belly pics

Bah Humbug.  I really liked the camera we had until it got stuck half way between open and shut again.  Last time that happened was in September, not too long ago, but I thought it was because I dropped it in the sand.  As far as I know, nothing has happened this time, except it was in Jeremy's pocket a bunch.  Maybe he has sandy pockets.  Wouldn't be the first time.

So I'll be explaining a bunch with words again.  Sorry!

We went for a walk on Mother's Day.  For some reason Tucker was feeling very snuggly.  He snuggled the flowers.  He snuggled the rocks.  But he also snuggled Mommy and made my day.  I wish I had a camera when he crawled under rhody bush and found a bunch of flowers blooming to snuggle.  He looked up at me in such a perfect picture pose.  But alas.  I actually didn't have a camera.

Whitney LOVES birthdays.  There have been a bunch of birthdays in the family and friends, so it's been at the forefront of her mind I believe.  She makes me lots of birthday cakes, usually with "strawberries" or "blueberries" in them.  Those are the pink and grey blue rocks she adds that we have in the yard.  Then she ends with a nicely pitched version of happy birthday.  I absolutely love it!

This past week a few surprising things happened.  Jeremy got home around 6:30 most nights of the week.  It was also sunny and "warm", summertime temps for here.  It was so, so lovely.  Amazing how rapidly my mood improved.  Fancy that.  The big kids felt the change, too.  They haven't been wanting to fall asleep before 9 pm, it's been so exciting.  Oh well.  I've heard the other parents say their kids aren't going to bed until late, so it's probably just a summertime struggle I'll have as long as we live here.

One of the things we did one of these nights was play basketball with Tucker.  It's worded that way on purpose.  Tucker directed the family team.  He would tell each of us when it was our turn and how far away from the basket to stand for our skills.  He wouldn't give us the ball until we were standing  where he wanted us.  Embarrassingly enough, my distance isn't too much farther away from Whitney's.  Papa could pretty much stay where he was and throw it really far.  But Whitney hasn't been into basketball too much, so it was really cute seeing Tucker encourage her to try and try again until she also got a few baskets.  Apparently this was very exciting.  Usually when I snuggle the big kids right before bed, Whitney talks to me a bunch, but Tucker flops around or sings to himself.  Not that night.  He talked to me for 15 minutes about playing basketball with Papa.

We also tried some candy from Thailand this week with Papa.  One of them was those sour coated dates with the seed still in them.  I still haven't figured out what that stuff is, but it makes my mouth pucker.  He also brought home some milk durian  candies.  And I learned about that particular fruit.  Apparently it is a love it or hate it fruit with lots of controversy.  Apparently it is very stinky.  So stinky, in fact, that Jeremy showed me a picture that is posted on a subway train in Singapore.  They have the usual pictures of no food or drink or smoking.  And in that list is a picture of a durian fruit saying no durians on board.  I had a really, good laugh about that.

Tucker talked a bunch on Monday morning after he had run all those errands with Papa on Saturday.  He normally doesn't fully participate in Joy School, often playing nicely off to the side, but Monday he was telling everyone about all the stuff he did with Papa.  Definitely loves his Papa.

Whitney was pretty cute about all the Papa time, too.  She asked who she was going to play with for Activity Days this week.  I told her Papa would be home to stay with her.  She said "I sure do like Papa".

With the warm weather we have also reclaimed our backyard.  The lack of the need to poop scoop to be back there has also helped in reclaiming it.  We've been playing on the deck and the underneath side.  Our yard  isn't totally fenced in and Tucker can easily open one of the side gates, but for the most part, it is an area where I can let them play now.  They've invented backyard games.   Tucker plays basketball with some hoop looking holes in the holly tree.  He also really likes to pick the holly berries off the tree, lecture anyone in hearing distance about  how you can only pretend eat those berries and then throw them up so high "it went on the roof".  He also enjoys reaching the berries for Whitney that she can't reach for her soups.

Whitney loves knowing flower names.  We have a camila bush in our backyard that is just ending its blooms.  The flowers fall off whole on the ground, so she has been collected her favorite blooms and saving them to float in bowls around the house.  She also picks not as perfect blooms and pulls them apart to use the petals for soups.

Their entertainment and media is definitely still very much a part of their play.  The other day they were playing "banana" with the rake and laughing hysterically about it.  Playing banana means mimicking the behaviour they see the minions in the mini movie associated with Despicable Me.  The other day they watched a bit of Madagascar and they were laughing hysterically at the penguins (minion like in movements, I must say) and the giraffe falling down all the time.  Now they play penguins.

Lots of Tucker's one liners and sayings come from stuff they see or read.  He likes to walk around saying "oh what a ride!" or have Whitney push him in the laundry basket saying it.  It is from the book Fish Out of Water that he loves to read at least 3 times a day, if not more often.  He and Whitney have started playing "Mr Nobody", something they were very entertained with from Joy School.  It's an imaginary friend of theirs.  Whitney loves walking around the house saying Angelina Ballerina.  I finally checked out that book for her and we got out the stuffed animal version of Angelina to read it to.  She is in love.

Whitney has gotten a bit tired with all the late nights.  She had gone into her room to feel her sheets and read Angelina Ballerina.  It was about a quarter to seven.  I was playing with Tucker and didn't hear anything for awhile, so I went to check on her.  She was dead asleep at 7 pm.  Sweet!  I was not about to change her into pjs.  She slept until 7 am the next day, but was very confused about why she still had clothes on.  Tucker was concerned for other reasons.  Since she was asleep, she didn't get a bath.  Tucker asked me with a very serious face "Is Whitney stinky?!" before going to bed himself. Yep.

Whitney drew a "J" in a circle in one of her watercolor pics.  She said it was baby brother in mommy's tummy.

Whitney could only go up to her knees that day, and so her knees got wet!

Tucker only going in up to his knees.  Amazingly, they stuck to the rule

talking to each other in those tube things.  Whitney is closest, Tucker is in the distance.

Playing on the train together

Playing in the fort

We've been enjoying a few days at the park.  One day was warm enough for them to take their sandals off.  Well.  Warm enough for here.  The next day was back to regular temps and they were very sad they couldn't take their shoes off.  They've been enjoying jumping off the rocks at the park, too, since they aren't wet any more.  I love it when they help each other jump off rocks or slide down steep rocks or slides by holding each other's hands.  Melts my heart.

Tucker asked Jeremy to play Thomas with him.  That involved Papa setting up the track and the both of them staring at Thomas going around and around the track for 15 minutes.   Tucker would fix Thomas if he went off the track.  Tucker filled up Thomas's "wagon" with the fish from the fishing game he brought back from Japan.  Tucker likes to instruct us in correct orders.  He told Jeremy "first the track, then Thomas" when Jeremy mentioned Thomas needed new batteries.  He also said "first potty, then bath" when running to the bathroom to get his turn in the tub.

He also pointed out that Thomas is a boy, just like Tucker and Papa.  Boys night out in the living room, I guess.  We were having one of many who's a girl and who's a boy discussions the other day. I had a good laugh at something Tucker said.  It can be taken two ways.  We were talking about how Mommy is a girl. Tucker then said Whitney was a "little Mommy".  I think he meant that Whitney is a little girl, but it could be taken that she is a little Mommy in the truest sense to him.  I haven't decided.

I like the fact that I can take a little bit advantage of his boy love of mechanical things.  He squirted all the windows down with Windex for me and also squirted the vinegar on our wood floors.  Quite a good little helper that way.

We played with oobleck today.  Tucker loves that stuff.  I was impressed that Whitney remembered the nickname for it.

We also played tent.  Tucker liked smashing Whitney's, so it didn't last too long.  He wanted to play glow stick, lantern and with the other glow in the dark or light up toys they have for wintertime.

They played caterpillar this week.  They each found a caterpillar that they went on adventures with.  They usually let it crawl around in a shovel they carried about.  Tucker put one of his caterpillars in the dump truck and "dried him off".  Mina was doing laundry and he had the truck below the dryer vent.  I think the caterpillar crawled off the truck, because soon after that they had to take turns with their caterpillar friend.  Whitney figured out how to use two shovels to help the caterpillar back on a shovel.  She didn't want to touch it.  Neither did Tucker, but Tucker kept trying to convince her to pick one up.

They had a ton of fun with Daddy on the weekend.  We decided to clean up around here from the past 2 and a 1/2 years.  They got a power washer and rode around on the flat cart at Home Depot.  Whatever.  I let them push.  forget rides.  I'm already tired.

One of the errands was for Daddy to get his and Tucker's hair cut.  Didn't work out so well.  Well, I guess it depends on who you ask.  Tucker didn't want a haircut, but Whitney sure did.  So she got one and he didn't.

They also went to the dump with him to get rid of all these non working appliances that were kindly left by the previous owners.  Tucker had a blast pulling stuff to the truck and lifting what he could into the truck bed.  He's pretty good at it.

And of course they got a treat, lots of them, while with Daddy.

Some funny stuff Tucky said this week.  He calls brownies "frownies".  Not frownies.  They make me smile.  He also got a little upset at his left over pizza at lunch.  He broke in two pieces.  He doesn't like his food broken for some reason.  He was crying hysterically and kept asking for tape to put on his pizza.  I see the logic..... kind of.

Whitney likes comparing how she is the same as other people.  She said "Whitney and Papa collect rocks".  She says collect so cute.  You understand her, but the pronunciation is off on collect.  She also said that "Danny and Whitney both like cutting paper" while she was cutting up little shapes like "octagons" from paper.  Danny is the kid in the book It Was Jake! who cut up paper for fun.  The one that drives me the most nuts, though, is how she compares her toes to Papa's toes.  They have the same toes, which means they both like to pick up objects off the floor with their toes.  Which means she likes to do clean up with her toes.  It. Takes. Forever.  Tucker pretty much does clean up on his own now.  I have to plan lots and lots of time for clean up.  Because I'm not picking up toys or anything else off the floor at the moment.

For Joy School this week I made a man out of pipe cleaner.  Random, but Tucker loves Man.  He brings him everywhere.  He puts him to sleep in the iphone box he got from Papa.  He likes to cart the box around, too.

Tucker tripped the other day.  So he's been showing the family his owies.  The first time he showed Whitney his owie he said "Whitney, want to see my owie?"  She looked at it and kissed it.  He was so excited he ran to tell me how kind she was.  Yep.  Whitney told me this week that girls help their mommies.  She certainly does.  But they both helped weed today, so they are both my big kid helpers.

all of these pics are from a friend's camera and are purely belly pics