Today...

I cleaned raw egg out of the carpet. And now I am moving on to the wet, mushed up teddy grahams in the carpet.  If this what the end of two looks like,  I don't want to do three! I would never have believed that anyone could give a toddler aged Wally a run for his money!

And Then I Met Georgia!

A Little Bit Of, Not Much Going On

I have not been up to much. I did give my house a good dose of some much needed scrubbing. These past few months have left some areas at the bottom of my priority list.  Cleaning out those forgotten areas makes one contemplate deep decisions like, 
"Just how many gross, once black, deodorant, hair product, and toothpaste covered elastic bands do I REALLY need?"
Or,
"At what point do I decide that I should just go ahead and repaint the crayon colored wall instead of using an entire box of Mr. Clean Magic Erasers?"

And when was the last time you pulled out YOUR fridge and cleaned behind it? Scary.

And please tell me I am not the only one who finally goes through "The Stack," (you know that pile of papers that seems to be the catch-all for junk mail, school papers, and new visiting teaching route updates.) And realized that you did not attend "Family Literacy Night" OR "Guys Night Out," because the flier somehow got swallowed up and forgotten.

Aaaa...well. My baby is still pretty cute, so here are some pictures of him. Little Mr. Cheeks, and no neck.

Jessie

Rock My World

                                                                                                      Walker and Will
Pretty crazy! Early, early this morning I was lying awake in bed, trying to find sleep again after being up with the baby. Suddenly a massive boom sound jolted me into consciousness, followed by lots of rumbling and shaking. I have never been in an earthquake that I was awake to feel, and this one surprised me. I guess moving away from the fault line in Utah didn't do anything to lessen my risk of experiencing an earthquake! The Chicago area has its own fault line.
I thought one of my kids had fallen out of bed at first. That is all my brain could relate to. But that was quickly replaced with lots of shaking around. The wall behind my bed groaned and made a popping noise. I sat up and said Del's name, but it woke him up, so we both jumped out of bed.

And to think that was just a 3.8 to 4.3 magnitude and nothing even fell off the wall. (Every new channel has a different magnitude, so who knows.)  I can't imagine the terror of being in Haiti.


On a completely different note.

Wally came home from school with a new library book about aliens. He was cooing and playing with
Walker, holding the book up for him to see.

All of this was said in high voiced baby talk.

" Look Walker, I have a book about aliens.  Don't be scared, aliens aren't real. It's non-fiction."

I laughed into my hand. So funny. And yeah, he did get the "fiction or non-fiction" definitions a little mixed up, but at least he is trying to show off his smarts.

King of The Hill

Wally has ignited a firestorm at the bus stop. We are now watching "King of the Bus Stop" every morning. Wally decided that it is very important to him to be first in line to get on the bus. And apparently one morning he was out there crowing a little too loudly about how he WAS first, because now we send him out the door and watch the races begin.

The kids who don't live as close to the bus stop as we do watch from their parents' cars...and as our garage door begins to open to release Wally from the gate, they all jump into action. Six kids running full speed in all their snow pants, coats, and hats, glory!

One little girl started showing up to stand in the 10 degree or less weather, at the stop about 10 minutes early. This sent Wally into a tizzy! Now he rushes me to help him get ready so that he can be out there FIFTEEN minutes early. I just can't give in. I am not nearly as motivated to claim "first in line" status at the cost of my son becoming frost bitten.

When Wally does get there before anyone else, we get a knock on the door from the losing party after school, complaining about how Wally can't always be first! And I thought a 1st grade little boy could be immature! This is from a 4th grade girl!

Our son has become a motivating factor in getting out of bed on time with the "Bus 26" crowd here in the Chicago suburbs!