Home of the Elio Family 

"I certainly hope we've all learned a lesson here."

Well. Connor has decided to be like Jesus and teach in parables. Or something like that.

As most people know, Connor has "screen day" once per week, and on screen day he can watch tv, videos, or play video games. (I say "most people know this" because Connor slides it into conversation with anyone that he meets-- "Hi, I'm Connor! Did you know that today is NOT video game day?" Or, "Hi! I'm so glad to see you! Happy Screen Day!") When Connor does not do good listening at any time in a given week, if it's really serious, we will take away his video game privileges for the following Screen Day. From the screams, most passersby would insist that "take away his video game privileges" is secret mean-parent code for "pull out his toenails and make him eat them", but I digress. Needless to say, maintaining privileges and the unfairness of losing them is always at the forefront of Connor's mind.

So, just thirty minutes ago (we both rushed right up here to the computer after putting him to bed so we could remember every single word he said for posterity), Connor told this latest story:

"Once upon a time, I was a little king, and my name was still Connor. I went out to my king trampoline and jumped. I started jumping higher and higher until I jumped as high as Jesus in Heaven! I started flying around in the sky with the birds! I kept flying around. I flew really far. Then all of a sudden I couldn't see my Daddy in the yard anymore. I flew into DARKNESS. I never saw my Daddy again. It was a nightmare, and I never saw my Daddy again. And that, Mommy and Daddy, is a sad ending. I think you guys need to think about that. If you want happy ending stories from me, you need to not take away my video game privileges. I hope you are going to think about that."

Three Musketeers

Connor, Ror and Riley-Kate have lately been joined at the hips. We were remarking last night how if one of them is sleeping, the other two are complaining that they need him or her to play. I wouldn't really think they would be so gung-ho about Riley-Kate, but she wakes up later than they do and they keep traipsing down to the bedrooms, asking, "Is my sister waking yet? How long till my sister is waking? HOORAY, my sister is awake! Let's go talk to her!" When Ror is sleeping, Connor passes the time trying to teach her new words, but mainly they just wait around for their ring-leader. And if Connor happens to run to the store with Chris, they act like they've been orphaned. Ror asks, "Where's Connor? I NEED him!" And Riley Kate just runs around yelling "Coh-ERRR! Coh-ERRR!"
The best part about their newfound best-friendship is that they all seem to really cheer each other on. Riley Kate said "I love you!" for the first time this morning, and they were going crazy-- Connor was yelling, "Oh my GOSHIOUS! My sister knows how to TALK!" Chris and I were very excited and had many ambitious plans to call Grandmom Elio and Mammam Conniff tonight so they could hear her say it, but we've now decided against it because in the end it would probably be two calls to Grandmom Elio and Mammam Conniff during which all they would hear is "Come ON, Riley Katharine! Say it! You said it fifty times today! Don't let the phone make you nervous. That's Grandmom on the other end! Just SAY IT! SAY IT, YOU STUBBORN KID! SAY I LOVE YOU!" So we'll wait to unveil it in person.
Ror seems to be following in Connor's footsteps in the budding paleontologist department-- this afternoon he correctly showed us a triceratops, a brachiosaurus and a stegosaurus. Connor seemed to feel that Ror had slightly stolen his act, but did his best to cheer Rory on. We could almost see him privately promising himself never to read aloud from his big book of dinosaurs in Ror's presence again.
We all had a great evening playing Animal Lotto, but Ror got a little too aggressive with the game pieces halfway through the first game and was sidelined quickly. He spent the rest of game time wolfing down shredded wheat with Riley Kate while Chris and I played with Connor. It's a cute game, sort of a cross between bingo and memory. It came in one of the learning kits that Grandmom sent Ror and Connor, but we had never played it before. Connor indicated that he MAY have inherited a TEENY TINY bit of Mom's competitiveness when he said, "Hey, I only need the rhinoceros to win, and if I win, that makes YOU and YOU the TWO LOSERS. I will be the WINNER and there is only ONE WINNER and you will be the LOSERS." How charming, and what a gracious winner!
In about a week and a half, anyone within three hundred miles of our house should be hearing some shrieks of excitement. Connor and Ror's best friends in the whole wide world are coming to spend FOUR DAYS with us-- and Chris and I have decided not to tell Connor and Ror until they actually arrive. Their Mommy is a close friend who I haven't seen in seven months, so I'll be demurely doing a little dance, but shrieking on the inside. I'm sure we'll have lots of adventures and wacky goings on to report during those days!

Cooking Gets Ugly

Today the boys helped me make stuffed chicken, twice-baked potatoes and a Missouri Scripture cake. The only REALLY ugly part of the afternoon was when Ror tried to taste some baking powder. ICK. First I asked them to scrub the potatoes before we cooked them. Then we had to go change their outfits because they were soaked from head to toe-- they somehow discovered while washing the potatoes that Riley Kate would laugh till she gagged if they put wet sponges on their heads. After we cleaned up from the first attempt at helping, I told them to put the bread cubes into a bowl as I was slicing them off of the loaf of bread. Ror was putting one in the bowl, then one in his mouth, alternating. We've got a household of ten and I only had one loaf of stale bread to make the stuffing with, so I admonished him, at which time he grabbed the entire loaf and went running through the house. I was saying, "Rory Kelly, give me that loaf of bread. You need to go sit in thinking time and think about doing better listening." He yelled, "No WAY!" and Connor shook his head sadly and said in a knowing tone, "Oh Mommy. He's not going to listen to you. You need to SCARE him." "How should I scare him?" "Like this: 'RORY KELLY ELIO! GET IN THERE AND SIT IN THINKING TIME!" Ror answered, "I'll GO sit! But I'm eating this bread!" He's usually so compliant!


At the gym today, Riley Kate wowed the crowd, and Mom and Dad too. We go to a gym that's crazy expensive, but worth it because it has what Connor and Ror call "the playplace," a room with toys and a nice teacher to watch them while Mom and Dad work out. Connor and Rory are now more enthusiastic about Chris's and my cardiovascular health than we are. Every time we turn around, it's, "Hey, don't you need to go to the gym?" So anyway, after we had worked out (okay, after Chris had worked out and I had limply walked on the treadmill at a snail's pace while whining to him--he was on the next treadmill-- that pregnancy really IS going to kill me), we picked the kids up from the play room, and Riley Kate walked out primly while I held her hand, then in the lobby she turned to the desk receptionists and a few other people who were standing there and said, "I gotta go. Bye-bye!" And the desk girl said, "You gotta go?" And she said, "Yes. Bye-bye." All of the people looked really amazed (doubly so, I guess, since she looks like she's eight months old) and the girl said, "Wow, she can have a conversation?" And I just said, "Uh, I guess so..." She normally says Bye-bye, but she had never announced that she "gotta go" before! Then as we were walking out, I was really flipping out, saying, "You are SUCH a BIG GIRL! I'm so PROUD of you!" And she just kept laughing hysterically like I was nuts. Kids-- they always keep you guessing!

Baby Girl Elio is kicking up a storm and making Mommy quite breathless in the heat. TP Tuesday (every Tuesday I measure my tummy in toilet paper squares) revealed that I haven't gained any squares this week, but I FEEL alot bigger. No weight gain this week, either, but the baby is DEFINITELY growing in there, or else her leg muscles are just getting mighty strong-- I can even see some kicks on the outside occasionally. She's jumping around in there right now, as a matter of fact. This is the first of all my babies that I'm predicting will come BEFORE the due date. As long as she's here within two weeks after the due date, we'll be totally satisfied with our darling little tax deduction. :)

Connor's Story

Connor told this story last night, so we had him retell it today so we could write it down for posterity. What an imagination.

One day, Connor saw He-Man and his Mighty Battle Cat. Connor said to He-man, “Can I whisper you a secret?” and He-Man said, “Sure.” So Connor asked, “Can I ride your Battle Cat?” and He-Man said, “Sure.” So they rode to a rocket ship and they blasted off to Mars. They ate dinner on Mars, and they had the best milkshakes ever. Even the Mighty Battle Cat had a milkshake, and he loved it because cats like milk. Then He-Man and Connor decided to fly to another planet—Saturn. But when they got there, Saturn was covered in crust. The Mighty Battle Cat started digging, and he found the bones of a t-rex. But then the bones came to life, and the t-rex changed into a triceratops, and he could talk! He said, “Hi, I’m a crustavore, so I won’t eat you. Carnivores eat meat and herbivores eat plants, and I eat the crust of Saturn.” Then he talked to Connor for a little while and then he went home and Connor and He-Man flew home in their rocket ship with the Mighty Battle Cat. The End.

By the Power of Grayscummerin!

Big news in the Elio Household; He-man has taken Connor and Rory by storm. They constantly want to watch the DVD Chris bought for them, and they run around playing He-Man and Skeletor non-stop. Ror shoves a sword down the back of his shirt and whips it out and above his head, screaming, "BY THE POWER OF GRAYSCUMMERIN, I HAVE THE POWEEERRRR!"

Riley Kate is still taking the vapors at the slightest hint of agitation, gasping and fainting at something as slight as Chris telling her to stop ripping her clothing out of her drawers. We can't believe how much she's talking-- this morning we let her watch a little bit of Teletubbies and when it was over she said, "Bye-bye, Tubbies!" Then at lunch time she kept saying, "More grapes! More grapes!" I'm especially proud that she knows the music to "Hairspray," and can do the "whoa-oh-oh" part when I sing "Good Morning Baltimore." She also does a weird little hip-gyrating dance. Unfortunately, she is also becoming quite the spoiled little demon, due mostly to the big boys-- namely, Al. She throws her bottle on the floor just so he'll pick it up, and if she wants what he has, she screams and he gives it to her. Her temper is really something to see-- sometimes she even kicks the wall in a fit of rage, which is pretty funny, given that she's about the size of an average 8 month old.

Connor is completely consumed with kindergarten, which will be starting in a few weeks; we've decided to use Seton for kindergarten and decide on each grade's curriculum when the time comes. The only subject that diverts his attention is the one that diverts any of our attention.... Disney in five weeks! He already has a very definite itinerary-- Pirates of the Carribean first, of course, followed by Dumbo. He said he'll never ride Great Movie Ride again, because "It's too scary-- the witch and the alien are just too, too scary for me; I'm JUST A LITTLE BOY, Mommy!"

Rory is as charming as ever and had a blast at the zoo last weekend. He rode the bug carousel and thought that all of the bystanders were there to see him. Some lady was waving back to him (he was waving to everyone) and the third time he went around, he yelled in a frustrated tone, "I can't wave anymore! I have to hold on!" He has definitely figured out how to manipulate Mom-- Katie, Chris, Connor and Riley Kate were in the Dancing Crane Cafe while Ror and I went to get ice cream to bring back, and just as I was getting situated, figuring out how to carry three ice creams and a soda back, Ror said, "Mommy. I love you. You beautiful. You hold me, okay?" I had to get a carrier for the ice creams and balance them all in one arm while toting Prince Charming back on the other arm. There's something about that age, though, that makes me just want to do his bidding. I can't get enough of him!

We may go to Six Flags this weekend, which should be lots of fun, but we're not sure what fun things there are for the kids to do. But we've got these free season passes, so we'll go. Chris is headed out to Long Island tomorrow to work on the album a little more; it's really coming along. Other than that, we're in for a hopefully quiet week.

God Help Us All.

Well, we're online. I think. I don't really know how to set this thing up, so bear with me. There are all kinds of buttons and stuff that I don't know how to work. In time, I hope to update this site frequently with lots of fun stories about the kids and their daily goings-on, as well as pictures. In the meantime, you can see pics of all of us at photos.yahoo.com/colleenelio.