if you're having a bad day....

Tucker falls asleep eating.... again.

Daddy gives Whitney jam and bread, to Mommy's dismay

Make more Daddy! (she was in diaper only due to the mess she made eating dinner)

Whitney giving help and tips for better bread.

Seeing little baby shoes in my house makes me smile


So if you're having a bad day, a kid's laughter or smile is enough to make anyone feel better. Tucker's laugh and Whitney's "snork" face (crinkling her nose up to smile and sticking her bottom teeth out) always makes my day. We've tried to capture both on camera to share, but that never works. Today Tucker was laughing hysterically at the blowfish float toy rolling down the seat bottom I was trying to recover. Whitney looked over to see what is so funny and made her snork face while she took advantage of Tucker being busy to walk by "unassisted" (by Tucker, that is) using her scooter and gave me a snork face smile.

Today she went shopping with Daddy. They were gone a long time, and I was wondering what was going on when they came back with Valentine flowers and big smiles. Apparently Whitney didn't ride in the cart like Mommy would have her do, but walked around the whole store holding Daddy's hand. What an awesome adventure! So many different things to look at! Tucker stayed home and played with Mommy. He seemed a little bummed, though, that he didn't get to go, wherever they were going without him.

This week we went to the park and learned how to crawl around on the toddler jungle gym. It wasn't sunny or warm, but it was dry (for Washington). Apparently we're the only ones getting good weather in the US. Except for my mom who seems to thoroughly enjoy rubbing it in my face about 60 degree weather, doing yard work and seeing the sun EVERY TIME SHE CALLS! Or so it seems when you don't see the sun much. Or live in Illinois where even the dogs don't go outside to do their business, it's so cold. More on that later. Anyway. Whitney really loves the slide. I think Tucker really likes it too, but I'm not sure if he likes it like Whitney. He doesn't let out a squeal of joy as he goes down like she does. He does breathe hard at the bottom and gets really anxious to go climb up the steps again. No video of that because I went to the park without Jim. Tucker also really likes the other kids. He was trying to follow this other boy that is 1 year older than him without success. His mommy wasn't going fast enough to keep up.

Other than that, this week has been a lot of walking in circles around the house and laughing at the little things the babies do. Enjoy the videos and pics.

I've been having lots of fun with the Roots Magic software for gathering family history! It is so much easier to see what information is there and what isn't there. So I've been filling in missing info and finding holes, so don't mind me if I call you up and ask all these crazy questions. I'm thinking of printing stuff out for Christmas presents, but remind me that's what I'm doing because it's only February, and I'll probably totally forget about it by then.

I've also been working on learning to make bread. Each batch is carefully tested. I give it to the babies and if the texture isn't right, it gets chucked off the side of the high chair tray in rapid fire succession for the dogs. At least I always have two constant fans of my cooking. Very frustrating to see all my hard work going to the dogs. It takes a little bit of time to take the food from the babies so they stop throwing it. Whitney has this trick. She sometimes does a little taste testing and seems to eat it, but then, out of the blue, starts flinging. Maybe the bread is good, but the flinging is a game. I don't know. Whatever. I don't have the texture right yet. It's been four months. Sigh. I think I'll go back to knitting.

Back to this weather thing. Everyone that wants to take advantage of the fact that we would love to have you use our house for a basecamp for a fun vacation, better do it in the next five years. Or so Jim says. He is already scheming his next career move that will allow us to move to a warmer, sunnier climate. Good thing his line of work does allow for the possibility of telecommuting. I think this winter is getting to us, especially since we haven't been able to enjoy the "awesome"summer that everyone talks about. So I don't think these plans are serious, but they seem pretty serious right now and will probably be serious until the end of April or so.

Anyway, now to watch Tucker play with one of his favorite toys...... Whitney thinks it's funny, too.