The Tooth Fairy

Last week, Emma lost her 3rd tooth.  This was kind of a big deal because it was the top middle one so now its definitely obvious that she's growing up.  She brings it home from school, in this cute little tooth-shaped tooth holder and is excitedly sharing it with Lukey.  During dinner, I overheard her telling him that the Tooth Fairy would most likely be bringing her a present that night, since she lost her tooth and all.  I interrupted her and let her know that normally the TF only brings money for lost teeth and that most likely, she would not be getting a present.  She looks at me and says, "My friends get presents for their teeth.  Is it because of what part of town we live in?  Maybe she doesn't deliver presents here?"  I assured her that it wasn't because of our part of town (great - apparently we live on the wrong side of the tracks).

So, that night, I'm all proud of myself because not only did I remember to give her money, but I successfully tip-toed in and out of her room without her waking up.  Granted, I've actually walked into her room, turned on the lights and put away clothes while she was sleeping, but still... it was something to be proud of.

The next morning, she walks into the bathroom where I'm getting ready, holds up the two quarters in her hand and says "Uh, Mommy, did YOU put this under my pillow."  Immediately, I start stuttering and avoiding eye contact with her.  Looking down, I say, "why do you ask, Emma?"  "WELL," she says, "last night, the Tooth Fairy comes and puts money under the wrong pillow.  And then, she doesn't even take my tooth.  So, did you put this under my pillow?"  I did the only thing that I could think of in that moment - I told her to ask Casey.  So, she takes off downstairs to ask him.

A few minutes later, Casey comes walking upstairs with this dumbfounded look on his face and says, "Are you SERIOUS?  You forgot to take the (insert profanity here) tooth?"  I guess Emma went downstairs and starting accusing Casey of putting the money under her pillow.

Needless to say, she's a little leery of anything that Casey and I have been telling her lately.  Good thing that Christmas is coming up.  I'm sure we won't have to tell her any more lies during that holiday season....

Summer So Far!

Wow, its certainly been a while since my last post.  Hopefully, things have calmed down at the Schnieber house so I can post a little more frequently.  I finished up with grad school at UC last week (I walked through graduation in June but had a new more things to finish up on during the short summer quarter).  As of today, August 7, I am officially have a master's degree!  Woo Hoo!  Additionally, I'm celebrating my 8th anniversary with Casey.  It's a great day. 

I've been making notes along the last few months about funny kids stories.  Here's what you've missed out on the last few months...

I was in my office and Luke and Emma were playing on the floor.  I'm not sure what prompted the conversation but they were talking about someone at school who brought in a race car to show.  They were debating what was actually written on the car and Luke shouts out "it was an upside down 'L!"  We finally figured out that he was talking about the number "7" that was written on the side of the car.  Then, as I tell Casey the story later, the tells me that the person who brought the car in was Jimmy Gardner.  Luke had been trying to convince Casey that the guy's name was "Mr. Kindergartner."

A few other Luke stories:

• Em and Luke were playing with babies and they were putting them to bed.  Of course, we knew the name of Emma's baby, Susie, so I asked Luke the name of his baby.  His baby's name was "Milk Baby." 
• Luke wanted a drink of water but I was finishing up on something on my computer.  After standing there next to me for about 1 full minute, he looks over and says, "but mommy, I'm waiting so patient."
• While we were in Florida, Will, Megan, Anna, Luke and Emma attended church camp.  They loved going there each afternoon and had a great time with their crafts and singing songs.  Once of the songs is called "24/7."  The words are "God is watching, watching over you.  24/7 waiting over you.  He's got great big plans, whoa, whoa."  Luke was walking around the house singing "he's got great big hands, whoa, whoa."

Mia is also getting big.  I can hardly believe that she'll be one year old next month!  Crazy how time flies!  She's crawling all over the place and is very vocal (read:  mouthy).  I can already tell we're going to have our hands full with her.  She's very spirited!  In June, we couldn't help but laugh at her when she cried (which was often) because her cries sounded like "rrrrr"  as in when someone would yell "Arrrrrrriibaaaa!"  It was hilarious! 

Emma is also doing well.  Not too many stories on her this round!  I can hardly believe that she's starting 1st grade in a few weeks.  Unbelievable!

Summer is coming to a close and I'm anxious to get back into a routine.  I'm sure about 2 weeks of the "routine," I'll be sick of it!

Lately, Emma has been writing a lot of poems.  She has a notebook where she writes her poems and then she illustrates at the bottom of the page. She also has a table of contents! It's too cute.   Here's a sample of her work:

Sweet Mia
Mia Mia, small and sweet
She loves her baby dols
olso she loves her family to

Soccer
Soccer Soccer
rawnd (round) like a bll (ball)
Daddys the coch (coach)
and Mommys my Mom.

Luke
Luke Luke
Big and bold
I no (know) your BFFS our (are)
Bodn (Boden) and litl (little) Medy (Maddy)

Last month, we were driving up to Mamaw & Papaw's to celebrate the March birthdays and she spent the entire hour ride writing poems.  She asked Luke if he wanted her to read the poem that she wrote for him.  He looked over at her, and proclaimed in an excited voice, "you wrote a poem, FOR ME?" 

Later, I asked her to write a poem for Papaw-Great.  She asked about some things that Papaw-Great likes and I told her sports, farming, the Reds, his grandkids.  She said, "Okay great.  You just gave me some good ideas to work with.  Wait - can Papaw-Great read?"  Papaw-Great got a big kick out of that story when I told him later that day!

Little Mia is trying desparately to cry.  She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth but (in the words of Papaw) just can't get it in gear!  So then she drops to her stomach and army crawls to whatever she needs.  Its a wonder that she doesn't have rug burns all over her arms and legs.  She'll be crawling all over the place within weeks.  Scary!  I can hardly believe that 9 months already!  Time certainly flies!

The other night, Mia had stripped pajama bottoms on and Luke says to her "Aww, you're so precious - just like a zebra!"  Mia thought that was funny!

Yesterday, we headed to downtown to participate in the Flying Pig Family activities.  I was supposed to run in the 10k but had to scratch due to a stress fracture.  Mawaw and Papaw came down to walk the 1 mile with Kenzie and to see Luke & Emma's race.  Luke and Emma were signed up for the Piglet events so we went down to Yeatman's Cove for their races.  Luke ran 25 yards and was leading the pack, until he saw Casey.  He quickly made a right-angle turn to see him.  He was very excited about his medal. 



Emma decided to skip the 6-7 year old race and instead, run with Kenzie in the 8-9 race.  She did a great job keeping up with kids that could have been 3 years older than her!  

All in all, we had a great time (minus the parking ticket and dead battery when we got back to our car!  Ugh!). 

Conversations with Luke

It's becoming increasingly difficult to have a conversation with Luke. Yes, you'd think it would be easier since he's older, but no. Just more difficult. Today, I came home from work and his tricycle was parked in the middle of the garage, in my spot. So I pulled my 4-runner right up to it to prove a point that I almost hit it. Here's the conversation that ensued:

Stacy: "Luke, did you see my car? I almost hit your tricycle."
Luke: "That's okay."
Stacy: "No, Luke, the point is that you need to move it so that its not in the middle of the driveway."
Luke not paying attention.
Stacy: "Luke, next time I'm going to hit your tricycle."
Luke: "That's okay. I'll be a marshmellow."

Um, okay. Thanks.

Wow, it's been quite a week. On Monday, Casey left town for his annual "6th grade Camp Joy" trip which left me in charge of the three kiddos. I know - before you say it - he does this all of the time when I leave for work but it's different. He's more patient than I am! So, on Monday, I am in a huge hurry to grab the kids and get them back to the house by 4:30 so that I can leave them with the babysitter and run down to class for a test. I grab Emma and we're walking (quickly) to the car so we can get Luke. Emma looks up at me and says "you know, when adults walk fast, it's like running for kids." It was so cute. We had an uneventful Monday evening and Tuesday morning school drop-off.

On Tuesday afternoon, Casey brings the kids home from class. He walks in the door and goes immediately to the bathroom where he proceeds to get sick. Uh-oh. Not good. I have to leave to go class for another test. Emma looks at me and says, "it's okay, Mommy. I'll take care of Mia." Then Luke pipes up, "And I'll take care of Daddy." I had to go upstairs and break the news to Casey that Luke would be taking care of him while I was gone. As I'm leaving, Emma is holding Mia and says "Do I know everything that I need to know about Mia, Mommy?" I stiffled a laugh and told her that she knows just as much as I do!

So, I leave for class and come back to find Mia fussing in her crib (she had just woken up from a nap), Luke roaming in the upstairs hallway, Casey passed out in bed, and Emma, passed out on her floor, books all around here and her glasses on. The next day, Casey missed work so I had to take the kids to school. Emma proceeds to tell me that not only did she feed Mia (sweet potatoes) but she also got dinner for she and Luke (chicken and applesauce). Then she put her jammies on and helped Luke's with his. She said that she was reading books to him but apparently, she fell asleep before he did. She said that she only needed Casey's help to get Mia out of her highchair. I'm just so impressed!

A couple of other stories... Luke has been hitting his friends at school. We're not taking this lightly and he continues to get punished when it happens. I picked him up from school last night and Ms. Schoeny reported to us that there was another incident. Come to find out that Luke was using the potty and a friend was trying to get into the bathroom area. All of the sudden, the friend starts crying. When Ms. Schoeny asked Luke what happened, his response was "I don't know. Maybe someone pushed him?" He had TV taken away for that one.

Today, he came home from school because he hit another friend. He was sent immediately to his room. In addition to his room sequestering, he was also denied a car snack on the way home (Emma got to eat hers in front of him). Taking snacks away has been the most effective punishment so far. Casey is concerned, however, because he doesn't think we should deprive Luke of extra calories. He's skin & bones but he's a Schnieber, after all!

Last week, I took Emma to Wal-Mart so we could pick up her new glasses. Wal-Mart is located in the parking lot close to Emma's favorite restaurant, i-Hop. So, I turn into the Wal-Mart parking lot and Emma says, "Are we close i-Hop? Because I feel like we're close to i-Hop." It was hilarious.

"Listen to my words" is a big phrase at Cincinnati Country Day Early Childhood House. The teachers say it to the kids; the kids say it to each other. The other day at breakfast, Luke told Casey that he wanted some cheerios. When Casey brought the bowl over to him, Luke yells, "Yeay! You listened to my words!"