Gus' Tornado

Seems like most of these blog postings involve the little hellion and his current adventures. This is just another example of the little guy's quest for household supremacy!

I got stuck at work yesterday and was over an hour late getting home. As I rolled in the back door at 4:30 what did I see?

Gus, who is our most adept climber (which is saying A LOT because Lil and Kiki can out climb every kid they've ever encountered) had successfully climbed the kitchen stools. Seeing that all of the good stuff was on the counter, he got up there next. He proceeded to dump out a mug of milk, empty what was left in the jug of milk and eat (suck the sugar off) about half a dozen snickerdoodles.

You know those funny posters that show something awful and then say "FAIL" in big block letters on the bottom...give me one for parenting!

SICK

As a general law of nature, the Leman family is rarely sick. 

However, the little neighbor girl (Maura) came over to hangout the other day. Nearing the end of the play date, she began to complain about her head hurting. Strange for 6 y/o to whine about a headache...but I thought little of it. 

Two days later, her mother told me that she (Maura) had been vomiting, coughing, and fighting the flu...Sweet, sweet life...now comes the fun.

Lily got it first, though she had no vomiting, she was grounded by a headache and fatigue. It wouldn't have been so bad if it had just stayed right there and not progressed to Carrie.

I've never seen Carrie so fatigued. Her body is being wrecked. She needs to sleep but the demands of having 3 little kids affords her no rest. It seems unjust that someone who loves her kids so much is actually being abused by them needing her attention. 

I guess I'll have to get home quickly again today! Stupid neighbors, well, not really, but you get the idea.

Characters of a bye-gone time

Though I didn't actually write either of the last two posts, I will take credit. They are quite funny.

As time has progressed and we have moved through the stages of game playing and so have the characters that have joined us for a season. I've decided to list a few, include a brief description, and possibly round up a few photos in the near future:

Dut: Lily's first stuffed duck, often accompanied by a smaller version called "Baby Dut"

Poopsie: A British Bear that was somehow related to Paddington

Mean Dog: JD on all-fours barking and subsequently eating (tickling) his victims

Dancing Christmas Monkey: A Husmann left-over that often showed his hiney, got spanked and played keep away

Balrog: That monster from LOTR, but my version is kinder and basically just wants to tickle you

Swamp Monster: Dad, under a blanket, but he can't move

Evil Robot: A bot that can't walk well, but has "been sent to eat little girls"

Aayllah Bosebee: Kiki's first baby's name

Jacques: A French hair washing guru who always wants to wash the girls hair

Senor Caballo: A Spanish speaking horse puppet who always shouts, "HOLA, I'm Senor Caballo!"

Luigi: A pig puppet (best friend of Senor Caballo) whose most famous line is, "I'ma Luigi, I'm an Italian sausage!"


add more!

First Book

Lily is a now a big Kindergartener. We are constantly blown away by how much she is learning and how much she loves school. She has officially read her first full book, "Hop on Pop". She is really reading so well, and when she has the patience and will she can pretty much read anything. We have noticed that she seems to really love math as well. This definitely does not come from mom! She loves to count to 100 by 10's, 5's and so on...they just celebrated 100th day in Kindergarten, hard to believe she is already more than half way through her first year of school. We are so proud of her!!

Big Words

Kiki is definitely our biggest spitfire so far of them all. In all good ways of course, she is the wittiest, sassiest, and most opinionated (hmm, wonder where that comes from??) Well, she has been having an increasingly difficult time with going to preschool. We're not sure what the source of this is, but it has created much stress to our mornings. After an emotional and volatile car ride to school she enjoyed a fun filled morning there as usual. When JD got home he said, "Kiki, we need to have a little talk." and she promptly replied, "I don't want to talk because you're just going to want to talk about my attitude and it just makes me so frustrated!" Well that was the end of the teachable moment, JD and I erupted into uncontrollable laughter and concluded that 'the talk' was officially over!

Jumps

'Jumps' have become a bedtime ritual. They started out slightly disastrous, causing an ugly stain on Leman Athletic History. I allowed the first set of 'Jumps' on the condition that they would never attempt to do it when I wasn't around. Of course, they tested the limits and pulled the entire dresser on themselves. Though they were uninjured, it put our jumping on hold. A few months later it started up again in it's current form.

Now 'Jumps' is sort of a reward system. If you had a good day, or if you get your jammies on quickly, or if you'll go upstairs and brush your teeth without my help...you get 'Jumps'. Three has become the normal number, though there are often 'bonus jumps' to increase that number to five.

Each girl has her favorite. Lily loves the 'Ring of Death'. Caroline's favorite is the Flying Squirrel. Even Gus has a favorite...though we don't really have a name for 'UUUHhhh' as he says. The night almost always ends with 'Dark Jump' where all the lights go out and we crack the door ever so slightly. 

I can't describe how much these peanuts love to do this. It is currently our most effective bribe going! The video is a clip of Kiki doing her flying squirrel. Unfortunately, she gets a bit of whiplash in this video and calls it a night. And yes, she is all-out belly flopping on the bed!

Perhaps our last Super Bowl party

58...Total number of parents, friends, colleagues, and unruly little brats that filled our home Super Bowl Sunday. I had asked for one thing: a party with no children. I got it, earlier, when Carrie surprised me (see Surprised)

However, it was a fantastic game and sans the post game clean up the night went beautifully. True, some kid painted our basement carpet. Another dumped 7 different board games out and mixed the pieces just for kicks. One ate imitation PlayDoh. Another threw an absolute fit because his balloon popped (he proceeded to get another and played in front of the TV during the game: his parents said nothing...)

However, the highlight of the evening was Mr. Gus. The little guy found and empty Corona complete with a lime. For the next 90 minutes, he took fake drinks and tried to no avail to get that little lime out. Time and time again he put the bottle up, had the lime fall to the mouth, then flip the bottle back, only to see the lime sink too! Priceless...not to mention that Uncle Jordy taught the little guy 'cheers' with two bottles. I'm sure I'll find video of that soon too.