Conversations

"Mama, I'm gonna go to ballet cwass, and I'm going to stay all by my self-sis and the mothers and fathers stay at home and be happy. Isn't dat so nice of me Mama?" - Parker

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I'd texted Josh from the hospital while we were waiting for Baby Arlo to arrive, telling him that the nurses had kicked us out of the hallway. He wrote back:

"Fin says to have the boss of the hospital kick the nurse out"

We went back and forth for a bit and then:

"Fin wants to know what you think about his idea"

I said "Tell him if I knew who the boss was I would!"

"Fin says to look it up on your iPhone"

Griffin Daniel. Taking care of business when the adults won't.

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Its funny how striking a new word sounds when your six year old uses it. I can't for the life of me remember what we were talking about, but I asked Fin something along the lines of, "Would you want to do that too?" and he answered, "No, I just feel more cautious about it."

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Parker's in the back seat trying to sound out a word on the bus next to us.

"Oh- Kah - Ta - Ah. Oh-Kah-Ta-Ah. Mama, what does Ohkahtaah mean?"

Puzzled myself, I looked over at the bus. It was an OCTA bus (Orange County Transportation Authority)

Game Time!

Anything weird about this picture?

A Cat's Work Is Never Done

Carrots is on a mission to help us all get clean. He grooms the kids. He grooms me. He tries to groom Tammie. He even licks his favorite chair. But he's most passionate about grooming Josh. He'd do it for hours if he let him. Apparently he thinks Josh's hair just needs a lot of help...

*Tammie can't stand it if Carrots is getting attention and she's not

Black Swan

Parker has loved ballet and ballerinas for a long time. Well over a year ago she started requesting I put on the classical station so she could dance in her tutu and slippers. She walks around on her tippy toes (and I mean on top of her toes, just like a ballerina, except instead of toe shoes she's got converse). She's been entranced by commercials for the new movie Black Swan, she'll stop dead in her tracks and watch, when its over she'll turn to me and say breathlessly, "Oh Mama, doesn't dat wook beautiful?" (which is crazy to me, even the commercials look creepy and scary to me). But of course she would love it. It combines all of her favorite things: ballet and animals and people pretending to be animals. The swan costume is what really gets her. Its the same reason we've watched the peacock dance in the Nutcracker ballet a million times. I wish we could put her in a ballet class and we're trying to figure out a way to do it, but its not cheap. In the meantime, Daddy got the Black Swan soundtrack, we watch ballets on YouTube and Netflix and I let her dance the dance away.

Here's our little untrained ballerina:

Black Swan from The Family Wright on Vimeo.

Parker dancing to the Black Swan soundtrack.

One Tree - Three Tables

So back in September Josh and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary. We've always been dorky and tried to give gifts along the traditional anniversary gift guidelines and five years happens to be "wood." Josh and I had been talking about making a table for a long time, had even asked my dad if he could help us. We wanted something big and chunky, but still modern. So I called my dad up and asked if he would help me make a little side table. He hesitated a little bit, which at the time I thought was a little weird. My dad is usually all kinds of gung ho when we come to him with a new crafty/DIY idea. He's the king of DIY! But he helped me make this little side table and Josh loved it. Right now the tv is on it, but ultimately I'd like it to just be a side table next to the couch or a chair (all those wires sticking out drive. me. batty.)

*Small brass plate on the side of the table with our anniversary date

*I stamped this lyric from one of our favorite songs on the top.

Well, I found out this Christmas why he hesitated. Turns out, he'd already started working on a coffee table for us! Behold, the most awesomest coffee table ev-ah! Its made from the same log our side table came from. He also made a different coffee table for my little sis from the same log. So you can you imagine how big that thing had to be. He had the bottom welded together from steel beams. The top is sanded silky smooth and then waxed.

*Carrots has to be in the middle of everything I do, including furniture photo shoots

The log is from a tree that died from beetle infestation. You can see the holes where the beetles bored into the tree.

And just in case you were curious as to what Josh gave me, here's the necklace he designed and had made at his work. :) So sweet

Conversations

Parker: "Red is my most favorite color in the world."

Griffin: "I thought you said purple was your favorite."

Parker: "Yeah, I favorite dem both."

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For Christmas we got Parker a "Carnival of the Animals" record. Despite me correcting her several times she continues to call it "CARNIVORE of the Animals"

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I realized the other day that Fin thinks when people say 'wife' they are saying 'life'. As in, "You're Dad's life right?" I didn't want to correct him.

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Griffin was watching cartoons this morning. And if you haven't watched cartoons in a while, you should know that a lot of them do this slightly annoying thing where they demand the viewers to "help" them (Dora is an especially strident task master). On screen Mickey was telling the kids to help him turn the key, saying "Turn! Turn! Turn!" Griffin was talking along with it and said, "Turn! Turn! Turn it yourself Mickey!"