Grandma leaves again, so sad!

Chef.  He used his pocket to gather onion, avocado and lemon from the fridge to make guacamole

 

T took this picture of W and I in matching purple shirts.  He told us to be still and smile



W used the triangle and circle magnets to make hairbows.  I'm always amazed at what she can create with what she has

One of many "scroll" pictures I took.  Who taught her those were scrolls?  Must be her great great grandma giving her lessons somehow.  It isn't me

All babies need a picture next to the dishwasher.  They have all loved it

T and W love to play grocery shopping.  I'm not a huge fan of this game either because it creates a huge mess very quickly in all the rooms in the house, but they sure have a blast.  They "select an item", a phrase from an ipad game, put it in their cart, which is a box or a deflated balloon, and then they run through the house and deposit the toy in their room.  They keep picking things like blocks, beads, magnets, you know.  Lots of little things. Clean up takes forever these days, but oh well.  They are running in the house, which is good.  only in the pacific northwest winters, right?

We walked like Grandma and walked like Mommy today.  This is something J invented over Christmas.  They stand on our feet and walk fast or slow around the house. 

It was sunny today, so I got this great idea to wash the car.  There was a long line because everyone agreed with me, so I decided to use the self wash area.  Did a bad job, but oh well.  I pulled into a bay where someone had left some time on, so I got down to business.  Apparently everyone in the car was having a grand old time laughing at the wild mommy car wash.  I heard nothing.

Have I mentioned how T and W think that the ATM is so, so funny?  They laugh hysterically at the card getting eaten by the machine and how the bills come in or get eaten.  I don't know why this is so, so funny.  So if you are ever feeling down, go to an ATM machine.  It will make your day.

E is getting slightly better at crawling, but really a lot better at pulling up and cruising.  He pulled himself up on a toy today and walked around it.  I guess it is because of his breakfast of champions.  He keeps waking up at like 3 or 4 in the morning hungry.  I'm tired of it.  I guess I need to feed him more.  I've been feeding him purees more often during the day and a bigger quantity.  Yeah.  No wonder.  I have no idea how he has been so happy, but feeding him until he stops opening his mouth for more results in five solid food feedings of twice as much.  Each sitting is 2 ounces of formula, the appropriate amount of rice cereal to mix with the milk and half of a container of produce pureed of second foods, plus breast milk from both or one side.  That's a lot of food.  He doesn't spit up ever.  I'm always amazed at how much my kids can pack it down when they don't look like overweight kids.  I guess that's how much they need.

T likes to skate.  He takes the ramps off of his flatbed truck and scoots up and down the hall on "the ice". 

It still amazes me how skills in kids turn on.  It seems sudden.  E continues to cry while he crawls, but he can do it if properly motivated by a ball.

W and T randomly started writing letters.  W started it.  I guess capital H, I and T are easiest to do.  W wrote those ones out and asked if they spelled anything.  Yep.  HIT.  But she also wrote F A A T along with some other letters so we read FAT together.  T liked the letters T, V, U, O and lower case E.  It was really fun to be part of their writing moment.

T takes his chef job very seriously.  He is also E's personal chef and E LOVES it!  T mixed in all the stuff I made for E in his bowl and ran over to feed it to him himself since E was in a conumption in his hated high chair.  T gives E very large scoops, but I guess E likes it that way.  It comes in fast enough.

My mom was reading how vinegar can work like round up.  I will let you know how the experiment goes.  T sprayed a ton of weeds around the house.  He used up two spray bottles worth.  He didn't particularly like the fact that I only wanted him to spray in certain areas where there were no other plants I wanted to live around, but after he got over that, he did a number on them weeds.  Which somehow think that spring is around the corner since they are about to go to seed, but we are completely covered in fleece lined clothing at the moment.

It was sunny today, so we went the park.  The fabulous park!!  T was in the lead of exploring different pathways while riding Fiery Flynn, his name for his bike.  W didn't particularly like the kid at the playground calling her bike "Henry" some other name.  There was another kid bundled up to the eyes showing only at the park.  He was very friendly.  W and T were wary.  Finally I told T to ask how old he was, and W got up the guts.  I told T it was another boy to play with and he didn't "want to play with ANYONE!".  Ok, ok.

They practiced pumping on the swings, now that they are 4, but didn't like it too much, so they reverted to swinging on their stomachs and winding the swings up to spin around instead.  E loved his swing and how high and wild he could go.  He has a deep growly laugh sometimes that makes us all smile. 

W had a blast on the magna doodle drawing "scrolls".  She did not learn that from me, so I was impressed.  And they look really quite cool, too!

We played "experiment" by picking out an experiment to do from the experiment book.  W chose one that has a girl doing it.  that was the basis of why she wanted to do the experiment.  It's one that requires soaking beans overnight.  Whoops.   Boring today, good tomorrow.  So T and I did the leaf freezing one.

He keeps working on his cruising skills, determined to walk, just like his silly siblings.

They invented another game of crazy balloon.  They hit the helium balloons down to prevent them from floating up to the ceiling.  When they get tired, they capture it and put it in their play oven or something.

T has a blast trying to match rubber foot prints casted from real animal foot prints in the area to the drawn ones on a poster.  It was really fun!  Then they fought over who got to look through the telescope and told me to keep E away from them figuring out the puzzle.  We ended our park visitor center reading a book on how butterflies grow.  Sunshine cheers us up so!

T did the cutest thing ever today.  He just randomly made W's bed for her this morning.  It so cheered me up to see him being so kind and cute!

E's top teeth are almost in.

W told me Grandma knows how to make patterns.  This was shortly after she left and we were playing with the beads she had left.  It's true.  That is stuff Grandma and Aunt B do better

The rest of the year....

This picture makes T laugh every time.  "Oh Uncle Ryan is holding me upside down on my head!"

Pushing Uncle Ryan.  They played outside doing this for many hours, barefoot.

cute T

E, Uncle Ryan and the cruiser

eating toes is so silly, Aunt Krissa

Bulldozer helping W pick up her beads

E was sleeping.  Not too bad a pic with the timer set on the couch

Visiting grandma Wilma

Playing in the dirt with Grandma Wilma

The sun felt fabulous!

E enjoying his new toy from Grandma An.  No other baby has chewed this!!

Another thing we did for hours.  Swinging through the leaf pile in the sun with Grandpa and Papa

W's turn!

Higher!

Playing in the leaf pile.  A result of odd weather in cali

cute T with cute E in Grandma's arms in the background

Checking to see if the rope is doing it's job.  Bulldozer is very close by

Grandma Kim giving E a deep bath

E's spa bath in Grandma's sink.  The light is actually a battery lantern.  I didn't know it, but it was the beginning of the end.  E was taking a bath at 10 at night because he threw up all over

E playing in the water

Ooooo! Light!

T played this with Grandpa for about an hour.  Putting sand in the top and filling up the bucket to pour more down.  Another kid came to play and asked T if he could play with it.  T politely responded "no you may not."

W did go on this train ride but was very, very sick without me realizing how sick she was until later

After we got better and recovering very slowly. 

On the hammock in colder weather, but still just as fun

T didn't have much energy, but enough to smile

very still spa time.

"I don't know why everyone is having such a problem.  I was better in 24 hours!"

T the next morning dead asleep in Grandma's arms at 10 am in the morning.  Very, very unusual.

E standing independently the first time.  Just needed a wake board to properly motivate E

How is this not absolutely adorable?

Or this one?

More fish going potty in the spa

The hideout revealed!

Food is coming!

A common sight.  T knows just how to help E

Helping grandma cook

More quiet activities.  This day I only let them have fluids.  1 ounce every 45 minutes to keep it all down.  Keep reading, Grandma!

I'm so cute!

Uncle Ryan riding wild in the wagon.  Go Uncle Ryan.  No one else will do your job right

T using the truck to add to the burn pile

Dumping the load

After Christmas, we spent a day with Grandma An and Grandpa.  It was absolutely fabulous.  I have no idea how warm it was, but to me it felt like spring.  We really enjoyed eating oranges fresh picked by W for lunch.  T totally choked down on BBQ potato chips, too.  Mommy decided to let grandmas rule and the kids totally loved it.

the orange tree was at grandma Anderson's house.  We enjoyed catching up with everyone.  after lunch we walked over to visit Grandma Wilma.  It was about 5 blocks away, one way.  T got a tractor and semi truck for Christmas.  He is slightly attached.  When we were getting ready to leave to visit the other grandmas, t asked if he could bring his truck home.  J asked him why and he said, because I really like it.  So that means he carried it on the walk to grandma Wilma's.  He also played in the dirt with it and helped w pick up all the beads she dropped on the sidewalk.  W loved getting her beads so that is what she carried over.  She was shaking it a little too much and they escaped.  But at least she had a brother to help her.

J stayed with E while he was sleeping at Grandma Anderson's.  I went back to feed him and left the two older kids with Cathy with Grandma Wilma.  t opened the door for Cathy so
she could push grandma Wilma's wheel chair through.  They also built a garden with the tractor.

After visiting with grandma Wilma, we went back and Paul and j pushed the older kids on the tire swing through the leaf pile.  For like, maybe two hours.  They kicked the pile up every time it got low.  W and T loved it!  The rest of us sat in the sun and chatted.  Then we ate the hickory farms package for dinneer.  a perfect day.

Friday we were back up at my mom's.  She brought us to her friends house to jump on the tramp and look at the horse.  That afternoon we met up with  aunt b at the Placerville park.

Saturday was the start of the end of fun.  We planned to go to the park and ride the mini train.  We did just that and T had a great time.  However, unknown to me, W had the stomach flu.  We figured it out about halfway through the outing.  Poor thing!  We were so far away from home and she wasn't doing so well.  But I had no idea.  Just before we got on the train, she said she had to spit.  She is by prone to motion sickness and was playing fairly normally, so I thought it was a one time deal, like when she had gotten off the hammock earlier in the week.  But then, it kept going.  She wanted to go on the train so bad I really didn't think she was sick, but after we got off, she crashed and completely fell asleep.  After that we went home and none of us really emerged from the house for five days while we all cycled through it.

Some funny and not so funny parts.  Tucker commented on how his poop melted.  That about sums it up.  They kept asking why they were sick.  I told them a flu bug made them sick.  Whoops.  That brought on all sorts of discussions about how bugs crawled into their tummies.  Whitney threw up three days and each time t would comment on how she ate a bug.  Then she would cry some more.  That's how I knew they were never deathly I'll because t would always have just enough energy to tease her at some part of the day and w would scream and react.  Although one day I was a little concerned about t because he slept until noon.  Very, very uncharactoristic for him.  I kept checking to see if he was alive.  He also asked to go to bed a couple of times and would just sit around.

Toward the end uncle r gave them wagon rides since they really didn't have energy to play but were bored of movies and books.  They had to get outside!  Grandpa took them in the spa and they would mostly just sit and stare.  But I was glad my mama could take care of us.  I'm certain it will be quite some time before we get invited back.  It will take a bit to recover from an entire week of sick house guests that kindly shared their germs and screaming children.

Even though I felt like I wasted 7 beautiful sunny days with family, we did manage to get in lots of spa time, looking at stars in the hammock, reading books in the hammock, drawing with sidewalk chalk, collecting pine cones, playing with truck and tractor,  making a crane, drawing, doing dot to dots, playing make spaghetti with play dough and swinging on the porch swing.  We'll come back again.  W has asked every day since coming back home from Grandma's when spring is coming.  Too bad she has to wait until summer to go barefoot here.

Pagan Christmas

We woke up at Grandma's and first thing we did was jump in the spa.  Yep.  No worries about opening presents here.  The present was already opened, just getting to Grandma's!  My grandma and her husband were at morning Mass, so we stalled Christmas morning quite a bit.  It didn't seem to bother W, E, and T one bit.  They were very content playing in the spa with Grandpa and the fish, popping the bubble on Grandpa's shirt created from the jets and squirting water with the fish toys.

After the spa they were hungry for an awesome breakfast and we got down to business.  For a few minutes.  We got very distracted by the first gifts that we didn't get very much farther.

It's been fun being all together.  I was a bit grumpy about driving down, but now we are very much excited to be all together.  And I didn't realize that T and W are big enough to be excited to be with family, too.

On Sunday night I told them before going to bed that when they woke up that would be the day we drive to Grandma's.  I think next time I had better get a timer that will go off when it's time to go.  Here's what happened:

About midnight, after 4 long and restful hours of sleep, T woke up and was absolutely convinced it was the day to drive to Grandma's.  He started wandering the halls and then finally found the suitcases. I heard him say "I need to move these suitcases!"  I think he was ready to load the car.  We finally convinced him to go back to sleep in our bed.  So then, at 2 in the morning, W got out of bed, turned on her light, discovered T wasn't in his bed, and thought it was morning.  She came into our room and found me and started doing her morning "buggy, buggy" mommy snuggle as if she was getting up for the day and it was time for me to get up.  No.  I don't think so.  I told her to go back to bed.  She promptly went back, probably because I was using my mommy grumpy voice about being woken up again by a child that should be sleeping through the night.

One of the reasons for such excitement is eating meal bars in the car for breakfast. After they polished those off, T made the comment that maybe, when we got to Grandma's, that Grandpa would share his meal bars.

We also had a blast driving down.  The drive down we decided to do in two days.  One of the places we stopped at was a very random, going out of business type mall.  And lo and behold.  There was a railroad club that had set up an awesome real life miniature train that had most of the charactors of Thomas on the train.  Forget the tired Santa!  We totally bypassed him and went to the trains.  The guy even gave them a model train magazine! Score!  Waaaayy better than a candy cane.

We stopped in another town the next day for lunch.  There was an Asian BBQ sign out and lots of delicious smells coming from the cooker, so J stopped to order.  And lo and behold!  The owner was born in the same town as J!  They had a blast talking to each other. 

The park we stopped at was in the sun, with blue skies.  We were in seventh heaven.  And then!  There was an engine and 3 cars parked on the tracks next to us.  Fabulous!  We had a great time looking at the train and standing in the sun. 

After the park we had to go potty.  Well, W had to go potty again.  So we went into an old building.  When we walked in, the lady was so happy to see small kids walk in.  Apparently a lady born and raised in the town had knitted hats for kids to give out in town.  She was 102 years old.  We didn't meet her, but met the person running the info desk who offered them to our kids.  We had a great time learning about the town.  It ended up being a really fun stop.

We have some awesome one liners from Christmas.  T was trying to get his truck out of the box and got a little excited and started running with them.  J said " good thing you have some nice soft scissors to land on in case you fall"

This past month I was spelling out SANTA referring to a few things.  J had a great time smiling every time I would spell it out, then say, Satan?  Hmph.  The N is in the wrong place but maybe it distracts us more than we would like to admit...

We spent the rest of the day, though, enjoying being with Grandma, Hoppy, Grandpa, Grandma Kim, Uncle Ryan, J, me, W, E, T and hammock.  The sun was fabulous and so was the food!

just before I woke them up Christmas eve morning.  This reminds me of them being inside of me.  T taking up all the room and probably kicking and W scrunched over but not too bothered by him

On the Oregon/California border.  Hello sun, bye bye fog

Not much snow on Shasta, the head of Sacramento River....

Christmas morning.  We were trying to keep them busy until Grandma and Hoppy got back from mass.  They were very, very happy.  Grandpa said he's never spent Christmas morning in the spa first thing

72 degrees in the San Juaquin Valley!!  Celebrate the times!  Time to roll up the pant legs and sing in the car with the windows rolled down!

E after spa time Christmas morning

Playing spout with fish in the spa

Swimming in the spa

Christmas morning breakfast.  Wet hair, sunshine and oranges

Cold but happy?

The cookies are GONE??!!

It's heavy.  OOaa

THE truck.  out of the box

WHAT is going ON here?

E with the windows done

Aunt B teaching E how it's done

I want that experiment

T is distracted.  Let me chew on fish!

Christmas beads on truck

Grandma is SOOOO excited we made it Christmas Eve night.

Uncle R is very excited about the truck, too.

fish going potty Christmas morning

Let me have that!