Interview with Bohdin

1. What is something mommy/daddy always says to you?

mommy -  Do you know that I love you?
daddy -   I don't know

2. What makes mommy/daddy/ Bohdin happy?

mommy - a clean house
 daddy -  playing a lot of computer
 Bohdin - reading

3. What makes mommy/daddy/ Bohdin sad?

mommy -  no Bohdin?
daddy -   I don't know
Bohdin -  hurting myself

4. How does mommy/daddy make you laugh?

mommy - I would think hugging me
 daddy - Tickling me

5. What did mommy/daddy like to do as a child?

mommy - I don't know that
daddy - I don't know that either

6. How old is mommy/daddy?

mommy - 36?
daddy - 48?

7. How tall am I?

mommy - I would think about maybe 4 feet?
daddy -  Four feet six inches?

8. What is mommy's/daddy's/Bohdin's favorite thing to watch on TV?

mommy - News?
daddy - Football
Bohdin - Star Wars The Clone Wars

9. What does mommy/daddy do when you're not around?

mommy - Clean?
daddy - Play computer

10. If mommy/daddy become famous, what will it be for?

mommy - For being the best mommy in the world?
daddy- Playing a lot of computer

11. What is mommy/daddy/Bohdin really good at?

mommy - Cleaning
 daddy - Playing computer
Bohdin - Reading and having ideas

12. What is mommy/daddy/Bohdin not very good at?

mommy -Flying
daddy-  Knowing when to get off the computer
Bohdin - He couldn't think of anything

13. What does mommy/daddy do for a job?

mommy - Take care of us
 daddy - Work in the Army

14. What is mommy's/daddy's/Bohdin's favorite food?

mommy - Apple?
 daddy -  Chocolate nut bars?
Bohdin - I would say broccoli

15. What makes you proud of mommy/daddy?

mommy - I have no idea
daddy - I have no idea

16. If mommy/daddy were a cartoon character, who would I be?

mommy - I don't know
daddy - I have no idea


17. What do we do together?

mommy - Clean
daddy -   I don't know

18. How are we the same?

mommy - We both have brown hair
daddy - We're both boys


19. How are we different?

mommy - You have greenish eyes and I have blue ones
daddy - Daddy's hair is short and mine isn't very short

20. How do you know mommy/daddy loves you?

mommy - You tell me that every single time
daddy - I don't know

21. What do I like most about daddy/mommy?

mommy - The hugs you give me
daddy - I don't know

22. Where is mommy's/daddy's favorite place to go?

mommy - the library?
daddy - I do not know
Bohdin -I don't think I have a favorite place to go

Here is last year's answers:  http://buddyhelen.blogspot.com/2011_10_01_archive.html

Missing Time

I don't have as much time on the computer as I used to.  In the past I did the blog posts while Cora took her nap.  Today during her nap I was shopping with Nyla.  Yesterday I was doing Bohdin's schoolwork during her nap.  The day before she didn't take one.  The list goes on.

As Cora is getting older she is playing more with Nyla.  The other day they dressed up as princesses and Nyla was combing Cora's hair.  They've been doing all sorts of things together including and not one comes to mind right now.  Cora has finally shown interest in tv which has been amazing.  Buddy takes advantage of it a lot.






I took Nyla to gymnastics class on Monday.  We know another family that goes there and I thought Nyla might like it.  Buddy has been home all week so I only had to take Nyla.  She really enjoyed it and I'm going to put Bohdin in gymnastics as well.  G- is in the class and I think they might enjoy doing it together for at least a few weeks.

Wednesday was Lego League and the kids had a lot of fun as usual.  There wasn't much work done on the project because they are mostly done with the build.  Instead they played all sorts of games including a game where they pretended they were orphans and had to escape   They made is as far as the backyard before it was time to go.  It's nice that all of the kids get along and can play together so well.



On Tuesday Bohdin made pizza dough as his baking project.  Nyla wondered what would happen if flour was mixed with water.  I handed her some flour and water and told her to find out.  She played around with it outside while I put Cora down for a nap.  She came upstairs and wanted to make it into bread.  I told her to add salt and yeast.  She added some and put it on the counter to rise.  It rose a bit and after dinner I threw it in the oven.  It wasn't the best bread but it was edible.  We took it outside and ate it around the fire.



Nyla has been really determined to learn how to read and demands to do several reading lessons per day.  She's working on letter sounds right now but has learned enough that she could move on to reading simple words.  She's having difficulty moving from sounding out the letters to saying the sounds fast enough to make it sound like a word.  She is a stubborn little thing and while she was discouraged today I know she's not going to give up.  I expect that she'll be demanding to do more schoolwork tomorrow.

Today I took Nyla with me to Costco.  Somehow it ended up a trip to get Nyla new shoes.  She loves shopping and has way more stamina than I do.  We didn't find the right pair of shoes yet but we did find Tangled underwear and a new winter coat.  I wouldn't be surprised if she asks to go shopping again tomorrow.

Birthday

Last week was my birthday.  I had plans for spending some nice time by myself but it didn't work out.  Nyla woke up with money burning a hole in her pocket and she had to go to the toy store or she may burst into flames.  Nyla isn't too bad to take along so I thought I could make a quick stop there but then Cora saw us leaving and wanted to come as well.  A local fabric store offers a discount on your birthday so we stopped there first.  Cora pooped while we were in the store.  I cleaned her up but I didn't have an extra diaper.  I told her to tell me if she needed to go potty. 

The next stop was the toy store.  Nyla didn't have a lot of money and had trouble finding anything she could afford.  Cora had run off to play with something else and when I went to check on her she told me she had pooped.  It was a big poop smeared all down her leg.  I cleaned her up and wrapped her up in my light sweater.  It's a good thing I had been wearing layers that day.  I told Nyla that we had to go.  Trader Joes was just down the road and Bohdin needed some ingredients to make me a cake.  I had Nyla take off her underwear so Cora could have them and I wrapped a piece of fabric around Cora.  It was better than naked.  We rushed through the store.

When we came home I needed to help Bohdin make my cake.   He had been playing on the computer earlier so he was a bit preoccupied.  He wandered off at times and left me to do the work myself.  Eventually it was done and it looked wonderful.  Nyla decorated it with flowers from the yard.

After dinner Nyla noticed I didn't have any presents so she made me a doll.  She also made me a card and a few other paper things but they didn't photograph well. 


Saturday was the neighborhood yard sale and with Nyla still having a strong urge to spend money I took the girls around the neighborhood.  At our second house she found a doll she loved.  It was a Native American doll from Hallmark.  Nyla named her Pretty.  Pretty has been all over town the past week and I was even comissioned to make a bed for her.  Nyla seems to have fading interest in her.  Maybe it's too hard to fight with Cora.  Every time Nyla loves something Cora has to have it too.  As soon as Nyla loses interest so does Cora. 


Saturday night we went to the Halloween thing at the zoo.  It was pretty cold Saturday night so I thought it would be less busy.  Between the weather, the early date and our late arrival, the crowds were amazing.  Sometimes it felt like we were the only ones there.  It was way better than last time when it was so crowded we could only move forward once the person in front of us had moved.  I was tired and didn't feel like bringing the camera but I wish I had.  This year they had costumed characters to take pictures with.  The first ones we saw were Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel.  Nyla was thrilled to see Tangled and had a bit of a chat with her.  She hardly glanced at the other princesses.  Nyla think we ought to go back to the zoo with our camera.

On Monday I left Cora at home with Buddy and took Bohdin and Nyla to a meeting of the junior history society.  The meeting was boring but after an hour the kids were allowed to play colonial games.  The kids did like that.  Since the meeting was at a library I went out to look for a new audio book.  We stayed for two hours total.  Bohdin had a lot of fun playing with the kids.  Nyla had less fun because she kept getting caught while playing London Bridge.  Her favorite part was seeing S- from Lego League.  She adores S-.




Wednesday was Lego League but this time we had it at somebody else's house.  We have no legos so it made sense during the building phase to have it at M- and W-'s house since they have a ton of legos.  Nyla made a card for S- and played with her quite a bit.  We all had a lot of fun there.  I hope we stay there even after the building phase is over.

Baking Day

Cora read a bedtime story to Nyla.  It was all gibberish but very cute.


Yesterday was baking day for Bohdin.  He really enjoys this part of his schoolwork so even though I told him to bake one thing he baked two.  He started with bread.  He is still in the learning phase so I had to supervise him and help when needed.  I deal with the oven but I also help him check the dough and other things.  Cora was very impatient for the bread and started crying out for some before it was done baking.

Bohdin decided on a cake for the next project.  The bread was cooling so Nyla and Cora had nothing to occupy themselves except trying to sneak batter or complain about not having bread yet.  Bohdin discovered that if he turned the mixer around, air would blow on them which delighted them.








Last week after a bath Nyla got dressed but Cora went downstairs without any clothes.  Buddy saw them and called out "Hey naked baby." to Cora.  Nyla said "She's not naked.  She's wearing a bandaid.".

Today was Lego League. It is Nyla's favorite day of the week and she tells me all of the time. Nyla seemed to have a lot of fun today and so did Bohdin.  A mom commented that Bohdin has more confidence this year.  She's right.  Bohdin is way more confident and comfortable with social situations.  

Magic Kingdom

I kept meaning to get Bohdin and Nyla's words but I haven't yet.  Magic Kingdom was our last day at Disney World and our last day before leaving.  Nyla's number one goal for this trip was to meet Tangled which is her name for Rapunzel from the Tangled movie.  We didn't stop to meet her first.  The first stop was Big Thunder Mountain but it wasn't open yet so Buddy and the kids did Splash Mountain.  I hung out with Cora and gave her breakfast.  I carried her out of the hotel room sleeping that morning so she hadn't eaten yet.  Splash Mountain is a long ride and even though the kids wanted to do it again I nixed it in favor of something new.  We could always come back with FastPasses.  Big Thunder Mountain had opened up so I took Bohdin and Nyla.  It didn't seem that Nyla liked it that much but as the ride ended she said they should rename the ride to "Wee Mountian".  She wanted to get right back on and she did with Buddy.  Bohdin went along as well but he didn't care for the ride quite as much especially after riding a second time.

We headed across the park and did a few more attractions.  The kids loved the new Dumbo waiting area and didn't want to leave to ride Dumbo.









When I came with two year old Nyla she was scared of dark rides.  Cora didn't have that issue.  She did really well on everything.  The only thing she didn't like was being left behind because she was too short.

Bohdin really wanted to play the new sorcerer card game so we picked up a deck of cards.  Buddy and Bohdin split off to do that while I took Nyla and Cora to meet Tangled and Mickey.  Mickey is right next door to the princesses and with a posted wait time of 15 minutes I thought we could drop in quickly with our FastPasses and say goodbye.  That line was so long and it is set up in a way that one can't tell that there is a very long wait in front.  Waiting in that line was my worst Disney experience.  We were there a good 30 minutes so we could see Mickey for 30 seconds.  I had to rush Nyla through because our princess FastPass was about to expire.  We hurried over to the princess entrance and got in line behind the other people.  After about 10 minutes a giant group of people came   in.  They weren't together.  There was a just a large influx of people all at once.  They didn't get in line behind me.  After several minutes I realized that they were in the FastPass line.  It had been empty when I walked in so I didn't even notice it.  I jumped over to the other line even though I was really close to getting in already.  It saved me a few minutes but it put me in an even worse mood after the Mickey wait.



The first princess was Cinderella.  Nyla didn't really care about her or Belle, the other princess in the room, but it is set up so that you sort of need to see all three or be really rude and decline.  Nyla spent a few minutes talking to Cinderella.  Once the pictures were over, Cinderella came over and thanked me for coming.  She was so amazing and lovely that my bad attitude disappeared.  If she was real I would choose her as a friend.



Nyla was really excited to meet Rapunzel.  She wore the dress to surprise her.  Tangled joked around with her that they looked so much alike that Nyla could take her place so she could go ride Splash Mountain.  I don't think Nyla understood the joke completely.  They talked for a few minutes and took some pictures and that was it.  We left for a much needed break.



Cora had a tough time getting to sleep for her nap.  It was late by the time she finally fell asleep and as  a result we went back to Magic Kingdom a good hour later than we intended.  We did a few more attractions.  Nyla was sad that she was too short for Space Mountain.  Bohdin rode it but did not like it at all.  We did the comedy show and it was so funny.  We lucked out.  There was a little kid there that said really random things and the monsters reaction to it was hilarious.






I took a picture of Bohdin on the ferry ride back to the parking lot.  I think he looks really tired.



The next morning we had one more pass left to use.  We voted in the car and everybody but Nyla voted for mini golf.  I wish we had listened to her because it was so hot and humid.  We were sweaty and didn't have that much fun.



We left right after the mini golf and made really good progress.  Cora did really well in the car and we made it past the halfway point.  It was 10pm when we stopped in northern Georgia.  I got out of the car and felt the first cool air I had felt in over a week.  It was amazing.

The next day we drove home with a break at the science museum in Nashville.  We've had a lot of use of the reciprocal museum deal this summer.  We made it home before 4 without incident.  It was a long trip and good to be back home.

Epcot

Sunday afternoon we went to Blizzard Beach for a little while.  The Disney tickets we received gave us four free visits to the water parks, mini golf, and a few other places.  The waterpark was a little crowded and we weren't able to explore all of it.  One of Bohdin's top things during our trip was a family raft ride there.  I think he did it three times.  One of the nice things about it was that Cora was big enough to join us.

Monday was Epcot day.  We left a little bit late and missed the opening of the park.  As a result we had to wait a long time for Mickey.  The park opens at 9 and we weren't done with Mickey until 10.  There wasn't a lot we wanted to do in the front of Epcot so after several attractions we left for the hotel on the earlier side.  We ended up taking too long of a break and rushed through World Showcase in the evening without finishing it.

There is a new scavenger hunt sort of thing in the World Showcase involving Agent P from Phineas and Ferb.  Bohdin received a cell phone and it gave him instructions on how to save the world.  His first mission was in Mexico.  He ran around the building finding various spots.  The cell phone activated interactive features which gave him more clues.  It was sort of neat but it took a really long time.  Bohdin and Nyla loved it and I let them do one more mission in Norway before I cut them off.  I know they would have liked to do them all.  We stayed for the fireworks and had a much better view than the last time we were there.  The park wasn't nearly as crowded so we could be right up on the fence instead of behind hundreds of people.






Doing the mission in Mexico.

Hollywood Studios Pictures