Aunt B

We've had a lot of fun with Aunt B.  Whitney could hardly wait for her to get here.  I told her Aunt B was coming to help her make her birthday, so once Aunt B was here, Whitney was ready to get started.  She even mentioned it to a mom of one of her playmates on her own.  This mom asked me when I got back from a bathroom break with Tucker if Whitney's birthday was soon. I guess that was what Whitney was telling her.  Then Whitney proceeded to launch into the whole story of how when Aunt B comes, Aunt B will help her make her birthday and then go home.

Last week Tucker and Whitney had a lesson on reverence in church.  Something about talking quietly.  It had the opposite affect this week in church.  Tucker yelled "the A says aahh!" really loud once and they were both meowing a bit loudly in between using their regular voices the rest of the time.  But they were playing nicely and not laughing hysterically, so I guess maybe it did work.

Tucker had a blast playing potato sack, luggage, drag the luggage, hammock and horsie with Aunt B.  Mommy doesn't play that wild.  Even Aunt B commented on how her neck and back hurt a bit after.  Aunt B put her legs up as a bridge and invented toll bridge.  She told Whitney it would cost 2 cookies.  Whitney looked at her, like, are you serious.  Then went in the kitchen and got 2 cookies for her.  B said just kidding.

We've been laughing at the silly stuff they say.  Whitney was having a fit about something in the bathroom.  I think Tucker flushed the potty for her and she wanted to do it.  She was on the floor screaming.  She had been screaming a bunch today.  Really tired, I guess.  I could tell she was just having a fit and consolation was not going to work, so I left her in there to cry it out.  Tucker kept opening and shutting the door.  Each time he opened the door he would check on her and say "are you done screaming?  No?  Ok." and shut the door again.  Then he started trying to help her by saying, "Whitney, pull up your panties" or "Whitney do you want Meow, Meow?"  He said everything in such a sweet voice, showing his concern for her.  But it cracks me up because he is just parroting what I say to them.

Tucker reading with a Joy school buddy curious george

Whitney's pedi

Tucker receiving his balloons from Grandma

Tucker's blue for Tucker pedi

When we got home from church, Aunt B was baking double choco chip cookies.  yum!  Fastest they've changed their clothes and washed their hands after church, a requirement to help Aunt B.   But I had made them a grilled cheese sandwich to eat for lunch.  Aunt B asked Tucker if he had room for a grilled cheese sandwich after eating half a cantelope.  He said no.  But then she asked if he had room for a cookie and he said yes.  Hmmmm...  That didn't even pass the auntie test.  He didn't get a cookie, until later.

Mommy with her big kids

Tucker being cute trying to give Whitney a hug and Whitney wants nothing to do with it.

Aunt B will let him hug her!

"This one has a band-aid

Cupcake and sprinkle prep

After bath snuggle

With "phone"

Tucker showing his chocolate hands.  He loved eating his b-day candy bar for morning snack

The only one who wanted to take a family pic was Mommy

We're cute.  Whitney keeps biting her lip.  It has created a third lip, not a juice mustache  Jim calls her a clown

Papa had to blow on each bite

so yummy!

riding with aunt B

Tucker was so excited he blew out the candles.  he kept saying I did it!  The next time he got a cupcake, he wanted candles to blow out again

Finished product

Whi

on the train with Daddy

Whitney clutching her ticket

More Mommy and Whitney

If anyone doubts Tucker looks like my family, take a peek at this photo.  These guys definitely look related

Tucker adding glow sticks to lanterns all by himself

Whitney and happy about birthday cupcake

So excited about cherry on top of cupcake

Putting on lotion

We had a lot of fun together celebrating.  We went to the potsticker place for lunch and Daddy got them smoothies (real ones that have sugar in them) to go with the meal. We also rode the escalators and the light rail together, just for fun.  We ended with fried food, Tucker's request, including french "cries" (fries).  The cupcakes were a hit.  They ate the T's and W's covered in sprinkles off first after blowing out candles.  We also played "aliens" with the lights off  with glow sticks around their necks.

While Jim and I were trying to coordinate something during the day, his phone cut out during me calling him and I thought he had screened my call.  I said "Did you just screen my call?" out loud and heard  them saying the exact same thing..... over and over and over.  But then they switched topis. There was a seagull on top of a light, doing what seagulls do best.  Pooping.  So I said the seagull was pooping.  Then every seagull was pooping....

When Tucker opened presents earlier, he picked one up and starting pulling off the tape saying, "This one has a band-aid"  One of his presents was a calculator.  When he pulled it out, he said "Oh! it's a phone!" After I showed him how some of it works, he started saying "number 1, number 2, number 3, etc" as he pressed each key and saw how the numbers came up on the calculator.  But then he got a bit frustrated with the division key.  He kept pressing it, but nothing happened!

We wrapped up a bunch of glow sticks, all individually.  On his second gift of that, Tucker felt the package and said "It's a blow stick (what he calls glow sticks)" before opening it.  Already learning the art of knowing what's in the package.

When we rode light rail, we saw some pigeons on the opposite railway while at a stop. Tucker and Whitney were very concerned for those pigeons.  They were telling the pigeons to be careful and fly away so  they wouldn't get squished.  They were quite relieved when some of them flew away, but kept track of the remaining ones until they all flew away.  Later on the trip the train rocked back and forth on the track and it was bumpy.  So Jim made the comment that we were "squishing birds"  Lovely.  They kept repeating that for every bump along the way.  "...We're squishing birds!......"

When they were decorating cupcakes in preparation, we kind of had some issues with the coloring of the frosting.  Finally B gave up trying to get the frosting red.  It looked like a darker pink, not red.  So she just re-taught Tucker the definition of the color red.  He totally went for it.  Then they had a great time putting on sprinkles.  And eating the ones that fell on the counter.

Aunt B got me started on painting my room.  I finally got the paint for the samples I put on the wall 2 years ago.  When we went to get paint, Tucker lugged one of the bags out.  He had to work a bit to lift it off the ground, but didn't seem to be concerned about holding the bag.  One of the 5 items was a quart of paint.  No problem, in addition to the other awkward items in the bag.

She also did my scrapbooking since the big kids turned 1.  2 projects I've been dragging my feet on for 2 years. 

In general, it has been lovely to have another adult in the house for five days.  And even better that it was a woman.  When she left, I noticed the toilet paper roll had been replaced. The sheets were folded.  During her visit I went to go do the dishes or some other chore like laundry, and find it was already done.  Ha!  It was lovely!  

Whitney does not like that her name is Brittany.  The few times I called her Brittany, Whitney corrected me in a mad voice that her name is WHIT-ney.  Whatever.  I just stuck to B or Aunt B most of the time.

They made party lanterns, an idea Whitney got out of a library book.  She loved making those things with Aunt B.  They made some before our outing to the ping pong place and some when they got back, but Whitney would have preferred to have stayed home.  It was hard for me to get her out to the car, because she wanted to stay inside to make more lanterns.  On our drive home, she was reviewing the order of errands and emphasizing when we got home, she could make more lanterns.  She was also ready to go home a lot sooner than Tucker, reminding us on the way out that she was ready also to make more lanterns.

When we went to the ping pong ball place, they were both disappointed that the balls labeled 1 and 2 were not available to chase through the pipes.  I finally told them they were taking a bath.  So every time they couldn't find the ball they were looking for, Tucker would say it was in the bath.  They finally decided on 42 and 10, since there was a 1 and a 2 in there.  Tucker had ball 42 and Whitney 10.  Aunt B had 46.  Tucker and Aunt B played together for  awhile and Tucker looked for her ball, too, when it went back into the "ocean"  Every time he would exclaim the number written on the ball.

When Whitney woke up on her birthday, she remembered.  While going potty, she commented on how she was big because she was three and Tucker was still little.

Whitney told me going to bed on her birthday that she was excited for me to make her scarf so she could wear it and not be cold near the pot sticker place.  True.  It is very drafty outside that restaurant's doors. 

They still quote a bunch from books, which crack me up.  When we drive around town, Whitney and Tucker both often say Stop, Mommy stop the light is red.  Then when the light changes, Go Mommy go it's green ahead, straight out of Go Dog Go book.  Tucker also randomly says Oh dear!  What a shame, What a shame, from Cat in the Hat.

While cooking dinner this week, they played train and car and shopping cart with their plastic white chairs on their side.  I got lots of conversation about parking the car in the parking lot, then going in and using the shopping cart to put some favorite items in it.  Yogurt, cheese, cupcakes, cookies...

One morning this week Tucker woke up saying Bash the burrito and laughing hysterically.  Whatever, but he woke up happy as usual.  This day Tucker was so polite and kind to Whitney.  He was hammering at his work bench and glanced behind him to tell Whitney "Careful!  I'm working!".  Then he hammered a bit, stopped and looked back at Whitney again saying "thank you for watching me", just how I did with them when I was using the Saws-all outside.

Whitney invented pushing their blankets in their soft chairs, calling them strollers.  Then they parked their strollers and started eating with their blankets.  Whitney said "This restaurant is really good!"  She really likes good food.  And going out to eat.  But I also think she is missing summer because they played that they went to the beach and put on their swimsuits.

Whitney wanted to make a tent and instructed me on the kind of tent she wanted.  But then Tucker wanted to play with her creation.  When the tent was made, Tucker came over and said "Wow!  Cool! A tent!" in such an excited voice (how does he know the word cool and to use it so well in context?) that made me laugh.

Monday we decided to make cookies.  Whitney was having a great time participating in making cookies this week.  I was trying to finish something else, but she really wanted to get started on the cookies, so I started talking her through getting out all the ingredients.  She was really good at it.  All I had to do was ask her to get out another ingredient, and she knew where it was.  She also was able to start the safe steps.  To soften the butter, she put the bowl on the stool and pushed the stool over to the microwave and put the bowl in.  Now I know she has even better helping skills.  Tucker ran over the receipe book with Tank.

Ryan.  To answer your question about when I would stop calling the babies babies.  It's now.  They don't let me call them babies, because they are big kids now.