I’m engrossed in a blog entry and I hear Matthew yell upstairs to Rose, “you mean you’re stuck at the zoo, waiting to be adopted?”  “yeah” comes the reply.  I ask Matthew, “What animal is she?”  He says, “A meerkat.”  Then as he makes his way upstairs after finding his Transformer for naptime he says to her, “A meerkat?  What a nice animal to adopt!  I’ll take you home with me!”

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I know that every mom understands that when the kids are quiet, there's trouble afoot.  This is especially true when you have 3 kids 6yrs and younger. I'm involved in a cookie exchange this weekend and to test out a new recipe, I made a small batch of them.  YUM  A version of haystacks - basically chow mein noodles covered in melted chocolate and butterscotch chips and left to harden.  The kids love them and they're super simple to make (YAY, since I have to make SEVEN dozen!).  So after a well-eaten lunch today, I offer one to each of the kids.  Rose and Matthew down theirs very quickly and run upstairs to play.  Jade, however, is quiet and taking her time with hers and seeing as how she's done perfectly fine and gobbled them up quickly the last few days, I didn't think much about it.  I got involved in a mommy project and forgot I left her with a chocolate covered goo glob.  She finally starts fussing to get down from her highchair and when I check on her, I find this (and to you savy baby-signing moms, can you see her signing "MORE"??  You gotta be kidding me, right girl?):

It reads: "Data link frames carry data packets in the information field.  Simple routing traffic stays on local network.  There..."
    I have to pause here and really remark on this.  Yes, some long words are carried over to the next line and there aren't many breaks between words and he gets off the lines, etc.  But look at what detail he has.  Let me remind you that he has had *no* formal training on writing.  He absolutely refused to pick up a crayon or any other writing utensil until he was over four years old.  He even used a yellow dot and labeled it #1 because Hubby has his book tabbed out in sections.  He used white-out when he made a wrong letter.   And most importantly, he thinks it's FUN.  It's not homework or something he has to finish before he can get to recess or lunch.  It's FUN because Daddy is interested in it.  And who knows?  Maybe he'll learn to be a great hacker by the time he's 9 too.  :)  ROFL