The Kiddos

This is just a quick re-cap for my journaling purposes of what my kids are like these days. If you are not Avree, my mom, or Nicole, you probably won't be interested in this:

Marin (5)
* Loves Kindergarten, is very into following the rules
* Loves playing Mario Kart with her dad. Is surprisingly good for a 5-year-old.
* Can do a pretty mean cartwheel after taking gymnastics for the last few months
* Loves to dance
* Is the tallest girl/possibly kid in her class
* Told a girl in her Primary class who was crying that "it would be better if you used your words."
* Likes to use big 3-syllable words, but uses them out of context quite often
* Loves to play with her friends in the neighborhood
* Still gets super excited about the toys that come in Happy Meals
* Still gets super excited over lots of trivial things and I love it!
* Is very polite to teachers and adults, thank heaven
* Loves hugs and snuggling much more than when she was a baby
* Will try lots of new foods, but will not try bananas
* Has the most beautiful red hair that looks like it was professionally highlighted
* Is a great little skier and likes to go FAST
* Is very very dramatic. Teenager-hood could be a difficult time :)
* Can make Andrew laugh and laugh just by looking at him

Kate (3)
* Starts every sentence she says with "Actually...."
* Won't let me put even the tiniest rubber band in her crazy curly blonde hair
* Is a little destructive with toys (we call her Sid)
* Describes people she really likes as her "best fwiend"
* Loves to ride plasma cars at "A-Ree's house"
* Eats crayons like candy
* Eats many many more things not intended for ingestion (toothpaste, soap, dirt, hand sanitizer, etc.)
* Loves to dance, particularly spin until she falls over
* Will not, I repeat, WILL NOT wear clothing inside our house
* Loves to sleep in her "goll-bed [girl-bed]", which is short for big-girl bed
* Whenever I leave and come back she says, "You here?! You my best fwiend!"
* Anything she loves she calls her, "Fav-wit color" A typical phrase is, "I wuv it! It's my fav-wit color!"
* She speaks really fast, kind of sounds like Chinese until you get used to it
* She takes 27 baths a day. Loves to eat bubbles (shocker)
* Eats a bag of popcorn daily
* Would eat pancakes for every meal
* Has to eat at the same place at the table for every meal, with the red plastic place-mat that I melted the shape of the crockpot bowl into-- she calls it the "ovo [oval] pwace-mat"
* Loves to sing -- knows every single word to "I Am a Child of God" and "I Wuv to See The Temp-o"

Andrew (9 months)
* Happiest baby ever-- seriously, he used up all of his crying in the first 4 months of life
* Recently learned how to open the DVD player, to his sisters' dismay
* Can crawl anywhere, and does
* Loves to eat paper when he can find it
* Loves to eat all food and wants to feed himself
* Loves the bathtub
* Can only make one sound... "Daa daaa daaa" but says it with every emotion-- sad, happy, mad, excited, etc.
* Growls on cue, and pretty much the rest of the time
* Screams when his sisters do
* Laughs at everything his sisters do or say. I have a feeling this will continue for a long time
* Gets 10,000 kisses from me and actually LIKES it!
* Still likes to be swaddled up tight in his blanky to sleep