Definitions

Every parent has to be an interpreter at some point during a child's life. Here are a few from my dictionary.

Emma - Emma da weasel ... translation - Emma Louise (it's her middle name)
Christine - It's a little squishy in here ... translation - There's too many kids in the hallway and I'm feel squished.
Emma - fireschwipe ... translation - pacifier - She can say pacifier if she thinks about it, but if she is talking fast, it's a fireschwipe.

Christine is always saying things that make me laugh. She is in the wonderful phase of knock-knock jokes. They never make sense. Her favorite though is about a banana. It goes like this. Knock-knock... Who's there... banana... banana who... banana (insert whatever is in your line of sight here and laugh hysterically). She almost always follows with "Ahhh, I crack myself up." A few days ago she said, "Mom, I don't think I'm ready for peach jokes yet, but I've got banana jokes down."

Career Change

For over a year Christine has said she wants to be a cowgirl when she grows up. A few days ago she told me that when she's a cowgirl and doesn't live with me anymore she'll have a cat and a dog (unfortunately for her, she probably won't have either of those while she lives with me because of allergies). All references to things that will happen when she is an adult start with, "When I'm a cowgirl..." Today we had our dental cleanings and she told me that she doesn't want to be a cowgirl anymore; now she wants to be a dentist. It's almost a little sad to me that she has picked a more realistic career. She is growing up too fast.

A quick update

We're alive and getting better. Jacob has had his first cold. He gave up his five hour sleeping stretch at night and would cough so hard he was throwing up multiple times a day. The cold circulated twice through our family before he got it, and hopefully it won't come back. I hate it when my kids are sick when they're this little. There isn't anything you can do for them but just hold them. I don't mind holding (in fact I love it), but when his face is purple from coughing so hard it makes me nervous. I have tons of pictures to post, so now that I'm not so sleep deprived I'll get them up.

Unbelievable

I had to share this.

CHEYENNE - In one month, a Cheyenne teenager sent 10,000 text messages and received about the same - all while her family's plan did not include texting. That means the family's provider - Verizon - charged them for each incoming and outgoing text. The girl's parents, Gregg and Jaylene Christoffersen, thought texting had been disabled, so one can imagine their surprise when they got the monthly phone bill and it asked for $4,756.25. "It just hit us like a rock, like you're stepping into a bus," Gregg Christoffersen said. The bill was legit. Dena Christoffersen, 13, had apparently been sending most of these messages at school. That's more than 300 texts within an eight-hour period every day for the whole month. Needless to say, it drew attention away from what she should have been doing: paying attention in class. "She went from As and Bs one semester to Fs in two months," Dena's dad said. Hours after the enormous bill arrived, Gregg Christoffersen took a hammer to his daughter's phone. He and Jaylene also grounded Dena until the end of school. "I felt really bad and I have learned my lesson," Dena said with her head down. Since she lost her phone, Dena's grades have gone up and the texting is down to zero. As for the phone bill, the family says Verizon has been willing to knock it down to a reasonable level. The Christoffersens are now asking school administrators at Johnson Junior High School to crack down on cell phone use during school.

(Copyright KUSA*TV, All Rights Reserved)

Michael said he would have done the same thing. If she were my daughter, she would be working it off. That's a lot of babysitting for a 13 year old. 9News (Denver) has pictures of the destroyed phone.

A few Pictures

We love you Jacob!


Cute little double chin

He loves to sit with his dad, and neither one can stay awake for very long when they're together.

He is so cuddly. He just curls up into a little ball.

A little Jeopardy!

Answer: 16

Alex, what are how many loads of laundry Michelle did last week?

There are only five of us, how ridiculous!

Sticky Popcorn

When I was growing up, caramel popcorn to us was not the hard confection that most people think of. It was sticky, gooey, and just plain yummy. I don't remember my mom making a lot of sweets, but when she did - it was this. Nearly any time we would get together with Harveys and Croys, this was to be found, usually with banana slush. I realized that Christine had never helped me make sticky popcorn, and that I hadn't made it for nearly two years. Today, while Michael was at the priesthood session, I thought that we could do something fun at home. It was just as good as I remembered. Too bad I didn't have any banana slush in the freezer to go with it.

Christine loved sorting the popcorn to get all of the kernels out.

All sorted and ready for caramel!

Enjoying the fruits of her labor.

Sticky Popcorn
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla
15 oz weetened condensed milk
dash of salt
10 qts popcorn

Boil sugar, butter, and corn syrup for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, add milk, vanilla, and salt. Pour over pocorn and stir until popcorn is coated. Enjoy!

Emma

The last post was about Emma, she gives me the most material to write about. The girls have been fighting a lot this last week which has been really frustrating. Emma usually starts the squabbles and Christine has to have the last word. This morning was more taxing than others, though.

We have a new swing (which I had planned to post on - it's the best) and the girls can't keep their hands off of it. It has neat buttons, moves, makes noise, and sometimes has a baby in it. It swings side to side and both girls try to stop it so they can kiss Jacob. This morning Emma was hanging off of it mauling her brother. I don't know what the weight restriction is on this swing, but they generally aren't over 30 lbs. As you can imagine, it wouldn't swing any more. Luckily for her, Michael was able to fix it on his lunch break. There were lots of other issues I had with her this morning, but the last straw was her slamming the door in my face as I was trying to come in the house (with the baby).

Nap time couldn't come soon enough. As I was getting ready to leave her room she said, "Mama, are you out of hugs? Do you need me to fill you up?" I of course said "yes." After lots of hugs and some slobbery kisses I left her without remembering why I was so mad this morning. She was probably just trying to stall, and it worked - all is forgiven.