I found the USB cord!

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

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...

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?

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!

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

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

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.