A real mom picks her kids' noses

Summer update

2010-08-07T18:44:00.000-07:00

I start school again on Monday so I figured I might as well update this now while I still have time.
This summer was great. I took school off for three months so that we could travel around the country with our travel trailer. We were gone for seven weeks. I think we hit 25 states. Felt like we hit more. Started out in Washington, drove to Indiana for a week so the kids could spend some time with daddy's side of the family. Then we drove onto Virginia and saw friends along the way. We spent 10 days in Norfolk and got to see lots of things. Williamsburg, two theme parks, DC, Annapolis, a naval museum, the beach and lots of friends. From there we drove to Tennessee to see more friends and then to Colorado to see some cousins I hadn't seen since before I graduated high school. From there we went down to San Diego for a week so the kids could have some more time with their daddy before he deployed. Then back up I-5 to my parents house where I parked the trailer for a few days and fixed everything that had broken on the trip. "Working the kinks out" is what we will call it. Overall the trip went smoothly and wonderfully. A few things broke and there were a few unexpected huge expenses, but all in all, I would do it again in a heart beat. In fact, when I graduate in a couple years I would love to rent the house out for a year and travel the country. Just me and the kids and the dog this time. We missed her something terrible. So next time she will get to come along. The kids did so wonderful in the car. We did 12- 13 hour days and the kids usually only got out twice to stretch and eat. But I have been training them for this their whole lives. :)
Next summer I want to take a trip up to Alaska. I think it would be wonderful.
The kids have changed so much this summer. Bug is a little jabber box. Her vocabulary is really flourishing. Although she has some favorite phrases. "NO!" "That's mine!" "Me too!" and "Ummm...because" when she is asked a "why" question. Everything her brother does, she has to do too. Bear will tell me he wants to go to the park. Bug pops up with, "I want to go to the park too!" Bear will say, "I am a boy." "I am a boy too!" She just adores him and yet she takes great pleasure in bossing him around and acting like the princess. She put on her shoes the other day but didn't snap them all the way. She walked across the house and went and stood in front of him, pointed her toe out to him and looked at her foot and demanded, "Oah, button my shoe please." And he lovingly bent down and did it for her. He would do just about anything for her. He is wrapped around her little finger. And she knows it.
They love each other so much. Every morning they wake up and whomever wakes up first will crawl in bed with the other and give them a good morning hug. What a sweet way to wake up. They have their moments. Don't get me wrong. Sometimes I think they will kill each other with dirty looks. But two seconds later they are best friends again.
Their social skills took on a new level this summer. With meeting so many new people at all the campgrounds we stayed at, they got so used to talking with strangers. We got to my parents house and one of the neighbors came over to say hi. Bear walked right up to him and said, "Hello Sir, my name is Bear. This is my sister, she is two and I am four. We just drove across the county and now we are home." It cracked me up. And of course Bug ran up and put in her two cents. "I drive across country too!" I might need to work with them on not over sharing information.
Bear is on a growth spurt again I think. All of his 4T clothing is starting to be high waterish on his skinny body. He blonded up somewhat on this trip, but Bug is a little toe head now. She got tan and blond haired.
Bears independent kick has reached a new level. I can't do anything for him anymore. He gets up on his own, gets dressed without me asking(some of his outfits kill me to let him walk out of the house the way he does), has to brush him hair by himself, open the car door by himself, buckle himself in. So on and so forth. I am glad that he wants to do this stuff by himself. The part that drives me nuts is that it takes four times as long. So when I am in a hurry to get in the car and get going, he is so stubborn about "doing it by myself mommy! I am four now!"
The potty training went down the tubes. Everything she had accomplished was lost on the trip. But I guess that is to be expected with all of the changes. We are working on it again. She is doing fine with the potty part. Not so fine with the poop part.
She loves to read books now. He loves to "read" to her. Him and I are reading the Laura Ingalls books now. He loves Laura. I started them both in the summer reading program through the library. They are having fun trying to fulfill the goals that have been set.
This fall we are going to try and stay busy. I am going to start them both in swim lessons. Every place we stayed had a pool and the kids had a blast. I bought them noodles and they were swimming around on them by themselves. Bear is still a little nervous though. He is my nervous Nelly. And she just jumps in head first. And I am not just speaking about the pool. Life in general, she just has no fear. He has to sit and think and talk about it and him and haw around. However he did start riding his two wheeler this summer. He went from his skuut bike to a big boy bike and only spent about an hour total on training wheels just so he could learn how to pedal. The pride on his face when he figured out what he was doing was beautiful to me. He was so nervous about me letting go of him. So I told him to aim for his sister and go catch her. He loved that idea and didn't even think about me and where I was. I let go of him after a couple feet and he went about 30 feet chasing his sister. He stopped and looked back at me and got the biggest smile on his face. So the next time I held on to him and gave him a "go push" and I told him to come and chase me. He laughed so hard while I ran in front of him and down the street. He caught up with me and then just passed me by and kept going. That night he figured out how to turn and how to start off by himself with out a "go push." Now we are working on using the brakes instead of his feet. :) Bug wants so badly to be able to use the skuut bike, but she is still about an inch too short. I give her a year before she is on a two wheeler, she is just so darn determined and unafraid. She gets up on his 16" bike that still has training wheels and trys to ride that.
Eventually I want to start Bear with piano lessons. I am still working on getting a piano for him.
In October we are going to take another mini vacation down to Southern California. Disneyland will definitely be on the schedule this time.
I am glad to be home. It is nice to be able to move around and have a full kitchen to cook in. And doors on the kids doors is nice too. For me and them. But I feel restless. I don't know why yet. I changed a lot on this trip. Internally. I learned a lot about myself and made some decisions in my life. I am stronger now. Ready for a new chapter in my life to begin, whatever that may be. It was a good summer.

Day Four

2010-06-09T18:50:00.000-07:00

Today was day four of our drive. We have made it to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
The first day we went from Mukilteo to Coeur D Alene Idaho, we did it in eight hours. I didn't leave my parents house until ten. I have a sneaking suspicion that my dad was doing everything he could to delay our departure. I actually made it to Issaquah to stop and get gas before I realized I had left my wallet at my parents house. Sooo, my dad had to bring it to me. The rest of the day went with out incident. When we got to Idaho I noticed that everyone was in Cammies and missing teeth. Kind of creeped me out. The camp wasn't too nice either. Not as nice as they portrayed in their website. Half of the toys were under water and there was an incredible amount of mud. But it was really quiet and lovely in the mountains.
Day two brought us to Billings Montana. Seriously the most beautiful part of the country I have ever seen. I want to live there. I want to drive back there now. That day we were in the car for almost 13 hours. Long drive through the Rockies. But it was just gorgeous so I didn't mind.
Day three we ended up in Rapid City, South Dakota. Total tourist trap. But I love it. That means lots of stuff for the kids and me to choose from. We got the trailer unloaded and unhitched and then headed up to Mt Rushmore. They both fell asleep as I was driving up the mountain. Bear woke up right away but Bug needed a few more minutes of sleep and dozed in the stroller. Bear was amazed with the faces and could name three of the four right off the bat. We hiked around a bit and then got some ice cream. We then walked into the gift shop and met a man who had worked on the faces. He was like 140 years old. It was pretty cool talking to him. Then the kids met a local author who signed some books that he had written and illustrated for them. We then headed back down the mountain to one of the coolest things I have ever done. It was a drive through wild animal park. There were elk, wolves, reindeer, long horned sheep, mountain goats, black bears, and buffalo. All walking around free in their own habitats. We had a bear walk about a foot from the Jeep. I was a little nervous, the kids thought it was great. Then at the end, you get out of your car and go see all of the babies that were born there. That was incredible. There were about 30 bear cubs all playing and nuzzling and licking others ears. At the end, there was a man in a bear costume. He was sitting on a bench very still. Bug saw him and took off running. She got about four feet away and he moved to greet her and she realized he wasn't just a stuffed bear. She freaked out. Screamed bloody murder and flew back to me. I think it startled the bear a little bit. She wouldn't even walk near him to get to the car, but once she was at a safe distance, she very politely turned around and called out, "bye bear" through her continued sobbing. Since you can't pet any of the animals there, we went to a petting farm that had every animal under the sun. Bug went wild, that child loves animals. We did pony rides and sat with cows being bottle bed. Then we were walking around a herd of sheep, big sheep came running past us, I grabbed the kids in close because these guys were huge. They were full grown and at least up to my hip. I thought it was a little odd that they would let such large animals out and about. Bear and Bug got to pet one of them, then it took off. They ran around for a few minutes scaring children and turkeys. Then some dude comes running over and herds them all into a pen. Turns out another family had let them out. The son had been climbing on the fence, fell into the trough and while getting him out, they let the sheep out. It made for a few minutes of excitement. We then hung out with the goats. Bug had a blast. Bear did too until we tried to feed them and the mommies all started head butting each other. Noah was reminded of a Little House episode with a goat that headbutted people bending over. He informed me he was not going to be caught bending over in there. We got back to the trailer with enough time for a walk, dinner and bedtime routine.
I slept in this morning until four thirty. Every other morning I have been up at three with us underway at three thirty. Yes, I just said underway. Some things never leave you. :)
We were in the car for eight hours today. And had a time change in there too somewhere. We saw the badlands and that was about it. We saw a lot of grass. And some more grass. South Dakota is pretty, just kind of flat. The place we stopped at was fun. It is a Jellystone park so they have a man in a Yogi Bear costume walking around. Once again Bug flipped out. I don't know what happened from Santa last year to the Easter Bunny this year.
Tomorrow we should end up in Illinois. So far everything has been going great. No major problems, knock on wood. Kids have been doing great. Gas mileage sucks though. But this is so much easier than shoving everything in the Jeep and then toting it into a hotel every night to pack it back up in the morning. This is the way to road trip. And all of the people that we have met so far have been awesome. The kids are just talking to everyone and being little social butterflies.
And I know what I want for my birthday. At this park they have a pillow jumping thing that is the size of six gymnast style trampolines. I watched the kids this afternoon run around on it while I took pictures. I then decided to give it a whirl. I think we were up there for another hour. I could not stop laughing. I was jumping so high that I was launching the kids into the air. I have not had that much fun in a long time. We had so much fun that we went back tonight after dinner and smores to jump some more before bed. I would tear down my house in order to install one of these things. I might just have to break down and get a trampoline.

Two

2010-06-02T13:30:00.000-07:00

My Bug. My Fancy Face. My hip monkey.

You are stubborn.

You are sassy.

You are bold.

You are sweet.

You are full of life.

You are fearless.

You are hardheaded (I know I said stubborn, but just having one of those words in here does not cover the amount of hardheadedness you possess.)

I do not know how God fit so much personality in one little body.

You don't stop from the time you wake up until the time you lay down at night. You are constantly on the go. Checking everything out. Trying new things. Climbing on everything you can. Putting everything in your mouth still. There is not ten minutes that goes by in the day that I do not have to ask the question, "What are you chewing on?" And then you happily spit it out and carry on to find something else to stick in there.

You are the best hugger. I swear, you wrap your arms and legs around a person and squeeze with all of your might. You hug like you mean it.

You adore your brother. You love to get him in trouble too. Noah could be across the room and if you get hurt you still blame it on him. His first response now when you start crying is to shout, "I didn't do it!" You two fight and squabble and pick on each other and then two seconds later you are hugging and giggling. You love to wrestle with him too.

I call you little mama. You love babies. Real and fake. You want to hold them and mother them and take care of them. And you are so sweet most of the time. I was holding a baby the other day and you told me you wanted to "hold it please." You spend your days with your babies. Dressing and changing diapers. Feeding and burping. And pushing them around in your stroller.

You are bossy. So bossy. It doesn't matter how big the person or animal is. If you want them to do something, by golly you are going to get them to do it. Whether it be your brother and cousins, bossing them all around, or your 160lb dog. You take a very firm voice and your get your little bossy finger out and start pointing it. "EAT Tela!" "Come HERE O-ah." And most of the time they listen and obey you. Doesn't quite work with me though. You will make a request of me and then end it with an "Okay?" "Go for a walk now and take books. Okay?" And it isn't I am asking permission okay, it is an are you going to do what I said okay.

You love animals. At the farmers market you had to get out and say hello to every dog. At the petting zoo you just sit with the animals and pet them. You get this funny little sweet voice when you are talking to them.

You know your ABC's and can count to ten. We are still working on your speech. Most of the time I can understand you fine. You are saying full sentences now. But sometimes you rattle out a mouthful and I have no clue what any of it was and you get so upset with me because I don't get it. So you say it louder and try to enunciate more and throw in some hand gestures too.

Everything is pink and yellow still. Sometimes you will throw a blue in there. And when people ask how old you are you tell them 3. At the Dr, yesterday he asked me if you knew your sex. I asked you if you were a boy or a girl, you very forcefully told me you were a "big huge girl!" Everything right now has to be big huge. Bananas, cups of milk, reading of books. I think you are just trying to keep up with your brother.

You are so rough and tumble. You go full steam ahead until you are physically stopped. Whether that be you falling, or me stopping you. You will climb on anything you can. You run everywhere you go. You are forever covered in scrapes and scratches and bruises. Right at this moment, you are scarred on your cheek in two different yet very close places, both elbows are scraped and covered in scabs and one knee is covered in scabs and your shins are bruised up and down and you have a big fat bruise on your forehead from the goose egg you got last week climbing up your brothers bed with an excercise ball.

You are still very wary of strangers. You hide your face away in my shoulder in shyness. But once you know someone, you love them with your whole heart.

You eat like a bird. All you really do is pick at the food. You don't really like meat, unless it is salmon, then you scarf that down. You don't really like vegetables either. I was worried but the Dr, said since you are growing that you are fine.

You are a girly girl. You love getting mani's and pedi's. And you love dresses. You are a self proclaimed princess. You love to have purses to put your stuff in. You got some fairy wings for your birthday and love those.

You are officially potty trained. Maybe once accident every couple of days. I have to really watch you on the poop though. You still do not like to be on the toilet for that.

My little girl. I love you and I am so glad that two years ago I got to meet you for the first time and that I have had the priviledge of being the one to raise you and be here for the everyday dramatics that are your life.

Four

2010-05-29T21:15:00.000-07:00

My sweet sweet Bear. Your birthday was yesterday and you woke up this morning and asked if today was your birthday too. You had so much fun yesterday milking the birthday special treatment. You have been asking all day when you get to turn five. I asked if we could just get through the age of four first.

You make my job so easy. You are the most helpful child with out me even asking. I used your wheelbarrow one day to put the picked weeds in. I moved on to doing something else and without me saying a thing, you wheeled it all the way to the back yard and dumped it for me. You set the table for every meal, you put all of your clothes away in the drawers. You even like to start loads of wash for me. You can do everything but put the soap in, not tall enough yet. And then you move the load over to the dryer. Your responsibilites also include bringing in the mail and the garbage can. You are also in charge of loading and emptying the dishwasher.

We started really working on your letter recognition and handwriting this year. You can almost recognize every letter and you can write about 75% of them without a problem. You have started sounding out words and the Bob books seem to be your favorites.

You love everything super hero. Superman, Batman, Ironman, Spiderman. I love watching you watch the movies because you get so into them and excited when the good guys win. You also love fighting dragons and can be found throughout the day with your sword and shield searching the house for fire breathing intruders.

You have a wonderful imagination. For quiet time you will sit and play with playdough or color for two hours and get upset when I say it is time to put it away. You love to do artsy things, and your "artwork" is starting to resemble things. Your people usually have heads that are connected to the belly button and then arms and legs protrude from there.

You are sweet, caring and so thoughtful. You still love to curl in my lap and cuddle. You still can't be with out your bear Doe. You love your sister with all of your might and claim that your job in life is to protect her from bad guys. You also tell me that you are going to grow up to be a good man. I have no doubt of that my son.

Your questions are still endless. You want to know how everything works and why things are the way they are. If I don't know, then we get on the computer and look it up. You love to watch documentaries. We watched one on Greece the other night and I was getting bored with it and turned the channel. You asked me to go back so that you could watch it. You then informed me that you wanted to go there someday. You love Deadliest Catch and Dirty Jobs. And right now you are smitten with Little House on the Prairie. Mrs. Oleson is your favorite. But you also like to talk about Charles and how he works really hard to be a good daddy and take care of his kids.

You love Youtube because you can look up an endless supply of movies about bugs and spiders. Your favorite right now is the tarantula wasp. You want a snake. I said no. You love to collect all of the snails from my garden and play with them. And you could sit and dig in the dirt for hours and have the sky fall down around you and you wouldn't even notice.

You are forever keeping me laughing. Whether it is your prayers about broccoli or pulling on your private parts in the bath tub telling me that that is how cows are milked, you keep me on my toes.

I love you baby boy. Here is to a life time of these happy birthdays.

The Non-Diet diet

2010-05-18T20:37:00.000-07:00

So on the 8th of April I started a different way of life. I am tired of being fat. I am tired of my clothes not fitting. When some people go through stressful times they lose weight. I am unfortunately not one of them. I find comfort in food and I had the rolls to prove it. After everything that happened last year, I put on a massively embarrassing amount of weight. Last summer I tried weight watchers, and while that may work for some people, I am not one of them. The enormous amount of points they gave me (33) I just used to eat crap. So as long as I wasn't eating over 33 points a day I felt free to eat smores all day long.
So my dad sent me an email and I opened it and watched this little video presentation of "The Diet Solution" I thought I would give it a try, the only thing I had to lose was $45 and some poundage.
So I made a pact with a friend and we decided to have our own "biggest loser" challenge. Actually it has just turned into us encouraging each other and swapping recipes. And that is fine. It has been a big help to have her along side me this whole time. I say that figuratively because she is really half a world away.
The first week I lost 6.5 pounds. Then I went on vacation. And as much as I tried to "be good" I did go to In-n-out four times while I was there. But I got home two weeks later and I had lost another three pounds!!! Yay. I lost another couple pounds and then plateaued. For two weeks I went between the same two or three pounds. Got some advice from my brother, and implemented his ideas and lost another couple pounds. So thus far, a month and a half later I am 12.5 pounds lighter. I am very very happy. I am down a dress size and I feel great.
The diet is not a diet. I get to eat an enormous amount of food every day. It is just the type of food that matters. Nothing processed, which wasn't too hard to cut out since we didn't eat alot of that anyways. Well, my kids didn't, I did. :) Everything has to be natural, no more nasty chemicals and preservatives that I can't pronounce going into our bodies. Everything we eat has one or two ingredients on the side of the container if it even comes from a container. No Jif peanut butter. Since when you roast nuts it takes out all of the nutrients. So we have switched to raw almond butter and eating raw nuts and seeds. Which isn't too bad. The other thing that was a change was the amount of protein. Protein, meat at every meal. So no more throwing some cereal in a bowl, pouring milk on it and calling it breakfast. And no more slapping some peanut butter in a sandwich and cutting up an apple with some string cheese and calling it lunch. Every meal so far has been hot and prepared. Sausage, bacon, eggs, oatmeal for breakfast and big meals for lunch and dinner. I kind of like it. It makes me feel good to know that I am giving them a good start to the day and that I am putting good quality things in their little bodies. A few weeks ago, I got an email encouraging me to cut all wheat and dairy from my diet. That has been hard. I am a carbahollic and could finish off a half a loaf of french bread on my way home from the grocery store. I have cheated a few times and had pitas, but I refrain from getting sauce. I got some raw milk, which I am pretty sure is the same as if I walked up to the cow and squirted that while stuff straight into my mouth. I do drink a small glass of that a day. I still have treats every now and then. Last week I had a small slurpee. I am afraid if I deprive myself that one day I am just going to snap and binge eat everything I want.
I am continuing my daily 1.2 mile walk. And then in the mornings I have started my muscle building again. I just want to feel like my old self. I realize that I will never look the way I used to pre-kid, but I want to feel good and confidant again.
My goal is another twenty-thirty pounds. I am very motivated and feeling great about it.

I am so tired I can't even think of a post for this.

2010-04-26T19:26:00.000-07:00

Let's see, last Saturday I put the kids in the car and drove down to San Diego so they could spend some time with their daddy and I could pick up the new trailer. We got down there Sunday night with no problems, man my kids are road trip warriors. I broke down and bought a dvd player for the car. Only needed it once and that was out of my own laziness. I was so tired of making up stories about dragons that I popped a movie in on Sunday just so I could have some quiet time in my head. :)
Bear is in a dragon phase right now. Ever since seeing How to Train your Dragon. So the whole ride down and every time we were in the car or at bed time, he wanted to hear stories about me growing up with dragons. Man I can come up with some good stuff on the fly too. And then after I was done with my story, Bear would tell me a story from when he was a "little boy." It was suspiciously similar to the story I had just told, but it was so fun to hear him imagining things.
I also taught my kids how to get big rigs to honk at you on the road. And we learned how to play I-spy. I love road trips and the time you get to spend in the car with each other that I hate ruining it by playing movies all of the time. My kids have some awesome imaginations and sometimes they just like to sit and quietly look out the window.
So we got down there and went to pick up the new trailer, I was so so so nervous. Holy cow. I picked it up an hour and a half away from SD. It took me two and a half hours to get back I was driving so slow. I was getting passed by big rigs. But we made it back safely and camped out in the trailer until last night.
Saturday we went to Disneyland. I don't think I could ever get tired of that place. We were there for nine hours. Bear really loved it this time. He kept begging to go on more rides. We went on Nemo, Star Wars, Big Thunder Railroad, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Winnie the Pooh, Pinochio, and Snow White, and the Carousel. We stood in line for an hour to get the princess' signatures. Bug loved it. She is such a girly girl. She got a little purse and a pair of gloves and wore them around all dainty for the rest of the day. Bear got a shield and sword and has not parted with them since. Today he rode in the car with his shield on and his sword at the ready. Tonight he is in bed in the same position.
We got to go and see my grandparents and cousin Sarah and her two sweet girls. I thought for sure Bug would take to Big M. as they are only three weeks apart. But she went for the baby, Little M. She is such a little momma. I think she would of crawled in the car seat with the baby if I let her. She wanted to stroke the babys head and face and rock the baby while singing to her. Sarah was so patient with her. And then Grandma got to hold Little M and Bug freaked out because she wanted to hold the baby. So she got to go into the couch and hold the "baby" that weighs five pounds less than her. :) She was happy after that though. Then we took the kids to a place called Ferrells for some lunch and milkshakes.
I introduced my kids to milkshakes this trip. They had three of them each while we were there. I thought they were going to lose their minds in excitement. Probably not going to let them have them again, but it made a nice treat. So did In-N-Out. We do not do fast food at all and man was it a treat to be able to get that while we were there. They weren't too crazy about the french fries though.
So we left this morning, I hitched up the trailer without any complications (yay!) and we headed out at four am. Kids were awake for the first hour or so and then Bug nodded off followed soon after by Bear. We stopped at seven for some breakfast in the trailer and changed into some clothes. It is so nice having this thing and not having to get them dressed in some rest stop parking lot and being able to give them a real breakfast. We drove ten hours today and only stopped twice to get out and stretch the legs. Breakfast and lunch. These kids are troopers. So now we are in Stockton CA. Smells like wet cat food here. Really gross. I need to get to bed and get ready for the next leg of our trip. Another ten hours tomorrow.

Potty Training?

2010-04-10T12:50:00.001-07:00

I end that with a question mark because I am not sure if we are potty training or not.
I am a firm believer in the child letting you know when they are ready for underwear, I don't believe in forcing it on them. I don't do this for the sake of the child. I do it for my own mental health, the last thing want to do is go through the pain of potty training a child that is not ready. So every time Bug has been put on the toilet it has been because she asked for it. This last week she has pottied at least two times a day on the toilet. I thought this was pretty good but didn't think too much of it. Well last night she got up there and started grunting and sure enough she "dropped a duece" as Bear would say. She was so happy and her chest was puffed out in pride. She even got to make a couple phone calls to tell people she went "poo poo potty." This morning she woke up and asked to go potty right away. So far today she has kept her diaper dry and even went poop one more time, all on her own. She must have a really small bladder though because she goes at least once an hour and has stuff come out every time.
I do not know if I am ready for this. She is only 22 months old. She is my baby, she isn't old enough to be potty trained.

Passing it on

2010-04-05T20:10:00.000-07:00

So a couple weeks ago I bought Jamie Olivers Food Revolution. He asks in the beginning of the book to pass on the recipes to friends. So that is what I am doing. The cookbook is awesome and I recommend it, I have tried a few recipes now and I have loved everyone of them. The best part is that the kids have loved them as well.

This recipe says it will feed 4-6, I halved it and still had plenty of leftovers after feeding the three of us.

MACARONI AND CAULIFLOWER CHEESE BAKE
Half a head of cauliflower
Grate 8oz of Cheddar Cheese and 4oz of Parmesan cheese
Melting the cheese while the noodles and cauliflower cook

Getting ready for the cheese sauce

Cheese sauce with parsley mixed in

You can serve it just like this, or you can stick it under the broiler to make it all warm and bubbly. I sprinkled some garlic bread crumbs on the top for a little extra flavor

Yum

1/2 head of cauliflower

8 ounces Cheddar Cheese

4 ounces Parmesan cheese

a small bunch of fresh Italian parsley

sea salt

1 pound dried macaroni elbows

1 cup of sour cream

Remove the outer green leaves from the cauliflower and discard * Slice the end off the cauliflower stalk * Cut the head into small florets * Halve the thick stalk length ways, then slice thinly * Grate the cheddar and Parmesan into a large heatproof bowl * Finely chop the parsley.

Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil * Add the macaroni and all your cauliflower and cook according to the macaroni package directions * Place the bowl of cheese over the saucepan and add the sour cream * Carefully stir every so often until the cheese is smooth and melted * If the waters boils up beneath the bowl, turn down the heat a bit * Add all of the chopped parsley to the melted cheese and season with a pinch of salt and pepper * Carefully remove the bowl of cheese and set aside * Drain the macaroni in a colander over a bowl, reserving the cooking water * Return the pasta to the pan, pour the cheese on and stir * It should have a lovely, silky consistency, but if it is too thick add a splash of your cooking water to thin it out * At this point you can either serve it or finish it under the broiler to make it crispy and golden * Transfer it to your baking dish and place under the broiler *

Cow Complex

2010-03-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

It all started last week when we were watching Dirty Jobs. Mike Rowe was on a dairy farm and the show was about cows, how to clean them, milk them, and help them give birth including c-sections. It was pretty interesting and educational and the dirty humor went over their heads.
It showed how they put them all up on a big wheel and hook them up to pumps and milk them. We loved the part while they gave birth, they walk around with hooves and nose sticking out of them for a couple hours and then they lay down, mooo a lot and out comes the calf. I even got a little teary and Bear had lots of good questions. Then came the part where they had to give momma cow a C-section. They showed it all, cutting her skin and three layers of muscle and then the uterus. While they were doing this, I told Bear that this was how he was born. He looked at the screen wide eyed and then at me and then back at the screen, a look of pure horror spreading across his face. I knew then that I had made a mistake in sharing that information. But you can't unring a bell. So I explained to him how it didn't hurt at all and that was the only way he could of been born. It all worked out okay and mommy is fine. He then told me he was sorry. :(

So today we were riding in the car and driving past the cow farm on our way home. He randomly asked me if someday he could milk a cow. Here is how the conversation went from there:
Me: "sure, someday if we ever have the opportunity, you can milk a cow. Do you want to milk one to drink the milk?"
Silence for a good ten seconds.
Him: "No, why would I drink the milk?"
Me: "Because that is what you do when you milk a cow, you use that milk to drink."
Him(totally disgusted): "I do not want to drink cows milk."
Me: "You drink cows milk every day."
Him: "No I do not! I drink milk from the refrigerator!"
Me: "Where do you think that milk comes from?"
Him: "The store."

So now he has sworn off cows milk and he thinks it is so gross we drink milk from another animals "boo boos." Which I have to admit, after watching Dirty Jobs, I couldn't drink milk for a few days, I know that that is where milk comes from, but it still kind of grossed me out.

He did however inform me that he won't drink cows milk but if I could get some dinosaur milk for him he would drink that.

All by myself...

2010-02-17T19:23:00.001-08:00

After four and a half years, my body is my own again. Since September of 2005, I have been growing children or breastfeeding, and for a little bit, I was doing both.

Like with Bear I swore I would let her wean herself. She would know when she was done. Bear went until 18 months when I was three months pregnant. She was at twenty months and still breastfeeding. It was just a morning feeding but it was 30 minutes long. For the big weekend away, I started to wean her. We went every other day. I would distract her in the mornings with a cup of milk or breakfast. It went well. She did fine. When I got back she asked for "boo boo" and I let her nurse, I did one side and was done. It hurt! So now we are done. She still asks for it every once in a while, usually when she is tired or gets hurt but is easily distracted with a cookie or something else.

The best part is? I get to wear pretty bras that don't have a clicky sound in them!

Sometimes I wonder if I share too much information on the internet. :)

There is no place like home...

2010-02-10T19:13:00.001-08:00

I have been reconfirmed in my pure disdain of flying. Too many people. Too many things going on. Too many things that can go wrong. Lines. Teeny tiny little seats. Motion sickness. No taking a time out. Horrible little bathrooms. I could go on.
I decided that I am a road trip person. I don't care how long it takes me to get there. It is much better driving. I am in my own enviroment. I choose who I sit next to. I choose if I need to pull over and take a break. I control the sounds in my Jeep. I have a spacious heated seat that is really quite comfy. I guess the key word in there is control. I am a self proclaimed control freak. I like things done my way and in my time.
The trip was okay. I got to see Daphne and her family which was wonderful. Her kids are getting so big and they are so much fun. Our girls remind me a lot of each other. I think they would of been the best of friends getting into some mischief or another if they had grown up next to each other. :)
The retirement ceremony, the whole point of going, was beautiful. I have actually never been to a retirement before but I think this one was extra special. Tim was a mentor to me right after I made Second Class. He had a huge part in me becoming a strong second class and I believe making First class so quickly. He is a wonderful man that always put everyone in front of himself. He refers to me as his little sister. :)
I had a good time and even got to sleep in one day, but I was so glad to be home with my babies. I left early on Sunday and went standby on the way home getting me there five hours earlier. I got to put them to bed that night. Bear still keeps telling me that he missed me. And I think that Bug has been hugging me a little bit tighter since I have been home.

Imagine This

2010-01-14T19:49:00.000-08:00

Her imagination lately has been really blossoming. She loves to make believe and she loves to play with her babies. She loves to put them to bed and feed them and make them talk on the phone. Today I caught her with all of her babies in the bathroom. They were all taking turns going "paw-e" on her little toilet. She has named her babies zucchini (nini), apple, noodle, and cookie.

Here is Bear playing Peter Pan:
And Bug got to be Hook:

Feeding her sheep at the plant:

She loves when I swaddle her babies, this is "Nini and Cookie"

That is Apple in the back that is talking on the phone:

Almost

2010-01-09T09:52:00.000-08:00

She has been very much into dressing herself lately. We still have some work to do in that area though.

She is still learning the whole two legs holes = one for each leg. She would be golden if she were a mermaid though.

And she has got the putting on shoes thing down. Now we just have to work on matching the shoes first and using one left shoe and one right shoe.

She has also started showing great interest in the potty. Everytime Bear or myself goes, she has to get naked and sit on her potty too. She has yet to actually potty in the toilet, but I am intrigued at her interest in it. I know that it will be well over a year before we really start, and I am not going to push her into it, but when it is her idea, I am fine with playing along.

The icing on the cake

2010-01-07T21:24:00.000-08:00

Finally got the chandelier up in her room. Now I just have to fix the paint thing and her room will be done! Isn't it pur-dy? It makes the room feel so-I can't even think of the word but I kind of want to put one in my room now!

Snow much fun

2010-01-03T16:00:00.001-08:00

rf''//;;;

Silliness

2009-12-29T10:43:00.001-08:00

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...

2009-12-20T15:34:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-07T15:51:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-12-06T22:03:00.000-08:00

3.5

2009-11-30T17:22:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-27T14:35:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-26T21:03:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-25T20:10:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-11-22T18:09:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-14T20:40:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-04T10:38:00.001-08:00

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.

2009-10-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-23T19:46:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-10-17T12:08:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-12T21:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-10-06T13:06:00.000-07:00

The weekend in review

2009-10-04T22:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-27T20:32:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-23T18:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-22T08:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-21T17:16:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-15T10:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-13T11:52:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-11T11:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-06T16:33:00.000-07:00

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

The thing to concentrate on

2009-09-05T20:52:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-09-04T15:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-29T13:44:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-25T16:45:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-20T09:57:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-17T21:17:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-15T10:23:00.001-07:00

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.**

Can I get some cheese?

2009-08-10T16:50:00.000-07:00

Ever since we got back from California, there has been a monster in Bears room. At first I tried talking him out of it. "There is no monster." We prayed about it. Then I thought maybe if we make it into something fun, he wouldn't be afraid at night. So I made him tell me what it looks like. It is blonde with a mustache. He plays with it during the day. Tells me what it says to him. Can even point it out when it is in the room. He has showed me where he sleeps back in the corner of the closet. He laughs with it during the day. But as soon as bed time comes, he freaks out. I mean throw a fit scream to high heaven upset. It takes me two hours to get him calmed down and in bed. I have tried everything.
Nightlights, music, taking the slide off the bed so the monster cannot get up, covered the ladder for the same reason, put a GI Joe at the ladder to protect him, I went into the closet with a fake gun and shot the monster(Bear informed me that I missed and the monster could not be shot and was laughing at me) I gave him a picture of me to sleep with. I usually have to stay in his room with him until he passes out from exhaustion.
He finally gets to sleep and then usually wakes up a few hours later screaming bloody murder with leg/foot cramps. I think he is on a growth spurt again and has to be rubbed down and stretched out.
By the time I get him settled down and I get my mind turned off, she is waking up for her early morning breakfast. I can usually get her back to sleep thank goodness.
I do not know what I was thinking going back to school. Bug has decided yesterday that she has become an avid reader. So she brings me book after book and wants to sit in my lap. I am so excited that she is finally taking a love for books, but it is kind of bad timing. I don't know if she is teething, I do not see anything, but she just wants to be on me. And has stood there and screamed at me nonstop everytime I picked up a school book to read today.
I don't know when I am going to do this school work. Right now, all I want to do is sit in a corner and cry right along with Bug.

My name is Larissa....and I am fat.

2009-08-08T10:25:00.001-07:00

So I started Weight Watchers yesterday. I just cannot seem to lose this baby weight on my own (of course I am sure that the slurpees and cookies don't really help) so I decided to get proactive.

I have only been on the plan for about 26 hours now, but I have some ideas I would like to present to the president of Weight Watchers on some things they could change.

1. The "bonus" 35 points I get a week to spend, and the points that I don't use during the day, really should roll over for at least a month. I mean the major cell phone companies have seen how this "roll over" allowance has boosted cell contract cells. And really in this newer greener age, why should we be so wasteful as to throw away points like that?

2. Slurpees really should not count toward my points. Within 3 hours of joining up, I had figured out how many points a slurpee are. 4 or 5 for a 16 oz. Now I like to get the 28oz ones. Even though I get an extra five points for breastfeeding, I am still not happy about this. So since slurpees are practically ice anyways, they should count towards my 6 glasses of water during the day.

It has only been a day, but I am sure that I will come up with more good ideas.

So I start school on Monday. I do not know why, but I am a little nervous. So excited but nervous. I am going for a BA in Business. I just haven't figured out if I want to put computers in there or not. It would probably be wise, but I am just not sure if that is my cup of tea.

So anyways, I push on towards bettering myself through a higher education. Or something like that.

Oh yeah, I am also starting an Etsy business. Making little girl hair clips, tutus, animal towels, and pillowcase dresses. I am pretty excited about that. So one more thing on my plate. But in a good way.

The cousins

Craigslist

2009-08-05T16:33:00.000-07:00

In my free time (HA!) I like to window shop on Craigslist. It keeps me entertained for a few minutes anyways. Besides looking at the singles ads (male and female) I like to look through the furniture. Because lets face it, you never know when you will need a microwave that looks like it could of been on the Brady Bunch?
My favorite is the people that think they can sell the furniture they bought in 1975. And for an insane amount of money to boot! You know the kind, the bright huge floral print sofa. The kind on your grandmas den? And they use the expanation, "We paid $1500 when it was brand new!" Uh yeah, but that was 33 years ago...
Here are some key words to look out for, "Comfy, well loved, retro, perfect for a kid couch, nice."
If you are ever bored, I encourage you to check it out. It really can be fun.

Lucky Ducky

2009-08-04T20:31:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I was starting to cook the kids breakfast when my mom walked in the door all flushed. I asked her what was happening and she said that my brother had called and invited her to go see the blue angels on a yacht! Wow. She has always wanted to see their show, let alone enjoy it from a yacht. He then asked me if I wanted to go but they had to leave right then. I ran my tongue along my fuzzy teeth and looked down at my pajamas. I then looked over at my pajama clad children waiting patiently for me to put food in their hungry tummies. He said I had ten minutes. Count me in! I kicked it into Navy bootcamp mode and got my butt in gear. I am proud to say that I got myself and my children dressed and out the door in time. They ate in the car ride there.

We drove to Bellevue and walked down the pier passing these beautiful boats. We got up to the one we were to board and Bear flipped out. He was not happy about being on a boat. (I had taken him down to the beach the night before and we walked out on the floating docks there, which he really did not like.) We all got on board and settled in. It took a while for the kids to get their sea legs, and I must say it took me a little bit to get used to it again. It has been almost 3 years since I have been on the water like that. But I soon recalled why I loved being a sailor. I belong on the water. Yeah, that was only Lake Washington, but I love it. I will have a sailboat someday and I will do lots of traveling on it.

We spent most of the day out there, we got to see the Blue Angels like I have never seen them before. I had goose bumps almost the entire time. The show was right at nap time, so the kids both passed out about halfway through. But what they did see they loved. Bear is still talking about it.

We had so much fun and got home after seven that night. Everyone slept really well that night.

Giving her body images issues already

2009-08-04T07:58:00.000-07:00

So last night Bear was trying to pick Bug up into a chair. He was grabbing her around the waist and grunting and groaning trying to get her further than four inches off the ground. He finally admitted defeat and put her down.
"You are going to have to lose a little weight if you want me to pick you up. You are just too heavy."

Hotter than two rats in a wool sock!

2009-07-30T10:39:00.000-07:00

It was 101 when we left for swim lessons yesterday at 3.
So Bear has slept on my floor for the past few nights and naps. It is cooler down there. Last night Bug went to sleep at her usual time but woke up at 11 for a few hours of crying, laughing and silliness.
I tried to let her cry it out, but she got to the point where she was in hysterics and could not calm herself down. So I went in and tried to rock her back to sleep but our two hot sticky bodies were not making it easy. I got her calmed down and put her back in bed just to have her start screaming again. So I brought her out and laid her next to her brother on the ground. I shushed her back to sleep for 10 minutes and then crawled back to bed. She woke up and came to me. She crawled in bed with me and just got in a silly mood. She would slap my face and then laugh harder than I have ever heard her laugh before. Then she got into her dramatic phase.
"Lay down"
She would very reluctently lower her face and body down into the pillow and start whimpering.
"Hey, look at me."
She would lift her face up with the biggest smile and start laughing her head off.
We did this a few more times. I finally pretended to be alseep. She then took her finger and traced it on my face. Then she started picking my nose and lifting my eye lids. So I turned my back to her. She then crawled over my head so that her face was right in mine. By then it was 1:30 and I told her she could play in her bed. So I took her back to her bed and put her down. She cried and screamed off and on for another 30 minutes and finally fell asleep. But then she woke up at 6, I nursed her and put her right back in bed. She cried for a few minutes but went back to sleep and next thing I knew it was 8:15, Bear was in with her singing "Rise and shine and give God the gory gory" to Bug.
He slept through all of last nights drama. Lucky kid.
Bear did so well in swim lessons yesterday. He put his head under, but his favorite thing is doing rocket ships off the side of the pool. He ran around all day yesterday being a rocket ship.
I for one am ready for some good old Washington drizzle. If I wanted this heat I would go live on the East Coast.

Her new infatuation

2009-07-28T13:25:00.000-07:00

This is her new game. She runs around the house all day doing this with her tongue. It is pretty cute.

Do not potty in the pool!

2009-07-27T20:58:00.000-07:00

Bear started swim lessons tonight. Now that we are home for awhile I thought it was a good idea. For some reason he was fixed on talking about peeing in the pool on the way there.

"Mommy, do children potty in the pool?"

"Mommy, I don't potty in the pool."

"Mommy why do people potty in the pool?"

So we get there and he sits down on the side of the pool and he looks at the little boy next to him and says in his authoritative voice, "We do not potty in the pool, okay?" The little boy just stared at him.

He did so well swimming. I kind of wish the teacher had pushed him a little more than she did, but it was only the first lesson, I might talk to her next time.

Real sleep on the ground pee in a bush camping

2009-07-25T09:24:00.001-07:00

We went camping a few nights ago, and it was really nice. The spot I have always gone to with friends we were unable to get to because of a rock slide. So on the way out of the mountains, I spotted this 4 wheeling path. I got out and checked it out to see if it was drivable. If I still had the Wrangler I would of done it and even though I have four wheel drive it still kind of made me nervous. I really did not want to get stuck in the mud and then sit there with no cell phone service. So I walked the path and found as awesome campsite right on the river. So we hiked all our stuff in and set up camp. The kids did awesome. If possible they got dirtier this time than a few weeks ago. Unfortionatly the people before us had been pretty inconsiderate and had broken bottles and left cigerette butts everywhere. So I had a fun time cleaning up because Bug still insists on putting everything in her mouth.
Bear got to learn how to pee in the bushes. And loved it so much that when we got home he asked if he could just pee in the bushes instead of the toilet.
We went to the pool last night and the kids had so much fun. Bug had no fear at all. She just wandered off without me. She would fall in over her head, I would help her up and she could continue on. She kept bending over to put her face in the water and would come up laughing and she loved jumping off the side of the pool. Maybe I will put her in a swimming class. Bear had fun and was quite disgrunttled when I told him they were closing the little pool and we had to go. When I pointed out that his sister was blue and his fingers looked like raisens, he complied a little bit. Now that we are home for a while, he is starting lessons on Monday. He is pretty excited about it too.
Bug now gives kisses. I ask for a kiss and she puts her face on mine and says, "mooooo-waaaaah!" And thankfully she is starting to mind directions. I mean it is real simple things, like go get me a baby doll, or lets clean up the toys or go put this back where you found it. But it is making life a little easier. She still has selective hearing and will just keep walking if she sees something she wants, but hey- a little at a time right?

Thanks for the help dude

2009-07-23T20:45:00.000-07:00

Tonight Bug was having kind of a rough time sleeping. She was fussing around for almost 15 minutes, and I kept telling Bear to keep his voice down. "If she hears you having fun, she will want to come and play with you."
He decided my approach of letting her self soothe was not a doing the trick. In a very loud whisper voice he told her, "SSSSHHHH! You are trying to go to sleep!"
Needless to say it did not have the affect you had intended it too. It threw her into fits again.
Thanks.

Every excuse in the book

2009-07-19T19:51:00.000-07:00

Bear got to stand with his face in the corner tonight for pushing his sister over. These are the excuses that were wailed at me as to why he could not stand there.

"My face is too squished like this."

"The wall is too bumpy."

"The wall is too big."

"The wall is pushing me over."

"The wall said it doesn't want me standing here."

"My shorts are too small."

"The wall is too brown."

"My sister wanted to me push her over. She told me!"

"The corner is too close."

"My cheeks are too wet."

"My nose is too runny."

What was supposed to be only 3 minutes in the corner turned into 15 with all of the crying and walking away and sliding down the wall. I am glad that we do not do this too often. I don't think I could handle it.

I can't say it didn't hurt just a little...

2009-07-19T09:25:00.000-07:00

We were in the car on Thursday and sitting in traffic in Seattle. I turned on some music and started singing. From the backseat I hear this.

"Mommy, may she sing by herself, I don't really like your voice right now."

A few hours before that we were bored and in the middle of Oregon. I started showing Bear the sign language alphabet. It was so funny to see him contorting his hands to make little letters. We got to "i" and he raised his pinky. Now, "j" is your hand in the shape of the letter "i" and then you draw a "j." So I said, now take your "i" and trace the letter "j" I look back in the mirror to check his progress and he had his fingers digging in his eye socket and moving his head around like drawing the letter "j" I could not stop laughing.

Last night we went to the beach, and the kids were running around playing. There was a church group down there with some guitars and a drum singing songs. Bug walked around for about 20 minutes dancing to the music. Then they both went and sat down on a log for a couple songs and sat there and listened.

Her newest trick is to run at you with her hands outstretched saying, "tiki-tiki-tiki-tiki" and then tickle you laughing the entire time.

I am so glad to be home. The weather has been gorgeous, and it is so nice to see green trees and green grass again.

Home

2009-07-16T16:34:00.001-07:00

We are home. That is all I can say right now. I am so tired and brain dead I just want to sleep. For the next two days. Maybe three.

Big sigh of relief

2009-07-15T18:47:00.000-07:00

Can I just say that I have the best road trip kids? We made it from San Diego to Redding which is about 600 miles and only stopped twice. There was no whining or crying or fighting. Actually there was a little bit of whining on Bears part. As we were going through Coalinga, he told me he was tired of smelling all the cows. I told him to stick his nose in his shirt. There were a lot of strange smells today. There were a massive amount of onion trucks on the road. Those were really smelly. Bear commented on those too. And at one point I thought I smelled pepper for about a mile. I am not sure how pepper is grown, but I think that I might have passed by a pepper field if that is even possible.

We got to Redding at about 3:30 and it was 108 degrees. I think that is the hottest temperature I have ever been in. It sucks. I cannot wait to get back to dreary drizzly overcast Washington. I have had enough sun for awhile. i think we are going to take off early tomorrow morning and make it back before rush hour in Seattle tomorrow. That is the goal. We will see how tonight goes though.

My little beggar

2009-07-13T10:35:00.000-07:00

Last night we had frozen yogurt for dessert. 3 of us sat on the couch eating our yogurt while Bug walked to each one of us, stood there, and signed "please" until we gave her a bite. If we did not respond within a few nano seconds of her first request, her signing would become larger, faster and more flourished until we obliged her. She is really catching onto the sign language and I am happy because she still speaks her own language. And she is not very understanding when she spews out an entire sentance at me, head nods and hand gestures included and I just stand there looking at her having no idea what she just said to me. She will usually say it one more time and then if I do not hop right on it, she gets pissed. So the sign language is really helping.

Last Disney for a while. Well a few months at least...

2009-07-09T10:10:00.000-07:00

Her first carousel ride which she loved

Strong man

He got a sword and was slaying beasts for the rest of the day

Us, mid ride

We stayed for the electrical parade which the kids loved

The line to go see Mickey during the day was over an hour long, which needless to say I would not wait in. So as we were walking out of the park, we saw him off to the side with no line, so we got to see him anyways!

This is Bear on the swings. I took him on this last week and he had so much fun. I let Donna take him this time. Sorry if it makes you sick!

Harry Potter wanna be

2009-07-07T11:21:00.000-07:00

So I finished the books last month. Since the sixth year is coming out next week, I wanted to rewatch all of the movies too since it has been about 3 years since I have seen them. I am so disapointed in them. And Gephry I know you are going to say "I told you so!" And you have my permission. They leave out so much that the books include. And I know this is true with every book. I generally don't watch a movie after I read the book because of that fact. But I am still pretty bummed.
Anyways. I let Bear watch them with me. He had to go to his room for a few scary parts, but over all they weren't that bad. So now he is running around with a chopstick for a wand yelling out spells and charms and getting most of them pretty right on. And yesterday he rode his broom around the patio playing "qwitch." I really didn't think he would be able to sit and watch them and catch his attention but they did. He is really cracking me up with this all of a sudden Harry Potter obsession.

Disneyland, the park, the beach and the fourth

2009-07-05T20:25:00.001-07:00

Finally got the USB for my big camera. So here is our week in review...

His first Disneyland ticket.

In-n-out at Disneyland, doesn't get much better than this!

Waiting in line for a ride.

We bought him an autograph book, and his first signature was Captain Hook.

Hanging out on the bears in Brother Bears playland My slide climber going at it.

On the swings, his favorite place.

She has grown a love for them too.

Sitting in her brothers dump truck.

He had so much fun at the beach playing in the water and sand.

She just loved eating the sand. Even after I rubbed most off of her hands, she would lick them clean.

Her 4th of July outfit

Yes, my SON is wearing a pink swimsuit. I forgot his swim shorts so my little cousin took care of him and put him in her old swimsuit. By the time I saw him he was wearing it and already had sunscreen on and was headed to the pool. As it was his shoulders and arms got burned, so I figure this just kept the rest of him from getting burnt

We spent over two hours in the pool. Bear was all over the place, and she chilled in that pool floatie the entire time. She would put her face in and kick al ittle but too. But for the most part, she laid back and chilled the entire time.

Hope everyone had a happy fourth!

Signs that crack me up on my drive south...

2009-07-05T20:17:00.000-07:00

Doesn't that mean the bathrooms?

Won't be taking that exit...

Every pot heads dream:

I found the USB cord!

2009-07-02T18:55:00.000-07:00

I found the USB cord while I was down here. I love this video of her!

Pigmentationless? And other ramblings while the kids are self entertaining

2009-07-02T09:08:00.000-07:00

Remember that freckle tan? Well that only applies to the top part of my body. The bottom half is still see through white. We went to the beach yesterday and I put sun screen on the top and none on the bottom. Hoping maybe I could get some color on my legs. Burned, tanned, something. We were out for 2 hours and I got nothing! Not even a freckle, I have a nice big bruise, but no color that I am proud of. I have always been this way, I do not know why, some sort of freak of nature I imagine.
So when we got to the beach, they both took off. They played in that sand and did not stop until I made them leave. He made sand bucket castles and sifted the sand and dug holes. She spent the entire time, taking handfuls of sand and putting them on the blanket and me. She didn't throw, she dumped. For 2 hours. It made it very fun for me. She also spent a few minutes chasing seagulls. I took her in the water. Which was fricking freezing. He was smart and would not go in. Didn't matter though, I forgot towels.
Pretty excited about this weekend. My brother and his girlfriend are coming down. And then off to my Aunt and Uncles to see family, and celebrate my grandpa's 80th birthday. And of course have some awesome Brazilian barbecue.
We went to the drive in last night, Bug fell asleep on the way so it was just Bear and I. We watched Ice Age. It was cute. I probably won't buy the movie on DVD, but it was cute for one night. In it, the Woolly Mammoth give birth so that made for an interesting conversation on the way home. It didn't show anything, but she was pushing and then all of a sudden there was a cry and a baby there.

"Mommy, did she have a baby?"
"Yes honey."
"But where did it come from?"
"It came from her." Hoping that would be the end of it.
"Oh. Okay." Big sigh of relief from the front seat.
A few seconds later...
"Did she spit it out?"
"Yes buddy, you can say that."

I love how he sees things.
There were a few adult jokes in there that didn't really go over his head that I had to explain away. Sid was trying to milk some sort of Ox for his baby T-Rex's and he got booted off. As he was flying through the air after grabbing underneath the Ox and tugging at something, he yells, "sorry sir, I thought you were a female!" I prayed it would just pass. No such luck. "Mommy, what did he grab?" I wonder how much longer I can lie like this and get away with it. "His tail honey, he doesn't like people grabbing his tail." And then all the way home, lines from the movie were recited from the back seat. He even asked me to turn off the radio so we could talk about the movie.

I love how different the kids are and that I can see such a difference in them at such a young age. He has a mind like a steal trap. Hears something once and remembers it forever. He is very laid back and just goes with the flow. He is so loving and isn't afraid to show it. She has a very analytical mind. She loves to figure things out, and she loves to look people over before she trusts them. She will sit for insane amounts of time and try to put things together or sort things out. She is very independant. She does not like her brothers hugs as much as he does. Although she will cuddle with me. She is very very hard headed and knows what she wants when she wants it and is not afraid to let every one know that she is upset. She has this noise that she makes that makes my ears hurt when she is pissed off. And I tell Bear all the time that he is lucky he was born first. Because if she had been first, she would of been the last. I love her to the ends of the earth, but she is so high maintenance. Maybe he was just so laid back that I had this disillusioned idea in my head that parenting was supposed to be easy.
He will talk to any stranger and tell them what he had for dinner and what he thinks of the current president. She has to stare at someone for an hour from a safe distance before she will crack a smile. She is my stranger danger kid. We were at the grocery store and the bagger kid stepped to close to her in the cart and she let out a wail that could be heard across the store.
So everything I learned with him, does not apply to her and I get to relearn how to parent all over again. But I love it. I love her and how she keeps me on my toes. Always thinking, always trying to outwit her. And I love him for being my easy kid...most of the time.

It's the little things in life...

2009-07-01T15:28:00.001-07:00

This morning my daughter has found the joys of making herself dizzy. She ran around in circles just laughing her head off. She would run a couple of circles, get dizzy fall down, get up run a couple more, fall down, run a few less steps because she was so dizzy, get up just laughing head head off, and go some more. Now this is what I call self entertainment. Heck, that was family entertainment for about 20 minutes.

Do they always stay this sweet?

2009-06-29T18:44:00.000-07:00

In the car the other day we were eating In-n-out and I was handing back fries to the kids. I was trying to get her to say please for a fry. She was not doing it, so I was not giving her any, but she wasn't voicing her protest. I soon learned why. I looked back, and he was taking a bite of his fry and giving the rest to her.

Tonight we went to get frozen yogurt. (I have been craving this for 3 months) We were driving home and I looked back in the mirror and he had this far off look on his face and the biggest smile. "What are you thinking about buddy?" "Sprinkles on my ice cream..." Why can't we all be so happy about such small things?

We got home and sat outside on the patio to enjoy our frozen yogurt. She was having very tiny bites of mine, and enjoying it. Until she fell backwards and fell in her brothers lap, realizing that he had his own bowl. She took her finger, dipped it in his and put it in her mouth. She then sat in his lap for the next five minutes dipping her finger in and licking it. I don't think that I would of been okay with someone eating my food like that, but he just sat there smiling at her. And then at the end, "I love sharing with her." She however did not take the bottom of the bowl as well as he did. She screamed and stood up and started mooching off me again. I know the day will come when all they do is bicker and fight, so I am relishing all of this sweetness now.

Tired, Exhausted, Hurting and Burned. But totally freaking worth it!

2009-06-29T10:30:00.000-07:00

Well Disneyland was fun, but was so tiring we used all of yesterday to recover. I plastered spf 50 sunscreen on all of us and I was the only one to get burned. Go figure. The kids are actually getting tan. I on the other hand am getting freckled. I used to think that if I got enough freckles, they would all converge together and I would be one giant freckle, but I would look tan. Never worked. Now I just look like a seven year old girl with freckles on my nose and shoulders.
It was crazy to go on a weekend. I have seen it busier but it was still pretty crowded and not to fun to maneuver a stroller through. Noah got his own autograph book and got a whole one signature. Captain Hook. He was pretty happy about it. We have two more visits while we are here to get more. We got there at noon and stayed until ten. Crazy. Nuts. So stinking tired. But we got to see Fantasmic and the firework show which made it all worth it. The look on both of their faces made my heart smile. They were so amazed with it. I was too. It really is a good show. And the fireworks make me look forward to this weekend when I get to see that look on their faces all over again.
All in all it was a good trip. Next time we are going to stay late at California Adventure and see the light parade. I know they are going to love that too.
And on a side note, thank you very much to the A-hole who left the gum on the planter that I sat on to change my daughters diaper. It was a lot of fun to stand up after ten minutes and realize that my butt was stuck to the planter. And then it was even more fun to then go the rest of the day sitting on things taking a little bit with me every time. Sprinkles from It's a Small World, leaves from the ground at the parade, rubbbery things from Brothers Bears adventure. It wasn't quite what I had in mind as a souvenir, but now I have a little bit of Disneyland stuck to the seat of my pants that I can never wear again. Thank you.

Part two

2009-06-26T12:21:00.000-07:00

Well the second day flew by. Kind of. I hate hate hate the drive after Sacramento. It is fine for about an hour and then you hit the farmlands and fields. It is flat brown stinky and every time you open a door, you get bombarded by flys from all of the cows. But I must say that I was grateful for one of those flys because it kept Bug entertained for almost an hour while Bear took a nap in the afternoon. Her eyes followed that fly all over the Jeep. She would start to get fussy and it would land on her and catch her attention all over again.
I tried to plan our trip around LA traffic. I planned to leave at 4 from Redding getting us through LA before the bad traffic hit. It was a good plan in theory. But Bug, not being in her regular environment was up and crying every hour. At 3, I brought her back to bed with me, and then couldn't sleep for fear of her crawling off the bed. At 3:15 when my alarm went off, I thought, screw it, I am not getting up now for a 12 hour drive. So we left at 7:30 and hit wonderful beautiful 5mph traffic for 2 hours. Luckily, they slept through all of it. They would lift their heads every once in a while, look around, and go back to sleep.
They did so awesome, I did not have to bust out the DVD player once. I did however indoctrinate my children with oldies. We sang out hearts out to Neil Diamond, The Beattles, Ricky Valens, and listened to a lot of Adventures in Odyssey.
I saw one funny thing that still makes me wonder. It was a truck carrying two port a potties. On the outside door were scenes of a beautiful Hawaiian beach. And this made me think. Why don't they put those scenes on the inside walls so that as I am squatting, doing my business, I could peak out through my watery eyes every now and then and pretend I was somewhere else. Now I realize that these would have to be very strong pictures to be able to make me pretend I was not sitting in a box with other peoples poop and very questionable circulation, but still, it would be a nice try.
So we are here. It is 80 degrees out. I am getting us unpacked and ready for Disneyland tomorrow. WAHOO!

Part one of two

2009-06-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

Forgive me if I don't make a lick of sense. I am so tired and all I can think about is my butt. It is kind of tingly. Still. We have been out of the car now for 2 hours and I have been trying to stand as much as I can. But it still kind of tingles. You know when a foot falls asleep and it tingles for awhile. Anyways enough about my butt.
We made it from Mukilteo to Redding in eleven hours and 45 minutes. Not bad. We only had to stop 3 times officially. One time not so official. I count it as official if we all get out of the car. We were 45 minutes out and I was informed that Bear had to potty. Now. So we pulled over and he peed in the back of the Jeep. Crisis averted.
I rue the day I mentioned Disneyland to him. Every time we stopped today, "mommy, are we at Disneyland?" "No, we need to get some gas/go to the bathroom/get some food." "I would like to go to Disneyland first please." Every time we stopped.
Although I am using it now. When he starts to misbehave, I just tell him that I am going to tell Mickey Mouse. For some reason, he bit her today. I don't think it was malicious, she kept sticking her fingers in his mouth and he was laughing she got nipped. A little later he shared a cookie with her. I told him I was very proud of him for being so considerate. "Mommy, can I tell Mickey Mouse I shared with her?" "Yes bud, he will be proud of you too. But if you bite your sister again, I am going to have to tell him that too." A look of horror crossed his face, "Mommy, I don't think he would appreciate that!" I am going to use this for all it is worth.
They did okay. But it is my fault that there was so much touching. When we turned her around, her car seat did not fit properly with the head rest. And the only way to get the head rest off is to cut it off. Now I am no expert but I can't imagine this would be too good for resale value. So she got put in the middle. And he is right next to her. So there was touching. Hand holding, food sharing, food stealing, toy trading, toy snagging, poking, licking, biting, kissing and at one point I think I saw him picking her nose. There were the usual threats from me. "Do not make me pull this car over!" "Leave your sister alone!" But my finest hour came at the end of the day. I was tired and cranky and my throat hurt from singing so much. He was just touching her and she kept squaking every time he looked at her. "STOP TOUCHING YOUR SISTER, GET YOUR FEET OFF MY SEAT, DO NOT LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT, AND STOP MAKING ME YELL!"
But even after all of that, I tucked him in tonight he looked up at me and said, "We had a fantastic day today mommy!" I am glad he had fun.

I'm going to Disneyland!

2009-06-23T12:45:00.001-07:00

As I pack for this trip, I realize I am a little apprehensive. Not just because Bug woke up today in a "put me down, and I will scream my head off mood," but because it is now the summer months and there will be more people on the road and at rest stops and gas stations and Disneyland. I mean we are no stranger to these trips. This will be our third coast trip this year. The kids always do so awesome, I guess I am just waiting for the trip where the other shoe drops. The one that they don't do so well. The one where they scream their heads off the entire time.
I am also nervous because this is the first time we are doing a road trip with no pull ups on Bear. Okay, he has not had an accident in a month and always tells me when he has to go. I just have this image in my head of us being in the middle of no where and he has to go potty. And we will be on the side of the road peeing in a bush. Ha ha. I did buy a potty that is in the back, so I guess I don't have to teach him how to pee in a bottle yet. :)
We are going to Disneyland on Saturday and Sunday. I am so excited. I think I might be more excited than Bear. Although he has been asking me every 10 minutes if we are going to Disneyland yet. And he keeps listing off the rides he wants to go on, Teacups and Dumbo top the list. I really want to take them at night to see the electrical parade. I think they both are going to love it. I just have to keep them both awake until 9pm.
Well wish us luck. I can't wait to go and lay out on the beach and feel the warm sun on me and let them play in the sand. I am also looking forward to the fact that tomorrow night at this time I will have had 2 plain cheeseburgers, an order of fries and a vanilla shake from In-n-out.

Pi-vot...pi-VOT....PI-VOT! PIVOT!!!

2009-06-20T18:42:00.000-07:00

(Okay, if you didn't get that, it was Ross from the TV show Friends, telling Rachel and Chandler to pivot the couch around the corner. I think one of my favorite moments in the show.)
Anyways. I had forgotten how much I loved watching babies learn how to turn around when walking. They get to a spot and decide to turn around and then pivot on one foot until they have done a 180. She did that for a few days but has figured out how to turn around like a regular person. She is walking even more now. The majority of the time. Actually the only time she seems to crawl is when I have the camera pointed at her. Not that it matters because I cannot find the USB cord to the camera that takes movies. So all movies I take will remain on that camera until I decide what to do. Who knows, I might be showing her kids movies of their mommy learning to walk on a dinosaur of a camera 30 years from now.

I took Bear to the drive in last night. We had so much fun. I put Bug to sleep and then we left. We went and got slurpees (he got the smallest cup with about 2 inches of Cherry in it. But he loved it.) We got a giant bucket of popcorn and settled in. We saw the movie UP! It was a cute movie. He really loved it and he talked the entire time about what was happening. I don't think he is ready to go to a theater yet, he never stopped talking. He got very upset at some parts when the villian was up to no good. He had to crawl in my lap, because he was about to cry. I have never seen him so affected by a movie like that before. And today that is all he could talk about. He tells everyone who will hold still for 10 seconds all about the movie he saw. We even stayed for the second feature. He like that one too, and stayed awake the entire time. In fact, he stayed awake for the ride home and didn't stop kicking the wall until two oclock. And he promptly woke up at 7:30 this morning. Bless his heart.

I have always prayed for my kids to take naps at the same time just to give me a chance to rest during the day. Or even just a few minutes to hear my own thoughts. But for the past week, she has gone back to two naps a day. So she sleeps before lunch, he goes to sleep after lunch and then she goes down about when he wakes up. It has honestly been really nice. It has given me some really good one on one time with each of them. I have been regretting how much I have not been able to do all of the things with her that I did with Bear and I am really going to try and make up for it now. She is going to have just as many pictures and videos and a baby book too. Ha ha. That is my goal now. To finish his baby book and start hers. Wish me luck. That might be another thing I end up doing with her kids. :)

Walking

2009-06-14T20:21:00.000-07:00

I am not sure at one point when you can say a baby is officially walking, Bear just stood up and walked and that was that. She is not like that at all.
She walks more than she crawls.
She walks across the room, she still falls but she picks herself up and continues on.
She walks better when she is carrying something in her arms, which I think is really funny.
She tries to run and that just ends with her crumpled on the floor.
If she is walking to a person, she will just dive the last couple steps.
But,
If she needs to get somewhere fast, she will just crawl there.

Finally getting around to it...

2009-06-13T12:03:00.000-07:00

This is Baby girl at one week and at one year.

Socks

2009-06-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

I do not like socks. My kids to not like socks. But now I have to keep socks on her to keep her off of his bed. I put baby legs on her thinking that would slow her down a little. No, not so much. So now I have to keep socks on her.

Blessed

2009-06-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

I have been feeling crappy/blue/angry/mopey lately. I have been strumming a sad self pity song. But I have realized that there are people that have things worse off than me and I need to pull my head out of my butt and look at the positive side of things. If there is one thing in life I hate is whiners. I am a strict, deal the hand you are dealt, blossom where you are planted type of person. So needless to say I have hated being around myself the last few days(months) and tonight that changes. There are so many wonderful things that I still do have in my life and I need to be grateful for what I have, not what I think I should have or what other people have, or what I hope for some day. I have today and what is in it.

-Summer in Washington. I especially love that it stays light out until almost ten. Although it is kind of tough enforcing an eight o clock bed time while the sun is still very much awake and will be for the next 2 hours. "Mommy, it can't be bedtime. It is still day out side!"

-Coke sluprees. 28 ounces of pure caffeinated heaven.

-My Jeep. Yes it is not my "fun" jeep, but it is still pretty fricking awesome. If I haven't been in it for a few days, I still can smell that new car smell. And the kids each have sky lights for crying out loud.

-Grocery shopping and cooking. There is something so incredible about taking different ingrediants and then making them into something that tastes good. Might not always be good for you but hey, sometime you have to make chocolate chip cookies.

-Speaking of cookies, Otis Spunkmeyer cookies. That is all I should have to say about that.

-Toys. After they are in bed, and I am picking up after them, I love finding toys in funny places. I don't see it as annoying, I see it as a little remembrances of my kids.

-Wall knocking. After Bear is in bed, he will knock on his wall periodically just so I don't forget he is there.

And last but not least, my kids. They make me laugh every day. Bear with his joke telling every five minutes. The same joke every five minutes. "When is a car not a car mommy?" "When it turns into a gas station!" And he will laugh and laugh. And my little Bug with her dancing at anything that sounds like music.

I am very blessed I just have to remind myself sometimes.

If I were going to live on a deserted island...

2009-06-08T17:02:00.000-07:00

And could only bring one thing from home, I would bring my camera. I don't think I can leave the house without it with me. What would you bring?

We came in the door from Costco this morning and Tela walked right out on the porch and laid down in the sun. So Bear says, "I am going to lay in the sun too!" And he did:

Notice the sponge in his right hand. It just didn't do the job like his hand. He washed my bumper the entire time I washed my car. And made me rinse it off about five times too.

Moving

2009-06-07T20:02:00.001-07:00

Oh my soul, just these last few days she has just taken off.
Today I walked in to find her on top of Bears bed. His bed is four feet off the ground with the only access points being a vertical ladder and a slide. My first thought was, I am going to kill who ever put her up here and left the room. And then I realized that we were the only ones home. So I put her on the floor thankful she had not decided to throw herself off the edge. She immediately went right over to the slide and scaled it within 5 seconds. She made it to the top and turned around and gave me her most proud smile.
I didn't realize I had made a little stair case for her either. I had my sewing kit, my scrap booking case, and another case all lined up next to a table that has my cricut on it. I found her at the top of that today playing with my cricut.
She has taken to walking places now. As long as she is not in a hurry and people are not encouraging her to do so. I watched her for 10 minutes yesterday on the back patio. She had a water bottle in her hands and she walked all the way across it. She would take about five steps, lower herself to regain balance and continue on. She has been doing that all day. If she is walking to a person, she gets within a foot and just dives forward into that persons lap.
The child has no fear and is already pretty banged up. She is also very stubborn and will try to do things until she gets done what she wants done. I have been watching her try to push a stroller into a space that is not big enough for the last few minutes. She has turned it upside down, sideways and backwards. I love her persistence.

Before naptime

2009-06-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

Not only does Bear have the twice daily job of feeding and watering Tela, now he has added responsibilty. The park that is right around the corner from us has a petting zoo and we went today. And brought home a rabbit. But only for 4 days. They have a Bunny renting out program for families to take home bunnies for a few days and see how it fits into the lifestyle. Now we are probably not going to keep him, but this is a great way for Bug and Bear to see an animal that is different than a dog. We get to study it and talk about it and then give it back in a few days! I think it is an awesome program. Bear has learned quite a bit so far just from his very observant questions. We talked about how we can't keep him out of his cage for too long because we don't want bunny poop all over. He had a very quick solution for that problem.
"I will show him how to use the big boy toilet!"
"I don't think that will work bud."
"Why, is his butt too small and he will fall in?"
"Something like that."
"Okay."
When we got home, I took Peanut Brittle out and let him hop around a bit.
"Mommy, don't forget about the poop!" as he ran from his room. He returned a few moments later with one of Bugs diapers.

And this morning was the most heart melting moment so far along this road we call motherhood. Despite Bears almost hourly hugging of her sister, she has not gotten used to it. I could say that she has become very much more irritated by it as time has gone on. Today he hugged her and rolled onto his back so that she was laying on his tummy. She wrapped her arms around him and layed her head down on his chest and hugged him. And they laid like that for a good 30 seconds. Of course my camera was across the room and I did not dare leave them for a second for fear of her launching off the bed. But I sucked all the sweetness in while I could.

We stopped at a garage sale this afternoon and bought a couple of baby dolls for Bug. Well once in the car, one went to Bug and Bear took charge of the other one. He talked to it all the way home and told it that she was going to have cookie pancakes for dinner. He named them Mrs Baby doll and Mr Babydoll. Even though they are both dressed in pink. Well my mom found her own garage sale and at it they had a Graco stroller, a doll play yard/bed and a swing/carseat. Even though these were intended for Bug to play with, Bear took over and loaded the babys up and turn a single stroller into a triple stroller. And Bug decided that she was not going to swing the baby, she was going to crawl in the swing herself and get the ride. It is a really cute set that I am glad they are both going to get use out of. And I am not afraid of the girly factor of it all. I know that some people may be very opposed to boys playing with dolls, but if nothing else, it is just going to teach him how to be kind, sensitive and considerate. And he is still a rough and tough little boy that is not afraid of getting dirty.

Back seat driver

2009-06-04T12:36:00.000-07:00

We were sitting in traffic yesterday trying to get to the farmers market. The ferry lane next to us was moving just fine and the fact that I would not drive in that lane irked my son.
"Mommy, drive that way!"

"No, we are not getting on the ferry."

"But mommy, just drive that way! I don't want to sit here."

This continued on for a few more minutes suggesting different routes for me to take around the cars in front of me (and I should mention, none of them legal.) Since I was not complying with his requests, he decided to take matters into his own hands and told me,

"Actually, can I just drive mommy?"

We went to the Dr the other day for their 1 and 3 year check ups. And they could not be further from each other on body types. She is at the small end of the spectrum in height as I previously mentioned. He on the other hand is in the 95% for height and weight. He is 35.5lbs and 40 inches tall. I was surprised on the weight thing. The child is so slight and for crying out loud I can see his ribs poking out! But they are both healthy and that is what matters right?

The big ONE!

2009-06-03T13:07:00.000-07:00

Well I have been dreading this post. Maybe if I didn't write it, it wouldn't happen. But yesterday came and went and you still turned one despite my not writing this.

You are the sweetest little girl with a streak of stubborn that challenges my patience. I have no idea where you get that from. When you want something, you want it NOW. There is no waiting patiently for mommy. How dare I want to take the time to poor the milk into the cup before I give it to you.

You are so close to walking. You will stand up in the middle of the room and stand there for five minutes usually playing with a toy you picked up. Yesterday you took four steps to me. Before that you would take no more than two steps. If it was too far too lean into or further away than two steps you would just get down and crawl to it.

You now have 6 teeth. You have continued to pop through two at a time. Those eye teeth were awful to get through. For you and me.

Sleeping through the night is new. You started about a week ago and did it for five days and it was glorious. You were much more rested during the day and I think that I too was little nicer to be around. So lets keep that up.

We got your ears pierced two days before your birthday. At first I didn't think you were going to cry but then you gave out a scream and cried for a couple minutes and you were done. Such a champ. And then you for your first Starbucks. You drank that down so fast you almost rivaled the speed your brother normally drinks them at.

You love to dance. Any time any music comes on you stand up and start shaking your toosh. Your brother got a card for his birthday that plays the song from Madagascar. That is your favorite. And it is really funny to watch you dance to it.

We got you a baby doll for your birthday. Today I got you a stroller for the baby with some birthday money. I am watching you right now push her around in the stroller and then pick her up and carry her to your car, put her in the hood and drive around with her. Dancing as you go.

You are the best hugger. Every time I pick you up, I get a hug like you haven't seen me in ages. You squeeze me so tight and sometimes you plant a big wet one on my cheek.

I love watching you figure things out on your own. How to open something or how to get a toy in something else. How to get over things that are in your way. Or how to push cars over to where you can't reach something, stand on it and then retrieve the wanted item. You love your little piggy and putting the big fat "coins" in the slot.

You are a babbler. You just sit there and talk in your own little language. You can say mama, dada, dod(dog), baybay, and tay too.

Took you to the Dr yesterday. She said you look great and are doing good. You are still my skinny little girl. You are in the 75-90% for your height (30 inches) and are only in the 15% for your weight (19 lbs) I have to continue to bring you in monthly for weight checks. The Dr. also wants to check your thyroid next time too. She asked if you just don't eat, but you can and most of the time do out eat your brother. You are still nursing 6-7 times a day and you get a glass of whole milk with dinner. I don't know where you put it, or if you run laps around your crib at night to work it off.

In the last year your hair has gone from very dark brown to almost blond and is now long enough to put in pony tails. Your eyes are still deep blue and your perfect little lips just as beautiful. You still have long finger toes and beautiful long fingers.

You have figured out real quick how to get your brother in trouble. If he even comes near you, you start to do your fake cry and watch for my reaction. It really makes me laugh.

Your new kissy face is hilarious. You scrunch your nose and eyes up and pout out your lips.

You are so sweet and funny. You love your brother despite setting him up for getting in trouble. You love to play with his cars. I caught you driving his Lightning McQueen slippers across the floor. You haven't really caught the reading bug yet. You will sit by us while we are reading for a couple minutes and then you are off to more fun things.

You have such a big personality. You are still very wary of strangers. We walked into a house the other day and you scoped every one out before you would crack a smile. And even then it was guarded. I still have yet to hear you bust out in a big laugh. You are very reserved when it comes to laughing. You have more of a sarcastic fake laugh. But I love it anyways.

I am so happy to have shared the last year with you. It has flown by faster than I thought it would. And I know the next 17 are going to whip by just as fast. But I look forward to them and the fun they will bring watching you grow into a young woman.

Fun in the sun...

2009-06-01T20:49:00.000-07:00

His new slip n slide

This is how she figured out crawling on the concrete so that she doesn't scrape her knees

Sticking her face in the water and drinking

Her pool

We are very much Washingtonians. I was talking with Donna tonight as I was downloading these pictures and she asked if I would look up the forecast for tomorrow. I told her it was supposed to be 80 degrees this week. She sighed and said that she was tired of all this heat. We are ready for some rain. Ready for a break in the heat. This is why we go on vacation. To visit the sun and get our fill. We don't need it where we live.

"May twenty apethf"

2009-05-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

Well it did not hit me this morning until I made a folder on my computer that I had to label 3 years. And I cried. It was happy tears combined with sad tears. Sad that the last 3 years have whipped by and happy that you have made it this far alive.

You are my little dare devil. You have no real fear, you will jump off a five foot wall, get up, shake it off and comment on the styling of your fall, "That was graceful!" Your latest trick is to take the ride on car to the top of your slide and try to ride it down. I nipped that in the bud real quick. You do however love to go down your slide backwards and have tried going down on your feet with socks on.

You are probably the sweetest little boy I have ever known. Daily you shower your sister and me with hugs and kisses and are constantly telling me I am the "best mommy in the whole wowd!" When I do have to correct you for disobediance, you always cry afterwards and ask for forgiveness and tell me that you are so sad for disobeying and making mommy sad. And then you tell me you need a hug and a tickle to feel better. You are so considerate. Today I was working out in the yard and your sister was sitting in the swing not moving and you stopped playing and walked over to her and pushed her for about 20 minutes. Talking to her and making her laugh.

You are a very active dreamer and always tell me what you dream about when you wake up. Lately it has been about your cars and what they do and what they say.

You are my little reader. You have most of your books memorized and will sit down and read to yourself forever if I let you.

We have started doing "schoolwork." We started out just by drawing horizontal and vertical lines. Then we moved onto diagonal ones. And you love your little worksheets that you have to draw a line around the obstacles to get the bunny home. We have been working on a letter a day. You can write your name with only a little direction from me. I have labeled all of the furniture in your room and you like to walk around and tell me what each card says and we try to pick out letters in the words that you know. You have become very interested in words and usually we spend meals talking about how different things are spelled.

Potty training has gone beautifully. You sleep dry most nights and always through your naps. I am so proud of you.

You have a steel trap for a mind. You have a funny knack for remembering commercials and funny lines from movies. Throughout the day you will bust out with something so random. Some of your favorites include:

"I know, I am fabulous." (no idea what this is from.)

"Your son rip called he is on line toot!"

"Thank you Delsom."

"You following me camera guy?" (Shamwow)

"I am happier than a tornado in a trailer park!"

"She likes me for my body."

"I'm no mack, I am a Peterbuilt, turn on your lights you poron." (I am not correcting him on the moron thing.)

This really amazes me because you have seen the movie Cars twice in the last six months.

And you can sing the theme song to "Monk" even though you watched the opening song one time.

You are definetly a Washingtonian. When you play with your cars, I often hear you taking your cars through the Starbucks drive thru.

Swinging is now a favorite past time. You love for me to push you so hard until your head touches the trees. You love to be outside digging in the dirt. You will dig holes and put the dirt in your wheel barrow and move it to another part of the yard. And you act like it is the most important work in the world.

Food has become a challenge. You do not like meat. You have informed me more than one time that you are a vegetarian. I can sneak you meat, but when it comes to eating just a plain piece of meat you will keep the meat in your mouth and not chew and not swallow. It drives me nuts. You do however love cookie pancakes and you ask to eat them at every meal. Today you got a treat and got to eat them in bed.

When you do not want to do something, you will tell me that your hands, feet, mouth or whatever the applicable body part is, is broken.

You are my Bear. You love to cuddle and you love to hug. You will always be a mommas boy. Thank you for a wonderful three years.

Bath night!

2009-05-21T09:05:00.000-07:00

I am going to mash it,

Smash it,
Lick it,Rub it,

Can't forget the hair,

Just so I can look like this!

Whatcha gonna do about it?

Eleven month pictures

2009-05-08T21:09:00.001-07:00

Stood up all on her own...
Still only four teeth

Stair climber

And that is a wrap!

Stimulate the economy...

2009-05-07T08:38:00.001-07:00

Hurry up and die!

Eleven

2009-05-04T19:37:00.000-07:00

Almost a year. It has gone by so fast. I am having a hard time believing that in less than one month you will be a year old. A toddler. No longer my baby. But I will save all of that for the next post.
You have once again grown and changed in leaps and bounds over the last month.
You are pretty close to walking. Just today you stood up on your own with no support on anything. Your balance is getting pretty good. You stood up for about 30 seconds the other day by yourself until you realized what you were doing and slowly lowered yourself down to the safety of the ground. Your supported steps really crack me up. Your left leg steps way out in front and to the right and your right leg just takes huge steps. You have figured out how to get on your cars and move forward too. But you are more interested in opening the trunk under the seat of one and trying to climb in that.
You have discovered the "in" concept. Tonight your brother dumped out all of his cars and you crawled on over and started putting them all away. He was ecstatic because that was less he had to clean up. You have your little pink piggy bank that you love to put the big colorful coins into. Usually when I am cleaning up, I find every container filled with smaller things after you have been playing with them. Maybe this means you will start cleaning up after yourself. :)
I took you to the Dr on Friday and you weighed 18lbs 2oz. I think that is in the 10%. But you gained a lb over the last month. I don't know why you are not bigger. You eat as much if not more than your brother and you are still breast feeding 4 times during the day and 3 times at night most nights. But you are just long and thin.
You have added another food to the list of those you do not like. Cheerios. I thought that cheerios were a staple for children your age, but you just push them to the side and off the edge. You love eating, but your favorite is cheese. You get so excited when you see that cheese coming your way. You eat bananas just like your brother used it. I break it is half and hand it to you and you stick one end in your mouth and take it from there. You slowly shove that thing down until you have just the little numb sticking out of your mouth.
You have a few words now that you can say. You love to say "HI! Dada!" when you talk to your daddy on skype. And you say it just like that. You yell hi at him. You still say "tay-too" anytime someone hands you something. And your new word this month is baby. You love baby dolls and looking at babies and your favorite is the baby that is in the breakfront right by your highchair. She smiles and waves back at you during your meals. You call her and all other babies "Bay-bay." And your dog Tela is the "Daw."
You love that dog. And she loves you. She lets you crawl over her and sometimes bite her too. Everything still goes in your mouth. You tried some dirt last week. And then gave me a big black grin and started spitting it out. Along with your love of putting everything in your mouth you have become very good at spitting. All I have to do now is pinch your cheeks together and say spit and you spit out whatever it is and give me a devious look. As if to say, "Go ahead take it away now, I will find something else to stick in there."
You have also started imitating sounds. Your laugh changes to whoever is near you. You can imitate your brother laugh perfectly and the other day I caught you mocking my big loud laugh. Your brother and you will sit at dinner taking turns making different noises and copying them and then burst into uncontrollable laughter.
I love the looks you give me and I love your little "big" personality. I know you are going to be a handful. But I look forward to the challenge of it.

I forgot I had taken this picture

2009-04-30T16:59:00.000-07:00

And I think it might be one of my favorites of her.

Not ready

2009-04-26T17:16:00.000-07:00

I just walked in on Bear standing up at the toilet going potty. Not a big deal right? Wrong. He wasn't using a stool. I had to do a double take. He told me he was too big to be using a stool. Now granted he was raising himself up on his toes to reach but that just threw me face first into the fact that he is not a baby anymore. Or even a toddler. He is a boy. A big boy. I am going to go cry a little now...

I think this was one of Bears first ones too

2009-04-26T09:38:00.000-07:00

So first of all thank you to Gephry for another one of her gorgeous photos. This just cracks me up the perfectness of it. I had to share it on here too.

Now this morning, Bear was playing with Bug and telling her the names of things. A little while later Bug crawled up to me with a duck in her mouth, that is how she gets around with things, by just carrying them in her mouth, and she took it out and held it up to me and said, "du-dut!" And then gave me a big fat smile.

She also has started saying thank you when I hand her things. It comes out, "tay-too." So sweet. Another sweet thing that she was started doing, instead of scowling at new people she now has started to smile and put her head shyly into my shoulder, and then peeks out to see if they are still there.

I got Bug a little her own little push car a week ago and then on Friday picked up another one at a garage sale since there were so many fights over the first one. Now they are having little driving parties following each other from room to room. She walks behind it and pushes, she hasn't figured out how to sit and go forward yet, however she is getting good at going backwards! They are so funny to watch together.

And again...

2009-04-22T16:33:00.001-07:00

I was cleaning Bears room today and there was a spray can of glass cleaner up out of his reach. We have had a very long talk about chemicals because one day he emptied half a spray bottle of vinegar and water.
So today he looks at me and says, "Mommy please take those chemicals."
I told him that were out of his reach and it was okay.
"Mommy, please take those chemicals, they are a temptation for me."

I can't not share this.

2009-04-21T10:16:00.000-07:00

"Mommy, can I jump on your bed?"

"No."

"Why mommy, why?"

"Do you remember the song with the monkeys jumping on the bed and they fall off and bonk their heads and get hurt? That does not sound like fun does it?"

"No."

A moment of silence...

And then I hear this,

"Five little monkeys jumping in the bed, one fell off and bonked his head." This newest addition to the song is the part that kills me, "but he did not get hurt and he had some fun!"

"Mommy, the monkeys did not get hurt, now I can I jump on your bed?"

I almost wanted to let him jump on my bed just for being so clever...

Face Off

2009-04-21T09:19:00.000-07:00

I taught Bear the game of, "I got your nose!" about a month ago and it is not just noses that come off anymore. One day we sat down and took turns eating each others faces. I am not sure if it is really the best parenting in the world, part of me thinks I am turning him into a cannibalistic psychopath. But none the less he has fun. "Ha ha ha ha, I got your eyes mommy! Now you can see to eat off any more of my face!"
He has taken it to a new level though. The clever little booger, when told to do something, now eats his hands. "Sorry mommy, I can't, I ate my hands!"
Bug is non-stop these days. She has mastered climbing up the stairs. Climbing down is another story though. Her method of trying to slide back down head first usually just leads to tears. Unless she is on the bottom stair, and that just makes her shake her head and climb back up. I caught her about a month ago trying to climb up her brothers slide like he does. She was about 6 inches up before she tried to sit down and rolled back to the bottom. Everyday she goes a little further. But then gets so excited she starts to rock back and forth and slides to the bottom. I took them to Jungle Playland last week and she bolted right up the colored bumps.
Now walking, I am not too sure that is going to happen too soon. I got her a little car that she can walk behind and she loves to push that around, she loves to walk behind her brother while he is riding it too. I love baby toddles. When she walks in front of me holding my fingers, her left leg takes big huge steps and her right leg takes lady like little steps but her knee comes all the way up to her chest first.
Bear and Bug have really started to interact with each other. They have for awhile, but more now than ever. And they play really well together. He loves to show her how to do things. He has gotten it in his head that it is okay to try and pick her up. He wants to have her in his lap. So he will sit down next to her and wrap his arms around her and ends up rolling her over him and then rolling over her. She comes up laughing most of the time. Other times she comes up pissed. And I keep telling him that one day she is just going to get up and clobber him. He loves to hold her hand. Every time we are in the car now, they pass things back and forth and then eventually end up holding hands.
I got them a swing set for the back yard and she loves it. Well he does too but that is a given. She loves to swing. She kicks back with her arm propped up on the side and just chills. He loves his swing and is actually starting to learn how to pump his legs so he can swing himself. Yay! The kid is a nut on the swings. He loves to go so high. And he loves his slide. I don't think there is a position that he hasn't gone down it yet. Tummy, head first, back wards. rolling down on his side. That was unintentional and at the end of that one he gets up and says, "Darn it! That was pretty graceful!" He cracks me up everyday. And then he turns around and is just the sweetest in the world. He loves to tell me, "You are the best mommy in the wowld!" I love how he says world. He is constantly smothering me in kisses and hugs. And when he takes his nap, he has to be cuddled in my arms. "I need a hug to sleep mommy." How in the world can I say no to that?
Potty training is going well. Daddy was up this weekend and taught him what only a man can teach. How to pee standing up. It was really hilarious. He had taught himself, kind of. I do not know from where he got this, but he had started to face the toilet and kind of squat over the front, on his own. He called this standing up peeing. Well when Daddy got up here, he taught him how to stand up all the way and aim. He helped the first time and the look of pride on his face was so adorable. The next time he tried it by himself and ended up with not a single drop in the toilet. So I helped him the next time. He is getting better at it.
I am so glad the weather is getting nice. The sun has been feeling so nice on my face. I hope it stays this nice.

Rollin' rollin' rollin'

2009-04-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

Took Bear and Bug to the skate deck today for the stroller skate they have every Wed. He did pretty well for his first time on wheelsMe, "Would you like me push the stroller so you can go skate?" "Mommy I am skating! I am skating with my sister!"

Once he gained some confidence, he decided it was time to skate like a real Buzz Light year would.
He had so much fun. And Bug did too, she just sat back and chilled for an hour and a half while she was pushed around like a princess.

Bear discovered he could crawl faster than he could skate, so if there was somewhere he wanted to get fast and without falling, he dropped down on all fours.

At one point his dare devil side came out and he decided it was a smart idea to jump off the bench with his skates on. When his feet rolled out from under him and he caught himself with his face, I think he reconsidered it. Although it did not stop him from jumping off of steps and landing on his butt.

Easter week

2009-04-14T21:07:00.000-07:00

Easter lasted almost a week around here with an early visit from the Easter Bunny late one night (Aunt D all dressed up)

We went and sat on the Easter bunnys lap:

We went on an Easter egg hunt with friends Luke and Logan

Big Brother even rememberd to give one to the little girl all locked up in the stroller:

And then we colored eggs and decorated them with stickers:

And then we went to brunch with friends up on the Island and had lots and lots and lots of good food at the chiefs club