A few fun stories....

Last month, Casey and I had an appointment with a mortgage guy, Anthony, at 5/3 to talk about possible re-financing.  The appointment was only going to be about 1 hour long so we decided to take the kids with us.  That was our first mistake (we can be awfully naive for having 3 kids...)  The appointment started at 6pm.  I made sure to bring plenty of snacks and games for the kids.  So, we sit down and start talking numbers.  Poor Anthony.  I kept looking over and mumbling, "I'm so sorry!" and he kept telling me that he had kids so he was used to it.  The three of us continue to talk normally, trying our best to ignore Luke crying about the tablet (or "tab-buh-let" as he calls it), Mia crying about, well... whatever it is she always cries about, and Emma expressing her frustration over the situation.  Finally, I notice Anthony look down at Luke and Mia on the floor and his eyes widened the size of quarters.  I didn't see the actual incident but I hear Casey start yelling at Luke about hitting his sister (Mia, the littlest one!)  So, the three of us try to pick up where we left off.  By now, Luke is crying because "Daddy yelled at me," Mia is crying because she was hit for no apparent reason, and Emma is loudly sighing and rolling her eyes because she can't hear the music to her Angry Birds game.  Not only am I mortified about the situation, but I'm also furious with Luke for hitting his little sister.  We wrap up the meeting and Casey takes Mia home because I needed to go to Kroger.  So, I take Emma and Luke in my car and I start in on lecturing about how to treat their siblings.  While I can't remember all of the details of my lecture, I imagine that it contained something like "Mike and Sandy never treated me this way" and "you need to take care of your brother and sister" and "did you seriously hit your sister?" (obviously directed at Luke).  So, I lecture them all the way to Kroger, all the way to the wine section (yes, that's exactly the main reason for going to Kroger.  Don't judge - it was a stressful meeting), all the way back to the car, and then all the way home.  By bedtime, they were sick of me talking about it.  So, I'm putting Luke to bed and I start in again.  "Luke, I don't want you to EVER lay a finger on your sister again.  Do you understand me?"  He looks up and me and asks, "Can I hug her real hard?"  Wow...

Email from Casey on October 17th:  "So today I hear from Ms. Bertsch that as Luke was playing with puzzles in class, she asked a group to name something that rhymes with truck.  Let’s just say that from across the room his nonchalant response wasn’t “luck”! J

As the littlest of the family, Mia has already figured out how to get our attention.  Her favorite is a high-pitched SCREAM.  She does it all of the time.  She screams when I pick her up (she's obviously excited and SCREAMS as she's running towards me), she SCREAMS as she's walking through the kitchen, she SCREAMS all throughout dinner... I think you get the jist.  The other thing she does is wave when she knows she's doing something she shouldn't.  Case in point:  last weekend, we were at my parents house and my mom had a fall gourd/corn/flower coffee table decoration. Mia toddles over to check it and we say "no-nee-no, Mia."  So, she looks at it and shakes her finger at the table.  A few seconds later, she touches it again.  "No-nee-no, Mia," says my mom and Mia looks up her and waves.  About 5 minutes later, she's back at the table.  She touches it and before my mom can even tell her to stop, she waves at her.  Doesn't take her eyes off of the table or the decoration that she's not supposed to be touching.  She just waves.  Its hilarious! 

Speaking of shaking her finger at things she shouldn't touch... a few weeks ago, her nose was stuffed up so I put her on the counter to "plunge" her nose using the aspirator.  Man, she hates that thing.  So, I shove that up her nose a few times and that really made her mad.  I put the aspirator on the counter to wipe her nose and she gives me a dirty look, looks at the aspirator and starts shaking her finger "no" at it.

Emma is geting to be quite witty!  She and Luke take a gymnastics class at The Little Gym on Thursday nights (let me tell you - I've seen the class and I use the term "gymnastics" lightly). The motto for The Little Gym is "Serious Fun."  Last week, Emma walks in the door and Casey asked her how class was.  Her response:  "Uh, serious fun."  We both just starting cracking up.

I'll close with another Luke story. I'll title this one:  "Meanwhile, at the Schnieber House..."

A few weeks ago, Emma came home from school and Casey asked her to wash her feet (I think she had been wearing crocs that day and her feet were nasty).  I hear Luke and Emma bickering over something, which is quite normal, but then, its eerily quiet.  So I walk upstairs to their bathroom and there's Luke... standing at the sink, with a shirt and no pants or underwear on.

Me:  Uh, hi, Luke.  Why don't you have pants on?  And why are there bubbles on your ankles?

Luke:  Just washin' my feet, Mom.

Oh, okay.  Of course you are.  Nothing strange about that AT ALL.