"I Did It!"

These days the most commonly heard phrase in the house is, "I did it!"  Yesterday The Captain became commander of his wardrobe.  He buttoned his shirt.  It was a two-button shirt but he did it in such a way that he only needed to button one of them.  Here's the photo evidence. 

He is also gaining pretty good command of language.  The other day he was put in a rare time-out for hitting Tink -- even though she had it coming!  When his time-out was over, I said, "Why were you in time out?"  He looked mournfully at the floor and said, "Well, Mom,  I made a poor choice."  I had a terrible time not just cracking up.

The Tink is busy as ever, but we have managed to direct at least some of her business to toys.  She is a big fan of our new horse, "Elbow."  Here she is giving her new baby (also from Santa) a ride. 

She is still Little Mama.  If I even whisper the word, "laundry,"  she drops everything to run in there and help me.  The Blitz is usually hot on her tail but he is significantly less helpful. Tink pulls the clothes out of the dryer and throws them up on the washer for folding and then pushes the wet clothes into the dryer.  All the kids love this game and try to get their heads beneath the falling clothes to get the laundry on their heads. Sillies.

The Blitz has been enjoying dumping out all the blocks and books lately.  I keep telling myself that it is a developmental stage but things around here have never been messier.  Yikes.  But look at him -- he's so cute!  He was a huge fan of the Christmas music and has a charming rendition of Jingles bells that involves a lot of head bobbing and yelling "Hey!!"   

He is talking SOOOOO well these days.  One Tuesday night when I was putting him to bed, he said "Hee hee," which means "help me" get into bed.  The next morning when I was dressing him, he looked at me and said, plain as day, "Help me."  He is working to refine his language and is so proud of himself.

Pepper and Sunshine have been so busy, I've hardly seen them.  We've had lots of spending the night, both here and away; is this the world of teens?  I miss them!  Sunshine is headed to Houston this weekend for a special Sweet Sixteen party for a friend -- I will get a picture of her in her new dress.  Likewise, Pepper is headed to the opera re-cast tomorrow with Aunt Dark -- I'll get a picture of her all dressed up too.

I'm glad Paul is back to work, Pepper and The Captain are back to school and I can start to tame the mess.  We all were ready for resumption of "normal" life!  That's it for now --thanks for reading!