Lately

blackberry and strawberry picking

here we have Target's version of the American Girl doll.  The reason that Ada has this doll is because I plain bribed her to get her hair cut.  Just flat out bribed her.  Ever since the tribute caught on fire, a lot of old fears have risen to the surface, including the old hair cut fear.  After many days of convincing, and of promising that she could pick out a toy at Target, and of drawing pictures of what her hair would look like after the cut (not that different, we promised her), and after losing every ounce of compassion that I possessed--she got the hair cut.  I was feeling a bit desperate because her hair was so long and so tangled!!!  Anyway, the stars aligned for her, because this doll was on sale, marked down less than the other junk that she kept picking up.  (fyi, the target doll costs much much much less than an American Girl doll) I really was so glad to add this to the house over the other toys because this doll has been played with non-stop since she came home.

 So, meet Clementine's new friend, Amanda.

 and the shorter hair.  I know that it doesn't look that different, but I am so relieved to have it done!!!  It was driving me crazy.

Here is John sitting way too close to the television, and wearing his floaties just in case, you know, the water in the living room got too deep...

 Here, I had once again bribed my child (all star parenting) by saying that he could wait a few more minutes to take a nap if he would eat some strawberries.  It worked, though, because he loved them and ate about four bowls full.  And that is wow, wow, wubzy on television, by the way.  Tonight, John announced that he was "Wow, wow," and then that all of us in the family were also, "Wow, wow."  "mommy, Wow, wow, too," said John with a big grin on his face.

 speaking of John, since I have talked and talked about his moodiness on this blog, I need to say that he has been so happy lately.  He really has.  He's been so much fun.  Part of the happiness is these two kittens that are hanging out at our house.  John is absolutely giddy over those things.  Giddy.  He goes crazy every single time he walks outside, and the poor kittens seem to put up with it fairly well.

 The face below is an accurate picture of how John feels about the kittens.  His life has been really exciting lately because of them.

 And, today because the kittens needed a break from my eager children, I brought out the water hose. 

I am crossing my fingers that tomorrow night I will be posting about our new van...