spring teasers

This day was sunny, no wind and 50 degrees.  Obviously we don't need a winter coat, Mom.  Mom needed one, but whatever.  They were kicking the slide.  Made lots of noise.  Hilarious, right?

I think Whitney was working.  She has seen me dead head these plants.  I'm not sure if she wanted to pull the stuff off to work or to add to her collection, but she didn't make a soup or anything, so maybe she was working.  Tucker just wanted to see what Whitney was up to.  He didn't stick around too long

Whitney getting her chalk outline drawn.

Tucker getting his chalk outline drawn next to Whitney's

Whitney labeled the drawings T and W and put a smiley face on Tucker's.  Tucker was pretty impressed withWhitney putting on the smiley face.  He really liked it.

Playing in the wind, sand and water.  It only looks warm.  Whitney's hands were bright red and Tucker's feet were swollen in his boots, they were so cold

Tucker and Whitney were SO EXCITED to make sandcastles.  They immediately started digging as soon as we got out of the truck.  Jeremy in the background (our Papa)

Jeremy took us razorclamming Saturday.  It actually turned out to be really fun.  The last time I went was a year ago and the car trip was not worth the couple of hours of play we can stand in the cold weather.  I definitely had a bad attitude about the car trip.  I told Jeremy I would drive for the way out and then he could drive home.  That made a world of difference for me.  They were definitely fussy about it toward the end, but it wasn't my turn, so it was ok.  Then, when we got there, I was in a good mood and we had a great time playing.

We tried following him out there to go razor clamming together, but the wind was too much.  It was pushing the waves back in, even though the tide was out far enough to see where the clams were.  Jeremy got a few caught before a big wave came in and got us pretty wet.  Tucker got very wet, up to his hips, so he was done.  I think the water rushing around him scared him a bit.  He was laughing at first, but then didn't want anything to do with those waves later.  The water was really cold, though, so I'm not sure which thing bothered him.  I picked up Whitney, so it wasn't an issue with her.

We went back up the beach and Tucker got himself even more wet.   Good thing I waited to change him.  There was a very shallow stream that he could stomp around in, and stomp he did.  He also had a blast throwing sand into the water and both liked watching the dry sand get blown out of their shovels.  The sand was just tons of fun.  This sand is very fine sand, unusual for around here, so that added to the fun.

We stayed until it was almost dark, so we got to see the sunset and the moon rise while we ate dinner in the car.  Jeremy was still out stomping around in the sand and getting completely soaked while we ate.  But we all had fun.

Before we left for our razor clamming trip, I took the kids grocery shopping and told them they could pick out a car treat.  My plan kind of backfired a little on me as I didn't say what they could pick.  Whitney picked out a odwalla smoothie and grapes last time.  This time she spied the Oreos and said to me "Mom.  I like those cookies with the cheese in them".  So Oreos it was, but I had to do a little conniving to talk Tucker into the fact that he was also picking out the same car treat as Whitney.  He didn't complain once he got them in his mouth.  And neither did Mommy.  I'm a little partial to them myself and have to talk myself out of getting them every grocery trip, so it wasn't hard to talk me into that one.

The other day we got out and about was Tuesday.  It was gorgeous.  I scraped all my plans for being productive and we were just outside.  We went to the park for a bit and they said it was too warm for jackets.  Whatever.  We would have stayed all afternoon, but I said I would babysit some kids for a bit, but that was fun, too.

The oldest in the group was 4.  Awesome.  He can trace around bodies with chalk on the driveway.  Tucker and Whitney wanted me to trace around their bodies in chalk.  I'm getting fat enough that I really don't like standing up from the ground, so doing it multiple times sounded less than fun.  But no worries, this 4 year old was so cute.  He would explain where to put their arms so he could trace their outlines and they stayed put until he was done.  He did a fairly good job.  I think they liked working all together as little kids. 

Whitney and I got a hair cut Monday.  I think it was easily 6 inches of hair from Whitney's head.  I thought that growing it out would work because then it would be long enough to tie back.  Yes, that's true.  Whitney's fine hair doesn't hold hair things, so I finally got tired of cleaning food out of her hair and watching hair drag in her food that I said, chop it off.  Whitney totally agreed for the price of one sucker. 

Jeremy came home from work just after she got her hair cut.  We were getting our hair cut by a friend at home.  Jeremy was a little shocked and asked Whitney where all her hair was.  She responded "On the floor!".  I think she likes getting all the compliments about her hair, though.  The shortness of it doesn't seem to bother her.

The swim lesson update is that Whitney floated on her back for about 2 seconds with her swim instructor.  Her teacher was pretty excited about it.  So was I!

They are both picking up on more drawing skills.  A result of being inside too much, probably.  Tucker drew cat faces a bunch.  Then he drew one with spikey hair all the way around and called it a pokey hair cat.  Whitney drew pictures of her face on the white board, adding a bow in her hair versus no bow in Tucker's hair.  Then she drew a face for me and a shirt below.  She looked at me and put ruffles on the front of my shirt and bow in the back of my shirt.  I thought it was so cute how serious she was looking at me then the board, so she could draw me accurately.

Tucker is getting good at letters.  I was writing down which ones he is best at and then got a chuckle out of which ones they are.  It's not that he can spell this word, but he happens to know how to clearly write H, I, and T. 

One of Tucker's phrases that cracks me up almost every time is when he asks to eat Frosted Mini Wheats for breakfast.  He asks for "Frosty the Mini wheat", like Frosty the snowman.

Friday I went to a friend's to learn some basic Japanese receipes.  Jeremy came home loving the food he tried and wanting to eat it here.   I wanted to learn to cook some of these so he can enjoy them, but I think he might want me to quit learning in a bit.  Never comes out the same in another country.  Whitney loved it.  My friend taught me how to make hot pot Japanese style like what you would eat at home.  But her husband is Chinese, so they always add these fish cakes to the hot pot because he likes them.  So does Whitney.  She ate about 5 of them.  They taste a little too fishy and fried to me.  Tucker loved the dip and put it all over the rice.  He pretty much ate half of the rice cooker pot of rice she made.  Like Dad says, Tucker can really pack it down.  But then, so can Whitney.  I think my friend really enjoyed having my kids eat her food.  Her experience with Americans, and especially American kids is any fishy flavor is a definite not going to try it.  Not so with Tucker and Whitney.  Although, I'm not sure you can say fish sauce over rice is a really asian flavor.  It could be argued either way.

Afterward we went to the kid's museum.  They played with bubbles for 45 minutes straight.  They had a bubble mixture that allowed the bubbles to stay around for a long time.  They used a pipet the other direction, so they could blow through it like a straw and make lots of big or little bubbles.  They had the solution on a tray.  They had so much fun blowing bubbles bigger on the tray, blowing small ones in the air and holding them in their soapy hands.  Tucker loved blowing bubbles to the other kids and Whitney liked blowing bubbles to a baby. 

Last week of swim lessons coming up.  Tucker is really going to miss the air dryers he sits under to dry his hair and warm up after the shower.

case in point

This is for anyone that lives in a cold place.  If you like warmth, gardens or sun, pick a residence in your cold area on the south side of a hill or mountain.  It makes a HUGE difference.  Below are pictures of daffodils.  Ones that are in bloom and ones that only have leaves about 3.5 inches tall.  The photos are taken about 24 hours apart.  The ones in bloom were taken first.  The daffodils are both planted on the south side of a building, fairly well protected from the wind and heat reflecting from the building onto them.  They are about 1 mile apart as the crow flies in distance, the blooming ones 1 mile north of the others.  The difference?  One building is built on the north side of a hill and the other building is on the south side of a hill. 

north side of hill daffodils

south side of hill daffodils

They wouldn't take these sunglasses off, even though it got cloudy

Tucker wouldn't take his sunglasses off for a close up shot of his face, so this is what you get

The cool kids

Whitney's close up photo op

Popping bubble wrap while wearing her "ring shoes"

Tucker asked for this photo.  He wanted a picture of his Thomas snuggling with his car friends

It's spring already on the south side of the hills around here, but spring is probably about another month off on the north side of the hills.  I have a friend here that totally agrees with me about the difference of which side of a mountain you are on.  Very few agree with us, but very few of our common friends have homes on the north side of a hill like we do.  After taking these pictures, I rest my point.

Valentine's Day was pretty fun this year.  I think all the holidays are going to be fun this year.  They are old enough to like the activities, but it's like it's the first time they've experienced it all, so it's extra fun.

Jim started off the day right.  He had bought some See's candies, my favorites.  Before he went to work, he surprised me with it.  I couldn't wait to try a piece, so that meant I had to share.  Tucker and Whitney both shoved the whole piece of candy in their mouth at one time.  It was really hard to chew and keep it all in, but they figured out a way.  I was sure they were going to choke, but they didn't.

Jim came home and cooked.  It's been a really, really long time since he's been home for dinner on a weekend night and even longer since he cooked, so it was a great day for me.  Especially since it was a swim lesson night.  When we came home, dinner was already started.  We had heart raviolli.  Tucker ate only the white heart noodle ones, so Whitney and I ate all the red ones.  I guess red is a color only for clothes.  Whatever.  Jim also brought home flowers for me and flowers for Whitney.  That was a huge hit.  And lots of other yummy treats. 

We had a Valentine's party at their school that was really short and fast and fun.  We decorated a cupcake and handed out Valentines.  They were surprisingly good at decorating cupcakes.  They get the concept pretty well, and don't beg to eat it or lick frosting until they are done.  This is something I'm sure they'll get over, but I think they got the practice with Aunt B.  They were most excited for the Valentine's they made for each other.  Probably because I let them taste some of the candy after we made them.  Whitney knew which one was for which kid by the first letter of their names, but got Tucker mixed up with another kid whose name starts with T.  Close enough. 

This week when we went to the library, they lined up all the small chairs in the kid section along the window seat in that same section.  The way they lined them up was pretty funny.  They pretended the chairs were trash cans and they were bringing them in.  It happened to be trash day and we had just taken out the cans.  Tucker can move our small one on his own.  He even tells me to use my foot to tip it, just like him.  It cracks me up.

Whitney practiced her lining up toys at home with all of her ponies.  She lined our coffee table with all of them.  I didn't realize how many there were until she lined them up.  We inherited the collection from a friend that had two girls 18 months apart, so there are two of several of them.  Works well at this house, too, amazingly.  Later in the week, Daddy and Whitney put all the ponies in the bathtub.  Whitney picked out a pink one with a pink body and very sparkly hair to represent Daddy.  Then she put "Daddy" in and out of the bathtub. 

We went to their three year old check up.  The nurse complimented Whitney's scarf and noted how it was made "just like Mommy's".  Whitney corrected her and said hers was pink and Mommy's was red.  Get it right, Nurse.  But it was pretty cute because Whitney talked a bunch to the nurse.  While Tucker was getting weighed, the nurse was noting his strong, growing muscles and Whitney said "I'm turning into a Mommy!", which is what she says when we talk about getting bigger.  The nurse just kept talking to Tucker.  He must have thought she was cute, because he had nothing to say.

They tried doing the eye and hearing test.  That was purely for our entertainment, I guess.  The nursed commented on how they try isest with 3 year olds, but are never certain if they get the concept.  They grasped the concept with the eye test.  That was purely luck because it's all about naming shapes, and they currently are into that.  It only failed a bit when Whitney would tell Tucker the answer or Tucker would tell Whitney the answer on a few, but in general they got it.  Although, Tucker may have inherited mine and Jim's eyes.  On the smallest lines, he couldn't quite get the apple from the circle, but we'll know for sure next year, I guess. 

The hearing test  they didn't get, but it was funny to watch.  The nurse told them to tap my hand when they could hear a noise.  They did on the first one, but after that, they left their hands on my hand.  Whitney had a smile on her face, like "These are funny sounds!" and would shift her eyes from one ear to another.  Tucker didn't really like the noise, I think.  He grimaced on a few of them and would turn his head when it switched ears. I have no concerns about their hearing, just their selective hearing, which already occurs.

We got flu shots.  Bummer for Tucker he can't get the spray like Whitney.  Dumb asthma.  It means he has to have the shot.  But he didn't even cry out.  I was surprised!  He definitely flinched, but the dancing bear the nurse had helped out.  Afterward he picked out a sticker first.  He immediately picked out a Belle sticker.  It was the brightest sticker in the stack, but I think Whitney was a little bummed and wanted that one.  She searched and searched and searched to pick a sticker.  She was finally happy when Tucker found another one of his same exact sticker.  He found it and asked her "Do you want this one?"  It was cute how he asked her.

He is 36 pounds and Whitney is 30 pounds.  Tucker falls in the 70-75th percentiles with stuff and Whitney about the 30th or so except for height, which is 60th.  This means Whitney is tall and skinny and Tucker is built rather thickly. Duh.  Then Tucker went home and ate 4 bowls (kid bowls) of noodles, while Whitney only ate 2, but ate her veggies and meat while Tucker left those aside.

That night at swim lessons they got to jump in the pool from the side.  They loved it!  They played "splash" the next two days jumping off cushions or pillows on the floor.  Whitney also noticed Tucker's swimsuit coming down a bit when he was in the pool and she helped him pull it up.  Very cute.

Whitney no longer ignores the stomach, but I still thinks she's a bit disappointed.  She commented on how "the baby is going to grow bigger and bigger until he grows into a Tucker".  When Tucker is constantly tackling and winning, you can see why Whitney is less enthused about the whole thing.  Tucker, on the other hand continues to love this idea.  This week, when Whitney was play hitting my stomach, he ran over and pushed her hand aside and said "Take care of baby brother!" then gave my stomach a kiss.  Since then, Whitney has been a little more gentle.  Tucker noticed my stomach sticking out when I was sitting on the couch.  He pulled his shirt up and stuck his belly out, saying "I have a baby brother in my tummy, too!"

One night when I went to check on Tucker, I couldn't find his head among the blankets.  Duh.  It was because he was under his fitted sheet.  Made his own bed tent.

Tucker is pretty impressed with himself.  He has a shirt that has large buttons.  He buttoned it himself.  It was only slightly obvious he buttoned it himself.  I was pretty impressed, too.  But now he takes a long time to get dressed because he wants to do it himself.

Whitney is such a good little cleaner.  On top of cleaning up Tucker's toys, she also puts her dishes up without me asking her to.  I love it! 

Friday I called my mom because we had some earth shattering news.  It was sunny.  And somewhat warm.  55 or so.  We played outside for an hour and a half.  In that time Tucker figured out how to catch bubbles with his wand so that they didn't pop.  That was absolutely hysterical.  I trimmed a few branches that also were long.  Whitney made a bird house for Rocky on top of him.  It stayed together pretty well, even when Rocky got up to move.  Looked pretty funny.  Rocky didn't think it was so funny.  Whitney made dirt eggs around the blueberry plants to take care of them and Tucker planted yucca plants in his bucket over and over. 

I let Tucker play on the ipad for a bit one day.  I was trying to figure out facetime on it and he had a hard time with me only playing on it.  Daddy has been teaching him well to use the electronics.  Tucker wanted a particular music video of his (happy train) and couldn't find it on the you tube icon, so he said "Oh yeah! We need to go to history!" and clicked on the correct button the first time. 

Saturday the clouds rolled in, but it was still dry and "warmish".  I gave them the option to go to the playground or to go exploring.  Whitney picked exploring.  We went to a new place with walking trails.  Whitney had a blast that I was following her and letting her lead the way in going exploring.  There were a bunch of these rock walls covered in a metal mesh that they could climb on and around.  Tucker figured out first how to scale them.  Whitney could do it, but didn't want to hurt herself, so she said she couldn't do it.  Tucker went over and said "I will help you!" and grabbed her hands.  Of course that doesn't work, but it was cute how much he wanted to help her.  Tucker also found some handrails to swing on.  Whitney thought that looked fun, so Tucker said "I'll show you how to do it!" and did a demo for her.

Tucker continues to love music.  He is gaining such a large repoirtaire of songs.  Even Jim noticed how much he loves to sing.  He also repeats phrases from books.  He likes this one "one thing I think you should know about ginko.  It's fruit doesn't smell good, in fact it smells stinko!"  He also has been singing  the More we Get Together a bunch. 

I finally broke down and went Tucker sun glasses shopping.  Tucker has been a little sad about how Whitney has sunglasses and he doesn't.  So we went looking for some his size.  I went looking for his and there are only cool, big kid according to mom glasses.  No little boy ones.  It was very simple for him to pick out the ones he likes.  The red ones.  No other one compared.  I was trying to dissued him, but nothing doing. So he has angry bird glasses.  Not exactly my favorite charactor, but Whitney just calls them birds, so I'll leave it alone.  Tucker loves, loves, LOVES his sun glasses.  they had lots of fun wearing them this week.

Trying to work arms and legs together on pink crab.  Whitney really liked pink crab

Tucker's turn.  This view of him reminded me of what he looked like as a baby doing tummy time

No hands!  The swim teacher wasn't holding on to them.  They were scooting along the wall no problem on their own.  Whitney's head is above the pink crab and Tucker's head is right next to the swim instructor's.  The swim instructor was attatching the last kid to the wall from the pool play pen.  Whitney was always in front because she could move so quickly

Whitney demonstrating her monkey cup cake

Tucker holding his cupcake up, ready for a pic, although this looks more like he is about to eat it.

"Oh yeah.  I'm cool." 

one example of a pony line up

nothing to watch on this one, just listen

I couldn't film this directly.  You'll probably figure it out.  He learned where to relax from Dad.

Tucker singing

 

Tucker loves to sing and loves Dump Truck.  I love this video.  He has his butterfly wings on.  The blue ones for Tucker

training to do pedicures

"you have a shirt like me"

 

Tucker directing Aunt B in decorating

tucker makes a horn

running with birthday balloons

grinding wheat together

whitney grinding wheat

splashing in the stream, good ol' wet fun

swim lessons!!!!!!

Whitney holding "egg".  They figured out how to unzip the bottom of the pillows and pull out the stuffing from the couches.  For some reason they really like the feel of it.  Thank heavens it's also easy to stuff back in and they got over liking it really fast.

Tucker with Meow-meow

Meow-meow watching Tucker lick the brownie bowl clean

Playing shopping cart with their blankets in their chairs. The rings were the groceries

Look closely.  Tucker with"meow-meow shoes" on

Getting Thing1and Thing 2 nicely situated

Talking to the "fish" in the water.  The swim instructor was having them practice blowing bubbles before getting their face wet.

Swim instructor helping Tucker to remember to kid.  Whitney is on the other side of the red head from Tucker.  They love swimming around on this thing

First day floating on their back with the help of the swim instructor.  This is Whitney.  She really liked it and was very relaxed and happy in the water

Tucker floating.  He hated this.  Very stiff in the water and fighting putting his ears in the whole time

Last summer going to the beach was a bit stressful at times purely because of the water thing.  If their faces went under even for a bit, they came up sputtering.  So I looked into swim lessons.  And lo and behold the community pool has them 2 times per week for one month in February.  I'm SOOOOOOO excited.  I remember really loving swim lesson days when I was a kid just because I got to go in a pool.  I think they might like it for the same reason.  I don't expect too much, just something to buy me a little more time to reach over to them before they start swallowing water.  I'll have to take notes on how to teach them because, it's a long time until July when they will want to get in the water.

The reason I think Whitney is catching on to my excitement is because we got a book from the library that talks about a kid taking swim lessons.  She asked to read the "book about swim lessons".  We also happened to have had  a book about the dentist in the house before they went to the dentist.  They got toys at the dentist.  Every so often Tucker will say "thank you for the dentist" in his prayers, he had so much fun.  I think Whitney is hoping for toys after swim lessons, too, but the pool will probably be cool enough.  And the fact they get to have their suits on.

Joy school totally made Tucker's week this week.  They had a day where they brought their favorite toy for show and tell.  Tucker brought Dump Truck.  Good thing he did.  They also used rulers in their lesson to measure things.  Awesome!!!  But he wasn't excited so much about the measuring part as a ruler is a portable speed bump for his Dump Truck.  When I picked him up, he was not about to let go of that ruler.  The other kid's mom saw how much he loved it and said he could keep it.  Even better!!  When he got home, he carted Dump Truck all around the house rolling it over his portable speed bump in all sorts of locations.  In the middle of the room, next to the wall, next to the window, etc.  No longer does he have to be in a door jam. Oh no.  He can even bring it downstairs while Whitney is playing uh-oh pillows.  Although Whitney had to make that connection for him.  When we got home, he only wanted to play Dump Truck and Bump-Bump in the hall, but Whitney wanted to go downstairs to play uh-oh pillows.  Tucker said "  I don't want to.  I want to play Truck and Bump-bump".  Whitney said "oh." and paused for awhile.  Then she said, " There is a bump-bump downstairs, Tucker!"  He said "Oh!  There's a bump-bump downstairs?  Ok." and followed her down.  She is learning the art of convincing someone.

She practiced that art on me today.  She was drawing pictures when I said that it was time to go to the park.  She wasn't done drawing on all of her papers, so she said "I will go to the park in 2 minutes after I'm done drawing."   Hmmm.  My negotiation skills are no longer working in my favor.  Whitney, by the way, doesn't like to be cold, so going to the park right now is very low on her list.

Another negotiation tactic of mine that may lost its effectiveness is Gunny.  For any of you familiar with Gunny Sack through Joy school, this will be a review, but basically he cries if he can't eat toys to fill up his tummy.  Gunny is a real thing for Whitney.  There is a song about him and he is a reality in our house.  Mention Gunny and she is cleans up very quickly.  Tucker, on the other hand, gets that Gunny really is Mommy and doesn't like to play along.  That is, unless it is in his favor.  The other night I was pretending to make Gunny cry because Whitney was cleaning up her part, but Tucker wasn't cleaning up.  Whitney was trying to get Tucker to clean up his toys and even told him to clean up so Gunny wouldn't eat the toys.  Tucker told her he didn't want to clean up and that he wanted Gunny to be happy with a full tummy of toys.  The problem is, that logic is flawless in all other situations.  We talk about helping others feel happy all the rest of the time.  But I think Tucker likes Gunny after all because Whitney ends up cleaning up all of his toys because she doesn't want Tucker's toys taken away by Gunny.  Either way, Tucker doesn't usually have to clean up.  I'm still working on my strategy with Tucker.

Another thing in Joy School that Tucker loves is the joy school rule song.  In our last lesson, there were several songs I needed to download to get ready for the day.  One of them was this rule song.  When Tucker heard it start, he paused to say to me "Oh yeah!  That's a good one!"  Made me laugh.

This past week while I was at clogging, Tucker and Whitney were playing with the dress up pile at the person's house.  I heard loud, hysterical laughing over the music and peeked over to see a cute thing.  I wish I had my camera, but no.  We were dancing to a semi-country song and they had cowboy hats on, one with a red star and one with a blue star.  They were so cute!  The reason they had been laughing so hard is because they figured out how to let the hat slide over their face, but the hat didn't fall to the ground due to the string that looped behind their ears.  Absolutely hilarious, right?

Another time I wish I had my camera was when they were totally falling asleep in the car shopping cart together.  They were leaning their heads together.  I knew they had totally fallen asleep when I kept passing strangers and they had this "oh look how cute" smile on their face.  So I would wait for the stranger to pass until I rudely awoke Whitney and Tucker.   My strategy to keep them awake was to have Tucker push the cart and Whitney get the food.  Worked better with Tucker than with Whitney.

Tucker is getting better at pushing the shopping cart around.   He manuevers it quite well as long as he can see me to follow me.  Whitney is patient in letting him push her around.  They worked as a team to get the groceries and then pay for them.  Tucker was trying to scan non-existant barcodes on produce.  I had to teach him how to use the self check out with produce, too.  He kind of got the weighing thing.  He is already adept at using the barcodes to scan.  All that practice of scanning the books at the library is paying off.  And he's been watching me go shopping for too long, now.  Whitney thinks self check outs are funny.  She always exclaims "This one has no man!" and laughs. 

This past week we went to the doctor for the ultrasound that is detailed enough to tell what kind of kid.  They say it's a boy.  I'm not too convinced.  I don't think Jim is either.  We'll see, I guess.  It's just that it was so obvious with Tucker, but not this one.  Mom, maybe there is still hope for you to have another granddaughter.  I think Whitney is a little bit disappointed and Tucker may be excited.  Whitney stopped talking about the baby and my stomach in general these past three days.  Kind of ignored the stomach, in fact.  Tucker, on the other hand has been much more careful to take care of my tummy, something he has never verbalized as of yet until this week. 

In preparation for swim lessons I got flip flops for the pool this week.  Because, of course, they are selling them in the stores.  For once I agreed on when they had things for sell at the right season.  For indoor swim lessons, right?  I let them pick which flip flops they wanted.  It was a little hard for me to do that with Whitney because there was only one style I liked with the girl ones.  But she picked that one anyway.  Should have known.  The tread was the only one solid pink.  They are Hello Kitty ones.  Tucker picked Mickey Mouse ones.  They like them so much, they want to wear them all the time.  I finally told them they could wear them in the house and to swim lessons only because it is too cold outside.  That is somewhat of a satisfactory answer.  It just gives Whitney yet another reason to not play outside.

The part that is funny is that Whitney picked out cat ones.  Grandma in the Attic sent Tucker and Whitney stuffed animals for their birthdays.  She sent a dog and a cat.  Tucker loves the cat.  It is his new stuffed animal that he plays with all the time.  The stuffed cat's name is Meow-meow.  Perfect.  Whitney picked out meow-meow flip flops.  They must be his.  Whitney put up a fight the first time Tucker wanted to wear her flip flops around the house.  But then, for some loving and kind reason, she decided to tell Tucker it's ok for him to wear her flip flops.  Once she said that, he did not remove them, but wore them all day around the house.  They are named meow-meow shoes and are played with in the same loving manner as Meow-meow herself.  He also has been heard to call them his dancing shoes.  I think it is because they are made of hard plastic, so they make noise throughout the house.  But, he seems to have picked up on boy/girl rules a bit.  When it is time for swim lessons, he makes no fuss but puts on his Mickey ones right away.

I'm not sure how much Whitney likes swim lessons.  The first day I would have said she loved them, but then the second time, she repeatedly asked not to go to swim lessons.  I think she hated how cold she got.  They are all shivering violently by the end of the half hour.  I think it is because they are standing in the pool, but not swimming vigerously like the rest of the swim classes.  Getting out only makes it worse.  The second time I had a better, warmer system set up and they didn't seem to be as bothered by the cold as long.  We'll see what the comments are next time.

The reason I thought she loved it was her relaxed body language in the pool.  She seemed to really grasp how to move the way the instructor was telling her.  Tucker was very stiff.  I wasn't sure if he was afraid or didn't want to get his ears wet.  Weirdo.  It's one of the things he hates in the bath, getting his ears wet.  When she got home from the first lesson, she gave me all sorts of play by play of how they moved their arms and how they talked to the fish in the water.  She also repeats stuff the teacher showed her. 

Here's another description of a video I wish I had captured.  Tucker was at the bottom of the stairs and Thing 2 was "singing" to Tucker.  Whitney had Thing 2 leaning over the bannister, moving him and singing ABC's at the top of her lungs to Tucker at the bottom of the stairs.  It was entertaining to watch.

Tucker had a great time this week playing with an older kid.  This kid is 4, almost five.  Tucker loved his ideas of games.  First he showed Tucker all his knowledge of static electricity with a balloon on his head, the wall, etc.  Then he played keeping the balloon off the floor with Tucker.  Tucker loved it.  Then they were chasing each other.  Tucker also loved "playing smash".  The other kid rolled our exercise ball over Tucker's back while Tucker was laying on his stomach on the floor.  Looked scary to me, but they weren't being too rough and had a grand time of it.  See.  Tucker just needs another boy to rough house with.  The two of them didn't bother Whitney at all during all this play.

Tucker's favorite thing that happened to him today was feeding the cat.  I brought him with me to visit a friend for a bit who has a cat.  They let him feed the cat cat treats.  Tucker loved that.  Earlier in the day Tucker had been feeding Meow-meow chips before he fed himself the chips. 

Web camming with my mom today was pretty fun.  Whitney was apparently very excited to tell Grandma about her heart pencil and her sun smiley face pen that has a cap with a necklace.  It is what she got from the dentist this week.  Whitney had two cavities on the front of her teeth.  She went to the dentist to get them removed and filled and did it no problem.  It took them all of 1/2 hour.  The dentist was so impressed with how well Whitney did, they told her she could have two prizes out of the treasure box.  I was shocked, too.  She does better than Mommy.  I was also very relieved they didn't have to give her a shot to get those cavities out.  That would have been hard for me to watch.

Jim made it back from being stuck in New York.  His flight was delayed 24 hours due to the storm and his co-workers that he was supposed to meet with didn't come into the office Friday due to the city shutting down that afternoon.  I have a really hard time feeling sorry for him, though. He pretty much didn't leave his hotel room for a couple of days.  But he still managed to see multiple movies.  He easily named 5 off the top of his head.  Plus a broadway show.  Plus all the sleep in time, dinners alone in restaurants with food not prepared by his truly.  I just looked at him and kept my mouth shut about all that.  I'd have to say I've never done that in my life and I've definitely never done it in the last three years.  No further comments.

He said he was bored and I definitely believe him in that respect.  He's not a fan of talking, let alone talking on the phone for long periods of time.  Or about random things.  He was so bored he called and talked to me 3 times in two days.  Part of one of our conversations was him giving me a short play by play of what he saw from his hotel window.  A couple of car crashes he witnessed from way up high and lots of police flashing lights from all the other wrecks around town. 

When he got back today, he let Tucker and Whitney play splash with him.  What this entailed was Tucker and Whitney standing on the arm of the chair and jumping between Jim's legs at the shin level with a blanket stretched over his shins like the top of the water.  At the very end of their last swim lesson they got to stand on the edge of the pool and jump into the water.  The teacher let their head bob underneath for a bit so they could get used to the feel of jumping in water.  They must have loved it, because they incorporated it into their play.

Another thing they incorporated into their play is how they have been taught to look down when water is splashing over their head while water is being poured over their head.  Whitney lets Tucker wash her hair while practicing this skill.  So awesome.  There are much fewer bathtub fights, a side benefit of swim lessons I hadn't anticipated.

At Joy school they also had Scrabble cheese its.  Very, very popular with Tucker.  Similar in taste to gold fish, but each one has a letter he yells out and pronounces the sound.  It takes him longer to eat them, so he finished about the same time as Whitney. 

He also grasped the concept of the date on that particular day.  He still goes around the house saying January 28th.  It's always January 28th.  When I correct him, he'll sometimes change it to January 29th or just say oh.  February must be really hard to say or something.  Whitney grasps the weather.  She likes to look out the car windows and tell me all the different types of weather she sees. 

Whitney showed her eye for color and patterns in joy school.  She was given a blank paper and cut out shapes to put on the paper like a drawing she was shown in a book.  Copied that in no time, kind of like a puzzle. 

They like to play snail.  This entails crawling in the bottom of the bar stools and then crawling around the floor, half in and half out of the bottom of the bar stool while the bar stool comes along with them.  Jim asked who taught them that.  That's just an inventive three year old for you.  Another game they like to play is "stinky diaper"  They put these small pillows between their knees while lying on their back.  One of them "checks" the other to see if this diaper is stinky or clean.  Ongoing differentiation between big kids and babies. 

Tucker really likes this red maternity shirt I have.  He wants me to wear it every day he wears red.  He wears red most days.  I don't particularly like that shirt right now.  It is one of those tent shirts meant for the last 2-3 months when you are really big and it makes me look that big now.  No thanks. But one day I humored him and wore it when we didn't go in public anywhere.  He was so amused with it matching his Thing 2 shirt.  He said, "Mom, are you thing 1?" But then he got confused because Whitney is Thing 1, so he decided I was thing 3. Whatever.  The reason I'm wearing it is because of a Thing 3, so it works.  But then he also liked to tell me that day "Stop Mom Stop!  Your shirt is red!"  from the Go dog Go book, just changing the wording a bit.  Made me laugh.

One day they really liked practicing their drawing skills.  Tucker can easily trace his hand and his foot.  He doesn't like marker on his hand, so when he uses a marker these outlines are really big but with crayon, it's pretty close to the real deal.  He also likes to trace my hand, which takes the whole sheet of paper since he is careful not to get marker on me.  Then he asks if I want my name on it.  He does a squiggly line when I say yes. Whitney doesn't mind the marker so much.  Tucker can write a T.  He also does the up and down, small, in a line, for his "writing your name"  which is something I remember doing when I was little for words.  Whitney likes to spell out Papa.  It sounds like this " P-A-PA, Papa!"  but sometimes it's "A-P-A-P Papa!"  In joy school they wrote the word Dad on paper a bunch.  The teacher did it for them, then they kind of traced it, but it is on the refridgerator.  Tucker likes to look up at it and sound out all the words.

One heavenly thing that Whitney did this past week is figure out how to put on her own seat belt.  Tucker has been doing this for many months.  He is very fast at it now.  Now I need to wait for Whitney to figure it out.  But I still love it because I can open the door in the parking lot and let them in, then shut it and jump in the car myself, instead of standing in the rain for forever until Whitney crawls in and sits down in her seat to buckle her in.  I love it, love it, love it!!!!  First her shoes, then her carseat!  Now it only takes us 10 minutes to get out the door and driving.

They were invited to a Valentine's Day party.  The mom was brillant and did a simple but cute craft that involved something mechanical as well as artsy. She pre cut some construction hearts.  They were supposed to hole punch them themselves to string them up as a garland.  They could decorate them with the heart confetti the hole punch made, or put other sized hearts on by using a glue stick.  Tucker was all about that hole punch.  I showed him one and he did the rest.  Amazingly he also grasped the concept of where to put the holes to string up the hearts and did them in the right places.  Whitney did great putting on her own glue and confetti hearts.  Then they decorated one cookie.  No prob.  Pros from all the cupcakes they made for their birthdays.

Tucker loves to help with the neighbor's newspaper.  I don't know what I'm going to tell him when her husband comes home in 3 weeks from the care center.  I think it will work out because he usually gets it early in the morning.  He can even put it in the spot she has upstairs without help and likes to do it by himself.  Our other neighbor had a grandbaby born recently, so we grabbed her newspaper for a few days and put it in her garage.  She has a manual door that Tucker likes to help with.  Ever since we did her newspaper a few days, he thinks he's supposed to pick up all the newspapers in the neighborhood.  Very cute helper big kid.

They have often played Give-Mommy-Food with their toys. This week they had pieces to Trivial Pursuit in their hands and were feeding me grapes, cheese, crackers, etc.  Then they said, Here, Mom, have some fruit snacks!  Whitney then exclaimed, "we're the home teachers!"  I got a good laugh out of that because our home teacher brings fruit snacks over every time for after the lesson.  They have to listen to the lesson then they get some.  I think it worked, though, because last night they repeated some of the lesson back to me in their play because they were paying attention.  Yes.  It's a great idea.  I also am still motivated by treats, too.