It’s about time for an update…

I don’t deserve to be called a blogger.  Happy Chaos needs to be changed to “All Posts…I ♥ Faces”.  Right now, I’m supposed to be reading a 22 page article (and then 2 more of the same after that), write questions for the article, post them, and then respond to all the responders.  Does that make any sense?  Week after week, that’s what I do with a few scholarly papers thrown in for good measure.  College is not fun, but it does give me a sense of accomplishment.  Don’t get me wrong…if someone said I could have a Master’s degree right now, I’d grab it and be done with it.  It stinks having less time with the kids than usual.  Anyway, I thought I’d give an update with some random photos thrown in.  They’re the same ones on my photo blog, but only Rebeckah and Dot ever venture over into that uncharted territory!  :)

 

This Thursday, I’m taking Ben to Akron Children’s for a speech assessment.  I have been putting it off because Ben has made some great strides with his speech this summer.  He still is nowhere near close to where he should be with speech.  What clinched it for me is that Jordyn is starting to talk, and she is gaining on Ben very quickly.  It’s almost unbelievable.  She throws a new word out there on a daily basis.  (computer, water, see you in the morning, night, night, on and on)  I’ve always heard that girls catch on to speech much more quickly.  Nathan barely said a word until after he turned two.  (Mind you, there was no stopping him after that!)  Jordyn is seventeen months.  She definitely has her brothers beat.

 

 

See, doesn’t this make my droning on seem more bearable?

 

Nathan is amazing me with everything he has learned in school.  He is reading short books to now.  When the teacher sent home the sight words list at the beginning of the year, I thought No way is he going to learn all this.  Somehow he has.  He was really unsure at the beginning, but now he is getting much more confident and can actually sound out words.  An update post is not complete without some Nathanisms:

 

Nathan is all about drawing lately.  He came up to me with a whole booklet of art that he had assembled.

Mom, how do you like my pictures?

You did a great job.  I really like that one.  Is it a spaceship?

No, mom.  (said in an exasperated voice) That’s MODERN art!  It’s a very important type of art, you know.

Or today at the park…

I had a lot of fun at the park today!

Great! 

I met lots of new friends.

You did?

Ya, and they were actual humans!

(Either Nathan is used to non-human friends, or he has adopted the Arthur habit of referring to everyone as humans.)

My dear Ben loves, Loves, LOVES the cartoon Chip & Dale.  He won’t call it that, though.  Instead he says, “Mom, I want Too Time!”  I’m sure everyone knows the song as Ben likes to sing it:  Too Time, Too Time…come snehen uphon hu n Too Time, Too time…..Ch..ch..ch…Chip n Dale…. (Otherwise known as, “Sometimes, some crimes, come sneaking up on you, but these two, gum shoes….)  I was singing it the correct way the other day, and Nathan got all huffy mad when I said “gum shoes”.  He was convinced I was calling Ben and him names.  He threatened to turn my “card” from green to yellow.  That’s a serious threat in the Riley household.  No, I don’t do cards at home, but Nathan’s kindergarten teacher does.  She somehow granted him the unalienable rights to institute her card policy at our home.  At least Nathan thinks she did.

 

Anyway, Ben seems to be the singer of the bunch.  He loves music.  I play Baby Einstein DVDs on the way home from the babysitter’s house, and Ben can hum perfectly to the music.

Tomorrow, we’ll be singing a ditty known as Happy Birthday.  (Heard of it?)  The old man will be 36!  Forty is looming menacingly closer with each passing year.  I’m not liking this one bit!  My dad also celebrated a birthday last week, and I forgot to even call him.  (I’m sorry, Dad!)

 

Shari is going to watch the kiddos so we can actually go on a date!  Should be mucho exciting for Mark as I read college articles the whole way there and back. 

Well, it’s time to take a cue from Jordyn, and head to bed.   I’ll try not to wait so long next time to deliver the oh-so-exciting update on the Life of the Rileys.