Cleanliness

Don't worry, I'm gonna get serious about getting caught up on the real number pictures soon.

I made some "special" oatmeal chocolate chip cookies today. Popo can't make up his mind if he likes it or not, but Bubby sure does. He finished off his brother's for him. I'm so very excited, because if having a somewhat healthy dessert every day is what it takes to get vegetables into them, I'll take it. I'm not telling what veggies are in these cookies, because I want everyone to try it first, tell me how much they love them, then guess what's in them.

Oh, the joy of a clean half-house!  Mom and I worked pretty hard (of course, she worked harder, that's what she does) for much of the day today, and my downstairs looks pretty spiffy.  And the bestest part of all is the upstairs bathroom.  She overhauled it, and finally, you'd never know it was the cat's room for three years...

Honey, you'll want to spend the night in there when you get back, it's so wonderful.  And the clearest this counter's been... ever!

I can't resist mentioning it again:  my kids have turned back into the most behaved kids I've ever known.  Yes, they still can have attitudes and are working on proper responses to me sometimes, but really, I have zero complaints!  (Okay, maybe that whole potty training mess.)  They are making a real effort to obey me again, and even when they (mostly one of them, you know who) are rude to me, they are actually trying sometimes to correct themselves as they're told, even though they really really don't want to!  I know it's not permanent, and we'll have ups and downs, but I've been so very impressed with them the last few days.

I had heard about a year ago about some doctor's theory that most young kids behave better in the months around their birthdays, and tend to struggle more with their behaviors around their half-birthdays.  I figured it was bunk, but this year has me almost convinced.  We'll have to pay attention throughout the next year.

What to do for their birthdays next month????