Lucis?

So... Lucas has been learning to read and write words.  Recently, Jenni asked him to write his name.  Now Lucas knows how to write his name: L-U-C-A-S.  He has written it that way for over a year.  But this time he decided to write L-U-C-I-S.  That's because "I" makes the "ih" sound.  It was hard to explain to him that sometimes we write things differently than we say them.

And - if that wasn't funny enough (Lucas arguing about how we spell his name).  He has started playing the copy game:

Brian: Hey...
Lucas: Hey
Brian: What?
Lucas: What?
Brian: ha ha!
Lucas: ha ha!

--- then it got interesting ---

Brian: I, Lucas
Lucas: I, Lucas
Brian: will give Dad all my presents.
Lucas: will give Dad all my presents... NO!!!
Brian: NO!!!
Lucas: No, don't take them!
Brian: No, don't take them!
Lucas: Ugh!!
Brian: Ugh!!

... and he stopped playing ...

Blogging is a part of my job

So now blogging is a part of my job. I am trying to attract developers for WO Central (it's not easy to do).

http://blog.wocentral.com

Take a look and let your Software Developer friends know about it.

Halloween means Candy! ('till Christmas)

So - as most of you know, Jenni and I bought our first house in March of this year. We love the house and the neighborhood. The neighbor's all have kids and it's just a nice quiet place (except our house).

[Lucas and Chase are starting to feel better after their sickness and Max doesn't seem to be getting sick. They are still coughing a lot though - but we've dealt with that before.]

Being our first Halloween in this neighborhood I didn't want to be under-prepared for the kids. I went to the store and picked up 3 large bags of non-chocolate* candy. I sort of forgot we have our "trunk or treat" at the church building from 6pm - 8pm.

For those of you that don't know a Trunk or Treat is where people of our congregation pull their cars and vans into the church parking lot and let the area kids have a safe place to get candy. We went and got candy there. Chase was not feeling well so he and I walked between the Van and the bathroom several times in the hour we were there. I can't blame it all on him though - I wasn't feeling too good either.

We got home at around 8:00 pm. I lit the front porch light and lit our jack-o-lanterns and put our big horde of candy next to the door. I'm glad I went through that much work. A few minutes later a kid came to the door. I couldn't tell what he was dressed up as - but I am pretty sure it wasn't his school clothes - so I gave him a handful of candy. In hindsight, I should have given him the whole bowl because he was the only one.

Maybe I don't really understand Halloween. After all, my family really didn't trick or treat. I remember a couple times wearing the same costume as everyone else - an Eskimo. And a time when my family dressed up as a rainbow... that's right. We all had different colors of sweat suits and we stood next to each other and leaned over. I remember seeing a lot of pictures from Halloweens that I allegedly participated in but don't really remember trick or treating.

I imagined hundreds of children eager for candy that I bought just a few ours earlier. Young children, old children, small children... and children where the last thing they need is another box of nerds.

Anyway, we now have enough candy to last till the expiration dates (which is sometime in 2012).

[* Kylie doesn't like when Jen eats chocolate. It gives her (Kylie) a tummy ache and some separation anxiety.]

Do we have a new baby?

Seriously. Kylie is the perfect baby. She sleeps at night. She's content laying by herself. She doesn't cry. She is nothing like the boys.

So, she is a really easy baby - I hardly know she's around.

The boys make up for that. Since she has been born Chase got a broken arm, Lucas and Chase are sick and up at night, and Max sleeps on the floor. That's right. Max has given up his big boy bed to sleep on the floor. At first, he didn't want his blanket - he told us to bring it downstairs. Then, he didn't want his little blue dog - he wanted it under his bed. Then, he didn't want to sleep in the bed. He puts his pillow on the floor and sleeps like that.

Anyway - be praying for the boys to feel better and that no one else gets sick.

Babies R Us

Well... Leave it to Chase to say something ridiculously hilarious. He understands what items exist at the "Toys R Us" store. Jenni took the boys to "Babies R Us" to register for girl baby stuff. (Apparently we need to buy everything again)

Chase asked "Do they keep the babies in cages?". Seriously... How do you respond to that?

Kylie Beth!

Woah! So I'm sure everyone knows we are having a baby girl. It's hard for me to type g-i-r-l. Not because I'm afraid of it (I'm really not). It just has more letters than b-o-y. Ok, I don't know what to do with a girl. Boys I understand and all I have to do to entertain them is lay on the floor (usually when they are done "playing" - I can't get up anyway).

Lucas is into dinosaurs, soccer and swords (I'm 2 for 3 on that - sports aren't my strong suit). Chase likes making Lucas mad. And Max likes screaming when someone breaths on him (sound familiar, mom?). (Parenthesis are my way of letting you know what I'm thinking (kind of like a commentary (or like lisp (the programming language (wow - we're pretty far in here (you better get out now)))))).

I am actually really excited about having a girl. It's really a big surprise to me. It's like someone hands you an apple. And then when that apple is 18 months old they hand you another apple (this one seems really small). Then you get another apple when your other apples are 3 and 18 months. Then when that 3rd apple is 2 years old -they hand you a kiwi. (why a kiwi? I don't know).

It's not that I don't like kiwi - I do. It's just that I have the apple corer/pealer/slicer. It doesn't work with kiwis. Apples... pears... sure - but not a kiwi. Also, is it socially acceptable to put a kiwi in the crisper as a 2 year old apple (or a 20 year old grapefruit for that matter)?

Now, that I've exhausted my fruit metaphor - I forget where I was going. Pie anyone?

Lucas' School Work

I was rummaging through papers on our counter and found a piece of Lucas' school work. It looks like he is doing a good job - I am really proud of him. I took a picture of the page:


I didn't know he could do that! I think it is really cool that he can do matching like this - seriously, I think it is cool. Some of the routes are simply brilliant:

I really do find it interesting that the convention of staying in the boxes for matching doesn't hinder him. The boxes don't mean anything! He doesn't have to think outside the box - to him, they don't exist! ALL THE 7's ARE CONNECTED!

I wonder how long it will be before he is bound by the convention of staying in the lines. Simply amazing.