All Fun and Games

I love certain things about my life.

1. I love that Annye didn't throw a fit about taking a nap today.
2. Also that she has slept through the other kids being so loud during her nap.
3. I am in my skinny jeans.
4. I folded six or seven heaping baskets of laundry today.
5. The dryer is on the fritz, so I can't do much more laundry. It has to cool off for hours between loads. That means break time for me.
6. The dryer isn't mine, so I don't care as much about it quitting.
7. My dresser is fairly junk-free.
8. The kids are playing quietly.
9. I have an hour until I have to start dinner.
10. I have a very cute background for my blog.
11. I am in a grateful mood--that doesn't happen enough.
12. I had a hamburger with two types of cheese, tomato, pickles, and an egg over medium on it for lunch. On gluten-free bread, no less. No bacon, but still pretty good.

Ethan was supposed to be cleaning up the mess he made upstairs before lunch. He said he got it done, but when I went up, NOTHING was cleaned up. So I made him come back up and do it. I stayed up here to help/police. Annye ate more than half of his hamburger while we were upstairs. He went down and started BAWLING. And Annye was so proud of herself. I scolded her, but my heart wasn't really in it. For a few reasons. First, she looked so cute. Second, she ate TONS. That was a big burger. I almost couldn't eat all of mine, and the only difference between them was that I had three more small pickle slices than she did. And she had hers and half of his. WOW! The last, and worst parent reason, is that it served him right. How often have I come down and seen him eating her food? Or sitting by her, forcing her to "share," as she is crying and saying no. "Mom, Annye wants to share with me." It was great to see him get it back. Anyway, he still had plenty to eat.

Emma had a presentation today. It is always a fight to get her to do it. I found that, if I come, she will do the presentation. But last time, I forgot about it. And she did it anyway. In all the practicing, I kept praising her for doing her last one all alone. Did I mention that the book was left at home and so she picked a library book and did it on the fly? Major accomplishment. Well, I knew that I wouldn't be able to come, with sick kids, and not feeling well myself. I prepared her for it for days. She said she thought she could do it alone. I said she had practiced enough, she could do it without being shy. She told me, "I will try. You can't PLAN these things, Mom." Anyway, I have just praised her and told her she could. Today, when I dropped her off, I wished her luck. She told me, "Mom, I am going to be a woman today. I am a woman now." She got all 3s, the highest you can get. I am so proud of my little woman.

Annye's smile is so cute! Her little teeth are so fun, except when she bites someone. We are working on that. She has done it twice. So I think we can nip it in the bud. But, anyway, she makes these funny little faces all the time, she cracks me up. It is so hard not to laugh and encourage her. She spends half of meal time goofing off.

Ame has this awful cough, I worry about her. It doesn't seem to improve any when she isn't active. She was doing better, but we played WAR on Sunday and she laughed so hard it got her coughing. It was funny, before the hacking up a lung. Makes me want to play with her right now. In fact, I think I will.