have I mentioned that tucker reminds me of Scott?

There were 5 kids under the age of 4 running around this day.  I volunteered to watch some kids.  Whitney was not amused.  She finally crawled up on the counter to read her Cat in the Hat book undisturbed.

Merrily popping bubble wrap that was to go around Christmas decorations.  Whatever.  It's what kept them from unpacking all the christmas stuff I just packed.  Do no be deceived by the sunshine.  If it is sunny, it is bitterly cold and everything is frozen.

Whitney loves how her shoes look.  Can't walk in them

Tucker with fancy shoes on.  Couldn't walk.  Did more skating on the floor than anything else

Tucker reading Cat in the Hat and saying "No, no Thing 2.  Don't bonk that!"

So I remember having a discussion with Ryan about kids.  He asked me something along the lines of had I thought about the consequences of having kids.  Like paying for stuff they wreck or break.  I told him it's a risk that comes with parenting that I wasn't too worried about.  Well, time to worry.

Some how Tucker (we think) threw a plastic drawer and broke the inside pane of our bathroom window.  I don't get it.  I was convinced that he threw his tank, but Tank was sitting on the counter "watching" and the drawer was on the floor.  Jim thinks he must have just hit it with the corner with the right amount of force.  And of course he wanted his drawer back to play with.  He also thought it was funny the window broke.  Grrrrrrr.....  He got put in time out for not listening about not throwing things, something I'm always getting after him for. But it was just an accident.  It amazes me how things happen so fast.  They were just playing, running from room to room like they always do when they are playing together.  Yet this time they broke glass.  Thank heavens they were far away from the glass!  And we also got lucky in that one of the panes is still intact, considering it's winter and all.

Today I was looking for the UPS store.  Couldn't find it.  I had forgotten to look up exactly where it was on the street.  So I started saying "UPS store, where are you?"  Whitney took up the chant until I gave up and turned around.  I told Whitney I couldn't find it and she said "I can't find it, either, Mom!"  Her earnestness in helping me came out in her tone of voice and made me laugh.

She was also very earnest this morning in response to something else I said.  She came over and slugged Tucker.  I told her she needed to go in time out for hitting him.  She said " I DON'T need to go in time out" in the same way I told her she did.  It was hard to resist the laugh and there's where it ended.  I had a hard time getting in time out after that.

She also has taken to picking stuff out to eat.  Drives me nuts.  For example, I ask her if she wants an apple or grapes and she says orange.  She does this most of the time.  She also says things like "I'm hungry for something else" when I make lunch.  It's usually yogurt.  The past couple of days she has taken to opening the fridge to look around and find something.  Grrr...  but then again she also puts her food in the refridgerator to "save it for later" when she gets full. Not such a bad thing, that she is helping me put away the food.

This week has been really cold.  Yesterday it finally warmed up and felt downright balmy after the previous days.  The temperature increased 20 degrees in one day.  It was so cold, even Tucker didn't want to be outside.  He asked to go inside after only 30 minutes of pushing the mop bucket around.  Amazing.  Then, amazing of all amazing, he went in his room BY HIMSELF and snuggled in his blanket to warm up for a half an hour. He usually is always with someone, either me or Whitney.  And this is with gloves, hat, jacket, etc, like we were going to the snow.

A great thing they both learned how to do this week is put on their gloves.  Hallelujah!!!  It takes forever, but it's getting faster each time.  I really didn't like putting on their gloves in addition to their socks, shoes, jacket and hat.  It takes forever to get suited up.  All for a half hour.  Whatever.  Sign me up for cabin fever instead.

I've decided to make the darkness fun.  We'll see how long these games last.  Around 4:30 or 5, I can turn all the lights off in the house and let them run around with glow sticks, (pronounced blow sticks for some reason by Tucker) their light up balls, or Turtle.  With Turtle, they take turns holding him and just literally running around the house.  So far, so fun.  It's also my method of them getting energy out when not one of us wants to be outside much, but we're all getting cabin fever.

We often have big branches fall in wind storms around here.  Makes me nervous.  All the pinecones falling on the roof makes such a racket.  So do the branches.  Luckily we haven't had a serious branch hit our roof directly.  Regardless, one night I woke up from a dream during a windstorm where a bunch of branches were falling.  I moved the babies in the basement because I couldn't sleep imagining that the tree was going to fall on them any minute.  Never happened, but you know how the imagination works at 2 in the morning.

After the storm, I gathered the branches.  Makes a big ugly pile that doesn't go away unless I do something about it.  So I decided to do something about it this week.  It requires a chain saw, but since I don't have one of those, Jim's saws-all is a nice substitute. I got the saws-all out, but then Whitney pointed out to me that "those are Papa's tools"  I had to explain I asked him before then to use it and have to put it back nicely in order to use it again.  But so far they both have a healthy fear of the tool.  I told them they couldn't step off the cement while I was using it so they didn't accidently come up behind me when I couldn't hear them.  Before I turned it on, I turned around and saw them on the other side of the driveway, sitting on the steps watching me.  They stayed there the whole time I was using it, much to my relief, but it was pretty cute to see them over there, so seriously watching me.

This week we've been helping someone out with the last name French.  I made french toast for breakfast one morning and told them the name.  Tucker looked at it and said "Oh.  Sister French toast?"  He seemed a little sad because he wanted to eat it and I think he thought it was for her to eat, not for him.  I didn't even make the connection, but he did.

In helping out this person, I've been on the phone a bunch with someone named Pat.  I didn't realize how much I've been on the phone, back and forth until Tucker was playing with me and said, "Oh.  Are you talking to Pat?" when he handed me my pretend phone.  It has been a bit much for them, too. 

I had a bunch of roommates in college that liked to quote movie lines.  I think Tucker inherited it from them.  He does the same thing.  He really likes quoting media in general. 

The other day I gave him a banana for lunch.  He looked at me and started quoting the banana mini movie from the minions again.  I decided to play along and be the other minion.  He loved it and kept it up.

They both do this for the Cat in the Hat book.  Tucker repeatedly reads that book and every time he gets to the part where there is the box, he asks Whitney "Whitney, who's in the box?"  like it's the first time he's asked her.  She has patiently answered his question each time.  She no longer turns around to look at him or stops what she is playing.  Already doing the mommy thing.  One time she was downstairs and he was upstairs.  He didn't realize where she was and got a little distressed looking for her so he could ask her the same question.

Whitney also quotes media.  The other day she randomly started saying, "you look like a chicken in trouble".  Made me laugh, but then I realized she was quoting curious george.

Tucker likes to play bump, bump everywhere.  now he wants to include me in the play.  He tells me "Mom, say 'ready, bump, bump! '" while he rolls his tank around.

They are both grasping more and more concepts.  Reading books is even more fun because they apply what they learn to stuff in the world.  They find numbers all over the place and have a great time doing it.  We read a book about shapes and Whitney ran around finding those shapes in the house.  She also saw them on the store walls 3 days later.  That was pretty fun.

It's kind of nice they get the concepts.  I decided to tell my parents they are getting their last grandkid from us in June.  Now I don't worry about Tucker and Whitney announcing things accidently, so I explained it to them.  Whitney got it a little sooner than Tucker.  Or at least she verbalized it back to me faster, that is.  I told her a baby was in mommy's tummy and it was going to grow bigger and bigger every day until it's too big.  She lifted up her shirt and poked out her full belly and said she had a baby in it, too.  Then I said she could only have a baby when she was a mommy.  Oh.  I also told them to be careful with my tummy, that it hurts when they press against it and the baby goes punch when they push too hard.  She got that.  She doesn't squish it any more.  When Tucker does it, she tells Tucker that the baby goes punch.  Now Tucker is carefully unless he really wants a big snuggle. Then he forgets or doesn't care when I tell him he can't push on it.

One last thing that cracked me up this week.  Jim flicks his nose a lot when it itches, which seems to be always.  Whitney got a cold this week.  One morning she was having to blow her nose a bunch.  One time she looked like she was tickling her nose with her fingers.  She looked at me and said "flick, flick"  I realized she was mimicing Jim.  Cracked  me up!  Hah!  I told him he still has allergies and needs to do the shots.  He still really has an itchy nose!