Baby Bice Four

For anyone who is remotely interested, this is one of the best ultrasound pictures we've ever seen for any of our children. This one, of course, is still cooking, but should arrive mid-late April. ACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Word Play

Last week, I (Deb) was in the car with Mackenzie and Jenna. I had just picked up Mackenzie from preschool, and we were on the highway, headed down to Mason's school for the next pickup. On the shoulder of the road was a truck (a tow truck, I think). From the back seat, I hear, "Mommy, is that a *uck?"
"Oh! A teh-RUCK?" I asked.
"Yes. A *UCK!!" (said much louder)
"A TEH-RUCK!"
"Oh-KAY!" said with emphasis from the back seat.
Turns out, Mackenzie doesn't pronounce "tr" words very well. She substitutes an "f." You can't be angry, because she believes she's saying it properly. It's also hard not to laugh.
A couple days later, Alan was home with Mackenzie and Jenna. He was reorganizing a bottom drawer in the kitchen, full of kid-friendly dishes. Jenna, in her usual form, was foiling him every step of the way.
"You're getting on my fricking nerves!" said Alan playfully to Jenna.
Mackenzie, who was at the table, heard this and said, "Daddy, is Jenna getting on your *ucking nerves?"
What's a dad to do? Keep laughing. We are!

Halloween

The leadup to Halloween was definitely most exciting for Mason this year. We contemplated her costume for more than a month. At one point, she said she would like to be R2D2. We thought that was cool. But then, she decided on Ariel the Mermaid. Much more conventional. After a couple weeks insistence, we purchased Ariel the Mermaid, with hair and shoes, to boot. A couple weeks before Halloween, Mason went to a birthday party and needed a costume. We found her devil costume, complete with horns and pitchfork. She had worn it two (?) years ago in Germany. It still fits. Imagine that, for our little pipsqueak. From that point on, we were informed that she would wear the Ariel red hair with her devil costume for Halloween. Fine fine fine. But, on Halloween day, Mason's school said they could come with funny hair. She planned to wear her wig, but at the last minute said no. We put eight ponytails in her hair instead. That night, she also opted out of the wig. I told her she would have to make next year's Halloween costume, because the outlay of money was a bit much for a costume that was never worn. Fortunately, it can still become dressup clothes.

As for Mackenzie, she was not at all interested in dressing up for Halloween. We asked her if she would like to wear a fairy dress. She said, "Oh, yeah!" Then she followed that with, "No. I can't." What????? For school, the best we managed was an orange Halloween bat shirt. For trick-or-treating, she refused to remove the bat shirt, but Alan successfully got the fairy dress (sans wings) over the shirt, so she could join in the fun.

Jenna was agreeable to most everything. For the afternoon, she was a ladybug. By evening, she was a turtle, and a real ham about it! Jenna fell asleep on Alan's shoulder while out trick-or-treating, but fun was had by all. Enjoy the pics.

One last note - Mason entered a coloring contest for the first time. It was held at the local library. Her pumpkin picture won her a real pumpkin. The pictures were voted on by age group. Our little girl has won her first contest! Yay! They equated her rendition of the pumpkin to Indian corn. We're certain that wasn't her intent, but she was excited. So, here's a picture of the winning pumpkin, as well as our carved pumpkins. The skeleton face was on the pumpkin she won.

We Voted!

Today, the Bice adults took part in what will no doubt be a historic election. We cast our ballots for the 2008 presidential election, and most significantly in California, for the Proposition 8 measure about equal rights. While standing side-by-side at the foldout cardboard booths (no curtains), with Jenna in Alan's arms, we were gripped by laughter as we heard a little "toot." Alan said to Jenna, "did you toot?" She said slyly, "yeeaaaahhh." Fun fun fun! Happy voting to all! We'll blog with our Halloween photo shoot later today (if possible).

P.S. It's raining in CA. What a great day for elections! We haven't had rain in months!!!

Day-to-Day...and Then Some...

Wow! Have we ever been busy! Between M & M going to school, Alan going to work, and Jenna and Deb driving for 3-4 hours a day, dropping everyone off, picking them up, and running errands in between, it's a wonder that this blog ever gets written!

As far as school goes, Mason seems to really enjoy kindergarten. She struggles a bit to get ready in the morning, but she's always in a good mood when we pick her up from school. She always shares a little about her day, which she never used to do, and she's thrilled to come home and do homework! If only we knew that excitement could last forever! Ha ha.

Mackenzie is adapting to school. She rarely ever cries when we drop her off anymore. She does mope sometimes, though. But, she's eating lunch at school now, instead of after school, in the car, which she did for the entire first month. She's participating in activities too. She apparently really likes sticking things that have glue on them to paper. The latest was making paper jack-o-lanterns. She stuck the eyes, nose, and mouth on them. She had so much fun, she made three, although the faces were a bit crooked, they were generally in the appropriate locations.

Jenna is turning into a little terror. She is mischievous, she is not interested in words like "no" and "stop." We try to change her attention to activities more appropriate, when necessary, but some days, it seems there's little we can do, without being completely terrorized or made crazy by her actions. She's also so cute that it's tough to get angry, but easy to be frustrated.

Just over a week ago, we took the girls to a pumpkin patch out in the desert mountains, about an hour from home. There were pumpkins still on the vine, and plenty of them. We had a great time walking all around looking for good carving pumpkins. Mason picked out two of the three. But ultimately, we decided to go for one, really big kahoona. It is classy, too, with whitish stripes where the natural grooves would be. It weighed in at 39 pounds. We still aren’t sure how we will carve it, but that is yet to come. We’ll be sure to take pictures.

So, other than that, we have one last thing to share on our blog this time around. It’s a poem that Alan and I composed, with a little bit of help from a special friend. We hope you enjoy the read as much as we enjoyed wordsmithing it to perfection. It’s very rare that we compose anything, let alone poems. :-) You can read it to the right of this blog. Enjoy!

Day at the Beach

This past Saturday, following Mason's very first, successful sleepover at a friend's house, we caught up with her at the beach. It was a slightly overcast day, and the girls were content to play in the sand all day. However, we learned that further down the beach, there was an area where you could wade in the water and see swarms of leopard sharks. Apparently, leopard sharks have no interest in people, so they are safe...or so we were told. :-) We took the kids (in our arms), and waded out. Not only were the leopard sharks harmless, they were beautiful and plentiful. It was an amazing sight to see, on a typical day at the beach. Mackenzie hoped to stay out in the water watching them for a long time, but Mason was tired of being at the beach, and Jenna was out of the water with Alan. Did I mention the water is chillingly cold? Once you adjust, it's fine, but if you go back and forth? Chilling! Unfortunately, we did not have our camera with us for this event.

However, we did have one other funny thing happen at the beach. We usually pack a picnic lunch when we go, and this day was no different. Alan made several peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which we packed between two containers to share with everyone. One container is rectangular shaped. While it was open, it was inadvertently set down on the towel next to us. Jenna, being our most mischievous and always finding "innocent" trouble, was walking around while eating part of a sandwich. She walked right through the open container, leaving a perfect, Jenna-size footprint in the remaining bottom row of sandwiches. She also left a good amount of the sand that was on her foot. It was incredibly funny, and the seagulls loved it. But, a bummer for us.

Swimming and School

Wow! Where has the summer gone! We spent all of August focusing on Mason's new "passion," if you could call it that. Swimming. We enrolled her in Tiny Tots swim lessons. She used to have a fear of getting her face wet. After two weeks in the lessons, she was putting her head in the water and having a blast! She couldn't quite float on her back without help, so she had to retake the class. Second time was a charm for Mason. Within the first week, her teacher told us she should have been in the next level, and he would try to work with her individually on more advanced techiques. Mason now loves having water poured over her head, taking showers, and blowing bubbles in the water. In fact, she loves swimming so much, she has asked to continue lessons. We begin again next week! Mackenzie and Jenna enjoyed going to watch, but Mackenzie would have preferred to get in the water. She and Jenna both love to swim. We try to take all the girls on the weekends, when we can manage it.

Besides swimming, this was a big week for us. School began on Tuesday. That meant kindergarten for Mason and preschool for Mackenzie. Mason, dressed in school uniform, with braids on each side of her head, marched right into her classroom on day one without looking back. At the end of a long day (six hours), she marched out and informed us that there was no play time. Recess doesn't count as play time. On day two, a short day (just under four hours), she marched in successfully again. When she came out, she again informed us that there was no play time. By the time day three rolled around, we had to drag her kicking and screaming out of the house, kicking and screaming into the car, and kicking and screaming out of the car. The kids all line up outside, and their teacher comes to retrieve them. Once she greeted all the children in the line, Mason informed me that she would like to walk up without me today. So much for the tantrum. I followed, out of sight, and she did great! What was the point of the tantrum? Guess what she said at the end of the day, though? Yep. That's right. There was no play time.

Mackenzie is a completely different scenario. She is going to Die Rasselbande, the preschool where Mason went all of last year. She was very excited to go to school, but when we walked into the classroom, the separation anxiety was beyond anything we had expected. Mackenzie is always so easygoing. But, there were screaming kids in the room whose parents had already departed. I stayed with Mackenzie for about 45 minutes. The screaming kids never stopped screaming. Mackenzie cried and grabbed for me every time I tried to leave. In the meantime, Jenna hopped up on a chair and started playing with whatever was available at the time. Jenna must've been ready for school. But, she's too young. Mackenzie did survive day one, but when I came to pick her up, she repeatedly asked, "Mommy, are you here?" She refused to eat her lunch at school, telling her teachers she would eat in the car, which is exactly what she did. Today was her second day of school. I left after only ten minutes, and she did cry. I stayed outside, where I could see her. Eventually she stopped crying. But the report was that she stood around and watched everybody, but wouldn't participate. Again, she wouldn't eat her lunch, except in the car. When her teachers offered her the water bottle we brought, she wouldn't drink either. They asked if they should write her name on it. She must've been indifferent, so they did. She told them, "I don't like the ABC's on my water bottle." Hmmpphhh. If you ask Mackenzie if she likes school, she says "yeah!" We'll see.

Enjoy the swim pics and the first day school pics.