Love Paint 2008: Two Kids, Ten Minutes and the Long Forgotten Silent Auction Win.

In was quiet, which resonates loudly in the Curtis household. Distant giggles could be heard. I was mowing the lawn when the tribal children giggled their way out of the house to show off their creation. It’s not that I didn’t know the mint, strawberry, banana and blueberry sensual love paint that was won at a charity silent auction existed; It’s that it still lurked somewhere in our house. They had a GREAT time decorating themselves. So the custom curtains that took a year to arrive and had to be returned twice we’re covered in scented rainbow. And the bed, sheets, clothing, carpet, walls, railings, floors had to be creatively scrubbed. And sure we need to buy a new toilet seat. But, they were happy.  Really, really happy.

My Tooth Is Loose!

Lucy has her very first loose tooth. She’s excited, anxious, scared all the while playing up her newly discovered shortfalls as she giggles through life with a wiggly tooth. “Mommy, you need to cut the corn off my cob, I won’t be able to eat it with my loose tooth.” “I don’t think I’ll be able to eat an apple ever again for the rest of my life now that I have a loose tooth.” Her commentary, bordering on Man Pain, becomes passionately exaggerated while she describes what she’s unable to do now that her tooth is loose. Even walking around the zoo, the place of her dental discovery, becomes tricky as she doesn’t want the tooth to drop suddenly to a place she won’t be able to find it. She’ll need to walk with her hand over her mouth … just in case. No one wants to lose a tooth and have nothing on offer during times of treasure and tooth fairies. Though days have passed, the tooth continues to wiggle. Hanging in there until the time is right. School pictures are but weeks away. The tooth, no doubt, has this date pegged.

Harry Poppins

Otto and Lucy enjoyed the first half of Harry Potter last night. They both were totally into it. Every time Harry left the scene, Otto in his delightfully cute, slightly airheaded way kept asking where “Harry Poppins” went. “Is that Harry Poppins?” “Where Harry Poppins go?” Lucy, the perfectionist, becoming perturbed would correct him until finally giving up and giggling at his continual Poppinating of the main character.

This is Lucy’s last week before for she begins her first day of school. She’s really exciteed and has already began stating what she’d like in her lunch box. Her teacher wrote her a little note telling her how excited she is to have to in her class. They’re having a treasure hunt for the kids to explore their new room.

Minty is still nothing but chubble. She’s really into throwing her plate to get a refill. She also enjoys screaming at Lucy and Otto when she doesn’t get her way. Chubble may not have many words, but she makes up for it in volume. Not only is she a little climber, she’s also a screamer and a thrower. You go chubble. Make your family work.

Lucy Rides a Bike

Lucy learned to ride a bike last week. Jean took photos. I wrote up some notes from the experience.

 

Some Photos from Recent Days when it wasn’t Raining

I put some photos up on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentcu/sets/72157605470796221/.  

Otto with Lacross Ball, Ramones t-shirt and a sore head. I like this photo despite poor Otto’s pain.

 

A Chubble Is

Otto is very proud as he joins the underwear club. He’s the kid who spends twenty minutes meditating on his porcelain flush buddy. If he keeps this up, he’ll be offered a book to help pass the time. He will soon be doing chonie overnighters as his progress with potty training has been stellar.

Minty, however, is perfecting door opening, which exposes a whole other relationship with the bathroom sensory seat. Let’s just say, the children are doing a refresher course in flushing. Aside from water fun, she is loving cheerio stacking at the table. She can stack two before she knocks the O tower across the kitchen. She’s showing signs of boxing or tennis.

Lucy has composed the beginnings of what could be a smash hit on the Curtis charts. The working title is Chubble and it goes a little something like this: “A Chubble is a little girl with chubby cheeks.”
And continues on to say that while other people have chubby cheeks, a Chubble has the chubbiest cheeeeeeEEEeeeeeks of all.

Don’t I Look Stylish

On any given day, Lucy will wear a minimum of five outfits. When the jammies come off, the first outfit she pulls on is but a mere appetizer before the all day buffet of fashionable creations to come. On her journey from bathroom to basement she’ll be in Otto’s underwear accompanied by a retro, muscle shirt hoody only to return in last year’s Barbie costume as she heads to the veranda. There, she’ll discover Mommy’s bag of old dance costumes headed for the Goodwill. Gleefully she’ll tuck into the bag, pull out a black, silky number and do her quick, no-stitch alterations to take it from a women’s size 10 to a 4T. With one extra long, extra shiny, gold glove on, she’ll play act around the house in search of its mate. One particular afternoon, Lucy joined the family in the garden in an outfit so bold giggles were impossible to hold back. Not pleased with this reaction one bit, Lucy sasses out, “Hey, are you laughing at my style?”

Minty is all about walking, crouching to pick up her favorite ball and standing up from a seated position. If that’s not enough, she’s also tossing in her new favorite word, “bah.” Which is “ball” said in the cutest little Minty voice you can imagine. When she’s not doing all that, she’s hiding behind Daddy’s chair playing peek-a-boo. The girl’s picture is in Wikipedia under “world’s cutest baby.”

Otto is kicking his pretend role-play into high gear. His dramatic scenes are so realistic they fool the casual parental listener who tune in upon hearing Otto’s “I’m hurt” sound. Catching key pieces of plot will lead you to discover that the cries of pain are actually that of Cavey the caveman as he injures his knee climbing the steep cardboard hill of doom in his oversized dump truck in what appears to be the final attempt to save Sharky the finger puppet. Otto is more of a Method Actor, as they say.

She Walks!

Clementine has decided that catching up with her sister and brother is easier as a biped. After months of teasing, she chooses to walk first then crawl if gravity takes hold.

Lucy and Brent grill Trout

There’s good, cheap trout at Costco. It grills well and the kids eat it up, half a fish or more each.

The kids like to help. They touch the fins and play with the fish heads when I remove them (so the fish can fit in the pan). Lucy likes to pick herbs from the garden and put them in the fish bellies.

Daughter with Cardboard Box, Butterfly and Sunshine

Yesterday the sun came out at last and the kids spent all day outside. Since the invention of cardboard, the ultimate kid toy has been the cardboard box. Here Lucy is utilising a box from one of our new water tanks. The butterfly on her head was from her last day in daycare when all the kids in her class got decorated.