what we came for

we went to see the monster trucks at the fair today and I didn't taken any pictures. oops. i know you're sad.

quick hits

while waiting at the doctor's office today caroline was reciting an alphabet thing they do at school ("a is for apple. a-a-apple.") Q looked defeated and said to me, "she's gooder at words than me."

stopped at a rest area on the garden state parkway for a potty break, i asked caroline to put the hello kitty flip-flops she insisted on wearing on so we could go inside. she whined that they hurt her feet so i asked why she wore them... "because they sparkle."

the end of an era

the kids both took showers tonight instead of tubbies.  it may have been the novelty of it but they both got a kick out of it, which is especially funny since Q told me last week that he was never going to switch to showers.

dirty little secret

don't tell anyone, but Q loves sofia the first.

he and caroline have been watching it on the ipad every day. a couple of days ago Q was in the kitchen with me and heard the first strains of the sofia theme song coming from the living room. he did a tiger-woods-landing-a-birdie arm pump and bolted for the living room. so stinkin' sweet.

but then later he instructed me, "you can't tell my friends that i like sofia. they will think i'm a baby."

oops. just told the whole interweb.

how can this be?

tuesday after labor day, caroline is moving up to the pre-k room. the last stop before actual kindergarten.

she's been in every level at the daycare except the infant room. and now she's the big pickle on campus.

how did this happen?

teacher teacher

we finally got Q's 1st grade teacher assignment today!  fingers crossed she's a good match for him.

one week of summer left...

kid latin

as the kids get older they are getting better at pronounciation. that's good and all, but i do miss their silly versions.

a few favorites to save for posterity before they disappear from the lexicon for good:

chickalay: chick-fil- a

motato: potato or more likely tomato

cool: pool

cuddle party

several months ago, we made the mistake of having a friday night cuddle party in our bed.  the kids were very excited.  we watched a movie before going to sleep.

the problem is that the kids now believe that every friday is cuddle party.

we went along with it for a while because it is super cute.

but it has got to stop.

no one sleeps well during a cuddle party.  the kids sleep sideways.  caroline hits and kicks (inadvertently) as she tosses and turns to sleep.  they both get up at the crack of dawn.  and everyone wakes up tired.

down with cuddle party.

yay for the fairy

the tooth fairy nailed it.  Q was pleased with his money and his pokemon.

he's already wiggling the next tooth, plotting what he'll ask for.

oh boy.

first lost tooth!

Q lost his first tooth today!

according to him, he ran into a wall while playing a game at school, causing the tooth to get wiggly.

then later at a field trip to the bowling lane, he didn't like how it felt when he tried to eat, so he yanked it out.

also apparently, he dropped it and lost it at one point at the bowling lane. but amazingly one of his friends found it.

he was very excited to write a letter to the tooth fairy. i hadn't necessarily planned for that to be how the TF works here but he needs to practice his penmanship anyway.

coincidentally, the tooth he lost was the first tooth he ever got (on november 15th, 2007!)

he put his tooth in my childhood tooth pillow because i haven't yet made him one. it's on my list, but i thought i had time since he didn't have any loose teeth yet.

and as gross as it is, here's the tooth

he insisted that i take a picture before the tooth fairy took it away.

the fairy has successfully swapped tooth and letter for a letter, pokemon cards, and a half-dollar the tooth fairy gave her.

the tooth fairy has a very stressful job.

mr. cool

hilarious

that's one definition

tonight we read a book about sharks. after daddy read a page about extinct sharks, i asked Q if he knew what extinct means.

"they're stinky?"

maybe boy, maybe.

completing the path of destruction

back in june we completed this year's two-stop monster jam path of destruction (no philly this year, because the stadium was under construction.)

since we had met a lot of the drivers in baltimore the week prior, we focused on the ones weren't in b-more and then a few favorites.

batman and superman really liked our book.  they wanted to keep looking at it, but there was a line of people waiting so they really couldn't.

caroline was very excited to have madusa sign her sign

then madusa sprayed her hair pink and gave her a tiara to wear

ack

despite frequent postings, i am still behind on big event posts... east rutherford monster jam, caroline's birthday, quentin's birthday, nascar at watkins glen, oh, and that disney trip back in january.  too many photos to sort through.  not enough time.

can i be like one of the several whiny, annoying millennial peeps we saw on a "house hunters" marathon today, and claim "blogging" as a career?  it offers health insurance, right?

super grover!

hopefully

hopefully this one doesn't have the rabies.

sucker

i am a sucker for any art work involving tiny handprints. and also peacocks. this one will be kept eternally.

because it has a hole

the wilmington police came to caroline's school yesterday as part of transportation week. they brought out a bunch of vehicles - cars, motorcycles, swat truck, robot thing...

pickle's favorite was the swat truck. because it has a hole.

poor pickle

the ER ended up giving her dose 1 of 4 of the rabies vaccine last night. she has to go back 3 days, 7 days, and 14 days later for rounds 2-4.

as if that wasn't bad enough, she's now terrified to go to sleep in her own room.

poor pickle.

bat $#!% crazy

so yeah. holy bat, batman.

last night caroline came up to our room around midnight which is very unlike her. we just chalked it up to post-vacation excitement and let her sleep with us.

then in the morning we discovered that a bunch of breakable items from the shelves and door frames in her room had fallen down (and broken) which was weird, like there was a small earthquake isolated to her room. very strange.

so within 30 minutes of going to bed tonight, she came out of her room crying and screaming that there was something in her room. these were like ax murderer in the closet screams. I totally didn't believe her because she has been the queen of not wanting to go to bed lately ("i'm thirsty." "i'm hungry." "i'm cold." "i feel sick." "i'm scared." etc.)

so i smugly opened the door to show her that there was nothing to be afraid of and this giant bat flew at my head. i totally screamed and slammed the door.

it was probably in there last night and woke her up. it probably knocked all the stuff off the shelves (where do i send the damage bill, mr. wayne?)

jeremy got the bat out back through the window but the pediatrician instructed us to bring her to the ER since bats carry rabies and apparently bat bites are small and painless, so even though she says she didn't get bitten we need to be sure.

good times.

rhymes with stupid

Q got some sweet new teenage mutant ninja turtle action figures for his birthday from aunt leah and the turpins.

he was playing with them and wanted to reenact a scene he had seen on tv. but he hesitated and then asked us if he could make one of the turtles say a bad word. we assumed it was a not-really-that-bad-but-still-not-encouraged kinda word but were trying to figure out which one (stupid, fart, whatever.)

so daddy asked, "does it rhyme with poopid?"

and Q said, "no, it rhymes with bid."

we sat there puzzled, trying to figure out what it was. we finally asked him what the word was...

"stupid."

they can pick 'em

race dude

mockamoli

Q and caroline had mockamoli for dinner tonight. you know, mockamoli. the pasta stuffed with cheese. you might mistakenly call them tortellini but know that they are indeed mockamoli.

'ohana

by caroline

produstaurants

my children do not know the actual names for most restaurants. and they all seem to involve produce.

the apple

the pepper

the grape