1/4/14 Raine’s first selfie (I found this little gem on the point-n-shoot camera that I hardly ever download)

10/18/13
Raine, coming into my room: “Mom, look what I found outside.”
Me: “Ew, gross!”
Raine: “Why? What is it?”
Me: “It’s a grasshopper leg.”
Raine, resisting the urge to drop it on the floor and move away: “Oh.”
She took it out back and in all seriousness yelled: “Carter, look for a grasshopper, okay. We need to give him his leg back.”

1/9/14 Bubble bath

10/19/13
Me to DJ as we were driving out of a parking lot near a construction zone: “There is a barricade at the end of the road so you will have to go out that way.”
Carter, from the backseat: “Where is a bear cage?”
Me, completely confused: “Huh? Bear cage? What are you talking about? . . . Oh! I said barricade, not bear cage!”
Carter, disappointed: “Oh.”

2/11/14 Playing horse

11/7/13
Raine, as we drove down the road after dark: “There’s the moon. It is only a little moon. Do you know why the moon changes shapes?”
Me, preparing to explain the mysteries of the universe: “Well, it’s because . . .”
Raine cutting me off (apparently it was a rhetorical question, meant only to lead into her explanation): “It is because the moon is full of magic glowy stuff and the glowy stuff changes shape inside the moon and that shows through and makes the moon look different shapes.”
My explanation seemed so dull and boring after that one, so I just said “Oh! I see.”

2/10/14 Raine, after the daddy-daughter valentine’s date

11/29/13
Raine, describing a card she wants to make: “… and then we’ll open it up and write in curses on the inside.”
Me, feigning shock (knowing that she really meant ‘cursive’): “We’ll write in curses on the inside?!!!”
Raine: “Yeah, we’ll write in curses so nobody can understand it!”

2/6/14 Carter was so excited to play in the snow that he drug me out there at 8:00 a.m. so he could throw snowballs at me.

12/15/13
Each year our Stake puts on a Christmas concert featuring a choir and full orchestra. We were there, seated in the last row of the chapel, as the tubas walked in. Carter’s eyes got real wide as he excitedly yelled: “Look at those BIG whistles!”

2/6/14 Captain America

12/30/13
Carter: “When I grow up, I’m going to be a BIG Superman!”
Mom: “Oh, yeah? You’ll be a good Superman.”
Carter: “Mom, when I’m a big Superman will you fly around with me and help me bam the bad guys?”
Mom: “Yeah, I would love to fly around with you getting the bad guys.”
Melted my heart!

2/15/14 Superman

1/8/14
Carter, running around in his Batman cape, itching his back-end: “Batman has an itchy bum.”
Daddy: “Oh yeah? Do you need to go wipe your bum?”
Carter coming out of the bathroom with his pants around his ankles: “Umm, Batman needs to change his underpants… he has a little skid-mark.”

2/10/14 Carter wanted to push his super heroes around the track on matchbox cars, but kept getting frustrated when they would fall off, so we rubber-banded them to the tops!

2/13/14
Raine: “I know about the food pyramid.”
Me: “Oh yeah? What’s on the food pyramid?”
Raine: “Good foods . . . like sugar.”

2/8/14 My birthday party at Rebounderz!

1/16/14 Monkey-bar injury

Raine has been learning all sorts of new things at school, including the monkey bars. She had been begging me to watch her do the monkey bars for months before we finally had the opportunity. As you can see, the pressure was just too much and it didn’t end well.

The only reason that I have a photo of the aftermath is because Raine wanted to see the scrapes. I didn’t have a mirror, so I took a photo to show her. We’ve decided that she should stay off the monkey bars for a while!

1/25/14 Artist

Raine still loves to create. She started Art Club at school and absolutely loves it. They meet after school on Wednesdays for eight weeks between January and March.

1/27-31/14 Star Student

Here is Raine with her poster for the week that she was the Star Student.

1/29/14 101 Dalmatian day (101st day of school)

1/31/14 Glasses

January 21 Raine had her eye exam to determine why her right eye was only seeing 20/70. The exam took FOREVER! It is no simple task to evaluate a fidgety five year old who doesn’t really understand what you’re asking when you say, “which looks better?” We had to go back to the initial evaluation room a second time so they could re-measure her eyes. It was comical. Raine wanted to look everywhere except at the little red light in the middle. The technician must have taken at least 25 photos of each eye.

By the time the doctor had settled on a prescription to correct the astigmatism, Raine was beyond ready to go to school. I tried to get her to look at frames, but she just pulled them off and threw them back at me. I knew there was no point, so I took her to school and said we would come back later.

Her glasses came in a couple weeks later but she was NOT excited about it. She wouldn’t even put them on so I could take a photo to send to Daddy.

It wasn’t anything that Baskin Robbins couldn’t fix though!

Getting her to wear the glasses at school has taken similar bribery. The problem is that she can see just fine without them. She doesn’t see the difference because they are only correcting one eye. Hopefully it will eventually become a habit, at least at school.

2/10/14 Father Daughter Valentine Banquet

Raine was extremely excited about this date with Dad. The school hosted it at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens.

We asked Rashae Staheli to do Raine’s hair — she is one of those super-talented moms whose little girls come to playgroups at the park with intricate up-dos. Raine was starting to rethink the value of a cute hair-do after she had been sitting on a hard stool for an hour . . .

. . . but she loved the end result and decided it was worth it!

Raine loved getting flowers, too. She wasn’t as excited about wearing them, she just loved getting them!

This was the best photo that I got of them before they left. I figured that they would take a photo at the event, but Raine didn’t want to so this is all we have.

2/14/14 Valentine box

Before I get into Carter’s days as a superhero, I wanted to post this photo from his first day in Primary. He’s a Sunbeam!

Carter loves his teacher, Sister McCallister; she brings “loopty loops” (fruit loops) for them when they behave. Of course he’s an absolute angel in there — our kids always are . . . at church. That reminds me of something that happened the other day: Carter and I were out with a couple friends and Carter started throwing a fit because I didn’t do something exactly like he wanted me to. As I worked through his little melt-down, one of the other moms started laughing and said, “I’m so glad to see that your kids throw fits too!” I understand that other people only see our kids at church and think that they act like that all the time, but if you spend enough time with us, you will see AMPLE evidence that that just isn’t the case! But still, I appreciate the compliment. It’s nice to know that for three hours every Sunday I look like I have it all together!

Alright, on to Carter’s superhero obsession. It started back in December with Superman. He would wear one of his two superman t-shirts, along with his cape, EVERYWHERE we went! Everywhere except school and church. I talked him out of wearing it to those two places by reminding him that superheroes needed to keep their identity secret. So like Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent, Carter goes to school as just plain old Carter. Granted, he still wears his superhero shirts, just not the capes.

Around the beginning of the year, he got into Batman. One Saturday night he was talking about Batman non-stop. So after his bath, I pulled up a classic Batman episode from the 1960’s and let him watch it. That was it, he was hooked! After church on Sunday he begged me relentlessly to make him a Batman cape. I kept telling him that I couldn’t make one right then, until finally, inspiration struck! I pulled out an old black tank-top and tied a cord through the shoulders to make a cape. I wasn’t sure how he was going to respond to my make-shift cape, but he LOVED it! He wore it all that day and the next morning.

Here is a video of Carter running around in his Batman cape.

First thing Monday morning, Carter and I headed down to the craft store so we could make him a REAL Batman cape! For under $5 we had a good looking cape and t-shirt.

Just for the record, Carter was playing with baby dolls the entire time I sewed his cape. At some point, in complete exasperation, I found myself saying, “Carter, do you want me to make you a Batman cape? Or put diapers on your babies? Because I can’t do both!” He chose the cape!

Raine needed in on the fun when she got home from school, so she whipped up this Batgirl outfit for herself using one of the logos that I had printed.

1/12/14 – Every superhero needs to learn how to fly!

1/13/14 – Superhero at the children’s museum.

1/29/14 – He kept trying to convince me to make a Batman mask for him that went over his head, but I assured him that that was way out of my league. One day he found this cardboard mask, left over from a RS activity; once he got it decorated, it was perfect for him!

1/31/14 – Superhero at the stock show petting zoo.

You know it’s a superhero-sized corn dog when you have to fully extend your arms to get it into your mouth!

Yes, it’s been a good month for this little superhero!