I miss my kids. Right now, I am in Rockville, MD, staying at a cousin's home. I would say that I am staying with a cousin, but I am here, they are not, hence, I am staying at their home. Last night, I spoke with Hannah briefly before she went to bed. She told me that she built a sand castle. She was very excited about it. Then I spoke to Matthew. When I called the kids, I was still out to dinner with a group of IPC volunteers at the Dogfish Head Brewery (I had half an Aprihop and shared the rest). Matthew asked me what the noise was. I told him that I was with some people in a restaurant. He asked me who was there, so I gave him the list. It was pretty cute. Finally, he said goodbye and blew me a kiss. Then he asked me if I was cold, so I told him yes. He blew me another kiss, and I told him that it was so cold that everyone that I was with was shivering. He was so excited that he told Ron about it. It was too cute. I wonder what he is going to tell me tonight...

When blogging about kids, sometimes it is hard to know what to blog about. Considering that my kids are 3 and 5, that may sound a little strange, but at that age, the kids flit from mood to mood, moment to moment, and change in a heartbeat. This morning, Hannah went from having a fit about her shirt being too short (this involved kicking, screaming, and me holding her while Ron put her shorts on), to singing "A Spoon Full of Sugar" in the car just moments later. Notice, I said that we had to hold her to get her shorts on. The shorts had nothing to do with the shirt (although she did see one of her skirts outside her door in a small pile to be put away), so we could not figure out her problem. Last night, Hannah picked both the shorts AND the shirt herself.

So we got in the car, and the kids immediately wanted kid's music. We have a CD of Disney songs in the car. Matthew wanted "A Monkey's Uncle," which is one of his current favorites. Then I played Hannah's song. It is funny to listen to her because she sometimes says scoop instead of a spoon. I guess that she likes things pretty sweet.

When we got to day care, Hannah was cold. She didn't want to put on her extra shirt, though. Matthew came over and put his arms around her to snuggle her and asked her if that was better. He is such a sweet big brother most of the time. In spite of Hannah's rough start, I really feel blessed to have such great kids.

The candy fairy came to our home today. If you have never met the candy fairy. She takes away candy (parade candy, Halloween candy, etc.) and replaces it with a present. I can't take credit for the idea. I must have read it in a parenting magazine somewhere. The first time I tried it, the kids were in the house, and by the time they asked me a million questions about her, they were terrified of her. This time, I did not tell them that she was coming. It was pretty funny. They both insisted that they saw her pink car in Galesville this morning, and heard her burp. Hannah asked me to call the fairy and say thank you for the lip gloss. Both of the kids wanted wanted me to tell the candy fairy that she would be healthier if she ate five servings of fruit and vegetables a day. Hannah was a little sad. She wanted to know when we were going to get more candy. It was very funny.

This morning was a rough one for Matthew. He has always been concerned about his clothes. For some reason, he hates anything that is big. Long shorts - forget it. Right now, he is somewhere between a 5T and a boys 5, so everything is either too big or too small. Matthew is pretty miserable about the whole thing. He had a major fit about wearing the clothes he picked out last night. He has a rule that he has to wear what he picks out, so we ended up with a major disaster. He was so upset, he ended up with a stomachache, and I ended up with a headache. Fortunately, he must have had a good nap, because he was really good at gymnastics tonight.

Hannah was even good at gymnastics tonight. All week, she talked about doing her bear crawl on the beam by herself. Not only did she do it herself (even on the high beam!), she also did her stretches very well, and she actually stayed focused until the end. Not bad for a 3 year old. Now if I could just get her to point her toes...

Hannah also "read" me "The Foot Book" tonight. It was terribly cute. She turns the pages from left to right, but reads on the pages from right to left, and not necessarily from top to bottom, so it is pretty silly. I had a hard time not laughing. Then, she read it again, while sitting on the potty. Too funny!

Matthew just loves to do the dishes. Yes - you heard me correctly. My son actually thinks that it is a fun thing to do. It must have something to do with all of the bubbles. I realize that at some point here he is going to figure out that it is not as much fun as he thought it was. In the meanwhile, he can do all of the dishes that he wants.

Tonight, I sent the kids (and the husband) into the yard to "hunt." Matthew got his binoculars, Hannah used the big ones, and they went to hunt for strawberries in the garden. They were very excited when they came back in with EIGHT strawberries. They each got to eat two - they were very excited!

Matthew and Hannah went fishing for the first time today. They had a free fishing day in Galesville, WI, with free lunch and prizes for the kids. Hannah was really sad about not winning a prize. She did catch a fish, though - a 4" long Bluegill. She was so excited to tell me about it!

Matthew was not very patient about fishing, and kept reeling in his line to quickly. He didn't seem to mind the whole worm thing, which was good. I mind about the whole worm thing... Although Matthew didn't catch a fish, he did get to help throw Hannah's back in the water, so all things worked out pretty evenly.