Nicknames

We have lots of nicknames in our family. Mostly for the kids. Some of our kids have nicknames based on nicknames. Ry-ry is a nickname for Riah, which is actually a nickname for her real name of, Moriah. We also call her freckles and cutie. Then once in a while I call her and Emma, Bob and/or George. No reason for those other than those were the first names that popped into my head one day when I wanted to call them something strange. Sometimes Emma is Bob and Riah is George, other times it goes the other way. All of them are routinely called by all 4 daughters names, usually ending in the daughters actual name because we could not get their name right. Hearing something like Emmariahleahsarah", would mean we were trying to say Sarah but couldn't get the name right. Or it might be SarahleahemmaRiah, would mean that we are talking to Riah. We also call Riah goofy, silly and clumsy. Emma has the fewest nicknames. We call her Ems. Other than when we are being silly or can't get the right name out, that is all we call her. Sarah has a few as well. She is called Sarah, sissy, ra-ra, ding-dong, sarah-no-no, and, the best, most descriptive one for Sarah, The Tornado. We just thought a good new one for Sarah would be Fed. Short for Federal Government, because she is always getting into things that she does not belong in. Now our youngest daughter goes by Leah, which is a nickname for her full name of Mileah.Her other names are Lili, baby, and e-ah.(the last one is what Sarah calls her.) But recently she has figured out how to get moving around and Riah gave her an appropriate nickname for it. Her new nickname is Inchy, as in inchworm. As you can see in this video, that is how she has figured out how to get around to where she wants to go.

Leah vs. Elmo

Leah got into a fight with Elmo today. Elmo would just not share that bottle he was holding and Leah wanted it.

Sarah came to help Elmo, but Leah told her to go away.

She finally gave up taking it from him and just decided to suck on it.

That darn Elmo needs to learn to share.

Makin' Cookies

Emma and Riah stayed up late the other night to make some oatmeal raisin cookies for someone that had asked for some. They used my grandmas recipe for oatmeal cookies and added raisins and walnuts. The only part I had in the operation (other than taking pictures) was to confirm that they had the right ingredient that Emma would read off the list and to operate the oven for them. They took turns measuring and adding the ingredients into the mixing bowl.

They also took turns mixing. Riah did not have any fun at all doing this, as this picture shows.

Making cookies is very serious business.

All the dry ingredients are mixed, time to add the rest of them.

Its getting harder to mix this.

Emmas turn.

This is the easy part. It can get a little messy though.

The first batch out of the oven and cooling. Emma is trying to look like she is not anxious to eat one.

They made about 2 dozen cookies all together. We saved one cookie for each of the girls and mommy and the rest went to someone else who said they were the best oatmeal raisin walnut cookies he had ever had. (It was not me, either. Although I did get to eat a couple with the person who got them. They were pretty good.)

Leah's workout

Leah is our youngest daughter. She will be 1 year old in July. She is not crawling yet, but has been busy rolling around on the floor and exercising, strengthening her muscles for the day that she figures it out.

She likes to do push-ups!

She likes to throw in a few sideways ones once in a while.

She will pause between push-ups and hold a nice plank position for several seconds.

Look at that form. Maybe instead of crawling on her hands and knees she will just start out with a bear crawl! Makes me want to go start working out again. If she can do it, I should be able to.

Chef Emma

One of our favorite breakfast foods is crepes. It has become a tradition over the last year, that I make them almost every Saturday morning. Emma, quite often, wants to help me with them. Today, we decided to have them for dinner and Emma wanted to make them all by herself. She is getting pretty good at something that some adults cannot even do. I helped mix the batter a little because she could not get all the chunks out, and I started the griddle for her. Other than that, she made them all so I had to take some pictures to show how good she is doing.

This first one, she is putting the batter on the griddle.

Two crepes at a time.

Now the trick is to be patient enough to let them cook the right amount before flipping them.

One is over, here goes number 2.

Perfect form and 2 more perfect and delicious crepes.

"Yummy" says one happy customer.

Chef Emma might have to take over all the cooking duties! I am sure mommy would love that!

Artwork from my 6 year old.

Riah likes to draw picture and make things for me. Today, since I like the outdoors, she decided to make some artwork for me by taping a bunch of stuff from outside to some paper. She has done this several times before as well. Here it is.

What makes this one special, is the object taped in the center of the paper. Here is a close-up of the center.

Yep, that's a bug in the middle, she told me he is the king on this project. The best part is, the bug is still alive and trying to get itself unstuck from the tape! That's my daughter! Now we will have to see if Mommy lets me put it up on the fridge!

Conversations with a 2 year old.

After I come home from work each day, I like to talk to my kids and ask them how there day was. We usually talk about what they did during the day. Today, I sat down with the 2 year old, Sarah. She is the age that makes this exercise the most fun. She does not talk a lot so I have to ask her questions about her day to see what she did. Here is the story of Sarahs' day, as best as I could figure out by asking her random questions.

Today, Sarah had a good day. She walked to the moon with her sister Riah and her friend Jo-Jo. (Although Riah denies being on the moon today.) Mommy, Emma and Leah stayed home. Once they got to the moon, they lit a campfire. (I assume to keep warm.) Then they found a dune buggy on the moon, drove it around and jumped it over the campfire. Once they were done playing on the moon, they all walked home again, and Noni (Sarahs Grandma) took the dune buggy home. (I am not sure when Noni got to the moon.) They had a lot of fun.

Its pretty funny what some kids will say, or what they will agree with when they do not know what you are talking about. I can't wait to see where she goes and what she does tomorrow while I am at work.