She is 6, going on 16

Precocious children are precocious.

Especially precocious 6 year olds.

Penelope has been reading independently since before the end of TK, but she's always still enjoyed being read to and reading with her brother and me. Until recently, when she discovered the joy of 3rd-5th grade chapter books that are well within her reading level/stamina. While she still loves Harry Potter, we're on Book 5 and those chapters are loooooong and the print is small, so she's not quite ready to read them all on her own yet (soon though, so soon). Instead she devours books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Nancy Clancy, and Neverland Stories (or something like that). She read 2 DoaWK books in 2 days - which is pretty much what I do with books.

Today she spent a good 4 hours reading either the Marvel or Wolverine Encyclopedias. Seriously. The ENCYCLOPEDIAS of Nerd-dom.**

So now she doesn't read with us anymore. She sits on her bed and flies through chapters as Bubby and I make our way through Sneeches and Green Eggs and Ham for the 1 millionth time.

I guess I can't blame her, if I could read a new book almost every night I would too.

Griffin claims he'll always want me to read to him, even when he's 30 (he also claims that he'll want to live with me then too, and help me cook). But I can see the end of this snuggle time fast approaching as well. He's already got a handful of sight words, about what Penny had at this age, and is starting to "read" the books he has memorized. I will not be shocked if he's reading by the start of Kinder in August. Maybe he'll need more time than that, but he'll definitely be reading before he's 6.

At least the baby will still want to read with me... I should probably get us some new books. But by that time, Bubby & Sis may want to read *to* the baby. Then what will I do with myself?

Maybe I should get myself some of my own books.

**Speaking of Nerd-dom, Penelope has decided to forgo the cute apricot colored skirt and shirt we bought her for Christmas and instead wants to wear the dark wash skinny jeans and Wonder Woman t-shirt her brother bought her for Christmas. I brought this upon myself, and I can't say that I'm all that upset about her superhero obsession (because I think it's awesome), but it kills me how pre-teen she is already at 6.

The party!

This past weekend was Bubby's birthday party. I know I've discussed party prep, but I figured pictures and a narrative were warranted.

Bryan and I spent the night before the party cutting capes. Which were time consuming, but not difficult. In the grand scheme of things, party prep wasn't too complicated, it just took up more time than I had originally anticipated. And we made too many capes, so I could have saved us at least an hour of labor if I'd made fewer adult sized capes. I had enough for all the adults, but not everyone was into cape decorating (which is totally fine, because pretending to be a superhero isn't for everyone).

But the end product was pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Here we all are in our caped splendor:

I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted of people actually decorating capes, but people seemed to be having fun.

Like Tyler

 And my parents certainly had fun posing in the capes

After we decorated capes, it was time for the scavenger hunt to find our Avenger friends. Bryan did an excellent job making the clues look like they came from Shield - and I wish I had taken a picture. The older kids loved it, but the younger ones had fun too. Here are some pictures of the kids on the hunt...

The clues were inside the house, the garage, the driveway, the YMCA, & the Library. It was a blast.

Once we had assembled all the Avenger figurines, it was time to get back to the party and defeat Red Skull! Some of my friends took better pictures, but I haven't gotten around to saving them onto my computer. Regardless, here's one of Bubs:

My Dad actually made the pinata himself. It looked great. None of the kids could bust it open (it actually fell off its hook, so my brother and I took a turn. Nic actually broke it open, but skinned his knuckled in the process.

Then there was cake!

Spiderman, old school X-Men, and The Hulk!

Griffin had a great time - and I think the rest of the kids did too. It was great. I'm so happy with how things turned out. :)

The next day was a trip up to the Boardwalk with my parents, my brother, his girlfriend, and her 5 year old son. Much fun was had by all. Here's a pic of Sissy & me.

So happy 3rd birthday Bubby!

My son is a superhero (villian?)

This morning I came to the conclusion that Griffin is a superhero. Or supervillian, not sure yet which. Regardless, he clearly has the qualities necessary for either. Here is my evidence.

1. Superhuman strength. He is strong. Really, really strong. Stronger than Poe at this age for sure. His strength gives the ability to throw any sippy on the ground from an height and dislodge the plastic water flow mechanism inside the sippy so that it leaks all over the d*mn floor. He does this at every meal. I can't even do that.

2. Expressive eyebrows. Griffin can move his eyebrows independently. Seriously.


3. His laugh. G's laugh is... maniacal at times. You know, the more I write the more I suspect he's actually a supervillian.



4. Leadership qualities. This is, of course, just a nice way of saying that G does what he wants, when he wants. He occasionally listens to reason (i.e. Bryan and I), but more often than not he forges his own path.

5. A sidekick. The dog. Griffin is fascinated with Harley-Quinn and she loves him (mostly because he drops food). She lets him do anything to her. He often uses her as a prop to stand or walk. He joins her on the dog bed, he pulls her ears, runs her over with his walker, attempts to steal her dog treats, and tries to throw her balls. She takes all of the abuse without growling or whining.

6. He drives me crazy. I'd bet that Superman's parents got a little tired of his antics. Same goes for Lex Luthor. The child seriously drives me up a wall sometimes, but man do I love him. The only reasonable explanation for this is mind control, right?



So, what do you think?