Our little HOE

Saturday evening we went to the Sammon's house for a party they were throwing. The kids had an absolute blast as all the little ones started their own dance party in the family room while the adults socialized elsewhere. They were adorable little dancing fools and everyone had a great time. Hope even got to put on makeup with Madison and Leah and thought she was just something special strutting around in her bright red lipstick. Roman and Josh passed the time wrestling as always. No one brings out the "boy" in my boy like Josh Sammon, they are so rough and crazy when those two get together, but as long as no one gets hurt, we try out best to let go and give them their space to just be rough and tumble boys. Bethany flirted her way through the crowd and I don't think there was a single person there that dance with her. It was just a lot of fun. Well, as with any party, when there's a lot of people around cups and drinks were hard to keep up with. The adults were using markers to right names on cups and to distinguish alcoholic beverages from others should the kids try to grab one. So, naturally, the kids wanted to do this too and began writing their names on their Capri Sun pouches. Madison wrote hers first, then wrote Bethany on hers. Finally came Hope. Madison asks, "How do you spell your name Hope?" Hopey responds, "H-O-E" as one of the adults says, "H-O-E, hoe? You're HOE?" And of course everyone in the area fell over laughing at my little HOE! (for the record, she can spell her name and corrected it after she finished laughing at herself - obviously clueless as to why, other than she misspelled it! - too funny!)

Countdown for Hope

Hope has been soooooooooo excited about turning 4. She doesn't actually turn 4 until the 27th, but we've been hearing about it non-stop since we began planning Bethany's party back in October. So when January FINALLY arrived we started a countdown on the calendar to her birthday and b-day party. Her party is this Saturday and yesterday at lunch she marked off the day and counted to discover only 3 more sleeps! Well, after work I swung by the house and picked up Bethany and Hope and we headed to Bakers Kitchen to get the icing colors and tips I need to make her cake... Dora of course! She was so excited about it that she had to tell the lady working there about her Dora party and how it was only 2 sleeps away.

Hope, there's 3 sleeps, remember, we counted at lunch time.

But I already had a sleep since then.

Hope, naps don't count!

And with a sad little face and a deep sigh she says, "Oh, I guess there's still 3 more sleeps."

Poor thing, Saturday just can not come fast enough, and to her almost 4 year old mind it is still forever away.

The Mud Pile

For some reason Roman is determined to call a mud puddle a mud pile, because it's water with a pile of mud in it. Well yesterday around 2:30 James got a call from the school nurse that Roman had fallen into one of these mud piles and was soaked to the bone. Of course that's right in the middle of the girls' nap, so he called me and I left work and ran home, picked up clothes, and went to rescue my boy at the school. When I arrived I found a little dirt ball covered in mud from his toes to his waist. It looked like he was just sitting in a "mud pile". As I was helping him change I asked him what happend. "I fell in a mud pile" Well, how did you fall, did you trip? "No, I was pushed" Oh, well, who pushed you? "Valery, she pushed me in a mud pile" I smiled, knowing my son's weakness for the girls and asked if she had dared him to do it. "No, she just pushed me right in, she's mean." I don't hink Valery is a mean little girl. Maybe she has a crush on you. "Uh-huh, she just did it on purpose." So we dropped the conversation and he asked if he could go home. I said sure, it was already 3 and they get out at 3:40 anyway. "I don't want to go back to class. She pushed me." I told him I understood, I guess his feelings were a bit hurt, mostly just his pride, and I made sure he knew he'd have to go back tomorrow. He said he understood, so we checked out and the nurse called for his stuff to be brought to the office. Ms. Neal said to send us down for it. It's only 2 doors down and Roman grudgingly followed. I don't think anyone really knew what happened, except I guess, Valery, but he stood by the door not fully acknowledging them, until Ms. Neal told him it was a 10 day... they get a green dot each day they are good at school and after 10 they get a special treat from the treasure chest. Boy, he didn't have any problems going back into that classroom after that! LOL He told everyone bye and sorta had this celebrity strut going on as we walked out. Guess it's exciting for a Kindegartener to get out of school early. By the time we got home he was more interested in the new car he pulled from the treasure chest and seemed to completely forget the "mudpile" incident. Not a single word was mentioned of it again from the moment we left the school.

Another Tooth Missing

Well, fortunately this one didn't actually go missing. :) Instead tooth #4, his first top tooth, fell out at the dinner table. At least he didn't eat it! It had been bothering him for a few days and he ate several apples throughout the day in attempt to pull it out on his own. In the end he just reached up and gave a good yank and out it popped. Took a few minutes to find the tiny thing on the floor, but we did and he is happy as can be. Went right along eating his dinner without another word. He looks too cute with the one sided hole on in his mouth. This one is almost directly above the one the last one he lost which still hasn't produced a permanent tooth, so just a big gap on the left side of his smile. There are at least 3 more loose in there, so they should start dropping out quickly over the next month or so.

Past & Present

It's no big secret that James and I, and especially Roman, adore his teacher, Ms. Neal. Throughout this year he has learned a tremendous amount from her. He is reading and his handwriting gets more clearer with each passing week. He's spelling everything and absorbs everything she teaches. Perhaps the most lasting concept he's brought home with him (aside from the Owls.... which, on a side note, he was quick to point out to everyone at the National Aquarium that a picture they have up on the wall is actually a barn owl, but in the wrong habitat, because barn owls mostly live in barns or rafters, not trees, hence their name. LOL) Anyway, the most lasting concept so far this year has been that of Past versus Present, Old versus New. Of course to a child of only 6, this is often a tough concept to fully understand. In his attempt to understand what truly is old and in the past versus new and in the present he asks many questions.

On Sunday Barbara, Roman, Bethany, and I - Hope was home with Daddy with a stomach bug - headed to Front Royal to visit Great-Grandma. On the way up we saw many old houses and made a game out of distinguishing the old ones from the new ones. Of course this leads to other questions...

"Grandma, I know the dinosaurs are extinct, but really did exist and lived a long time ago. Do you remember them? Were they around when you were my age?"

"Grandma, did they have paved roads when you learned to drive?"

The best of course was after we got to Great-Grandma's house. Bethany and Roman were crawling around the floor and got a little too close to comfort to a 3-legged table with an antique lamp on it. So Great-Grandma told them to be careful and began to tell them about the lamp. She told them it was very old, older than she was. Her daddy had bought it before she was born. Now Great-Grandma is in her 80's and like a lot of people her age, she doesn't hear real well and you have to speak up. Roman must have picked up on this immediately, because he dropped his voice to a low level, but not a whisper like he was trying to obviously be secretive and says, "Mommy, I don't think she's telling the truth. They couldn't possibly have had electricity back then!" LOL I'm not real sure how I didn't fall over in a fit of laughter, but I kept my composure and shh'ed him. To his defense, it was originally an oil lamp that was later converted to electric!

National Aquarium & Orioles Fan Fest

This weekend was spent in Baltimore and what a great weekend we had! The kids had Christmas #3 with the grandparents and aunts/uncles. Boy are they some lucky kids! Normally when we go up there we end up sitting around and visiting and just playing with the kids at the house and catching up with everyone. Not this weekend! Aunt Jennifer piped in Saturday morning with the fact that she had 4 tickets to the Orioles Fan Fest downtown at the Convention Center. So she, James, Roman, Hope, Bethany, and I caught the light rail downtown to go to Fan Fest.

The light rail itself was a lot of fun for the kids. They were so excited and kept yelling "Wheee!" everytime we'd go over the slightest hill, and "Hold on, here we goooooooo" everytime the train would take off from a stop. They loved it! We got off at the convention center and so just walked across the street and we were in. It was a tad crazy in there. Roman HATED the "bird", but Hopey was happy to get her picture taken and meet him. The lines for autographs from the players was insane, so we didn't do that. They kids enjoyed several of the kid stuff there though and we had fun watching them. Bethany got a huge kick out of all the free stuff being handed out. And the kids got hats, balls, and general admission tickets for this season's games.

After that we headed down to the Inner Harbour. It was $1 days weekend at the Aquarium and Train Museum. We have done the train museum in the past and as to them the light rail was train enough and because it was off the beaten path, we opted not to bother, but did head down to the Aquarium. The kids had never been and it was something we've been talking about doing for awhile now. Unfortunately, tickets for Saturday were sold out by the time we got there, but we did make it just in time to hop in the line for advanced Sunday tickets before they closed it off for the day. And maybe it was fortunate this happened this way as the girls were beat from all the walking and it was way past naptime so we started losing them by the time I got through the line. So back on the light rail and home we went.

On Sunday we got up and Grandma, Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Anthony, James, Roman, Hope, Bethany, and I headed back downtown, this time we drove, to go to the Aquarium. They took us right in, no lines to wait in and the kids were just in awe of everything from the second they walked in and saw the "bubble tubes". We covered everything except the new Austrailian exhibit which had a really long line to get in. The sharks, dolphins, birds, frogs, and deep water glowing fish were big hits with them all. After several hours we headed back to the house stopping at Glory Days (yumm!!!) for lunch.

We headed home shortly after that, and all three kids slept the whole way!

Ray Lewis hit on Aunt Jennifer

Today while down at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, we took a little break and sat down in the lobby of one of the hotels. Roman was in hog-heaven being downtown with all the Ravens fans and Ravens flags and novelties everywhere. So Aunt Jennifer strikes up a chat with him and asks who his favorite player is.... "Ray Lewis!" Aunt Jennifer smiles and says, "I know Ray Lewis, we hang out at the same place on Wednesday nights, he likes to hit on me." Expecting an excited, or at least impressed expression, Roman instead returns with a serious look turned scowl as his little hands balled into a fist and I began to laugh. My boy is so literal! He thought she meant Ray Lewis was hitting her, as in beating her up! LOL We clarified and Aunt Jennifer explained in more detail, but I'm not sure poor Ray Lewis will ever look quite the same for his #1 little fan!