Can you guess what movie we have been watching lately at our house?

I will give you some clues: Master ShifuOogway:
And everybody's been Kung Fu Fighting...doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo...
KUNG FU PANDA

love it!

McDonald's

The other day we went to McDonald's and let the kids play on the toys. They have been dying to play at the park, but it has been really cold and muddy and cold and rainy and cold and I have a new baby...so I gave in and we went to McDonald's. The kids ate and then played and then it was time to go. I was trying to coax Brendan out of the playground and told him it was time to go home.
His response was: "But mom, we haven't seen the animals yet."
I said: "There aren't any animals here" and was confused as to why he was talking about seeing animals-I hadn't told him we were going to see any that day.
It wasn't until that night when we were singing Old McDonald had a Farm that it clicked for me. Brendan brought up the fact that McDonald's didn't have any animals that day...and then I figured it out that he thought we were at Old McDonald's Farm. Sorry Brendan...we can only go on so many adventures each day.

Why am I complaining about a small apartment? My kids don't seem to mind

They love to sit in one chair all at the same time
Eliza would have loved it if I let her stay behind our bed to take her nap

And Brendan and Eliza's favorite place to play is next to the couch, behind the end table...about a 1 foot x 2 1/2 foot area that has a lamp and extra couch pillow there.
Who needs more room?

The effects of PA school on our kids

I think that we need to get one of these because yesterday Brendan handed Eliza this
and asked her to come fix his back.
I just laughed.

Every night before the kids go to bed they ask their dad to check different body parts. He is usually at the school studying at bedtime so I just make the excuse that I don't know how to 'check them' and get out of the whole thing (I just promise that Dad will check them when he gets home which is usually after midnight and well after they are asleep).
He did this quite often when he was learning the different exam procedures last semester. He would check their hand and name all of the parts of the bones and muscles, etc. He would do a different part of their body each time because he would be learning another part each week or so.
Well, they fell in love with the routine-or at least the stalling that takes place so that they can stay up a little longer. The other night Eliza asked: "Can Daddy check my arm and my tummy and my ankle and my wrist and my ankle and my nose and my ankle and my knee and my ankle?" I think that she was really tired because she forgot that she had already asked about the ankle four times. We are glad that Daddy is going to school and can't wait until he doesn't have to study so much at night time and he can actually do those exams as HE puts the kids to bed! Wishful thinking, huh!

Middle of the Night

So Brendan woke up in the middle of the night the other night and I asked him what was the matter. He answered: "My bed is tickling me."

Whatever that meant. I asked him to lay down again and then I turned the music on and he went back to bed without any more of my help. If the bed is tickling him and he can now go back to sleep by himself...let the bed keep on tickling him!

Eliza sings in her sleep. I have been woke up to "I am A Child of God" at the top of her lungs. I will go in there and she is completely asleep! She is constantly talking about Lightning McQueen (Ka-Chow) in her sleep, too. She is such a cheeser...(and I am too because I am putting in a picture of her chewing on a piece of cheese).

Lincoln has been waking up more often, too. I can't understand why. It couldn't be because these two are constantly in his bed and throwing everything out or everything in it.

I hope that he gets to sleeping through the night again. Last night I just turned him over so that he could lay on his other side. He put himself back to sleep by cuddling with his new blanket from our amazing friends, the Lukes and sucking on his fingers. Love it!

Another night...in the middle of the night...I went on an adventure! I don't know where this dream came from but I was touring the world in a blow up hot air balloon (do they even make these) with a lot of college friends...headed up by Alice Petty! :) I really enjoyed this dream compared to the recurring dream of being in the middle of a semester and finding out that I am signed up for a class that I wasn't aware of and one that I hadn't attended at all and now I needed to take a test...or fail the class completely. I haven't even been in school for almost 4 years now...but I have this dream ALL THE TIME! It really drives me crazy. So this new adventurous dream was really refreshing and I really woke up smiling...almost laughing. The really funny part was that I was in charge of blowing up the balloon everytime that we had to take off again. Maybe this just means that I am full of a lot of HOT AIR! I think it may have been inspired from the new Amazing Race 14.

I am really looking forward to the time that I don't really know the middle of the night anymore.