Who needs shingles?

Benjamin was practicing writing his name today and he insisted on using all caps - especially the 'N'. He was adamant "mommy an N goes down then up then back down" yes Benjamin when it is a capital but when its a little letter it has a hump. And capital letters do not go in the middle of words! Later he drew this picture. He brought it to me and said "I let the capital 'N' be the roof since it can't be in my name anymore"

Family Portrait

Who needs Sears portrait studio? Here is Ella's interpretation of the Oyakawa family.

Birds of a feather

Maiya taking a litte nap with Aunt Meg

August 28, 2005

20 Questions

On the ride home from Richmond Meg and I tried to teach Benjamin how to play 20 questions. We started with real simple stuff like cats, dogs, etc. When it came time for him to have us guess he started off with its a good guy - but before we could ask questions he continued... he wears all black and a mask and a big belt with a bat on it.... hmmm who could he be? But no matter Benjamin was very impressed when we figured out who it was!

Girls

We're ready for our close-up Aunt Beth!

August 25, 2005

Amazing

It's worth saying again ... Its all about the little things. Ella's new favorite activity is sitting on the kitchen counter and watching me cook- no matter what it is, she is fascinated. Who knew making Kool-aid could be so fun? Tonight I made hard boiled eggs for salad and I let her help peel them. As she removed each little piece of shell her eyes got bigger and bigger. When she was finally finished she looked up and said "Wow mommy that was amazing!!"

Baby Honeymoon

Maiya and Mommy August 23, 2005

Benjamin and Ella are off visiting with Aunt Beth and Aunt Meg - a luxury to enjoy before our schedule is confined by kindergarten. This has given me a chance to spend extra, extra time with my sweet baby - we have slept in, cuddled, played on the floor - all with no fear of being trampled by two hand boy or the gymnastics queen!

Thanks!

We love Ms. Jessica - she sent pics of her mini-vacation with us. Here are a few!

YEAHHHH!

Benjamin got his packet from the school today ... He will be morning kindergarten! I am so glad - I think it will make our schedule easier plus he is better behaved in the morning;)
His teacher's name is Mrs. Mason. He is now officially a 'Green Run Gremlin' kind of weird mascot if you ask me but I guess with as many elementary schools as there are around here mascots are a limited resource!
The letter cracked me up - it was actually written to Benjamin - it even said "make sure you have a grown up pin your name tag on everyday during the first week of school" as if he would be reading the letter.
I hope you enjoy the little bit of summer you have left Mrs. Mason - where ever you are!

Does it still work?

Benjamin discovered his shadow a few weeks ago - and he is in love with 'boxing' and watching his shadow. When he punches the air and sees his hand plus the shadow he is fascinated and has renamed himself "Two hand boy". The other night he turned on the light in our room and jumped up on the bed. He was so excited to see his shadow he immediately yelled out to Ella "Come here and see if your shadow still works!"

Flattery?

The other night we were eating some potato chips when Ella goes "Look I am like a grown-up, I'm just like you daddy" then she proceeds to tilt her head back and throw 2 or 3 chips in her mouth at once. Its true - watch what you do or say - they imitate everything!

Muscles

Benjamin

August 18, 2005

Baby doll

I'm not a baby doll big sis!

Missed the paper

Someone needs a bath!

Ms. Jessica

We had a super fun visit these past few days with our good friend 'Ms. Jessica'. It was nice for Kyle and I to reminisce with her about college. And the kids just adored her - even Zeke was spoiled by her! Tomorrow Maiya will expect to be rocked all day and Zeke will wonder where his buddy went!
I will combine two quick and funny stories in this post. First, the other day Kyle added instant messaging to his computer work - so I can ask him quick questions from home. While Jessica was here, she sat with Benjamin and Ella and sent Kyle a few cute messages and Kyle sent back 2 smiley faces - Benjamin came to me grinning from ear to ear ... "Mommy we made Daddy twice happy!!"
Now for the second story and this one is about me - I am a survivor, a survivor of a Llama attack! Yes folks a Llama spit at me. Tuesday Jessica and I took the kids to the local farm/petting zoo. The kids had a blast with goats, miniature horses, ponies, chickens, roosters, bunnies, cows, and of course spitting llamas!

Asteroid

Benjamin

August 13, 2005

One of my favorite things is to ask the kids to explain what there drawing is - usually its something sweet like its our family, or clouds, or mountains, etc. But this one on the other hand was drawn yesterday and when he was done I asked what exactly it was - and Benjamin replies "Oh its an asteroid (slightly mispronounced) sent to destroy the earth!"
Obviously we are watching too much TV again!

Daddy's little girl

At the computer with Daddy!

Is this a good thing?

Well I have attempted to start an allowance - I figured it would be a good way to teach about money, tithing, chores to earn extra money, etc. So far so good especially with Benjamin he is actually trying to save his money for a legos spiderman set - about $11 which seems like a million to him right now. But anyway to my point, yesterday I was teaching him how to make a wish when blowing a stray eyelash off your finger and he very seriously closed his eyes and said I wish foooorrrrrr..... MONEY. It made me a little sad - so materialistic already? I suppose its inevitable though.

Closet

Ella August 11, 2005

"Ode to my neglectful mommy"

Ok now I am having a little too much fun with this blog!! - Its my way of keeping a journal about the kids and educating myself about actually using the picture programs our computer has ... anyway about Ella's drawing
We had company and Ella was upstairs with her friend while I was visiting with her friend's mom downstairs. We had been talking about a half hour when all of a sudden here come the girls with tears streaming down their faces, heaving and sobbing. "We were stuck in the closet!!!" We were hiding from the boys and we got stuck in the closet and we were calling you and screaming and no one came to get us - "Did you tell anyone you were hiding?" 'no' "How did you finally get out?" 'oh I opened the door' - "good idea!"
Later that night Ella brought me this pic and said this is for you mommy - "Its beautiful Ella!" what is it? - Its me and my friend in the closet and you ignoring us!

Tears

I made ham rolls for lunch - one of my culinary specialties that the kids love - ham, cheese, little mayo sans bread rolled up with toothpick to hold it together. I handed the kids their food when in no less that 2 minutes - Ella was screaming crying as referenced in previous post - Zeke..sob sob...ate..sob sob... my sob... ham roll - I was already angry"Ella its not worth crying about - I'll make you another one" - NO mommy he ate the toothpick too - It will go in his tummy and make him sick 'is zeke going to need to go to the hospital?'
YES - I did feel guilty for getting angry.

Look no hands

The last post reminded me of a story about Ella - some of you I already told...
As you can see by how tiny she is she usually has to hold on when using the toilet - but one day she managed to perfectly balance herself and she discovered she could let go with both hands. With a look of pure joy on her face she quickly exclaimed "LOOK I CAN LET GO - QUICK MOMMY GET ME SOMETHING TO READ" - I am glad she has her priorities straight!

Move the wall

Benjamin has started to really have a temper about the silliest things - everytime he gets hurts no matter how he does it he immediately looks around for who to blame it on. Usually its me - If he falls on a toy he yells "mommy you should 'baquum' the room" - or when he falls outside he screams "mommy these shoes made me fall - why did you buy THESE shoes" - but he took the award for one yesterday - I saw him walking out of the bathroom while looking at a Calvin and Hobbes book (yes he has taken to having reading material while on the toilet) and while not paying attention he walked straight into the wall! And true to course he stands up screaming at the top of his lungs "Mommy why did you put that wall there?!!!!!!!!!!"

Maiya's Blessing Day

August 7, 2005

testing adding photos ;)

Maiya is loved

I go back and forth from being annoyed to completely overjoyed about how much the kids love the baby. They absolutely cannot leave her alone. Benjamin can't help himself in the middle of his hours of fighting imaginary bad guys whenever he happens by her he stops to kiss her, hug her, shove his finger in her mouth, pat her head. And Ella has become fascinated recently with tickling her - especially her feet and any movement at all from Maiya is solely a reaction to Ella's expert tickling " mommy she likes it - mommy she is laughing - mommy she wants me to do it again" All this attention is adorable but now that Maiya is not sleeping as deeply its hard to get them to leave her alone - Poor Maiya she will either learn to love it or have an expert karate chop by 18 mos old to get some peace around here. Or worse yet they will lose some fascination with her and she will get more sleep but I will miss seeing their constant adoration!

payback

Is this payback? - I remember always hearing my mom say how screechy my voice was as a toddler - and I thought yeah right how bad could it have been, well now I know! She was right - Ella has this scream that could mean anything from I have just lost three fingers in a slamming door or Benjamin took the toy I wanted - there is no in between scream for her. And lately she has been doing it all day, I don't know if it is her form of regression associated with the new baby or what, but it is physically disabling me. - Its a noise that I can only imagine is what a dog hears when someone blows a dog whistle - in fact I am quite surprised that there aren't' all the stray dogs from 50 miles around writhing outside our front door some days
I don't know if changing my Karma will cure Ella - but I officially apologize mom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bedtime stories

I have already neglected this blog more than I had planned - I need to write the original story that prompted me to start this blog. Ella gave a talk in church a few Sundays ago about getting baptized so that we can return to live with Heavenly Father and we talked just a little about Satan. She said that she never wanted to live with Satan. Then at supper a few nights ago Benjamin said in his prayer "Remember to bring Uncle Tommy back to life" - so after his prayer we actually talked about when he would see uncle Tommy again - that it would be when we went to live with Heavenly Father - and Ella said with the most serious look on her face ... "Remember in my talk I said I want to get baptized because I don't want to live with Satan - because I don't think Satan reads you bedtime stories at night" I guess its true that everyone has their own version of Hell - Ella's version gives some glimpse into how innocent she still is!

this may never work

getting started.....