Silliness

Silly Potatoe Heads

Trying to hula-hoop with the Wii

Chillin with "Tewa"

Bubblebath from Christmas:

Blueberry pancake face:

My 400th post had to be about poop...

So I woke up from my nap to the words, "there is poop on my floor." I can equal this feeling to the same thing as sleeping on the ship and hearing the GQ alarm going off. First response? Oh S***.
I sprang out of bed to see what was wrong. I sent him to my bathroom to stand there while I went and checked out the damage in his room. I peeked in and new that it was not a joke, although I am not sure if this is something he would joke about. And that it was bigger than a five minute job. So I went back to him with the diaper wipes this time and started cleaning him off. And the story came out. "I was bending over to get pick out some books and the poop just came out fast mommy." I get rid of my angry pants at this point and kept listening. He has not had a poop accident in over nine months, so I am assuming he got sick. "And then I tried to clean it up by myself to help you." So as I am scraping the dried on poop off of his butt I am putting it together in my head. He got sick, took off his pants and underwear, poop got on the floor, he then tried to clean it up himself. While he did this, the poop on his butt dried out. I stuck him in my shower and told him to stand there and hose off. I then went to his room. Poor dear had taken diaper wipes and "helpfully" smeared the poop into the carpet in three different places. And of course I don't have any carpet cleaner. Or anything like it. Is swear I had some simple green, but I have no idea where that is. So I grab kitchen cleaner. Cleaner is cleaner right? No. Bleach should not go on carpet. Now the damage I did is not so bad, I have really light carpets so it is not blaringly obvious. And the poop is up and that is all I care about.
Now in the real world, someone would of gotten overtime for this, and in the military hazard duty pay and most assuradly a NAM. My reward came in the form of a little boy in the shower singing his heart out to Barbara Ann. I would still like to know where to submit my paperwork though.

eighteen months

I am having a hard time writing this because it is almost like admitting to myself that you are no longer my baby baby. You are turning into a little girl. Your face has lost the baby look. Your actions are that of a very self confident strong willed little girl. You know what you want and when you want it and how to express yourself. You are not walked on by anyone especially your brother.

You are my little shadow. Helping me clean, helping me cook, attempting to correct your brother. You have become very good at counting down to your brother. When he does something you are not happy with, "GEE!! TWO!! UN!!" and if he does not obey you, you promptly start yelling at him in words that I cannot understand but I suspect are not ladylike. Even after I assure you that I as the mommy can handle the situation, you still like to boss him around. I will ask you to go tell your brother it is time for dinner. You will run right up to his face, and yell, "GO!" and point to the kitchen. You love to yell at "Tea" too. In fact you are a very loud little girl.

Your words are coming along. More so in the last month though. Just in the last week you added noodle (noonel) and apple (abble) to your vocabulary. You still call your brother by the last three letters in his name, and refer to your self as Doe Doe. You like to sit and sound out letters with your brother and me and always have a look of sheer pride after we clap for you.

I am not sure if I would call it potty training yet, but your awareness of body functions is certainly there. You like to sit on the big potty and grunt. Nothing has come out yet, but it is fun to watch you grunt. :) You bring me diapers after you "boop." But I know we have a ways and I am not even going to push it.

You could give a rats patooty about the TV. On the rare occasion I let your brother watch tv, you don't give it a second glance. However last Friday night, we watched Charlie and the chocolate factory and you were glued to the tv. You especially liked the chocolate room. That is my favorite part too.

You are still and probably always will be a slight but tall thing. You were a wopping 22 lbs today and 33 1/4 inches long. Which is the 25% and 90%. The Dr. said you could go ahead and drink whole milk as long as you want too. I am not going to have to worry about you being over weight. I think you have gained 1 lb in the last three months.

You are my neat and tidy little girl. Forever straightening up after your brother. And me. We have had an ongoing battle with the nativity scene since I put it out two weeks ago. It is a fisher price one and I bought it so you two could play with it. You do not like it out though. I get it set up with everyone in their proper places and five minutes later you have got them cleaned up and put away in a box or bucket. How do I explain to you that it is okay to have those toys laying out.

I might need to start worrying about vanity and you. You love it when your brother tells you you are pretty. You put your hands up by your face and get a cheesy grin and tilt your head.

You love to try and dress yourself. Your shoes usually end up on the wrong feet and your shirt wrapped around your head, but you are so proud of yourself. You still love to clop around in my shoes.

You are a wonderful sleeper. You go down promptly at eight and sleep until seven thirty. It is glorious. And you still enjoy your morning nursing. Sometimes I fear you are going to be in kindergarten and still breastfeeding...

You love to read. You love books and looking through them on your own. But you love even more cuddling down on your chair and reading before bed.

You love to cuddle. All day long I can always rely on you to crawl up in my arms and cuddle for a good 30 minutes at a time. And you are still a hip rider. Being so small, I have no problem with it either. I get many of my chores done through out the day with you right there on my left hip.

You have just blossomed into a little girl that is stubborn and hard headed but still the sweetest little girl I know.

Be my girl...

3.5

Well I am couple days over due, but I suppose that is okay.

You my dear boy, are a true little boy now. The icky things amuse you. Body noises, boogers, anything gross can always bring a giggle. And sometimes you make up songs about them. I roll my eyes and try to ignore it. Hopefully this is just a phase.

You are not a big eater. Sometimes you go for meals just picking at your food. I wonder how it is you have been able to keep packing on the pounds and gaining height. You still hate meat. It takes you ten minutes to chew one bite of chicken. This is a huge source of contention at meal times.

However you are still growing and I think right now you are on a growth spurt. The past few nights you have woken up with leg cramps. You are well into the 4T size and size 11 shoes. I have to buy you size 5T jammies so that you have room for your toes in the footies. You have reached 39lbs on the scale and are a hair under 42 inches.

You have started recognizing more and more letters and numbers. You blew me away about a week ago when we pulled up to a friends house and you just randomly read me off the numbers on her house. "One-one-three-oh." You also like to point out the giant numbers at Walmart that they have advertising prices. You are starting to sound out very simple words in your bob books with only a few hints every now and then.

You have settled in quite well to your big boy room here at home. We no longer share a wall and I have to admit I miss your wall knocking at night as you are falling asleep.

You have chores that you are responsible for. Your jobs include, folding your underwear and putting all of your clothes in the right drawers. Bringing all of your dirty laundry out to the washer, feeding and watering the dog, loading your dishes in the dishwasher, unloading all of the silverware, bringing the garbage can back from the street on garbage day, picking up your toys before bed and making your bed in the morning. You do most of these things with a happy heart and actually like doing some of them.

You still love to cuddle. Our bedtime ritual is reading about a bazillion books before bed cuddled up on the couch. And even then it is "Just one more mommy!" But I let you pick out one or two and take those to bed to read with your flashlight. We read the more simple books while Bug is still awake and then once she is in bed, we will dive into some more difficult books. I have started reading chapter books that have less and less pictures and you seem to be able to understand because I quiz you periodically to see if you are getting what is going on.

You are a saver. Money, food, broken toys. You will have one swallow of your water in your cup and you will want to put it in the fridge and "save it for later." I let you keep one piece of pizza for a few days to see how long you would nibble away at it. You would take it out every once in a while take a few bites and then put it back to save it for later. I finally threw it away today. I think you have more money in your piggy bank than I have. Every coin you find, you ask if you can have it and it goes straightaway into the piggy.

You love to "mother" your little sister. I constantly find you correcting her and I have to remind you that it is my job to tell her not to jump on the couch.

You have started Cubbies. And with your steel trap memory have had no problem remembering the verses. I can give you a reference today of one of your earlier verses and you spout it right off. One of your favorite games is What time is it Mr Frog and you make me play it at home all the time. The week after you got your vest, you were chosen to hold the flag for the pledge of allegiance. On the way home you told me how proud you were to be able to do that. You are such a proud little American.

We were recently given a trampoline that is maybe 45 inches in diameter. From the time we got it on Sunday, you did not stop jumping for a week except to eat and sleep. And even at that, the first night I woke up in the middle of the night to find you jumping on it. You tell me it is how you get your "hoo haa's" out.

You have such a funny way with words. Just this last week you asked me to come look at your "bad-mamma-jamma" poop, told me you wanted to be a fire truck when you grow up, and told me you had "come from Alabama with a banjo on your knee." I really need to start writing these down in a book.

Your hair is well below your brow line and into your eyes and it does not bother you at all. It doesn't bother me either. You have become acustomed to doing a head flip to get it back. You tell people you love your long beautiful hair because it keeps the sun out of your eyes. I suggest a hair cut and you are very adamant about not getting one. You tell me I can trim the back, but not the front. It is fine. I love your hair.

You are still such a sweet and caring little boy. And when you are not terrorizing your little sister you really can be kind and loving to her.

And each night before I leave your room, you ask me to say one last thing before I close the door;
"I love you baby boy..."

By the grace of God

I had a 100ft tree in my front yard that made me want to stay in a hotel every time the wind blew. So this last week I finally had it taken down. It was quite a process that involved a big truck parked in my front yard, a chipper machine and a man in a bucket, all of this was great entertainment for the kids.

But the real scary part is that my neighbor had a tree in her yard that was a Hemlock and was leaning dangerously over my sons bedroom. She decided to have hers cut down too. We got quite a suprise when they got to the bottom of that tree. The bottom ten feet of the tree looked like this:

But the trees are down and I can sleep easy at night. And now I have a ten foot stump in my front yard that is begging for a tree house to be built on it this summer.

Smarty Pants

After catching her for the fifth time playing in the dog food:

"Keep your hands out of the food!"

I turned back around ten seconds later:

Hands held behind her back, with her WHOLE face in the dog food.

Got me there kiddo.

Letters

Just in the last few days, Bear has been recognizing more and more letters. And it is just randomly. Not even letters we have been working on recently. So we busted out the Bob books and started working away at those. He is starting to sound out really simple words with very little help. Like Mat and sat. He won't be reading War and Peace any time soon, but I think it is a good start and I am so proud of him.
And then tonight him and I were sounding out words and she ran in from her bedroom and shouted, "A B C!" ran back into her room and started laughing. Has to keep up with her brother...
;)

This is not Lawanda's fault...

I keep telling myself that. My friend and fellow blogger Lawanda posted the other day and I have not been able to stop thinking about it since. I would post a hyper-doodly-giggawatts-thingama-jig here but I don't know how, so you can just follow the clicky to the right hand side to her blog.

I want more kids. Plain and simple. I had my heart set on eight of the little boogers a few years ago. I have learned is hard to just let something like that go once you have planned on it. And I don't understand. I wish that God would take away this burning desire and just let me be happy with the two babies I do have. But I want more. I want to have a house full of happy laughing kids (even though I know the reality is more like arguing, pinching, toy snatching, whiny kids.) But see? I have a sense of humor about it. Doesn't that make me a prime candidate for being mother of many? Sigh.

I come from a big family, and I love getting together with my family now that we are all grown up. It is loud and happy and fun.

I had the hardest time getting rid of baby clothes this last summer. I felt that if I did, I would be admitting that I am done. That there will be no more babies. And that hurts my heart. All of the baby paraphanelia is on the front porch waiting for me to make a decision about it.

I see brand new babies in town and my heart longs to be growing my own. I love being pregnant. Well with the exception of the last month when your ankles have become "cankles" and you have to pee every hour during the night and you toss and turn when you aren't peeing trying to get comfortable, and nothing fits you anymore and everything you eat causes you to have heart burn so badly that you buy stock in Tums and chug milk like it is going out of style. But other than that I love being pregnant. I have such easy pregnancies, this is what my body was built for. Baby growing and carrying. And I love breast feeding. Bear breast fed until he was 18 months, she is almost 18 months and shows no sign of stopping.

I just wish that I could get over the fact that this is it and I just need to be happy and thankful for what I have. And I am, I love these kiddos more than myself. And I thank God every day that he gave them to me to raise for Him. But I just can't seem to shake the "sad".

The Nursery

Well I guess I won't really be able to call it a nursery for very much longer. I always wanted to have a little girl, so that I could do a room just like this! Ha ha. Just kidding... kind of. I actually bought the bedding two days before I knew it was a girl officially. I found it on ebay and after months of hem hawing, I knew that this was what I wanted and I made the bid and I won! And then I found out it was a girl. Phew.

The only things in this room that were bought brand new are the crib, and the rocker and her bookshelf. Everything else was bought at garage sales, craigslist, or made by my daddy. He bought the dresser off craigslist and him and I stripped that thing down and refinished it. And the changing table which will one day convert into a desk, the base is to an old singer sewing machine that he had in his house as a kid. From scratch he built the top and lower shelf and even made matching bookshelves that I will eventually get hung on the wall. He is so wonderfully talented with his hands. I am so happy that he taught he how to do some of those things. There is something very theraputic about working with your hands like that and refinishing furniture. My mom made the beautiful blanket that is on the chair. Again, she is very talented in making beautiful blankets and hats for the kids. Something I do not have the patience for. :) On top of her book case is an old window that I won off of ebay almost five years ago. I never knew what to do with it, I mean I knew I wanted to make a picture frame out of it, but it just never really fit anywhere just right in my house. Until now. Now it is filled with her newborn pictures and looks like it was made for her room.

The painted lattice on one wall was an experiment gone bad. I had this grand picture in my head of having a lattice and then painting dainty flowers and vines up it. But once I got the paint on the wall, which to me looks a little Pepto Bismolly, I decided that I liked the original color of the room and that it goes quite nicely with it. So, just one more project added to my list. :)

Now to tackle Bears room. Just a few stars painted on the wall, painting a few pieces of furniture and I should be done. Yay!

Switched at birth

If our daughters had not been born 11 days apart, I would seriously wonder if I had Daphnes daughter living in my house.
Her name definition has the words 'neat and tidy' in it. And boy does she live up to those words. She cleans up after her brother. If she sees a random piece of paper on the floor, she will pick it up and put it neatly on the table. Or if there is a stray toy, she will put it in the toy box. She cleans up after me. Case in point. Today I got in the shower and left my clothes on the floor to be taken to the washing machine after I was done. That was too long for her. I got out of the shower and the clothes were gone. She had picked them up and put them in the dirty laundry basket for me. I then dropped a wash cloth on the floor to see what she would do. She picked it up and walked through the house to the washing machine and placed it in the basket.
She does not like drawers to be half opened or even cracked open. Those get promptly closed.
And she loves the shark vacuum. As soon as I let her down from her highchair, she runs to the shark to clean up the mess that was made during the meal.
My sweet clean baby.

Lead socks for Christmas.

This little girl has been on top of every horizontal surface in this house. We have been here for almost four days. She has been on the kitchen table, the counters, the stove (eek!), and the one that baffles me is her changing table. Her baby crib is right next to it, but it is still over a two foot climb up to the changing table. When I hear her call "MOM!" I know she has climbed up on something and has no idea how to get down.
I am seriously going to tie her to something, or fill her diaper with rocks. I don't mind that she never stops, she is always going. It is the climbing thing that just unnerves me. I am waiting for the day that I have to take her to the ER with a busted head or arm. Fortionatly she is a very graceful and effient climber.

Bittersweet

I think that is the word I am looking for. I can't really think of anything else to desribe how I feel right now.
I have lived with my parents for the last ten months. It has been a rough ten months. Not living with my parents, just life in general has been rough. But I have grown. I like to think I have overcome the challenge that was placed before me. I know that it is an on going battle, but I think I am through the worst of it. I survived. I know am a stronger person for it. I still have my battles, but I know that God would not give me anything that he cannot see me out of.
So back to my parents house. It has been wonderful having the support. Bear got his own room. Bug got her own closet. Ha ha. She slept in the walk in closet in my room in her crib. She started out sharing the room with me. But that got old real quick. She would wake up in the middle of the night and instead of soothing herself back to sleep she would see me ten feet away and want to party. So she got her own closet. I love that my kids got to grow closer to my parents and get to know them better. I love the relationship they have now with Nana and Poppop.
But the time has come for me to move back to my house. And even though the house was previously shared with the person that caused the afore mentioned sorrow, I am still ready to go back home. Little more than nine months ago, I could not drive by the house without bursting into tears. I dreaded going to the Island. And yesterday when I went and got the keys and officially took ownership of it again I was so scared that I would not be ready to face it. I was scared that everything I had worked so hard for over the last ten months would just come crashing down on me and I would just be back where I started. But after much prayer, the only thing I felt when I walked in that door yesterday with my kiddos was the wonderful sense of being home. No memories. No bad feelings. Just home. Mine and my kids home. The home that I get to start over in, the home I get to raise my babies in. I look forward to making new happy memories in it for many years to come.
The kids almost lost their minds yesterday when we walked through the door.
"Is this our house mommy?"
"Yes baby. We get to live her now."
And then he proceeded in running through the house with sister right behind him screaming about everything we had.
"Mommy! We have doors! We have lights! We have carpet! We have light switches. We have windows! We have closets! We have a bathroom! We have another bathroom! We have two bathrooms!"
You would think we had been living in a cardboard box the last ten months.
I had brought up toys for them to play with while I painted. They went untouched because the thrill of running like banshees through and empty house took over. They ran almost non stop for nine hours before I finally said enough. It is amazing the noise that two small children can make in an empty house. They explored every inch of that house. Kitchen cabinets included. They are still small enough they could fit in some of them. That made for a fun game of hide and seek.
I got Bears room done and had to stop at Bugs. I am not sure about the color yet. So I am going to wait until her bedding gets here and then make a decision. After I figure out how to get pictures off my cell, I will post them on here.

Pretty proud of myself.

So I was playing around with my computer last night and discovered this program. So I spent the last four hours of my life putting this together. I know it is not perfect and I am not on my way to Hollywood, but I had fun and the kids enjoy watching it.

My gray hairs

can be blamed on my daughter. She has no fear. No sense of danger. Today at the park she was climbing up things on the play equiptment that Bear still won't climb up. She was climbing up to the top and going down the twisty slide by herself. She tried to run right into the creek. She would stand at the top of this thing that was at least six feet high and start to step off.
We got home and she was hanging over the edge of the Learning Tower I bought so that they could stand at the counter with me safely. Ha. She leaned so far over that she was parrallel with the ground and balancing in that position. I flew across the kitchen to try to stop her but she still fell forward and landed on her head.
I am going to have a heart attack before I am 30.

While brother is napping

cheese!

Cool dude!

I love how she is saying some of her words. If it ends in a hard sound she says it twice, "cuppa-cup, booka-book, cooka-cook (cookie), milka-milk." I do not know how she learned this but I think it is pretty cute.

She is starting to get pretty dramatic too. When she does not get her way she will throw her head back in agony and put her hands over her face in the most dramatic way. And then something will catch her eye and she will stop and continue on her way. Talk about the shiny nickle. :)

Does it get much cuter than this?

The weekend in review

We did so much this weekend. I don't think tired has caught up with me yet. Saturday morning we went to the pumpkin farm. We did the hay ride and then the 12 acre corn maze which was a blast. The kids took turns leading the way through the Washington State shaped maze. We then ate lunch, went through the petting zoo and then through the kids hay maze so they could go down the slide and play in the hay. We then went out to the field and picked out our pumpkins. Man it is a good year for them too. Huge and plentiful.
Then Saturday night we went to the Everett Sausage Fest and got to see Tim Noah a childrens entertainer. I actually saw him when I was in kindergarten. Bear and Bug both loved him and were dancing in the kiddy "mosh pit." We got a CD signed after the show and got to meet him.
And then today we went roller skating. And this was a big one because Bug got to put on skates for the first time. I did not know they made skates that tiny. They were so itty bitty cute size 6's. And she looked so itty bitty cute in them. Miss Independant did not want to hold my hand she just wanted to get out and skate. We spent most of our time on the outside patio so the kids could just play around and not get run over by big people. They both lasted about an hour on the skates. And I have to say, she just took off and did not look back.
Then tonight we decorated our pumpkins which meant the kids got to paint their pumpkins. Bear got very serious and took about 30 minutes to paint his. Bug decorated the pumpkin and her own hair with finger paints.
And I realized something tonight as I was loading up our pictures that made me kind of weepy. She is no longer a baby. She actually looks like a little girl.
She suprised us all this morning at breakfast. I was putting her spilled cereal back in the bowl and I said, "One..." And she automatically says, "two...." I looked at her and did it again thinking maybe it was a coincidance, but she did it again.
We had so much fun and now I am looking forward to relaxing tomorrow.

Half Monkey

She is a climber. More than her brother ever was. Or maybe I just blocked that part out. Anyhow, she is climbing on anything and everything that is vertical. These are some of the thing I have caught her on:
Her brothers bookshelf
His bed that is four feet off the ground
The dining room table
My night stand
Her highchair by herself
My bed that is on top of six inch risers

And tonight was just the topper, I have a pressure mounted gate that has teeny tiny holes in it. Designed to deter children from climbing up it. Bear has tried and he can't do it. Tonight she was at the top of it. She stuck her big toes in the little holes and just scaled it. And then got to the top and wasn't quite sure what to do.
Her favorite thing to climb is my nightstand. It is about a foot away from the bed. She puts her hands on the table and then walks her feet backwards up my bed. Today she was almost upside down, her feet were above her head. And I just sat there and watched her, wondering how she was going to get out of that one. She walked her feet back down a little and then just crawled up on the night stand.

Dinner

I have started Bear in Awana. Kind of. We are doing it long distance right now until we get up to the Island. So his leader, our beloved Gephry sent us his Cubbie motto last week and sent us his first verse this week. I read it to him. And then I asked him to say it with me as I said a little bit at a time. I John 4:10 God loved us and sent his son. This opened a whole can of worms that I am not sure how to explain to a three year old. And showed me that I am slipping a little bit.

"Mommy? Who is Gods son?"
"Jesus is his son."
"Oh.... Well if God is the daddy and Jesus is the son, who is the mommy?"
"There is no mommy honey."
"There is no mommy in Heaven? How was Jesus born? Daddys can't have babies."

I changed the subject at this point. I could have explained how he had a mommy on earth, and Mary and Joseph and the Trinity, but I think it might have confused him even more.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?


And then a few minutes later he starts singing very quietly:

"Everybody wants to go to Kevin, but nobody wants to go now."

"What are you singing? Can you sing that a little louder for me?"

"Everybody wants to go to Kevin, but nobody wants to go now!"

"Um, I think it might be Heaven everybody wants to go to."

"No, it is Kevin. I heard it in a song. Everybody wants to go to Kevin."

"Where is Kevin?"

"I don't know. It might be near Heaven."

Words

She has started saying more and more words lately.
Here are some of my favorites:
Bookbooka (book) This is so funny when she says it
Goo guwl (good girl) This one she runs around behind Bear saying "goo guwl Oah"
Baybay (baby) She loves her babies
Daw (dog)
Dut (duck)
K-at (cat) phonetically she has got it down! :)

This child has the determination and stubbornness of her name sake, my grandma. Yesterday we were playing in the backyard. And in the backyard are two lawn chairs, you know the kind that have that rubbery plastic bands that leave the indentation of your butt when you get up? The kind that the slats are two inches apart so that when you sit on them it looks like something from a playdough factory gone wrong, with your butt fat squishing out all over the place. Anyways she kept wanting to sit in them even though there is a chair that she can climb in and she won't fall through. But no, she needed to know she could do it. She took turns with the chairs climbing into them and getting different parts of her body stuck in it, sometimes a leg, sometimes an arm, sometimes an arm and a leg. A couple of times she fell and bonked her head. And each time I would take her off the chair and encourage her to go play in the grass. And each time she would go back to the chair I was not standing in front of and try all over again. After 15 minutes of trying to get up and sit down on a chair, she finally did it. She sat down on the edge, swung her feet back and forth a few times, gave me a big proud smile, and got down and ran off.

The difference between my kids

Bear will give you the biggest laugh every time; even just for looking at him cross eyed. I have never seen Bug give a big hearty laugh. It takes quite a bit to even get her to crack a smile and even more to get her to giggle.

(and he was laughing so hard at one point that I think he started speaking in tongues.)

While the kids are napping

The phone rings. Who will it be?
Dad
When done shopping at the grocery store, do you return your cart?
Yes
A really great salad must have this ingredient: Pecans, peaches
Do you take compliments well? Umm, I say thank you.
What is something that people are currently “into” that you just don’t get or appreciate?
The vampire thing. I am with you on that one Lawanda
What is something that really hoists your sail that other people might feel “ho-hum” about?
With a few exceptions, homeschooling
Do you play Sudoku? YES!
If abandoned alone in the wilderness, would you survive? I like to think so.
Did you ever go to camp as a kid? Lakeside Bible Camp!
What was your favorite game as a kid? Hide and go seek
Could you date someone with different religious beliefs than you? Not even a little bit
Use three words to describe yourself. Loving, faithful, boring
Do any songs make you cry? It is well with my soul
Do you know how to shoot a gun? Sharpshooter
What is the first thing you do when you get home? Take off my shoes
Have you ever taken pictures in a photo booth? Long time ago
How often do you read books? Every day
Which of the seven deadly sins are you guilty of (lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride)? envy
Do you think more about the past, present or future? Try not to think about the past, I only think about the near future enough to plan out what we are going to do and how we are going to do it.
Share a fun memory you made with a roommate. Does living on a boat in berthing with 30 other women count as a roomate? It would have to be the toilet that fell over every time we hit a wave. Even funnier is Cat sitting on that toilet when it fell over.
What is your favorite children’s book? Anne of Green Gables
What are your most common nicknames? Riss
What color are your eyes? Beautiful Hazel
How tall are you? 5′9"
Do you like mustard? Yuck yuck yuck

Challenges

I knew this was not going to be an easy job when I signed up for it. I knew there would be moments when I would wonder if these little people would make it to their next birthday. I just did not take into consideration that these moments all might happen on the same day.
Please keep in mind that all of this followed a night where he did not pass out until after 11pm after 3 hours of crying arguing, begging, wall pounding, and every excuse in the book as to why he should not be in bed. I finally fell asleep to be awakened by her at 2am. I can only guess that her teeth were bothering her because she cried for an hour. And then was kind of enough to let me sleep in until 6 this morning.

-Decided to do laundry this morning. I took a load down to put in the washer and fed and watered Tela while I was down there. When I got back upstairs I was greeted with a full laundry basket that I could of sworn was empty upon my departure. After a closer viewing of this basket that seemed to fill itself magically, I found clothes that I could of sworn I folded the day before. I then saw two of her dresser drawers open and very very empty. My darling daughter had decided to help mommy and with a quickness I did not know she possessed had filled a tall laundry basket with perfectly clean clothes. Not only did she empty her drawers she had managed to throw them in a fashion that they had unfolded themselves along the way. She stood there with the most proud "I helped mommy" smile on her face. I wanted to cry.

-As I was cleaning the bathroom later this morning, I left them in his room to play quietly. They were both sitting in their chairs reading books. I knew the quiet would not last long before the leg-pulling-mommy-don't-leave-my-bubble-crying that has been my life the last two weeks while she has tried like the dickens to break through two molars and an eye tooth. But I digress. So after five minutes I decided to go check on them. I walk in the room and they were both up on his bed. Now after she had figured out how to climb the slide with socks on, I just took it off until a later date when she understands the significance of free falling four feet to a carpeted yet still hard ground. She had started to climb up the rungs but kept getting stumped on that last bit where the mattress meets the bed. Well I can now say she has it figured out. I tried putting things in front of the ladder, she just uses those to climb on. And if it is too high for her to get her leg on, she brings a car over to give her a little boost. I am afraid I am just going to have to take the ladder off now.

-And the Coup-De-grace: I was downstairs making lunch for them. I really put love into it too. I mashed up bananas and spread it with some peanut butter and then cut them into star shapes. I took cherry tomato's and string cheese and made them each a smiley face. Well while I was downstairs with this labor of love, they decided they would decorate themselves and the carpet and the wall and his bed with finger paint. I know I know at least it was not Desitin this time right? It was only washable finger paint. But still. They were both looked like some sort of living abstract art gone wrong. She was smeared with red and blue. He had gone ahead and mixed it in on himself creating a poopy brown color. Very quietly I took them to the bathroom to strip them down and hosed them off. He kept asking me, "Are you happy mommy?" "Aren't I pretty mommy?" I could not say a word.
I did not even take pictures of it like I did with the Desitin. I guess the novelty of having a son that views himself as a budding artist that must share his talent with the world has worn off.
I gave them their lunch and went to work scrubbing. It came up a little easier than I thought it would. But I still would rather been eating lunch with them than bent over under his bed scrubbing.

So now he is grounded to his bed for an undetermined amount of time. Maybe he will be let loose in time to enjoy the Christmas festivities. Next year.

Math

Well we started "preschool" this week. I say it like that because I am homeschooling him and it is something we have been doing for the past year now. We have just stepped it up a little and are a little more structured. A little.
Today we started math. Just simple addition. This was my proud moment today. He had been playing in his room by himself and I was in the next room reading with Bug.

"Mommy! One plus two equals three! Come look, I am a genious"

He had taken out his books and had them grouped, two and one. Then he showed me what two plus two is and what it looked like.

And I get to say that I taught him this. Makes me all warm and proud.

Determined

Listen to the conversation at the end. Bear is obsessed with the inner workings of bodies. Human and canine.

The thing to concentrate on

About this time of night, after I tuck her in, and I have my hour of Bear time, I can't help but get weepy and reflective.
I just tucked him in and prayed with him and turned on his nightlights and picked out his books. I handed him a flashlight so he could read in bed, and I stood at his door and watched him for a couple minutes. And then I went in and watched her sleep in her funny little positions for a little bit.
No matter how crappy things are right now, I am so lucky to have them. To be able to tuck them in at night. To be able to play with them and teach them throughout the day. No matter how much things suck in other parts of my life, I am still the luckiest person in the world because I am their mommy. And that is all that matters.

The big one-five.

Here I go again. I cannot believe it has been three months since you turned one. I put this off the last few days because I had kind of a hard time admitting that you have continued to age. I know you are supposed to be doing that, that is your job. Growing up. But do you have to do it so blasted fast?

You started walking full time a few days after your first birthday. And you haven't stopped since. In fact, every time you move it seems to be at an all out sprint. Which I love.

You are one tough cookie. I don't know if you were just born that way or if having an older brother made you that way, but you can take some falls and head bumps that would send any other baby into fits but you just get up "shake it off" and move on. You do however have no problem protesting when you do not get your way. You are the most strong willed child I have ever met. It is your way or no way. You do not give up no matter what it is. Whether it is taking toys away from your brother or playing with a toy and making it do what you want it to do. You are going to be my puzzle lover. I can already tell because you can sit and work on things until you figure them out.

You love "girly" toys but you also love your brothers toys. Especially when he is playing with them. You like to sit down and play cars with him and make the proper noises and crash them. But you also like the babies and Barbies. Right now you are pushing your Barbie doll around in your baby stroller. You are a climber. You have mastered your brothers slide and today I caught you on the third rung of the ladder up to his bed.

You have developed a love for books over the last few weeks. I am so happy that now I can snuggle down with you and your brother in my lap and read to you both. Most of the time I am not reading fast enough for you because you are always trying to turn the page before I am done. If anyone is sitting on the floor you will take that opportunity to go get a book and sit in their lap. And then when you are done with that book, you go and get another and another.

I took you to the Dr yesterday. You have only gained a pound in the last three months. So now you are up to 20lb 11oz. Which is in the 15%. You have grown to 31.5 inches though. I don't know how you are so skinny. You eat like a horse. Many meals you out eat your brother. Just the other night you have two huge pieces of lasagna to his half of a piece.

Your signing is really picking up. You have about ten signs now which makes it a lot easier to communicate. And you can nod your head yes. So I can just run down the list of things you might want and you nod yes to whichever it is you want. Your words are there, they are just a little hard to understand especially to someone that doesn't talk to you all day. Your new favorite trick is for Bear to say, "ready, set..." and then you yell "GOOOOOOOO!"

You are a funny little girl with such a strong personality. You are going to keep me on my toes.

Pony rides and corndogs

This is Bear two years ago on Honey:
Here is Bear yesterday on Honey:

And this is Bug on her pony Fancy

We went to the Evergreen State Fair yesterday and the kids had a blast. We saw all the animals, had tons and tons of fair food including corn dogs, elephant ears, funnel cake, and strawberry lemonade. The kids got to go on the pony ride which they loved. Bugs pony was at a full out trot the entire time bouncing her all over the place making her laugh. I took out Bears pony picture from two years ago and he has been talking about Honey for the last two weeks and was happy to be able to ride her again yesterday. We went and saw pig races and the lumberjack show too. We also went in a museum of "artifacts" (that's for you mom) from the early 1900's. And it was all hands on. The kids got to operate the water pump and make the trains go. There was even a tractor he could sit on and make a flag go around by pedaling. The kids had a blast and I was beat by the end of the day.

An artist is born

Okay, not really, but today was the first day that I gave her a writing utensil and she didn't put it right in her mouth. She started drawing on the paper(my homework) and so I thought I would try her out with crayons. This is her masterpiece:

What we have been up to

A car for Cars (thanks Gephry)

The blackberries

"Mommy, I am just going to sit here and think about the blackberries." That last about 10 seconds. His little bucket of berries was gone soon after that.

The blackberry pie we made

The fly that Bear found and Bug carried around like a dear friend for 20 minutes

Yogurt goatee

So Bug has for the most part mastered the spoon. However yesterday she decided that she needed to get the yogurt into her face a little faster than the spoon would allow. So she took to just drinking it out.

And this was what she looked like afterwards.

This is the kissy face that she has been making for months but I haven't been able to catch on camera very well. She makes this face all day long and if what my mother told me was true when I was little, her face is going to get stuck like that.

One of Aunt D's friends got a new kitten and it came over to vist the other night. The kids had so much fun playing with it and have been asking about it every day since.

Jo has really started talking lately. Her sign language is coming along and she is repeating words. Or trying too. She usually just says the beginning of the word. Dog is "daw" and so on. She loves to yell for her brother although I have no idea where she learned that. :) She will stand two feet from him and yell, "OAH!!!!"

I have been taking them to the pool for the last month. Bear is still a little timid in the water but I can just stick him on a noodle and he will swim around by himself. I took her last Friday and stuck her in one of those baby floaties, she was fine until I took her out and let her swim around in the water. After that she wanted nothing to do with the floatie, and I could not keep her face out of the water. At first she was just drinking water but then I taught her how to blow bubbles. We all went on Tuesday morning this week and I had them taking turns jumping off the wall to me. I could not keep her on the wall. She kept jumping in. And I was letting her whole body go under before I would grab her. She was having a blast. So I tied a noodle onto her and let her swim around with Bear for the remaining time. Bear is still a little timid about putting his whole head in, he is fine if he jumps and his head goes under but he just won't do it willingly on his own. I was kind of worried about how I would handle both of them in the big pool, but it worked out nicely and I am looking forward to taking them and watching them learn how to swim.

Patience

We went berry picking today. Blackberries grow wild all around here and this is the time of year for them. During our walk yesterday we saw people picking them on the side of the road and Bear asked what they were doing. So we walked over and I introduced him the blackberries. So this afternoon after nap we walked down the elementary school with our buckets.
Bear got two in his bucket before he decided that he was done gathering and his berries started going from bush to mouth. Every fifth one or so he would pick one for Bug who sat patiently in her stroller the entire time. After a while he realized that I had a bucket full and he made a suggestion.
"How about we just sit down here and eat your berries too mommy."
"We are going to take these home so that we can have some there."
"I don't like that idea mommy. I think we should just eat them here."

So I came to the realization that I should probably not take the kids to one of those u-pick fields. If I did I would have to weigh my kids before and after and then just pay according to the weight difference.

A new phase.

So Bug has discovered that putting underwear on her head is fun. Then Bear realized that he must be missing out on some fun so he stuck some on his head. I love the simple things that entertain kids.

**The underwear used in this photo shoot were clean.**