big boy bed at last

Three month photo op.  It might have been a little bright for him

Whit asked for a pic with her and Ethan.  He started to fall forward, so the blur is her catching him with her legs

Whitney talking to Ethan

Helping him sit up

Looks like Halloween come early.  This is the face painting they let the other twins do for them.  Tucker asked to be a meow meow.  Whitney must have asked for a racoon

One way to play with dump on the playground

Another way to play with dump on the playground

dump swings on the playground

Water, sand and sunshine

Cute Tucky

Ethan chillin' at the beach

"Dump is in prison with lots of keys.  He's a bad one"

Recipe for hours of entertainment

Floor time

Floor time with Tucker's toe

My three happy cheerful kids

Milli!

Thomas has a flashlight so there are no monsters

Tucker got his big boy bed at last.  He has had his sheets and bedspread, but it hasn't been off the floor until now.  He was soooooo excited, I felt bad about putting it off.  All we needed was the box spring, just had to actually go out and buy one.  But the best part?  It is a slightly higher frame than Whitney's.  He was very excited about that.  He said "Papa put even higher wheels on mine!"

Today we did "expeerments".  That's how Tucker says it.  We have a science book that has experiments after each little section.  We've been doing a few.  We did the same amount of water, but in different containers.  Hands down.  Every time.  The container that looks higher DEFINITELY has more water in it.  I showed them that it was the same amount of water.  They were very confused about that.  Whitney grasped the concept that liquids are the shape of the container.  She pointed out the square water and the round water.  But that something could look more and not be more was way beyond their comprehension.  So.  Four pennies is definitely more than 1 dollar.  duh.

Tucker has a serious issue with just randomly hitting Whitney or randomly squashing her.  She has zero tolerance for it, especially when she is sick.  Like the past couple of days.  So there has been a lot of whining and complaining about Tucker being "the mean one" or "the bad one" when he walks by and pulls her hair or pinches her. But today she had total reason to whine and complain.  I actually couldn't believe how tough she was.  Tucker picked up his metal Tonka Truck and hit her on the side of the head with it.  I gasped because I thought for sure I had a head injury on my hands.  Nothing, just a headache and whining.  Tucker knew he had been bad because I didn't even tell him to go in time out.  He ran to it right away, saying "Dump is a bad dump.  That dump is a bad one."

Today the original plan of Jeremy's was put into action.  Jeremy always has these trying to convince me lines.  When I came home from the hospital and it had looked like Christmas in June with the amount of new toys, Jeremy had everything all planned out.  He told me he was thinking the kids could load up their wagons with the chips and help him move them to the back.  Whatever.  That would last for no more than a couple of trips.  But today it worked.  They stationed their wagons for me to shovel chips into over and over to help me move the wood chip pile.  Notice, it's not my hubby moving it.  No comment, but really, I would have been surprised if Jeremy did something that tedious.  And Tucker and Whitney are cheerful helpers.  They made themselves dirt pile mountains for their dumps to perch on.  Whitney's was higher, so Tucker plopped his truck on top.  Just to bother her, of course.  They each had their own "mountain" for their dump to be on.

Cleaning up the outside toys today Tucker commented on something that made me laugh.  He insisted that the sled he was cleaning up was Evan and Noah's, not his to clean up. Then he said, "Evan is practicing to be king, just like Jake."  It cracked me up because both of those boys ran up to the top of the pile and yelled "I'm king of the mountain" several times when they were here playing.  Tucker doesn't get why that is a necessary comment, only noting that they both did it.  The only way he could make sense of it was that they were practicing to be kings.

We were invited to a block party this past weekend.  They had a very small bounce house, but it was perfect.  Tucker and Whitney LOVED it.  They played on it for a good two hours.  It was a little tikes bounce house, smaller than a trampoline, but perfect.  There was a guest speaker at the party and the bounce house was turned off so we could hear the guy talk.  Tucker thought he broke it by "making a mole hole" with his hand.

The best part of the block party was that T and W played with the other twins.  I couldn't believe it.  These twin girls are 11 and loved having a small child each to play with.  They were holding hands and playing chase games that ended bouncing on the bounce house.  Tucker and Whitney both kept holding the other twins' hands the rest of the night.  Tucker let her paint his ENTIRE face.  He was so still while she did it. Whitney was so enamored she almost had an accident, dancing like crazy while the other girl was painting her face.  Whitney must have been thinking she wouldn't finish if she had to go potty.

By chance Tucker talked Whitney into wearing her thing one shirt that day.  Usually it's his first shirt of choice after laundry is done.  That one or Thomas shirt.  Usually Whitney's first shirt pick of the week is a "magenta" one.  But Tucker pointed out that morning that her thing 1shirt was clean and he wanted her to wear it.  She agreed. It was a hit at the party that night.  During the day, though, Whitney was bossing Tucker around for play time.  He didn't like her idea.  She came running to me, crying, "Thing 2 isn't LISTENING!"

I've been teaching them to put their "decoration" pillow somewhere else and to not use it at night.  Whitney commented to me that she would put her decoration pillow "behind her fence".  I have to admit.  Her headboard does look like a fence.

We bought some diapers at a mexican store last weekend.  They smell like adobo chillis.  I kept smelling this odd smell whenever I changed Ethan's diaper.  I thought it was because I had eaten the meat and it was coming out in his poop.  But no.  It was the actual diaper.  I also had a laugh because it was the costco diaper pack opened and divided by the plastic inside bag and sold separately.

Jeremy commented that "whitney is smart for her own good" after I told him this.  We were driving back home after a long day of errands at the store, ending with me getting my hair cut.  Whitney said "Mom.  We've been really patient while you have been doing all your stuff.  Can we go to the park?"  Good point.  We stopped at the park.  Not for too long, though.  She got hungry and I didn't really have a good snack prepared for them, so we had to go home.

Milli came over to play.  I got out the dress up stuff for them.  Tucker decked himself out in all the blue stuff.  Blue butterfly wings and skirt and owl purse. The only thing that wasn't blue was the bright pink heels.  That made the other girls jealous.  They both wanted to wear the shoes.  Whitney came whining to me that Tucker wasn't letting her wear her shoes.  He came out fully dressed with this look on his face like I'm cute AND I have all the good stuff and am not sharing.  But then he quickly started to share, saying "I don't want those shoes.  I don't like those kinds of shoes."  I have to agree, Tucker.  Milli loved them, though.

I gave them snack outside one day.  Fish crackers of course.  Tucker dropped one and the ants swarmed within seconds.  Tucker and Whitney were squatted down, watching intently.  I told them not to feed the ants any more crackers or I would take away their fish crackers.  Tucker looked at me and said "But Mom!  The ants are HUNGRY!"  According to Tucker, poor, poor ants.  I have no such sympathy.  They made a nest in our wall.  Ask my mom how she helped discover this nest.

Jeremy loves to have a large supply of glow sticks.  He bought 300 of them on Amazon.  Amazon is not something he should be shopping on too often.  That's another story...  Anyway, back to the glow sticks.  He likes to give them each a glow stick every night.  It is his bribe weapon.  If they don't stay in their beds, their glow sticks get taken away.  On the box it says it is for children 4 and older.  We may have learned one reason why it says that.  Whitney was bending hers in half repeatedly.  And it suddenly exploded.  All over the bed, her hair and the blinds and the wall.  It actually looked kind of cool.  Like stars.   Thank heavens it was a glow stick that had no dyes.  Apparently this happened and I didn't know when it happened because one morning I went in and Meow meow (whitney's Hello Kitty pillow case) had a green, glow stick colored cheek.

When Jeremy left for his trip to Japan, I told Tucker that Grandma was coming while Papa was gone.  So as soon as his truck was gone, Tucker turned to me and asked where Grandma was. Here's how the conversation went: "where is she?   Is she at the beach?  Is it Thursday? (Yes, Tucker it is Thursday).  Oh.  We can go to the beach.  Is Uncle Scotti coming?  Long pause as he watched the thunderstorm outside.  I think the plants aren't thirsty anymore.  They don't need any more water.  Then we can go to the beach.  My dump's wheels turn in the sand at the beach.  I like the beach with the rocks."  Yes, Tucker.  We need to go the beach while we still can.  Sad will be the day when we have to quit that practice. 

A little bit of translation.  The last time my mom came, we went to the beach.  The last time we went to the beach happened to be a Thursday and happened to be a day when they asked me what day it was.  There are only two days to them.  Sunday and not Sunday, aka Thursday.  I often tell them that the reason it is raining is because the plants and trees are thirsty.  Tucker is pretty convinced that all plants turn into trees.  Tucker might have asked if Uncle Scotti was coming so he would know if he needed to hide Meow Meow from him.  Tucker has taken to hiding toys from friends before they come over so he doesn't need to share them. 

We've had this conversation, too.  Whitney wanted to send Aunt B a picture to "cheer her up".  So they both drew her pictures.  Tucker informed me that "Aunt B gets two pictures and Uncle Scotti and Uncle Ryan get no pictures.  They are bad ones.  Uncle Scotti took meow meow".  It's true.  Scott took Meow Meow from Tucker for a bit and hid him.  It obviously left a scar.  Not really sure why Uncle Ryan is in the mix.

I'm starting to feel really ghetto lately.  I keep insisting that Tucker doesn't need flip flops because it's going to get cold soon.  Apparently it's not getting cold enough fast enough.  The other day one of the Hello Kitty flip flops broke.  But lucky me (or lucky Tucker) it's the opposite foot from the one he lost in the blackberry bushes.  So now Tucker wears one Hello Kitty and one Mickey Mouse flip flop.  People just think he dresses himself.  No.  It's because his mom insists on not buying flip flops at the end of the season.