DADDY!

odin said 'we need a picture of daddy' so he took one. mark had just come home from work and odin hit him for a smile. way to go dad!

this is the favorite time of the day for everyone-sometimes we go to the pond and go frogging and watch the ducks while crazy odin eats a minnow or two 'i can eat it?' he asks. the boys get to wrestle with their dad or help him on the computer. and i can go get dinner fixed while mark watches one or both kids, sometimes i can even squeeze in a rest. it is nice to have a wonderful hubby daddy who gets home in the middle of the afternoon. we'll enjoy it while it lasts.

odin teases ronan. it never ends. but here is the fun that they are up to:

mark built us a comfy bench for our living room. we found that four and a half of us couldn't sit on the couch any more because we all want to stretch out and/or climb around-depending on who it is. mark decided to use some scrap lumber from a job site and from around the camp to make it work out.

voila, a few found foam pads and 21 bucks worth of brown vinyl upholstery fabric and we are done. mark did the whole thing and a very fine job he did. now the boys argue over who gets to take up the whole bench. ronan is enjoying some uninterrupted time while odin is at preschool.

hooray for me time!

odin came home from preschool and said that we still needed a picture of him on the the bench by himself. of course we do!

making his daddy proud!

odin has learned the way of the wireless mouse.

AMEN!

ronan has been paying attention to family time. at dinner he just folded his arms right along with the rest of us and none of us had specifically taught him. honestly it hadn't even occurred to me that he might get it. he is a champion arm folder now, he does it every chance he can get. he even folds his arms before me when he sees me holding my breakfast bowl. i caught him the other day making the sounds of prayer words while he sat arms-folded on my lap. kids are amazing.

ronan's solution

i had mark build me a gate that can keep him out of the toilet and the tub. odin can still access the toilet for his needs, so this should work for everyone.




i have also been working on child locking all of my cupboards so the boys enjoyed one last play around in my bathroom cabinet before i put all my toiletries down there. finally i have space on my counter. should have done THAT a long time ago.

is it beginning to sound a lot like christmas yet?

with a baby expected shortly after Christmas time, i have decided to be a little bit more on the ball with getting ready with gifts this year. with the distance to town-not to mention the price of just getting there-the kids in tow, and (will be) being too huge to navigate the crowds, i am a little loathe to run down to town to spend way too much money on toys that will just cause fighting and messes. so this year i am going to experiment with a homemade Christmas. well, at least for everyone but mark. i don't think mark would be able to use any homemade technology that i could devise. so for him maybe a few coupons for a good time to go with his new video card and memory sticks.

i have been wanting to do this for a long time but have not felt ready to tackle the plethora of ideas available on the web. so i have been wondering about simple homemade gifts or items that you all have received, made, or are contemplating. i think i could get the idea juices flowing better if i wasn't overwhelmed by ALL the good stuff out there.

c'mon ronan

we don't have a door to the bathroom in the computer cabin so i have the hardest time keeping ronan out of the toilet. i had just gotten off the phone with my sister discussing the existence of locks for toilet lids. what do you know. i came into the restroom and opened the lid to discover this in my toilet.

contents list

• daddy's flip flop
• two dum dum wrappers
• one receipt
• the base to my corded phone
• paper from the trash can

sigh....