Elmo

Aubrey has discovered, and fallen in love with, Elmo. She has a lot of hand-me-down Elmo books (Austin was a big fan too) that she brings out for us to read to her, and this big Elmo that Austin has parted with and given to his sister. What a sweet big brother. She loves to watch Sesame Street now, and will actually sit still for several minutes at a time, and cry when it is over. She loves to sing along with the Elmo's World Song, which is adorable (and resembles screaming a little; she must get her vocal ability from her mommy). She also loves Cookie Monster, and will shout "Cookie!" every time she sees pictures of him. I think this is one of the only words she says clearly.

I recently took the kids to Sesame Street Live with a friend of mine. They loved it. Austin had been twice before. We first took him when he was about Aubrey's age, he was so mesmerized he didn't even want to eat the popcorn we had bought. He enjoyed it this year too, but sadly I think he is outgrowing Elmo. Aubrey enjoyed it too, but got a little restless so Austin was nice to share his snow-cone that my friend bought for him. Aubrey said 'thank you' by giving him a big kiss.

Enjoying the show.

Dine-ishes

Austin has been infatuated with Dinosaurs since before he could talk. He used to pronounce them "Dine-ish". It has stuck, and now Brian and I use that more often than the real word. Austin used to carry around his little Velociraptor by the tail so much that the color wore off of it. I would wake up to him coming in our room in the mornings, carrying as many of his dinosaurs as he could. He designated different dinosaurs as Daddy, Mommy, Austin and Aubrey, so now when we see those dinosaurs, instead of their real names we refer to them as us. Austin is the Stegasaurus, Aubrey is the Triceratops, and Mommy and Daddy are both Brachiosaurs. I often thought Mommy should have been the T-Rex... He still loves them, but it isn't quite the magical love it used to be. Aubrey hasn't quite embraced the "dine-ishes" yet, but if Austin has anything to do about it, she will.

Our zoo just put up a Dinosaur exhibit, so of course we had to go check it out. Here are some pictures.

Messes

I probably spend the majority of my day when I am at home, picking up messes. Made mostly by my kids. Lately it has been Aubrey and her books. She loves her books. And she has a lot. She will bring them to me, one by one throughout the day, and climb up on my lap for me to read them to her. We usually get through two to three pages, before she climbs down, and goes in search for another book. At least five times a day I find her in her room, all of her books strewn about the floor. So at least five times a day, we pick them up and put them back on the shelves in their rightful place. Why not just wait until the end of the night you ask? Because I can't stand to see this mess, and watch her walk all over her books (slipping and sliding on them and falling down, and although that should be the main reason for my picking them up, it is really that I can't stand the mess). I find myself getting aggravated and annoyed at having to clean up all the messes my kids make everyday more and more with each mess. And then God gently taps me on the shoulder, and reminds me that I won't always have these messes to clean up. Someday, my kids will be grown and gone, and I will silently pray for the messes to fill my life. Sometimes all it takes is the gentle tap, sometimes He has to smack me on the back of the head. Either way, I usually get it, what ever it is He is trying to tell me. So I am going to try to remember that when Aubrey has all 500 of her books all over the house, or Austin's dinosaurs are in every corner of every room, and the Lego's and blocks are all over the floor, and every stuffed animal they each own are all over their rooms, that someday soon, I will miss them.

Money, According to a Five Year Old

Here is a recent conversation that took place between Daddy and Austin:

Austin-"Daddy, is there another car that is faster than mine?" (He is under the impression that Brian's car is really his car. Eventually it probably will be...)

Daddy-"Yeah, a Lamborghini is faster than your car is."

Austin-"Can we get one?"

Daddy-"They cost a lot of money, I don't think we have enough".

Austin-"You can have all my money in my piggy bank and then we can get it!"

Daddy-"They are really expensive, I don't think that would quite cover it."

Austin thought for a minute and then said (very matter of factly)-"I know what we can do! I saw on the TV that you can trade in all your old gold for cash. So all we have to do is send it in, and they will send us money and then we can get the car." (He then sat looking very pleased with himself.). Brian didn't have the heart to ask him what gold he was talking about. I think he just agreed that this was, in fact, a very good idea.