A quick note on the holidays and Emmett’s birthday party. We got TONS of gifts. So many that we started to believe that every day we woke up was another present-receiving opportunity. We got Legos, crafts, pajamas, books, science experiments, dolls, art projects and supplies, engineering projects, wrist watches and clothes. (And rumor is that some gifts got delayed in the mail, so we still have some coming. Score!) We loved to be back in Colorado, seeing family and friends, and generally showing off. We got to see (and play in) snow. We hit up the museums and parks and hiking trails we loved and now miss. And then we came home for more presents. Wonderful month.

“Choose Butt-mode, Riley.”
–Tessa, while advising Riley on how to play the Rescue Bots Transformer game on their Leappad. She meant Bot-mode. But unfortunately, all the kids mis-heard and misunderstood the term.

“No.”
–Asher, while doing almost everything. Its his favorite new word. He’s embraced it in a way the other kids never did. Perhaps he’s setting boundaries with rowdy and slightly out-of-control older siblings.

“I don’t like you anymore. I’m going to rent a car and go to Colorado.”
–Riley, while angry that Dad wouldn’t let him put a toy into the cart while shopping

“I’m going to steal your keys while you are asleep and take your car to Colorado. And you can’t stop me.”
–Tessa, equally angry, circumventing the obvious obstacle of getting to the rental car place

“Mama, they are brown like me! And like Asher!”
–Emmett, who’s just now recognizing that there are a lot of people out there who share his luminous skin color

“Look Mama, we match.”
–Emmett, hugging Asher to him in the tub

“We got Doritos, a football cookie, chocolate milk, potato chips. And we got to play games on the Leappad and Nook the entire time.”
–Riley, enumerating the myriad bribes employed by Mom and Dad to keep him quiet while flying

“Presents! Presents!”
–Emmett and Riley, every time the doorbell rings, believing the UPS or FedEx man has brought something for them

“Let’s roll to the rescue, Rescue Bots!”
–Tessa, when mounting her bicycle

“We don’t eat animals. Or babies. Or people.”
–Tessa

“No, we don’t eat anything that’s cute.”
–Riley

“Mmmm hmmm.”
–Asher, humming the tune to “Let it Go”

“Lets measure me to see if I got bigger from my growing pains.”
–Riley, after a particularly painful night of growing pains in his legs

“I know who he is! Santa is a dinosaur!”
–Tessa
“No, Tessa. He’s a skeleton.”
–Riley, when they were asked if they wanted to meet Santa at an area tree lighting

“Emmett, where did you put your hooker?”
–Tessa, referring to a hanger

We’ve been responsible for more than ourselves lately. Mom ordered us caterpillars for our butterfly habitat and a tadpole (another one) for our grow-a-frog kit. We loved the caterpillars. 10 tiny ones came in two separate cups in the mail. We watched them double in size every day. It was amazing. They spun silk webs. And the ate and molted. Ate and molted. And ate and molted. Then they attached themselves to the underside of the top and hardened. Before we knew it, they were cocoons.

Meanwhile, our tadpole grew legs with teeny toes. Our new taddy is see through. So, we can watch his heart beat. Its amazing. When he grows into a frog, he’ll stay in the water. He’s not a normal bullfrog (which didn’t fare so well in our aquarium). We are watching every day for his legs to get bigger and for his arms to start to grow too. Once they do, he’ll absorb his tail and start looking more and more like a frog.

Isaac wasn’t lost in all this animal love. We all worked as a team to brush him in the garage. Tessa and Emmett had brushes, Riley had the vacuum to suck up all the hair, and Mommy supervised. Isaac was a very, very good sport. Even when Riley sucked up his ear with the vacuum hose, he just whined as if asking “Is this all truly necessary?” We gave him the okay to jump up after about 10 minutes, at which point he ran into the house and upstairs to hide in a back bedroom. Maybe he wasn’t having as much fun as we were?

Before we knew it, our butterflies emerged from their chrysalis. All of them. They were sneaky about it. We never actually saw them emerging. One second they were all packed into their cocoon, and the next they were stretching their wings and holding on tight to the mesh wall of their habitat. And when we took them outside to let them go free, they didn’t want to leave it. (The uncharacteristically low temperatures might have had something to do with that. But if we didn’t set them free, they’d lay eggs in the house and Mom didn’t want that.) So we held them on the tips of our fingers adding our own heat to that of the weak sunlight, waiting for their wings to warm. When they decided they were ready, they flapped up and away, and we wished them well.

With love,
The Pigs

Hi All!

Checking in again…

Halloween here was fantastic. Riley went as the Transformer Bumblebee, Tessa as Elsa from Frozen, Emmett as Merida from Brave, and Baby as Puss-in-Boots. Pop-pop arrived that afternoon, so he came trick-or-treating with us too. The weather was amazing. No rain and in the 50s. Perfect for making a loop through the neighborhood, which was PACKED with kids.

We started across the street where we saw our friends (who were dressed as Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes). Emmett’s main goal was to see and speak to as many Elsa’s as he could. We’d recently been at Disney on Ice (where a great time was had by all, except for the scary Disney villain Halloween number), and his focus there was a similar one. On Halloween, he got his wish, as well as branching out a bit with the Disney Princesses. He saw Ariel, Snow White, and Maleficient.

Riley was mainly focused on the candy, and–as such–he was a speedy Transformer trying to hit as many houses as he could. We would have done well tying a bowling ball to his leg, or making him carry Baby. As it was, he had to be asked several times to slow down and wait for his brother and sister.

Tessa mostly wanted to hold Pop-pop’s hand while making the rounds and she fell behind.

Asher took it all in with both looks of wonder and puzzlement.

The candy haul was marvelous. We each got to pick 5 to keep for ourselves. The rest went into a bag that we aren’t even sure still exists. Sometimes candy appears after dinner, or for a special treat. But not often. And never from the same location. So…

We loved having Pop-pop visit again. In addition to Halloween trick-or-treating, Pop-pop joined us as we went hiking in search of Bigfoot, played with all our toys, and had a lights-out dance party. This was something we did nightly at our old house. Its harder to do here, with the size and all, and we ended up breaking a beer bottle–at which point our party was moved upstairs to the loft where no glass exists. (We should say the lights-out dance party is both about music and our bouncy, light-up balls, the latter of which hit and shattered the bottle.)

We’ve started swimming at a new pool (jury’s out on that one) and rock climbing classes at the Y (which we love almost as much as playing in the human Habitrail located in the next room over). We’ve got a few trips planned: one to a hotel for Thanksgiving (we LOVE hotels, and this one is on the Hood Canal and has a tree lighting the first night we’ll be there) and a tentative trip home to Colorado for a short time just before Christmas. We’ve high hopes for both.

For now, most of our school-at-home consists of a lot of dramatic play. Like hours of pretending we are pirates or princesses. We’ve totally taken our Arts and Crafts to the next level too. Painting and coloring and drawing. Playing with kinetic sand, play dough, Shrinky Dinks, and yarn. And we are spending a lot of time outside. We’ve discovered a few new waterfall parks, and we like to pretend there is a dragon that lives in the bottom of the river there. So we are very sneaky…

Check back next month. So far, s’all good.

Love,
The Pigs

Hi all!

Just a quick note to say that we are doing fantastic. Tessa and Riley did wonderful at the dentist, everyone had some school field trips that were great, and we’ve been busy as a family going places and playing. Riley had a ton of fun at his birthday party, Grandma Cheryl was here for that, and we are all still busy playing with his presents. We are so excited for Halloween on Friday, and we are going to Disney on Ice later today. Fantastic!

Something new that we all voted on is we’ve chosen to do school at home with Mommy again this year. We are a tight knit crew, and we’d rather all be together than be apart. We are like the Super Friends. Strong individually. Unstoppable as a team. Individually we were all making good headway in school and activities. But we know that we are capable of so much more! So we are going to go at it together. Even Baby is excited.

Check back soon for updates on Disney on Ice, Halloween, Pop-pop’s visit, and all our new at-home school activities (we’re most looking forward to Shrinky Dinks, knitting, and making our own chalk board with chalk board paint), not to mention all the time we now have for at-home school field trips! Yay!

Hope you guys are all as happy as we are!
The Pigs

PS Asher is a little parrot. He repeats everything. If you say ‘Asher,’ he’ll say ‘A-sur.’ If you say, ‘night, night,” he’ll say ‘ni-ni.” He even pecks and bites like a baby birdie. Ow!

Craziness has entered the Pig household, and Asher’s caught the bug. He’s not sleeping, he’s refusing his bottle, and his attitude has suffered. But no one is immune. Let’s run down a list of the worst cases of Attitude-itis, shall wel?

Asher screams when not allowed to suck on cell phones (and most other times he doens’t get his way), and he bats away spoonfuls of food when its not to his liking, saying “Uh,oh.” But he’s yet to demonstrate good behavior on less sleep or an aptitude with sippy cups. (He is taking a few steps, now. And we are hoping he’ll be walking by Halloween.)

Emmett taken to yelling “Poopy pants” when he doesn’t getting his way, which, incidentally, is a bit better than Tessa who growls. None of us are sure where either learned their technique. And Riley is demanding, instead of asking nicely, often repeating himself until gets what he wants. (“More milk,” he’ll yell while sitting on the couch watching TV. “Get it, now. Please.”)

Riley and Tessa have also been fighting over the brushes. That’s right. Hair brushes. Riley’s growing his hair out and they both love to brush their hair. They especially like how soft the boar’s bristle brush makes their hair. Riley’s taken to sleeping with it, so that he can brush his hair whenever it gets messy. On the way to school one morning, Riley even told Mom that he didn’t want the wind to mess up his soft hair.

And, it was bound to happen. Tessa’s forthrightness has passed clear into Mean Girl territory. She’s been telling people, “I don’t like you.” Or she’ll say, “Sometimes I like you, but you’re not my friend.” Only slightly better is, “Mama, sometimes I like you and sometimes I like Daddy.” We are working on teaching her that with great power, comes great responsibility. Stay tuned.

Overall, these past few weeks have been good, with a few bumps. We are all looking forward to Halloween. The kids are entering a Pumpkin Decorating contest at their school. Each has their costume already. And all can’t wait til Pop-pop comes back into town to help then trick-or-treat. We may even put up some scary decorations outside.

Check back early next month, when we can report on Riley’s birthday, Halloween, Grandma Cheryl and Pop-pop’s visits, and a few trips to the dentist.

Later,
The Pigs

Mama, I think that chicken might beak me.
–Riley, at the corn maze where there were chickens

I’m your kid, and Asher’s your kid, and Riley’s your kid, and Emmett’s your kid–and Mommy’s your adult.
–Tessa, to Daddy

Yup, there it is. Kindergarten.
–Emmett, when turning down the street to his new school

Tessa, did you have a good day at school?
Yes, but I maybe didn’t listen too well.
–Tessa

School started, and Emmett is officially a kindergartener! He’s learning so much, but his favorite thing is the playground. And getting to ride the bus down the street for PE. He’s adjusting to the schedule and to the responsibilities. But he’s getting it. He even got the High-Five award for extraordinary listening just one week into the school year. He loves his uniform, too. It’s not much. Just a t-shirt or polo with the school insignia. But it makes him feel official. Yay!

Riley and Tessa are doing great too. Riley read his favorite Berenstain Bear book to his class, and he was the only one who could weave a potholder. The teacher marveled at his patience. And Tessa is–well–Tessa. Completely unapologetic in her unwavering self-esteem and knowledge that she possess all of the answers all of the time. We could all learn a thing or two from her.

We found a park that we go to regularly. It took a bit, but we finally found a place that’s big, not too crowded, and has a nature trail. We love to climb the tree there, bash the bushes with sticks, or slide down the super-tall slide. Baby Asher likes to crawl in the grass. Mom and Dad like that its big enough to keep him out of the wood chips. And Riley likes to ride his bike on the trails there. He’s really good at it.

We are all recovering from colds. Tessa, Mommy, and Asher were harder hit then the other boys. Asher even needed some respiratory treatments. But he’s doing great now. Good thing we’ve got the perfect care-giver in Daddy. Medical know-how and a loving touch. What a combination.

We are looking forward to school field trips (to the cider mill and local farm), Riley’s birthday, and Halloween. Grandma Cheryl is even visiting for Riley’s birthday. We love to play with her. (And she always brings special cookies and toys! You can’t beat that.)

With love,
The Pigs

I’ve had enough of this nonsense.
–Tessa after sliding, somewhat unsuccessfully, on a slide and into a pool

Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh, cubby little shubby all stuffed with fluff.
–Riley, singing Winnie’s theme song

Dada.
–Asher

Hi.
–Asher

I’d like a big bowl of “No” for breakfast.
–Tessa, responding to Erik asking if she wanted eggs for breakfast

Brothers don’t marry sisters. So I’m going to marry Mommy when I grow up.
–Riley

And I’ll marry Daddy.
–Tessa

No.
–Emmett, responding to Sarah asking if he was going to marry Mommy too

Oh, there’s no need to apologize.
–Tessa

Yes, I’m fantastic.
–Emmett, when told how great it was that he could read an entire thank you note out loud

But Mommy, this isn’t real. I can’t turn into a car with this.
–Riley, when opening his new transformers Halloween costume