Are we having fun yet?: ahhhh..... summer

Whitney put Tucker in his pillow case. He was her baby

Ok. I can't figure out why I can get the text to start only here. Whatever.

W: The picture they colored in nursery had an Adam and Eve on it. The entire picture was green, except for Eve. She was completely pink, "because she loves pink, Mom". She also made pictures in church and put them on Ethan's car seat "to cheer him up". During the week she was thinking of people she could give her pictures to to cheer them up. One of them was Stefanie for sending them a package full of Dr. Suess booty.

One day Tucker was beating Whitney up as usual. I wasn't putting Ethan down fast enough for Whitney. She told me "Mom! You put Ethan with his toys and I'll take care of him while you put Tucker in time out".

She is also good at the art of distraction with Tucker. He started taking over her rock at the playground one day. She started listing off all these other activities Tucker could do at the park that didn't involve him being on her rock. He didn't go for it, but I thought that was pretty resourceful of her.

E: Starting to fit tightly into 0-3 month size clothes. On to the next wardrobe. Getting more predictable with his eating and sleeping schedule. Sleeps from 10 pm to 2 am fairly consistently, which mommy loves because waking up between those hours is the most torture for her. Had one night of sleeping from 10:30 to 5 am. But he sleeps like this only if in his swing. It doesn't have to be on, just he needs to be in it. Hates the bed.

Lifting his head up from the floor quite nicely. Making even more cute cooing noises. Still loves being outside more than any other place. Likes to be with people.

His favorite baths are when he takes them with his siblings. He never cries during those baths. Tucker likes to cover his whole body with bubbles. I think Ethan loves it.

T: I've started assigning Tucker and Whitney parts for family home evening. I apparently should have done that a long time ago. Tucker LOVES being in charge of the activity. We all played "in the closet" as he called it. We all sat in the closet, Whitney, Tucker, Ethan and I, in the dark closet. Tucker and Whitney got in and out to go "to the ice cream store" that was on their bed. Tucker and Whitney fed Ethan and I pretend ice cream. It sounds simple and lame but boy did we have fun together.

W and T

They went to the dentist again. They couldn't wait. For the past two weeks they've been recounting to me all the details of the last dental visit, like the chocolate toothpaste, the toys, the prize they picked out, etc. Tucker points out the dental office location whenever we pass it.

Whitney told me to "go be with Tucker" when I went in to check on her. She didn't have any cavities this time, but the dentist said she is close if she doesn't start seriously brushing her teeth correctly. Hmmm. Chewing on the toothbrush doesn't count??!! This means I'll be doing it. Whitney picked out a pinwheel.

Tucker did really well at the dentist with the check up thing. Since he has better teeth, better tooth brushing skills and less of a sweet tooth, it was faster. He wanted to hold my hand during the whole thing, so good thing Whitney let me be with him. He loved the cars in the waiting area the best and picked out a plastic flower ring out of the treasure box.

They also had their first play date separate. Blue Chalk Joe's mom suggested we trade kids. So Whitney got to stay with her friend while Joe came to our house. I asked Whitney if she liked playing at Aisley's house. I got a very enthusiastic YES!. She came back with her hair braided. When she walked into the house she said "I'm not happy with this mess" as they had gotten out all "her" toys, too.

Things at my house were strangely quiet. I think both boys missed their twin sisters. Joe doesn't talk much. At least, he didn't talk much while he was checking out all the toys and the dirt pile in front. Tucker sang to himself a bunch, but pretty much just flopped around on the floor. A few times he played with Joe, trying to start a game of stinky diaper. But Joe just looked at him and said what are you talking about. He tried to make sense of Tucker by asking him if he was being a baby, but Tucker just said no, and Joe was confused.

Lunch time was eaten in complete silence. Joe commented he missed his sister during that time. When I asked Tucker if he liked playing with Joe, he said yes, then said, "Joe took my train and I took his. We traded." That's all. No comment about trying to play frisbee, kick ball or golf together. They did chase each other for a few minutes while jumping on shark and whale. They were also confused about why the other uses the potty so differently and had a big discussion about that together. Joe got tired of trying to convince Tucker to join in games, that he started asking me to play kick ball and frisbee. Hmmmm. I guess Tucker needs more practice in the games boys play.

Tucker played "catching crabs" with the cooler that Jeremy uses to transport his crab. I think Tucker put a bunch of rocks and pine cones in.

Now that Sammy and Rocky aren't around, we get deer and rabbits in our yard. Apparently we also get ants, too. Tucker found them first in the kitchen in the morning. He grabbed his one last flip flop (more on that later) and "got it with my flip flop, Mom" smashing it good and dead.

Tucker was having a hard time going to bed. He has started asking for a specific number of songs, usually "11 songs". Jeremy went in one time to help settle him down. One of those days I had had it and just walked out of their room. Jeremy rarely sings, but he'll do anything for his kids, including singing songs. When Jeremy came back out from singing his "11 songs" I asked him what 11 songs he picked. He told me he was glad Tucker didn't know how to count how many songs. He only got through Twinkle Twinkle Little star and This Old Man. Tucker requested "temple" (I love to see the temple), but Jeremy commented he didn't know the tune. Either way, Jeremy sings for Tucker. So cute!

We got together with some friends to go the beach park, eat dinner and go kayaking together. We had a blast. We picked up Milli and Emi around four, got to the park and ate pizza that they brought for all of us. Then we played in the water and the playground until the husbands arrived with the kayaks. She is 6 months pregnant and I'm not about to do really heavy lifting as of yet. Still out of shape in some regards. My friend liked kayaking, so maybe I'll have a buddy for next summer. She is probably done for the summer.

I got this great idea to get the carpets cleaned the day before my family came into town. Not sure it worked out like I thought. The plan was for carpet cleaning to take out the dog smell, but all it did was make our house smell like wet dog. Grrr. Now I believe everyone. You just plain have to replace the carpet. Sigh. I'll wait for Ethan to potty train and then do it. I had moved all the furniture around to get it off the carpet, so no spot would be missed. Whitney asked me several times "why does it look weird in here?"

We decided to go on a road trip a bit to the Olympic Pennisula. I had no idea how far away it was. I was thinking like, the Alpine Loop up Provo Canyon. Nope. Beautiful but long. We didn't get very far once we go there, either. It was really late. And I made the mistake of reading with Whitney on a windy road. We ended up stopping at a beautiful place and Whitney and Tucker were amused with how Papa lifted the entire car seat and Whitney in it to do the clean up while I fed Ethan. It actually turned out to be a beautiful day. We stopped at some random playgrounds for Ethan feedings and that was really fun. We found a cool see saw that was an arch in design. And another cool playground overlooking a clam bed in the Sound that was very quiet. We looked for whales (apparently there is a traveling clan in the Sound that has been close to the beaches) while we were on the ferry. No whales, but the lights from the ferry revealed some jellyfish. Very cool summer day.

Tucker dutifully buckling Meow meow in. It's like having four kids in car seats. I have to wait for four buckles before driving

Ethan at the beach while the rest of us ate pizza, swam and kayaked

A picture that Ethan is being somewhat still. 2 months old

Me trying to get a two month old photo op. This camera requires the people to be completely still, otherwise it blurs the object. Really annoying when taking pics of babies and toddlers. This is one of the best ones

It was the grocery store courtesy clerk's idea. He told me I had plenty more room in the car for stuff and that I should continue shopping. So I bought a plant and pretended the van was a truck. We had the plant, plus all the stuff that was in the trunk (stroller, froggy, swimming ring that was left in there, you know) and all the groceries, plus three kids in car seats

Tucker let Ethan snuggle Meow meow

Papa practicing skipping rocks with the big kids. Whitney's outfit is a result of Mommy forgetting that Whitney gets motion sickness on windy roads. We were reading. In the back seat. Oopps!

Mommy and Ethan at the shores of a lake that reminds me of Lake Tahoe a bit. Freezing cold, but clear water. The mountains were more spectacular, though. Felt like summer.

More results of McKinnley playing. They have been making tea parties and setting tables. This one was quite the spread of food. The empty spot was my spot. Even Meow Meow had a spot. Another creative use for Whitney's ever growing rock collection

Whitney painting. She is getting the hang of painting her smiley faces. She also painted a whole bunch of fences. Like literally tons. About 30 of them all on different pieces of paper

Putting hair bows on dump. That's what they told me. After stripping the yucca plant flowers. Good thing I'm not a particular fan of the yucca plant flower as a whole. It was a hot day. Probably 85 degrees.

The three burritos. Amazingly the last kid on the right is 1.5 years younger than them, but weighs the same as Tucker. She's really cute, though, and they absolutely love to play together

Their friend's dad hydrating the children, one by one. I took a picture of it because Tucker and Whitney loved the attention of being fed water, something I won't do.

blurry photo op of ethan at two months

Miss Stefanie sent them an awesome package in the mail. Complete with bubble wrap. Couldn't be cooler. It was all Dr. Seuss stuff. They stuffed their bags with bubble wrap. Tucker using the bag in a very practical manner.