Daily life and life with Dad

Whitney giving mouse and fuzzy gorilla rides in their buses.

Tucker was very amused with all my canning rings

I asked Tucker to show me his arm filled with all my canning rings, but he didn't get it, so I showed him

Then Whitney wanted me to take a picture of her arm because she was showing me her arm, just like I asked Tucker.

Whitney in her "house"

Whitney fast asleep with her wings on

Tucker giving Big Fish a bath.  Since big fish went belly up, Daddy tried to find the holes in water.  Tucker was very accomodating.  He got the water started for Big Fish's bath and was very adept in using the shower hose.

full body of Whitney asleep with her wings on

Making a pile of bubbles with the bubble machines that papa got them

Tucker rinsing Big Fish

Monday and Tuesday were great days for me.  They played very nicely for most of the mornings on both of these days.  That means I got a ton of housework done and even got to can blackberry jam the next day because all the usual stuff was done already.  They wanted to play inside, even though it was nice out.  I think they missed their toys and last week I had pulled out a few new ones, so they were playing with those a bunch. 

In the evening on Monday, we went and picked blackberries.  They were the first of the season and most of them were a bit tart and not quite ripe.  As we pulled away from picking, I hadn't gotten my seat belt on after buckling them in.  Whitney yelled out to Jim, who was driving: "stop, papa, stop!  Wait for Mommy to get buckled!"  She used all those words and knew the rule of the safetey belt.  It made Jim laugh that so much could come out of her in her cute little voice, so he stopped and waited. 

Tucker has been anxious lately that Daddy will leave him.  As soon as Daddy is in view, he is right by him.  This made for some crazy scratches and scars on blackberry picking night.  Tucker followed Jim right into the bushes a few times until his was so scratched up and frustrated that Jim finally sat on the grass and let Tucker snuggle him.  Tucker is a cute little snuggler.  During the day he often comes over to give me some squeezes and says "mommy, mommy, mommy" in an affectionate voice that wins me over every time. 

When he gets out of the bath, he is very careful now.  He used to like to jump on his towel, but the towel is often over my legs at some point.  Now, when he jumps out, he is careful not to jump on me and says "don't jump on Mommy!" just like I say it when he jumps on me and hurts me.

His new favorite songs are I am a child of God and I feel my savior's love.  A very welcome break from Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam.  Although, every time he wants to play the piano, he picks the Sunbeam song first out of the book. He likes to play on the keys and sing at the same time with music up.  It's something Whitney likes to do, so he mimics her.

Another thing he does to mimic whitney that cracks us up is holding his hair back.  If she doesn't have a hair bow in, she'll hold her hair back to eat or get a drink from the water fountain.  So Tucker holds his hair the very same manner.  Except his hair isn't long.  Cracks us up.

This past week our neighbor was on vacation, so we watered her flowers.  The first day I did it, but after that, the babies took over the task in a team.  Whitney would tell Tucker which flowers to water and how long and Tucker would water them with skill.  It went like this:  "Tucker, Tucker, this one!" and he would run over with the hose and say "Oh! Yeah! This one!" Then they would watch for the water to fill up in the dirt.  It was really cute to see them work together.  I didn't ever need to correct them!

Tuesday I went and got my hair cut while one of their favorite babysitters, Brynn, came over.  Brynn said Tucker showed her his big bed like he was really proud of it.  I'm not sure why he was showing it to her.  He doesn't really like to sleep in it.  I find him anywhere but in his bed.  He is often snuggled up against Whitney's bed on the floor when I go to check on them at night.  On Tuesday I walked in when I thought they were asleep.  Tucker wasn't asleep.  He popped up when I walked in and said "Hi Mom!"  Except I got a bit a confused because the hi mom was coming from Whitney's bed.  I walked over to check things out.  Whitney was asleep at the foot of her bed and he was near her pillow.  He said to me: "I'm sleeping in Whitney's bed!".  I relocated him, much to his dismay.

Whitney kept trying to convince Brynn to watch a movie.  She said she wanted to watch frogs (the letter factory movie that has frogs as the main charactor).  Brynn had no idea what that was so she kept repeating herself.  Jim says she does the same thing to him.  "Papa, I want to watch..... I want to watch.... Jonah!" or whatever movie she wants to watch.

Wednesday we did a bit of yard work in the morning.  I raked up all the holly berry leaves.  Those suckers are deadly.  They fall in early summer.  you know.  When no other leaves fall.  I don't get that about them.  Their leaves fall between pinecone season and pine needle season.  There is always something to rake up around here.  I rake those up because the leaves are very spiny.  When I walk back there, the leaves stick in my shoes like thumbtacks.  A little painful to fall on or brush against, so I got rid of them.  I use a big dust pan with the rake to pick them up to put them in the green waste.  It was really cute because Whitney got her mini rake and dust pan and mimicked my actions exactly, including how I hold the pan and rake together to put it in the trash.  She wanted to be lifted up to put it in the garbage can.  Once Tucker saw that something was going in the garbage can, he wanted to do it, too.  He loves to open the lid and throw things away in the trash.  He stopped riding around on Whitney's barbie bike and filling its trunk with apples to yank Whitney's dust pan away.  We're working on taking turns or trading.

With all this working on trading, one day Whitney did a most excellent trade to get something she wanted from Tucker, and ran over to tell me.  "Mom, I traded!  I'm sharing!"  She was very proud of herself and so was I.

Whitney loves to dance and watch me dance.  One day she brought in her Farmer Tadd toy and said "Hey!  Do you want to dance?"  Who could resist!

Thursday and Friday were actually kind of warm.  I actually got hot.  We ate cereal two days in a row for dinner.  Thursday we filled up our wading pool.  The babies put their small chairs they usually push around in the pool and sat relaxing.  Good idea!  Tucker couldn't get to sleep that night due to the heat, so I gave him an ice pack to sleep with.  He loved it and finally could settle down to sleep.

Friday we went to the beach and pretty much lived in the water the whole time.  Tucker practiced throwing rocks. It amazes me how much aim and throwing distance he has.  Reminds me of Scott in that regard.

He still loves mechanical things.  His new favorite thing is to go in the bathroom, shut the door and lock it.  He prefers our pocket door, so he always wants to go to the bathroom in our bathroom......  but at least he always shuts the door.  Maybe I'll get my privacy back??

This weekend I went to a continuing education course, which meant I was gone all day Saturday and Sunday.   Daddy had the kids and boy did they have fun.

Friday after work he got all prepared.  He went to the store and got all sorts of snacks.  Yummy things like potato chips, salsa, bean dip, hummus, pre-cut mangos and cantelope, manderin orange cups, jello cups, fruit roll up things and some doughnuts.  Everything wasn't too bad because he went to Trader Joes for all that except the doughnuts and there were doughnuts left over.  He also stopped at Fred Meyer and had a blast in the half off summer stuff isle.  I think he bough 2 of each sale item.  2 kites, 2 bubble blower machines, only one football.  He wanted to take them to the coast and fly kites, but yesterday was 60 degrees.  Bummer.  It has been sunny most days since the end of June, so I think he thought it was going to stay like that.  But not on his weekend.  So they went to 4 different playgrounds throughout the day instead.  And they went to Jack in the Box for dinner.  All in all a very fun day for them.  Tucker passed out at 8:40.  Good job, Daddy!!

Sunday was church.  Not too bad.  They were dressed appropriately and probably got there on time, knowing Jim.  Jim took him barefoot on purpose because his sandels stunk so bad.  Tucker got them wet the day before at the park.  He remembered Whitney's brush, but not her hair bow.  That's ok.  Her hair bows fall out a bunch anyway.  Pretty good!

Jim said Saturday morning when they woke up, he asked them what they wanted for breakfast.  Tucker said "Ummmmm...... GOLDFISH!"  Whitney responded by saying, "No Tucker, Mommy says oatmeal".  Go girl!

Some of my favorite things to come home to was to hear Jim talk to me about the babies and the cute stuff they did with him.  Here's what he noticed:

Tucker fights with Whitney a bunch and gets in trouble for all the fighting.  Jim said he was trying to teach Tucker to keep his hands to himself.  This will most likely be an ongoing battle until Tucker is about 16 or so.  Because of the fighting, there was a lot of screaming.  I can understand that.  Although it amazes me that Jim thought there was a lot of screaming with all the fun stuff they did.  Sounds to me that it would be a less screaming day. 

He thinks Whitney is getting close to "making up stories".  He said there were several times during the day that Whitney would do something a little wrong, then say Tucker did it.  He also noticed if he was getting after Tucker about not doing something, Whitney would come over and remind him verbally that she wasn't doing that particular behavior.  Jim worries that she isn't getting enough attention because she is behaving better.  Yep.  A struggle for me too, to pay attention to Whitney and ignore Tucker when he is doing something really annoying.

I noticed that the babies defer to whoever they were with the most, even when we were both in the room.  Usually they ask me for food, or a paper towel, more juice or to go to the bathroom, etc.  But since Jim was the one around the most, even though I was home before bedtime, they asked Jim for all that.  Talk about heavenly!!  I ate 2 dinners sitting down and eating all of it in a row, nice and hot.  So nice!  I also noticed that Jim commented a couple of times both days how tired he was.  Reality will come back tomorrow, but it sure was a nice, lovely, intellectual break.

Most of the pics and videos are on Jim's phone this week, so there will probably be a different post for that.