Andy & Jessica

This just in…my older brother Mike is engaged!!!  His bachelor status has been a manner of international interest, with people as far away as Germany asking regularly about his status.  Apparently he popped the question to Sara this morning when he picked her up at her house.  Sara described the proposal as “Mike-like” and “not very elaborate.”  He had one hand full of free Uline gear and another hand behind his back and said, “pick a hand.”  She must have said yes and the rest is history.  It is a beautiful sparkler and left my mom, sister and I jealous and wanting to run and clean our more dirty, modest rings.  We are so excited for them!

 

 

Jude is a total know-it-all. He often says, “I knew that” after I tell him stuff that I know he didn’t know. For example, yesterday he was talking about how he could do my job. I rattled off the long forms of a number of acronyms that I work with “the Employee Retirement Income Security Act”, the “Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act”, and the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”  He said, “I knew that” each time after I said what the acronym stands for.  Then he later changed the subject and said, “World War II and World War I – those were one of the bloodiest wars ever. (I laugh at my know-it-all) Really, Mom.”

Jude is a very curious boy.  He’s so curious that he asked me whether anybody has too much blood in their body.  I said I didn’t know but I would guess that there probably is some disease out there that causes someone to produce too much blood.  He said (knowing that his nose-picking results in him getting frequent nose bleeds), “As long as I pick my nose, I will never have too much blood.”

“I think we can give Bobo [Asher] a treat for every new word.”

Little Levi was displaced from his crib and his room when we returned from Indiana since we decided it was time to move Asher out of the basinette in our room and into the crib in the nursery.  Now Levi thinks our room is his room since it is where he falls asleep (and then he is often transferred to his real room with Jude).  Levi and Asher (aka Bobo) were running around on top of our bed this morning and Levi had the biggest grin and said, “Bobo’s in my room.”

I like to constantly tell my boys how much I love them.  Today I said to Jude, “What would we do without you.”  It was really more of a rhetorical question, but he quickly offered an answer, “You’d save money without me.”  He’s got that right.

Today we went to the Mall of America, expecting a super fun time at Sky Deck, decorating Christmas cookies, playing arcade games, bowling, and taking a picture with Santa. I had even picked the boys out coordinating outfits, hoping to get a cute picture of them to distribute at Christmas time. I hadn’t spent hardly any time on my own appearance, since I didn’t even want to be in the picture. But, things didn’t go according to plan. The boys had a great time decorating/eating cookies and Jude had a great time playing arcade games. But, then I decided it was time for the picture of my 3 cute little boys that I wanted so badly. I waited in line with the 2 little ones so Jude could get in more game time. Then when it was almost our turn, I called Andy to join us. But, Jude just wouldn’t behave. Andy and I ended up having to be in the picture and Jude kept hiding his face in my lap and being a total pill. I’m sure we didn’t get a single usable shot. Annoying. Then Andy got the good idea of just heading home after that to teach Jude a lesson. When Jude realized that we were leaving because he hadn’t behaved himself, he threw a temper tantrum and was screaming and crying almost the whole way home. It was kind of sad since he was asking me for “one more chance.” He really wanted to go back and play games. Well, I’m thinking it may be memorable enough for him to encourage better behavior in the future. I suppose none of this would have happened if our kids actually believed in Santa Claus because then, I’m guessing, they would have been on their best behavior.

Yesterday, after karate and a quick trip to the next door Dollar Tree, Jude, Asher and I were driving Jude to bible memory club.  I wanted to spend the trip going over Jude’s verse since I was quite sure that he didn’t know it all that well since I didn’t know it all that well and I’m the one who works with him on his verses.  He wanted to instead play with his new glow sticks that we bought at the dollar store.  He told me, “Don’t worry.  I have everything under control.”  He went on to tell me that he had never not gotten a signature for his verse and had no reason to believe that it would be any different tonight.  I hope I’m not raising a slacker!

When Andy learned that Jude wanted a llama for his birthday, he suggested that Jude and I google the difference between a llama and an alpaca.  Jude and I read about the differences and I had a strong preference in favor of the smaller, cuter, curly haired alpacas.  Jude had a strong preference for the larger, longer haired and uglier llamas.  Then Jude went to Andy and said, “You shouldn’t have asked that question.  Mom and I got into a big fight about it.  She wants an alpaca and I want a llama.”

Jude is still 5 months away from his 6th birthday, but he is already starting to assemble his birthday list. He said to me tonight, “Can we like get a llama? That’s going to be what I want for my birthday. Please! I really want a llama for my birthday!”