I was cleaning up Lana’s room and Levi was getting in to all of her stuff.
Me: Quit messing with her stuff, Levi.
Levi: Why?
Me: Because it is HER stuff and I am trying to clean her room.
Levi: Why are you cleaning?
Me: Grammy is coming tomorrow and we want the house to look nice.
Levi: Why?
Me: So she won’t think we’re pigs.
Levi: Well, will she still love us if the house is a mess?
Me: Of course, Levi. Grammy will love us no matter what.
I got an XBox 360 for Christmas (I’ll let you figure out if this is Bill or Jackie writing this post) primarily to play a new basketball game called NBA Live 2K11. This game was different than recent versions because Michael Jordan decided to allow the powers that be to grace the presence of it with his virtual self. Given my appreciation for all things basketball & Michael, it was a no brainer I’d want this game. Even enough to get a console just to play it.
Ben was already an XBox 360 gamer and once he got the game, we began playing online against one another. I think Jada’s recent involvement in YMCA basketball increased her interest in the game, and she began asking to play. At first, I’d held her off because she hasn’t played many video games yet, and controlling all five players was a little outside of her gamer grasp. Finally though, I gave in and let her play.
At first, I set her up to play as one person in practice mode so she could learn to move the player around and take shots. 20 minutes or so later, I let her practice with other players, and shortly after that, she played her first game.
She lost the game but had fun. At this point, she was ready to play Daddy. We played our first game just before bedtime, and with Jordan and his team at her command, she pulled off a victory. She couldn’t have been happier. Even at bedtime, she was reciting “her” Jordan’s stats to Mommy.
When I went in to give her a goodnight kiss, I told her she and I could play together against Ben once she got a little bit better, to which she replied “When Grammy comes up this weekend, do you think she could bring Ben with her?”. Ben is over 30. 
The light was reflecting through the decorative glass on the door which created several little rainbows on the floor in the foyer. Jonah says to Levi, “Don’t step on the rainbows”!…and of course, Levi stepped on one with each foot. Jonah freaked out yelling, “Levi, you are going to make the rainbows bleed”!
Levi wakes up a lot at night. Usually, he wakes up before we have gone to bed. Last night was no exception. We are in the living room watching TV and we hear him calling for us. Bill went to check on him only to find him digging through the pillows on the bed searching for us!
The other night, Jonah wanted to sleep with me. I told him that he had to talk to Daddy about it. He went to Bill, who was on the phone. Bill said for him to wait a minute because he was talking. So…Jonah went to Jada and asked her! I guess we should be grateful that we still outrank Jada. It won’t be long and we will be at the bottom of the totem pole.
A few weeks ago, Bill took Jonah to lunch at Burger King and to Toys R Us. I had the rest of the kids at the skating rink at the time. A couple of days after the event, I had both boys with me in the van. Jonah said to Levi, “Hey Levi, Daddy took me to Burger King and the toy store”. It isn’t often that Jonah is the one who gets something special and he just had to rub it in.
The other night, Bill was playing a game on the iPad…Levi would say “wow, that’s big” or “wow, that’s small”…we both started cracking up when he said “Wow! That’s medium”! I am pretty sure neither of us had heard that phrase before.
As if Jada and Levi playing basketball, Lana taking gymnastics and Jada, Levi & Jonah taking swim lessons wasn’t enough…now Lana is taking swim lessons! Our Mondays are pretty action packed! We leave the house right after the girls get home from school and we don’t get home until after 6!
Levi has discovered that he loves going under water in swim class. It was like an epiphany when he discovered that he could put his goggles on and go under water….and survive! Jonah is not to keen on the idea yet.
Now that the weather is a little bit nicer (the sun has actually be out for 2 days in a row!) the kids want to play outside when they get home. That means we have a little more struggle to get homework done. The past few nights, I’ve let the girls do their reading in bed. It seems to be working out okay. They don’t fight me with their reading because they get to stay up a little later. 