Yesterday Caroline proudly announced: "fish are mammals!" to a friend of mine. My friend noted that "fish aren't mammals" to which Caroline replied "but Dolphins and whales are mammals!" Ha ha! We all got a good chuckle out of that one.

I'm going to try to write a quick post while the kids are busy with crayons. I used to hate crayons with paper on them. Now, I love them. The kids will peel crayons for an hour or so, which generally beats their attention span with other toys.

Isaac has a new habit of telling us he is tired and needs to go to bed. Seriously. He will be at the playground and sit down next to me and insist. "I tired. I need to go to bed." And when this doesn't work, he will again insist "I need a nap." I know he's tired, but his nap time is 1-3pm and if he doesn't nap during the allotted time, he doesn't nap at all. Mean mommy, I know. For a while he used to refuse his nap and then would promptly fall asleep at 4pm, only to then refuse to go to bed until close to 11pm. No more. I've learned. He is napping more regularly these days, which is nice.

Well, chaos has ensued so I must depart this post for now. I will surely add on a bit tonight.

Today I had the lovely experience of receiving a bill at a restaurant with a "Mandatory Gratuity" of 18%. It was a smallish pizza place near 42nd St and Broadway and the menu made no mention of their mandatory gratuity policy. I would also like to add that the mandatory gratuity was added on AFTER the tax was calculated (9% sales tax+ 18% gratuity). Ridiculous. The service was TERRIBLE. We ordered our food and drinks and received them after a bit of a bit of a wait, which wasn't too long. The server disappeared after dropping off our food, and was only seen again after Todd went to have my glass refilled with water. We did not pay the gratuity (well some of it) because there was no mention of this on the menu and the service was terrible! If they are going to make it mandatory, they need to be explicit about this ahead of time. When I hear that the tip is mandatory, it makes me want to run, because it usually means the service will be lousy.

Husband here, posting about the kids.

The fighting among the kids lately has been unpleasant. I think that our living near the arctic circle at the summer solstice has something to do with it; they are waking up at 5:15 every day and are cranky for the rest of the day. This part of moving them to the other bedroom hasn't worked out so well.

I have been known to spank the kids; as he who administers violence, I am on the hook for doing so justly. For the most part, I try to be guided by english common law, and I only spank for common-law crimes. Perjury has been a problem of late. Affray has reared its ugly head a time or two, as have battery and mayhem. Property crimes receive leniency, because they are difficult to adjudicate. At what point does putting a toy down constitute abandonment and lapse of title? (The Wife points out that squatters' rights exist at common law.) If I can't clearly define property interests, it seems unfair to punish the kids for their independent estimates, unless clearly made in bad faith. I leave such matters to equitable, not legal, resolution. Even then, as one of favorite maxims points out, equity is a mean drunk.

In general, though, I am trying to keep the violence to the minimum that is compatible with not raising little hoodlums. However much I dislike spanking and ear-grab-corner-marching, that goal takes precedence. Dura lex, sed lex.

This morning Anna waved and said "bye-bye" to her daddy. It was so cute!

Caroline is studiously trying to learn to read. We are very close, I think. I found her in her bed with a pile of her daddy's papers on Programming in Martin-Lof's Type Theory (the O in Lof, has an umlaut above it, not sure how to do that in blogger) and an old pair of his glasses. She was showing me the words and making reasonable attempts to sound them out. I'm not sure what she was doing with the glasses though. Anyway, we are working on reading and writing. She is good at writing her own name and her brother's name. I'm very proud of her progress on the reading and writing front. I anticipate much more of that in her future!

Anna sorts shapes and colors

Anna has a slew of new tricks these days. She is such a character to be around. She is dramatic and loud and fast. She can climb furniture and is working on the windows (we have window guards). She likes to wear my shoes around the apartment. She refuses to wear her own shoes anywhere. She takes them off when she's in the stroller and throws them. I've stopped bothering with shoes when she is in the stroller. She has a rather deep raspy voice and can project her feelings very effectively. People have frequently commented on her vocal abilities. She is absolutely a joy to be around though.

One of her impressive new tricks is her uncanny ability to sort things by color and shape. She will bring me some wooden shapes and they will all be the same shape, size and color. She likes to put things in boxes and bags, just like her big sister. She loves my cell phone and my purse. On a few occasions, I have just given in and handed her my purse. She will entertain herself with its contents for an hour.

Anna also loves to color. I can put her in her high chair with some paper and crayons and she will color on the paper for 15 or 20 minutes.

Anna Sophia loves to be sweet and cuddle with me. She will even fall asleep in my lap on occasion. I think this is a really special age for children. I love being able to see their personalities unfold and be a witness to their development as a person. It is also amazing to see them experience things for the first time.

Well, it is getting late now and those dishes don't do themselves, so until next time...adios!

Isaac gets dressed.

Isaac's newest trick is to pick out his clothes and dress himself. He is getting good at both tasks. His opinions on what looks good together, however, are very interesting. He loves his sweater vests. And his button up shirts. And he loves wearing sweater vests with button up shirts with his swimming trunks. I don't understand it, but he has his own sense of style. And confidence. And I see no need to get in the way of either. The only clothing he is particular about matching is his pajamas. He likes to match tops and bottoms and usually insists on color coordination. I am quite delighted at this new found self-sufficiency and I hope it carries forward to other things like potty training. :)

Caroline and the primates.

We have been teaching Caroline about mammals. She knows that mammals have hair/fur and mammal mommies feed their babies milk. We recently have taught her how to distinguish primates from non-primates. Just the other day, she announced to a Parks Department employee that while giraffes are mammals, they are NOT primates. And then said "they don't have thumbs". We are trying to teach her about other types of animals as well. She loves most animals, but for curious reasons does not like kangaroos. Who doesn't like kangaroos? Well, anyway, it's nice to see that she is developing her thought processes when she talks about animals.

20 Weeks!

Today marks the official half way point in my pregnancy! We are having a baby boy. I'm so excited about the sweet little baby we saw smacking his little lips together on the ultrasound. We saw his little fingers and toes and everything else. He looks very healthy and active and weighed in at 12 oz or so. I'm so blessed to be the mommy of 2 girls and 2 boys! We are going to name him Patrick (we think) and are still working on the middle name.

It's a BOY!

 

 

 

Our first day at the playground!

 

 

 

Homeschooling in the Lewis household.