top secret

last night while saying good night to the kids...

garrett: "mom, i'm NOT going to tell you about the purse we got you for your birthday."

olivia: "garrett!!!!!! i'm going tell daddy!!!!"

garrett: "livy, i'm NOT going to tell her about the purse!" (said in a super slow voice)

olivia: "ahhhhhhhhhh, garrett!!!"

brightest bulbs on the tree??

i've decided my kids miss the most obvious clues.

here's what we have at our house to count down to christmas...

1. the paper link chain that counts down till christmas
2. the advent calendar on the fridge that we do every morning
3. the advent tree that we add a new ornament to each day
4. christmas placemats with days 1-25

so you'd think it would be fairly obvious WHEN christmas arrives, right?

nope, every day since we got our tree up the kids walk down stairs and are totally bummed that santa didn't come yet.

don't worry sherlock, you've got no competition coming from our house :)

she needs wide open spaces

here's olivia's excuse last night why she couldn't sleep in her room...

"ahhhh, when i look around i see my walls and my ceiling. i just can't stand that. so i can't sleep in my room."

deja vu

long, long ago when i was in 6th grade at jefferson elementary i used to "work" during my lunch hour in the secretary's office. i would answer the phone so she could take her lunch.

fast forward to today. i was volunteering at olivia's school...the very same school i used to go to. they needed a last minute sub for the secretary. yup, there i was about a zillion years later answering "hello, jefferson elementary" and transferring calls.

the office was very different and the phone was way more high tech than when i was there (no more bisque colored handset with the row of flashing buttons on the top of the square phone). but i still felt like the 6th grader who was nervous about messing up the call transfers :)

i was only need for about 20 minutes, but i was amazed at how many calls came through. it's a wonder that school secretary ever get anything done!!!

pictures

here's garrett post-stitches
gifts from the er staff included the dinosaur & the hulk sticker
they definitely know what 3yr old boys like :)

(and even though he's 3, he loves eating in ryan's high chair)

garrett was so proud to wear this sticker to preschool today

here's the letter olivia made for garrett while we were at the hospital
right before we left for the hospital she said "mom, i said a little prayer for garrett"

the red guys are spiderman (garrett's favorite character)
the spoon-thingy is the medicine spoon that the kids use to take their medicine

question: what's the opposite of subtle?

answer: garrett

tonight right before bed, garrett jumped off the couch and hit his head on the coffee table. the hitting of the coffee table is a daily occurrence. but tonight, he thought he'd spice things up a bit and get a nice gash by his eyebrow.

by the time we got him to the er, he was back to his normal garrett self.
and by normal, i mean loud.

every time a doctor/nurse walked past us, garrett would say in his super loud voice "what's the doctor doing? why are they not helping me?"

any non-medical person who walked by got "what is that person doing in my hospital?"

to the group of policemen down the hall, garrett said "those policeman have guns to shoot bad people."

all of his talking got him noticed by the woman behind the curtain next to us. we never saw her, but she chatted with garrett. when the time came for his stitches and they brought out the little cart of supplies, garrett said "those not for me. give it to that lady." (meaning the lady behind the curtain who was being so nice to him.)

garrett in an er...pretty entertaining.
and as for his stiches, let's just say everyone heard him getting them.

farewell...

the last day of november makes me sad...
december 1st means winter
goodbye fall...we'll miss you
here's to a quick & warm winter

although after winter comes spring...

and spring means #4
so maybe i'll wish for a long & warm winter :)

toy for tots

it's almost december...which means it's time to start shopping for christmas. and i've discovered a really cool toy for kids.

meet the homedic massager

ok, so it's probably not going to make the top 10 list for kid toys, but it is a hit at our house.

and believe it or not, ryan likes this more than our tivo remote :)
his favorite ways to play with it include sticking the vibrating feet into his mouth and throwing it into the sippy cup drawer (while vibrating, of course).

and just like the tivo remote, if we try to take it away he cries like a little baby. so we've gotten a little creative and found places to hide it. and just like the tivo remote, it's always good to remember where you hide it :)

entrepreneur

we just got home for our 11 hour car trip back from minnesota.
tim was unloading the car and i was giving the kids a snack before bed...

olivia: mom, i want to start helping out around the house.

me: what do you mean?

olivia: like, i want to dust and put away dishes and help you keep the house clean.

me: thanks, sweetie!! what made you think of that?

(i figured maybe she was feeling a little guilty about all the junk tim was dragging in from the car and how messy the kitchen was quickly becoming)

olivia: money - i want to make some money.

strangers in our house

the past few weeks, we've noticed a pair of strangers in our house...

they call themselves "team"...

"team" activities include:

• dressing up in costumes (or undressing to just their underwear)
  
• pretending to be dogs
• painting themselves in marker
• playing polly pockets or barbies
• drawing pictures and taping them to walls
• filling purses with all sorts of goodies then pretending to go to the movies

what makes "team" a pair of strangers is that they do all of these activities upstairs without fighting. it's been so nice to tell them "go up stairs and do team" and they run right up there. then we can stay downstairs in nearly kid-free peace & quiet.


the only downside to "team" is that ryan desperately wants to join in. and since he can climb the stairs, he tries to join in all the time. unfortunately, we have never really child-proofed the upstairs, so we do our best to convince him that doing dishes, folding laundry or watching tv downstairs is way more fun than falling off a bunk bed or falling down the stairs.