The Im Family

its been too long since my last post again.  *sigh.  what can i say?  LIFE IS BUSY! since mimi started the Advanced Academics Level 4 this school year, she has been working long hours on school work every day in addition to after school activities (and now its school work she needs help on when in the past it was so easy she blew thru the assignments in 10 minutes on her own).  the crazy thing is, we HAVE cut back a little this year with Mimi, but still she is doing more than enough to keep me busy:  gymnastics, girl scouts, ballet/tap, hip hop, lacrosse, and piano.  and add in the fact that ozzy is now old enough (4) to do more:  gymnastics, swimming, karate (3 times a week), ballet, soccer, and piano, and he is now at preschool 4 days out of the week, which means i'm in the car a lot more these days!  and i'm still leading the pretend room at his preschool.  all that makes it rather hard to find much time to keep up with the family blog....

i asked ozzy to draw a picture to hang up in his new classroom at preschool this school year.  it was a very sweet and ultimately fascinating process to sit by him as he drew.  i gave him paper and asked him what he would draw.  he said he wanted a dinosaur.  T Rex! he grabs a pencil ready to draw, then suddenly freezes, looks at me and says, pathetically, "but i dont know how to draw a T Rex." well, i say, you know it has a head, and big body, and a tail.  so let's start there.  just do an oval for the head. ozzy says, plaintively, "but i dont know how to draw an oval." yes, you do.  i said.  it's like making an O for Ozzy.  but you can draw it long the other way for the T Rex's head. so he draws a tiny oval.  i erased it and told him to make it bigger because T Rex is BIG. he made a bigger oval.  then what shape for the body, i asked?  how about another oval but much bigger for the body.  he complies and dr...

yesterday morning, while i'm getting ready for the day, ozzy says to me, 'mommy, guess which one of my stuffed animals is having a birthday today?" shaking my head (uhhh, i dont know!), i answer feebly, "ummm, pink puppy?" ozzy says, "noooooooo.  guess again!" geez.  i try another stab at it, "then is it Fire Dog?" the dog dressed like a fireman. ozzy says disgustedly, "no, mommy!  Fire Dog is the pizza man who delivers the pizza to the party!" after being chastized by a 4 year old for not knowing this basic fact, as if this were common knowledge, i decide not to engage further and to just give up, "well, i dont know who is having a party.  i give up.  which of your (80 million) stuffed animals is having a birthday party today?" ozzy says cheerfully, "it's baby monkey's birthday today!  he used to be four like me, but now he's turning 5, so he's going to start going to Monkey School to learn...

this year we vacationed with friends instead of my family.  most of the assembled were families with kids roughly the same age as ours.  it can get a little loud and crazy with lots of kids in the house, but b/c their ages were so similar they mostly played together and kept each other entertained, which i think makes it TOTALLY worth it.  there were 3 kids who were 7-8 years old, 2 five year olds, 1 four year old, and 2 three year olds.  and though he was too little to play with the others, there was also a 7 month old.  we found a decent 5 bedroom house, across the beach road, very close to the beach access, with a swimming pool.  the house wasnt one of the nicer homes we had ever stayed in, but the location to the beach and shops was ideal, and, by the time we got to booking it,  it was the best one offered that close to the beach that had a swimming pool, without paying beachfront prices (not that any beachfront homes were even left to rent by...