Caroline the Interrupter

Jonah and I went out to Gilbert tonight for a family function/essential oil class. On the way home, he watched a movie. As I was turning it on and getting the volume set, he said (with a contented sigh), "Ah, it will be so nice to watch a movie without Caroline the Interrupter. It will be nice and quiet!"

We are so happy Caroline is talking more, but it's been a while since Jonah and I enjoyed a quiet ride. Even before the talking and babbling, Caroline generally fussed or cried in the car. Without Caroline the Interrupter, it was very quiet!

hardy har har har

Is there anything more consistently funny than Cake Wrecks? I propose no. Unless you are familiar enough with LDS culture to appreciate Just Say Amen Already, and then you can hop between the two and have yourself a hearty chuckle. (Oh, I should warn you that Cake Wrecks is not rated G. While the vast majority are just spelling or ordering errors, there is occasional potty humor and a "why didn't anyone mention to the baker that this looks like..." references every few pages. She also posts the occasional tasteless baby shower cake. Proceed.)

P.S. While Josh appreciates both sites, he has never been known to laugh out loud at either. He mostly just smirks or nods to indicate that he gets the joke. I, on the other hand, can't read either for more than 2 minutes at a time without snorting.

P.P.S. Any others I'm missing? I'm always looking for guilty pleasures that make me happy. Reading comments online is not only not my guilty pleasure (I'm looking at you, Q) but usually leaves me angry or depressed.

P.P.P.S. I just decided to catch up on Cake Wrecks since I was telling you all how funny it is. By the time I got to the "Great slithering slabs of slime-secreting slugs, Sally" I was both snorting and gasping for air. It seems that my assertion was correct: snort-inducing enjoyment every time.

breaking the tie

So I'm not great at big announcements, but there are some of you who don't live close enough to us to have seen the obvious: I'm pregnant. We're having baby #3 in early June. Everyone is very excited but Caroline, who seems to have no idea what is going on. We found out yesterday that baby is a girl! Even if you don't count the dog, girls will outnumber the boys here pretty soon. While my parent's grandchildren are close to an even girl/boy split, there hasn't been a baby boy born in the family (other than Jonah) for over 14 years. Jonah's closest 6 cousins in age (this is counting both sides now) are all girls. When I asked him how he felt about it, he reminded me that he has Josh. Well okay then, sounds like we're set for another girl.

a mid-life crisis

Moving to Arizona is giving my blog a mid-life crisis. Without the push to get stories/pictures up for the grandmas to see, I'm not sure what to write about. I do like to talk about the kids (grandmas really can't ever get enough of that, even if they see us regularly), but this was once a place for me to write about other things. Maybe I need to buy a blog convertible, whatever that is.

Until I figure out what that looks like, here's a few pictures for those grandmas:

Almost everything Jonah makes with playdough is a love note to Susan.

He wanted to give it to her for Christmas, but we compromised on a photo.

Josh exists! So do I!

My poor chucks were ill-suited for snow.

Caroline was not at all interested in playing in the snow, so JoJo got stuck holding her the whole time.

Opening presents with Grandma Hunt

Zap! An almost-as-good-as-real wand (thanks, Jenny!)

Would you believe me if I told her that she actually smiled most of her birthday party?

Jonah says...

A few funny statements from the resident comedian (though Caroline is certainly trying to stake a claim to that title..but more on that another time).

While drawing a picture of two of his favorite imaginary friends/alter egos: "And you know, if you took the ribs and blood out and baked them in the oven with some salt, they'd taste like bacon."

(While pretending to be some creature or another): "And there is nothing poisonous to me. I can eat everything poisonous: basilisk lizards, poisonous snakes, poison ivy leaves, chickens..." 

He was coloring a picture while waiting for Josh to be ready for bedtime. When Josh finished with Caroline and moved to Jonah's room, Jonah was really upset that he would not be able to finish his picture.
Me: "Why don't you just go tell Daddy the problem?"
Jonah (after doing so): "The meeting went well. I just told him what I needed and he said, 'ok buddy, just come in here when you're done.'"

We did not do a Christmas list or letter to Santa or anything, but it was funny to listen to his musings as Christmas drew closer. Some of the things he hoped to find under the tree were:
-An electric blanket "that gets really hot or really cold in like 4 seconds. I wouldn't even have to wait for it to warm up!" (...a complaint he has with the one on our bed. I was especially tickled to hear this because I'd already ordered him an electric blanket for Christmas. Go me!)
-"My Halloween pumpkin FILLED with candy again. It's empty now and I want it to be as full as it was after Halloween."
-A peregrine falcon
-"A REAL light saber. I wouldn't want to fight anyone with it, but I do want the blade to be made out of real flames."

This afternoon, while running errands, he shared this bit of knowledge with me: "Mom, did you know that a mother sperm whale can eat 8 bathtubs full of squid at one time?"
Me: "Well it's a good thing we don't have a sperm whale then. How would we ever keep it fed?"
Jonah: "Plus, we don't have anywhere to put it. It can be bigger than a school bus. If we filled our whole house with water for it, where would we live?"
(A few minutes later, after what must have been some deep contemplation): "Whew! It's a good thing Dixie only eats dog food."

the table that Josh built

Once upon a time, a man and his wife moved halfway across the country. They sold most of their furniture before the move, thinking they would make replacements when they arrived. They'd dabbled in furniture making, you see, and had big dreams of all the custom creations that would fill their home. And then, the man's job started just a few days after arrival. He found himself at work early in the morning. When he came home at night, the children filled the remaining daylight hours with lightsaber battles and cries of "dada! dada! dada!"

So when Christmas break rolled around, the first creation appeared. The boy child went with his father to collect discarded pallets. He helped to cut and screw and sand the table. And then he threw himself on the couch and sobbed in despair that we wouldn't paint the table blue.

The rest of us like it. Jonah still thinks it should be blue.

Happy birthday!

When a friend says, "I have some passes to the AZ Science Center that are expiring today and does anybody want them?" and it's Christmas break so your husband is home and it also happens to be your daughter's birthday, you rush through the grocery shopping and put off the pre-party cleaning and go. It was crowded and the kids were overwhelmed (and frankly, are a few years too young to love a lot of the exhibits), but we had a great time. Jonah talked all evening about wind and gravity and the earth and how the internet works and how to build houses. Caroline talked all evening about we're not sure what. She was pretty excited during the telling, though.

Happy birthday, Miss Caroline (or as Jonah has taken to calling her, "Missy")! We love you.