seven (teeny) candles

We got to celebrate Casper's birthday today! It was particularly special to have Grandma and Grandpa Sam here with us.  I baked his favorite dessert, the County Fair Blue Ribbon layer cake, and we had a great time eating it and toasting our boy.

Casper: Awesome, fantastic, super-good, amazing! [when asked how his birthday went]

C: [thinking of a name like the “Temple of Darkness”] No, it’s just like the "Amusement Park of Horror" or the "Place of Doom."  Just those.

funning around

M: No! Daddy! I won’t go! I need my basket of soup! [an old smoke detector]

M: Look, Daddy – it’s my best buddy! [holding a speck that once was a sugar ant]

M: Why are you here, Daddy?
T: I have to shave my face before I go to work. Why are you here?
M: I have to do some ticks!
T: What do you call that trick?
M: Um, funning around, jumping down the tricks!

M: Look at the monkey dog! [monkey drum toy]

M: Thanks, Daddy! You a good Daddy. I love you a best.

M: I find it! I’m the baby! Duh-duh-duh-duh! [offering to find a DVD]

M: It nappy time!

And this is Grandma's first encounter with her newest grandinfant.

challenge

Gwendolyn, having read about and seen many examples of the ALS ice bucket challenge, decided to plunge in -- to get dunked, call out some friends, and contribute to the cause.

As can be seen from the pictures, she had quite a good time with it.

Later this night, I woke in a considerable amount of abdominal pain.  Dad drove me to the emergency room, where I was (eventually) diagnosed with kidney stones, and where I was ultimately given painkillers which succeeded in taking the edge off my distress (the morphine I was given didn't even touch it).  I'm incredibly grateful that he was here to help me, and that he sacrificed his sleep and comfort to help see me through the experience.

Later on, Gwennie would express her surprise that I could do something during my recovery by saying, "but you have a stomach rock!"

storybox

We've been very fortunate to have Grandma and Grandpa Sam here in Texas once again -- a surprise visit to spend time with the children and to meet Simon for the first time.  The opportunity came about because they had agreed to help some neighbors with driving duties in moving from Rexburg to San Antonio.  Mom and Dad will be here less than a week, but because their transportation was covered, it was an additional and unforeseen opportunity to spend time with them.

In addition to reading and telling stories to the children, Grandpa spent an afternoon making cutout silhouettes of the children -- a pastime which each of the brood was eager to participate in.

concentration

adulation

Margaret: When baby Cinq is back in you belly. . . .

M: Hi, baby Cinq! Oh . . . you so huggable! [laughs] He said [snort]!

M: I’m a big baby now! I can jump and play.

Todd: What is your puppet named?
M: Caterpillar Flip von Fleck!

T: Is it time to give you a haircut?
M: Yes, I want a hairdo!

T: [watching a news report on Yahoo!]
M: Can I hear that hoo-hee-hoo again?
T: Okay. [sings the Yahoo jingle]
M: [mutters] That is so annoying.

M: Yay! Daddy said I could watch pbskids dot org!
T: Actually, Linus is going to put on This Old House.
M: No! I don’t like Old House! I like Peg + Cat!

M: I want to pome into Tito’s house [a fort built in the playroom]
Jennifer: Do you have a house?
M: Yes, but a beetle lives in it.

kata

snooze

tale of a tub

extremities

Margaret: Oh, Baby Cinq, you are so cute. Oh, he so little – look at he! Oh, look at his little leg.  He has socks on.

M: [seeing midwives leave from postpartum appointment] But where is Miss Andrea?
T: She didn’t come to this visit.
M: But tomorrow, Miss Candace and Miss Tomi and Miss Andrea will come.

M: [upset because of crying Cinq at the doctor’s office; to the nurse] We are never, never coming back to this doctor’s office!

hat trick

M: Daddy, you get on the bed – I take blood out of you arm.  Then I put some new blood in you.  Here’s a band aid, and some medicine.

M: Once upon a time, Ketta and Livie were walking through the forest.  There were no sisters or brothers or mamas.  Monsters came toward Ketta and Livie, but some kitties came and scratched the monsters and scared them away.  They stayed with Ketta and Livie, because it was turning night, and that’s when the ferocious wild beasts come out.

T: Please don’t get on the furniture, Greta!
M: You can’t talk to me while I’m doing this! I do my hat trick every day! If you talk to me one more time I’ll hit you out of this house, and you’ll have to find another house! . . . I do it once at a time, then I get down and do my hat trick, OK?

M: [to Gwennie] Let’s play little micies! I’ll be baby possum, and you be mama possum.  Squeak squeak!

M:Can you fpin me in this blanket?
T: I don’t think that’s possible.
M: You can! You can! You have big hands!

M: [to Casper] You can’t apologize to me! Give it back! I refuse your apology! I’m still angry! [twenty seconds later] I’m sorry, Gwennie. I didn’t mean to break your magnet.

M: That’s my angry song, Mama . . . Let it go! I’m never going back . . . the past is in the past!

yard reaction

M: Oh, Cinq. He’s so cute, Daddy!

Casper : Baby Cinq can do this with his tongue.
Margaret: Can you do the taco one? 

M: Oh, Baby Cinq. Him OK. I like him! I will not get him back in you tummy, I promise.

M: Ah! You arms are so big you can hold baby Cinq!

leftover celebration

kittens