Chuck D & Mr. T

Today we hung up new chore charts and new mealtime manners charts. If one gets stars or checks on the charts at the end of the week they collect their allowance (Charlie gets $2, Teddy $1.50, Scottie and Nelly .10).

Chores for Charlie:
Clean up room
Make bed
Hand up pjs
Put away coat and shoes
Do homework
Practice guitar

Teddy:
Clean room
Make bed
Hang up pjs
Put away coat and shoes

Scottie and Nelly:
Put away toys
Put away shoes

Mealtime Manners:
Sit up at table
Napkins on lap
Use fork and knife
Use a nice voice (no complaints or
Mean discussion at table)
Try something. Anything.
Say something interesting
Ask to be excused.
Each child gets to pick one night to pick what they want for dinner each month

I should add extra credit…

Tonight I read with Charlie. Titles included Little Seeds, Rules, and My Dinner. Charlie also had a guitar lesson. He is attempting Smoke on The Water which he is excited about. He is tired of trying to perfect Jingle Bells but I really think we need to perfect it before moving on to Row Row Your Boat or anything by Deep Purple.

Teddy had a play date today at our house with his good friend Pilar. They had a wedding. The bride wore a blue satin Elizabethan- inspired gown, pink plastic heels, and a Roberta Roller Rabbit quilt as a veil. The groom’s sisters served as the bridesmaids, one in a light blue satin princess gown and the other in a pair of beauty and the beast panties. They also were the pastry chefs, making small confections out of play dough. The groom’s grandmother officiated at the ceremony held in the groom’s family’s kitchen. Present were the mothers of the bride and groom. The ceremony was lovely save for the few minutes where one bridesmaid screamed and accused the bride of taking her princess charm bracelet. Following the wedding, the bride and groom went their separate ways with the bride heading to gymnastics class and the groom off to try to play a game on his mother’s phone.

Scottie gets into my car each time and exclaims “Mommy, you car smell wuk wuk.” I know it may smell yucky but that’s because people-no names mentioned-pour and spill milk and juice and stuff all over it and despite the cleaning and air freshening I can’t get it quite smelling like new. Thank you, Scottie, for pointing it out.

It wasn’t that warm.

Alix’s birthday dinner.

Getting ready to go out with S and N at my side and their approval and advice on what to wear makes me so happy. If they tell me to wear something I will sometimes follow their advice-I like to encourage them by taking them
Seriously and sometimes they have good ideas. More than sometimes. Their taste is good. Ooo la la I say.
Oh and Nelly said to me “Nice outfit. “

So happy to have Becky’s dog Isabel come visit. I love a visiting pet.

Also so happy to have Meaghan come
Visit and come to Charlie’s game. I love that the kids are still so close to her.

I love hearing the children say “I love you mommy.” There is no better sound. Well I actually love hearing all their chatter and singing and talking. Their voices are ao beautiful and it’s so amazing to hear children, especially really young ones like S and N talk. You can so clearly see them learning the language and how they are deconstructing and constructing it. It’s really miraculous that people so young have such an amazing and quick
Command of language.

Speaking of language, tonight driving back from Whitetail we were going up and down hills on country road. T, S and N would squeal and scream pretending to be on an amusement park ride. I was laughing so much.
Then…
Diana “It’s Like a Rockefeller.”
ALB ? ?? “Oh, you mean a roller coaster.”
I also bought Diana a lift ticket and set her up with lessons. She really loved it. I was so happy she got a chance to try or.

On the way to drop Apple off Teddy earnestly of the long ride “Are we going to take her to the Philippines? Is it this far away?”