trucks and ducks

Whitney working hard on Mr. Potato
Whitney with the Elmo shirt and head band on that she picked out.
Whitney really wanted a picture of her baby
The face of glee she has when she puts her Elmo shirt on
Tucker would like to live in this thing. Under the blanket are a bunch of trucks and blocks he likes to play with. He doesn't have any other pics this week because they are lame.



The past week Jim was out of town from Saturday morning to Thursday night. So I didn't take any pics. The only ones we have are from his phone when he got home and was missing them. You'll have to do the old stand by of imagining it in your mind.

The weather has been drier this week. We've even had some sun. Today we went outside to play and it took them a bit to remember how to play outside. After a bit they found the rocks, golf balls and dirt and went to town. Tucker is so excited about the sun today he is not taking a nap.

Last week we went to the park a ton. One day we were at the park and they were using a dump truck and a tractor to load it. Holy cow. Very cool and very exciting. But, couldn't get too close. Very scary, too. They had a blast running up and down some short bleachers while they were watching. It was a great day.

Another day we went to a different park and watched the ducks. First we chased them off of their feeding grounds (a slow walking speed as they creeped up a bit a time to see if they could get closer). That turned out to be a very bad idea. They poop while they eat and Mom was very disgusted by the stuff in the treads of those shoes. So we went to throw rocks in the pond instead. Should have done that in the first place. Ducks came up by the dozens and pretty close, too. Whitney decided the bench was a safer place to stand. They stood on the bench watching and yelling a particular duck ("No, no!") that was twice as big as the rest for some reason. This duck was a bully and babies could recognize that, and kept reprimanding it. It was warmer than usual, and my Whitney who likes to go "inside" had a fit about leaving the park at lunch time. The two year old power struggles begin.

The babies really missed Daddy. The first night Jim was gone, Tucker got up from reading books before bed, bounded down the hall and ran into Jim's office, fully expecting Daddy to be there. He was very confused and surprised not to find him there. He didn't look again until Daddy got home. Once Daddy got home, Tucker didn't want him out of his arms or sight. Whitney was a little more snugly than normal during the week. Not sure if it is just a hard week or she was worried about Daddy. She pointed to his chair and said "Daddy seat" the first night he was missing from dinner.

Daddy had to run a few errands once he got home. We decided to each take a baby and go do errands on Sat. night. Tucker got the raw end of the deal. I had to do my calling, so he sat in the clerk's office throwing paperclips everywhere for 45 minutes. We did play jump, all by ourselves on the mattresses downstairs before Daddy and Whitney got home. Daddy went to Old Navy for pants and Safeway for I don't know what, but Whitney had a blast shopping. She watched Daddy pick out some clothes, then go try them on. She thought that was a great idea, so she picked some out to try on. Daddy did help by going to the clearance isle and the headband isle. She picked out an Elmo shirt. Duh. They are actually pj's, so she picked out some superman pj's for Tucky, too. Once at Safeway, she picked out some dried apricots. She wouldn't let Tucker even touch the bag. Don't worry. Tucker got a bag, too, but decided dried apricots are "yucky poop". Hmmmm Whitney. I think you really know how to pick things so you get two.......

They are starting to catch on to letters more and more, so I'm having to get creative. Today when we were outside, they were looking at a box and pointing to Tucky T's and double-whitney's (W). now they have Rocky R's, Sammy S's, Mommy M's, Papa P's, and Doggy D's somewhat down. It is really confusing about Mommy M's and double Whitney's and how they flip.

Whitney's books of choice this week are "Big Sister" and "Messy Me". She can very clearly say big sister, but calls the other book "mess-mess" book. She really likes that Big sister book. I think it might be because I told her how she is Tucker's big sister. Might have been a really bad idea to introduce that concept. She gets a big grin on her face when she says that now. Like she is big and powerful. There is a page that talks about poop in the diaper versus poop in the toilet, and that is a very true and interesting page for her.....

There are these smart baby videos I've gotten at the library that the babies have loved and I have no idea why. One time we got it for the car trip to Utah and that was the only video Whitney watched. Tucker never really watched it. This time I got the musical instruments one. They watched the whole thing, laughing and talking about all the animals showing up on the screen when the instrument being played changed. It was really funny and engaging and I have no idea why, but glad I found it

This week the Grandma that lives next door gave us the little Tikes workshop with all the tools and everything. I gave her a loaf of homemade bread. She seems to think we both benefited. It's out of her storage area and she got bread. I still think I got the better end of the deal. A new toy and a cool one at that. It is like the kitchen in that it is already giving me at least 1/2 hour of peace and quiet at a time. Whitney and Tucker both love it. Daddy also really liked playing with it when he came home. I invited the neighbor over to watch the kids see it for the first time, but I really should have invited her over for when Jim saw it for the first time. It's been an awesome week.

Since it is has been drier this week, I've been slowly trimming a weeping cherry tree we have in our front yard. It is old and big and looks like it should be a shower of pink blossoms, but last year I was dismayed in the few blooms it had. I found out it has a lot of dead wood. So I set about to prune it before it gets too late in the year. Most of the time, I could just knock the branch off instead of having to cut it. Saturday I took advantage of nap time, sunshine and Jim being inside with the babies to really finish the job. I cut two really big branches, having to get Jim to help me finish them off. He kept saying things like "Are you sure you know what you are doing?" and "shouldn't we wait to see what stuff is really dead?" and "why do you want those branches off?.... It's because they are the wrong shape??!!" I was up higher in the tree doing more pruning while he finished those branches off for me and it looked great from up there as far as dead material gone and the shape of the whole thing. I was really excited!! And then I got down and realized how much of the tree was on the ground as I hauled it to the green waste pile. I started getting really discouraged that I had killed it at this point. Then the Grandma next door came out and was really excited about all the work and commented on how nice it all looked. I felt encouraged. We'll see if I killed it in a few months. I would be really sad if it died. It is a beautiful tree.