What they have been doing and saying...

Bennett -- The pre-teen years have hit and they have hit hard. Bennett is currently not wanting to shower, eating everything in sight and then leaving the empty packages in the freezer, refrigerator, or cupboards. He also likes what he calls, his "man time." Which means, he is becoming a man and no longer wants to sit and snuggle and talk to me right after school...he needs to "decompress." Does that sound familiar?!? A boy at school is telling some very off-color jokes which Bennett repeats to me after school...I have told him NOT to repeat any of these jokes and that maybe he should not hang around that boy when he is telling the jokes. Bennett is also into laying on his bed and watching his new favorite show on DVD...Smallville.

Nora -- Nora is Nora. She has said the following to me in the past few days, "Why don't you have a job?" and, "When you sit down, you are kinda chubby!" She also put about 8 dolls into her grocery cart and asked me to come and look, she then said, "I have 8 children, but don't worry, I can handle it!" When she is naughty (and this is very frequent) she says, "Well, this is how we will take care of it..." She is not liking ANY of her clothes, because they don't "Feel right." She wants to wear shorts all of the time and refuses to wear socks on her feet. I am SOOOOO tired of fighting with her about her clothes. And, she is only FOUR! Her favorite things to do are art, reading, and putting on lipstick. Oh, and she LOVES jewlery.

Ella --Ella is starting to throw FITS. She rolls around the floor when she does not get her way. We battle the most with her over her climbing up on EVERYTHING. The other day, she was in her room playing. I had the child saftey gate up and I had put out a big bin of toys. I was on the computer and I heard her saying, "Hello all the people, Hi!!" I went into her room and my heart dropped...there was Ella standing on the window ledge with her nose pressed up against the glass waving at the people in the parking lot across the street. The little monkey had taken a toy, dragged it over below the window, crawled up on top of the toy onto the window ledge. The windows are about 10 feet long and I could about imagine what the Belgian neighbors thought when they saw a little baby standing in the window. Ella also loves popcorn. She LOVES shoes --wearing anyones shoes and changing he shoes. She has this funny little habit of crossing her two fingers on her hand when she walks...only the one hand. We went to the park the other day, and she had her first unassisted swing ride. Here are some photos: