Bob is Nice, So is Jesus

So before I get to the details around the title of today's post, my upgrade project is live!  We went live Sunday evening after a couple of scary, this may not happen, moments.  We have had some issues this week, but as of right now we only have one open issue and it is not a critical issue.  So yay for us!

While the kids and Brian were home without me last weekend, Brian had to fill me in on the funny things the kids were doing.  We have the kids toy room pretty much filled to the brim with all of their toys now, so they spend a lot of time in there.  Evidently at one point Brian asked Isaac what he was doing and the answer was "I am reading my Jesus book, Dad." Isaac held his kids' bible up to make sure Brian knew what he was talking about.  A few minutes later Isaac says to Brian, "Bob is nice, so is Jesus."  We aren't sure if he meant Bob the Builder, Bob Cadwell or some other random Bob that we aren't aware of, but he is nice. 

Isaac is starting to think about things more, I think.  I think this because we will talk about something and then it could be hours later and he will bring the subject up again.  For example, yesterday Brian took the kids down to see the river (our neighborhood has a public access point on the Maumee River).  While they were there Mackenzie asked if they could go swimming and Brian told her no.  There is a very large drop from the land to the river, among many other reasons that we will never go swimming in the river.  Mackenzie, of course, thought the problem was just that they didn't have bathing suits.  So Brian had to explain the dangers to her to convince her that she isn't going swimming in the river.  Isaac chimed in at that point that he was not going to go swimming in the river.  Later when everyone was getting ready for bed, Isaac once again mentioned that he is not going to go swimming in the river.

On another subject, Thursday night Mackenzie, Isaac and I set up our new fish tank.  It is a very small (1.5 gallon) fish tank.  The kids are very excited about getting their fish this weekend.  According to Isaac, Mackenzie is going to get a pink fish and he is going to get a blue fish.  According to Mackenzie, she is leaning towards getting a catfish.  I have a feeling we are going to go home with a few 19 cent goldfish from Meijer.  We will see.  Hopefully I can post a picture of some fish (living) in the fish tank this weekend.

Happy 5th Birthday, Mackenzie!

Mackenzie officially turns 5 years old today at 3:21 pm!  Her Christmas birthday party on Sunday was a huge success.  Thank you to all of the grandparents and aunts and uncles that made sure she was surrounded by her family!  This is the first time that she had all of her cousins with her and she revelled in it.  She loved her presents and is wearing a dress that her cousin Lauren gave her to school today.  We have watched the Mickey Christmas movies that her grandparents gave her numerous times and have done some crafts with presents from her cousins.  Many of the toys have been played with by her and Isaac.  I am very proud of how well she has been sharing her new toys.  I would like to think that 5 years is the beginning of the "easy" parenting, but I am trying not to fool myself.

Mackenzie chose to take marshmallows as her treat to school today (mostly because I totally forgot to bake something).  She really was excited about it though, so I am going to let the mama guilt go. 

Isaac is a typical 2 year old.  He will climb on anything he thinks he can and then jump off of it, he loves to run around and scream, and he wants to do everything himself.  He is starting to dress himself and to use the potty (big yay!).  He also has started telling people he loves them, which I find very enduring. 

A few weeks ago when we were still at Grandma and Grandpa's, Isaac was laying in his crib and Mackenzie was laying in one twin bed while I laid in the other, for bedtime.  My rule was that I would stay in the room with them as long as they laid down and were quiet.  Isaac told me he loved me, and I told him that I loved him. Then he said "Kenzie, I love you."  I like to tell myself that Mackenzie did not respong because she was following my rule.  Isaac said it 5 more times and I finally told Mackenzie that she should respond.  She then told Isaac she loved him too.  It was dark in the room, but if they could have seen me, the kids would have seen the biggest smile my face could produce.

Moving is Almost Over

Fingers crossed and a couple of quick prayers and we will close on our house tomorrow afternoon.  Mackenzie is very excited to get her toys back and has been counting down the days this week.  Isaac is going to think he won some magical prize because I don't think he remembers most of his toys at this point.

Our garden in Grandpa's back yard has been doing quite well and we have gotten quite a few green beans, black beans, and tomatos.  Not so many cucumbers and green peppers yet.  We did get two partial ears of corn though and so far one big pumpkin.  Sadly the pumpkin fell off the vines that had grown up the tomato stakes.  I took a couple of pictures of the kids with the pumpkin.  Mackenzie was very sad that it fell of the vine and was going to die.  Grandma graciously let her put it in the porch and I may be crazy, but I think it is getting oranger.  We will see what happens.  There is another little pumpkin on the vine and I am hoping now that the big pumpkin is detatched maybe the little one will grow and we will get another big pumpkin. 

Drinking Salsa and Bringing Back Abraham Lincoln

So we went to a Mexican restaurant, El Vaquero, for dinner tonight with Linda & Butch, Shannon & Doug and the Rogers kids.  Isaac has decided that he really likes salsa.  At El Vaquero the salsa is the runnier kind of red salsa that is not chunky.  They put it on the table in vessels and then you pour it into little bowls.  Well, the 12 of us were obviously very hungry, because the chips were gone awfully fast.  Isaac decided that it was then time to drink the salsa out of the little bowl.  He is definitely our more adventurous eater.

Tonight I read Mackenzie Bartholomew and the Oobleck at bedtime.  It is her favorite book lately and when we were finished she asked me if there were any kings left and if they were in charge of us.  I explained to her that there are still a few countries left with kings and queens, but that our country has a president named Barack Obama.  She said, "Because someone shot Abraham Lincoln?"  I told her that Abraham Lincoln was shot a long time ago and there have been many presidents since him.  I then had to explain why someone would shoot Abraham Lincoln (I think I went into way too much detail for Mackenzie and should have stuck with "Because John Wilkes Booth was a very bad man."  Mackenzie then said that she knew someone who was going to bring Abraham Lincoln back to life.  I asked her who was going to do that and she responded, "God."  I decided not to get into a discussion about that and just gave her a hug and kiss and told her that I thought that would be nice.

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

I am growing very tired of hearing words like "idiot", "stupid", "poopy", etc. from Mackenzie.  It has gotten so constant that Isaac will now reprimand her and say, "We don't talk like that, right Mom" whenever she uses any of the laundry list of bad words.

I have started taking the iPad away from her as punishment.  Right now that is the worst punishment she can fathom, yet she still has 2 days to go currently.  I am sure that this is normal for a nearly 5 year-old little girl, but it bothers me immensely.  I am also sure that the reason she continues to do it is because it bothers me immensely, which bothers me even more . . .

On a lighter note, Mackenzie has decided that she wants a Christmas themed birthday party for her fifth birthday.  I am loving this, since it makes party planning easy.  I don't even have to buy any decorations.  We are going to have another small family party, like we did for Isaac in April, since we still do not have our own house.  We are working on it though.  We are under contract for what we think is a fabulous 1958 home in a great neighborhood that needs a little TLC.  As of now we are scheduled to close on August 31, but we are trying to move that up at least a week in hopes of moving in before Labor Day weekend.  Here is a picture of the house (hopefully I am not jinxing us by putting it up prior to us actually owning it).

Patting versus Rubbing

I am not sure what we did differently between Mackenzie and Isaac, but Mackenzie prefers to have her back rubbed while Isaac prefers to have his back patted.  In fact Isaac hates to have his back rubbed and he whines if I rub his back accidently.  Mackenzie doesn't whine if I pat her back accidentally instead of rubbing, but she informs me that she wants me to pat her back, not rub.

Isaac got his first close encounter with a tractor last weekend, thanks to the Cadwell/Keller family.  We were getting ready to go in the water at Grandma Kathy's cabin when he saw Kevin on the big John Deere pulling his boat down the road to put in the lake.  He quickly forgot about going in the water and wanted to go see the tractor.  We walked down to the Cadwell cabin and Bob was on the lawn tractor.  By this time Mackenzie was running down the road with Brian.  Isaac was too shy to get on the lawn mower with Bob, but after Kevin got off the John Deere he climbed up on the seat to check in out.  In the meantime Mackenzie road on Bob's lap on the lawn tractor.  By the time Mackenzie was done Isaac decided he was brave enough for a ride as well.  Bob instantly becomes Isaac's new best friend.  From then on Isaac wanted to know where Bob was.  The next day we walked down and Kevin took both of the kids for a ride on the big John Deere.  When he dropped off Isaac he said that if he had ridden a few more minutes he was sure Isaac would have fallen asleep (with no patting needed).  We left the lake from there to head back to look at a house in Perrysburg, so we will find out during the next trip to the cabin if Kevin has usurped Bob as Isaac's best friend.

In other news, this evening we made an offer on the house we headed back from the lake to look at.  A few prayers may be in order, so if you read this, please say a quick prayer for us that this works out the way it is meant to be.  Thanks in advance for the help.

The Things They Say

So the other night I was reading Mackenzie a book called "Love You Forever".  Grandma Linda gave this book to either Brian or Mackenzie for Mackenzie's first Christmas.  It is a book about a Mom raising her son and then in the end the Mom dies and the son has his own daughter.  I am not describing it well, it is a very touching book.  Anyway, as I am reading the book to Mackenzie she was asking me about her birth.  One question that I really had a hard time not laughing about was "How did the doctor get me out of your belly?  Did he give me a rope?"  Another was "When I was in my tummy and you ate food, did it hit me?"  I was trying really hard not to crack up at her questions because she was really serious and I could tell that she was thinking really hard and trying to process all of this information.  What a wonderful gift for me to get to observe as she grows and figures all of this stuff out.

Isaac has definitely entered his "Why" phase as well and the questions are never ending on his part either.  Right now I am busy answering the same question over and over and over again.  I try not to crack up at Isaac either with some of his questions and mannerisms.  He has an incredibly cute way of wrinkling up his nose when he doesn't like an answer.  He also has started throwing himself on the ground and kicking the floor, true 2 year old tantrum style, when he is told "No".  Right now it is still kind of cute, but I am sure that will get old fast.