the right order. It doesn't seem to matter if he calls them FIRs or BRIs, everyone knows what he means and it has been good for Brendan to spend a little time in the spot light. Great job Nationals!

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May. 14, 2006

Happy Mother's Day

Posted in Clown Alley

I asked Chase (age 4) what he learned in Sunday School this morning. His reply: "We learned about that time when Mary hid the baby Jesus in the weeds to protect him from bad King Saul."

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My Blog

A few years ago, when our oldest was 4 and her two brothers were both in diapers, my in-laws were a few days into a visit from their home 3000 miles away when my father-in-law noticed that the rug under the dining room table was in serious need of vacuuming. He is not prone to domestic duties (his wife is a great housekeeper) but seeing the need, he decided to try his hand with the Hoover. As soon as 'Grandpa' declared his intention to get out the vacuum, four little feet ran for the toy box to get vacuums of their own. We had one toy vacuum and we improvised a second from a 'popper' push toy. The baby, who was not yet walking, was right in the thick of things on all fours, never one to be left out. Grandpa, trying to maneuver the self-propelled 'Wind-tunnel' around the 10 foot rug while avoiding the table legs and dodging his three little helpers, remarked in exasperation, "I just wanted to clean the rug, I wasn't looking to start a three ring circus." Welcome to my life!

About Me

My name is Tiffany. I am a 39 year old mother of 4. My husband, John, and I planned to homeschool even before we married 17 years ago but it would be several years before our oldest would be ready to start on this journey. We had our children in alphabetical order, quite by accident at first, but once we got started, we figured we had to keep it going. They are Alyssa 10, Brendan 8, Chase 6, and Emily 3. Our 4th baby, D, miscarried at 13 weeks. We have no intention of making it to Z.

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