Determined

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

The thing to concentrate on

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

The big one-five.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pony rides and corndogs

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

And this is Bug on her pony Fancy

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

An artist is born

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

What we have been up to

A car for Cars (thanks Gephry)

The blackberries

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

The blackberry pie we made

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

Yogurt goatee

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

And this was what she looked like afterwards.

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

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

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

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