Keeping Up With the Joneses

The main purpose of this blog is a family history, so I am not going to apologize for the self-indulgence of this blog. We all know that there are wonderful parts of parenthood and tough parts, and this blog post is dedicated to the amazing privilege it is to get to raise these incredible kids. They are growing up so fast, and I want to remember how cool they were at this age. Last week I took Mason out for breakfast before school for some special talk-time. Mason turned 7 a few weeks ago and is in first grade. It warms my heart that he absolutely loved school and is excited to go just about every day. Some parts of school aren't always really easy for Mason. At the beginning of first grade he was readying at a pre-school level, but with a lot of hard work and an excellent reading tutor, he is now reading at an advanced second-grade level. Mason is not afraid of hard work and loves the feeling of accomplishment that comes when he masters a spelling word or finishes a tou...

I've said it before and I'll say it again: we have the best babysitter in the universe. On Friday while I was at work, our babysitter Hannah put together a leprechaun hunt for the boys. It started with them finding that the leprechaun had used the toilet and then left behind a note telling the kids the next place he went. Every time they thought they caught up to the leprechaun there was another note and little colored marshmallows leading them on a chase. When I got home there were about 5 neighbor kids who had also joined in the hunt in our yard and they had been hunting for three hours! Did you know leprechauns even pee green? I had no idea. The kids begged and begged for me to never flush the toilet and promised they would use the other toilets in the house, but in the middle of the night Mason forgot and flushed. Myles and the babysitter's son Ari. They had on leprechaun war paint to help them find the little guy. Mason and his buddy Seth. The origin...

I spent most of today doing some much needed organization of our food storage, which for the most part is generously donated by my mother-in-law. I often joke (kinda) that she is the best part of marrying Marshall. When Marshall saw me posting this he warned me not to because now everyone knows where to come in case of emergency. Well, we'd be happy to have you!

The weekend before my conference in NYC I flew to Atlanta to visit my brother Scott's family. I had a fantastic time spending quality time with my nieces and meeting my nephew James. I hadn't seen the girls in over a year but at 7 am the first morning I was there they came into my room, enthusiastically greeted me, and crawled in bed to cuddle with me. I love those little girls. Building juice box robots with the girls. Girl's  Night--polka dot manicures.

But judging from the pics the babysitter sent, it looks like they didn't miss me too much. While Max and Myles were in Delta, our awesome babysitter took Mason and his two buddies to Cold Stone for ice cream and to a park where they fed the ducks.  Our babysitter sent me this picture of Max while I was gone. The goofy kid has to sleep with each one of these stuffed animals and knows if one is missing instantly. He is such an angel!

I've been in NYC this last week for a conference and have had a great time. The conference was just mediocre, but hanging out in the city was fantastic. There were a number of my friends from work here as well and so we got to do some fun things: • see Avenue Q on Broadway • see The Book of Mormon Musical (again) • attend a live taping of The Daily Show (one of my favorite shows ever) • shop at Macy's, Century 21, Broadway, 5th avenue, and SoHo • spend time wandering (okay lost in) Central Park • eat yummy pizza in little Italy • watch street performers in Washington Square • browse the stalls in Chinatown • see the Ground Zero memorial under construction • visit Zuccotti Park where the Occupy Wall street protests began • eat amazing Thai, Indian, and South African food Now I'm waiting all afternoon at JFK airport. I was hoping to get on an earlier flight but there were no seats. I miss my kids!!!! The arch at Washington Square park. While I was there I wat...

Mason had his 7 year well-child check up and it was no surprise that he is doing just great. His eyesights is 20/25 (good for kids), and we felt no need to check his iron or blood count since he has had a lot more energy lately.  He weighed 42.33 lbs which put him in the 8th percentile (a huge jump from the 1.5th percentile for him), he was 47.25 inches tall (37th percentile), and his BMI was a ridiculously low 13.33 (1st percentile).  Mason is one happy kid, a great brother, and a good friend to lots of kids at school and in our neighborhood. I couldn't be more proud of him!