Saturday: a proud parent

This morning Isaac and I ran the Kids' Fun Run, a 1K.  Last year we came in second-to-last and barely made it.  This year was so different!  I don't think that we ever stopped moving, although we did take a few short walking-water breaks.  But for the most part we were running!

We did tell him that we would go to the playground if there was enough time after the race and before our next thing.  So I think that he ran mostly so that he could go to the playground.

Joshua did his normal belly button push to show me that he pooped and then walked to the bathroom.  I put him on the toilet, mainly trying to just get him used to it.  (BTW, he doesn't like going on the same toilet as Isaac, so that might be annoying for the next year.)  And he went to the bathroom while sitting on the toilet.  Hooray!

Friday: a rough day

Today was one of my more annoying days.  Let's just face it...it happens.

It felt like Isaac was four going on thirteen.  He was rather whiny and wouldn't stop asking for things even after I told him no and to stop asking.

The monitors were out and the boys love playing with them.  (It makes no sense to me either.)  But then Joshua was just getting frustrated by his side when it wouldn't power on.  There was a one minute spell when they both had them on that was kind of cool, but mostly Joshua was just really upset.

I was trying to get some work done and had four places to go today.  That's a bit more than I like, and then one of the places didn't have jean shorts for Ben and had huge lines.  So I went somewhere else, but that meant five stops.

(I went to JCPenny.  I asked a guy working in the men's section if they had any jean shorts.  He didn't seem too sure but then pointed to these.  Yeah.  Can you see Ben in those?  It turned out that there were normal jean shorts about 4 yards away, but I didn't see them until we had paid for other shorts.  So we grabbed them and got back in line.  They didn't fit.  (But the first shorts did, so we're still in business.)  While we were at JCPenny Joshua was just starting to wander off so Isaac grabbed his hand.  It was cute.  Then later, when we were in the line the second time, Joshua didn't want to hold my hand so I gave him the choice of my hand or Isaac's.  He chose Isaac's, who of course wasn't interested by that time.)

By dinner time I was done and told Isaac in no uncertain terms that he could eat off the slightly broken plate or not eat.  Ben proceeded to ask if I needed to eat alone.  I declined the offer, but did pretty much ignore everyone for the hour before bedtime as I tried to finish stuff up.

Isaac did pick a bunch of nice dandelions for me today.  It's rather sad that they wilt within hours as I do find them rather beautiful.  Oh, Isaac also really wanted me to take a picture of his milk with the cap upside down.  He asked yesterday too, so I figure it really was interesting to him.

Thursday: who wore it better?

Isaac or Joshua?  (Joshua is about six months older than Isaac in the pictures.)

I was happy to finally get Joshua smiling.  I asked him to and then got a whole bunch of "cheese"-es.  He seemed to enjoy his swimming lessons, although he kept trying to drink the water instead of blowing bubbles.

Thursday: pictures

Here are some pictures from yesterday.

We're trying to get rid of our pavement (sugar) ants and read on-line that cornmeal is one way to do that.  So Isaac enjoys shaking cornmeal on the ants' homes.  I'm not sure that he tends to shake enough to make a difference, but sometime when it isn't going to rain we'll make bigger piles.  He enjoys doing it and I don't have to worry about harmful affects (to medium to large animals) so it's a win-win.

Joshua was playing with the shopping cart.

Today we had popcorn for our snack...our snack shelf is surprisingly empty, but it's good to get rid of stuff sometimes.  The boys thought it was hilarious to watch Flurry eat popcorn.

Tuesday: squirt bottles

Today I would like to thank Roger Drackett for inventing the squirt bottle.

The boys love them!  I was able to get a bunch of work done while the played outside with their assorted squirters.  I was thinking it was a bit too cold for squirters, but they managed not to get too wet.

Monday: exam day

Today was the final exam in my class.

I got the question that I get every semester and never know how to answer: "Will the exam take the whole two hours?"   Well, I did it in about 30 minutes and skipped a few steps, so I expect that the people that know what they're doing could finish it in an hour.  If you don't know what you're doing it will take longer.  Some students always take the maximum amount of time.  So I don't know the answer to your question; it depends on how prepared you are.

Then, as I was grading and falling asleep, I tried to decide which was better from a sleepy point of view: exams that were very good and could be graded quickly or exams that weren't so good and required some thought with the grading to help keep me awake.  (Obviously, from the rational point of view good exams are better.)  I decided on a short nap instead.

Sunday: Bible Study

Bible study was at our house today.  It was rather nice - due to some odd housing arrangements for one of the couples they brought lunch so we only had to have a clean house.  We had had someone over for dinner on Friday so it was already mostly clean.

Joshua and one of the other little girls are in the same class at daycare.  Joshua kept saying her name whenever he saw her and it was super cute.  I was impressed that 1) he recognized her in a different setting and 2) that he remembered her name.  I know they work on names a lot at daycare, so it must be working.