Sesame Street

Joshua loves all things Sesame Street. He loves to watch the short videos of a couple of songs on the web. He knows all the Sesame Street characters. He loves his clothes with any Sesame Street character on them. The most interesting part of this is that he has never watched an episode of Sesame Street. The marketing department at Sesame Street should be proud to know that Joshua is fully tapped into their show without even watching it. Here is the video proof:
I love the way that Joshua says Big Bird!

Gotta Love Kids in the Shower

The Transformation

One of the reasons why Mary is madly in love with me is because I am always so well groomed. [Insert sarcastic laugh.]

I don't know what it is with me and grooming. I like to be clean shaven. I like to have short hair. I just don't really like to shave or get my hair cut. I don't know if it is because I am lazy, I don't really like to be as well groomed as I profess, I'm too cheap to pay for haircuts, or if I am not worried enough to actually do it more often. Who knows. Anyway, this "before" picture shows me with a nice little halfro going. The "after" picture is with Joshua and Caleb on a Sunday evening. Caleb and I had gotten our hair cut the day before. (Caleb looks great with a buzz cut.) We had all worn ties, so we decided to take a picture. A friend at church said of this haircut, "Jared has gone jarhead on us." And in case you were wondering, Joshua's hair still rocks. Also, when I see boys Joshua's age wearing ties, I think that there is another member of the Future Accountants of America. All he needs now is a briefcase.

Grace's Instrument

Grace started taking piano lessons this year. She is having a lot of fun. I am excited for her to learn more about music and develop her talents. Since music is something we can enjoy all our lives, we might as well learn about it. (File that under "Advice I did not take as a child.")

The Children

This is what the kids are like some of the time: This is what they are like most of the time:

Firefighting

The fire department in our town has an open house every year. You can see the fire trucks, hear safety awareness information, have some pizza, and get safety handouts. We like to got and get the plastic firefighter hats for the kids. Here are some pictures of the boys "driving" the big fire engine:

Playing Soccer

Grace and Caleb both played soccer this season. It was Caleb's first attempt. Here they are before their first games: Caleb had a good year. He ran after the ball and almost scored a goal. Here he is on the field: Grace was much improved this year. After going to soccer camp this summer, she was more aggressive. The yellow team has two boys from our street on it. Grace told me she was going to kick the ball away from them. She did. Here she is running down the field: All in all, they both had a great season. They both played hard, had fun, Grace scored a couple of goals, and we will see what happens with the next season.

Catching Up with School

I have not been blogging much lately. I thought I should catch up. I am going to start with the back to school pictures.

Grace on her first day of school: Here is a picture of the kids on our street that walk to school together. (The two on the left side are too young for school.) Because the Kindergartners in our town start on the day after the rest of the kids, Caleb refused to be in this picture. If it is not his first day of school, he is not going to be in the picture. Grace and Caleb by the morning glories in our backyard on Caleb's first day of school. Caleb with Mary and me before he goes to school for the first time.

Who Raised this Kid?

Last night, Caleb was the only person to eat all of his dinner. That meant he could have ice cream for dessert. He chose the Brigham's Peppermint ice cream. (This is an excellent ice cream. One of the best peppermint ice creams I have ever had.) Normally, Caleb stirs his ice cream until it melts and leaves a little bit in the bowl when he is done. Last night, he ate, drank, and licked every last drop of his peppermint ice cream. (He even got a drip off of the table.)

I was not sure whether I should be proud of this behavior or not, but it is a shame to let the good ice cream go to waste. (Just don't let Mary know that I condone this behavior.)

Joshua's New Talent

Joshua is picking new things up every day. Before bedtime we usually sing a song or two. (Most of them are the Primary songs the children learn at church.) This past year, Grace and Caleb have learned "Called to Serve" and it is one of the songs that we often sing at night. I taught them that sometimes an extra "Go" can be inserted in the chorus between the refrains of "onward" and "forward." Joshua has picked up on the "Go." So when we sing "Called to Serve" he is quiet through the song, until after the second "onward." Then he will belt out a "Go" and stay silent for the rest of the song.

Health Food

We had ice cream for dessert the other night. We let the children choose either vanilla bean ice cream, chocolate frozen yogurt, or cookies and cream frozen yogurt. (It is not hard to guess which one of those I would have purchased.) I did not tell them one was ice cream and the others were frozen yogurt. Caleb selected the vanilla bean ice cream and said, "The vanilla bean ice cream is the healthy one. It has beans in it."

I agree with that kind of health food logic.

Halloween Pictures

Here are recent pictures from Halloween events: This is from our church Halloween party. All but Mary in orange on black on Halloween. (And I love the fact that Joshua's hair is working overtime in this picture.) Ready for trick or treating! Joshua is a cute little dinosaur. Don't mess with pirate Caleb. What a beautiful Asian princess. All the kids from the 'hood that went trick or treating together. And a great picture of little Joshua that I could not resist posting.

And a link to even more photos.

Recently Heard

The last video shows how Joshua's language skill continue to improve (and that his favorite word is "idunnoknow"). He has started learning a lot of new words, but he is not the only one with new words. Everyone has been getting in on the act.

Grace's reading has been tested by Halloween candy. She was digging through her bag the other day and asked me if I liked "Whooppers". (Marketing slogan: Candy that makes you whoop!) I asked her if she meant "Whoppers".

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This morning I was coming downstairs as Caleb was getting his backpack ready for school. I hear him say, "Mom, why did you leave my zipper all skippity-bappity?"

How do you answer that? All I could do was laugh.

(For the record, I believe skippity-bappity means out of place. Mary left the zippers together at the top of the backpack when Caleb clearly wanted the zippers either all the way to the left or the right.)