"cat is fat"

No, not ours. A cat in a book Ben read at school. He got off the bus on Friday with a case of the giggles and explained they had read a book about "-at" words. He had it in his backpack and pulled it out. The pages were things like "The bat sat." "The rat has a hat." The very last page was "The cat is fat". There was a picture of, of course, a fat cat. And Benjamin, for some reason, found that incredibly hilarious. He still cracks up when I ask him about it. Getting into his little head is always interesting! He even told me this whole long story about his teacher reading that page.

Lij and I were talking about his pal Allie a few days ago. Her mom and I have been playing phone tag because Allie wants to have Lij over. Lij wants to have Allie over..for a sweepover. Oh dear. I wish he could, I really do! Anyway her mom had told me that she has a July birthday and Elijah is at the very top of the list. I was telling Elijah that and I asked him if she is turning 7. His response was "Yes, I bewieve so."

He had a field trip this week to the children's theater in Minneapolis. I had to drop him off at the school in the morning at 7:45. His bestest teacher, Mrs. Klein, was loading things onto the bus and I told her that he had been sure to tell me that she was going with on the field trip. She responded that he was in her group (they give each adult a handful of kids to keep an eye on). I told her that he would be really happy with that because he loves her. She SIGHED and said "It's mutal. It's SOOO mutual. you are doing SUCH a wonderful job with him. he is SUCH a delightful boy."

I know I looked at her like she has 3 eyes and green hair. I just know it. Sorry, but he has been the biggest pain in my ass for the last few weeks. He is a big part of the reason I have not been posting. When I'm mad at one of them I have a hard time logging on and telling fun stories. I have been mad at him most evenings. He is more stubborn than either Brian or I and believe me...that is remarkable in either case. I'm glad to know he is "delightful" at school--I guess I'd rather have it that way than vice versa!

Wilsy is funny as always, if not more so. He is into riding the pink Trek Trike that we got Ben when he was 3. It's an awesome bike. He was riding it around yesterday and said to me, "Mommy, this trike? I like it."

He and I also watched a garbage truck go by when we were waiting for Ben to come on the bus one day. It passed and he said "I think I'll stay here because I don't want to get crushed by that." I agreed that would be wise. Then he added, "Last time I was scared it. But this time I don't think so."

He had his new best friend Andrew over to visit on Wednesday night and they had a very nice time together. All the kids enjoy Andrew and I think Andrew enjoys them too. William was very gentlemanly with his toys, graciously reminding Andrew that he had access to the trucks in the sandbox. They spent a long time together on the dock and beach watching fish and visiting about boats. I have some darling pictures to post and I will have to forward them from home and post them tomorrow night.

I took all 5 kids to the bounce depot last night and honestly I had more fun watching him than i would have myself. That's only partly because after 5 kids I piss when I jump. He goes down these huge 20 feet inflateable slides and bounces several feet in the air and flips and flops and shrieks and comes to a stop at the end with the biggest smile on his face. Oh, and when we were having a little debate the other day he called me Mr. Krabs.

Baby came with the bounce depot too and I was surprised but he loved it. I took him into a few of the inflatables and he loved being flopped all over by the big kid's bouncing. He also partook in the long tunnel toy for babies; he crawled through the length of it many times. When he got bored he would yell for Yaya. He has several new words this week; the one that comes to mind right now is "sock". That's a useful one, I guess.

And as for our big girl, she is 2 days away from being 9! She continues to be delightful and fun. She is forever writing books and plays. I happened to see one she was working on and noticed that she is using the word "nor" ("She had neither brothers nor sisters"). i was impressed with that as I don't think I used it til much later. She is very excited to now be working on division in math; math is not easy for her but she works very hard at it. She is SAD that the school year is ending. I just can't comprehend it (remembering my own elementary school years; I am sad about nursing school).