The Parade of Homes finished up this weekend. Because we had a house right across the street from us in the parade, we knew there would be lots of visitors. Nicholas and Ellie (but mostly just Nick--Ellie still lacks in dedication/patience/desire for this sort of thing) sold drinks and chips.
They made $45 in about 6 hours of selling. Seriously good money for a 6 year old!
Nick was the most adorable little salesman. He'd ask people if they wanted their drink "really cold or just normal?" and when he got the waterbottle from the cooler he'd say things like "oh this is a really drippy one!" and "now make sure this doesn't drip in your car!" and then "have a nice day!" At one point he told me he had been giving the chips away as a "buy a drink get chips free" sale. I also overheard him complimenting people on their "nice new car!"
It was "blazing hot" out there, according to Ellie, but Nick was impressively dedicated. It made all the set up and arguing discussing beforehand worth it. (The day before, Nick was adamant that he sell his drinks for Two Dollars and Three Cents. It required Kent and I working together, all day, to convince him that the three cents part was a particularly difficult to execute idea.)
Quirks, revisited:
I've noticed a few more since my post about my kids wacky habits.
Christian. He is at just the right height to reach Ellie's underwear basket in her closet. He takes out one pair at a time of her clean underwear and places it somewhere else around the house. I am constantly picking Ellie's underwear up out of the bookshelf, the toy basket, the kitchen drawers, the stairway, etc.
Ellie is completely convinced that eating tortilla chips gives her the ability to taste any other food without actually tasting it.
For example,
"Ellie, I need you to at least try one bite of your meatball."
"But I don't have to, because I ate a tortilla chip so I already have the taste of meatball in my mouth!"
She thinks they're magic. We cannot convince her otherwise.
We're chicken-sitting for some neighbors, so we get to pretend like their backyard belongs to us too for a few days. If you're looking for us this week, you can find us sprawling on the grass in the shade.
Nick gave me a coloring book for my birthday last month, and I think it's one of the most thoughtful, great gifts I've ever received. I didn't know it before, but I love coloring. And the kids like to color with me, so it's a perfect "we're-spending-time-together-but-everyone-is-silent" afternoon activity. I make a copy of a page from my book for them, then we sit in the living room and color together while Christian naps.
Kent finished up the drywall in the basement (wahoo!) and we passed inspection, so next step is to find an (affordable) taping/mudding/texturing/painter. We're only finishing two rooms right now, the playroom and the entertainment room, but gosh it's going to be awesome when they're done.
In the meantime, while Kent was working on the drywall on Saturday, I took a few hours and cleared out one of our empty unfinished bedrooms and converted it into a makeshift temporary playroom.
Their bedroom upstairs was getting CROWDED and it was time to give the toys their own home. It took some work to clean up the wood shavings, nails, splinters, and dust left over from construction, but I think it's ready now for them to play down there without my having to worry about them. At least until Christian starts climbing those totes and falling through the unfinished wall.
Not that he would do that.
Yeah, just kidding. He's going to be climbing those probably by next week.
Speaking of climbing, this is the current arrangement of our dining table and chairs.
A few days ago, I was cooking and Christian was just hanging out in the kitchen with me, walking around and pulling things out of drawers. I turned to the stove for a moment, and then when I turned back, he was in his high chair.
I did not put him there. Kent wasn't home. The kids aren't even close to strong enough to lift him that high plus they were in the other room the whole time.
The only thing I can assume is that he climbed onto the dining chair, walked across the table (which he has a habit of doing,) and then scooted across his tray(!) and down into his seat.
So.
Now the kitchen chairs are pushed far away from the table when not in use. I tried laying them down on the floor for a few days, but I got really tired of stubbing my toes on chair backs.
I'm sure that in a few more days Christian will realize that chairs are mobile and start pushing them back over to the table so he can resume table-walking, but for now, this works.
Motherhood is all about going with the flow and changing your methods, sometimes by the minute.
Now that I'm in the Primary presidency, Kent's flying solo with the busy busy 15-month old during the second and third hour of church. And it's naptime. Of course.
Yesterday I tried to help their time together go more smoothly by taking Christian out during sacrament meeting, finding an empty classroom, turning on a white-noise app, and humming him to sleep. He slept, sweaty and sighing, in my arms for twenty or thirty minutes, and I loved every minute of it.
Our Father's Day was super low-key. Kent requests we don't make a fuss about holidays/birthdays that are about him. It is hard for me, because I want to celebrate this man, so we compromise by doing just a little. I gave him a package of bacon from a local butcher shop (we'll never go back to grocery store-bought bacon, guys!), and the kids made cards for him. Ellie made two cards, actually. On one card, Kent is a prince and Ellie is the princess. On the other card, Ellie has a pig nose, and Kent is "a potato with lady lips."
But maybe it's funnier when we don't know.
