Two Isaac

I feel a need to document some of the precious moments recently on this the morning of Isaac's second birthday. I need to write down the cute stuff before it is forgotten and buried under the "terrible twos" :-) Actually I'm pretty sure the two's will be just as terrific as they might be terrible.

This morning I did a few sun salutations after getting the breakfast out, the fire made, and the movie started for our sick girl. (So far Isaac is the only one in the family that has escaped the peuking-peuking is a new word that Sofi learned at school!) Isaac thought my movements on the mat were the funnest thing ever. He ran his truck between my feet and under the bridge of "down dog", giggling. He climbed on my butt during "plank" and slid down my legs as my butt rose, giggling all the while. Playing peekaboo between my legs at my upside down face was even more fun. All this is normal for Isaac; finding fun in whatever is happening.

His verbal skills are exploding. Sometimes we hear three and four word sentences he makes up himself, as well as exact repications of what we say with perfect vocal inflections. And he is very generous and appropriate with "peas" and "tank you". But what is even more fun than the talking is the singing. He sings songs that they have been singing at daycare and I can actually recognize them. (Of course it helps that I am familiar with the repertoire) The other day I heard "Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Awaaaay!" Also "Mister Sun, Sun, Mister Golden Sun". He will imitate the warmups that Barbie sings on the Christmas movie (very cute to hear him trying arpeggios) and holds the bulletin at church like a hymnal singing along with the hymns on "ah-h-ah-aaaa"

The other day his bottom was sore and so he asked for "sugar" on it. It took me a while but I finally figured out that he meant powder. Never the less he has now been dubbed "sugarbutt" and I'm sure the nickname will stick! (And I wish you could hear him say "sugabutt" :-)

He is very neat. Really liking things to be put in the proper place. When we are done watching TV the doors to the armoire get closed, always. When he a takes a book to bed at night he gives me the one from the previous night to put back on the shelf. And cleaning is fun, especially the floors but also wiping the pictures off the windows and dusting. Oh he gets upset when Daddy won't let him use the big vacuum, his little one just doesn't work as well.

And he is already looking after me. The other day we went to the YMCA to play at the family fun center and as we all got our boots, hats, coats, and mittens on I picked him up and he pointed to where I had laid my purse asking "puhse?"

Yes Isaac, I have my purse, thanks for taking care of me and making me laugh! Happy Birthday!

For the Record: Best Friend

This post is strictly for the record:

This morning, while getting ready for preschool, Sofi declared that her brother Isaac was her best friend.

For the Sake of Argument

I have long viewed my sister and I as opposites. Polar opposites even, at times.

There is the obvious:

• I'm a boy; she's a girl.

But there is also:

• She wanted to play "house" together; I wanted to be left alone to play G.I. Joe or Star Wars
• She's outgoing; I'm shy
• She was popular in highschool (she was a cheerleader after all); I had only one friend (just kidding, but I certainly wasn't as popular as a cheerleader, maybe as popular as an art geek... they're not popular? Oh, right, anywho...)
• She is concerned about how she looks and what she wears; I am perfectly content looking scruffy and have been known to wear ropes as belts, two different colored shoes and pajamas to school
• She liked listening to New Kids on the Block; I liked listening to The Cure
  
• She wanted to watch Little House on the Prairie; I wanted to watch Robotech
• She exercises, pretty much daily; I am lucky if I think about exercising weekly
• I enjoyed having a green AMC Hornet as my first car; she complained if I tried to drop her off in it too close to the main entrance of the high school
  
• I found highschool math easy enough; she struggled
• I struggled in college; she blossomed
• I'd much rather go to an art museum; she would much rather go to a hockey game

Despite all these differences, we managed to get along for the most part, and as time has gone by I think we find it much easier to do so. I know I certainly enjoy her company. And, naturally, there are things we do have in common. Politics, for example. Turns out we both voted for Obama (although I had made up my mind during the primaries, while she was still considering her options a few weeks before November 4th).

Which brings me to political opposition between another brother and sister pair I know. It happened over breakfast this morning. I'm sitting there, eating my generic version of Frosted Mini-Wheats, with a Newsweek on the table displaying the candidates on the cover. Sofi starts talking something about Obama and McCain (she got to vote between the two in a pretend election in preschool), and the next thing I know I'm listening to this volley of candidate support, with Sofi stating "Oh-bama" (a surprise considering her vote in preschool: she voted "M" for McCain... perhaps she thought she was voting for "M"ontana) and this declaration from Sofi is followed by Isaac stating "Mah-Cain" (where he learned that McCain is the opposite of Obama I am CLUELESS). And before I know it, Sofi is leaning in, Isaac is glaring, and the candidate names have gone from declarations to shouts that are well beyond our acceptable level of "indoor voice": "Ohbama!" "MahCain!" "OHBAMA!" "MAHCAIN!" "OHBAHMAAAA!" "MAHCAAAAAAAAIN!" And just to be heard I have to yell to tell them to stop yelling because: 1) it was getting WAY too loud, and 2) annoying and 3) not only are they both at least 14 years too young to debate how they are going to vote but 4) they're also too late---the election has come and gone already! Talk about arguing and shouting for the sake of argument!

And, if they couldn't oppose each other enough and argue about something even more senseless: the following morning they did the EXACT same thing... but TOOK THE OTHER SIDE! Sofi's yelling "MahCain!" and Isaac's yelling "Bama!" Could a brother and sister be more opposed?!?

Vote!

As we were on our way to church this past Sunday I saw our political propoganda in our lawn and front window and announced to everyone else in the car that it was "just two more days!" and that I was getting excited to see the outcome. I then asked Sofi if she would like to go and vote with me on Tuesday, something I'd been thinking about doing simply because I want both kids to know from an early age that this is something everyone should do.

She responded "Yes" and then continued: "I'm going to vote for Hannah Montana!"

We had heard this before, and are a bit amazed by it, because we rarely ever watch the Disney Channel (I'm assuming that is the one she is on), and we have never watched Hannah Montana. I assume that she has learned about Ms. Montana on the bus (that's were every preschooler learns about the wider world, right?). Wondering what classmate might be the one who has political influence over my daughter I asked "Do you know anyone else who is voting for Hannah Montana?"

Sofi was quietly just pointing at herself, leaving us guessing, when suddenly another voice from the back seat piped up to answer my question: "I-ICK!"

It appears that Isaac, as well, plans to cast a write-in ballot. He does, after all, try to do whatever he sees his sister doing.

The Pratical Joker

This weekend Mary and the kids and I went to Red Wing to celebrate a couple of birthdays: my mother's and my own. My parents and my sisters were all there. My father cooked some pork on the rotisserie of his new grill, Mary made a salad, my mother prepared vegetables in a crock pot, my Grandma Kraay who wasn't able to join us baked us a cake, and we all sat down to enjoy the meal around noon.

After lunch we opened gifts. Michelle brought out two gift bags that had been waiting on the kitchen counter, both brightly colored and filled with colorful tissue paper, one a with a card that read "Andy" and the other without a visible card, but assumed to be for my mother.

I was told I could go first, so I did, opening the card that my sister had picked out. The card actually held the gift, not the bag, which was a gift card toward an iPod I've been thinking of getting.

Next my mom opened her gift, with most everyone around the table interested to find out what it was. My mom discovers the card inside, in an envelope with her name on it, but oddly the envelope has already been ripped open, and her name is written in hand-writing not owned by anyone in the family. My mom starts to laugh. Inside is a note, but this one in a different hand-writing: Sofi's handwriting. And then my mom digs through the gift bag to find her "gift": one of Jake's chew toys!

Turns out the "gift" bag was fake! Sofi had concocted the ENTIRE thing, without telling anyone! Here the whole family was gathered around the dining room table, my Dad wondering what his kids had gotten his wife, my sister wondering what her brother and sister-in-law had gotten her mom, and Mary and I wondering what Michelle hadn't gotten for my mom. And the entire time it was a gift Sofi had thrown together from things she'd found around the house (old envelope included!), threw into a gift bag (also scavenged) and planted on the kitchen counter next to the other gift bag... without telling anyone! Sofi was one HUGE grin from ear to ear the entire time, and thought the whole thing INCREDIBLY funny. So did Grandma D!

Barack the Vote!

Mary and I went to the Obama rally in La Crosse this morning. We arrived around 8:15 (the gate opened at 8am), and discovered that the line to get into the event went was 4+ blocks long, winding it's way from Main and 2nd down to Riverside Park, where it then folded back in the opposite direction because Riverside Park wasn't long enough.

When we finally got to the security check point, we discovered that we couldn't bring in our thermal mugs (which lots of people brought because it was so cold so early in the morning---you should have seen the number of metal mugs thrown into the garbage can at the check point). Which meant Mary was about to go back to the car and chance missing the rally, something neither of us were too happy about. Thankfully a volunteer quietly suggested trying some check points further down... that oddly didn't have any thermal mugs in their garbage. That tip paid off, but due to all of this we went through different check points and got split up for the rest of the rally.

Neither of us got very close, and spent most of our time looking at the back of a heads. But we were both glad to be there, and we enjoyed talking with people we bumped into afterwards.

Mary and I both were moved by one particular statement: when Obama asked the young adults in the audience to serve in the armed forces, to serve in the Peace Corp, to serve in Americorp... in short to serve their country. And in turn he promised that the United States would make it possible for each them to afford a college education. For use that hit home two things we were glad to here Obama reinforce: that college tuition is getting out of hand for the average American, and that we could use some help with that, but at the same time we need to be thinking beyond just ourselves, that we need to be serving others.

How many people were there? The Democratic headquarters in La Crosse printed 14,000 tickets that they handed out to attendees as the waited in line, to be turned in at the security checkpoint. But they ran out. One volunteer after it was all done said she'd heard there was 16,000 in attendance. The La Crosse tribune is currently posting 15,000 in attendance on their website.

For La Crosse Tribune reports on the event, click here.

One of Those Days

Today is "one of those days" in which I have a long list of things I want to get done: mow the lawn, move the laundry along, fold the laundry, get supper started, straighten up the kitchen, schedule an eye exam, turn the compost, fix the ladder, bring in the garbage cans, enter receipts into Quicken, clean up the basement, pay a traffic ticket, troubleshoot my mother-in-law's internet connection.

I manage to actually finish three of them (ladder, compost, garbage... yeah the simpler stuff), forgot about two of them (traffic ticket, eye exam), try to start two of them (move the laundry along, straighten up the kitchen), all the while being interrupted three or more times with whines, cries, complaints, turf wars, screams, protests, demands, tantrums, tears.... And that is it; that's everything I get done. That is how my time has been spent. The rest has yet to be finished or even started. It is no wonder that I'm often satisfied if I manage to accomplish one major task during the day.

It is days like this when I think of people like my old boss, the one I told I was quitting to be a stay-at-home dad, and who replied that he wished he could do the same (thought he didn't have any kids)... so that he could go fishing. Hmmm.... fishing. I didn't say anything at the time because I was pretty clueless about what this entire adventure was going to be like. As far as I knew, he could be right, I might be able to get a lot done and have some nice free time. But now my thoughts are pretty clear: Yep, he OBVIOUSLY didn't have any kids.

Fishing must be the male equivalent of eating bon-bons while watching the soaps.

Guess I need to add that to my list of things to have interrupted: purchase fishing pole.

Who's the Boss

Sofia has been, as of late, preoccupied with who is the boss. It did not take her long to decide that we, the parents, are the boss. But that doesn't mean that she found the conclusion satisfactory. Occasionally there is protest: "You are NOT the boss!" Occasionally there is reassignment: "I'm the boss." Occasionally there is favoritism: "Mom is the boss."

One evening at supper when it was just I and the kids the topic came up again. And I suggested that perhaps what she needed was a "Kids Are Boss Day".

So I asked her, "What day do you want to do that?"

"Today."

"I'm thinking sometime next week. What day would you like: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday?"

A slight pause, a tilt of the head, and then: "Both."

Pickin' Plums

Tis the season to harvest. So today the kids, Ardelle and I ventured all the way to our front yard to pick our plum tree clear. The kids had been sneaking them for the past couple of weeks when we'd hang out in the front, even when they were more tart than sweet. Sofia really really wanted to climb the ladder, so this is the first year that she actually climbed up and picked. I enjoyed her confidence and her willingness to help out. Even Isaac was willing to help out, by picking up the ones that fell to the ground, even though what he really wanted was his turn on the ladder.

All the credit for this activity goes to Ardelle, because this was all her idea. Just one of the many blessings of having grandma live right next door.

Hanging Out

Last week was the first week of preschool for Sofi, and I will get around to blogging about that later, believe me, I will. It's all a matter of time, as is most everything, right?

Anyway, Sofi went off to preschool again today, and today is the first day where Isaac and I got to go back home and just hang out, just the two of us.

And I have to say, it is SO nice. The air is crisp and cool, and the vibe is SO relaxing. No yelling, no bickering, no screaming, no crying over this and that being taken away without asking. We're justing hanging out, right now in his bedroom, picking up the floor, organize clothes, getting them ready for the autumn season, listening to last.fm.

It reminds me of those days when it was just Sofi and I, and we were able to just be. It's amazing how busy things have gotten since then.

First Day of School

Today was a big first for Sofia, her first day of preschool, which she has been eagerly waiting for since her fourth birthday back in January. The first day was actually a short one, in which both her and I went to her school for a meeting with her teacher, Ms. Kylie. This is how I managed to get photos of her at school and with her teacher. She is going to Coulee Montessori, a charter school part of the La Crosse School District, at a school near where Mary works.



The next day, Wednesday, she actually went to school by herself for the full session, which for preschool is from 8:15 am until 10:45. The plan was for her to ride the bus to school, as that would work best with the juggling of daycare and work schedules.



But it turns out that the bus company that won the contract for busing the district’s students does an EXTREMELY poor job of communicating their schedule to the school staff, let alone the parents of students. To make a long story short, I think we missed the bus because two busses came at once, and while I got on one bus to find out if it was Sofi’s, the other bus left. But I’m not certain that was really her bus either, because it turns out her bus’ pick up time was changed from 7:45 to 7:15 (which neither the parents nor the school had been notified about).

So, unfortunately, we were late for her first day of school. Late for the first two days of school actually, because I didn’t learn about the change in pick up time mentioned above until I talked with Sofi’s principal and he called the bus company to also learn about the change in time.
Sofi actually took this difficulty with the morning bus schedule much better than I did, telling me in a reassuring voice “It’s OK Dad” on the second morning as we all left the bus stop on foot rather than one of us by bus, with dad visibly frustrated.



The second day being Sofi’s first full day at school, she also rode the bus home for the first time. The bus home is just for preschoolers, 11 total preschoolers to be exact. I have to wonder what this ride on the bus is like, 11 bundles of post-school energy sitting on firm green pleather seats. I would guess the first couple of days were pretty sedate, but I’m guessing it has become quite the social club, as Sofi has leaked that the driver (a sweet, quiet woman named Vicki) has assigned seats to her 11 preschool passengers.

The bus ride home is a bit of issue for me as well, however, as it is quite long. Without giving it much thought, we choose the Montessori preschool furthest from our house because Mary had heard lots of good opinions about this particular program, and the school grounds offered a lot more to do outside (fields and a playground) than the other preschool closest to us. It was a no brainer we thought. But the bus ride home is about an hour long, and to daycare it almost an hour and a half. In the end when you add this to her morning route she’s on the bus almost as long as she’s in preschool.

This whole thing bothered me so much that I actually brought it up with people I work with at the Coop, people who are still in college, with preschool bus routes being the furthest thing from their minds. The thing that caused me to give up completely on this bus ride home was the day she arrived at daycare so late that she missed lunch, and she wasn’t offered one because the daycare assuming she received it at school.

I eventually decided to leave work early every day (the church I work is very gracious about my work schedule and how and where I fit my 20 hours a week in) in order to pick Sofi up from school and take her to daycare myself, shortening her hour+ bus ride to a 15 minute car ride to her daycare.

The one factor I failed to take into consideration was Sofi herself. The bus ride home must have become a pretty fun place pretty quickly, because the day I decided to picked her up at school to drive her to day care she threw a fit and melted down right there on the sidewalk next to the bus. So I chose a compromise, and let her ride the bus to a daycare that she doesn't go to, but is only a half hour away. So she got her bus fix, but it didn't take her an hour and a half to get to her daycare on the other end of town, because I picked her up at an much earlier stop and drove he directly there myself.

It is this compromise that in the end I finally settled upon, though it took several weeks to finally figure it all out.

In regards to Sofi's first full day at school, she is pretty mum on the subject. She doesn't say that she didn't like it, but she doesn't say that she did. She just doesn't say much about it period. If pressed she will say that she likes playing outside, and Mary told me that Sofi had said that there are other students in her class who know more than her (she is in a mixed class with kindergarteners) and that she has a lot to learn. But that is about it.

Bedtime by the Numbers

Our bedtime routine is pretty much that: routine. The kids get a snack, and then I more often than not take care of getting Sofi into bed while Mary takes care of getting Isaac into bed. I will brush Sofi's teeth, brush her hair (if she is willing not to scream at the top of her lungs, in which case Mary usually interjects herself and I am dismissed), and make sure that all the steps of "going potty" are followed (wipe, flush, rinse, soap, rinse, dry off).

Tonight I didn't have to bother with the latter, as Sofi had gone before her snack. So I brushed her teeth and her hair, thankfully without any screaming.

At this point I usually tuck Sofi in while Mary gets Isaac's pajamas on and settles him down with a bedtime story, prayers and a lullaby. I would do the same for Sofi, as I used to when she was Isaac's age, but Sofi always wants Mary to tuck her in, so I end up pulling the covers over Sofi, giving her a kiss, and I leave the bedtime book and the prayer and the lullaby for Mary to do once she is done with Isaac, which more often than not is fine with Mary as she usually has been at work all day and enjoys this one-on-one time with the kids.

Tonight I thought it might be different, as I thought I heard Sofi say she wanted me to read her a book and have Mom say the prayer and sing her a song. I was just about to pick out a book when Sofi rolls her eyes to one side, and moves her fingers around in front of her a bit and states "I want you to do two things and Mom do to three things." Thinking that one of my two things would be reading her a book, I asked "So what two things do you want me to do?" Her reply was "Brush my teeth and brush my hair. And mom can read me a book, sing a song, and pray. If you read me a book..." and then there was a pause as her eyes once again looked off to the side and her fingers waved in front of her, "...then you will be doing three things and Mom will be doing two."

Realizing that, as usual, Mom would be taking care of it all, I smiled and kissed her good night.

I know the math is simple, but to be the subject of a four year old's word problem this late at night took me by surprise.

Playground Milestone

Today marks another first in Sofi's path of growing up.

Today is one of the rare days in which I fill the day with lots of plans and tasks against my better wisdom, and yet somehow they actually manage to get done. We ran lots of errands today, starting with a stop at the bank in which I deposited a paycheck from First Lutheran Church, and Sofi deposited what she has collected thus far in the "savings" section of her piggy bank into her youth savings account—a total of 99¢. Then we went to The Pearl, an ice cream parlor and confectionery, a destination chosen by Sofi where she wanted to use another 99¢ that she'd been collecting in the "spend" section of her piggy bank. For that price she was able to get one HUGE pixie stick (a tube of orange flavored sugar that was over a foot long) and two wax pop bottles (little bottle shaped containers made of wax with sugared water inside), one of which she shared with Isaac (who enjoyed sucking on the wax as much as drinking the sugar). After that we went to the library, and then had lunch at the coop followed by some grocery shopping.

A very full morning, somehow pulled off without any meltdowns (certainly stopping at The Pearl didn't hurt, nor did the library, and certainly having lunch at the coop helped as well).

Isaac then fell asleep on the way home, so after we got home I put him in his crib to finish his nap, put in an Arthur DVD for Sofi to watch, and went out and mowed the lawn before it started to rain.

Again, I somehow managed to pull the mowing off, finishing it before Isaac woke up. When I got inside Sofi announced to me that she wanted to go to the playground across the street... by herself! Since I couldn't leave the house with Isaac sleeping anyway, I decided to grant her wish.

Despite her reassurance that she would look for cars when she crossed the street, I was nervous, as I've never really let her go anywhere other than in the backyard without me. Unknown to her I watched her the entire time from the picture window in the front room. And she did as she said: she looked for cars when she crossed the street. Once across she stopped and looked around, as if pondering what to do next with the new found freedom. Then she ran to the playground and swung on the swings, without anyone to push her.

She didn't stay as long as I thought she would, probably only five minutes. But she came home content.

The Aunt Dance

We went to see Aunt Michelle dance in Madison, WI. I always enjoy seeing Michelle dance, but was wondering if we could pull off the two hour car ride there and back and a hour plus performance of modern dance with Sofi and Isaac.

Turns out we did pretty well. When the kids weren't interested in the performance Mary quietly guided them out of the theater and into the practice studio across the hall, which was full of mirrors and in turn lots of smiles. But Sofi actually watched most of the performances with me, though she didn't understand much of it. Many times she leaned over and whispered in my ear: "What are they doing?"... "Why are they doing that?". And both Isaac and Sofi were there when Michelle performed on stage. Seeing here out there kept their attention (though the questions still continued, even for Michelle's performance).

After Michelle was done we all snuck out early and met her for an ice cream cone on the terrace of Madison campus.

A Most Unusual Day

Right now things in this household are not as they usually are.

It started out normally enough. Mary biked to work this morning to teach voice lessons. I took Sofia to vacation bible school at Betsy and Doug's church. We had to pull Sofia out early though, because she had a dentist appointment. So while Sofi was at VBS for an hour or so, Isaac and I ran some errands: I purchased dates for next year (season tickets to the local university's theatrical productions), tried to get my wedding ring polished (the jeweler who made it is no longer there... I think the shop is a restaurant now), and cashed some checks at the bank. It was during this last errand that Isaac fell asleep in the car (thank God for drive thrus!).

We then picked up Sofi from VBS and headed to the dentist for her appointment. It's this dentist appointment that has made things unusual I think. Part of it is because this isn't a cleaning; it's to fix a cavity. Sofi had a cleaning a couple of weeks ago, and the dentist discovered two cavities. So she had one of them drilled and filled today. The other is scheduled for next week.

I was extremely nervous. Behaving for a cleaning is one thing. For a drilling it's another. I was thinking that perhaps they'd want me in the back with her, to keep her comforted, and I was worrying about Isaac and what he'd think of the dentist if he saw Sofi screaming and crying. I was debating a quick call to Ardelle to see if she'd watch him, so that Isaac wouldn't have to see his sister go through all this. But the receptionist at the front desk said things usually go better if the parent(s) don't come back with the child. So Isaac just waited with me out front, wandering in and out of the front door to occasionally look at the mopeds parked out there (he was very interested in them).

And in the end the receptionist was right. Sofi came out of the dentist office looking just fine, perhaps a bit swollen in her right cheek. She had no complaints, no tears.

And now we are home, and Sofi went straight to her room, put on her pajamas, asked me to read her a book, and eventually fell asleep.

And even Isaac is napping now too, again, which is unusal, because he doesn't usually take another nap once he's napped already. But he was screaming while Sofi was napping (a bad habit he has started to do more and more, and which I'm afraid he passed on to Russell's 8-month son while we were in the Black Hills visiting), so I told him to take the outdoor voice outside, and he screamed at me in response, so I took him outside on the porch and shut the door... his time out for screaming. Well he didn't like that at all, and when his minute time out was done he was very sorry, very sniffly, and once comforted he walked over to the spot on the floor where he left his bear blanket, picked it up, walked to his room, motioned to his crib, and proceeded to fall asleep.

So here I am, with two children amazingly napping at the same time, and it isn't even lunch time yet. A very unusual day, to be sure.

PS: Sofi started karate class at the YMCA last night. I work at the Coop on Tuesday evenings, so I couldn't be there. But Mary took her, and I'll try to get her to blog about it. Why karate you ask? Basically because of the wonder of books, really. Sofi checked out a book from the library in which a girl learns karate. And this sparked her interest. So we thought we'd let her try it. As Mary would tell it, based on the militaristic manner the first class was run, this isn't something that would appeal to neither her nor I. But Sofi really liked it, so for now we are trying to stay open to it.

Old McDonald

So the plan today was to get the kids out to Old McDonald's Farm (a petting zoo of farm animals), and we did actually manage to finally succeed in our plan. But this was in doubt for a while this morning. It took so long to pack lunches, move all the gear into one minivan, arrange and rearrange car seats, and then finally get the kids in that by the time we finally succeeded in all of this we drained the battery in the car because the doors had been left open too long. Seriously. And neither I nor Russell had jumper cables, so he had to start calling neighbors and relatives asking to borrow one. Thankfully this worked out, and we were able to be on our way, finally. Here our some photos of everyone packed into the minivan (Russell and I sat in front).



The kids LOVED the farm. Sofi said as much, and Isaac was beaming most of the time.









After some naps in the car (on my part as well) and some hiking, we arrived home at which point the girls got back to the business of playing princess. Originally Elyse told Isaac that he was to be the dragon, and that he wasn't allowed in the tent with the princesses, but Sofi chimed in stating that Isaac was her prince, and that they would fight an "air dragon" instead. Below is a photo of Prince Isaac as he ended up being dressed by his princesses for his role...

Where In the World is Wall Drug?

We've made it to the Black Hills! The drive was tolerable, without any major melt downs, and all the kids are now happily playing with each other.

Here are a couple of photos from our stop at Wall Drug:

The Movies vs. The Mess

The other day Sofi, as usual, wanted to watch a movie. Mary decided that on this occasion watching a movie was fine, except, as usual, Sofi's room was a mess. So there would be no movie watching until her room was clean. To which Sofi replied, "Ahh Mom, I don't like cleaning up messes." And, as she walked to her room: "Watching movies is better. Picking up is boring."

Sofi's Illustration

SoAbove is a drawing Sofi made with Mary, as an illustration to a story, which Mary wrote out near the top. Originally Mary thought this was a story Sofi was making up, but like most things at this age level the story was an imitation, in this case an imitation of an actual book that was read to her at the YMCA child watch.

I love this drawing! It is a drawing of, from left to right, Sofi, Grandma Ardelle, and Dad. Note the women are all decked out with bows in their hair. Also note that she has started adding joints to her legs and arms, represented by circles either half way on the limb or else closer to the body. Except for one of Grandma's legs, which had a bad knee, in which case she filled in the circle so that it became a black mark on the leg. Dad is distinguishable by his curly hair (I'd been letting it get quite shaggy when she drew this). In this drawing we are "all headed to church", as can be noted by the cross hanging in the air on the left.

Originally this drawing was only a pen drawing, which she put on display on our fridge. But the following day she decided to add some color, which was when the rainbow and the grass were added, along with a beard for Dad (which I notice is grey...), and some letters written across the top.

The Princess

If you've ever met Sofi it doesn't take long for you to realize that one of her favorite things is to play princess. She usually asks any and every potential playmate "Do you want to play princess with me?" This is usually followed by the dispersal of roles and directions on how to play the parts. Sofi is, of course, the princess. Always. Everyone else is usually assigned the role of "Bad Guy". Even if you're female you will probably be assigned the role of "Bad Guy". Maybe, if you're lucky, she'll assign you the role of "the Queen", but usually this will be the "Evil Queen", or more often than not you may find yourself playing "the Mad Fairy Witch".

One weekend, a couple of weeks ago, I was playing with Sofi, and I was assigned the role of Bad Guy. Such an assignment isn't surprising, but what was surprising this weekend was the direction this particular play time was taking. Usually the Bad Guy captures the princess and locks her in a dungeon or a tower, from which she escapes, thanks either to magical spells, sheer strength or cunning. Whatever it might take, she doesn't spend much time being captured.

But this weekend she wasn't running away from the Bad Guy. Nope. This time, she announced, her and I (the Bad Guy), were going to get married. This was quite the change in story! After all, I hadn't been assigned the role of Prince, but the Bad Guy. So this change in plot took me by surprise, and left me wondering what I have to look forward to during high school if she is talking about marrying bad guys! But what took me by surprise even more was the next direction of the plot. Since we were getting married, that meant we had to kiss. "But", Sofi added, "before they can get married, she has to make sure there are no boogers on his lips." Decent criteria to have in a husband I thought, but of course this caused me to do a double take on my own lips. Thankfully, I was clear.

That one weekend aside, I usually find myself being the Bad Guy who is constantly capturing her and then chasing her when she inevitably escapes. The other day when I was asked, again, to play princess and being rather tired of being type cast I decided to mix things up a bit. I refused the role of Bad Guy and assigned it to her teddy bear, who quickly came to life as the Evil Teddy Bear. Thankfully Sofi accepted this replacement by my understudy, and the Princess and the Evil Teddy Bear were soon having at it.

But on Wednesday I discovered another way to escape this constant type-casting. I realized I just have to dress for the part! So I went downstairs, put on the outfit that Mary got for me to wear to her Madrigal Dinners... and finally was asked to play the role of the Prince. And was Sofi ever excited!