Mia

Ok, it's time to admit that I am terrible at blogging. I really enjoy reading other people's posts but never take the time for my own. Mia turned 3 on Nov. 2 and I was determined to do a post on her on her birthday week but here we are three weeks later. Better late than never. Now on to my favorite 3 year old, Amelia Anne Redman!

20 fun facts about Mia

1. Mia loves sign language, she has watched a lot of signing time videos and knows somewhere between 300 and 500 signs. I don't know exactly how many because she knows way more than me.

2. Mia loves the word "fabulous" and uses it all the time. Usually in reference to her looks. The other day I finished her hair and she said, "I want to go show Dad how fabulous I look".

3. Mia loves to sing. It is a shame she wasn't in the primary program because she knew all the songs they sang.

4. Mia may have had a scary bathroom experience lately that I don't know about. She is potty trained and has graduated from the potty chair to the big toilet but yesterday morning she came out of the bathroom saying, "I use the potty chair. The big potty is too dangerous." No idea why she feels that way. I tried to ask questions but she just kept repeating that phrase. Hmmm.

5. Mia loves shoes. Shoes are fabulous.

6. Mia doesn't like to be called things she isn't. If I call her a turkey, peanut, donut, munchkin, etc. she tells me she isn't a ... she is a toddler. The other day I said "Come here babes" and she said "Mom, I am one babe, not two." so I guess she is ok with being a babe.

7. Mia is a girly girl and loves princesses. She has recently gotten into barbie dolls and loves to brush her Repunzel barbie's hair.


8. Mia changes her clothes way to much. I had to take out her drawers and hide them in a closet to keep her from changing her clothes 12+ times a day. She now has her clothes back but the changing has increased enough that I might have to hide them again.

9. Mia is a great sister.

10. Mia likes to spell things. She knows how to spell her name but a lot of words are spelled l m n o p.

11. Mia doesn't like to take naps, though if she can take a book with her I can sometimes convince her to lay down.

12. Mia loves to draw. She draws on herself, on walls, on the coffee table, on her sister, etc.

13. Mia eats my gum if she finds it.

14. Mia loves her baby doll and plays with it every day. Her doll's name is "water baby".

15. Mia loves watching PBS

16. Mia asks me to do her hair but then pulls it out a couple hours later.

17. Mia has a great imagination.

18. Mia wishes she could go to school like her older brothers and sisters.

19. Mia loves having joint birthday parties with her daddy. Their birthdays are only 2 days apart.

20. Mia is a wonderful, lovable, sweet, beautiful, smart, funny, wise, loving, crazy and adorable little girl. We love you Mia.

I have my costume for Halloween, in fact it's already on.

This is actually a 10 year old picture but I didn't want to take a picture of what I actually look like right now because it might send readers into a panic, worried for my sanity. Last night was one of those nights that serve as excellent birth control. Unfortunately it is too late for that for me. I had been up with the kids a lot the night before and had taken a nap with the two youngest in the afteroon. Well of course this gave me insomnia so I didn't fall asleep till 1:00. Then the fun started. At 2:30 Mia woke up coughing and crying so I went in and comforted her and gave her more tylenol. Then at 4 Liam came up and told me that Brock's foot had fallen asleep. I thought it was morning and he was looking for an excuse to wake me up so I said "sorry, I hope it feels better" and went back to sleep. Then a couple minutes I woke back of and realized that it was still night and I should check on Brock. He was downstairs in their room crying because he had woken up with a horrible headache (I think he got my migraine gene) and couldn't get back to sleep. Don't ask me how Liam translated that to his foot falling asleep. So I took care of him and went back to bed. Sometime between 4:30 and 5 Evie threw up. Even more fun she was in our bed. She had been crying off and on in her bed and I was too tired to deal with it any other way than by putting her in bed with us so I woke up to wretching right next to my face. After we got things cleaned up she didn't want to go back to sleep and a half an hour later, when I got up to take care of a crying Mia again, she followed me around talking and chatting as if it was mid morning. I took her back to bed and was tired enough I have no idea how long it took her to fall back asleep.

Needless to say, I am a zombie right now. I need a super hero like this:
to come save me.

Why I don't like reporters.

Just kidding, I do like reporters, I just don't like when they are reporting on me. Something I didn't take into consideration when I decided to run for city council was the possibility of being interviewed. I am really self conscious when it comes to that kind of thing and always feel like an idiot afterward. So I have been interviewed twice now (well kind of). The first was a girl from USU who came to the house, taped the interview and took a picture for their "Hard News Cafe". I was nervous, especially when the tape recorder came on, and even though I had thought about what I wanted to say before, it didn't seem to come out right. I read her story and it wasn't what I would have wanted highlighted but it wasn't all that bad.

The second interview was a guy from the Herald Journal who contacted me by email asking for a statement (with my professional background and reasons for running) and picture. I seriously considered ignoring the email but decided that wouldn't be fair/responsible so I wrote a short statement and sent a picture. The reporter then called me and told me he felt my statement was too short and the guys running for mayor had much larger statements than me and the other woman running for city council. I informed him that it was probably because we were running unopposed while the men were running against each other. He conceded my point and left my statement as it was. Anyway, I am totally running on but the profiles were in the paper yesterday and he made me look like a total idiot. This was my statement: I graduated in 1999 with a BA in English and have been running a rapidly growing organization (the Redman family) ever since. My family moved to Millville in 2007 and plan on staying for years to come. I am running for City Council because I want to do my part to make sure Millville remains a great place to live.

This is what he wrote (without the bold): Redman graduated in 1998 with a bachelor's degree in English. "Since then I have been running a rapidly growing organization (the Redman Family) ever since."

So he said that I had a degree in English and then in the next sentence made it look like I said "since then...ever since". Now I am not a grammar freak, in fact my grammar is quite lousy at times but I felt like I looked like a total idiot. My only hope is that nobody read the article.

I am probably blowing this way out of proportion but was so nervous and hated the idea of being interviewed in the first place and now I feel my fears are justified. So I will bank on the hope that I won't be interviewed again unless I run for city council again in 4 years and if I do I already have my statement ready: If you like what I have done the past 4 years vote for me again. That's it.

Family pictures, and oh, what a family.

We finally did the family photo shoot that we have been planning to do for over a year. My extended family has started using a photographer named Amber to do pictures for engagements, weddings, babies etc. and I have wanted to get family pictures done for about 18 months now. Last year I was going to do it but didn't get around to it and suddenly it was winter and too cold with babies. So then spring pictures was the plan with pretty spring flowers in the background. Well that didn't happen either. Neither did summer pictures. What can I say, I may have bitten off more that I can chew with that last baby. Anyway, one of the things that kept me from making the appointment was that I wanted coordinating outfits and i was never getting around to getting them so I just decided to make the appointment first and then figure out the appointments. Anyway, long story not quite so long, I made the appointment, I found the outfits (all found in the closet or at DI except for 2 shirts, $3.50 each), and we did the photo shoot. I am really happy with how the pictures turned out which is good since I opted out of school pictures this year. I have a couple group shots here and I have decided to blog about one of my kids each week and post their individual pictures then. I meant to write about each child during their birthdays but it didn't happen so will hopefully make up for it.

Almost a Tragic Headline

Last night was one of those times that you say an extra big thank you prayer. I was out with the youngest two in the jogging stroller and it was getting dark so we were headed in. I saw Mia's trike in the driveway so I walked up the slight hill of the driveway with both the stroller and the trike to where (I thought) it was flat and then put the trike away. I turned around to get the girls out of the stroller and it had started rolling back down the driveway toward the road. I chased after it and caught it and we skidded to a stop right as it was about to roll into the road. Right then there was a loud noise and a woosh as a big truck zoomed past us. It must not have seen us because it didn't even slow down but 2 more feet and we would have all been hit. The kids weren't strapped in because I had only been in the driveway so there is no way it could have ended well if we had been hit. So thank you, thank you, thank you to Heavenly Father and to guardian angels for keeping my babies safe ( by the way, they were facing toward me rather than the road and had absolutely no clue that anything was wrong). We had a family lesson later about turning strollers parallel to the road. I think I have learned my lesson.

If the phrase "pulling my hair out" was literal, I would be bald.

Sunday we had a family talk about respect and appreciation. I have felt very unappreciated and the kids have shown very little respect. Today I saw how much they listened and learned from our discussion. I can't find a library book. I hate it when I can't find library books, it is probably a sick source of pride that I keep track of 50+ library books and am relatively good at getting them back on time and not losing them. I regress. I couldn't find a library book and it was due today. It was one of Mia's books (the title is "what color should I be. Cute but elusive book). I looked for the book for about 1.5 hours but was unable to find the book. When the kids came home I asked the to help me find the book and we all looked for about 5 minutes before the complaints started. Well Brock and Gwen complained, Maddie, Liam and Mia just stopped looking except to pretend for a second when I was reminding them to work. Here is a sprinkling of what I heard from the older two for the next 20 minutes. The complaints were pretty constant the whole time, many repeated over and over.

"Why do I have to look for this book, I didn't check it out"

"Maddie isn't looking as hard as me"

"Why should I have to look in my bedroom, I know it isn't there"

"Mia should have to find the book, it's her fault"

"I am tired of looking"

Why do we always have to do whatever you want us to"

"I already looked why should I look more"

"Why do we have to work all day every day"

And the clincher, this one send me over the edge:

"Mom probably wouldn't have even given us anything if we had found the book. She probably would have just said thank you and not even given us a skittle. She never gives us anything."

I pretty much spend my life doing things for them. I volunteer in 4 different classrooms every week. I have spent more on each of my children for clothes/shoes in the last year than on myself in the last 5. But none of this matters, all they see is me doing what is "owed" to them and not even getting that right most of the time since every night I cook a dinner that at least one of my kids hates and they don't have nearly the toys/games/fun their friends have.

There are wonderful things about motherhood and I find that I appreciate my 6th child so much more and enjoy my role but there are also some major downers and this is one of them.

The honeymoon is over

After 11 years I can finally say I have been on a honeymoon. I joined Aaron for the last two days of his latest conference in Baltimore, went to Ocean City Maryland for 2 days, then went to DC for a day.

Our honeymoon top 10:


10. Eating meals I didn't have to cook

9. Walking around museums with Aaron (without kids!)

8. Going to an amusement park (without kids!)

7. Parasailing

6. Playing in the waves at the beach for hours (without kids!)

5. Not having to worry about my kids while I was doing all of these fun things. Thank you so much Mom for making their week as fun as mine (well almost).

4. Did I mention that I got to play with my husband at the beach for hours without having to worry about kids drowning, getting sand in their eyes, getting kidnapped or lost, annoying other beach goers, etc.?

3. Lazing around the hotel room in Baltimore for 1.5 days while Aaron was at his conference (without kids!)

2. Coming home to my kids. The only time I have left them in the past is to go have the next baby so this was a first for me and though I wasn't nearly as sad to be away from them as I feared I would be (I know, I'm terrible) I was literally bouncing in my seat excited to see them when we got back.

1. Spending 5 days with my sweetheart enjoying each other's company and remembering what it was like long ago when all we thought about was each other.

Thanks for the perfect honeymoon Aaron (I have started planning for our second honeymoon. I want to go to Hawaii this time. It should only take another 11 years to save the money for it.). YBEG

Those with dentist phobias should not read this post!

Those of you with real problems shouldn't read this either since there is way too much whining involved. What can I say, a little self pity goes a long way.

I need to post about Liam, Brock and Evie's birthdays. Instead I will post about poor pitiful me. I will try to make sense through the pain killer haze in my brain.

So yesterday I went in to the dentist for a root canal. It was my second and the first wasn't bad at all so I was trying not to worry. Everything went fine throughout the appointment till near the end. The dentist was putting something into the tooth that smelled strongly of chlorine bleach and then suddenly there was a burning sensation that started in the tooth but then radiated to the rest of my face. It started to burn in my nose and down my throat. I made some grunting sounds to show I was in pain (I try to be brave at the dentist but this went beyond that) and he started to work faster and start sucking stuff out while asking if it burned in my nose and throat. Long story short they put this heavy duty disinfectant in the root of the tooth (I told him it smelled and felt like bleach and he said it is very similar. I don't remember this from my first root canal) and apparently my root went into my sinuses so when they put the stuff in it went into my sinuses as well. The dentist was as close to freaking out as I have seen a dentist and kept saying "this is not good, this is not good". So apparently my sinuses are kind of fried. He put a shot of steroids into my face to help the inflamation, gave me prescriptions for more steroids, antibiotics and painkillers and pretty much told me to stay on the painkillers because I would need them and made an appointment to finish up on Tuesday (he couldn't finish the root canal because of blood coming from my sinuses out my tooth). So why do these things happen to me? I am trying to count my blessings because my family is really pretty darn healthy but come on, I feel like someone shot acid into my face. I'm not sure if there will be any lasting damage and I will admit it feels better today than yesterday though now my tooth hurts a lot as if there is lots of pressure inside. So poor poor me, how tragic how sad. Everyone get out your little violins and play a sad sad song for me.

Animal Sounds

Evie has been making a sound for the past couple months that can only be described as a horse whinny. She used to do it all the time but of course we never caught it on video. We finally caught her doing it on my camera though it is hard to hear and they definitely aren't her best. I am glad I got it when I did because she hasn't made the sound since. Her attitude also comes out at the end of this video with her answer to my asking her to do it again.

Warning: This post is potty humor; I'm not kidding; reader beware!

So I don't usually post potty humor but for some reason an episode last night was really funny to me. Last night was my first night of Aaron's latest trip (he's in Sweden this time). I got to bed late because I hate sleeping without him and right as I was dozing off I heard Liam come up the stairs in a panic. He went into the bathroom and I could hear him making noises and I figured it was just my luck that the kids would get the stomach flu as soon as Aaron left. I got up and went in and he was kind of running around in circles in the bathroom. I couldn't tell if something hurt, if he needed to throw up or needed to use the bathroom so I tried the third and most simple option. He was so asleep I had to help him a lot but then he started peeing, and peeing, and peeing. If any of you remember the scene in a League of Their Own where Tom Hanks goes for like 3 minutes, this was similar. I couldn't believe he could possible hold that much and he was still only half way done. Anyway, now that half the people reading this are totally grossed out and the other half are wondering where on earth the humor is, I really don't know. I am probably relieved that his problem was so easily solved but he must have been so uncomfortable. When he was done he went right back to sleep and slept peacefully till morning. It really is the little things in life (like the ability to empty your bladder) that count.

Family Night

On Monday our family night was not as planned as it could have been (hey at least we did it). We usually give assignments beforehand but we only had the lesson/activity planned and we winged the rest. So after the Prayer Aaron asks who wants to give the scripture. Liam jumps up yelling that he wants to do it and runs up the steps to stand on the landing by the door (we were having family night outside because it was really hot inside and we were using the landing as a kind of stage). I started thinking of scriptures I had memorizes so that I could help him say one but then he started. "And Jesus... (he paused here for a couple of seconds and I thought he was going to tell a story about Jesus for his scripture) ...wept". Then he gave us a cheeky grin and sat back down. The kid is 4 years old! We had talked about that being the shortest scripture before but it was months ago and I didn't even realize Liam was listening. Needless to say Aaron and I busted up laughing and Liam got the exact reaction he was looking for. Overall it was a pretty good family night.

Random Pictures

These are some pictures that I wanted to add but I don't want to write a whole post about each one. Mia keeps going outside and playing hopscotch by herself. I looked out the window and she was out there saying "jump, jump, jump" while trying to play. She kept herself entertained for quite a while. Who needs fancy toys?
This is my Mother's Day picture. I got lots of awesome presents including a picture of Christ from Aaron and his parents, a book from my Dad, flowers and hersey kisses from the kids and a string art from Gwen. I wish Mother's day came more often.

Now that Evie is walking she is a whole new class of trouble. Her favorite thing right now is to pull all the books off the booshelves. It is merely annoying when she does it with the kid's books but she has hurt her toe a time or two when she tries it with the heavier adult books. Little turkey.

Our Newest Toddler

Evie started walking a couple of weeks ago. We thought it would take longer because she didn't crawl very early but she started walking just a couple weeks after she started crawling. This video is from 2 weeks ago, she walks like a pro now and walks back and forth across the room just for the fun of it. I am kind of sad that my last baby is growing up so fast but it is hard to be too sad when she is so darn cute.

Easter Skirts

Today is the day I am catching up on all the updates I was supposed to do in the past month so here is one more. These are the Easter skirts I made the girls. I was going to do shirts as well but I ended up just buying them simple shirts to go with the skirts. They were very easy which was a must for a novice sewer like myself and I think they turned out cute.

The "improved" Bathroom

About a month ago I did the last of my home improvements on the top floor of the house. I re-did some of my bathroom and painted in the hall/stairs/entry. People have been asking to see pictures of the new bathroom and it has taken me a while to put them up but here they are so stop bugging me. In the picture of me painting the stairs you can't tell but I am super high and I am afraid of heights. Probably the most scary home improvement project I have done.
Here is the bathroom before. Cream walls, cream countertop and brass hardware and light. You can't really see lots of it and you don't get to see the roses stenciled around the top but I didn't get a better picture before I changed it all.
Here is after, I paited it blue, changed the hardware to silver fittings, replaced the countertop and sink and the light switches and light. The countertop was the most annoying, we were doing this on a pretty tight budget so we got the already made stuff at Home Depot. Well we knew we would have to cut it to make it the right lenght and make the sink hole but it was also too wide and went all the way into the doorway so we had to cut off the backsplash in the back and now we have no backspash. At some point I will probably do a tile backsplash but right now I need a break and am moving on to outside projects so it will have to wait. Over all we are pretty happy with it all.

Happy Birthday to Me

So last week was my birthday and I turned 31! That seems so old but then I guess having six kids already establishes that fact. I am usually kind of tight with money and feel guilty about spending it on myself but this birthday I totally splurged (though in my defense it was also my present from my last birthday and from Christmas). I got a real commercial cotton candy machine and a nice snow cone maker. Last year Brock chose to forgo a present in order to rent a cotton candy machine for his birthday party and it was fun to have. I have 4 birthday parties and a primary party do do this summer and was thinking that cotton candy would be fun to do but I didn't want to waste the money to rent one so after a lot of searching through ebay and craigslist I was finally able to find a used one in my price range (I couldn't believe how much cotton candy machines cost). Anyway, to cut it short I got a cotton candy machine and it is great. The cotton candy is just like what you would get at a carnival and I am sure I will be spending more money on dental work from all the sugar than the cost of the machine but right now I am just having fun. I may be old but I can't be all that grown up if things like cotton candy and snow cones are such a big deal to me.

To Do To Do To Do To Do To Do TO DO

No that title doesn't make sense and most likely neither will this post. I am having an aaaarrrggg moment. I have too much to do and nothing is ever done! My home is supposed to be a home of order right? How on earth are you supposed to have order with 6 kids? I like the good feeling you get when you complete something but I feel like everything in my life is a work in progress that never gets finished. Sometimes I feel like my head is going to explode. Ok I feel a tiny bit better now.

nine months

My baby is growing up so fast (she actually turned 9 months a couple of weeks ago but I am just now getting to write about it). She crawls like a champ, stands on her own for long periods of time, just cut her first tooth and is showing promise of possibly having hair some day (still bright red).

Evie is a still a sweet and mellow little girl. She has started laughing really loudly when she wants attention (always better than crying) and she takes the "love" of her siblings very gracefully. SHe crawls quickly now but still uses one foot and one knee, so cute. And I love that she still sometimes wrinkles her nose when she smiles. She is a perfect little punkin.

You have to have a good nudy picture.

She just cut her first tooth but she can eat cherrios like a pro.

Fun Pictures

I thought that I would add a couple of pictures from the past couple weeks. I'm not so great at this whole blogging thing and I meant for this picture to be the last one since it is pretty much the result of the other ones. Brock took this on a Sunday afternoon when Aaron and I snuck in a quick nap (collapsed in exaustion).



I took these next couple pictures after church when the kids were still relatively groomed. What a family!



This last one is one of my favorites. Aaron works most evenings on his computer and Evie enjoys sitting with him and trying to type so we gave her Mia's toy computer to keep her occupied. It worked pretty well.

I love Evie's gimpy crawl!

Evie has such a cute crawl right now. She started crawling a week or so ago and today I was able to get a video of it before she progresses to a more normal crawl. Evie has been such a sweet and mellow baby, I am sad that she is growing up and now crawls around, stands up to furniture and gets into a lot more trouble. On the other hand she is so dang cute, how can I help but love her sweet gimpy crawl.

Our Parrot

We recently acquired a parrot. Actually we developed one. Mia has hit that stage where she parrots many of the things we say and so far it is pretty amusing (this is where you hear all the things you didn't realize you say). A couple of the things she says are not the greatest like when she suddenly says "I'm a dork" or "I'm annoying". I swear the kids must have told her the second but I will admit that I have called her a dork, in a very loving way of course. The other night she was stealing cookie dough and when I stopped her she said (in a very pathetic voice I might add) "but I'm a hungry monkey". My sister Becca's favorite time is when she heard Mia tell her brother, "that is a piece of junk". There are lots of other things she says that you can tell she is repeating from us and we have fun listening to our little parrot.

Face Art

Both Liam and Mia have surprised me lately with random acts of "creativity". Liam came in the other day with stickers stuck all around his eye. Liam was happy when we all admitted he looked pretty cool but the happiness faded when it came to taking the stickers off. He had some over his eyebrows and one even had some eyelashes in it. Ouch.
Mia created her work of art with my mascara. You can't really tell in the picture but she coated her eyelashes quite well for a 2 year old. When I saw her I had visions of her as a teenage goth or a punk rocker trying to bring back 'Kiss". She found my makeup again a few days after I took this. She used the lipstick that time.

My Valentine

This is a picture taken over 10 years ago when Aaron and I had just gotten engaged. Now six kids later I love and appreciate him a whole lot more. Aaron was out of town the three days before Valentines day which meant that by valentines day I was tired and a bit grumpy but very grateful to have such a wonderful husband. Love you Aaron

Happy Birthday Maddie

I wanted to write about my kids on their birthdays this year and I am a little late for Madeleine but I am a little late for everything these days so it seems fitting enough. Maddie turned 7 on January 21st. She is our third child (I am a third child too) and has been a sweet loving child from the time she was a baby. Maddie is our "shy" one and has a very hard time talking to people outside our family, even people she knows well. A month after she became a "sunbeam" her teachers asked me if she was able to talk and not much has changed since.
This year she is in first grade and 2 months into the school year her teacher told me that she had asked Maddie a question and Maddie answered her and one of the kids in the class said "Maddie can talk!". Then all the other kids started cheering her for learning how to talk. The mother of one of the other kids in the class later told me that her son came home that day and when she asked what happened at school he said that they found out that Maddie could talk.


The Funny thing is that Maddie can be quite the chatterbox when she feels comfortable. We have a harder time getting her to stop talking at home and she expresses her opinions quite loudly when she is upset. We still worry that she doesn't say anything when someone does something to upset her unless she feels comfortable with the adults around (which she usually doesn't) but she is working on it and doing great.
Maddie is a girly girl and loves pretty things. She spends a lot of her time dressed up and in the middle of some sort of imaginary game, usually involving princesses or cheerleaders or rockstars. She loves to read, to put on plays and talent shows, to play soccer and do help take care of the people around her. She is a great little girl and we hope she doesn't grow up too fast. Love you Maddie

Four Eyes

I had the fun and joy of taking my four oldest kids to the eyedoctor yesterday and the day before. The oldest three are already in glasses and Liam desperately wants them. Anyway, the girls were pretty normal for their exams. Gwen chatted and laughed at the Doctor's jokes and told him he was funny like her dad. Maddie wouldn't answer the questions about what letter she saw unless it was me asking her and then she said them very quietly which was a bit frustrating. Brock and Liam were kind of a riot. Brock went first and kept peppering the doctor with questions or his own facts about the science of eyes and seeing. I didn't understand half of what he was saying (stuff about rods and cones and reflection etc.) but the eye doctor thought it was great and kept complimenting him on his knowledge (great for his already huge ego). The funny thing that happened was during Brock's least favorite part, the light in the eye part (he has really light sensitive eyes) During the exam Brock said, "Are you just hurting me or are you doing something else?" He wasn't being sarcastic, he was completely serious and both me and the eye doctor found it pretty funny.

Liam never stopped talking from the time they called his name. He asked all sorts of questions, kept messing with the machines and was very 4. When he was doing the eye test if the letter was an L I A or M Liam had to comment on the fact that it was in his name and where it fit in his name. There are a lot of L's A's and M's and every time Liam would pull his face out of those big glasses things to talk about the fact that it was in his name. But the funniest thing with Liam was when the doctor asked if he had allergies. Liam told him that he was allergic to cat poop. when asked further about it (mainly to ask if he had ever eaten it) Liam siad that when he smells cat poop he sneezes. I don't know where he gets this stuff but I think he is fun to have around. Never a dull moment.

Superheroes

My family (the Cardons) do a family newsletter each month and we have a topic to write about. This month's topic was "if you could be any superhero, who would you be and why? I did this topic with Aaron and the kids and I was pretty amused by the answers. I thought that they would choose an existing superhero but the kids took the question to mean that you got to make up and name your own. here is our newsletter submission:

Liam: Tiger boy, the ability to act like a tiger and bite off bad guys heads, and throw them up in the air and pull off their arms and legs when I see a bad guy.

Maddie: Jungle girl with the ability to turn into any jungle animal. This way I can turn into a lot of animals and get rid of bad guys.

Gwen: Poison girl with the ability to throw poison at people and if I do they will die. I am not the hero, I am a villain and will throw poison at Brock.

Brock: Time traveling animorph with the ability to travel through time and morph into different animals. I want to be able to kick Gwen/poison girl into the first century.

Mia: Invisigirl with the ability to be invisible so that people don’t see that I am always naked.

Evie: Optimist Prim ( not to be confused with Optimus Prime) with the ability to spread optimism and cheerfulness throughout the universe.

Mom: Mary Poppins, with the ability to clean rooms with a snap of the finger, have grand adventures and be home by dinnertime, to make children obey without complaint and to look great while doing it.

Dad: Mr. Fantastic, with the ability to stretch my body as far as I want so that I can pick stuff up and do other things without ever having to get up off the couch.

I will admit that I chose the heroes for Mia and Evie. By the way, thank you so much for the topic. The children ran around the house for hours after they chose their powers pretending to be the heroes/villains they had picked. This led to lots of chaos, some injuries and a few time outs.