Not my best moment!

I was helping Xander with something when I hear Grace and Greta talking. Greta was saying, "No Grace!!! He'll bite you!" That caught my attention so I looked over and Grace was carefully carrying a tissue. She said, "Look! I got a spider!" Greta is going,"NOOOOOOO!" and staying a safe distance away. I took the tissue from her. I thought she maybe had a little spider in her tissue. No. She had a big, live, hairy, creepy spider in there! Sorry, no pictures this time!! I dropped the tissue before the big hairy spider could crawl up my arm, screamed, "No, he'll bite!!" and ran back a safe distance with Greta!!! Grace, was convinced by now that maybe we were right, so she screamed and ran back by us. The rest of the story involves, a shoe, the tissue, and the trash. Grace was not sad to see the spider go or anything....but still....I maybe could have encouraged her more with the spider instead of freaking out like a baby! LOL!

Xander on Girls

Xander was talking about some girls today in the car. He said he thought he wanted to marry girl #1 but he still needed to leave his options open. He then said he would never marry girl #2. I asked about girl #3 who he talks about a lot and plays really well with. They seem to be close so I was curious why she wasn't included in the marriage candidate talk. He said, "Oh, she isn't very girly. She even has a Spiderman backpack and lunchbox!" Apparently, he has already decided some girls are "just one of the guys!" He went on to say, "I want the girl I marry to like more girly things and do pretty things. Girl #3 is just my friend."

And- Marie has taken her first independent steps this week! I would in no way call her a "walker" now because she doesn't really want to walk but will do it occasionally if she forgets she isn't holding on to something. She much prefers to either crawl or hold on to something or someone! After the first time she took some steps, she wouldn't even try to stand for about an hour. Here she is with her walker

Not Master Xander

Xander- "Grace and Greta, would you like to call me Master Xander?"

Grace-"No, I'll just call you Xander, Xander!"

Greta-Silence. Apparently, the question is too crazy for her to bother answering.

Ghost Night

Xander hosted our second official Ghost Night tonight. I'm not really sure where the idea of Ghost Night came from. Last Sunday morning, Xander told us that it was going to be Ghost Night that night. We said, "uh....ok...." and left him alone. He spent all day working on it. Whenever we went into the hall where he was working on it, he fussed at us because "Ghost Night isn't open yet!" We went out to the store and had ice cream at Brewsters and when we got back it was late and we were going to rush them to bed. But, Xander was really upset because we didn't do "Ghost Night," whatever that was. So, we decided not to crush his spirit since he had been working on it all day and we let him do his thing.

So this is what happens at Ghost Night: Everyone gets a ticket that Xander has provided to enter Ghost Night. Then, he passes out the "monsters" he has made. The monsters are little rectangles of paper of varying sizes with scary faces drawn on them and hair or something cut at the top with scissors. Xander always gets the biggest one. It is funny to watch Grace and Greta get so into it. Xander says, "Who wants this one?" and the girls yell, "Me, me, meeeee!" Once the monsters are passed out, you give Xander different tickets to buy a scary picture he has drawn. These are on normal sized paper. Finally, we turn off the lights, everyone gets up and moves into the hall, and we go around making scary faces and monster and ghost sounds. Then, Xander decides who did the best job with the scary time (always Jon, of course!!) and they get the Ghost Night Trophy- which is some other picture he has made. Tonight, the trophy was a horse (I think it was a "Night-mare"?) he had drawn, colored, and cut out. Also, tonight he had decided that admission and all pictures at Ghost Night would be free! Yay!

Anyone have any idea where Ghost Night is coming from? Is it in some book or tv show I've never seen? It is very serious business.

Grace was upset tonight because she wanted a pretty Princess picture instead of a ghost one, so Xander declared that tomorrow would be Princess Day and Ghost Night. We'll have to see what that involves and how it turns out!

Follow Your Dreams!

Xander has obviously watched too much Disney, or listened to too many fairy tales, or been to too many motivational school assembly speeches. Whenever I tell him I can't do something, he says something back like, "Don't give up! Just keep following your dreams. You can do it!" It's sort of cute. Today, however, I overhead him talking to Grace. She had just asked me for something and I said no. As I came around the corner, I heard Xander giving her his wise advice. "If Mommy says 'No,' just keep asking her until she says yes. You have to keep following your dreams until they come true. Never give up!" That must be why he is so persistent- he's not nagging; he's following his dreams! I had to crush their dreams and tell them that actually, if Mommy says no and they keep asking then they will get in big trouble for not listening and their dreams will never come true.