I had a great day today, but now I can't talk

She loves her pillow

Tucker has chocolate on his face from the party treats

Whitney let no chocolate escape

This was actually fun.....for us not the busboys

playing at the beach three days after winter jackets.  Welcome spring

more cuteness

picking sand out of his mouth unsuccessfully

burying himself

I had a great day today, even if I was getting sick all day.  Toward the end, I finally couldn't physically talk.  The only bummer about that is that I love to chat it up with people and couldn't, even though I really wanted to.

It started out great.  It was sunny, Mina brought me up a surprise.  The babies only screamed during breakfast and Whitney screamed when leaving the park, but no other screaming.  They took a nap today.  It was a bit forced.  I drove for 1/2 hour for them to get to sleep, but either way, there was a nap, which means a lot less grumpy the rest of the day.  Two friends treated me and my kids to lunch.  That was a double special treat.  Not only did I have yummy food, but I also didn't have to cook or clean up after my kids.  Poor busboys.  The restaurant should be recommended, just because they accommodated a party of nine, 6 kids under the age of 3.  Whitney and Tucker both chowed down

After lunch and nap, we went to the local beach park.  Tucker and Whitney filled the bucket a bunch, threw rocks in the water, ate fish crackers for snack and we all basked in the sun.  Glorious.  Whitney had a fit all the way to the car.  She didn't want to say bye-bye to the playground.  A dad stopped and talked to Whitney.  He had a 10 month old in his arms.  He asked Whitney if she was ok and introduced his son.  I wasn't sure if he thought I was kidnapping her or if he just wanted to try to calm her down.  I got the feeling he thought I was kidnapping her.  Tucker looks like me, but Whitney looks like Daddy, so he might have been trying to check things out.  She was definitely hamming it up.  I think she screamed at the top of her lungs for the 15 long minutes it took to walk up the hill while she was having a fit. 

While she was screaming, Tucker was saying things like "oh look! Agua!" and "bye-bye playground" and watched a frisbee being thrown by another girl and her dad.  But the cutest was he said was "Oh! Tiene hambre, Whitney?"  He said it with such compassion, like he had figured out why she was so upset and he could offer her food to feel better.  It was very cute.  Especially since most the time when he's that upset it's because he is hungry.

Once she ate dinner, we had a blast again.  So Tucker was right.  She played with her butterfly wings, Tucker read "one drum"  book.  he can turn the pages and mimic the rhythms of the words pretty well.  Tucker gave me a jovial rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with his soy milk covered spoon keeping the beat.  Yep.  Gave them "o's" for the lazy dinner tonight.

I also was in contact with a bunch of close friends and family, which was awesome. And it was sunny.  Very lovely day.

Last week was cold and rainy, so we stayed in a bunch.  I bought an apple tree last Saturday.  On Sunday, three deer showed up and left footprints all around my tree that had yet to leaf out.  So I put up a deer fence in between temper tantrums and rainstorms.  Took me until Thursday to finish, but no lost leaves to deer.  The bunnies also hopped around the yard to check things out, but couldn't reach.

Tucker is really getting sentences out and his own thoughts expressed.  One day he pointed to the flowers and said "oh no! Flores!"  I didn't understand him for a few times, but he finally pointed to the flowers that had wilted until I figured it out.  He was very concerned for them and that I needed to know about them to help them out.

Tucker also played Grand Old Duke fully by himself.  He even did the rolls to the left, right, upside down and the knee bends while he sang the song.  He did it with one of the baby dolls.  Then he gave the other baby doll a turn.  He also tells me to "stop it, mom" and to "let go" if he wants to do it by himself.

Another time Tucker climbed up to play on the piano.  He was playing nicely on the keys and singing Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam.  Then he did it again, so I peeked in and saw that the book was open to that song.  Pretty cute, even if I'm not sure if it is coincidence or not.  He will sing in his crib up to an hour, instead of napping.

He is continuing to wrap my friend around his finger.  One time we left the house and he said "Buscamos Lorena".  He also said it before church and couldn't wait to see her.

Whitney's sentence structures and communication has also taken off this week.  I feel like this week every day was different as far as how well she could put together full sentences and communicate her ideas.  Here are some examples.

I picked up some chocolate chips at the store this week.  Whitney said "I want to hold it, Mom".  She then kept trying to pull the chocolate chip cookies off the picture and said " Mom, I want to eat it."  Yeah, me too, Whit.  She also told Tucker to "bite it" when she was sharing food with him and feeding it to him.

One day we went to the playground and when we pulled up she said "a different playground".  She also wants the Sunbeam song on repeat for going to sleep.

She loves to shop.  We finally found her Sunday shoes and she was so excited to hold the bag.  She also loves to give the clerk the products to buy.  And, hold on to your pocket book Mommy, because there are two pages in two different books that talk about buying stuff.  One is from the book "Life is Great at Grandma's".  In it, it says that "if she takes you shopping, she will probably buy a treat".  Another one is about daddies and it says "daddy will buy your favorite treat".   She smiles and grins at both pages rather big.

She is also a big helper.  She cleans up without asking often.  She also got the diaper rash cream when I asked her to get it.  She knew right where it was and brought it right to me.  She is mastering stirring.  One morning she even stirred the pancake batter without spilling once.

They went to their first little kid birthday.  I guess they had a great time.  After we left, Tucker kept saying "buscamos jake's".  Whitney said "Whitney happy at Jake's"  Jake was the birthday boy.  I did feel really bad for Tucker.  He was in time out for 10 minutes at the party by accident.  He hit someone, but I didn't have a timer, so he was so good in time out, I forgot to get him out.  Poor kid.  He gave me a big hug and a smile anyway.  They had a blast.