Zuri

The Baton Rouge Zoo has a new baby black rhinoceros. They had a contest to let the public pick the names. I took the advice of a zookeeper and researched the origin and languages of the area black rhinoceros is from. Dylan and I picked out a few Swahili names with meanings to fit a baby rhinoceros. He chose the name "Lela" meaning Black Beauty. It was perfect. The zoo thought so too because Dylan was chosen as a top 3 finalist. Over 500 names were submitted and my child was a finalist!!!! It was very exciting. I even think that he understood how important it was. We went to the Santa Safari yesterday for the announcement. It was an outdoor event and about 40 something degrees. It was really cold. They had decorated so nice. The breakfast was delicious, but cold. :) Santa was there to greet the children and take pictures. Not with my two babies. They did not want anything to do with him. They had an animal show with baby alligators, a small owl, and what looked like a chinchilla? There was also an arts and crafts table to make a candy cane reindeer ornament. It was nice. At 9:30 they announced the winner. Dylan was a runner up. The winning name was "Zuri" meaning "beauty". It was a beautiful name and did sound more "African" than ours, maybe that is why the public voted for it. But I though Dylan's name had the perfect meaning for the black rhino. The best part of the day was when we were walking away. Dylan said "Oh well, it was cool anyway". For anyone who knows my son it was a big deal for him to feel that way and to make that statement. It was so grown up and mature. I was so so proud of him for that. I probably told him 5 times how proud I was for that one statement. Part of his prize was a stuffed rhino, so naturally I went to the gift shop to buy one for Jack and Laiken also to commemorate the day for all of us. Leaving the gift shop with our 3 baby rhino's in hand, Laiken said she will name hers Baby Jeano. Dylan said, " I will name mine Lela." (with a big grin on his face.) I said, "I think that is a beautiful name!" It was a great day!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

It seems like so much is happening the last few weeks that I haven't had time to blog. Trey came home Nov. 24th for the Thanksgiving holiday. The kids were so excited to see him at the airport. Laiken was talking to him as she ran and jumped in her arms. I am sure I heard her voice crack. She seemed pretty emotional, but that is my drama queen and daddy's little girl. It was sweet. That week we took Trey and his Mom to IHOP for their birthday's. For some reason (probably happy face pancakes) the kids chose there as the official birthday spot. Debbie and I cooked Thanksgiving dinner. She might have done a little more than me....but I helped alot. It was wonderful and the kids ate well and everyone napped well afterwards. That is always a blessing. Thursday night we joined Trey's cousins for midnight madness at an outlet mall and Black Friday at Wal-Mart. I had never been before and it was wild! I would definitely do it again b/c the deals were outrageous. We saved so much money and finished our shopping list in one night. The rest of the weekend we pretty much just layed around and spent time together. We decorated the tree Saturday, and it only took until Tuesday for Jack to pull it down! Luckily since having 2 small children, our tree is decorated very simple with cheap ornaments. Cleanup was quick. Trey left Sunday morning. It was hard to see him go, but we have been through the longest stretch of time away from him. Now he will be home in 18 days for a Christmas holiday from the 22nd-4th. That will be so nice. The next time he goes back it will be for less than 30 days and he will be home for good. Then we will probably be moving again. Fun! I am ready, but also not.

Stars for good behavior!!!!

I began a star chart as rewards for good behaviors to encourage more positive behaviors from my children. I also made a list of rules to emphasize the important ones. Laiken receives stars for helping pick up toys, sharing, and handling stressful situations without going bananas. Dylan gets stars for good days at school, not lying, and being helpful. Jack mostly just get sympathy stars. But so far our household seems more positive and less chaotic. Laiken has really responded the most to the star chart. She tries throughout the day to earn stars and often asks what will earn her another star.

This morning I was in the bathroom blow drying my hair. We were getting ready to go to the zoo. Laiken rushed in my room screaming hysterically about Jack, her belly hurting, "everywhere", "too much". And many other random thoughts squished into one. After several minutes she calmed down enough to say, "Jack feed the fish!! Too much is everywhere! It will hurt their bellies!!!!" Word for word. Sure enough, Jack had fed the fish half of the container of goldfish flakes and it was everywhere. Although, sadly, he did manage to get the largest portion in the aquarium. The poor fish were swimming in yellow, murky, food-filled water. It was a terrible sight. Jack just pointed while I cleaned..."bish, bish (fish)!!!!!!!!" I managed to clean the tank this afternoon, but some cloudiness still remains. Laiken's little goldfish died and the big goldfish is swimming sort of lop-sided. I do not expect him to make it through the night. So I guess we will be back at walmart tomorrow. Oh fun!

While I was cleaning the fish tank, Laiken kept complaining she was hungry. I told her it will be supper time very soon, but for right now I had to finish cleaning the tank and put the fish back in. She said, "so you can get a red star?" Yes, exactly. Sometimes Mommy's need a star too.

Halloween!!!

WalMart

This is an additional post for the previous one titled "The most wonderful, terrible weekend". If you read that one...you would know about Jack's involvement in flushing my keys down the toilet at Wal-Mart. I recently went in the Wal-Mart in Slidell, LA. We visited the restroom. We always do. On the way in the door Laiken tells me "Take your keys out of your pocket, Don't lose them." Unbelievable. She really said that word for word. Don't worry, my keys were definitely in my purse this time. We walked into the stall and there it was!!! A little tiny "keep Jack out of trouble" chair. Where was that when we needed it last weekend!!!!!!!!!!

Jack

Jack is stealing noodles from Laiken's plate. (He knows she isn't going to eat them, she never does.) Jack eating broccoli??? Nope, he was just moving it to Laiken's plate.