Somehow a car discussion yesterday turned to the topic of how Hazel will have to speak French all day when she hits second grade next year. Sam piped in that he could say No in French and then began turning his head side to side . . .

Old Man Fookwire is a grump who only likes to paint pictures of birds that visit his backyard. The problem is, they fly south every winter, leaving him sad and lonely. So he decides to get them to stay by putting up beautiful birdfeeders filled with seeds and berries. Unfortunately, the squirrels like the treats, too, and make a daring raid on the feeders. The conflict escalates-until the birds depart (as usual), and the squirrels come up with a plan that charms the old grump.

My take: How can you not like a book where you get to say Googlie Mooglie, raise your fist and yell "Those darned squirrels"?

Everyone knows Sleeping Beauty has to be woken with a kiss, except Prince Charming. Every time the fairies watching over her try to tell him, he interrupts with his ideas of how to wake her. Eventually he gets the message, and his reaction is priceless: ?One hundred years of morning breath Wow! That could be the kiss of death!?

My take: This prince is a little slow when it comes to smooching. Fast forward 15 years. That's not such a bad thing.

One dark night the Gruffalo''s child disobeys her father''s warnings and ventures out into the snow. After all, the Big Bad Mouse doesn''t really exist . . . does he?

A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood.
A fox saw the mouse and the mouse looked good.

Walk further into the deep dark wood, and discover what happens when the quick-thinking mouse comes face to face with an owl, a snake and a hungry gruffalo . . .

Yesterday night I was cutting out a carribean vacation contest entry form and Hazel asked me what I was doing so I told her. Then she asked if I would take her. Sadly the contest was for two so I told her I would probably take Grandpa Joe.

Thirty seconds later - muffled sobs followed by tears.

Me: (Genuinely baffled) What's wrong Hazel?

Hazel: I'll miss you.

Hazel has started keeping lists. And yesterday she was writing out a list of what she might like for Christmas:

Lego (of course)
hair styling salon head (don't ask - just imagine a plastic head with hair you can braid, style, cut, etc.)
kitten

At which point Aline tells her she already has enough stuffed animals.

And Hazel looks up and says:

How do you spell REAL kitten?

We've been telling Sam that once he turned four he'd have to start wiping his own bum.

Tuesday morning I got the following email from Aline:

So I'm not sure Sam is ready to wipe his own...  He did the first wipe then just as I was saying don't touch me... you have poo on your hands he leaned forward for me to do the finishing wipes and he grabbed my pants... ick.

This is a day I love that I'm at work!

The kids give me a hug before I head off to work every day and Sam was in the middle of getting dressed this morning as I called out for hugs. He runs down the stairs naked to jump in my lap:

Me: Hey there naked boy!

Sam: I'm not naked. I'm wearing socks!

Sure enough.