I took E and M-G to the library this past Saturday while D-D and Z rested and Dana did some studying and work. The kids enjoyed looking at books and had a difficult time deciding which books to take home. If they could bring the whole library home, boy!! Would they be happy!!!

After the library, we went to WalMart. My kids despise going to the store with me and they really did a fine job showing me just how much they liked it. They acted like they had not had any "jerking up." Exasperated and probably very much over-reacting to their behavior, I looked at E(I had made him ride in the little basket in the cart) and said, "If you're going to act like a little kid (I was going to say "baby" but thought that would be too mean), I'm going to treat you like one!!!"

He looks at me in all seriousness and says, "But mom...I am a little kid."

Situation was then diffused. I laughed, and he was able to FINALLY get down from the shopping cart.

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Over the break, Dana grew a beard. After a little while he said that he was going to shave it off. Since I really like seeing him with a go-tee (goatee?), he sported one of those instead of shaving off all of his beard. All of us got used to seeing him with this goatee. But, this past Sunday, he gave himself a haircut (military style) as well as shaving off his goatee. E was the first to see Dana with his new look and this was E's reaction:

"ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, hee, hee, hee, hee, hee, hee, hee, hee, hee, hee, hee, chortle, chuckle, snort, pfffhhhtt!!!, snicker, snicker, oooh- hooo, hoo, hoo, hoo, heee, hee, hee, hee, ha, ha, ha, ha, baaaah-ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha---heee---hooo---a-hem--

-snicker----hmmm---hooooo---sniffle----ahhhh----sigh!!! HAS MOMMY SEEN YOU YET? YOU BETTER SEE WHAT MOMMY SAYS!!!"

His new style does not look bad...pretty much what it has always been. He really looks nice and I think even a bit younger without his facial hair. But it was quite a drastic change.

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D-D has been working on her ABC's. She can sing most of it, but really can mess up the order. The film clip below is from earlier in December...when she really began to notice the alphabet and that there was a song we sing with it. This is her first attempt at singing them by herself. We have another clip of her dancing and singing her alphabet, but it is way too huge to put on here...I tried. After 40 minutes of uploading, my site still did not have the full clip...so I just stopped it and decided to let you just watch this first one. Her order of singing the alphabet now is as follows: A B C D E F G H I J LNOP R S Q V W X Y Z.

We're gettin' there!