Language Lore

One of my favorite things about having two young children is listening to their language skills develop. Osten's picked up a new phrase in the past couple of weeks, and it really cracks me up.

"Oh my gracious!"

With the magic of Christmas all around us these days, he can be heard exclaiming this new phrase quite often. Marci's starting to pick it up now, too. Sometimes I'm not sure if they're 3 and 5 or 83 and 85!! And best of all, one time Osten got a little tongue-tied, and it came out "Oh my sakes!"

I love it!

Brotherly Love

The kids were off in Osten's room playing this afternoon when Osten suddenly stuck his head into the hallway with the following announcement: "Mommyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! Marci just went poo-poo, and it was poo-poo and diarreka."

"Okay," I responded. "Does she need me to wipe her bottom?"

"No," he said. "I already did it."

Wow. Now that's what I call brotherly love! I can't wait to tell this story to them when they're in high school.

Batman Sighting

Marci had her Thanksgiving party as well as a silent auction at her school yesterday. Osten and I both attended. Osten has really been into writing these days, and I noticed him doing some handiwork on a few of the bid sheets. When I went over to look at them later, I noticed that "BATMAN" was scrawled in his penmanship on a number of the sheets. I guess you never know where you might have a Batman sighting!

'Tis the Season ~ Part Two

Just a few more shots from the whirlwind holiday photo shoot this afternoon.

The kids spotted a lizard on the side of our house, and they were in awe.

You can see why we only lasted five minutes!

Sweet!

'Tis the Season

'Tis the season for some festive photos of the kids!

This year's photo shoot was in the backyard, without shoes, and it lasted all of about five, tortuous minutes.

As usual, neither child wanted to get dressed, and they both were unhappy with what I had picked out for them.

Nevertheless, with a little coaxing with some brownie bribery thrown in for good measure, they somewhat obliged!

Party Time

At Osten's request, we had his birthday at the same gymnastics place where we celebrated last year. Believe it or not, it was even more fun the second time around!

Osten was most excited about the rope swing.

He made sure that I remembered to use five separate candles instead of a single number candle like I did last year!

Here's a silly group shot of most of the revelers. Aren't they cute??!!

High Five

I took Osten to the doctor last week for his five-year-old checkup. Here are his stats:

Height: 43 3/4 inches (68%)

Weight: 38 lb. 2 oz. (32%)

He grew three inches and gained three pounds. Way to go, Osten! And he has 20/20 vision. He also had not been to the doctor since his four-year-old checkup. Here's hoping for another super-healthy year!

Take Five!

Well, as of 9:39 this morning, Osten is officially five years old! I can't believe it. He was super excited about his birthday this year, and at his request, we put our present on the table for him to open this morning. No sooner was he out of bed this morning, and he had that gift ripped open! To his credit, he has been waiting patiently for two months for a Justice League blanket and pillow of his own after we gave them to one of his buddies from school for his birthday. (Is there anything more exciting than the successful fulfillment of a child's anticipation??!!)

We made cupcakes to bring to school. He is in quite a Captain America phase right now, and much to my relief, he was very excited about these homemade cupcake shields. (Whew!)

Box of Tricks

Much of Sunday morning was spent in a big box from Grammi and FaFa's gift for Boone. The kids took turns hiding in the box and pulling each other all around the house in it. There was also a good bit of girl time to be had in the box with lots of story telling and reading.

I'm not sure how I lucked into capturing this shot, but it is one of my all-time favorites!

Piper was so nice to share all of her dressup stuff with Marci, and they had a ball getting all gussied up in two of her gowns.

Osten disappeared after a while, and this is how I found him. I think he was quite impressed with Piper's book collection!

Udderly Entertained

The Columbia zoo has a little bit of everything to offer. Marci even got to milk a cow!

Boone kept right up with the big kids, but he also spent some quality time on Mommy's hip and later on Daddy's shoulders. What a little trooper!

The outdoor carousel was a huge hit!

Whee!! Boone rode, too, but somehow I didn't end up with a picture of him. How in the world did that happen??!!

Clickety Clack

We covered quite a bit of ground walking around the zoo. The girls were especially cute parading around in their click-click shoes and princess gowns.

Osten was so proud of his Captain America costume, and I was relieved that the shield I made for him met with his approval. (Whew!)

Here's Aurora and Captain America waiting in line at one of the trick-or-treat booths.

Wardrobe malfunction! Out of nowhere, Marci plopped down in the dirt to empty some dirt from her click-click shoes. We were shocked that she was able to clickety-clack her way through the zoo all night without changing into more comfortable shoes. What stamina!

Boo in the Zoo

We got an early start to Halloween this year at Boo in the Zoo in Columbia. It was an after-hours event at the zoo with trick-or-treating and lots of other Halloween activities. Superman (who also celebrated his Halloween birthday a weekend early with us), Cinderella, Captain America and Aurora had a great time.

Here's a closer look at three of our little trick-or-treaters. The littlest one quickly tired of the photo shoot and wandered off to find bigger and better things.

This was Osten and Marci's first trip to the zoo. We spent a good bit of time at the elephant exhibit and couldn't pass up a photo with the elephant statue nearby.

Giddyup!

New School

Marci started a new school this year. Here she is on her first day.

She picked out her outfit all by herself. She was particularly excited to be wearing her favorite Aurora shirt. She also announced that she wanted me to fix her hair in three pony tails (WHAT?), but since two is Mommy's limit that had to do!

Such a big girl! She pulled that door open all by herself . . .

. . . and just walked right in! Her new princess backpack was an especially big deal!

Pre-kindergarten

It's hard to believe that our first-born is in pre-K and in his last year at the school where he has been since he was 14 weeks old. My, how time flies!

He has also officially entered the awkward smile phase, which of course makes him all the cuter to me!

He picked out his outfit by himself, and he was especially excited to wear his new school shirt. And by the way, the sandals he's wearing had a rough summer. After months of sand and sweat, we mistook their stench for dog poop in the car one afternoon. Needless to say, we bypassed Goodwill and put those puppies on the fast-track to the landfill.

Teamwork ~ Revisited

And perhaps my personal favorite is the shot of the group stretch!

Teamwork ~ Encore

In what is hands down their best collaborative feat to date, I stumbled upon this mountain of harmonious handiwork in Marci's room this summer. (Yes, I'm a wee bit behind on blogging!)

To say they were proud of the result of their combined efforts is to greatly underestimate their sheer delight.

Putting on a few finishing touches while Mommy's busy playing with her camera.

A masterpiece! And most definitely an original!