Community Helpers

At school this week, Nicholas has been learning about different kinds of community helpers. Today the whole kindergarten got to go to school in their own community helper costume. Nicholas has a bunch of costumes because he loves to dress up and act out different scenes. But which costume should he wear for his community helper costume?

Darth Vader? No.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle? No.
Wizard? No.
Skeleton? No.
Owl? No.
Power Ranger? No.
Train Conductor? No.
Knight? No.
Pirate? No.

What? He has enough costumes to provide a wardrobe for an entire play but he doesn't have a community helper costume? So off to the store I went. Fortunately, it's close to Halloween so I had plenty to choose from. I found a really cool police costume that comes complete with some fun toys like handcuffs, a pad of tickets, a whistle, a badge, and a walkie talkie that makes a siren noise. Nicholas was so excited to try it on when he got home from school yesterday and then he wouldn't take the darn thing off. He wore it all day.



So of course he was excited to get out of bed this morning and put his police costume back on. He wore it was we walked to school and told the crossing guards all about the walkie talkie that makes a siren sound. He had a smile from ear to ear as he waved goodbye to me and walked into class.

Can't Help But Laugh!

Nicholas loves telling jokes. And he loves making up his own jokes. It's cute but he really doesn't "get" some of the jokes he hears so when he starts making them up they get even funnier.

Mom's joke:
"Why did the coach go to the bank? To get his quarter back!"

Nicholas' joke:
"Why did the snake go to the store? Because he wanted to get his nickel back!
Ha Ha Ha!!!"

On that monetary note, tonight Nicholas was measuring something and he said, "It looks like it's a quarter of an inch long. No, wait. It's not quite that. It's probably a penny of an inch long." So cute. If it's less than a quarter then maybe it's a penny! I love the way he reasoned that out in his head.

Go Stars!

Nicholas got to watch the Dallas Stars play the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight. We won, 4-3. GO STARS!!!!

Just Enjoying Motherhood Today...

I hope my children will look back on today
And see a mother who had time to play.
There will be years for cleaning and cooking
But children grow up while we're not looking.
Dusting and scrubbing can wait 'till tomorrow
For babies grow fast we learn to our sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs and dust go to sleep
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Adapted from a poem by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

I could have a more organized home with everything in it's place, the dishes cleaned and the laundry all done. Or I could snuggle with my baby asleep in my arms as we rock in the glider listening to the rain fall outside the window. Which would you choose?

Daddy Saves The Day

Here is Rachel getting all frustrated because I wasn't able to feed her and cook dinner for the rest of the family at the same time. I love how she puts both arms out to her side and moves her hands around when she is frustrated.



Daddy jumped in and saved the day. I love to watch Stuart with our children. It just melts my heart.



It's no wonder that Rachel's first words that were clearly referring to something were "Dada". This happened a few weeks ago. I didn't write it down at the time so now the date is lost forever (You know parents never has as much keepsake info for the second child as they did for the first!). Anyway, Rachel and I were playing upstairs when Stuart came home from work. We couldn't see him but Rachel heard his voice as he talked to Nicholas. She perked up, smiled, and said, "Dada!" Up until this time she had been saying a lot of babble that could have been jumbled words but nothing that was clearly not just random sounds.

She does say Mama now when she sees me or when she's looking for me but Dada was her first real word.