Wal-Mart

Reagan and I took a trip to Wal-Mart tonight. It was already dark and Reagan asked me if Wal-Mart would still be open when we got there.

Me: Yes, it'll still be open. Wal-Mart is actually open all night. They don't close.

Reagan: So do the workers have to stay up all night?

Me: Yep - they have people who work there all night. They work instead of sleep.

Reagan: Do they live there?

Me: No - they go home when they're not working.

Reagan: So when do they sleep if they can't sleep at night?

Me: They sleep during the day and then go to work at night.

Reagan: Oh ~ so now I get it! The workers are nocturnal!

Jackson pics

Learning to stand up: (and we're not making much progress!)

Playing in the sink. He's gotten to do this so much less than the other three... these days my sink is always full of dirty dishes!

One of these kids is not (treated) like the others... :)

Bad Manners

There comes a time in every family when you have to talk about table manners. I had an unpleasant learning experience as a kid so I am hesitant to let history repeat itself. I am however grateful that I know good manners and I think its valuable that my kids learn them too.

So we've started talking about manners - enough that my kids can pick out some bad manners. They were listing some at dinner tonight - mostly by looking around and seeing what others were doing... "Its bad manners to chew with your mouth open, right Mom?" "Its bad manners to toot while you're eating supper, right?" "I know what else is bad manners! Eating with your fingers!"

Then Joel said, "You guys know what else is really bad manners? This!" and he put his hands behind his back and ate a piece of meat like you would in a pie eating contest. We were all sort of shocked (as shocked as you can be when you live with Joel and see these kinds of things more often than you should).

Reagan started laughing first and said "Dad! That's dog-eating!! You'll have to go to the principal's office!"

Apparently the punishment for "dog-eating" at school is a trip to the office. Who knew? :)

1st Grade Math Test

Reagan's always bringing home papers from school - math work sheets, spelling, reading stuff - you know. School is still pretty easy so she always gets stars at the top and that's as exciting as it gets. Today she brought home this math test:
Reagan told me that if they get done early they can draw a picture on the back. Sometimes she draws pics of her family, or flowers and rainbows. Other times she's come home with extra math problems that she's made up for herself and then solved. Today it was this:

First Hair Cut

He had two inches of sticky, tangled, frizz on the back of his head and with the amount of food that Jackson applies to his hair, it just became necessary. We had to say good-bye to the curls - or at least what was left of the curls.

I did what any good mother would do; I chased my son around the house with scissors. Whenever he was interested in a toy, I trimmed some more. He's a quick study though - by the end he was crying before I could get set up to cut. So this will have to do for now. :)

Knock, Knock

This is a video of Riley and Grant (and Jackson) eating lunch today. When they're older I can watch this video and remember what it was like when I used to hear these "jokes" all day... :)