love is...

careers

Based on the last week, I'm pretty sure I know what my kids are going to do when they grow up.

Ari = Mountain Climber. She is already starting her training by climbing the outside of my stairs. She does this three trillion times a day. I am not fond of her training and am trying to break her of this habit.

Zach = Engineer. This kid is a Lego builder. After seeing the new Lego movie, Zach built these letters spelling, "EVERYTHING IS AWESOME". He told Brandon Saturday night while trying to go to sleep, "The rain's really bothering me, but it's okay because everything is awesome."

Halle = Musician. Halle's been practicing her harmonica skills. Can you guess what song she is playing? If you can, you should win the Nobel Prize in Awesomeness.

Need a hint? It's a Christmas song that rhymes with Bingle Jells.

throw-back thursday

I ran across this video of Halle when she was three years old. I was smitten. That short, curly hair and squeaky voice just kill me.

I was asking her questions about Brandon for Father's Day.

My favorite line is: "I already told you about it - chocolate milk!!"

not an iron chef

Apparently, my kids don't view me as the cooking type.

For Christmas, the kids wrote 50 things they love about me. #28 was one of my favorites:

And then yesterday, as I looked through Zach's schoolwork, I saw this paper. It struck me as funny because after reading the first sentence, I thought Zach was going to write about the big, fluffy waffles that Brandon makes for him. At least those would make his teacher think we try to feed our kids a nice, warm breakfast. Instead, Zach wrote about my kind of waffles.

Ari loves music videos. She has a few choice favorites: Roar by Katy Perry, Brave by Sara Bareilles, Gangnam Style by Psy, and What Does a Fox Say by Ylvis. We watch and dance to one or more of these videos daily. I don't feel too bad, she's learning life lessons from them. Case in point:

Me: Ari, what does a cow say?
Ari: Mooooo!
Me: What does a fox say?
Ari: Ring ding ding ding

Ylvis is getting her ready for preschool.

When Ari wants to watch a video, she'll come look me in the eye and say: oo ga ba la oo oo cha bo ROAR da fee la. I've come to translate this as, "Mom, will you please put on the Roar music video for me?"

Over Thanksgiving, Ari soon caught on that everyone had an iPhone and if she'd ask just right (aka scream at them), they would give in and let her watch videos.

Ari is also quite the enthusiastic dancer to her favorite four songs. She's a natural! (Aren't her background dancers adorable?!)

chutzpah

My Halle has chutzpah - that word just encompasses her to a tee.

Last week, we were at a trampoline park called Get Air. Brandon and I were jumping with the kids, attempting tricks from a trampoline into a foam pit that we'd done in our younger years. Brandon went first - jump, jump, spin around, backflip into the foam. Halle didn't miss a beat - jump, jump, spin around, flip backwards and land on her head. The girl attempted a backflip, never having tried it previously. Even though she was in tears, knowing her, I knew we had to have a talk. She would try again if she had the chance.

Me: Halle, you can't try to do backflips anymore. You'll get hurt.
Halle: But I can do backflips.
Me: No. You can't.
Halle: I can. I just did one.

We argued back and forth. Finally we settled on - You can do backflips (she wouldn't budge on this matter so I had to lie), but you shouldn't do them. If you do, we'll have to go to the hospital.

Luckily, our heart-to-heart seemed to work. She didn't attempt a backflip again. However, she did try her hand at a dodge ball tournament, full of preteen boys.

Chutzpah - that's my girl.

7-year-old

 

 

This boy is 7. He's a stud and I love him to death.

7 Things I Love About Zach:

1. His Lego videos:

2. His laugh. This will probably be my favorite thing about him for his entire life. His laugh is contagious and when I hear it, it makes me immediately happy.

3. His recaps of Phineas and Ferb shows. It's probably because he laughs so much while telling me, but I love how he always tells me about the funny parts on the TV shows he watches.

4. His easy-going personality. There is not much that bugs Zach. He doesn't worry. He doesn't fret. He really just enjoys every part of life and doesn't worry about the things that don't matter.

5. His relationship with his sisters. Zach is a good big brother. They fight at times, but for the most part, he watches out for his sisters. He lets Halle tag along when his friends are over, he's endlessly patient as Ari "plays" in his room, he tutors Halle in Lego-building, he doesn't get angry when Ari swishes his toothbrush in the toilet (actually, he doesn't exactly know about that). His sisters adore him...and for good reason.

6. His picture-taking faces:

7. He's a sweetheart. For all his talkative-ness, craziness, endless-energy-ness, Zach really is just a sweet boy. For Mother's Day this last year, he wrote me this note:

Deer Mother

I love you in my hert. I love you so much. I got you some money.

Love Zach

He then left me money on my pillow so I could buy whatever I wanted.

Even after 7 years, this boy still owns my heart. Happy 7th birthday, Zach!