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.