Through my kids' eyes...

You will see a couple of themes throughout this. 1. My girls obviously connect with my love of scrapbooking. Despite Chase's previous stints of pink dress shoes, lipstick, playing with Barbie dolls, and wearing earrings, he just doesn't have the same girlie tuning the girls do. :D 2. Room-cleaning has been a pretty big thing of late. Oh, and Caitlin keeps asking me if I have more questions for her. She was really eager to answer them. I'm going to ask them again these questions, but of their dad instead.

Paige will be 5 next month.
Chase will be 7 next month.
Caitlin just turned 8.

My comments, whether spoken aloud or not, are in []s.

1. What is something I always say to you?
Paige: To clean up my room.
Chase: "I love you."
Cat: You love me.

2. What makes me happy?
Paige: Cleaning. 'Cause you always hug me when I clean my room all the way.
Chase: Our rooms clean?
Cat: When I behave.

3. What makes me sad?
Paige: That I'm not hugging you.
Chase: Us not cleaning our room
Cat: Me not being nice to you.

4. How do I make you laugh?
Paige: By tickling.
Chase: You tickling me.
Cat: By making funny faces. By telling jokes.

5. What was I like as a child?
Paige: When you were born? You were born before you hatched. [I explain to her.] I don't know.
Chase: I wasn't even alive when you were a kid. [*grin*]
Cat: Um...I don't know. Um...you cleaned your room a lot? [HAHAHA! Not even close! *laugh*]

6. How old am I?
Paige: I don't know. [Take a guess.] I think you're 7. Or you're 8.
Chase: Uh...29? [He rocks. In August I'll be 29.]
Cat: Um...27? [Close.]

7. How tall am I?
Paige: Ahh! I don't know. You're not taller than Daddy.
Chase: Uh...10 feet tall? [And bulletproof. *grin*]
Cat: Uh...5 inches. *laugh* 5 feet 12 inches?

8. What is my favorite thing to do?
Paige: Scrapbooking. [Smart girl!]
Chase: Your Sudoku? [*laugh* I do love my Sudoku.]
Cat: Scrapbook! And sleep. [*more laughter* Kudos on the first, but sleep? I don't really like to do that.]

9. What do you think I do when you're not around?
Paige: I don't know. [Can you think of anything?] Read. What else would you do?
Chase: Give Paigie breakfast?
Cat: Watch Paige.

10. If I become famous, for what will it be?
Paige: 'Cause your name's "Mom".
Chase: I don't know. [He kept getting all embarrassed that I was asking him questions. There were lots of I don't
knows but I kept asking on some of the questions 'cause I knew he'd had a thought. This one, he didn't.
Cat: Scrapbooking! [Smart answer. :D]

11. What am I really good at?
Paige: Scrapbooking. [Again, smart girl.]
Chase: Uh, Sudoku? [One track mind?]
Cat: Scrapbooking. And watching us. Kids, anyway. And Kiely. [There is now commentary from her about how
Kiely isn't a "kid" and is a "baby".]

12. What am I not very good at?
Paige: Stepping on toys.
Chase: Physics? [OMWord! That boy makes me laugh! I laughed so hard, and then told him I'd have to share that
one with his dad when he got home. Too effing funny!! I've never taken a single physics class, but so funny
for him to think of it. And Joel laughed aloud, too. :D]
Cat: Not scrapbooking.

13. What do I do for my job?
Paige: Folding clothes. Taking our toys? [She then explains about the time I took all of their toys away because
they didn't clean their rooms.]
Chase: You teach us something. To watch Caitlin and me and Paige.
Cat: You watch Kiely and watch us. Kids.

14. What is my favorite food?
Paige: Chicken. Chicken's good for kids. And adults.
Chase: Fettuccine.
Cat: Bagel!

15. What makes you proud of me?
Paige: Reading. 'Cause you read to me.
Chase: All I can think of is that you do Sudoku pages.
Cat: You make me laugh. With your scrapbooking pages, how they look so cute. [Note, those are two separate
ideas. Not that I make her laugh with my pages. *grin*]

16. If I were a cartoon character, who would I be?
Paige: Umm...Link?
Chase: Uh...Zelda?
Cat: You'll get mad at me if I say it. [No, I won't. Just say it.] That one on Paige's watch. [Betty Boop?] Yeah.
Betty Boop. [*boggle*] Or Cat in the Hat. [Oh, thanks!] But you're funny!

17. What do we do together?
Paige: Play.
Chase: I don't know.
Cat: Eat. Play. Watch movies together sometimes. We might scrapbook together tomorrow.

18. How are we the same?
Paige: 'Cause we're both girls. But I don't have red hair.
Chase: We're both human? [That is courtesy of his father who was trying to guide him into thinking about some ways
in which we're similar. Heh.]
Cat: We have crooked teeth. We have brown eyes.

19. How are we different?
Paige: You're wearing a black shirt, and I'm wearing an Eve one.
Chase: That you have glasses and I don't.
Cat: Um...You have glasses and I don't. You have red hair and I don't.

20. How do you know I love you?
Paige: 'Cause you read books to me.
Chase: Because you always say 'I love you'.
Cat: Um...You make me laugh. You gave me scrapbooking stuff on my birthday. And you made a day that, um, for
my birthday we went swimming. [Which was really a combined effort of Joel and me.]

21. Where is my favorite place to go?
Paige: McDonald's! [Um, no. I don't like McDonald's.] To Burger King? [I laughed. I've only been once in the last
month and a half. She's so funny.] To the store?
Chase: Uh...your friend's house? [Joel said, "Mommy doesn't have any friends." and then laughed.]
Cat: Aunt Crystal's house? [Oh yeah, definitely. Perhaps that was what Chase was thinking.] The scrapbooking
store!! I can't believe I forgot that!

22. What do I like about Daddy?
Paige: 'Cause he kisses you. [Her follow-up:] Mommy, when were you and Daddy married? [Before Cat was born.]
Chase: That he's funny?
Cat: You think he's handsome. He gets us money. Daddy got you a ring.
After comments later about how he let me sleep in yesterday morning, Joel: The real reason Mommy loves Daddy.