Around Our House

This weekend was the weekend of bikes.

We tried to teach Ben to ride his bike without training wheels...again. It's hard to go on long bike rides with training wheels. He just can't go as fast as the rest of us. He's doing pretty good. I think he just needs the confidance.

He gets unstable and turns. See next video when he almost hits the neighbors truck.

Poor David is wiped out after all of this.

I also got Noah a child seat for my bike. He loves, loves, loves it.

I bought vampire teeth for the kids.

We dog sat for our friends. This is after David walked her and Rocko for 45 minutes.

My Mom is still in Phoenix, so I took Noah on a bike ride this morning.

I think he likes it. He has great teeth. It's a harder workout with 30 extra pounds in my trunk, so it's a win/win.

David and I are watching 24. Yeah, we are about 10 years behind the times. It's actually funny to see the flip phones and they are texting on this ancient looking device with an antennae. We are only on Season 1, but we are enjoying it.

Did you know 3 weeks from today, my feet will be in the Pacific Ocean. Yep, beach house on Seal Beach for fall break with our friends.

Life is good.

Benefits of Nudity

I've let it be known that Noah prefers to be naked. The UPS guy isn't even phased anymore when I open the door and he sees my sons penis. We just laugh and he goes on about his day. We don't even notice that he's naked anymore. My Mom saw him in clothes the other day and was like "what's different about noah?" Did he shave his mustache, cut his hair...no, he has clothes on!

He wore a pull up and clothes most of Friday and went pee in his pull up twice. We don't have accidents when he's naked. So, I'm going to let the nudity continue until he gets potty training down.

But, I finally stumbled upon the greatest benefit of Noah being naked. Laundry. I did a few loads. Noah's is the first row, then Ben's and Emilys.
Noah had a pair of pajamas, 1 shirt and 2 1/2 socks! That's it.

Maybe his nudity is him just doing his part in helping the environment...and his mother.

Friday

I've been trying to get the CVS ad done all morning. It's already noon and I haven't started. I was wondering where my day went and then I remembered why it takes so long to get anything done.

I stopped to play Buzz about 10 times and Woody keeps taking my calculator.

I think life is pretty great that I have a job that allows Woody to steal my calculator and me to say in my best drunk on tea Buzz voice "I am Ms. Nesbit" all morning. Okay, playtime is over.

Volunteering

I've been helping in the kids classes on Thursday. It's fun. My Mom watches Noah for me and I get a little time to be with the other kids and see what's going on in their class.

My Mom had to go down to Phoenix for a few days. That means I don't have a babysitter for Noah. I e-mailed Ben and Emily's teachers and they both preferred that I bring Noah instead of not come at all. Let me just say that speaks volumes for how much help they could really use.

In Ben's class, I help during centers. It's a little loud and kids are moving around. I thought Noah would just sit at the playdoh center and not bother the other kids. Well, he clung to me just like a little monkey. He was finally comfortable and went to check out a book that another kid had left out after his free choice activity. That's Ben sitting in the striped shirt.

Then, we went to Emily's class. She was in specials (music, P.E, computers, library) at the time, so the class was empty. I do filing in her class of all the papers they worked on all week so they can take them home on Friday. Noah sat in a chair and read a book.

And when he got restless, I gave him my phone. He took his picture.

Emily's class came in and I can't even count how any "oh, he's so cute" I heard. We finished up, gave Em a kiss and left. He put in a hard days work.

We listened to some music and jammed out on the car ride home. He was raising the roof.

And that's my Thursday morning.

Our Saturday

We love weekends. The slower pace, sleeping in, David's waffles on Sunday mornings. It's all wonderful. Today I took the time to post a bunch of stuff on Craigslist. I went through some Halloween costumes and came across this one that my nephew Greg wore when he was visiting last year.

I liked it this way better.

Today, Emily's friend from Kindergarten who moved to Phoenix 3 years ago came to visit for a few hours. I'm so happy that they've stayed in touch through e-mails, letters and Skype.

We aso had a major breakthrough. Ben likes tacos! This kid eats the same meats every night with very little variation. Honestly, he'd rather have a caesar salad instead of a hamburger. Seriously, he's weird. In any case, he tried a bite of my taco the other night and loved it. So we had taco leftovers tonight and David had to give him a lesson on how to eat a taco.

Without his Dad's help, he just got a nose full of sour cream.

I'm making him a tostada next time.

Around Our House

Last week, I helped in the kids' classrooms. It's my new thing every Thursday. I'll be there tomorrow. The best part is seeing them interact with their peers. I went in Ben's class first to give the teacher the snack he was supposed to bring. On the way out, this poster board of the Star Student of the week caught my eye.

Yep, that's all about Ben. He wrote everything by himself on his information sheet.

Ben is very much the same kid in class as he is at home. He does good and tries his hardest. He's quiet but helpful.

Emily is a different kid from how she is at home. She calm, quiet and so well behaved that I almost forgot she was in the class. They had a really cute bulletin board up outside the classroom and you had to try to guess who the kid was. I looked at several before I came across Emily's and knew it was her. Well, I wouldn't have known from the drawing.

The fill in the blanks were a dead giveaway.

Yeah, I knew that was my girl right away.

Noah and I have fallen into a nice little rhythm without the kids. We hang out and watch way too much Toy Story. He's a little obsessed and I can't really blame him. I love all 3 movies as much as he does. He insisted on bringing Woody and Buzz grocery shopping this morning. Sorry about the horrible photo, but it was senior day (10% off) and they were hot on my heels. I had to move while taking the photo.

And that's what fills my days...

Slumber Party

We did it. We had our first slumber party. I limited it to 3 girls plus Emily, 4 total. I think it was the perfect number. It was actually so easy. I much prefer this to the big Peter Piper Pizza parties with 20 guests and a bill of $200!

We had pizza for dinner.

Em wanted to open gifts next. She got lots of great stuff and a Ken doll!

It rained all day, but luckily the weather cleared up and we went swimming which is what she wanted to do. Plus, it tires them out!

After the pool, we had cake and ice cream.

Then the girls watched Ramona and Beezus. For about 27 minutes. Then, they got up and played Barbies and stuff.

Ben got to sleep with me and David slept with Noah. Ben's room is the darkest and I thought it best to have all the girls in there. I was hoping they'd sleep in later than 5:00.

It worked like a charm. They were asleep a little past 11 and up at 7:30. David made them all waffles, bacon and sausage.

It was a fun night and so simple. I think Emily had a great birthday and she felt super special. Mission accomplished!