A breaked heart and burping

Time for another round of Which Chamberlin is Which? (This is an easy one, too.)

This was the scene at our house earlier:

Elizabeth (Loudly): "Caroline! Stop it! Leave my hair alone!"
10 seconds pause...
Elizabeth (Shrieking Very Loudly): "Car - o - line!!! I said stop!"
Me: "Caroline! Leave her alone or you're going to the corner!"
Caroline walks into the kitchen to glare mutinously at me.
Me: "I wouldn't let her mess with your hair if YOU said stop."
Caroline puts her bottom lip out, looks at me sadly and quietly says, "You breaked my heart."

Too sweet. I just hugged her and laughed. I asked her to put her lip out again and then she had to laugh, too. Chris and I often make the mock-outraged comment, "You broke it!" when one of us causes her to 'break' down. (You know, those nasty little comments like, "Time for bed" can do that.) She somehow blended that with the concept of a broken heart....

On the other hand, I actually had to send Elizabeth to the corner today for excessively loud, repeated burping. This is a new skill for her that she has practiced muchly with great success. As thrilled as I am for her accomplishment, she can keep a (LOUD) burp going for about 5 seconds now and I've about had it. She had the gall to protest, "Mom! I can't help it." Uh, funny, but the rest of us manage to help it a LOT better than that.

Caroline has acquired a new skill - she can get her own cereal. She has to put the bowl on the floor to put the cereal and milk in it, but hey. Now we just have to work on portion control!

It's nothing short of amazing what's happened to the kids since the weather got just that little bit cooler. I've been worried over the summer because they seemed to forget that they like playing outside. Turns out  it was entirely the weather. They literally spent most of the weekend outdoors. They caught a couple of frogs and begged me to take their picture. Katherine and Elizabeth especially are sort of rediscovering their backyard. They keep running in and out to tell me they found a new garden spider or show me a "fairy house" they built from leaves, twigs, and pine cones. The only downside is the mosquito bites!

We have also reached a new stage, one I'm not sure if I like yet or not - the older 3 kids don't necessarily want to go with me on errands. For almost 10 years now they've ALL wanted to go EVERYWHERE I've been. I always take them all, if possible, because they need the experience, to get out of the house, etc. Now, every time I need to go somewhere Daniel and maybe Katherine are begging to stay home. This is totally new to me. I'm actually going to have to work out some policies about when one can stay home alone.



Answer: Rachel - 6 months old