Socks

You can't even begin to imagine how many socks we go through. Keeping track of them all has become nearly impossible. I literally have a mountian of mismatched socks on my dresser. After each load of laundry I dutifully sort through them trying to find a mate for each one. It seems my efforts are futile as my pile grows exponentially each time. Today while we were at Target getting shoes for the boys I had a lightbulb moment. I really don't know why I didn't think of this sooner. I decided that Macie, Chase and Owen are all going to wear the same everyday socks. We bought 3 packages of plain white socks to start. Luckily they all wear almost the same size so that wasn't an issue. When we returned home I purged their drawers of all their old socks and put them in the giveaway pile with all their lonely counterparts. Either our pile of unwanted socks is going to make someone very happy or we'll be seeing a lot of sock puppets around here real soon.

Queen Bee

About a month ago Macie took first place in her school spelling bee. She competed against 30 fourth and fifth graders who had each won their respective class bees. She will go on to compete in the St Louis Post Dispatch spelling bee on March 7. If she advances to the next round, she would compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee(I'm assuming they do a Missouri version first). We are so proud of her but most importantly she is proud of herself. I can't figure out how to post the dvd. I won't be winning any awards for that!

There is a funny story that goes along with this. When I was in sixth grade I took second place in our school spelling bee. The girl who came in first was so horrible to me. I remember my classmates making fun of me for getting second as well. Anyway, my mother, being the person that she was, made me go and support this girl at the next competition. I remember sitting there and just seething and being so angry at my mom I wanted to scream. I also remember knowing the word that knocked her out of the competition(I don't remember it now.) Obviously, as a parent I can see what my mom was doing. As an eleven year old, it was dreadful! So glad Macie doesn't have to endure this kind of parenting. Can you imagine, a parent making their child do the right thing and be the bigger person? Thanks Mom!

PS-I forgot to mention she was the first fourth grader to win in over 10 years!!!!

a Baby no more

Our baby girl turned 2 yesterday. She officially moved from baby to toddler, though she's had the toddler part down for quite awhile. I have to say, I wasn't as wistful about turning 2 as I was with 1. I am really looking forward to this next year and all the independence that it brings. I am well aware of the challenges of this age but I say bring it on!

Sign of the Times

Lastnight while we sat and watched the Grammy awards with the kids, Macie and Chase were playing on their nintendo ds's. It was very quiet. I didn't realize that they could communicate with each other through their ds's. They were writing each other back and forth and cracking each other up. I'm not sure what they were saying but they seemed to be enjoying themselves and they weren't fighting. It was funny to watch our 2 older kids be so technologically savvy. My cell phone is a dinosaur and I wouldn't know how to text someone if my life depended on it. I guess it's just a sign of the times. I hope they'll be satisfied with this for awhile b/c cell phones are definitely NOT in their near future.