August 15

Somehow, Do-Nothing Monday has morphed into "Do All the Grocery Shopping, and Maybe Take a Trip to the Library" Monday. Boo. But the kids are getting back in to the routine of going shopping with me, and starting to remember how to behave at the grocery store, so it's not so bad. Plus, it's good real-life experience for them. 

Lily put together an especially fabulous ensemble for the library and grocery stores. She wouldn't pose for a picture, so I had to snap this one of her as she walked away from me:

That's a sparkly, skirted leotard.

I learned later that she had shorts on, too, bunched up inside the leotard.

Shockingly pink dressy sandals with faded, too-big, stretched-out Hello, Kitty socks.

Unbrushed hair, with a stretchy headband creating that fancy pouf.

And her "Green Pinkie", a blanket from my childhood that she often pretends is her "'carf".

Goodness, I love this girl.

And my boy! My big boy! As we wrapped up at our last grocery store, I allowed each kiddo to choose a special apple as a reward for good behavior. (Don't think I'm too fabulous; they also had suckers at Trader Joe's.) It started because Caleb has been asking for days to get Golden Delicious apples. I don't like them, so instead I let each kid choose one of whatever variety they wanted. Caleb finally had his Golden Delicious apple, but he was only 1/3 through it when he said that he didn't want it anymore. He seemed really sad, so I pried a bit and found that it hurt his tooth. I took it from him and promised that when we got home, I'd cut it into slices for him.

When we got home, I didn't even have a chance to cut it up before he emerged into the kitchen with a bloody tissue in his mouth and a tooth in his hand.

Friends, my big boy has lost his second tooth!

This tooth-falling-out business has me all kinds of emotional. We worked so hard to get those teeth in in the first place - late nights, lots of gnawing, fussiness - and now they're just falling out, willy-nilly! And now he looks like a gap-toothed big boy, and I have to acknowledge that he is a SECOND GRADER. 

Not cool.

I may lose it when the top two fall out, but thankfully they don't seem to be loose yet.

I spent the afternoon working on our bookshelf project, and then Chris continued after dinner. They are now officially secured to the wall and to each other. Next comes trim, and then the filling of the shelves! (Trim may take a while, so the filling may come first.)

It's a good thing I spent naptime securing them to the wall, because Eli has decided they are fun to climb. Uh-oh.

He also thinks it's fun to stand in them. Lily agrees. However, now there are shelves in their spots. Eli tried several times to use the shelves as a ladder, so I will have to keep a close eye on him. At least I know they can't tip over!

These kiddos are so funny. They thought they were hot stuff, hanging out in the bookshelves! Chris took a picture with my phone, and Eli immediately ran over, demanding, "See? SEE???"

Only once he saw the picture on my phone was he satisfied.

When the shelves were all in place and they couldn't stand anymore, Eli and Lily each lay down on the bottom shelf. Eli declared, "BED!" and then said, "Night-night!"

Funny boy!