What I Know

• I know this is post number 101.  How did I miss number 100?! 
• I know I'm exhausted.  This week was too much.  That's what I get for trying to improve my professional self.  It went something like this:
• Monday - work, dance class for Kate and Erin, make my first attempt at finishing our taxes.
• Tuesday - an observation day at another school, witnessing ETM in action, then finally finish our taxes.
• Wednesday - work then go to ETM class (see below).
• Thursday - take the day off to take Christopher to a "big" appointment, then head to work. Wait. Didn't I initially take the day off? Then go to Kate's Open House.
• Friday - sit on an interview panel all day then head to my class, get home at 9:00.
• Saturday - my final class of the course.
• I know I do not like using a public restroom when there is only one other person in the bathroom and you hear everything they are doing. Or producing. At least if there are three or more people:
1. You can't really tell who just tooted.
2. It's highly likely one of the other people will flush or run water or turn on the air dryer at an important point in the process of using the bathroom, thus disguising any sounds you do not want to hear or do not want others to hear.
3. If someone walks in they cannot tell which of the rest of the group of people left the smell in the bathroom.  Not that I did this, I just don't want to be blamed of this. Nothing worse than stinking up a public bathroom with your hot ass.  And not hot in a good way
• I know my children are the cutest kids on earth, when they're well fed, well rested and have clean diapies. Thank goodness I only have to worry about clean diapies on one child.
• I know that I do not know enough about the human brain.  I am taking a class called Education Through Music, through the Richards Institute of Education and Research.  The big idea is that a child's development and sense of well-being in learning and in the community, can be fostered through the study of song and play.  So I have been studying song and play.  Sounds easy and fun right?  It is fun! But I get so deeply moved by the concepts and research and ultimately completely frustrated that education, particularly in California, is so far out of touch with what children truly need to learn.  Not what they need to learn, but what they need to have in place before we can teach them to read and write.  And don't get me started about starting children in school at 4 years old. Or academic preschool at 2.
• I know Kate is hilarious.  We had a discussion about boobs today.  She asked if I still had milk in mine.  I explained no, that when a baby stops drinking the milk it dries up. Several seconds pass, then she points to my chest and asks, "Then why are they down here?" 
• I know it won't be long before they won't allow siblings in the bathtub with them.  So here is a picture of all three of them in the tub.  Rub a Dub Dub three kids in a tub.  

• I know it is my bedtime now.  Goodnight!

Erin is Four

Our Sweet Pea (or as her Papa calls her... Punkin Bug) just turned four about a week ago.  She is full of life and truly "four".  We enjoy her so much and can't believe how big she's getting. She just loves annoying her sister and taking care of her little brother.  Just today, we picked Kate up from school and Erin immediately started copying everything Kate said.  Where does she get this stuff?

Erin has known for exactly one year that she wanted to have a Snow White birthday cake.  So I improvised, made a cake and added Snow White figurines on top.  The thing though, about this cake, was that she had to have the witch from Snow White.  Erin got it in her head and Daddy came to the rescue with a witch figurine. 

Erin doesn't like to eat.  She grazes. She would be perfectly happy with a bowl of snacks on the table to eat from all day.  She loves to dress up and immediately removes her clothes whenever we get home to put on a dress up costume.  She needs routine.  She loves imaginative play.  She loves books.  And of course, Brown Bear.   She is very sweet and loving.  I often wonder what being the middle child is like and how this will affect her personality someday.  She will be the child who calls someday at Christmas time, to wish us all happy holidays, from Rome or somewhere exotic.  She is independent, yet connected.

Erin's Version:

"Twinkle, twinkle little star,

How I wonder what you are.

Up above the world so high.

Like a diamond window sky.

Twinkle, twinkle little star, 

How I wonder what you are." 

"Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Like a spider dream."