Black is for ninjas

it was time... it's been almost 3 years since the last broken bone in our house... this one at least has a better story then the last (m fell off the couch on mothers day a few years ago and broke his arm.) Thurs. was early release for the boys school. They got out at 1 pm and we usually use those days to do play dates. This particular day, t had a friend, jo had 2 (twin brothers), m had 1, then i had van and cl... lose count? that's 9 kids 9 and under...
WE spent a lovely usually warm afternoon playing outside. We walked to the park and then they "dug for treasure" in my back yard. A blissful afternoon... Around 4, I was loading kids in my car to take them home. I got back, and started looking around and realized mud was EVERYWHERE... on chairs in the dining room, on the stairs, in the hall, bathroom... no room was spared... I sent the kids downstairs to play so I could begin cleanup before dinnertime. I was granted 5 minutes of peaceful cleaning before the kids were upstairs screaming. Jo was crying because his head had gotten bumped by van. We quickly calmed him down, but van was still upset. i looked all over his head for a bump. I finally asked where it hurt. He pointed to his hand. the conversation went a little like this: "what hurts??!!" V: "my hand!!" "Your hand?? What did you do?" V: "I punched Jo in the head" We noticed it swelling, bruising, and becoming warm to the touch immediately. i called the ped. at 515 and they got him right in. John took him over and was referred to the ER. They x-rayed and called us back the next day. He broke a small bone in his hand. I took him yesterday to get the cast. Here in his own words, is the story of how he broke it...
Dr: Hey buddy, what did you do to your hand?
V: i punched my brother in the head.
Dr.: Why?
V: because m pushed me off the table so i punched jo in the head when I fell down.

When I asked M why he pushed van off the table, he shrugged his shoulders, and with the most angelic look replied "It was his turn"
van got defensive and yelled that it was not his turn, it was Jo' turn to be pushed of the table...

he chose a black cast bc he wanted to be like a ninja. my kids are weird.

to many firsts...

cl is getting so big! we took her to her 4 month checkup on Feb. 17... she weighed in at 12.6 pounds and is 25 inches long. She is still such a joy to us!

we have been trying to start her on foods. She hates it all, much to my disappointment. My kids never seem to sleep well until they are eating a real dinner each night. these are pics from her very first attempt of a meal....

stupid reversed pictures... if you scroll down, then back up, you can see cls first haircut (which she screamed through..)... we paid 2.00 for her to get her bangs cut, and they even gave her a cute certificate to commemorate this special occasion. and just for the record, yes, this was what we used our university wards valentines day babysitting time for.... The lady who cut it was super excited as she had never cut hair on a person so young!

after all the rubber bands came out...

the before... her bangs when wet and straight were almost to her nose!

another circus

I thought it would be fun to take our circus to the circus... I remember as a child being so excited when our elem. school passed out free kids tickets to the circus and our parents would take us. It seemed so magical and larger then life back then. Now? The circus makes me sad. I loved watching how excited my kids were to see the white tiger, or watching the elephant roll across the ring on a barrel. It was neat (in a very gross way) watching someone bend backwards and balance on their chins, and it was scary watching people hanging toe to toe and holding on by only their teeth.

However, it bothered me greatly to see the animals cowering in fear from a barbaric long haired man screaming at them. The gorgeous dogs had mange... the tigers were bored... the kids had a great time, and I will never point those things out to them. I want them to keep the magical feeling for a few more years, but I wish cirque de soleil would come. Now that is a circus I would love to take my circus to...