Yet another one from the "Where do they get this stuff?" department

Today the kids and I went to see "Hotel for Dogs." Cute movie, by the way, and perfect for my kids. (Gadgets and contraptions for him, animals for her.)

At the climax of the movie, the hotel gets discovered, animal control comes in, the cops come for the kids, etc. Pretty intense if you're 6 years old and watching the movie. Drew's a big talker through the movie anyhow (and this surprises...no one, right?) and this part was no exception. He's groaning, "Oh, no. Oh, no."

"Well, they can't go to jail." Big groan. "Looks like they'll have to go to JUVIE!"

Erin stuff

Erin has also had some good stuff lately. When I recently told her we had a problem, she said, "No, we don't. It's not a problem, Mommy. It's an IDEA EMERGENCY!" (This is from a Disney show, Imagination Movers, in case you're not raising a 4 year old yourself and actually watch grownup t.v.)

Then today, I took the kids to a McDonald's playland. Erin and I had to use the restroom that's in the playroom area--one of those one-room jobs. Erin went first and she then tried to leave as I was taking my turn. I (very forcefully) told her NOT to leave the bathroom when I was still in there. "Why?" Erin asks. "Well, honey, if you opened that door right now, everyone would see me going to the bathroom?"

"They would?"

"Yes, they would."

"And they'd take pictures?"

Um, noooooo. At least let's hope not. But at any rate, the door stayed closed, no pictures were taken, and my dignity is still somewhat intact. I'm not looking forward to staving off future bathroom paparazzi, though.

Ah, the sarcastic vernacular

Andrew's got it in spades. The other day he and Erin were rough-housing. Erin had him pinned down pretty good. He yelled, "Get off of me, woman!"

A couple of days later, Andrew and I were talking and she interrupted. He looked at her, pointed, and said: "Who invited you to this conversation?"

Fun with the Purdue women

Last week the Lady Boilermakers held a skills clinic after their game. Erin and Andrew participated.

Erin stayed pretty close to Drew's side the entire time.

I'm sure this was a drill but it looks more like they're background dancers for a Michael Jackson video. Note that Erin's not playing along so much. She got pretty intimidated after a few minutes and left the floor soon afterward.

Andrew, showing some intense focus:

My sweet valentine

Erin and I went to the Myers Dinner Theater in Hillsboro last week to see "Beauty and the Beast." She was enthralled by it and, somewhat surprisingly, was not afraid of the Beast. This was a special Saturday matinee just for kids--the meal had chicken nuggets and hot dogs and the cast made themselves available for pictures and autographs afterward.

Here's Erin with the young lady playing Belle. She's a student from North Montgomery High School and is quite talented...very sweet, too.

Here's Erin before her bun fell out! The Cinderella dress seemed appropriate for the occasion.

See the lighted rose? Mrs. Myers told the kids to make sure they didn't turn on their roses until Belle told the Beast she loved him. I think Erin had hers turned on within nanoseconds of Belle's proclamation.

Andrew in basketball

Now that the season's nearly over...it's time to finally put some pictures of Drew's basketball team. He is on "Team #3" (ah, such an original name) of the Fountain County Youth Basketball league. His division is all K-1st graders. It has been so fun watching them develop their skills. The first week, I think only 2 kids remembered to dribble (and that was with both hands!) Now they actually look like a team. Drew has had a blast playing and we've been very proud of him.

Such blessings

You know, when you're in the throes of raising young children, you don't know if you're doing well or not. If they're picking up on anything you're teaching them. If they're gaining any of the Christlike traits you want to instill in them.

I'm seeing glimmers these days.

Last week at church, Drew and Erin were sitting together a pew away from me. They stayed upstairs through the whole service and were remarkably composed for most of it (and when they weren't, they actually settled down when I gave them "the look"--heh, I always have dreamed of that day). At one point, Erin leaned against Drew in an "I love my big brother" sort of way. He leaned over and kissed her on her back. It was such a sweet, touching moment that neither of them know was witnessed by me.

Then, later that week, Erin wanted to play some card games with me. (Full disclosure: they were princess cards. Yeah.) Anyhow, the first 3 games were very typical four-year-old style: you know, where everything is manipulated so that the four year old wins, drama if it looks as though that will not happen, etc. But when we went back to playing those 3 games again, she surprised me. She said that she had already won 3 games and that it was MY turn to win the next 3. She put as much effort into my winning those games as she did into her winning the first 3. I was truly amazed. Let's face it--I play games for a living. Four year olds do not do this! Especially MY four year olds. But God has given her a heart that feels compassion for others. I am so blessed with these two children. By jove, with God's continued help they may just grow into compassionate adults even with all my flawed parenting.

Mi hijo, Andrew

A quick funny about Andrew today. He and I had a mommy-son date at the Purdue game today and then ate out. At the restaurant, we were seated near a hispanic family that included an absolutely adorable little girl (probably around twoish). She was having fun wandering and then nearly stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Andrew. (Isn't it amazing how quickly little girls can get enamored with older men? She had the biggest doe eyes when checking him out!) Andrew saw her, smiled, and said, "Hola!" I wasn't sure how to react but the little girl's mom said, "Did he just say, 'hola'"? and she laughed out loud. Of course, Andrew had no idea why we got such a kick out of this. The mom made sure to bring her by when they were leaving to say, "Adios!"