Lennox loves to watch his brothers. I swear he learns more by their visual stimulation than anything else. One of his favorites is to watch them run circles from the kitchen, through the family room, down the hall, through the living room, the back again. Lennox will crawl as quickly as he can in pursuit of his running brothers, and when unable to keep up with them, he will wait patiently for them to round the corner. I've tried to video record it, but there's nothing like watching it live. It's a real show.

Today I gave Lennox a kitchen sink bath (his days are numbered for those, sigh), and movement outside the window caught his attention: his brothers were making "chocolate soup" in the mud and he thought the action was more than entertaining. To demonstrate, he stood up, leaned over the sink, and just watched, contented, but almost certainly with a longing to be somewhere he couldn't be at that moment, yet happy enough to just observe the scene.

One day he'll be the center of the action. Until then, brother watching will have to do. ---SM

My sister and I have had some pretty killer Scrabble tournaments this week. Our new standard is scoring two seven-letter words, each, in any given game, in addition to the usual words. Staci set that pace---she's a natural wordsmith. After every game, we're only a few points away from each other, so we literally take turns winning because, well...we're just that good. (LOL!) Now that the boys are learning their letters, they'll sit on mine or Staci's lap and announce what letters they see.

Funny. I just thought of how my grandmother and her sister used to play Scrabble almost every time my great aunt visited my grandmother's house. And they scored neck-in-neck, as well; although my grandmother, like me, thought her sister was the superior player.

Tomorrow we will play pinochle, ranked amongst our favorite family games, and one that my grandfather takes rank. I know my boys will learn the game eventually since it's sort of a pastime whenever we all get together. As it is, they have their own deck of cards that on each card my dad has drawn a huge black line through both sides, clearly identifying "the boys' cards." The twins sit next to us around the table and talk to their cards as if they're talking with other players. The baby just folds, chews, and taps on his.

Today, though, we played dominoes---this is where my mom's strategy shines, and while the boys weren't part of the play, they engaged in a little extra grandparent love while trying to figure out what those spots were on the dominoes! ---SM

My dad took the boys for a walk this morning and made it as far as the neighborhood elementary school---not in session due to Presidents' Day. A wonderful surprise waited there in the form of an empty parking lot with lots of puddles and even a few swimming worms under boot!

Who says there's no fun when it rains? ---SM


(Photos by Auntie Staci)

The young women I work with at church conducted a "heart attack" for our activity this Valentine's week. We decorated cookies then took them to some of the women in our congregation. If you've never done one of these before, it's a service project of sorts, and here's how it works:

The leaders drove the girls to seven houses, the girls got out, taped paper hearts to front doors, left a package of cookies on the doorstep, then rang the doorbell and ran. We knocked on doors until 9 p.m., but we had a lot of fun and found out later that several of the women were so thankful to have been remembered on Valentine's Day that they actually cried! How sweet it is! ---SM


Above: Jasmine, me, and a bunch of heart cookies.

K: "Hey, Mama?"
Me:"Yes?"
K: "Can we get the chai's [chairs] down and wait fo' Dad come home f'om wo'k?"
Me: "Yes."
K: "C'mon, Doey. Let's wait for Dad."
G: "Yeah. OK."
K: "(Gasp!) I see him!"
G: "Nope, not yet."
K: "(Gasp!) Yes, I see him; I see him!"
G: "Yeah! Daddy home!"



The rule is, when the car stops, they can get out of their seat to say hi to dad. They stick to the rule---Justin hardly gets the door open before they get to the car. It's always a race to get to him first. (And yes, there are two boys hugging Justin in this picture!) What you don't see is Lennox who is usually crawling up behind the boys to get his welcome-home-dad hug, too. Since we were outside today, he was sitting in the stroller. ---SM

Ummm....tissue, please? Anyone? Anyone?

(Let's face it, this picture is just too good not to post. Thanks, B, for reminding me to grab my camera before grabbing the tissue---no, wait, it was a wet wipe. I actually used a wet wipe to mop that slimy stuff off his face! Hee...hee!)



But the whole afternoon was more about fun than snot. Really. In fact, it was just good to get out after a few days of rain. Kellen had negotiated with me for the past two days, "Mama, we go to the pa'k (park) after our snooze?"

To which I'd reply, "The park, huh? Do you think it's too wet?"

And he'd answer with a giant smile, "Oh, the pa'k. I think it's a good idea."

So we finally made it there, and he hardly ate his lunch, which is saying something for little boy gobbler. Rather, he was in bliss running with Grant and Ben and swinging bellyside on the swings. ---SM

Is your toilet paper tired of being stacked in the same old place?

Are you ready to rearrange your bathroom cabinets?

Look no further: here's a dynamic duo who will help you think outside the box (or cupboard, or drawer system, etc.).

Our team will:

--work well together for very short time periods.

--actually name their new creation (the one pictured below is simply, "castle").

And if you don't prefer their arrangement, they'll tell you they're too tired to put it back to the way it was. But hey, they'll have you looking at dust bunnies from a whole new perspective. ---SM

Last month, the boys were walking on the path behind our house when Kellen said, "What that, Mama?" He was pointing to the long, leafless branches that were hanging from one of the trees. I'm not sure what kind of a tree it is, but on this winter day it looked like it belonged in a jungle, and the first response I had for Kellen was, "Monkey vines!"

"Monkey vines?" Kellen asked, dubiously. Then he turned to Grant, "Monkey vines, Doey!"

Both boys thought that was funny and decided they would be monkeys and swing from the vines. And they laughed and laughed and laughed while Lennox watched. ---SM