A mind like a steel trap

I came back from shopping this morning with a half-gallon of egg nog.

Allyson, who has only experienced this fat-filled ambrosia once about a month ago, obviously recognized it for what it was and began grunting and pulling at me.

Just to make sure, I leaned her over the array of purchased items and asked, 'What do you want?'

She reached over and patted (dare I say, caressed?) the half-gallon container.

Superfluous though it may be to recount, she sucked down an entire sippy-cup of the stuff. (Though I did thin it down with milk--I'd hate be responsible for her bouncing off the walls and ceilings this AM.)

Update: Later on Cindy got a small glass container out of the frig. It was clearly full of something chocolate.

I was holding Allyson at the time (big surprise there!?) and she immediate leaned towards it and assumed the position--one finger crooked in anticipation of scooping up some chocolate stuff--and also began making small sucking noises to mimic what she was definitely planning to do.

I gave her a spoon instead.

Introducing "The Look"

For reasons unfathomable to mere mortals, Erin has developed a new look.

Her modus operandi is to sidle up to you and then just stand there with what can only be called a 'vapid, disturbingly mechanical frozen grin'.....



...on her face. She will often stand there for minutes on end with nary a change of expression in her continuing efforts to creep you out. Moreover, she is able to maintain it under most circumstances, including threats to life and liberty.

Last night we had the missionaries over, and as she was sitting next to me on the couch during a serious conversation she turned and did 'the grin.' For whatever reason I broke out into uncontrollable chortles, and Cindy ended up sitting between us, muttering some gibberish about child behavioral problems.

Mmmm....gingerbread.....

Cindy was just barely able to find time to keep up this somewhat annual tradition.



The kids were all excited at first, but then Erin and then Cameron soon lost interest.

It had something to do with their stomachs hurting from all the candy they had eaten!

Here is the final result--a house even the wicked old Hansel-and-Gretel-eating witch would've been proud of!

We got elfed! And elfed! And elfin' elfed!

Fleshing out the details of a post from a month ago....

It all started with an email from Cindy's sister that linked to a site where you could upload pictures your family and get them pasted on dancing elvish folk.
It was rather cute.

And as you might've expected, it soon snowballed into a hailstorm of emails on the Bowcut side of the family, as everyone in the family vied for the title of Grand Elfer (motto 'I'm the elfiest elf of elf who ever elfed an elf').

Here are the kids....




And here we are....



See the November posting for a link to the animation....

But you've been warned! Please upload responsibly

You know, maybe Darwin wasn't all wrong....

Allyson has a new trick!

A new bad habit....?

Allyson has learned another word in the past 2 weeks.

BARBIE! BARBIE!

She has become infatuated with the 5-odd Barbie animated movies we have and she incessantly asks to watch them.

Her favorite ploy is to come up, grab your finger, and then vigorous pull and tug you into the front room. She coyly stops by the video cabinet, looks up with her big blue eyes shining in admiration, and then sweetly rattles off, 'BARBIE! BARBIE! BARBIE! BARBIE!BARBIE! BARBIE!BARBIE! BARBIE!BARBIE! BARBIE!'

If you say yes, she exudes love, then assumes the position.
This is her position today.



If you say, 'No Barbie,' she begins hitting things, yelling, and doing other toddler antics. (Since she is doing this well before age 2, does this mean she is precocious?)

The Great Unveiling

After 10 hours of intense high-precision manufacturing over 3 days, Cameron and his cousin Josh 'I'll be Engineering Aircraft Someday' Coburn completed Cameron's Pinewood Derby racer.



It was crafted with a scroll saw, dremel bits, a router, a blowtorch to melt the lead in place (according to Cameron, the lead even began burning with a greenish-blue flame), and finished off with some SuperGlue to hold the nail axles securely in place.
Like any good Cub Scout, Cameron also picked up the handy skill of safely using a drill and a metal file to grind scalpel-sharp nail tips. (Not that they were used in the car at all--it was just an extracurricular learning activity.)

(Also, Cameron is so sweaty not because of all his efforts, but rather from playing tennis using their Wii.)

Requiem

Cindy got on a 'throw away all the junk that has been accumulated over the years' kick tonight.

Included in the ever-growing garbage pile is Cindy's pressed plant collection from 1982 (she got a perfect score of 300 for it), every girl's camp memorabilia she had kept for at least as long.

Nor was I left out--out went an FBI t-shirt that my brother Wezzo gave me 13-odd years ago, but which in the past year has been used by Erin as a pajama top, a paint shirt, and the mainstay of that pile of clothes she routinely constructs in an empty corner of her room. As Cindy commented, 'It ain't worth the water to wash it.'

Enjoying the sights at Camp Kern!

So, Cindy here, this is actually the first time I have done anything on this blog before. Louis will be pleased I am actually doing something. I just couldn't let the moment pass.
Today is Erin's 11th birthday. It is 2:30 in the afternoon and I just picked her up from school. She has been at Camp Kern, a YMCA camp, for 2 1/2 days with all the
5th graders. Before we are even in the van she begins to tell me about "Tim. He is so HOT. He was one of our counselors. The minute I saw his abs I nearly fainted!" After the shock and laughter from me subsided I collected my wits and found out that she actually did not "see" his abs. He just had a tight t-shirt on. As I have told Erin many times before...she and I were cut from completely different molds. I think I am going to have my hands full with this one.

Talk about intestinal fortitude!

Cameron has been home sick these two day with what the doc thinks is strep throat.

As such, he has had a fever and a sore throat.

Anyway, when I got home from work tonight, he was in the bathroom doing what I assume was just a normal, non-squishy, number 2.

I base this deduction upon the following clue: Cindy told me that when he had gone into the bathroom he had declared (somewhat proudly) that he had been holding it in for 3 hours!

I thus reasoned that even someone as stubborn as Cameron can't hold in a case of 'The Diabolical Dib-Dabs' for 3 hours!

Ain't NO WAY!

As you might expect....

When Cindy tried to put Allyson down on Santa's lap at the ward Christmas party, Allyson was fine until a fine line was crossed--that line being exactly 12 inches from Santa's knee.

As she saw herself being lowered towards this strange red-suited, hairy man, she finally figured out what was being done to her and jerked her body back in one huge spasm and let out a huge scream!

It was one of those "I wish I had had the video camera" moments!

As such, we can proudly report that our kids are 4-for-4 in this category.

The wonder of all that is Christmas

Cindy was putting up some pine garland on the stair railing, with Allyson closely eyeing her every move.

As Cindy next began weaving some lights along the garland, Allyson watched intently, repeating in her usual throaty whisper:

'Wow!'

'Wow!'

WOW!'

The First Gift of Christmas

When I got Allyson out of her crib this afternoon and took her downstairs, she puttered around for a minute or two, then bee-lined it to Cindy, and it was at that time she finally uttered the magic words "Mama" and put up her hands to be picked up.

The next words to be heard were from Cindy, and they sounded like a good blog entry title. Whaddya think? (And this takes a lot of pressure off of me too--there's no way I can top this, so why even try!)

Of course, Allyson was still groggy from her nap and was thus somewhat disoriented, so I'm not sure if this really counts......but I am more than willing to count it, as the price is definitely right!


UPDATE: Cindy is now telling me about Wednesday (when the kids were out of school due to the horrific snowstorm that dumped all of 4 inches) when Cameron got Allyson up in the morning. Cindy was taking a shower at the time, and she soon heard little hands knocking at the door and the melodious sounds of 'Mama! Mommy!' coming through the door.

What a difference a week makes!

They got the roof on before the big snow that's supposed to hit tonight (up to a whopping 3~4 inches!!!!)

I even gave the snow-blower a test-run!

Charleston Falls Night Hike

I guess it has been a yearly event for a long time, but this was the first time we had heard of it. From 6~9PM tonight you could walk the 1/2-mile to the falls and see the falls (a trickle at this time of the year) with some faint colored backlights.

The first highlight was when we met this jolly old fellow on the trail...



As you might guess, it was about 32 degrees out....

Then Cindy took a picture with the falls as a stunning backdrop....



However, as you can (or can't) see, our simple digital camera doesn't have a long exposure setting, so everything behind us showed up black.

On the trail to the falls, Allyson was content to be carried, but on the way back she ran most of the way, chortling as she played footsie with Makenna.

But the real highlight for Allyson was the dog she got to pet.
She just loves dogs, and we are more than happy to let her interact with them--just a long as they don't live at our address and/or leave landmines in our yard!



(This photo somehow reminded me of the old B-movie, 'Devil Dog: The Hound from He__.')

Just what WAS Cindy doing all afternoon?

Well, to hear her tell it, she was "Makin' babies all afternoon!"

(She made 73 little Baby Jesus' as part of a Primary craft activity tomorrow.)

Sorry I missed it!

Day 3 of Framing.....

UPDATE: They worked on Saturday too, and the second story is pretty much framed now too.

Sight Reading

Tonight we were reading from the Book of Mormon, and Makenna begged to read first. (Being a pretty good reader for a 1st-grader, it is really quite amazing to see her sound out some of the big words she comes across in the scriptures!)

However, tonight her sounding-out wasn't quite up to snuff.

She read, 'And King Mosiah did cuss...'

And verily, Mom and Dad did chortle!

Unfortunately, Makenna seemed to think we were laughing at her misreading of 'cause' instead of the visual picture her misreading painted.

Then again, as I seem to remember, King Mosiah had some excessively wild and rebellious sons, and as such her mistaken rendition, though not scriptural, could quite possibly be factually correct.

Mr. Manners Returns

Dear Mr. Manners,

The recent new tastes of my 8-year-old son—for the sake of anonymity I’ll call him Clameron (as he ‘clams up’ whenever you try to have a serious discussion with him)—concern me greatly.
Yes, like every boy he loves to play soccer, throw baseballs, and act like a real stinker to his sisters, but his taste in music is keeping me up nights worrying. Worrying as I hear it playing in his room every night, somehow lulling him to sleep—those melodies transforming into frenetic jousting of harmonies, the keyboards flying madly between octaves, and then the denouement triumphant!
What is a mother to do?
While other mothers can brag about their children listening to dreamy Zack Efron, Hannah Montana, or those fabulous American Idol musical superstars, I must hang my head and confess that MY SON (sob!!) only listens to that punk rocker of his century, (another sob!!) Beethoven!
And it is a piano concerto! Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat to be exact!
And my husband is the one who dug out this old CD of his and gave it to him to listen to!
They are conspiring against me! What can I do?
I do so want to have a normal boy!

Yours sincerely,

Keyed Up and Pale in the Heights
__________________

Dear Ivory Keys,

Tempting though it is to segue your cry for help into a recital of that trite motif of the atonally droning chorus of pop psychology, ‘Be careful what you wish for,’ I must refrain, as you are obviously already suffering from classical cognitive dissonance.
For the problem is much more discordant than you might imagine, and may even be a prelude to even greater mischief of the cacophonous kind.
(Excuse me as I now leave the verbiage of musicology behind and don the robes of psychology.)
You see, this particular piano concerto is commonly referred to as the “Emperor Concerto’ and as such, repeated listening to it could lead your little Clameron to fall prey to a superiority complex.
Yes, as he hums and conducts the complex harmonies of Beethoven in his mind while his slack-jawed peers drool onto their Ipods as they revel in those musical maestros you mentioned, he may subconsciously draw conclusions that could lead to such visions of grandeur.
And such, he would probably end up with anti-social behaviors such as prizing education, thinking critically, contributing to society, and maybe {gasp) even taking a liking to Mozart.
Be that as it may, there are two easy steps to snap him out of this self-destructive behavior.
1. Get cable or satellite TV.
2. Make him watch the Disney Channel 24/7.

He will soon be cured of any nonconformist behavior, and will be able to converse ably with his friends about all the nuances of the latest wacky antics of Zack and Cody, Raven, Hannah, and the East High teens.

Sincerely yours,

Mr. Manners
PS: Please let me know if you need a prescription for his slack jaw, as I will be glad to write one for him. (I have already included your own personally inscribed prescription with this reply.)

What a difference a day makes!

Today they started framing.....