On Anniversary Presents

I received a little surprise when H got home from school today. It seems he had picked me out a couple of anniversary gifts. He was very excited and had to show me how he had taken great care to make sure the stones and metals matched. (A skill that he and I have been perfecting when he picks out his clothes in the morning.)

On Birthdays (HKC Edition)

We interrupt this edition of 'Birthdays - Triplet Style' to mention the birth of another important member of the C family. Today is H's eight birthday. Poor guy, five years old and he was no longer the only child, but a big brother to triplets!

 HKC is a sweetheart. A good helper, when he chooses to be, and generally sweet to his siblings. He is uber ticklish and also likes to have his back, legs, arms, and chin scratched. It's about the only thing that gets him to sit still. This ball of energy is in the science club at school, participates in boy scouts, and played flag football as well as baseball. He's a really fast runner and tremendously good at the frisbee game we made up together last summer. (Explained Here.) His reading abilities have really exploded this year and he adores the 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' books. He's a master at wii, particularly the star wars game and madden football. He somehow has the ability to get pretty much whatever he wants from me, within reason (and if he's good). His favorite color is green and when he's concentrating he does this cute little sucking his tongue/rubbing his nose maneuver that makes me smile. He loves to cuddle, but avoids giving hugs/kisses at the bus stop. He's the only kid I know who could eat cheeseburgers for every meal but rarely touches the French fries. H is kind, athletic, tricky, and turning out to be a real entrepreneur.

Obviously this week is a busy one at the C household. Friday was H's party. Today is the family celebration and on Sunday they will have friends over for a little get together. I suppose it's nice to get all the birthdays out of the way at once. ;-)


Sadly, H was at school when the babies had their photo shoot with Miss Nicole. I am hoping in the summer I will be able to get some with him too. 

On Games: Ladder-bee

The Cs have a fenced in yard. It prevents the dog AND the children from escaping. It also provides a helpful apparatus that H and I used to invent the game we played all last summer, Ladder-bee. A variation on lawn golf, Ladder-bee uses a frisbee instead of a golf ball lariat. The object is to throw your frisbee into one of the horizontal fence poles from a distance of 35(ish) feet. If you hit the top post you receive 3 points, the middle 2 points, and the bottom 1. If it goes over you lose a point and H has to run to the neighbors yard to fetch it. (That's my favorite rule. That kid needs to run of some energy once in a while!) :-) Thankfully we have like 6 frisbees so we have a few throws before he runs to collect them. The winner is the first to 21 and you have to win by 2 points.  Once again, thank you to the gods of random ideas for helping me think this up. I'm sure you could find something in YOUR yard to create a variation. It's not as easy as it sounds, but it's quite fun!

On Acrostic Poems

H and I were snuggling on the couch recently. He turned to me and said:

"I wish my name was Sam."

Being utterly confused I stuttered, "W-w-why?"

"So it would be shorter when you do those name poems. You know the ones where the first line is your name and the next line starts with the next letter of your name." He replied.

"Oh! An acrostic poem." I supplied, finally understanding his desire to go from a name with 8 letters to a much shorter, completely unrelated moniker.

"So yours would be...N-ora. O....ummm...what would we do for O?" He quieried.

"How about O-rnery?" I laughed.

"Ok, ornery." He said, fumbling slightly over the unfamiliar word.

"N-ora, O-rnery," He tried again.

"R....ummm...R-eally nice. A....Absolutely really nice!" He finished proudly.

I laughed, thanked him, and being my nanny-with-the-mostest self sought to make this a teaching moment.

"Do you know what ornery means?" I said, cocking an eye in his direction.

"No, what?"

"Grumpy."

He jumped up at that. "That's not true!" He shouted.

"We have to change that. Ummmm....O....Awesome!"

So obviously I should be working with him on spelling AND vocab, but I can't say it doesn't make me smile that he thinks I'm more Awesome than Ornery.

On New Hobbies: An Update

I recently gave H his new Pencil Pouch. I'd say he was pleased.

On Jesus and The Law

One day H and I were sitting quietly next to each other on the floor of the living room. He turned to me abruptly and said:

"I don't believe in justice."

For the life of me I couldn't figure out what he meant. I was new to this family and still hadn't really gotten to know them.

"You mean you don't believe in the legal system? Like judges and people going to jail?" I queried.

"No, no." He scolded. "Justice. Justice Christ."

I had to laugh at that one. Apparently this little Jewish boy was quite concerned about our differing religious beliefs.