Tan lines

James: "Mom, you know what I like about white people?"

I started laughing right then.

James

James recently decided to email his godmother Jodie Francis whom he has never met in person. I wanted to save his email to her because he typed and formatted it completely on his own and so so sweet:

dear micas francis I love you more then you thought please say you love me.

maybe I can visit you

               love!

                JAMES. 

Odds and ends

Spring, birthday season, Easter. They are coming; they are here. Here are some glimpses into our recent past:

Maria in front of the USS Yorktown

Cecilia was especially excited by the "vendor" machines

Dominic and I got to see the berthing quarters

Look at the relaxed and happy faces of the unplugged, living it up outside, pre-teens!

Charles' valet service

Dominic's first time driving the cart

ready to hit the strawberry patch

7:15 last Saturday Morning

Dad and son going on a Cub Campout
2 Boy Scouts prepared for a weekend of being "grub masters"
at the Snake Farm Campout

2 American Heritage Girls set for a day at the zoo

She loved the bug so much she touched it over and over

This is James' hand touching
the Madagascar hissing cockroach

Maria really liked the albino crocodile

Clone Army: who's who?

One of them rolled over today!

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

Career Goals

Overheard in the van:


"When I grow up, I want to be a nun who can't drive!"

"When I grow up, I want to be a priest person."



Well, all righty then. 

Lego Rosary

For everyone who asked if James got coal for Christmas, here he is showing his enthusiasm for his Lego rosary his cousin Laurence gave him.  He loves to lead a decade when it's his turn.

Who we are this week--the 10 family member version

Bill's quiet and thorough personality have made our new house hunting adventure much less stressful than it otherwise would be.  In a few weeks we hope to be homeowners.  To increase his personal fitness, his new workout plan involves lots of push ups.  He has all the kids participating too, so anytime one of them crosses from the carpet to the hardwood in the kitchen, he/she falls to the floor to do a few.  It's been pretty funny watching Joseph rock on his stomach trying to get it off the floor.

Rachel usual scattered approach to doing all things necessary is getting an overhaul by the Mother's Rule of Life.  She's hoping that in a short time she will have learned to keep the house clean, the kids schooled, the aprons sewed, and the Christmas cards done in a timely and orderly manner.

We have Thomas (11) who is fairly outgoing and friendly and in that preteen stage where he takes things seriously.  He loves legos and reading and taking pictures.  He is a little shorter than Anthony which helps telling them apart if they are together.  

Anthony (11) is the compliment to Thomas so he is a little more serious and introverted and contrariwise.  He is also the one who talks about his faith more and tries to tell a lot of jokes.  He often has two problems with whatever you say and loves to tell you what they are.  He's also very gentle with small kids and seeks out the child that everyone else ignores.  

Maria (10) LOVES babies and will ask about a billion times to hold any baby she meets.  She's artsy and enjoys sewing and singing.  She and Cecilia are involved in an American Heritage Girls group at our parish which is her one activity.  She and Thomas and Anthony look and act like triplets a lot of the time.  They are the "big kids".  

Charles (8) is quiet and social, however those two things work together.  Everyone plays legos  here, and he's probably there in the Lego zone if he isn't wrestling someone on the living room floor and driving his mother crazy.  Charles, Anthony and Thomas are all Scouts.  

Cecilia (6) is sunshine.  Or she is a golden retriever bounding up to you with her tongue hanging out.  When she is tired or asked to do what she thinks is an insurmountable task, say, sweeping the kitchen, she is a very rainy rain cloud.  She's also quite "sporty" and used to take me running when I was 9 months pregnant with Joseph.

James (4) looks either like he thinks the world is going to end or like he just won the lottery.  This week we've had a lot more of the lottery winning face which has been nice.

Joseph (2) compares well with a  butterball turkey.  He and James both wear 4T clothes and play together a lot, often with Joseph as lead trouble maker.  He's also my very cuddly guy, and I love to sit with him on my lap and just hold him.  He has just started to talk more, so if you speak monkey, you will understand everything he says.

and the new baby:
 

Yes, he's homeschooled

James had the opportunity to sit right behind me when we went to Food Lion last night.  On the way there he made the most of my being close enough to hear him.

"I turned the light off when I closed the door!"
"I'm sitting near the window that opens."
"Can we get a fire engine cart when we get there?  Can we get one every time?"

On the way home he had less to say, but it was surely a weightier comment than the earlier ones.

"Hey, Mom." he said.  "Hippopotamic means fat."

Growing with the Saints

Therapy fund

James is a kid who is perpetually worried, whether it's time for bed and the monsters might get him while he's upstairs alone or it's time to get up and face the breakfast table.

This morning, in a typical busy mom moment, I absent mindedly said "yes" to some question he asked me, brows knit in anxiety.

Later, I found out that I had said "yes" to "Do pineapples rock?" when he asked me a second time. I took the pineapple from the counter and put it on the table, showing him that the bottom of the pineapple is not even so when I first set it down, it rocks. He drew back in fear, pulling his plate and cup off the table to get as far from this fearsome fruit as possible. Totally confused, I tried over and over to explain how a pineapple rocks, putting it closer and closer to him, but his terror was palpable as he stared wide eyed at the bromeliad's bottom.

Because the real question was, "Do pineapples WALK?"

Yesterday's Cuteness

J--James, jumping James

James is two, and what can he do?

• VACUUM!
• play with the knobs on the stove
• jump
• speak fairly articulately--"When I sit sofa, I hold baby?"sing, sometimes songs of his own making
• eat, but only what is not being offered or
• eat anything, as long as it is not a time when anyone else is eating
• go to the daycare during Mass...most of the time
• suck his thumb
• listen to Goodnight Moon or Big Red Barn
• frantically say and sign "all done" when being forced to do something he doesn't like...like get shots
• help make pizza dough and roll his own pizza
• Say his siblings' names--"Thomas", "Thomas", "Ria", "Chah-rohs", "Cee-ya", "Goldfish"

He can't:

• tell the twins apart
• say his own name

He won't:

• Say "yes"