Life and Times of the Clark 4

It's been a little while, so I thought I'd update everyone on the life and times of my favorite 4 little people. So here it is...a snapshot into each one's life as we begin 2010.

Riley is a couple months away from being 8 years old. She's got a personality the size of Texas....there's no denying that. She is full of sass and spunk...an emotional child with major ups and major downs. She has such a kind heart, and is very helpful with the baby. She's currently involved in gymnastics and just signed up for spring softball (she's graduated from T-ball!). This year she has really grown into a smart little thing. She is reading above her level and loves the "Junie B. Jones" series of books. She wants to learn to play the piano and loves to write (everywhere...her diary, "short stories", and on furniture and toys in her room). She even writes notes to us instead of asking us, for example: "Can we have Broccoli Cheese Soup for Dinner? Circle Yes or No". She's very creative and recently started scrapbooking and every free moment she gets she asks, "Mom, can we scrapbook?"...if only we could.

Caden is 5 (and a half). He is full of life and is so full of joy. Cade's eyes sparkle when he smiles...they have since he was a baby. He is VERY into video games. Unfortunately he has a mom that doesnt allow him to play much. Cade is involved in gymnastics and just signed up for spring T-ball. He knows math-small addition and subtraction problems, how to write his name and every character in Star Wars. Cade doesn't much like to color, but he is very active. He loves to play dress-up (boy stuff...storm troopers, indians, buzz lightyear, the hulk, etc...). He loves to ride his bike, play tag, and build things with legos and tinker toys. He is extremely generous for his age and shares very well. Every time he is offered a treat (like a sucker or sticker) he always asks if he can get another one for his sisters. He keeps his room very neat and I hardly ever have to ask him to pick it up (which I can't say for his sisters).

Brooke is 3 (and a half). She is our little angel and is so happy to have her older siblings...she loves to play whatever they tell her too. Cade and Riley argue over what to play but she isn't picky - she's just so happy to play. She has the sweetest disposition. She loves to have books read to her and freely gives out hugs and kisses. Favorite activities are playing with play-doh, coloring--a.k.a. scribbling, and cooking in her pretend kitchen. She knows all her letters, but she is still in a diaper at night. She shares a room with her sister and they sometimes have trouble going to sleep at night because of all the giggling and twittering. She is currently involved in gymnastics and speech therapy. She still is hard to understand to anyone beyond mom and dad.

J.P. is nearly 9 months old. I say that with a grimace cause I can't believe it! He is starting to scale furniture. He's been pulling up for a while, but now he's scooching down the tables, sofas, etc. He's really into Cheerios, pacifiers, and exersaucers. J.P. has 2 teeth and the MOST infectious smile...it's the dimples. He truly is the happiest baby. He wakes every morning around 5 o'clock which is tough (even for an early riser). As I curse all the way to his bedroom - when he sees me he breaks out in the biggest grin and then all is right with the world.

I'm convinced I could have 4 more and they'd all be as different as my current 4. (I'm not going to test that theory, but I'm sure it's true).

So Easy...

It just keeps getting easier for our kids.

In my dad's day he had to walk to school, up hill...both ways. In the snow. With tattered shoes cause he only had that one pair (that his brother passed down and he already used up all the "good" sole).

I had to walk to school (up hill...just one way).

School has been cancelled for my kids today and tomorrow because it's TOO COLD. Not because of snow or ice (which we haven't had since Christmas Eve) but because it's in the single digits in the morning (this morning at bus stop time it was 12).
All the area schools feel it's too cold for the kids to wait for the bus. Are you kidding me? C'mon. I remember freezing in winter before school...that's part of growing up. Wonder what my friends up North think about that one.
It has been a tough week to get them re-adjusted to our routine after being out for Christmas Break. Now we just have to do it all over again next week.

My friend Nicole sent me this a few days ago and it made me laugh (the Atari part especially)...thought it was pretty relevant today.

*******THE SPOILED UNDER-30 CROWD!!! ********
When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking Twenty-five miles to school every morning, uphill both ways, barefoot, through year 'round blizzards carrying their younger siblings on their backs to their one-room schoolhouse where they maintained a Straight-A average despite their full-time after-school job at the local textile mill where they worked for 35 cents an hour just to help keep their family from starving to death!

Yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen!
Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take, like, a week to get there!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our butts! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3' s or Napsters! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished and the tape would come undone. Cause - that's how we rolled, dig?

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it! And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either!
When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up
and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'.
Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... forever! And you could never win.
The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died!
Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get up and walk over to the TV to change the channel! NO REMOTES!!!
There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!
And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or before!