Daddy in charge

blowing bubbles at joy school. 

Tucker driving the car they made out of cushions.  Whitney riding in the trailer.

Whitney asked for this picture.  We were all loving the sun.

"fishing"

This weekend I went to a friend's wedding.  Daddy was in charge and boy was it fun!!  The first night I called to talk to them they sounded very excited.  Whitney told me all about the special O's she ate for dinner and Tucker was excited about chocolate rice pudding.  Whitney also commented about how she got to watch "Dora on Papa's ipad" (his kindle that he hasn't really used as much as they have).  When I talked to Jeremy on the phone he said Whitney had thrown up the night before and all day Saturday, she was perfectly content to be still.

I guess Saturday was a beautiful day outside.  It worked out pretty well.  Jeremy said Tucker played outside pretty much from 11 to 5 while Whitney sat in a chair watching Dora.  Jeremy said he rotated her around the driveway to stay in the sun (a desirable thing around here).  It sounded like he was taking care of his little plant.  The next day she was grumpy but back to running around.  Tucker played outside while Jeremy worked on my brakes.  Of course Tucker wanted to help.  And being outside was heavenly for everyone.

On Sunday when I called, it was in the afternoon and there was a lot of whining going on in the background.  I asked if he wanted me to call back a different time and he said no, that it probably wouldn't matter when I called. They were grumpy that day.  I didn't even bother asking what time they went to bed the last two nights.  Or what they had to eat the day before.

 Jeremy was chuckling at Whitney when I was on the phone.  Apparently she made herself a fort to keep Tucker from touching her while he was randomly moving about the room, flinging his arms about.  While she was in her fort, she watched more Dora.  This was about 2 in the afternoon when I was talking to him.  Jeremy insisted, though, just as I got on the phone with him, that all that was happening and she hadn't been watching Dora until just then, that it was the first time she was watching Dora all day.  He seemed pretty proud of that.

Tucker was having fun playing "purse picnic".  They went on picnics around the house, filling up the purse with food.  True.  When we go on picnics, I fill up a reusable bag with food.  It looks like their play purse.

When I got home, my hubby and I were talking about laundry.  It was then I discovered that the kids hadn't bathed all weekend, nor did they create much laundry since he put the same outfit on all weekend.  He said he had to get tricky because if he pulled it out of the dirty clothes where Whitney put it, she would get mad and say they were dirty.  I did ask specifically if he at least changed their underwear.  Everyone knows the answer to that, but in the same sentence he said no, he said Whitney had no accidents all weekend, even though he pretty much fed them two entire large containers of Odwalla juice, one green and one pink, through the weekend.  I have to admit, even though they had a lot of sugar, he did make sure they got their greens.  So, not everything was done exactly the way I would have done it, but they were sure having fun with Dad.  I do remember the same thing growing up.  All new rules when Mom was gone.  I loved having that fun with Dad, but being happy when the normal routine showed up again.  Whatever.  They are alive, happy and no one had bad dreams when I got back, so we're good.  And I had a blast!

Friday also ended up being beautiful for a half day.  We went to the kid's museum in the morning, but stopped at the park on the way home since the clouds had dissapaited.  I wasn't anticipating being outside that Friday, so we went to the park jacketless!  Hence the picture without their jackets.  It was definitely cool, but once you started running around, the temperature was tolerable for an hour.  They had so much fun playing on the playground and walking on the path.  While they were climbing up the corkscrew ladder, Whitney was instructing Tucker to be careful so they didn't step on each other's fingers.  She said "I'm the big sister!" and Tucker said "Yeah!  You are the big sister!" agreeing completely and with such enthusiasm.  I had a good laugh about how he totally agreed and that's why she could make the rules about when to climb up and down so they wouldn't hurt each other.  We collected flowers, threw rocks in the water, Tucker jump in puddles while Whitney went around (Tucker was wearing boots), and went "fishing".  They collected lots of different sticks, dipped them in the water and fed their "fish" to me.

While we were at the kid's museum in the morning, we played climbing in the tree house, looking through the microscope, "loud, loud water", in the water, painting on the glass on the side of the fish tank, trains, building towers with a bridge across to each tower and in the sand box.  Whitney also found the face painting station and immediately requested to go there next.  She got a blueberry on her face.  she left it on all day.  All in all we had a really great time on Friday just playing together!!

It was good to play together because during the week they played pretty nicely together while I did a bunch of stuff.  Joy school was at our house this week, plus I was in charge of the Activity Day girls activity this week.  It meant a lot of time prepping for each thing. One time while I was prepping, Whitney asked me what I was doing.  I told her I was getting ready for Activity Days and she asked, "Where are you taking us?"  For most of the past 6 months, I've had to take them to a friend's house to watch them while I went, due to Jeremy being gone so much.  Whitney was VERY HAPPY to hear that Papa was coming home to be with her so she didn't have to go anywhere and "be scared".  She prefers to be at home during those times.

Joy school was especially fun this past week.  The lessons were full of types of activities I've been wanted to do with them.  I like doing science-like activities and the lesson had lots of ideas.  We blew bubbles using a straw in a cup full of soapy water.  That turned out really fun.  One of the kids made this huge mountain of bubbles out of the cup.  Tucker prefered to stir and stir with his bubbles, making lots of froth.  Whitney stirred a little, then painted her bubbles on her paper.  We added a little food coloring and that was even more fun.

I also made the cornstarch/water oobleck stuff.  No one was really interested in it except for Tucker.  He absolutely loved it.  He played with it for a good half an hour instead of playing with his buddies during free time.  He also played with it off and on during the day while I cooked, cleaned and prepped for some more joy school.

I read this kid book called Flap Your Wings by the Go Dog Go author.  The first time I read it I could hardly stop laughing.  Tucker and Whitney chuckled a little bit at first, but then they were not amused and stared at me like I really had lost it.  Then they got annoyed that I wasn't turning the pages fast enough.  But what got me laughing so much was how it was such an epitomy of me/Jim child raising.  Jim is just so happy to be with Tucker and Whitney, but I get all upset when things don't go how I envisioned them in their perfection, whatever that might be.  See if any of you see that in that book.

We had a magic show this week.  Their favorite and most fascinating trick was me "taming" an egg.  They tried standing the egg up on one end, but not having success, while I could do it the first time!!  The dissappearing pencil was also the object of conversation the rest of that day with Whitney.

Whitney continues to be a good little big sister.  Every time her tummy fills up, but there is still food on her plate, she says to me "Mom.  It's ok for you to eat it.  Baby Brother is still hungry".  One time this week someone asked her what the new baby's name is.  She looked at them very seriously and said "baby brother".  It might be his name for quite some time yet.  All I've established is I don't like boy names much.

Here are some cute things they are doing.  But out of all of them, Tucker tucking me in like a burrito and scrubbing my head like I "scrub" his head to make him go to sleep just melted my heart!

I caught Tucker reading the Economist on the bathroom floor.  He was turning the pages and saying the words to the book If you Give A Cat a Cupcake book.

Tucker likes helping me clean all the toothbrush drawings he puts on the mirrors.  He really likes squirting the windex.  He got in a cleaning mood and we washed all the windows and mirrors in the house.  Kind of nice because they really needed them.  But he also loves scrubbing the toilet.  Good, but stresses me out because I REALLY DON'T WANT THAT BRUSH OUTSIDE THE TOILET, if you know what I mean.

Above there is a picture of them in their pillow car.  They like to go to all sorts of places, mostly the bank and to swim lessons.  When they get in the "car" they give each other sunglasses.  One time when they went in their "car" they went to the store and Whitney got out with her list.  I asked Whitney what was on her list.  "..... spinach, mild, purple juice, mushrooms and toys..." Not too bad!

We had a great time playing pony this week.  We played in the doll house with them a bunch, plus floating in their boat in the ocean or swimming in the ocean, just like swim lessons.  They have a lot of ponies, but there are only about 3 they like to play with specifically.  Tucker has a Tucker Baby Pony who is different than Tucker Big Kid Pony.  Whitney has a Whitney pony and a Whitney Baby Pony.  I have a specific Mommy pony.  I'm not allowed to change, I've noticed.  And it is a pony that is orange, not pink, with straight, not curly, hair.

This week I've been trying to sit down and just play with each one of them each week.  Now that they play together so nicely most of the time, I started noticing I could go an entire day next to them, but not interacting.  It has made my week much more satisfactory.  Now.  If only I was able to stay focused on that all the time.  We have had lots of make believe play together as a result.  Whitney was my Whitney Yellow Big Kid Birdie one day, using the outdoor small cushion as a bottle to feed me or a worm to feed her.    We also just played with toys randomly.  One time, after Activity day night where they were with Dad, they got out the trays from the tool bench toy.  They turned the trays over and were pretending they were Ipads/kindles.  Tucker studied the sticker on the tray carefully at one point.  He pushed the drawing of the top of the screw and said "history!" then pretended to watch "Happy Train" ( a video about the alphabet with a train).  The top of the screw picture does kind of look like his history button on the ipad.

Jim also told me he gave Tucker and Whitney a sip of his Sobe.  Tucker got really excited.  He ran and got his cup and requested "lots of sips" from Papa's drink.

They helped me make perogies the other night.  Worked out pretty well.  They played with their play dough while I made the dough.  Whitney stuck with it for a really long time and mimicked all the stuff I put in, too.