
After hours of listening to David scream 'pleeeeeaaaase, Barbara' and 'give it back, it's mine', I stopped laughing and went inside. The boys finally came in, too, and Grams put them straight to work.

Tom is still at that age where he learns a new trick almost every day. Today, he amazed us with how he could walk through glass doors.
After an hour of head banging, even Ozzy Osbourne needs to sit down for a while and either giggle or eat a bat.
That's right, it's Bubbalina! I guess this morning's traumatic bubble hoarding wasn't enough to tickle her nose. I'm sorry, but that's where I draw the line. Making the kids cry - fine. Funny, even, if Angie's not around, but bogarting the Cristal? Come on.
Dinner was excellent, especially the stuffing. Thanks, David. Thanks, Barb.
Between Christmas and New Year's, we stayed with the theme of stuffing our faces and invited Sami and Kika over to make us Raclette.
After dinner, drinks were to be had by all, even little kids with big mouths.
'Mama, I are a big boy - I make this puzzle, now - okay?'
'Honey, don't touch. You'll break what we have so far.'
'Mama - I do it now, okay?'
'Stop grabbing, okay - it's almost done!'
'But dat is mine, Mama. Kika gave me it. Not you.'
'Listen! It's not that easy! Anyway, the box says 6+, so just go play in your room while I build this.'
I guess the whole 'stealing toys from children' runs in the family. At least nobody tried getting in the way of Tommy's 'Battle Horse Royale'.
After taming the Horse Screamer, Sebastian stopped by for a round of Birthday Poker.
During the winter break, our TV broke. It's okay - I can talk about it now. At least it was good timing. What, with the kids being home all day with nothing to do - who needs the TV? Let me answer that quite clearly. Me.
Luckily, Opa is like that guy in prison who can get you anything. He knew a guy who knew a guy who likes watching TV - the next thing we knew, our TV was ready to be picked up.
When we got back to the house, Brian and Dalia had showed up to pick up their Christmas gifts. Whatever, Brian - outta the way, man, you're blocking the TV. Mama Meanie intervened and turned off my precious, mumbling something about being social. Whatever, Ms. Manners, shouldn't your Face be in a Book somewhere being all 'social' and stuff?
In the end, giving Brian their gifts turned out to be rather entertaining.
This box has been sitting on the shelf collecting dust for the past five years. At some point, Angie had gotten another one, almost exactly the same, which she put on the shelf as well. Not being one to think, Angie forgot to check the contents before wrapping, which resulted in Brian's puzzled look as he opened the used clay hand print with 'Peter' sketched into it. Um, thanks - I'm sure that, uh...Elina will, you know...love it.
On that note, I had to leave the house. I went shopping, which is kinda like another manly task that I routinely volunteer for - cooking. Before you label me, consider these two facts - I go shopping alone and as the cook, I am the only human allowed in the kitchen.
While I was out enjoying the sweet solitude of groceries, Angie was obviously not paying attention to our children at all. I have to say - I'm not surprised. At some point, Angie ran a bath. I can only assume that she was busy CrackBooking when Tommy made his move.
Speaking of not-so-funny-looking hotties, check out the Principessa. Nice tongue.
After dinner, the kids decided to make bursting noises of a different smell.
To calm things down a bit, Angie showed the kids how to use a crack spoon.
Angie is a pro when it comes to burning shit, so she was completely in her element. Tom has been breaking a lot of things lately and his fascination with fire only further signalled that he will probably follow in David's muddy, disgusting, stinky footprints, rather than Peter's, who was busy comforting our cat.
All in all, she is dealing with blindness rather well. She has the layout of the zoo in her memory and can still make her way about. Her excellent sense of smell and David and Tom's funkiness alert her of potential threats and so far, she still manages to escape. When the fireworks started, though, she completely lost it.
Gizma's favorite hiding spot is under our stove. When the firecrackers started popping shortly before midnight, she was on the sofa in the living room. In a blind panic, she jumped down and tried headbutting her way through our living room door. David has tried this, too, but for completely different reasons. At least Peter was there to pet her and lead her to the kitchen.
At midnight, we dragged the other animals to the streets to witness and enjoy the New Year's display.
'Davey, come here. Are you scared?'
Without hesitation, David climbed up into my arms and whispered in my ear.
'I'm scared. But I like it.'
Without realizing it, he accurately described how I feel about my little babies growing up so damn fast.
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Ladder Talk:
1) What was the best part of your day?
Peter: When I saw the fireworks.
David: When the explode spook everywhere and from there up in the sky phfkew, pang, boom!
2) What was the worst part of your day?
Peter: That it was too loud.
David: When I can't not there down forever play with the fire crackers.
3) What would you like to do tomorrow?
Peter: To give you tomorrow a gift.
David: To play with Peter animals and then I make pang, boom and fire on them in the sky!