The name

There has been a lot of discussion at our house lately about a name for our new baby.  Josh and I haven't come close to making any kind of decision yet, but Ella has a short list that she came up with all on her own and that has been holding remarkably strong for weeks:  Kevin (her favorite), George, and Henry.  Tonight at dinner we had the following conversation:

Ella:  Mommy and Daddy, I will give you a deal.  You can either name the baby Kevin or let me name him.

Me:  If we let you name him, what will you name him?

Ella:  Kevin.

Hmm..... methinks this deal isn't a very good one unless we want to name the baby Kevin (which we don't, sorry, Ella).

Hugs

Me: Dash, can I have a hug?

Dash:  Sorry, I don't have any more hugs left in my feelings.

I learned it at school!

Ella came home tonight singing this gem of a song:

A B C D E F G

Gummy bears are chasing me.

One is red, one is blue
One is trying to steal my shoe.

Now I'm running for my life,
Cause the red one has a knife.

We are so proud of the things she is learning in kindergarten.

Almost too easy

My kids are sometimes the most impossible, crazy, hair-pulling-inducing pair around.   And sometimes they are just too easy.  Like on a cold afternoon recently when we really all needed to go outside for some fresh air but just couldn't face the cold.  Instead, I got down all of the Christmas books we own, and they pounced on them, taking big piles to my bed, cuddling up under a blanket and reading oh-so-happily for a good long time.  The power of books in this household is pretty awesome. 

SSB

There is an episode of Sex and the City where Carrie talks about her SSB, or secret single behavior, which is the innocent but still kind of embarrassing stuff a gal does at home when there is no significant other to see her doing it.  Carrie's SSB was eating crackers with grape jelly on the them over the sink and reading fashion magazines as I recall.

One manifestation of my SSB is dunking crackers directly into the whipped cream cheese container and gobbling it up.  Kind of a poor man's dip.  Ella caught me doing this the other day and her eyes lit up and she asked "can I have one?"  She loved it - who wouldn't?! - and we spent a happy 10 minutes at the counter dipping and eating and laughing about how daddy was going to notice all the Triscuit crumbs in the cream cheese container (which he did).

My partner in SSB crime

'Struction workers

For 45 minutes, these two boys have been playing 'struction workers.  It goes like this:

Dash: There is something broken upstairs!

(Both boys run upstairs and pound their plastic hammers into something for a minute)

Miles: There is something broken downstairs!

(Both boys run downstairs and pound their plastic hammers into something for a minute)

Dash: There is something broken upstairs!

And repeat.  Over and over.  I have cooked an entire dinner without once having to break up a fight or redirect a kid.  Love the easy playdates!  And bonus, all of our broken furniture has been fixed by the mighty 'struction workers!

Thanksgiving highlights

I love Thanksgiving weekend, not so much because I love turkey and mashed potatoes (which is blasphemy in my family but it's true, they aren't my favorite) but I do love the long day at my parents' house and the long weekend at home with my family.  No travel, no stress, just family fun.

A few highlights:

Dash: "I love the rockets!  More rockets!" (that would be Rockettes)

A text from my friend A with a picture of the card her daughter brought 

home from preschool for Thanksgiving.

A legitimate excuse to eat doughnuts for breakfast on Thanksgiving.

Togetherness