The Move to Wisconsin

The car jutted to a halt. The windows were slightly opened. My sister and i listened to the slight rustling of the leaves. We looked at our new home dumbfounded. I expected it to be far, far less exciting.
After a few minutes, we heard the faint click of the doors unlocking. Ria and I rustled to the door. After a lot of shoving, we finally managed to escape the horrible, dreadful car. We had sat in the same stinkin' spot for 18 bazillion (well maybe not the bazillion part) hours. We sat that long for the only reason - to get to this spot, my new home. It was in the cold and chilly state of Wisconsin.
It was hard leaving my old best friends but the shiver down my spine seemed to make up for all my worries. As I was daydreaming of what it would look like inside, I heard my sister Ria called out "Hey Otter, last one to the swings is a rotten egg!" A split second after we were both racing to the swings. We ran past the new glistening house. It was a small mixture of white and baby blue with textured marron shingles.
We finally crossed the yard to the swings. We swung and played until I saw a movement through the pines. I thought it was the wind until I looked closer. I then figured out it wasn't the wind at all - it was an 8-year-old my boy! My age! I ran over to him and saw that he was swinging nunchucks. His name was Bayley. He told me that the nunchucks had wood in them but soft coverings. He showed me everything in the new neighborhood. It was only about 5 minutes but I had been touched. I loved my new home in Wisconsin and that was going to be my home for a very very very long time.

Otter's Debut as an Orator

Otter wrote a story about moving to Wisconsin that was published in the "Prairie Voices." This book is a collection of stories selected from all of the schools in the district. He was asked to read his story to the entire elementary school and here is the video from it! (The first few sentences were not recorded....)




When he comes home, I'll have him post the story on here.

Its been one of those days

Ria actually opened up the car window while we were going through the car wash. Really. Wow. Thankfully, the big rollers and sprayers were at the end of the car and she was sitting in the front.

In addition, Parker decided to walk through the snow with his socks on. I bet he was thinking that might do wonders for his sinus infection and ear infections. Great.

one act play by huck finn

hey cawie - its bootiful out here today.

yeah, it is kinda nice....

i think we should plays togethwer

ok, let me bite your leg

hey cawie, i think we should try to run and play

ok, let me bite your leg

hey cawie, is your widdle tfing beeping on your neck?

i don't know, i too busy biting your leg

mine's not beeping at all. lets see how far we can go...

aaahhh this is gweat! lets run yeah! yeah!!!

ffwwweeedddommm! lets go to the pond and chase some ducks!!

yeah lets bite their legs!

dangit, i feel something wet on me cawie - is dat rain?

i don't know, i too busy biting your legs...

dangit, it is rain. it was so nice when we fiwst ran away and now we are wet and far from home..

your leg taste like wet dog.

oh look, here comes da mommy in da van, quick, lets jump in.

its da mommy its da mommy i so excited its da mommy!

why is she laughing at us manically? why is she calling us stoopid wet stinky puppies and asking if we enjoy being dis wet???

its da mommy its da mommy its da mommy i so excited i could bite your leg

dangit, the little corner in the back of dis van is very tiny and you smell like wet dog....

7's

Beanie writes her 7's backwards (as well as her 2, 5, and 9s), which is normal while kids are learning their numbers. This morning we were working on her numbers and I was showing her how 7's are supposed to be turned around. She insisted she was doing them the right way. I pulled down the calendar to show her the 7's on the calendar, as well as her school lunch menu to show her the way 7's were written there. Her response was "Was that from my school? You can't trust anything those guys do....I think the 7's go this way...." and went back to writing her 7's backwards.

Back at it again!

I hope to keep this blog regular again as life is finally returning to a somewhat normal status now that the last of us has made her appearance! Indie Lynn was born on Dec. 30 and is a perfectly healthy and happy baby:) She has been wonderful so far and her older siblings adore her. So do the dogs - they occasionally try to sneak in licking the toes. What is so appealing about baby toes? I have even caught Parker trying to nibble her toes!

Here's the update on everyone else:

Otter is doing OK in school. His amazing intellect has now become a handicap for him as he thinks he does not need to work at all at school. Its a tough battle to keep him challenged and yet reinforce he still needs to learn the basics. He is going to start playing lacrosse, which should be a lot of fun for all of us. I can't wait to get a stick and practice with him! Once all this snow melts of course, until then, ice hockey on the local pond with his dad has been his sport of choice for the weekend.

Beanie is doing great. She loves school and is such a social butterfly. She is learning how to read and is quite the whiz in math. She can put together puzzles, train tracks, and buildings of legos faster than I have seen anyone else do it! She still has that loose tooth but thankfully has not tied it to anything else yet trying to yank it out. She is taking swim lessons and loves being in the water. She will definitely be on the swim team with Otter this year. I am so happy to have kids in love with the water!

Parker is 2-1/2. 'Nuff said:) Here's a video of him from the summer trying to emulate Otter at the swim meets:



Indie is wonderful. She is not yet sleeping through the night but has good 4-5 hour stretches. Good enough for us! She only fusses when she is hungry and it is not really a fuss, more of a squeak. Very adorable. I wonder how old she needs to be before I can throw her in the pool???

Escape Artist

The little man has decided his crib is much too confining for him....witness the escape:




He now has a big boy bed that he is very excited about: