strawberries

All the friends playing nicely on the piano.

I see this scene A LOT.  He is lining up his cars to play "big bump, bump" like the speedbumps in the parking lot.  Now he is lining up multiple cars instead of one.

Tucker in the berry field

No sippy cup!

The after effects

Whitney helping Mommy sort rocks

Whitney at the berry field

Pausing to watch fish with their own shopping carts

Tucker with his

Pushing her own shopping cart

Relaxing and eating snack together.

Eating snack outside.  Whitney made herself a snack tray with a plant liner that held her cracker bag and sippy cup

Whitney in a very cute moment, minutes before "THE DUCK"

Tucker had fun pulling these guys up and down the driveway.  I think he was having fun with the skill of pulling two at once.

We found this one of the first nights after getting a big bed.  I think he was looking for the crib effect.

Whitney made her "bed" on the floor and was pretty proud of it.  She did end up falling asleep in it.

We found this, amongst the tornado that hit the room.  more on this later.

Whitney taking a nap.  Big mistake as it pushes bedtime to 10 pm but sure made for a very pleasant Sunday afternoon

Tucker ran to the window to watch "annabells" drive away.  His first attempt of saying his new friend's name was "Jinglebells Whitney" (all little girls are called Whitneys instead of girls)

Playing in their tunnels with the couch pillows.  I was taking a shower and they were playing with Daddy during the time.  I came out and found this picture of cuteness.  They were both very content and singing.

This week was a pretty happy week compared to the last couple of weeks.  We had intermittant sunshine, including one full day of bright blue skies.

On the sunny day we went to  an awesome beach park a friend recommended.  It has bathrooms, including a rinse off sand shower and a changing bench, a huge playground, a dock, shallow water that gradually gets deep for several feet off the shore and a stream that feeds into it, not to mention the usual trees and view of the mountains.  I love this park!  We stayed a very long time that day and it was so lovely.

The next park was a bit more of a memorable park.  It also has bathrooms nearby with a changing bench and has some sand.  There is a playground on the beach itself, which is pretty cool.  We met up with some friends there and started eating lunch.  The day wasn't as warm, but we pretended it was anyway.  The picture of Whitney holding her bread sitting crosslegged on the towel is that beach.  That picture of Whitney was snapped right before THE DUCK came over.  There was this really aggressive mother duck there.  I've decided she must have been pregnant or something.  She came waddling up really close to us and I thought for sure it would vear away since we are bigger.   Nope.  That duck saw that bread in Whitney's hand and went for it, and Whitney held on to it really tight.  The duck ended up jumping on Whitney's legs and over Whitney, continually biting at the bread (and Whitney's fingers and arm) until I chased it off.  It took a lot of work to chase that duck off into the water.  It didn't want to give up.  Poor Whitney was bawling her head off on her towel, scared to death.  I don't blame her.  I was scared that duck wasn't going to go away.  All the families on the beach starting eating lunch like us in the next 1/2 hour and so all the moms were on duck duty, chasing that duck repeatedly into the water.  All the other kids were scared of the duck as soon as it came over to their picnic area.  What an adventurous lunch time.  I was really wishing Hoppy and the dogs were there that day.  That duck would have been dinner.

Then, after lunch, one of the kids that was with us started screaming while she was playing in the sand.  She had stepped into a puddle of water that they had made and there was a pokey fish skeleton in it that stuck into her foot pretty good.  That made Whitney afraid of all the plants floating in the water.  She thought her friend had stepped on a plant that was pokey.  This beach has a retaining wall where the water starts so that as soon as you get into the water it is 2.5 feet deep.  The kids reach over the wall with their buckets and scoop out the water onto the sandy area on the other side of the wall.  The only problem with that is the way the bay, wall and dock area is set up, is also a perfect set up to collect all the nasty bits from the lake.  There were tons of plants, pollen, dead fish, sticks, floating bits of bark, etc collecting against that wall.  The fish probably got there because a kid had previously scooped up a dead fish in the water and dumped it into the sand.  Really, really gross.

Tucker and Whitney wanted to get into the water, but with the depth, that meant I had to get in, too.  I put their life jackets on and cleared out a spot in the water so I could see my feet.  When we got in, Tucker had so much fun jumping up and down, running in the water and splashing.  He could have done that all day.  Whitney and I, however, were swishing dead plants, fish and pollen out of our little circle area of clean water the whole time.  She got cold and I got grossed out, so we got out, much to Tucker's dismay.  I probably won't go back to that park again.  It's for the birds/ducks.

This whole week was another week of adventure because of big beds.  They haven't gone to bed before 9:30 this week because of all the excitement and there have been nights until 10 or 10:30.  Really annoying.  They started pulling stuff out of the closet because I confiscated toys and books in bed. Tucker was throwing them either at Whitney or the window.  We also had to put batteries in the radio and get a flashlight lantern thing as a night light because he pulled the radio off the dresser, pulled out the cord and started hitting Whitney with the cord.  He was throwing the nightlights after unplugging them at the window.  This kid is a terror.  Once I took all that away, Tucker's favorite thing to do is pull out this purple dress of Whitney's and put it on.  I'm not sure why.  I think it is purely because he can reach the dress and it can be put on independently.  We have found him asleep with it on several times.  They really like not sleeping on their beds, but on the floor. Whitney makes a nest on the floor that she likes to sleep on.  Sunday they fell asleep eating lunch, so, knowing they weren't going to bed before 10 regardless of a nap or not, I let them sleep an hour.  It was so nice!

We had some people over that brought Annabelle, their 3 1/2 year old.  That turned out to be a great success.  Tucker and her play so well together.  She is older and taller than him and doesn't mind the tackle hugs she gets, unlike Whitney.  She thought all of Tucker's games were great and hysterical.  It was so nice to have Tucker play with someone else and not have to break up fights with him biting whitney all night.  Whitney liked it, too.  When they left, Tucker ran to the window to watch them go away.  He called her Jinglebells Whitney at the first attempt at her name, but now has it down to Annabelles.  In case you are wondering, all little girls are called Whitney and all little boys are called Tucker.

We got some shopping in during the raining days.  The mini shopping carts at petco were awesome.  The babies were really good at following me.  They felt so big.  Whitney was really getting the hang of it as she saw a really cute calender and wanted to "put it in" the cart.  Tucker was having too much fun looking at stuff and driving it that he couldn't always steer it away from the shelves.  There is a long pole and a flag on top of the pole so a parent can look over the shelves and see where the cart is.  He kept getting the pole stuck on overhanging displays.  It looked a bit like those rat mazes where you can't see the rat, just the pole and the flag sticking up.  Made me laugh.

We went strawberry picking as our family activity on Saturday.  The weather was iffy, but, it wasn't raining yet, so we went anyway.  Tucker and Whitney were both really good at picking strawberries this year.  They knew only to pick the rojo ones.  Some of them were over ripe and moldy, so I showed that to Whtiney.  She got really good at saying, Mom, it's moldy! if I didn't see it on the other side.  We didn't stay too long because all of a sudden a thunderstorm blew in.  I mean, all of a sudden.  When it started raining, we started walking back to the car and got completely soaked through our jeans and underwear.  Tucker hated walking in the rain because it kind of hurt with the big drops and all.  It made for slower going.  Whitney figured out how to use my body as a shelter for her face and didn't whine at all.  When we finally got back to the car, my sweatshirt was dripping off on to them, getting them more wet. I couldn't believe how wet we got in such a short amount of time.

Tucker and Whitney are getting really good at singing.  They have started singing to music on the radio or on the computer.  They sing to each other at night and sometimes sing together.  Whitney tries to sing with Daddy when he sings, but sometimes gets thrown off if he sings the words or notes different than what she originally learned.  They are catching on.

Whitney is my little helping bear.  I'm trying to move a bunch of rocks around in the yard, and Whitney helps me fill my bucket with the appropriated sized rocks in my bucket and smaller ones in her bucket.  She also occasionally helps me weed.

When we had friends over this weekend, we tried playing games that had little tiles.  That got a bit frustrating as the babies wanted to play, too.  Then we gave them some to play with and they went off and cooked them in their kitchen.  Much better.  Jim got a great idea to get a 1000 piece puzzle out for them to cook with.  It did work as far as distracting them, but that also included 1000 pick up.

potty training and camping....

Tucker moving big fish around the house

whitney climbing expertly out of the crib

Whitney ran over to get her toy drill to help Daddy fix it when he started working with his drill.

Tucker does this endlessly on the floor with all different autos and on the transition to the kitchen as well as on the dishwasher.

the one sunny warm day we had at our house.  We pretended it was warm enough for shorts.  First day for potty training for tucker.  We ate lunch outside for obvious reasons

"I've got this, Dad"  (taking apart his crib)

The next series of pictures are of Tucker and Whitney rock climbing with Daddy at the ward camp out.

Whitney was totally doing this herself until she slipped and fell.  Usually that means a serious disaster at the playground, so she was spooked after that, but she did get about Jim's head, pretty high for a little one like that.

Tucker was eating chips while Whitney was on the wall.

Tucker tried it too, but didn't ever actively climb.  He just liked posing for the camera and swinging from the rope.

Totally crashed on the way home from the camp out.

Tucker's preferred sleeping position

Whitney fell asleep after church today reading.

Daddy's solution to the problem of Whitney wanting more "jugo" from the watermelon

The cart ride back to the tent after the water time.

Tucker did this.  Doesn't this look familiar.......

You're right.  These items don't really go well together.

This week after Jim got back from his trip, we got down to business and I started potty training Tucker.  He was showing signs.  Like, during lunch when he still had a diaper, saying he wanted to get out so he could go poop and low and behold, poop in the diaper.  Plus he was getting really good at holding it so he could get a treat (and Whitney, too) right before bath after using the toilet.  Another sign is that Whitney started having more accidents on days I didn't give her a treat for going potty like I did for Tucker.  This time I did the training.

Potty training someone who has had a life sized model for 8 months was way, way easier.  Not to mention he is eight months older than her.  Plus, an added factor is Tucker really hates being dirty or wet for any matter, and poop in the pants is on the list.  So he picked it up really fast.  So fast, in fact, that we decided to go to the ward camp out this weekend.

He is just like his Aunt B.  Deathly afraid of pit toilets.  In fact, when Jim tried to take him in one, he looked in and said "too big".  We only went for one night, but yesterday he held it from 1:30 to 7:30 pm.  And of course this kind of thing only means an explosion.  Now I know why moms with toddlers stay home from camping trips.  I gave up with the pit toilets and used froggy.  Much, much better.

The poop thing is one issue, although Whitney is a pro using any facility.  But the other issue is sleeping.  Once they got to sleep, they slept 9 hours, but they didn't go to bed until it was completely dark here.  11 pm.  You can only imagine. 

They actually were pretty well behaved, though for so little sleep.  It really helps when there are lots of things to do.  Fill and empty buckets with dirt, water, mud or rocks.  Go rock climbing with Dad.  Ride in a hand cart.  Sleep in a tee-pee.  Walk around a bunch.  Fight over who gets to sit in the red little chair.  Whitney spent a lot of time and energy trying to keep tucker out of and away from her chair. He spent just as much time and energy trying to sit in it without her looking or getting in trouble for just plain taking her down.

Around the campfire us adults were talking about all the funny stuff kids think up.  There were some pretty funny and cute things that were cracking us up.  I'm having a hard time thinking one up right now, but here are some things Whitney has said this week.  Tucker was really grumpy when we first got to the campsite.  That is, until we went to the waterfront.  On the way back from the water and we were in the car,  Whitney said "Mom, Whitney is happy.  Tucker is happy, too. He likes camping"  Tucker called the tee-pees temples and Whitney called it a pee-pee on the first attempt.

This week for some reason, she picked up on the name of a store and calls all stores this.  Mom, can you guess?  Costco (as in, the costco).  I think it has to do with all the food samples.  I give them several different ones and Whitney usually opens wide and says "Whitney likes it" after each trial while Tucker stares at it, backs his head back and smiles while adamantly shakes his head.  But Safeway and Albertson's are also Costcos.

This week we also took apart the cribs and gave them big beds.  I read somewhere that potty training reverts with big changes, so I thought, might as well do it all at once.  We'll see how that goes.  So far it's driving me crazy.  Since it's all new and exciting, they stay up really late at night jumping around on their beds and generally wreaking havoc.  There is also a lot of policing of the door for them not to open it and come out for whatever reason.  Tucker already figured out how to use those "baby lock" things for the doorhandles. Also, Tucker can't seem to handle staying in his bed.  We spent a couple of nights waking up every couple of hours due to a kid screaming at the top of his lungs.  Finally Jim got a picture of why.  He flings his head over the side.  What a crazy kid!  I think it must be a boy trait showing through.  Has to know where the boundaries are and always question them.  He definitely did not get that from me.

The past couple of nights they have been playing Tucker and Whitney doggie.  They act just like Oliver did when he was here.  Jumping up with their front "paws" on furniture, dogs, tables, you name it. Sammy is not amused.  Tucker pretends to call Oliver on his toy phone.  I think he was trying to get tips.

Today Tucker asked me to draw swing sets with sidewalk chalk outside on the driveway.  I drew about 5, when he suddenly stopped and looked around, asking for Whitney.  He then sat down on top of one of the swings, like he was pretending to swing, and pointed to the other saying "Whitney" letting me know that was her swing.  Pretty cute.

More adventures coming up next week....

adventures of grandma part II

We went to the zoo for (almost) free!  Whitney standing on her egg in the nest at the flamingo exhibit

I don't know how we got a picture of Whitney NOT petting the goat, because the whole time we were in the petting area, she was petting the goat.  Except right now.  Tucker wanted nothing to do with goat.  Looks like Rocky and Sammy.  Been there, done that. Don't be deceived by the sunlight.  It was absolutely freezing.

lunch with the elephants

This particular elephant doesn't like peels of bananas or oranges, so she peels them (most elephants eat them whole, along with eating whole trees).  Tucker must be a distant cousin

Pushing Grandma

Papa with all the goods.

Thinking about buying salmon

Grinding wheat with Papa to make bread.  Whitney watched for when the flour got too high and would rotate the bowl for Papa

Papa, Mom and Tucky at the waterfront.

Tucker had a blast with this display.  You could push buttons to move the boat back and forth, amongst other buttons to make things move.  Tucker was here a good 1/2 hour with no signs of leaving when we decided to leave the museum.  I'm sure if this was a toy at home, he would play with it until he had the thing figured out.  Whitney looked at display model boats and fish in the meantime.

Tucker doing pig nose with the small cups.  He looks so silly and knows it.

Whitney loves nests.  She also thinks all adult birds are flying around to make nests for their babies after we had some birds make a nest on our house.

Tucker and Grandma watching a delivery truck park in an amazingly small space.

This is what it looks like to sit down at a playground.  Papa and Tucky playing together.

The day Whitney learned how to climb out/in of cribs.  The game they invented since she could move in and out.  She would throw all the balls in, then her and Tucky would throw them out all over the room.

I think I left off on Monday.  Tuesday was a rainy day, and quieter.  We made bread as the highlight of the day and talked a bunch.

Wednesday was another adventure day.  I left the kids with my mom while I went to more appts and non-kid friendly activities, but in the middle of the day, we went to the park and Pike's market.  Papa liked the metal "statue".  There are various people that put on metallic looking clothes and face paint and alternate between moving and standing still.  When they stand still, they absolutely look like a statue. 

The best part was going home from Pike's market.  We had chocolate chip cookies for snack since Grandma was in town.  Tucker ate 5, Whitney 4.  Good thing we were on the way to the park so they could work off the sugar.  Mom commented on "how could life be better?" to Tucker eating cookies and driving through a tunnel.  Papa responded "eating cookies and going through a tunnel on a truck would be better".  That got us all laughing. But Whitney worked very serious and hard on those cookies.  And she knows the word chocolate very well now.  Today she wanted to put chocolate chips in the bread dough.

Thursday my mom and Papa left early in the morning before the babies woke up.  There were signs through the day and the days following that let me know they had had fun with our visitors.  The first thing noticed was that Oliver was gone.  Tucker spotted that the cage was gone from near the kitchen table and happily said "bye-bye Oliver!"  He wasn't too fond of Oliver and his jumping up or play-biting.  Like Papa said, Tucker only likes the middle of Oliver, not the head or the back.  But then when I called my mom to see how the drive was going, Tucker asked for the phone so he could "talk to Oliver".

When it was time to leave the house that morning, Tucker and Whitney both stood at the front door looking out, desperately wanted to go somewhere in "Grandma's auto".  They kept saying over and over  "Donde esta Grandma's auto?"  My mom might think that they only love her for her car, but Tucker got really upset later in the day because he couldn't find his toy truck and was certain he had left it in Grandma's auto.  Today Whitney got up and, without looking in the closet, asked to wear "grandma's ropa"  I thought she was asking to wear the dress Grandma had brought her, but she pointed to the shirt that has a Lil' Mischievous character face and blond hair.  While my mom had been here, my mom had pointed to the shirt's hair and said, "that's me", meaning the hair was the same color as hers.  And Whitney remembered.  She pointed to the hair a few times today and said "Grandma!", but then pointed to the eyes and said "Whitney".  True.  The character's face has dark eyes like Whitney.

Friday a friend that had left over city passes invited us to the zoo with her.  We didn't have to pay admission, only parking, which was great!  I'm glad she thought of me.  I think their favorite animals were the penguins.  They mentioned them to me later that night.  But Whitney remembered the chimpanzee and how he ate the cup.  She said "silly monkey, he ate the cup!" during bath.  So maybe those were the favorite?  I don't know.  They also spent a lot of time watching the elephants.  They were totally uninterested in the jaguar.  I guess it was because he was sleeping, but I was fascinated at how close to the window he was.  Whitney loved the bird nests.  Tucker was looking for the playground the whole time.  He isn't a zoo fan yet.
 
It never ceases to amaze me the memory a 2 year old can have.  Last night when we were reading books, she pointed to a book we got at the library only three days ago.  I only remember reading it to her once, but she pointed up and said "Let's count", which is the title to the book.  That same night when we were reading in the scriptures, we were talking about Jesus and she stopped, looked me in the eye and said "ouch Jesus" very seriously.  About three weeks ago in church we were looking at the pictures of Jesus in the gospel art book and had talked about the nail prints and spear mark scars and she had described them as "ouch Jesus".  And then remembered the pictures when we talked about it during scripture study.  Crazy!  Tucker may  not be as verbal, but he sure remembers how mechanical things work.

Tucker has picked up cheering for himself.  He usually says yeah Tucker whenever he does something by himself.  I have to admit, it's really cute.

I've decided to start a trial of potty training on Monday for Tucker.  Jim might have to finish the training when I run out of patience.  The thing that has finally motivated me was Tucky sitting on the potty today for 15 minutes in hope of a treat.  I don't know if he will stay potty trained once I discontinue the treats, but it's time to try.  Today he was eating lunch when all of a sudden he freaked out and started saying poop and sitting sideways in his chair.  I brought him to the changing table and took his diaper off and cleaned him off, then asked him if he wanted to finish in the toilet and he said yes, then he did!  He got a treat for that.  So that's where the idea of trying later that afternoon for a treat came from, I think.  I do think, though, he wet his diaper, just not getting to the potty in time, so the concept might be there.  Plus, Whitney has taken to having 1-3 accidents per day unless I give here stickers or a treat, just like Tucky.  She also asks for a diaper, "just like Tucky" when she has an accident.  My logic of saying she is a little girl because she can't keep her panties clean and dry isn't working because Tucker has diapers.  Enough.  We'll see how long it lasts, though.  Today I tried on his big boy pants and he didn't like the feel.  He asked for his diaper back.

I also took the front of Whitney's crib off since she just crawls out of it.  I was going to put them both in big beds once my company left, but I decided to see if that was a good idea by taking the front of her crib off.  Tucker asked to have his removed.  They also took a very long time to go to bed since Whitney was pulling the black out shade away from the window and doing who knows what else for an hour.  We just might start there.  Potty training first, then big bed.

It's fun to go through these milestones of talking.  Today Tucker dripped 2 smoothie drips on his tray right next to each other, then pointed to it and said "eight!"  He also was looking at his dry diaper he was carrying around and pointed to the back and said "five!", the size he is in diapers.  They also have a great time looking at cracker boxes and finding letter on them during meals.  Whitney was drawing circles all over the driveway.  She also drew a bunch of lines and pointed to them and said swings.  What was cool is that there were the right amount of lines and in the correct direction for a swing set.  Maybe she is my artistic baby and that's why she eats so messy.  We'll see.

Yesterday she made me laugh because they were downstairs "playing frogs"  We have small frogs carved out of some kind of rock, so of course Whitney likes to hold them.  Playing frogs means using them to role play something.  Yesterday she lined them up in front of some electronic device we have down there that has blue lights that flash intermittently.  She said they were "watching Elmo" (code for watching a movie or TV).  She then turned them around to face her and said "watching Whitney"

Even with all the craziness, they like to help each other, too.  Sometimes they will run from one end of the house and say "I want to help Whitney" or "I want to help Tucky".  It's usually simple stuff like opening the door to their room after a time out or getting a diaper for Tucky. It's really cute.  Today I put the toilet paper rolls back on the holders, so Tucker wanted to "help Whitney" in getting her toilet paper off.  Of course.  It's mechanical and I won't let him pull it all off, like he wants.

So, is it summer anywhere else?  I got a kick out of some of the pics where my mom and Grandpa are totally bundled up but Tucker and Whitney are wearing short sleeves.  Whitney has this new saying where, when I ask her if she wants to put her coat on, she says, no, I want to be cold.  I think she is tired of winter clothes, too.  I sure am.  And I refuse to buy them winter clothes for the summer.  That would really make me bitter.