This is why we never get any sleep

Wildlife Museum

E had her last day of school for the block yesterday. Her class had their culminating activity for their study of native wildlife at 3 yesterday--they made their classroom into a wildlife museum. What this means is that they wrote books about their animals of choice, and made a sculpture of said animal, and then made buttons that the visitors/parents could push to find out more about their animals (i.e. they would read their books out loud to us). E studied deer. I wish we could have brought the deer book home because it was priceless. It had a table of contents in it, an exposition of what she knows about deer ("boys are called bucks and girls are called does" etc.), a list of what deer eat, and a great diagram with labels of their various parts.

I told E it would be great if we could send a picture of her sculpture to Grandma. "Mom," answered my tech-savvy child, "why don't you put it on your blog, and then send her a note that says 'please look at my blog.' Probably Grandpa will see it first, because he's always on the computer." 

So here are the pictures on my blog.

So so wrong

Tooie came into the laundry room/closet the other day and said solemnly to me, "Mommy, I did a terrible wrong to you." "Excuse me?" I said, sure that my two-year-old son had not just said such a thing. "I did a terrible wrong to you," he repeated. "What did you do?" quoth I. "I knocked it over," confessed my green-eyed son. I had no idea what he was talking about. Turns out he had knocked over the coat rack. A Terrible Wrong.

The Amazing M

Here are some of M's latest greatest creations. This first one features "word people," where she turned her horse's name (Jewel) into different characters. My favorite is the W-shark. Marmot Dad's is the crazy E-face.

The above is not a rabbit. It is a dog, I am informed. M said you can tell by the collar around its neck and its tail.

Here's our standing-up boy

Just in time for Valentine's Day--True Love

We drive to and from school a lot. Like, every day, sometimes twice. So we get lots of quiet quality listening time. Tooie lately has always requested "Grrrrandma music," a CD that Grandma and Aunt made many years before he was born (yet I still tell him that some of the songs say "Tooie"). (Incidentally, his favorite song on the CD is what he calls "Black Jack Grrrravy.") 

Listening to Aunt sing got the girls thinking. Here's what they said:

E: M, when we grow up, let's live in different houses but in the same neighborhood so we can visit each other.

Mom: Yeah, that's like me and Aunt [until, that is, she DESERTS us in a few months]

M: But I always want to live at home. I'm not going to marry.

E: Well, your husband, who would be the daddy, could drive you to visit me.

M: No, I don't want to marry. Mommy, I don't want to marry!

Mom: Well, that's your choice. No one will make you get married. I chose to marry Daddy because I loved him and wanted to always be with him.

E: [think think think] Hmmm. I choose to marry so that when I have a baby I won't have to drive myself to the hospital.

So there you have it. In our family, our example of marital bliss boils down to this: men are basically there to drive you around. Thanks for being my best chauffeur, Marmot Dad. And happy Valentine's Day.