Mr. Potato Squid

Snow White was so excited to show me her creation.

"YOOK!  YOOK, I make a SQUID!"

Oh. My. Goodness.

Well, I'm not sure if I feel better or worse about it, but I do believe I have discovered the identity of that small critter we saw in the backyard a few weeks ago. It did die, by the way. I kept an eye on it during the day and the last time I went out I had to get my shovel and dispose of it properly. And wash my hands twelve more times.

My sister had jokingly sent me an email saying that it perhaps was this creature:
Which it is not. But that jerboa thing? Weird. Never heard of one of those before.

So today during naptime I was working hard blog-surfing and catching up on the Pioneer Woman and I found pictures that look identical to my critter. It's not a mouse. Oh My Word. It was a

POSSUM.

I think I'm really grossed out.

And yet strangely intrigued.

I called all the kids over to verify and they said YES!! That's our mouse!!

Then I showed them what it would grow up to look like and they were a bit alarmed. Duchess said, "Um, but it died, right? That thing is not in the yard, right?"

Ack.

How Time Flies!

Belle and Duchess will start kindergarten on Monday. They've been together as long as they can remember, but I think they're both excited about their new adventure. I'm feeling all nostalgic and was looking through old pictures of them. We've come so far!

When I was doing daycare with my mom, we bought coordinating shirts for the kids and had a photographer come in for a group shoot as a Christmas surprise for all the parents. Duchess is the little one in the red sitting in my lap and Belle is doing the supermodel pose across the front. All the rest of those kids are long gone, off to first or second grade at this point...

The girls took dance class together on Saturdays when they were two.

No day is complete without some princess dressup time.

Last month at Duchess' birthday party.

Silly? Us? We're never silly!

After our farm field trip last fall.

One of the earliest ones of them together I could still find- we were still at my mom's so they had to be less than two.

The first summer in my playroom.

They thought it was so funny to all climb into bed with Haylie when she was here.

More Princess fun at Halloween 2005.

One of our many birthday celebrations.

It's so exciting and strange to think of them in kindergarten. Keep in touch girls! We love you!

Sharing: Toddler Style

Scene: Breakfast

Me: hey Sebastian, you want some more nectarine?
S: NO!
Me: What happened to yours? Did you eat it?
S: NO! Yucky. I give to Dooce. (that's his stab at saying O'Malley's name, which is not really close to the real thing, but is cute.)

I look over and sure enough, O'Malley has a double-sized portion of nectarine and is snacking away happily.

Me: Sebastian, if you don't want to eat it, just leave it on your plate. Don't give your food to your friends, okay?

As I go to the sink, I hear:

Ariel: O'Malley, you want my nectarine too? I give to you.

Why can't they share toys this nicely?

Gorgeous

Here's my newest recruit! I can't wait to get my hands on this baby in a few weeks.




Is she not fabulous?

Miss Marie

Marie is back! She had gone home for the summer and I wasn't sure if we would get to see her anymore, but it turns out that we do. She'll be here until around October when her mama goes on maternity leave and she gets to go home with her new little sister.

She has learned about four hundred words since she left in May. It's like we got a different person back- a total conversationalist. She's told me her little sister is sleeping in Mommy's tummy, not ready to wake up yet. It's so cute. She remembers all the routines and has slipped back into the rhythm of our day very easily. No transition needed at all, which is very nice.

I need to take some new pictures of her because her hair has gotten really long too.

This week begins the season of changes that we have going on- I have eight kids just for this week, then next Monday Belle will go off to kindergarten and I'm back to seven. At the end of September I'm getting a delicious teeny squishy six week old, who is currently one week old. I'll post pictures of her once I get permission from her mama. She's so greasy and wonderful. :)

Sleepy

This is Mu-shu. If you haven't seen Mulan, Mu-shu is the little Chinese dragon that follows her around and talks to her, kind of like Jiminy Cricket but not so wise, since he's voiced by Eddie Murphy. I was trying to think of what I could call him and I figured this was a good choice since they live in China.

He's gone back home now, but I'm still going through pictures. Eating lunch is really hard work.

He was actually on the way up in this second picture because he heard me laughing at him, but he just couldn't get his eyes to open...


When I took the tray off, his head leaned forward and thunked into the side of the chair. Audibly. It didn't phase him a bit.

New Look

With some help, I finally figured out how to do something other than the boring Blogger template I've been using forever. I may change it around pretty often now that I know how. It's nice to see something different up there, I think.

And I know there were about eight cute conversations I wanted to blog about, and now I can't remember any of them. Maybe later...

What Is It?

There is a little something living inside the Little Tikes house in the yard. O'Malley and Snow White discovered it and both screamed- Snow ran out and O'Malley was stuck in there with it, afraid to get past it. I was worried it was a snake or something the way they were carrying on, but no. Small furry something.

I think it's a mouse- that seems most logical, but they're all convinced it's a rabbit. They say the ears are too long for a mouse. The body and fur look like mouse to me though.

It doesn't run away when you get close. I actually pet it when they weren't looking, after I told them all how dirty it probably was, and a wild animal, and under no circumstances were any of them to touch it. (and yes, I washed my hands....) I want to scoop it up and bring it in the house for a pet. I probably won't though. I'm guessing it's sick, or at least a runt of some litter, and I don't want to introduce the "death of a pet" thing just yet.

I know the pictures are blurry, it's hard to see it. It kept burrowing its face into the grass and then the camera wanted to focus on the grass instead of the animal. What do you think it is?