DH passed another MCSE test!!! He didn’t even squeak by- he made the exact passing score. Hahahaha! He had hardly cracked the book before last night though he did know some of the content already from work. Only 2 more tests to go until full certification!
School-wise, we are working on the various “_ Bear, _ Bear, What Do You See/Hear?” books by Eric Carle, learning about bears and performing the “Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Turn Around” song:
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, turn around
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, touch the ground
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, show your shoe
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, I love you!
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, go upstairs
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, brush your hair
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, turn off the light
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, say goodnight!
He is on Math-U-See Primer lesson 14 (this is an easy one for him- the numbers 10-20 and “place value”.) Lesson 15 is 2+2 and 3+3.
In Hooked on Phonics, Bren is nearing completion of the first 1st grade book. Today is dr_ & qu_ words. When this workbook is done, there are several CHAPTER books for him to read. Yikes! LOL.
Next up: Various Jack and the Beanstalk stories including typical versions, a parody “Jack and the Giant: A Story Full of Beans”, a Mickey version, a Dora version and a Gerald McBoing Boing video version.
Bren has been loving our Mario Kart Wii game. He is quite good, better than me- he can even skid around the corners! 😀 He also has 2 new friends from our homeschool group- Ivan & Aries!! They are coming for another playdate this afternoon.
Andy’s been crazy about little cars and trains for awhile now but his real passion is SHOES. Any and all shoes. At any moment he can come barrelling into the room, bang you with a newly discovered pair and bellow “DJOU! DJOU!!!” He wants them on, now!!! LOL. A pair of shoes 6 sizes too large on his feet and a bowl of pink, blue and white star marshmallows and he is a happy kid. Oh, and soda too.
Bren-bits & Andy-dotes…
5/14 The scale got new batteries lastnight. Today I weighed the boys. Andy weighed 26.0 lbs. I seem to recall him weighing 27.something some months ago. Yikes. I immediately gave him a piece of cheese, which up until now usually ended up mushed on the floor. He ate it AND begged for 3 more pieces AND a cheesestick. That was soon followed by 2 FULL FAT hot dogs and a bowl of cereal. Sheesh. Have I been starving him or what??
I weighed Bren next. 58.6. Gulp. He is fast approaching the 60 lb mark and he just turned 5. He got one hot dog in a sugar free whole grain bun. And half a piece of cheese. This time last year he weighed 49 lbs. And I have been carefully watching what he eats!!!
How in the heck do I feed up one kid and deny the other- at the same time?!
Update: Whew! Mid-February I guessed he was between 25 and 26 pounds.
5/15 I love seeing Andy enjoys toys we bought Brendan that he would never play with- this time it is an elephant pull toy that makes music and has places to put blocks.
5/19 Andy said, “Thank you milk me” when I handed him my cup. 🙂
5/20 Bren has finally taught Andy to play hide and seek. He told Andy to count while he hides and he ran off. Andy covered his eyes and said, “five, three, five!” and ran off to find him. 😀 Andy doesn’t yet go hide himself.
5/24 Andy said his name today for the first time. We also heard him singing… possibly the Bob the Builder theme. LOL.

3/18 Andy sneezed and then said “scuse me”! Bren has taken a liking to a giant sized footed sleeper like Andy weaers. LOL.
3/19 Bren’s answer to everything is “No problemo!” LOL.
3/20 Andy “bear” & “backpack”
3/21 Andy wanted a game put on his computer. When I came over to help him he said “Thank you Ma!” 😀
3/24 Bren came up with this all on his own:
Bren: Knock Knock
Me: Who’s there?
Bren: Police
Me: Police who?
Bren: Police (as in puh-lease) wash your hands!
3/28 Andy says snake! “snaaaay”
3/31
Andy: (Pointing to cabinet where we keep his Gerber fruit snacks) Snack! Snack!
Me : (Getting the box down) Do you want a snack?
Andy: “I think so! I think so!” Hahaha!
4/17
We are a knock-knock jokin’ family these days.
Andy told us his first knock-knock joke this evening…
Naah Naah!
Who’s there?
Nanananana!
Nanananana Who?
Yeeeaaaahhh! Bwahahaha!
Bren’s faves are
Knock Knock!
Who’s there?
Boo!
Boo Who?
Oh! Please Don’t cry!!! and
Knock Knock!
Who’s there?
Who
Who Who?
Are you an owl???!
4/21
Me: Here is your drink Andy
Andy: I know Mom!!!
4/28 Andy starts calling his pacifier “buddy”.
4/29 Vacation to my mother’s neck of the country. Bren loves flying.
5/1 Andy starts calling his blue and white checkerboard fleece blankie “yellow”. Huh?! LOL. This is his backup blankie… “Blankie” is a smaller blue fleece blankie with airplanes. I wish I remembered who got it for him. He loves to stroke his cheek with a blankie and my cheek too. Sometimes he has to have all 3 to be happy- Buddy, Blankie AND Yellow.
Brendan is wowwed by the magic wand quests at our hotel- The Great Wolf Lodge. He loves the water slides in the waterpark too!! Quite a big slide for a little kid! He definitely does not fear water though he can’t swim.
5/6 Andy gets his first chance to really watch out the window as our plane takes off and he is wowwed speechless. LOL.
The main buidling at OLLU has a huge fire!
5/7 For the first time in a couple months Andy doesn’t cry at bathtime. I guess he is over his fear now.
5/8 Bren did his first “what things are different between these 2 pictures” type puzzle. I was impressed how quickly he caught on! He also started learning addition… if you have a pink block and a yellow block stuck together what block are they the same as? Then we’d count the squares on the blocks to come up with the numbers and form the problem. So far so good! We’re reading Max & Ruby books and for the first time ever both boys are into the same books!
5/9 Haven’t seen Darrell for more than half an hour total since the fire hit. He worked 23 hours yesterday!!!
Andy is in a shoe stage. During our vacation he cried whenever we’d take his shoes off (not good for getting through airport security!) and now he wears Bren’s shoes until I pry them out off him at bedtime. Nutty kid. He says a beautiful “Good Morning!” though!
Marshmallows = “mellows”, Balloon = “boon”
5/13 Andy said “strawberry” as clear as day tonight!
5/14 Bren and Daddy went to the planetarium and saw “The Rocket Trip”. They had a blast! (Har, har)
Andy has discovered the Duplo blocks and can’t get enough of them!

Our last plane landed, we climbed into a taxi and Darrell turned on his cell phone to find out…






The main building of the university where he works had a raging 4 alarm fire. Top 2 floors were burning, bottom floor is flooded (where his office and the main computers are). This morning it looks like this.