Precocious Teslin

I think it's funny when little kids say big words.

Today Tess and Case were at their friends Peyton and Trai's house and Case was telling their mom that they were going to Disneyland next week (we really are!). Tess piped in, saying "We're actually going to lots of locations." Can you just hear her in her little four-year-old-know-it-all voice? Cute and funny girl.

I caved

Tess has been wanting to have her hair cut short for more than six months now. I keep saying no because it has gotten so long and I love being able to do different things with it. And she's always been so good about sitting to let me do her hair. Until lately.

In the last couple of months she runs every time I get the brush. Cries during the entire styling session. Tells me several times a week she wants her hair cut "to her neck." Well. She won.

When the haircut was all over she said "now you never have to brush my hair EVER AGAIN!" If only...

We saved her ponytail so we can send it to Locks of Love... It was well over the 10" length requirement!

Here's the before...




A thumbs up in progress...



And the final product! She looks more like Emma now than she ever has! Cutie Patootie, that's what she is.


Thanks Tiffany for the beautiful makeover!!

It's pretty fun having twins

I've got to say, there are definitely perks of having two at a time... Case and Tess love each other so much, and they just hang together and entertain each other. Case has started taking care of Tess these last couple of weeks, which is funny since she's always been the mothering one of the two... Today Tess was in the shower and I kind of said to myself "oh, I need to get Tess out of the shower." Case hopped right up, went back to my bathroom, grabbed a towel and said, in a sweet sing-songy kind of voice "Tess, time to get out! I got you a towel!" As he was helping her into her towel he says this:

Oh, I wanted to tell you something else. I love you so much.

My heart gets so happy it aches when I hear that kind of thing! I just love it.

The twins won't turn five until November, so I have them at home with me for another year. I had looked into trying to get them into Kindergarten this year or a preschool that meets every day. But things didn't work out and I am SO GLAD! I can't imagine them being gone every day already next year. I would miss them so much. They are such a joy to have around -- they definitely keep me on my toes, but I wouldn't have it any other way :). I'm sure my friends who are around them a lot see it differently -- Case's screaming and Tess's running away -- but hey - they're mine and I love every bit of them!!

I'm Burstin' Over Here!!

Our Fisher won first place in the Higley District Gifted Program's writing contest for kindergartners and first graders. I am a proud mama. We went to the awards ceremony on Wednesday night, then he got to read his poem over the loudspeaker at his school today during the morning announcements. So here's the poem, some pictures of the poet and a short video of him reading it this morning.

I have to say it was so stinkin' cute -- there were a bunch of people in the front office where he was reading the poem into the microphone. No one was paying attention and they all were milling about doing stuff when he started reading. About halfway through the poem I realized everyone had stopped to listen to him and they all started clapping when he was done. It was awesome. Except my phone started ringing halfway through his recitation. Dang cell phones. You can hear it singing on the video. But thanks Rochelle for trying to call me to let me listen to Fisher!

Yellowstone
by Fisher Curtis

Did kids 100 years ago
Love Yellowstone like me?

Did they see
Lots of animals
Flocks of birds
Herds of bison
Elk, moose and grizzly bears
Forests of trees

Did they
Go camping with their families
Wait for Old Faithful
To spout like a gun
Go hiking
Watch stinky mud pots spit
Have a campfire in the rain
Take lots of pictures

Will kids in 100 years
Love Yellowstone like me?

(the contest theme was 100 years, celebrating the district's centennial)

Innate Bribery

Driving in the car this afternoon Fisher says "Mom! Tess doesn't have her buckles on!!" (I know, bad mommy for not checking before I left the store)

I, in my scolding voice, say "Tess you need to get your buckles on or the police will put Mommy in jail!!"

Fisher adds "and we'll never ever get to see her again!"

Then Case puts this in: "Unless we give the officer some money."

Because, ya know, Jarad and I bribe the cops ALL THE TIME! What?? Where did he get that one?

Barf O Rama

Anyone remember the Barf O Rama in Stand By Me, way back in the day? (Click Here if you want to refresh your memory)

Well, that was The Curti Household earlier this week. No kidding.

Monday night all was calm on the Curti front. Until...

10 p.m. Jarad and I had just settled down and were about to turn out the lights. Tess starts crying hysterically in her bed. I go in and scoop her up, only to feel the chunks in her long blonde tresses. Yum. She had lost it all over her bed (thankfully the bottom bunk).

10:30 Tess is showered and clean, bedding stripped and a temporary bed -- complete with a bucket in case she can't make it to the toilet -- is made on my bedroom floor so I can keep an eye on her. No sooner do we turn out the light than we hear Emma start coughing (which for us is a sure sign that it's comin' up). I walk into her room and she's sitting at the top of her loft-bed ladder, facing away from her bed with throw-up running down her shirt, her legs, the ladder, her desktop (and ALL the random stuff on it) and the floor. Oh, did I mention it had also hit Fisher's bed, Fisher's ladder, Fisher's reading area underneath his bed, the blinds, the wall... Well, you get the picture. If you're not joining the Barf O Rama by now, read on.

12:30 a.m. Emma is showered and cleaned up. We've cleaned up her bed, shampooed her carpet and Jarad has preemptively placed barf buckets on each of the boys' beds, and next to his own. Just in case. We finally go back to bed.

... Emma continues dry heaving every 20 to 30 minutes for FOUR HOURS ...

4:00 a.m. Case comes in to use the bathroom in our room. Of course he has to come over to tell me he went to the bathroom, so I ask him how his tummy feels. It's fine. I tell him that Dad has put a bucket on his bed in case he feels yucky. Fifteen minutes later I hear Case crying. I go into his room to find him on all fours on his bed, heaving into the bucket.

WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

So I have three sick kids at home. I cancel my appointments for the day and tend to them. Until noon when I start in on it. Seriously! Thankfully Emma was already feeling better and no one threw up anymore once I started getting sick.

THEN on Wednesday, just when we think everyone is feeling better (it had been since well before noon that any of the kids had been sick), we send Tess and Case to our beloved babysitter Christy for the day, only to have them throw up again.

When I say Barf O Rama, I am not kidding!Thank Heaven for Jarad who took the day off on Wednesday to take care of the twins and help me recover too. What a week!

Catching Up

A post-St. Patrick's Day limerick for you to enjoy...

There once was a mommy named Kate
Whose blog was neglected of late
So some pictures she'll post
Of her kiddos she'll boast
And bring this darn thing up to date

January:
Jarad usually grows his beard during the winter holidays, then shaves some ugly 'stache before he goes totally clean shaven. This year his "hideous moustache" (as the kids dubbed it) stuck around a little too long. So the kids wanted to show him how hideous he looked, donning hideous moustaches of their own...



February:
Tess took a Little Princess Ballet class last month. It was too cute. I have a cute video of the recital they did to "A Spoon Full of Sugar" where Tess gets stuck on one dance move and one poor little girl unwittingly becomes the whip in an unintentional game of crack the whip...



March:
Earlier this month we did our "Give a Day Get a Disney Day" service project. For Family Home Evening we put together boxes full of teacher supplies for Treasures for Teachers. Each box had a handwritten thank-you note from our kids. My only regret is telling Case that we're going to Disneyland. Every day he wakes up and asks if this is the day we're going to Disneyland. Ugh, only three more months of that question!



Crazy Hair Day came around again and this time I was prepared. No more black cream face makeup left over from Halloween. Nope, we went NEON this time.





And of course the twins had to be just like "The Guys" (what we call the older kids).





Spring Break!
Last week we took a little day trip down to Catalina State Park near Tucson to do a little hiking.

Here are the happy kiddos at the beginning of the hike



We soon came to a creek we had to cross. After a few tries, Fisher was the first to get across. Thankfully Jarad had waterproof hiking boots on!



Tess was our mapster... she kept stopping and drawing in the dirt with a stick, saying she had to figure out where we were, and that she was drawing us a map. She'll make a great navigator when she grows up!



We finally gave in and let the kids just play in the water. Everyone had fun, the car was covered in wet sand and all the kids fell asleep on the drive home. That's a successful day in my book.