One of MG's early performances.

Before becoming America's favorite ballerina, rock star and fashion model, Mary Grace had humble beginnings in a small city in Western New York. Shown here is a video clip taken right after her 5 year old birthday party where she demonstrates her budding skills in a spontaneous song/dance performance. Note her advanced dancing, rhythm and spontaneous song writing skills, in their earliest recorded form. Who knew that she would grow up to be America's sweetheart?

Mary Grace's birthday party

For her 5th birthday (!), Mary Grace decided on a Barbie themed party. She had all her girlfriends from school, play dates and the neighborhood over for 2 hours in the afternoon. A total of 15 under 8 for two hours means LOTS of fun!

The kids started with coloring pages and tattoos while we waited for everyone to arrive. We moved on to "pin the pony on Barbie" and "the jellybean game" (guessing how many jellybeans were under a cup using only yes/no questions). After that, we all sang Happy Birthday to Mary Grace and had cake and ice cream back in the dining room.

We did a little Barbie Saves The Nutcracker on TV while we got prepared for gifts, then opened some wonderful presents! That took us to 3:00pm, and we gave out gift bags to all the girls and said our good-byes.

I think Mary Grace didn't stop smiling the whole time, she LOVED it.

William had about 10 crying fits because he wanted it to be his birthday too. It was a good lesson for us and the other parents :) He'll get his moment in the spotlight in two months.

So, just like that, my baby girl is 5. People always tell you how quickly it goes by, but you never really get it until it happens to you. I've got to learn to live in the moment more.

So tonight, I read to Mary Grace for half an hour at bedtime and was rewarded with a nice long snuggle.

	Sharing some kettle corn before the party
	The birthday cake, made by Mommy!
	Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday and blow out the candles
	Posing with one of her favorite presents! My daughter, the rocker!

A dead car battery and a funny answer to a question.

Anne was leaving for the gym tonight and discovered that the battery in the CR-V was dead. A little investigation revealed that a dome-light was left on... for days! Recounting the last time she drove it, she realized that it wasn't even night-time, so how did the dome-lights get turned on?

An innocent question to the kids "Were either of you playing with the lights in the car?" Both kids replied "No". Then, she asks William "Are you sure you weren't playing with the lights in the car?"

"No Mommy, I wasn't playing with them... I just turned them on!"

Valentines for mommy

Tonight at KidTown, the kids made Valentines for their mommy. Mary Grace was very proud of hers and ran to show me at pickup time. She wrote LOVE in it, all by herself and signed it (MG).

William, not to be outdone, wrote "I love you Mommy". At least that what I knew he intended to write; it was actually a bunch of lines and circles. When he asked "What did I write?", and I responded with "I love you Mommy!", his face lit up as he asked "REALLY?!". My response, yup, that what I see and that's what mommy will see.

They ran into the house, so proud to give them to Mommy. Love those two...

Kids who already think they know more than parents.

Last night I was getting ready to read a book to William. I opened the book and started reading. He said "no daddy, you missed a page". I said, "nope, this is the first page". So he takes the book from me and starts flipping it around, checking all the pages, trying to pry the cover of the book in half to create a second page, then returns to flipping it all over the place. Finally, he puts the book down and goes into his cuddle/sleep position. I start to get up and he says, "Aren't you going to read the book to me?" This time, he didn't complain about skipping the first page. Passive admission of defeat. :)

Next, I go to read to Mary Grace. She picks a Leap Frog colors book. On the first page, there's a picture of Leap the frog. I ask what's his name? Mary Grace says she doesn't know. I told her it's Leap. She responds that "No, his name isn't Leap". We go back and forth a few times until Mommy walks in. I pick up the book and ask her "What's his name?" She responds "Leap!" I say "See, Mary Grace?" Her response... Change the subject. Again, passive admission of defeat!

My favorite is that Mary Grace thinks "uf" is a word. A sentence that starts with "If" is apparently pronounced actually "uf". We've told her repeatedly and she keeps using it.

ecarG yraM

Part of being a parent is the pride and fun of going through your children's never ending flow of artwork. Some of the better pieces I take to work and hang on my cube wall so I can look at it from time to time with glowing pride. We also hang it on the fridge and the walls in the kitchen.

Anne, Mary Grace and I were going through some of her recent artwork (all very good) and noticed one that she signed (yes, she writes her name now), but we didn't recognize what she wrote. We kept looking and realized that it was her name, except the letter were written from right to left, rather than left to right!

We explained the mistake, and got her normal response to situations where we try to explain what she did wrong... No, she did it right and we were wrong!

Regardless, we're quite proud of the writing and artistic talents of our little angel.

Not to leave out William, he has been bringing home a lot of big wonderful paintings too, and we're going to set up a wall in his bedroom to display his artistic talents!

Lets stay up late and eat kettle corn!

Tonight I suggested that we stay up late and eat kettle corn and watch TV. The four of us huddled together on the couch and chomped away while watching kid-friendly YouTube videos. Then William started snoring. Mary Grace decided to take this opportunity to peel the Elmers glue off of his hand. Then Mommy put him to bed. A few minutes later, the night owl said "I'm tired, I want to go to sleep too...". And so ended a day that started with Music Class at Kidtown, haircuts for William and Daddy and a new craft table in the basement.

PS - Kettle corn = 2 tbsp oil, 1/3 cup popcorn, 1/4 cup sugar. All ingredients in kettle, turn heat on, then pop away.

The need to match

Every night when Mary Grace is getting ready for bed, she has to pick out which pajamas to wear. The inevitable question is "which pajamas is William wearing". The answer to this question determines which pajamas Mary Grace wears. For example, William was wearing his new "Cars" pajamas, meaning Mary Grace had to wear her Dora.

I measured Mary Grace last night and she grew about 1/4 inch since October. We were talking about her current height compared to the first measurement we took and I was informed that she's going to be taller than me soon.

Another movie with the kids

Our first movie experience was Madagascar 2 some time ago. Today we decided to catch "The Princess And The Frog" matinee. We got there just as the theatre was filling up, so ended up with decent seats (especially considering the seats taken in the front two rows by those arriving later). Previews, then movie starts, then we break out the snuck-in kettle corn. This reminded me of walking to the Kensington theatre with my brothers and my Mom would make us all popcorn that we would sneak in.

About halfway through the 1.5 hour movie, William says "I want to leave now". I thought the issue would be either bathroom or falling asleep. I coaxed him into staying and he really started enjoying it. I think he was the loudest laugher in the whole theatre!

The movie ended on a very up note and the kids really enjoyed it. My only complaint is that it seems that every movie we see lately wants to introduce the topic of death. We really don't want to go there with a 4 and 3 year old. Otherwise, great movie.

Afterwards, we decided to go to Champs for dinner and were pleasantly surprised that on Tuesdays, kids eat free! Bonus! We had a nice dinner, then William fell asleep in the car as soon as he got to his seat.

Enjoying my week off.

Santa's lap!

We've finally had a successful Santa visit with both kids! Up until this year, Mary Grace has been too scared of Santa to sit on his lap but reluctantly posed last year because her cousin Catie was with her. Remember a few years ago when she would say "I care Santa!".

Apart from the untimely loudspeaker announcement at the mall, I made a wonderful video of their visit. I included a transcript to help you know what was said.

Mommy: Do you want to tell Santa what you want?
Mary Grace: A barbie van
William: I want Bendaroos
Daddy: One at a time; did you catch that Santa Clause?
William: A mean dinosaur that doesn't stomp and doesn't roar, bendaroos and that's it

Santa: Wow, have you guys been good this year
Mary Grace: Yup!
Santa: I think so, have you been helping Mommy and Daddy out around the house?
Mary Grace: Yup!
Santa: Wonderful; you guys got your toys picked up for Santa?
Mary Grace: Yup!I was playing with all my puzzles last day!
Santa: That's alright, just so long as you pick them up after your done playing with them, ok?
Santa: Tell Santa, have you and your brother been fighting?
William: Yup!
Santa: Well, no more fighting; Santa's watching!
Santa: ...something about my elves...?
Santa: Can you wave to Daddy and say Merry Christmas?
Mary Grace and William: Merry Christmas!
Santa: Merry Christmas; Ho ho ho ho!

Who's William's BFF?

I asked William "Who is your best friend at school?"

He responded "Joe!"

"Who is your second-best friend at school?"

"Nothin!"

Anne and I chuckled at how cute that was, then he said

"I mean nobody!"

Chuckle time is over, and proud parent mode kicks in!

Who has a brain the size of a walnut?

Tonight we were practicing reading hour (since William's teacher said he has trouble focusing during reading time) and in the midst of it, the book we were reading was addressing the things that all people have in common. One item was a brain. So Anne asks William "Who has a brain the size of a walnut"?

William stood there thinking and thinking, then cautiously responds "Jonny?". Dumbfounded, we asked him to repeat what he said, and he came back with "Nate and Jonny?".

He must have misunderstood the question, but we got a giant kick out of it.

Hope you did too Nate and Jon!

SNOW!

I love the excitement in the little ones about things we take for granted as adults. I was up early this morning and while having breakfast, I heard the stomp of William getting out of bed upstairs. Then a couple of careful steps as he approached the window. The the stomp-stomp of jumping with excitement. Then the gallop of hooves as he raced excitedly downstairs all the while screaming SNOW! SNOW! SNOW!

I got a big hug, then an unfortunate question - "Can we go outside and play in the snow?" "I'm sorry William, but I have to go to work now!"

Pesky responsibilities; I would have liked to play in the first snow with my boy. But I keep telling myself that there will be plenty more opportunities.

Thanksgiving 2009

This year we had Thanksgiving at Mama's house. The last thanksgiving of the aughts was a great success. The kids were nice and hungry, William tried a bunch of new food (sweet potatoes, squash), Mary Grace ate a bunch of turkey (with Ranch dressing of course...), and everyone had a great time. In addition we also had stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and of course, Mama's wonderful rolls. It was a feast.

As if that wasn't enough, we also had a pumpkin pie and an apple pie, both which were outstanding!

The weekend was a success remodel-wise too, as I finished the electrical work and got ready to hang the drywall on the ceiling.




Posing with "gobbles"

"Fill 'er up"

Mama and Mary Grace

Cute Poppy

The kids have discovered the cereal Corn Pops, which they cutely call "Poppies". William told me yesterday while looking at the box and reading the letter "Look Daddy, P O P S spells Poppies!".

Mary Grace on the other hand made a pet out of a little poppy. She found a tiny little one that was shaped like a seashell. I didn't know it was her new pet. While I was washing dishes, she handed it to me, and thinking she had found it on the floor or something, I ate it.

Once I saw the look of fear wash over her face, I realized I had made a great mistake. Then the crying began as she ran to Mommy crying "Daddy ate my poppy!". So we searched through several bowls of poppies looking for a suitable replacement pet, but didn't find one.

Good thing for me about 1 hour later, all was forgiven and forgotten. She has since found a new pet, twin small poppies. Now that I know that a piece of cereal can be a pet, I'll be a lot more careful...

Incompatible games

Mary Grace and William sometimes play really well together. Sometimes, however, it doesn't go so well. Imagine observing this:

Mary Grace is playing with her Ponyville. She has Pinky Pie and Minty and Star Song and the others. They're having a birthday party for one of the ponies. It's a great party until William joins in. William brings his dinosaur to join in the fun. Of course, being a dinosaur, the first thing it wants to do is jump around and knock all the ponies over, disrupting the party. The dinosaur proceeds to get into an epic battle with one of the ponies, at which point Mary Grace is running crying for a parent to intervene.

She calls this "playing naughty", as in, "No William, I don't want you to play naughty!"

Now imagine the other side. William has a franken-toy setup involving trains running over dinosaurs, blocks acting as the bowser trying to beat everyone else, and even pull-back cars running through the whole disaster. Mary Grace brings her Barbie doll into this, suggesting they could all work together to throw a surprise party for another Barbie.

There's no term for this intervention, but again, it ends up in a brawl of some sort requiring parental intervention.

Sometimes they play well, other times not so much!

It's ok to post Halloween photos before Thanksgiving

Trust me, it's ok.

For Halloween, Mary Grace dressed as a witch and William wanted to be Spiderman. Mommy did an amazing job of finding both costumes on the cheap, in like-new condition, and the costumes were awesome!

Here are some of the photos we took on the magical trick-or-treating night of October 31! The kids had a blast showing off their costumes to all the neighbors and and the adults had a blast watching the kids and consuming drinkables from the beer wagon!




The night started out chilly with a cold breeze but as we moved from house to house it seemed to warm up for us. We trick or treated for about an hour, then headed back to the house to eat some pumpkin seeds and inventory the goodies.

The kids are still enjoying the loot and now expect a piece of candy after every meal, even breakfast. Mary Grace, the perennial bird-like eater has adopted a strategy of eating half or less of her meal then trying to fill up on candy afterward. Yes, she is our little negotiator.

William has learned to climb up onto the counter-tops where he stands up to reach the candy on the upper shelves of the cabinets. Cannonball, as our ex-neighbors Mike and Doris nicknamed him.

We're all looking forward to the upcoming holiday!

The leaf monster!

Here's a video Mommy took of the kids playing out in the leaves this fall.

Happy Halloween

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William's sleepy time

William inevitably asks Mommy or I to lay with him after he's read a story. So once the book gets put down, the lights get dimmed and I snuggle with the little cutie and we talk about what we did today and what is going on tomorrow. Then about 30 seconds of silence before William is asleep. I'm not joking here. 30 seconds.

He asks "will you lay with me" like it's a big deal... Sure, honey - anytime!