cuteness becomes them

Spring time play. Can't you tell? We can. Spring=bird noises. Wintertime=bright, red hands
More rainy play
Whitney asked to take this pic. She is sitting on a rock next to her daffodil sprouts. She knows how to say daffodil. It's really cute! She's excited about the flowers.
Tucky could do this all day. At least it's not the microwave.
Valentine's Day at the friend's house.
Valentine's Day. Check out the red socks!
A meter on spring here. Some daffodil and hyacinth sprouts mixed with primroses.


Don't ask me where I came up with the title, but it just came to me, even though there aren't any particularly beautiful pics

For Valentine's day we had an indoor picnic at a friend's house, all of us wearing some sort of pink or red. We also web-cammed with my mom so she could see them eating the candy she sent in the mail. At 9 am. Definitely a special day. The babies wanted more, of course. Daddy brought home "Mommy flowers" and made a delicious dinner, which included some mushrooms and onions. Tucker sat on Daddy's lap and ate all of those onions, amazingly. He also ate the meat. But even I love that meat. He made filet mignon. Who doesn't love that???!! I personally loved the gnocchis. Mostly because I think it is a special touch to me. Every place that we have gone to that have gnocchis on the menu, I order that. I love gnocchis. Good mission memories.

Some funny Tucky stories. On Monday we had corn for lunch. All of a sudden Tucker was announcing "oh no!" several times. I couldn't figure out what "oh no!" was until he started saying nose. I looked in his nose and he stuffed a corn kernel up there. Lucky for me I figured out a way to get that sucker out. Pebbles next, right?

Another story is that we were walking in the park and all of sudden Tucker started saying "oh no!", but with a very distressed voice. I was looking around, but then he stopped walking and looked down. After that I started laughing hysterically and couldn't stop for awhile. Tucker's pants had fallen down below his knees and his cute little thighs and knees were exposed to the air below his raincoat. I don't know why I thought it was so funny, but the babies were not amused. Neither one of them cracked a smile. I don't think they could figure out what was so funny. Tucker did a courtesy laugh and I finally got it under control after that, only because maybe he was embarrassed, even if he has cute thighs and he had a onsie on over a diaper.

Whitney has figured out how to take off seals off of products. We were in Costco and I got some shampoo (my five year supply with the size they are, right?). A lady walked by and she smelled so good!!! Like she just stepped out of the shower. Then Whitney said "oh no!" (now you know the dreaded words in this family) and I looked down to see she had started squirting shampoo out. Well, at least I know it is a smell I like.

Tucker is really learning how to keep a balloon up in the air by hitting it. He's really getting it down where the balloon is going to go. They are both really into letters, Tucker more than Whitney. Everywhere we go, he points out different letters on signs and such. But he rarely gets them wrong, which is what is amazing to me. Whitney messes up on occasion, but it surprises me that it's more than Tucker. However, she is working on her pretend play and games.

She is usually the one that invents and initiates games. The ring leader. They have a book that has cut outs and she instructed Tucker to poke his finger through so she can go "tickle, tickle" to his finger. She also is setting her babies up at the table to eat the food she cooks in the kitchen. Tucker makes the babies cry and she feeds them. This week they also figured out how to work as a team to play Tucker's favorite game. Tucker can't quite turn the water on in the kitchen sink approaching it from the front. So Whitney pushed a stool around behind the sink and turned it off and on as he needed it to fill up his side-kick measuring cups. Yep. The ring leader. They also play "snuggle" which involved wedging themselves between the couch and the mattresses on the floor so one can jump off the couch over the other and land on the mattresses. A very safe, fun game. They also play take care of the baby. Tucker makes it cry and Whitney feeds it.

On Saturday we tried to get to the coast. We ended up just driving 6.5 hours. Lots of practice to get to Grandma's. For when they are older. We brought a friend and his wife called because she had to take her mom to the ER. We were just about to get to the beach to go razor clamming when the call came, so we had to turn around so he could take care of the 5 kids while she was with her mom. Crazy day. We would have been fine if there hadn't been an accident blocking the road to the beach...... Anyway it was a very frustrating long day in the car. We stopped to go to the bathroom and the only open one for Whitney to run into was a hugely clogged toilet. Never seen anything like it in nastiness, but I thought she couldn't hold it. Well, one look at that, and she could hold it. And hold it she did for another hour. She chuckled, smiled and ran into the clean bathroom when we finally got to one. I don't know if she is going to be roughing it type when she grows up. We'll see. She wasn't about to rough it then.

We ended up staying a bit to play at the friend's house to get out of the car. They have a 2 week old baby (hence the reason the grandma was there visiting) that Tucker and Whitney were amazingly soft to. These past two weeks we have been really working on saying sorry and being soft. I'm tired of the pointless time outs that they both seem to love and not care about. They still beat each other up and push and shove, but now, they are soft right after and seem surprised at times that they had hurt the other person. About a month ago we had a year old baby over that was teething and I had to work to keep Tucker from mauling them. So with this newborn, I was really watching Tucker. The newborn slept most of the time, but did wake up hungry and crying. They were both concerned for the baby, tried rubbing his head to comfort him and kept saying that the baby needed milk ("baby milk!"). When the bottle was ready, they both took turns holding it for him. So I guess kids are like dogs. They seem to know that the smaller, more delicate things need more leniency and to not get after them so soon. I'm just glad to see that they seem to be learning that the other person has feelings, too. I had to put a band-aid on Tucky's finger to protect a cut, and she gave the boo-boo a kiss! So cute! I bet you miss them! Enjoy the video of Whitney feeding Tucker rice and beans, something he doesn't like.

pathetic pics

Tucker: "What's up!"- mid chew
Just before I snapped this, they were both standing int it, looking out, like they were in prison
Tucker really likes diapers as a hat this week??????!!!
Whitney was being really cute, but put her hand up just as I took it. Still pretty cute.



The pictures are getting harder and harder to capture and videos are worse. Every time I have the camera out, they stop what they are doing and run over so they can see themselves on the camera. Very annoying. I almost caught some really cute stuff.

The picture of them in the fire pit ring on the back deck was taken at 5 o'clock at night. I was very excited about this. They ended up playing until 5:30. This means several things. It wasn't raining. It wasn't freezing cold. It was light until then. They were getting lots of energy out and slept well that night. All very happy things that means we are heading toward a warmer and less rainy season. I'm very excited. My primroses are also budding, the daffodil shoots are up and there are crows eating our trash (the green waste bin is slightly open from all those limbs from the tree I pruned last week). None of these things happen in the winter.

By the way, since living here, I hate crows even more. I didn't know they are bullies and scavengers like seagulls. Have the same sized nasty poop, too. Stupid crows. They chase all the other birds away that make pretty noises. Even Sammy and Rocky hate crows and bark at them incessantly when they are in our yard.

So this week we had a lovely time playing at the park, in the yard, or playing at the park with friends on Monday and Tuesday when it felt like spring.

Wednesday was a Valentine's party at music time. Whitney and Tucky's first Valentine party. It was then that I realized in getting rid of the diaper bag and going down to a back pack they carry and my purse, I don't have my camera with me. Lots of cute pics that I didn't capture. Whitney loves crafts and totally seems to get them. She's a bit of a perfectionist, though, in that if she can't make the craft look how she wants it, she gets mommy to do it. Tucker just kept handing Whitney supplies so she could make him one, too. I was absolutely shocked at how well she can do a craft. It was a craft that involved stickers and gluing and she got the concept and had her own idea. Definitely doesn't get that from me. It might explain, if I have a budding artist, why she likes the "Messy Me" book so much or why she is so messy in her eating. Just practicing her finger painting skills. But then she took her craft apart on the way home and then put it in the crucible we have for spices to smash it up a bunch. I guess she doesn't love her first attempts. She also knows how to sprinkle sprinkles on a cupcake almost as well as I did. She knew exactly what and how to do that. Tucker saw the cupcake and ate the frosting top off. He wasn't interested in the rest.

There were a bunch of veggie, cracker and fruit healthy treats at the party, but there were those cupcakes and another mom brought some valentine candies. Tucker saw those and couldn't concentrate on anything else except those two things until I took them out of his sight, and even then, he barely ate enough to satisfy his hunger. I guess he has mommy's sweet tooth. Whitney ate the whole cupcake in about 1-2 minutes. It was very good.

Thursday was a great day for mommy. After my clogging class I got to talking about a physical therapy topic with someone that was very enlightening for me. I had such a blast talking about it and it made me realize I really do like physical therapy. I need to sign up for my con ed class soon!

Friday we went to a new pediatrician. Jim's health insurance with this company is kind of like Kaiser from what I can tell in it's bigness and set up, but I do like the pediatrician. I think Tucker has a crush on her. Funniest thing. He was so good and helpful the whole time we were at the doctor, it almost made me laugh. Tucker took all his turns first, before Whitney. Climbing up on the scale, standing against the wall to be measured, getting a peak in the ears and getting his belly poked at, as well as his shots. When the doctor asked to measure his head, he smiled at her and leaned his head forward to accommodate her, like he was being such a gentleman. It seemed to really help Whitney feel better about her turn. Maybe that's why Tucker did it. To help Whitney.

Whitney is 2' 9.5" and 24 lbs. Tucker is 2'10.5" and 30 lbs. That puts Whitney in the 33% and Tucker in 45% for height. And Whitney 13% and Tucker 66% for weight. No wonder everyone says Whitney is so petite and Tucker is so big. Tucker is thick for his height and Whitney is slender for her height. Tucker still has a big head. in the 80%. Some shirts are really hard to pull over his head.

The doctor didn't seem to be too interested in testing Tucky for almond or milk allergies since the allergy just decreases his snot level, but I'm not about to go back to milk. That kid has consistently slept through the night, even when he had a cold, since then. I'm sold. If I don't have to wake up, no more milk. I guess it's like Scott's allergy to milk. Not life threatening, just really, really annoying. Surprisingly, Tucker hasn't had too big of a fit about not having milk. He seems to really like soy milk. Whitney likes it about the same as she likes cow milk. And I put soy in his smoothies. Seems to be doing very well.

We had to go downstairs to get the shots. The babies were very brave. They didn't cry or squirm too bad until the nurses had the needles on the way out. The nurses were awesome, too. They had a singing animal that the babies were fascinated with during the whole thing. And they had stickers. Tucker picked out the same sticker there as he did in the doctor's office. He saw the jaguar sticker, immediately said "meow" just like a small innocent kitten, and has been carting around that sticker, saying meow the same way ever since. He keeps trying to stick it to his belly, but it doesn't really work. I've been very surprised at how much he loves his "meow".

Whitney really likes taking her baby potty. Kind of annoying because she expects me to respond to baby needing to go potty the same way I respond to her needing to go. Good thing I'm not potty training Tucky. Then it would be like potty training triplets. No, thanks.

The videos are just as pathetic as the pics. I tried to get video of Whitney directing Tucker to play Tickle Feet through the stairway banister just like Mina does and of them finding poop for me. Kind of, sort of.

trucks and ducks

Whitney working hard on Mr. Potato
Whitney with the Elmo shirt and head band on that she picked out.
Whitney really wanted a picture of her baby
The face of glee she has when she puts her Elmo shirt on
Tucker would like to live in this thing. Under the blanket are a bunch of trucks and blocks he likes to play with. He doesn't have any other pics this week because they are lame.



The past week Jim was out of town from Saturday morning to Thursday night. So I didn't take any pics. The only ones we have are from his phone when he got home and was missing them. You'll have to do the old stand by of imagining it in your mind.

The weather has been drier this week. We've even had some sun. Today we went outside to play and it took them a bit to remember how to play outside. After a bit they found the rocks, golf balls and dirt and went to town. Tucker is so excited about the sun today he is not taking a nap.

Last week we went to the park a ton. One day we were at the park and they were using a dump truck and a tractor to load it. Holy cow. Very cool and very exciting. But, couldn't get too close. Very scary, too. They had a blast running up and down some short bleachers while they were watching. It was a great day.

Another day we went to a different park and watched the ducks. First we chased them off of their feeding grounds (a slow walking speed as they creeped up a bit a time to see if they could get closer). That turned out to be a very bad idea. They poop while they eat and Mom was very disgusted by the stuff in the treads of those shoes. So we went to throw rocks in the pond instead. Should have done that in the first place. Ducks came up by the dozens and pretty close, too. Whitney decided the bench was a safer place to stand. They stood on the bench watching and yelling a particular duck ("No, no!") that was twice as big as the rest for some reason. This duck was a bully and babies could recognize that, and kept reprimanding it. It was warmer than usual, and my Whitney who likes to go "inside" had a fit about leaving the park at lunch time. The two year old power struggles begin.

The babies really missed Daddy. The first night Jim was gone, Tucker got up from reading books before bed, bounded down the hall and ran into Jim's office, fully expecting Daddy to be there. He was very confused and surprised not to find him there. He didn't look again until Daddy got home. Once Daddy got home, Tucker didn't want him out of his arms or sight. Whitney was a little more snugly than normal during the week. Not sure if it is just a hard week or she was worried about Daddy. She pointed to his chair and said "Daddy seat" the first night he was missing from dinner.

Daddy had to run a few errands once he got home. We decided to each take a baby and go do errands on Sat. night. Tucker got the raw end of the deal. I had to do my calling, so he sat in the clerk's office throwing paperclips everywhere for 45 minutes. We did play jump, all by ourselves on the mattresses downstairs before Daddy and Whitney got home. Daddy went to Old Navy for pants and Safeway for I don't know what, but Whitney had a blast shopping. She watched Daddy pick out some clothes, then go try them on. She thought that was a great idea, so she picked some out to try on. Daddy did help by going to the clearance isle and the headband isle. She picked out an Elmo shirt. Duh. They are actually pj's, so she picked out some superman pj's for Tucky, too. Once at Safeway, she picked out some dried apricots. She wouldn't let Tucker even touch the bag. Don't worry. Tucker got a bag, too, but decided dried apricots are "yucky poop". Hmmmm Whitney. I think you really know how to pick things so you get two.......

They are starting to catch on to letters more and more, so I'm having to get creative. Today when we were outside, they were looking at a box and pointing to Tucky T's and double-whitney's (W). now they have Rocky R's, Sammy S's, Mommy M's, Papa P's, and Doggy D's somewhat down. It is really confusing about Mommy M's and double Whitney's and how they flip.

Whitney's books of choice this week are "Big Sister" and "Messy Me". She can very clearly say big sister, but calls the other book "mess-mess" book. She really likes that Big sister book. I think it might be because I told her how she is Tucker's big sister. Might have been a really bad idea to introduce that concept. She gets a big grin on her face when she says that now. Like she is big and powerful. There is a page that talks about poop in the diaper versus poop in the toilet, and that is a very true and interesting page for her.....

There are these smart baby videos I've gotten at the library that the babies have loved and I have no idea why. One time we got it for the car trip to Utah and that was the only video Whitney watched. Tucker never really watched it. This time I got the musical instruments one. They watched the whole thing, laughing and talking about all the animals showing up on the screen when the instrument being played changed. It was really funny and engaging and I have no idea why, but glad I found it

This week the Grandma that lives next door gave us the little Tikes workshop with all the tools and everything. I gave her a loaf of homemade bread. She seems to think we both benefited. It's out of her storage area and she got bread. I still think I got the better end of the deal. A new toy and a cool one at that. It is like the kitchen in that it is already giving me at least 1/2 hour of peace and quiet at a time. Whitney and Tucker both love it. Daddy also really liked playing with it when he came home. I invited the neighbor over to watch the kids see it for the first time, but I really should have invited her over for when Jim saw it for the first time. It's been an awesome week.

Since it is has been drier this week, I've been slowly trimming a weeping cherry tree we have in our front yard. It is old and big and looks like it should be a shower of pink blossoms, but last year I was dismayed in the few blooms it had. I found out it has a lot of dead wood. So I set about to prune it before it gets too late in the year. Most of the time, I could just knock the branch off instead of having to cut it. Saturday I took advantage of nap time, sunshine and Jim being inside with the babies to really finish the job. I cut two really big branches, having to get Jim to help me finish them off. He kept saying things like "Are you sure you know what you are doing?" and "shouldn't we wait to see what stuff is really dead?" and "why do you want those branches off?.... It's because they are the wrong shape??!!" I was up higher in the tree doing more pruning while he finished those branches off for me and it looked great from up there as far as dead material gone and the shape of the whole thing. I was really excited!! And then I got down and realized how much of the tree was on the ground as I hauled it to the green waste pile. I started getting really discouraged that I had killed it at this point. Then the Grandma next door came out and was really excited about all the work and commented on how nice it all looked. I felt encouraged. We'll see if I killed it in a few months. I would be really sad if it died. It is a beautiful tree.

pretend play is in ernest

This was a surprisingly happy moment at the frozen park. All the rest were cold.
Tucker sniffs and coughs a lot. Father like son. I accidentally caught this pic mid-sniff. Makes me laugh
They insisted on eating lunch at the park, even though I'm certain they were frozen. I think it is the red hands in the pic that give it away. They wanted to sit down and open the backpack. I made them stand up to eat because I thought it would keep them warmer. They ate their entire sandwiches, then listened to my suggestion of eating the rest in the car. Good idea. Before we had left for the park, I had packed the backpack and told them we were going to the park to have a picnic. Don't know what I was thinking. Every time I see that silly sun here, I think it has to be warmer outside, but I'm always wrong. Sun here means colder temps. Whatever. Wish I were in Cali.
Her daddy thinks this backpack is SO CUTE. Wonder why. She loves it, too. Her arms are up so she can hold it on her shoulders without it falling off.
"Um, mom. It's cold out here. What are we doing?"
Tucker situating the blanket for himself in the toy baby crib. He can barely squeeze in, but was very comfy.
Another random happy moment. Note. The gloves were ON. Funny.



I would have to say the biggest thing I've noticed this week is the babies sudden ability to pretend play. Tucker was walking around the house today sipping from his kitchen teacup, then going to his kitchen to refill. Living out his dreams, I guess.

Whitney loves her little people dolls. She likes to wash their hands when she has to wash up to eat, sit them next to her at meal times to feed them, and give them "snuggle-snuggle" at random times during the day. She also treats the toy cars and trucks the same way. Feeding, washing and snuggling them. She gave me a dump truck (the Megablock one that is about a foot long) to put under the covers with me and give it a good "snuggle-snuggle". Anyone that thinks boys or girls are taught how to play socially have it all wrong. Same toys, play with them different.

They have a truck book from the library that names all the different types. Tucker loves these books the best for the trucks themselves, but Whitney loves the new vocabulary she gets from it. She knows how to identify all the trucks and her favorite one to say is "tanker truck" (pronounced "sticker tuck")

We had a trade set up with some friends this weekend that involved me watching a 10 month old and a 3.5 year old along with Tucker and Whitney. Whitney was very concerned about the baby's constant cries, It was the end of the day, dinner and bed routine. This baby also is cutting four teeth. I asked Whitney to give the baby the teething rice cakes and cheerios at different times, and she stayed right by him, giving him what he needed. She was also very happy to give up her booster chair for him to sit in during dinner, telling me later that the big girl chair is "whitney seat". Tucker, on the other hand, doesn't like the constant crying. I had to work very hard to keep them separated. If the baby started fussing and I wasn't watching, Tucker would give him a good shove to tell him to stop. If he cried harder, he got more shoves. I finally ended up holding the baby or letting Tucker play in the water while the baby checked out the toys. It went on like this all night until Tucker started begging Cheerios from the baby and the baby hand fed him. Then they were both BFF's and both liked this game. Cracked me up. The 3.5 year old was a dream. Could focus on one toy for 45 minutes. New toys. So awesome.

After the freezing park saga, I decided to walk laps with Tucker in the mall instead. That was way better. Looked at the fish and other animals in the pet store, announced all burned out lights in store displays and practiced hopping from one square to the next. There is a Target in this mall. As we passed it, Whitney looked up and said "Tucky T!" We have been saying T for Tucker and W for Whitney while going through the alphabet books. She then scanned for a Whitney W, but was disappointed when she didn't find one. Not to worry. 2 days later we went to Safeway. And she pointed out the Whitney W. But she calls it "double-whitney" instead of "double-you". She also asked for strawberries while we were at the store. When we got home, she saw them and wanted a sample. She pulled over her chair and started opening them, so I washed them and showed her how to take the stems off. She is very proficient at taking stems off. She ate the entire pound of them throughout that day. She misses Cali, too, even though she's never lived there.

We got a babysitter for Friday night so I could go relax at a friend's house while she fed us dinner. Found out the "play while the cat's out" is learned very early. As soon as I walked out the door, she pulled on the babysitter's arm asking "watch Elmo?" Glad she didn't miss me.

Tucker is allergic to something. last Thursday he broke out in some sort of rash. It has calmed down significantly but is still mildly present after I took out nuts from his diet. Now. Which nut? And is that the only allergy. Things to figure out. Glad he's sleeping at night better, though. Everyone is glad.

Today when I picked them up from nursery, the leaders say they are singing the songs. My babies are growing up:(

The most exciting thing this week for me is that I got the family book made. The person of most interest in this book is Daddy, then Whitney and Tucker are close seconds. Whitney knows the grandmas (Mom and Cathy) but adds Auntie Jill as a Grandma also. I don't think Auntie Jill looks like my mom that much, but for Whitney, I guess it's close enough! She knows that lady somehow!

snow days

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Whitney combing her hair. She actually did a good job of it.
Whitney in a trash bin. It's obviously funny. Good thing I JUST finished giving her a bath.
Tucker doing a forward comb
Second snowman. First snowman is in the background
First snowman buried in second snowfall.
First snowmanWhitney being cute
I don't know what they are looking at, but it's something
"This is great!" and "I'm cold"
Running in the snow

Sledding at our house
Whitney waiting for Tucky to get ready
First slide down the hill



This week we have had snow on the ground for 8 days. For us it has been great fun. Pretty much everything else has been quiet, too. Schools shut down for three days and had a late start another day. Lots of people ended up working from home, either because they couldn't get out of their driveway (without a lot of effort) or because the daycare their kids attended was also closed. What was nice about all that is the silence. I didn't realize how much freeway noise we usually have that was essentially turned off for a day (the day it was snowing all day and they didn't plow roads). Another fun thing is all my neighbors that were usually working were home, out and about shoveling snow. I got to talk to a whole bunch of people I rarely see because they are usually out and about during the bedtime routine. That was fun! And it was fun for us mostly because we had power the whole time. There were people the next city over that didn't have power for 3 days, which makes life a little more interesting.

A comment about the snow here. I could easily have gotten out of my driveway if I really wanted to put chains on, but I was lazy and didn't. I think they didn't plow roads because usually it melts the next day. Which is partly true. It did melt the next day with the first storm, but the second storm came 2 days later with a freezing rain first. That snow still hasn't melted.

Whitney is starting to clearly say lots of phrases. One of which is "picture Whitney" when she wants to see a picture of herself on Daddy's Iphone. Tucker is also saying words and phrases, but his pronounciation is much different than Whitney's, so sometimes I don't always catch on that he has those words and phrases in his vocabulary, too. Whitney pretty much went outside to "make a snowman" a phrase she can say herself. Sledding was fun for five seconds. She learned to say "inside" quickly this week, too, in order to avoid being cold Tucker loved sledding, but didn't love his gloves, so it was short lived, too. Whitney did better when we went for walks. She liked to see her footprints in the snow. She would step, then step back to look at them.

Whitney continues to like to be independent. She is learning to put on her panties herself, comb her hair and pull apart orange segments. She also still loves to beg food off our plates. I've been getting really irritated with it. One day she was begging me for some of my salad, so, in order to stop the begging, I gave her a piece of feta cheese plain. Didn't work. Apparently she loves feta cheese plain. She calls it "mommy cheese". Jim also gave her a bite of kimchi. She ate it, but didn't ask for more. If you've never had kimchi in your house, it smells like bad breath. I've never tried the stuff, but can't get over the smell. It must taste as bad as it smells if Whitney didn't ask for more.

Tucker continues to work on gross motor skills. We were outside sledding and Whitney fell down on the walk back up the hill and couldn't get back up. Naturally. Tucker was still walking up the hill and I was already at the top, so I left the empty sled at the top and walked down to help Whitney up. In that amount of time Tucker reached the top and sat in the sled. The motion of sitting down also started propelling him down the mountain at a slow pace. He was sledding all by himself! But I think it scared him he was moving because he was also crying loudly. We played with balloons, throwing them down the stairs, then walking them back up. Tucker helped Whitney a bunch by walking down and getting her balloon for her. One time he brought both up at the same time. I about had a heart attack watching it, as he had to hold a balloon in each arm, barely being able to see the next step up between the balloons, but he did it. He has been doing some really cute things, too. He has learned to ask me for kisses by leaning his head toward me and I think he gives kisses by pressing his face against our cheeks. I also found him mimicking a baby crying, then walking into the playroom to feed Whitney's doll milk. That was pretty cute. One day I had to borrow some Tucky pants for Whitney to wear. Too many accidents and she had gone through all her clean pants. Tucker had a fit. He did NOT want her to wear them. I explained to him why she needed them. He was ok after that. I then started getting him dressed for the day and he tried to pull off his shirt saying "Whitney", as if he wanted her to wear his shirts, too.

Only videos

This week was a blast! I've uploaded a bunch of birthday videos, too, which accounts for the fun-ness of this week! It also amazes me how fast the week goes when I have things to look forward to. The only things I do consistently out and about is music time and clogging. And for some reason, it makes the week go by really fast and seem really fun. Which is great, considering it's winter.

This morning it snowed. Barely dusted the roads, but enough to convince lots of other people that they shouldn't be driving around to church. The only people at church were those that have lived in the snow and realized the roads being wet and not icy is perfectly safe for driving in. Tucker walked outside and first said, "uh-oh" then looked up and smiled as he blinked his eyes rapidly as he laughed at how it touched his face. Whitney was very confused and concerned. When she walked outside, she stopped on the porch, looking very worried and said "Mess! Mess!". She said that phrase over and over, every time we would pass a patch of snow she could see out the window. And to think that snow was such a part of their lives from day one, but is now a bit of a mystery. But very fun to see them react to it snowing.

This week was also a blast due to the addition of the play kitchen and trucks to the already large stash of new toys from Christmas. They love that play kitchen even more! Tucker and Whitney each brought a truck to church. Tucker was having fun driving the truck all over Daddy. When he drove up and down his back, he said "back!" in his indoor/outdoor voice over and over. Then, when he drove it over Jim's ears and nose, he said "bump, bump!" just like he says in the car when we drive over bumps.

Whitney has learned she can use her new found vocabulary ask for food. One of her favorite foods to ask for is "bubble cheese", a phrase she made up last Sunday for cottage cheese. That and orange, chicken and bread. If I try to offer her something, she often asks for something else. Good thing most of the time it is a healthy request, so I pretty much give it to her. Next are going to be clothes, I just know it.

Tucker may be phasing out of naps. I'm very sad about this and am hoping it's just this week since they haven't done any serious exercise this whole week. Every time I take them outside or to the park, we last all of 10 minutes, even with serious winter gear on. Their hands turn red inside the mittens. But it has been sunny, so I keep attempting it, thinking for some reason I'm still in Cali. Sweet dreams.

the recovery week

A neighbor gave Tucker and Whitney a cake pop. Whitney ate hers on the walk home and wanted Tucker's too. Tucker thought his was a magic wand to bop Sammy on the head with if he got too close. I gave it to him again after dinner, hoping he would know what to do with it, but he still didn't want to try it, so Whitney got it. Tucker turned to his animal crackers, taking each one out of the box to inspect what kind of animal it was. There was a lot of roaring.
Tucker and his "diaper bib" Why this is so amusing is beyond me.
Tucker hooked a bunch of these monkeys on himself
And then played with the barrel for the monkeys
One of Tucker's favorite things to do. Push buttons. But even Grandma An turned that feature off.
Grandma and Whitney reading night time books

We flew back home on Tuesday. This time Jim was with me and the flight wasn't so full so we had a row to ourselves. I don't know why no one picked the seat between us:)..... And Tucker had a major poop explosion in his diaper as we loaded onto the airplane. Impeccable timing. There was no changing table in the back of the plane and the rest of the passengers were still loading, so I changed it on the seat, not knowing when I started the process it was an up the back and front poop explosion. good thing I'm pro. Not a speck on the seat, even peeling off the onsie. I was impressed. And our steward was so awesome, holding out a bag to insert the diaper just at the right moment. Literally a Johnny on the spot. I was very grateful to him.

Even in the recovery week, we've had a blast. I'm amazed at how fast the talking thing is happening. Reminds me of how fast the walking thing happened, too. Whitney is copying sentences now, not just words, and copies almost all words I say. Tucker is really cute on how he says "Whitney" Now that his pronunciation is better, I didn't realize how much he says Whitney's name. I've heard him use it a lot before, but now I know he's saying her name a bunch. Usually to get her attention or for me to bring him over to her first thing in the morning to say hi. Very cute.

Today Whitney used her cooking skills that look amazingly and suddenly grown up to me. I think the thing that amazes us parents is how grown up they act and talk so fast. I feel like they are babies, but are most definitely toddlers. Tucker is also very adept at sliding across the bottom of Jim's phone to get to the next screen of typing in his password. Exactly the way Daddy does it.

With all these grown up skills they are engaging in play with each other. Whitney was using a bath toy, pretending it was saying hi to first her and then Tucker this week. They gave each other pretend (thank heavens) drinks out of their play watering can in the yard this week.

It was also really nice to get back into the routine of things. I got back to exercising and we went to music time and clogging this week. In the particular clogging class I'm going to, there are other women that bring their kids, as well as one mom that home schools a 13 year old. The 13 year old plays with Tucker and Whitney and is really good at it. I think that's why I like the class so much. The babies have fun playing as well as me. This week they got their chairs they love to push around and faced them toward the stage, looking like a mini audience for about 3 minutes while they watched me clog. I think they also like the music. They also play basketball and make towers out of dixie cups.

Life is good, even without the warmth and sun I enjoyed so much the past two weeks. The videos are mostly self explanatory. Apparently Tucker gets really excited about fish in tanks.