Wisdom From a 4-Year-Old

Ember: "Why am i the one that always gets hurt?" 

Me: "Because you fall a lot?" 

Ember: "Life's just made like that..."

Learning the Hard Way

Me: "Ember, did you fall on your face?" 

Ember: *pause* "...yeah..." 

Me: "You ran in flip-flops like i asked you not to, didn't you?" 

Ember: "I just had to wait and see!" 

Me: "And you 'saw' Mama was right, huh?" 

Ember: *pause* "...yeah..."

Aunt Nancy's Birthday

The Plate they all worked on

All dressed up

My 4-year-old that can write the whole alphabet!

1337 h4x0r

Ryvre causally mentioned today that he broke the parental code on the PS2 the first time he used it...months ago.

Mom Years

Mom Years are different from standard human years.  I have a formula:

chronological age, +6 months per year of life of each of your children (round down)

Being 26 myself, and having three kids, ages 8, 6, and 4, my Mom Age is 35.  Sounds about right.

When i'm 40, i'll really be 70.  The teen years are harrowing.  But fortunately, after they've left home, things slowly turn backwards, until you hit your chronological age again.  Then you can age as normal.

i'm an only child and got married when i was 18, and my parents were both chronologically 38, but in parent-years, they were 47.  Now they're 46 according to a standard calendar, but haven't seemed to age a day since i left home.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Christmas

So we ended up making it north of KC on Wednesday night, before the weather turned seriously cold, and only had to drive through some heavy rain.  No big.  We came in a bit late, but Grandma Mona was scheduled to work on Thursday, so she was up making food anyway.  We helped her with the sugar cookies, and the kids and i didn't go to bed until 2-ish.

Christmas Eve, the freezing rain began, and i made a trip to Wal-Mart, because we needed a few things and i wanted to fill up the gas tank, and i really am that crazy.  It took me about two hours to get my 20 or so items and get out.  I almost beat a woman with her own cell phone for ignoring her obnoxious child who insisted on bumping into me and peering into and hanging on my cart for the full 40 minutes we stood in line.  Seriously people, pay attention to your kids!  Or a stranger might beat you with your own cell phone.  Anyway, among the items i needed to get were things i forgot to pack in our rush to leave the house a full day early, such as dress shoes, hats and gloves, and slippers.  I think Ember is especially cute in her hat and pajamas.



Throughout the day, relatives arrived and we ate wonderful food and generally hung out and opened presents and such.  Ember provided most of the entertainment, through her interpretive dance moves, and angry white chick routines.

By Christmas Morning, Grandma's house looked like this, with more on the way:



We were scheduled to visit another set of grandparents, but they called and canceled on account of a blizzard warning.  But that was ok; my parents were able to get around in my dad's pickup, and the kids had plenty of presents to open.  Don't let their enthusiasm fool you.



The real fun was getting into the snow!





Well, it was fun for a minute, at least.



I'm not sure what the official count was, but by Christmas morning, there was 9" of snow on the ground (this is Grandma's street; there were other places with drifts up to 6' tall)



On Saturday, and with my dad's 4wd and driving prowess, we made it to the other grandparents' house for more presents.



And on Sunday, the kids discovered they could make some quick cash by shoveling the driveway.



I better not hear any union talk out there!



Today, we packed up the car and made it back home.

Good points: Grandma's frozen water lines seem to have thawed without incident.  Our fish are all still alive.
Bad points: something is very wrong with the brakes on our car; the windshield wipers are also doing something really funky.