Blogging from the phone

Test blog sent from my phone while eating lunch at Panera.

Preperation for the real world

Madison and Collin love to play on Webkinz. For those of you who don't know, this is a website that you have access to when you buy a little stuffed animal. Online you can play games, buy them stuff, decorate their room, and other things. But you also have to take care of them, give them food, etc.

They have a great system worked out. Madison loves to buy stuff and decorate her animals room. Collin, on the other hand, loves to play the games. He is getting really good at a game that is similar to the old Atari Asteroids. And, the more Collin plays, the more money he wins for Madison to buy stuff with.

Funny how their world mimics real life of a (stereotypical) married couple. Collin makes the money, Madison spends it.

The Cat Choir

Tonight I came home to Madison's cat choir. The choir consisted of about a dozen yellow sheets of construction paper on which Madison drew a cat face. She then folder the corners over to represent ears. The papers were neatly arranged in Caden's room.

Kerry said that Madison was up practicing some songs. Meoww. Meeoooww. Meooowww.

The weird thing is that most of the cats had a caption that said 'I Love You' or 'I Love you to' except that they were written backwards. Like she wrote them while looking at a mirror. Not only did they read right to left, but most of the letters were reversed as well. So you can hold it up to a mirror and it looks right. (I asked Kerry about it and she noticed that since the caption went to the left of the mouth, Madison wrote the words that way).

How does a little girl learn to do that? When I asked her about it, she didn't have an explanation or even seem to know she did it.

the dreary weekend

This past weekend was a mess. The weather was dreary, cold, and rainy. That left the family cooped up for most of the day, and the rose boys don't like staying inside for so long. Collin cried for what seemed like half the day asking to go play our neighbor's Wii. And Caden is learning how to scream no, and practiced much of the day as well. It drove Kerry and I nuts, and pretty soon we were driving each other nuts.

But, on the bright side, we had some good food. Friday night was Wingstop, Saturday we grilled out steaks with the neighbors (and had sopapilla cheesecake for desert), and Sunday we had Chinese. It's a good thing I'm starting to run on the treadmill again.

Work is really busy and I am swamped with new projects. Yesterday I stayed up working on some images for a project, then got up at 5:00 am to try and pull it all together for the meeting. The meeting went well (even though I didn't show the PowerPoint presentation I made because both the architect and set designer had similar images) but it always feels better to be prepared. The rest of the day was filled with meetings and phone calls. And to top it all off, Kerry ran off to see Barry Manilow tonight (free tickets).

Luckily the kids were great. We played, they watched TV, and went to bed with no problems. So after a quick run on the treadmill, I'm feeling pretty good right about now.

i wonder what he's thinking

Collin Loves Star Wars

I've started to introduce Collin to Star Wars. Lately we have been watching a few of the movies, and he just got Lego StarWars for the Gameboy. He plays it all the time. And when he isn't watching star wars or playing it on the Gameboy, he wants to act it out. It starts with him getting on his Star Wars outfit, namely a cape and belt for the lightsaber. Then he explains that he is Star Wars and I am a droid. The duel starts very formally with him saying "swords please" but quickly diminishes into chaos. Caden often joins in, which means the sword fight is now real and you have to stay on your guard or face getting bonked in the head. The fight ends with either me (the droid) getting killed or Caden running everyone off.

To Do This Weekend (a week later)

1. Finish painting bedroom. (Still in progress)
2. Purchase Turbo-Tax. (Done). Do Taxes. (In progress). Celebrate upcoming refund. (Done)
3. Then buy something fun. (Done)
4. Fill out new medical insurance forms for work. (Done)
5. Bike ride with kids.
6. Go to church. Run sound. (Done)
8. Superbowl party. (Done)
9. Clean out cars. (Done)
10. Take a nap. (Done)

kids are the best teachers

Having older siblings has really helped the kids. Collin started riding a bike and a scooter very early by watching Madison. And Caden will do anything the others do. He has to sit where they sit. He learned to do flips on the bed by watching Collin and Madison. But the best thing any kid can learn from their older brother or sister at this age is how to poop on the toilet. Thank you Madison and Collin for a job well done. It was such a relief to see Caden go in the toilet tonight than in the bath that he had just gotten out of.