A few tidbits...

Luke finished his basketball season...yea! We had already decided he wasn't going to play baseball (he started out strong for both soccer and basketball but by the last few weeks he just wasn't into it). Decided he's a little young...he wants to play flag football in the fall, so we'll see...

Kallie has learned how to pull her pants off :-) She is also grabbing her diaper when she has a stinky and sometimes when it's wet... I'm hoping that means she will potty train sooner than later! She is so observant - she helped "set" the table the other night. Got a bunch of forks and set them all around the table (I think there were about 10 forks total on the table!). She helped me unload groceries the other day and I was impressed that she knew where to put some of the items (like bananas that go on the countertop - she couldn't quite reach to get them up there). She also helps unload the dishwasher (though sometimes the dishes are dirty so this can be a problem if I don't catch her!). She knows where most of the items go that are on her level (pots and pans, bowls, etc - mostly non-breakable items!)... She has mastered the word "no" quite well :-(, though I don't think she fully understands it (I can ask her if she wants crackers and she will say "no, no" but then proceed to eat several of them).

I know you're wondering why in the world there are is a picture of these shoes, right? Funny story...hopefully not too much info... Luke has a bad habit of using the bathroom and not flushing the toilet. I'm constantly calling him into the bathroom to come flush it, usually because the smell has called me in there. So... the other night, Luke had left a little "nugget" in the toilet. Gross! Chris was getting ready to give Luke a bath, and he (Chris) needed to use the bathroom himself, so he pushed the handle to flush the toilet but also started peeing in it at the same time (while the toilet was flushing). Also at this time, Luke is undressing to get in the bath and he kicks his black school shoe off - which flies off and lands in the toilet! Also, the toilet is starting to overflow. It stopped before overflowing on the floor (another story about this in a sec) but the shoe is still in the toilet and Chris was trying not to pee on it. Luke did get the shoe out (which he put outside) and Chris got the toilet cleared up, and gave the kids a bath. He told me about it shortly after, so I decided to head immediatel to Wal-Mart (I had actually meant to take Luke shopping that day for new shoes but never made it there - he did actually need new ones). I had no desire to try to clean a shoe that was starting to fall apart anyway, so Luke got new school shoes (they have to wear solid color - all white, black or brown, or these navy and white Keds). I took a picture of these to ask Chris if he thought they'd be ok. And honestly, I didn't care at that point - at least he had a pair of clean shoes to wear the next morning!

A side note about the toilet - Luke put too much toilet paper in the toilet (the one that he and Ansley, and eventually Kallie, share) a few months ago, and it overflowed onto the floor. For some reason, a lot of the houses here have carpet in the bathrooms. Ours is a little different in that there is at least tile around the toilet and bathtub area, but there is carpet around the sinks. (Cole's bathroom is small and is completely tile). So, thankfully there was just pee in the toilet that time, but it still overflowed and managed to spread on down to the carpet some too. I cleaned it and put baking soda on it and sprayed Febreeze, but it still had this yucky smell. (WHY is there carpet in the bathroom??). We had the carpets cleaned (including the bathroom) and it smelled better, but this "almost overflowing" incident has made us decide to get new tile in there - soon! :-)