Fishin'

 Ben had a day off in the middle of the week, so we decided to go fishing at Spanish Oaks Reservoir.  We tried to prepare the kids by telling them it would be a long wait and we probably wouldn't catch anything.  They didn't really listen...and kept asking when we would catch something...but they had a great time.  Ben has been itching to take them fishing since they were old enough to hold things.

Did you know cowboys like to fish?

Dad and The Girl.

We got a bite!

 

The kids look puzzled and horrified.  I'm a little scared of the levitating fish too.

E was pretty nervous about the fish, but Sammi was pretty intrigued.  Just their personalities.

E was concerned about the fish thrashing around.

Then he decided he was proud

  Four fish later...the kids didn't believe me when I said we wouldn't catch anything, and E said he wanted us to make the fish into a fish meat sandwich for him to eat.  I said we had to cook it and asked him how he thought we should, and he answered, "In the frying pan so nothing will happen to it!"  Makes sense...?  The kids had such a good time holding the pole and throwing rocks into the water (Sammi) that every time they wake up and think Dad is going to be home, (every day, but sadly they are wrong) they say, "Let's go fishing today!"

And amazingly, when we cooked the trout for dinner that night, they each ate a whole fish themselves.  I was thoroughly confused and in awe, mostly because I make things that are much less offensive than fish and they hardly touch their dinner.

Little Stinker

This girl has been giving us a run for our money lately.  She has been a really good sleeper since she was a baby for the most part, but she has never slept as much as Emerson.  I think I got spoiled with that boy and his 4 hour naps in the afternoon and then 12 hour nights.  She is a pretty light sleeper, and is pretty good at manipulating us.  I'll just tell it like it is. :)

We were going through this ridiculous bedtime routine where I'd put her in bed, tuck her in, start walking out the door, and this is what would happen:

Me: "Goodnight Sammi.  Love you."
Start walking toward door
Sammi: "Mommy!  Wanna drinka water."
Me: "Ok, you can have one."
Gets a few drops of water in the bottom of a Dixie cup
Me: "Ok, goodnight."
Starts walking toward door again...almost made it...touching doorknob...
Sammi: "Mommy!  Wanna sleep with Brown Bear (her books)."
Me: "You already have Brown Bear.  Night-night!"
Running to door...touching doorknob...closing quietly...
Sammi: "Mommy! I have happy dreams 'bout Tiana, and Ariel, and Belle, and Aurora, and Snow White, and Daddy, and Prince Eric and stinky-winky Mommy, and...
Me: "Ok! Good Night!"
Close door, walk away.
Shrieking ensues since I didn't let her finish, so we start it all over again with me feeling extremely exasperated.

Soo....fast forward past a week of this.  I am ready to pull my hair out, and I decide, "This is the night!  Emerson is fast asleep since he didn't have a nap today, Ben is on call, I have nothing else to do.  She is going to cry it out."  Now don't get me wrong, she cried it out once or twice when she was a baby and we were doing the initial sleep training thing, but she can form coherent words now and it's so much harder.

So I tell her goodnight, shut the door, and wait.  She immediately goes berserk, starts pounding on the door in a fit, and keeps hitting the doorknob guard until she breaks it apart and throws it furiously into the garbage in her room.  Then she tries to open the door so I put her in her bed about 10 separate times until I just decided I was going to hold the doorknob shut.  Meanwhile, I am silently laughing because I can either do that or cry.  She is just so MAD!  I never knew so much rage could come from such a small girl.

Then she laid on the ground to push books under the door.  I wish I could've gotten inside her little mind to see what she thought she would accomplish by doing this.  Maybe she thought if I saw the books I would think, "Why look! Books! I think I'll go in and read them to Sammi!"

Bait NOT taken.

Since that plan failed, she just resorted to saying "Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, etc." for half an hour straight (I timed it) with a few choice phrases thrown in like, "Open the door Mommy!  Stinky-winky Mommy!"  "Don't close the door Stinky Mommy!"  I just had to laugh.  Then it got even better when she started thinking up excuses like "I wanna sit on the potty!", "I'm sick!", "I poot again!" (She says poot for poop), "Change my diaper!", "Want Daddy!".  I am proud to say, I didn't budge, and she eventually gave up, climbed back in bed, and went to sleep. 

I think she learned to stay in her room from that experience because while she can open her door on her own now, she won't come out of her room.  Thus we found this when we went up to bed the other night.  Door open, girl hit with the sleep dart in her doorway.

And now our newest problem is that she is waking up at 3 am because she is hungry.  Any suggestions?  Similar experiences?

1st Day of Preschool!

 E started school today!  He has been really excited about it in an Emersonian way. 

I didn't think I'd be sad since it is his second year of Preschool, and he is only a couple of houses away, but I got a little teary when I dropped him off.  I also got a little teary thinking of our carpool to Preschool last year in Columbus with the 3 best buddies, Tucker, Aaron, and E.  Their conversations were the best.

He's at school right now, so I'm hoping he has a better first day this year than last year when he fell into the urinal at school and soaked his shirt.

The obligatory hand-on-the-doorknob picture

I should've made the font bigger and bolder, but it says "September 2012, Preschool, Age 4, Wants to be an Engineer when he grows up."

Sneaky Sammi jumped into this picture.  But luckily she is hiding behind her flip-flop so we can't see her.

I just really hope E loves school and that the other kids are nice to him.  He has such an outgoing personality and tender little heart that he sometimes gets his feelings hurt when he's trying to make friends with new kids at soccer, the playground, or anywhere we happen to go that he sees other kids.  I sometimes wish I could keep him with me at home forever, but I know that really wouldn't be the best thing for him.  I just don't want him to stop being himself.