40 days of sun......

Saturday the Seattle Times had a headline, big huge bold letters, front page that said "40 days of no rain"  You mean 40 days of sun. Definitely a record breaker for the area.  And I have loved it.  Most of my plants are still alive.  We'll see if the grass recovers.  Lots of people don't water their grass in the summer.  I decided to join the club.  I hate mowing anyway.  But even with the lack of water, the grass in the shade is only a little limp.  still green.  Amazing.  The stuff that is in full sun most of the day is brown, brown, brown.  But that's ok.  That's usually the grass that does well in the winter.

Today Tucker's asthma got scary out of control, so Jim took him to the doctor.  As they drove away, Whitney said "Bye Tucker and Papa!  I love you!"  Tucker spent most of the day wanting to be on me, holding my hand, or better yet, snuggling in arms.  I have an erector spinae of steel, I tell you what.  Poor little guy. 

He gave us a pretty good scare last night.  He had this horrible barking cough that made him cry out in pain, but he couldn't get a good breath so it came out in this horrible half moan and him arching his back.  Thank heavens his body is used to this and he finally got rid of all the snot that must have been collecting fairly rapidly, so it was only scary for about 3 minutes. Until the next time and the next.  11 pm- 4 am.  Hate that time of night.  My brain knows it is the peak of infections and fevers, but seriously, it is always the longest 5 hours ever.  So today we decided no more of the scary breathing and took him in to get the snot cleared out of him with a mask of water and some medicine.

Whitney is was helping him feel better.  She was throwing his boots all over the driveway.  He was laughing up a storm.  Until he got laughing too hard for all the snot he had, poor thing.  He even joined in with her for a couple of minutes to throw boots, even though he had spent most of the day dazed or doing quiet play.

Whitney put the flag in the ground and made it stand upright all by herself.  She was very proud of that accomplishment and asked for me to take a pic

after effects of blackberry picking

Trying to get the last remains of the blackberries off his face

Looking for Moses, Jonah and the temple

Whitney all ready to sing Rubber Duckie

Joe.  I didn't tell him to put his arm around his brother and Tucker.  It came natural

All five buddies together.  This was enough to make the trashman get out of his truck in amazement

The girls

Obviously a perfect day at the beach.  For wa

Tucky cuteness

Since Tucker was so low key and chill with this asthma thing, I decided to run a few errands.  He was very content to sit in the cart and hold on to my neck in a big snuggle and I was content to not have the full weight of him in arms all day.  And Whitney was happy to go shopping during a big sale.  I must admit, I've never gone shopping on Labor Day weekend.  Seems like a camping sort of holiday.  For camping sort of people, that is.  There were tons and tons of people everywhere.  And Whitney was loving it because I was putting stuff in the cart.  Lots of times I go to the store and put stuff in the cart and then decided I don't "love it" for the price it is and put it back.  But today, I put some stuff in that I liked the price.  And Whitney was very excited.  She actually said "Oh! Oh!  Mom!  I LOVE it!" to a few things.  Like her ladybug (and frogs for Tucker ) rain boots.  She even put them on tonight while she threw Tucker's around the driveway.  She is also really liking sitting in the big part of the cart so she can put the items up to pay for them.  Before it was a real challenge to shop anywhere but Costco or Target because they would fight about the baby seat.  Now, Tucker can have it.

Whitney and Tucker are getting much better at counting lately.  Whitney can count to 16, if you count eleven-teen and twelve teen as correct answers.

So now I go back to the beginning of the week.  Tucker didn't look at or really touch me all day Monday, so I got a bunch done.  As soon as Papa walked in the door, he was all snuggles.  I think he was mad at me for "abandoning" him for such a long time.  He got over it by Tuesday morning and was doing all the mommy snuggling and Tucker doggy noises that mean he wants snuggles.

So what exactly was he doing all day?  I have to wonder.  He was putting a diaper on and off himself.  I don't get it, either.  I think he was pretty impressed with himself that he finally learned a skill that he hasn't been able to do for half of his life.  The velcro on/off noises were fun, too.  Good thing he was putting in on over his clothes.

The results of Daddy time were still present.  We went to the park that evening to enjoy our gorgeous fall weather (already started here).  He asked to go potty, then beelined it for the mens.  Again.  The last time he did that was after he had been with Grandpa for part of a day.  Now he discusses it with me pretty much everywhere.  "Oh yeah.  That's Papa's side. "  then goes in "mama's side" Happened at church today, too.

Another thing about being with papa is that, before I left, I said I was going on a trip.  Whitney was cute and said "I don't want you to go on a trip!"  then a little later she said "Whitney wants to go on a trip with mama".  Jim thought that was a good idea, too.  I said no.  After Whitney and I had our trip discussion, Tucker pipes up and says"Mom.  That bathroom was pretty gross".  I about fell over laughing at that.  I didn't know Tucker had all the sentence structure and vocabulary, let alone memory from a week ago when he was with Papa for a good part of the day.  Jim had mentioned that when he took Tucker potty at a public bathroom, Tucker wanted nothing to do with it and they had to go home to potty.  I guess now we know why he wasn't interested.  It was pretty gross.

Enough of the potty stories.  Until next time.  On to trash talk.

Tuesday I was watching a friend's kids while she went to a doctor's appointment.  She wasn't planning on going to the appointment because it would mean she would be 5 days overdue.  Poor thing.  That wasn't even the end of it.  She ended up being 7 days overdue. 

Anyway, Tuesday is trash pick up day.  I was playing with the 5 kids under the age of four when the green waste truck came.  He pulled up and dumped his dumpster into the big part of his truck all right in front of them.  He had a captive and fascinated audience.  But then the audience turned into the people being watched.  The trash man parked his truck and jumped out to say hi and chit-chat for 2 minutes because he was in shock about the 5 of them.  As he got out he said "there are only supposed to be 2.  Now there are 5!!  How'd that happen??"

Not to be too concerned.  I have talked briefly with the green waste guy off and on over the past 2 years.  The first reason he got out of his truck is because of our kayaks.  One day he parked the truck when I was in front and said, "I've been  wondering about those boats every week and haven't asked because no one is out front, but now I can ask"  I guess he is an avid beach hiker (skinnest trash man I've seen in a long time, now that I think about it) and often pulls along his kayak on his hikes, using those wheel attachments.  He wanted to know if we liked our ocean ones and how heavy they were and all.  He also had seen our Utah plates and asked why we were out here.  Jim mentioned BYU and he has a brother in law or something that went to BYU.  But it was interesting to me to realize that the trashman, or the mailman, or the fed ex guy (he leaves 2 dog treats each time he delivers a package, which only adds to the excited barking) all know more about us than I usually think.  I always think of them as strangers, yet, he had a point.  He observes the same route over and over and so learns about his customers, where I only see the outside of the city truck everyday.  Long story short he knows we have two kids, not 5.

Later that night we went to meet some neighbors that had moved in.  I think they have kids.  I hear kid noises that I've never heard before until they moved in.  I told Whitney the cookies were for the neighbors and that they probably have kids.  She was good with that.  Until we stopped by and they didn't answer the door.  It was around 7 pm and I had already bathed them.  I had put them in the stroller in pjs hoping they (Tucker) would fall asleep on the walk.  No such luck with the sleeping bit, but Whitney felt like she had scored.   As we pulled away she said to me: "Mom, the big kids are sleeping.  They don't want their cookies"  Meaning, I want their cookies now that they don't need them.  The next day she asked for them.  I think this is when she realized she had better learn to count, and fast.

Wednesday started off a little sad for Whitney.  They had a bad sleeping night, so I let them sleep in, which means they didn't see Daddy before he left.  Whitney noticed.  At breakfast she said "Papa didn't give me a beso".  That made us laugh.  Half the time Whitney doesn't want kisses.  She gives him a stink eye and avoids him, or wipes it off.  But I guess it has to be on her terms.

The morning got better because Daddy's packages for them arrived.  Big fish and Bozo hit the dust.  Too much excitement and whale rides and such.  The repairs on them weren't working.  So Jim ordered more, not to my knowledge, anyway.  But Wednesday morning they were blown up and ready for playing. Except this time Daddy got the black whale, which is bigger in size, and a shark.  The way the shark is designed, it rocks like a rocking horse, so they love it.  And big fish is always a hit.

In the afternoon Whitney instructed me to ride a stick she found for me like a horsey, just like her.  We had races.  While we were racing, Tucker was pushing Whitney's bike around and going to check out the garbages.  He is tall enough now to lift the lids up quite a bit, and that is fun for him.  Except one garbage can "is stinky, mom", more so than the others.  Yep.

Thursday we went to the doctor.  This is how I do doctors appointments.  Fish crackers.  Duh. So obviously weaning them off fish crackers only lasted a day.  Not worth it.  Especially when I got this response out of Tucker.  When we pulled up, Tucker said "Oh yeah! The doctor!" in a very excited and animated voice of one who knows he's getting fish for sure.

Jim also bought them a ton of stickers over the weekend.  One of them has a worm on it.  Tucker loves this particular sticker more than others.  He calls it the star snake sticker.  I have no idea why.  There isn't a star and a snake on it together.  But later in the day, he pulled up his pant legs to expose his skinned knees (which he has this year, considering all the sun.  we didn't have that problem last year) and put a star snake sticker over both boo-boos.  He checked often during the afternoon to readjust their positions and to make sure he could still find them attached to his pants.

Tucker is picking up on sentence structure quite a bit.  His favorite sentence is "He's......" and then some action. Like he's running.  We went on a walk and saw a bunch of huge slugs they watched.  Finally, Tucker ready to move on, said "bye bye slug"  then looked at me and said "he's eating dinner".  Which he probably was, as he disappeared a bit into the weeds.

The other sentence structure he likes is "It's pretty..." and then fill in the blank.  Like "It's pretty gross, Mom." or "It's pretty high" in reference to the basketball hoop level.

Friday we stayed home while I pretended like I was going to get some gardening done.  The area that I have prepped for grass is now the local sandbox.  They can dig in it for hours and love it.  I have a friend that has a big dirt pile in her backyard.  She has had it there for some time.  Long enough that I didn't have kids when it was first formed.  I remember her saying to me "ooooohhh!I hate that dirt pile!" I remember thinking to myself, why?  The kids have so much fun in it. Now I know why.  They may entertain themselves for 4 hours at a time, but that means you have to spend those 4 hours in cleaning the house.  Not sure about the trade off.  The laundry piles up more, the walls and doors where they touched have to be wiped down and the sweeping and mopping is much more too.  But it is fun.  It's how I kept four 2 year olds and one 3 year old in one place fo 2 hours on Tuesday.  The dirt pile.  And the driveway.

On Friday Whitney hurt herself somehow.  I tried to circumvent the usual pattern.  She hurts herself, does a fake cry (sometimes real) and runs over for me to kiss it, at which she immediately stops crying.  I tried to just go straight to the kiss so I didn't have to hear crying.  It didn't work. I kissed her leg, then she yelled "No! Spit it out!" then took her hands in a cupping motion near my lips and put "the hurt" back on her legs with her hands.  Whatever.  With babies no one ever wins.

The outside play was good, though.  Whitney learned to pedal her bike and Tucker figured out the joy of shooting hoops

Later that night, I was cleaning her face and pinched at her nose to get some dirt off of it.  She said to me. "Don't touch my nose. It's gross!"

It's supposed to stay sunny this week, so more adventures to come.

a fun week at home

Every morning they work as a team to feed the dogs.  it is very cute, so I finally got a picture of it.  This morning it was Whitney's turn to divide the food in two bowls and Tucker to open the door.

Filling Sammy's bowl.  They both know which bowl is which dog's and keep calling which ever dog they just fed to come over and eat.  That's pretty cute, too, to hear them saying "Sammy" or "Rocky" in their little voices

Tucker opening...

...and closing the door

Working very intently on someone else's workbench

learning to get some significant swing motion to make it fun!

Whitney decided to lay down in her bed.  It's the pad underneath the swing.  She thought this was funny

Tucker concentrating on getting a good swing

I missed the really cute pic.  They were both sitting in their chairs, each with a flashcard of a music note in their hands, singing My Heavenly Father Loves Me




Whitney getting down and dirty in her really cute outfit she picked out that morning

This week was a fun and relaxing week.  The babies played really nicely and cute most of the time this week.  It was cooler on some days, so some days were in the house and others were not.

I have some video of them just playing.  I decided to try to get on video how they talk to each other and some of the songs they sing.  I did catch some good ones, but have no idea how to find the video on the card.  Whatever.  That's for the tech guy.

Monday for family home evening, Jim decided the activity was to play hide and seek.  I thought they would be too young, but not so.  It took a few rounds to teach them, but they loved it.  Whitney likes to tell me where to hide now, and it's in all the places I hid on Monday night.

We took care of a friend's chickens this week.  The friend wanted them in the coop while she was gone. When I got there, they were out of the coop.  I was pretty annoyed.  I hate chasing chickens.  Took a half an hour to get them back in and the only way they went in was because I prayed them in.  They didn't go in before that, even with the leaf after leaf of lettuce I was throwing into their coop.  Apparently her neighbor was doing some other things at the house and her kids must have left a door loose.  After that Tucker and Whitney went with me and kept saying, "the chickens need more food!"  They loved watching the chickens, though.  As long as the chickens were in the cage and they were outside the cage, that is.

This week a friend and I planned to go kayaking during the day.  She has a teenager that is old enough to babysit them and a 9 year old, so we rotated around.  Whitney and Tucker got another kayaking ride.  Whitney told me all about it today.  She said that she "likes to kayak, just like Mommy".  And "Tucker likes to kayak, just like Mommy".  Good!  Maybe I'll have some buddies.  They had a blast playing with the 9 year old.  Whitney loved being coddled and carried around the playground like a baby and followed her around the whole time.  Tucker liked how she went in the water and played with him, too.  We drove her home and Tucker was visibly upset when she got out of the car and went home.  I'm not sure if he was upset because he wasn't getting out to play with her, or if because she wasn't riding all the way home with us so she could play with us at our home.

Tucker really, really likes pretending to swim in the water.  He likes me to hold him floating on his stomach so he can kick his legs and move his arms like he's swimming.  Jim keeps asking me what sports we're going to put  them in.  A bit young, but now I might have a smart-aleck answer for him.  It's either swiming or gymnastics.  At the park we were at, there was a hanging slider thing where you hold on with your hands while you hand down and you can glide around.  Whitney saw some other kids.  She wanted to try it, so I put her on and she loved it.  For one swing.  The length of this thing was about 20 feet or so.  Tucker got on and really loved it.  He held on to it to glide 3x across.  Down, back and down again.  A couple of times, like that, too!  I let him hand freely and he loved it too, but I couldn't believe how long his hang time was.  60 feet or so!

We went to a baseball game as a date Tuesday night.  It was scheduled to go until 11 pm, and I figured with traffic and all, we wouldn't be back until midnight or so, so I asked a college student to come babysit.  She knows them, but hasn't watched them.  It was then I realized how weird the bedtime schedule is around here in parts.  She called me around 8:45 and asked if I had any tricks to putting Tucker to sleep.  I felt like answering her, "No.  Do you?"  but instead said, "Oh yeah.  Tucker plays in his room until about 9:15 every night, so he probably won't sleep until then"  Then she said, "even in the closet?"  Yep.  Even in the closet.  Kind of embarressing the lines we draw.  I don't really care what he's doing in there, as long as he is not doing any bodily harm to Whitney or anything dangerous.  And that he stays in there.  So the closet is fine.  They like to be in there and play watching movie or driving in the car to the playground.  Or taking all the clothes off the hangers and throwing everything on the floor.  That's really annoying to pick up in the morning. When we came home, the babysitter said that when she went to check on him, he had fallen asleep behind the door, so she moved him.  When I went to check on them, I laughed because Whitney had fallen asleep on top of nest.

Nest is the plastic covered changing pad that she hauls all around the house making it be different things.  It is often the door to her "house" in the empty open cabinet space in the bathroom.  Or sometimes it's part of a tunnel.  Or sometimes it's nest.  She likes to sit in nest and eat "gusanos"  (worms in spanish). It is usually a hot item of choice amongst the toys at the moment.  I got a laugh because it sure looked like Whitney was asleep on it so Tucker wouldn't take it from her and she would still have it to play with in the morning.

Monday Tucker cracked me up.  He was in the changing table (in the closet) playing nicely for awhile while I was doing housework.  He was being good for so long I decided to check up on him.  He was still playing nicely.  I opened the door and he gave me a big grin and said "Hi Mom!  I'm watching a mooovie", with his lips pursed way big and a long accent on the o as well as a proper spanish pronunciation of the v as a b sound.  With another huge grin after.  Made me smile!

Wednesday we went to Jake's house.  That was fun!  As we turned around to park in the shade in Jake's neighbor's driveway, Tucker spotted a playset at the neighbor's and said "Oh! You found a playground!"  He was a bit bummed about not playing on  it until he started playing with Jake's collection of very small Thomas the train figures and his toy vacuum that even makes the noise.  Tucker almost didn't eat his fish cracker snack because of that vacuum.  He didn't have enough hands to hold open his fish cracker bag, get crackers out and hold on to the vacuum so the other kids wouldn't play with it.

I'm not sure how my kids pick up on charactor names so fast, but part of it must be from reading books about them.  We do have a Thomas the train book for counting.  And we also have a book about Clifford.   In the bath on Wednesday, Whitney took the bath drain strainer and turned it upside down.  She said "Mom, don't dump it out.  I made it for Clifford's birthday".  Turned upside down this thing does look a bit like a cupcake and the Clifford book we read that day was about his birthday.

On Wednesday the apples in our neighbor's orchard finally attracted the resident deer we have.  We have two resident deer that are not afraid of humans, let alone baby humans.  We can get pretty close.  They were picking apples off our neighbor's tree and Tucker walked up to them about 10 feet away, with no fence or anything between them.  The deer kept right on eating.  I couldn't believe it.  I let Tucker do it, but finally dragged him out of the street and down the driveway when he was considering getting even closer.  As I pulled him away from his deer watching spot, he said "Mom!  The deer are picking apples!" 

Thursday was a long day of housework and more housework for the babies.  It was a cooler day, so I decided to actually do some stuff that I keep ignoring for want of being outside this summer.  They played really nicely together most of the day, I didn't have to get after them too much about fighting.  Which was amazing for how hungry they must have been.  Since we've been at parks and playgrounds most days for 2 months, they pretty much have had fish crackers once a day for lunch or snack in the car.  I decided today would be a good day to try to get them out of the habit. They really might be addicted.  They didn't eat too much of anything all day until dinner, which they wolfed down.  But right before dinner, they were pretty cranky.  Whitney was so hungry she could barely stand it.  She kept asking for fish crackers. Realizing she wasn't getting them, she tried another food.  She yelled out "I want chocolate!"  But the part made me laugh even more was that she pronounced chocolate in spanish.  It was pretty funny.  Yeah, me too, Whit.

After dinner, when they were in a good mood, we went outside to work in the back.  They invented a game using the shovels.  Tucker dug out dirt from my pot and put it on the big shovel for Whitney to dump on the ground.  I have a video of that, too.  It looks pretty funny to see little Whitney working with the regular sized shovel.

Daddy knew he would be watching the kids this weekend, so he got prepared.  With the really good stuff.  Later, when I was talking to them about what they did, Jim asked Whitney what she had for dinner.  She said she had special O's.  I was wondering what special O's were as he went on to the next question.  "Whitney, what color were your special O's?"  She responded "pink, no red.  No, yellow!  No, blue!"  Ahhh.  She had fruit loops for dinner.  Then Jim asked Tucker what he had for dinner.  Can you guess?  Yep.  he said "fish crackers!".  Of course.  Since I had deprived them of them previously.  I tell you what.

I'll let you know how fish cracker weaning goes this week.

Daily life and life with Dad

Whitney giving mouse and fuzzy gorilla rides in their buses.

Tucker was very amused with all my canning rings

I asked Tucker to show me his arm filled with all my canning rings, but he didn't get it, so I showed him

Then Whitney wanted me to take a picture of her arm because she was showing me her arm, just like I asked Tucker.

Whitney in her "house"

Whitney fast asleep with her wings on

Tucker giving Big Fish a bath.  Since big fish went belly up, Daddy tried to find the holes in water.  Tucker was very accomodating.  He got the water started for Big Fish's bath and was very adept in using the shower hose.

full body of Whitney asleep with her wings on

Making a pile of bubbles with the bubble machines that papa got them

Tucker rinsing Big Fish

Monday and Tuesday were great days for me.  They played very nicely for most of the mornings on both of these days.  That means I got a ton of housework done and even got to can blackberry jam the next day because all the usual stuff was done already.  They wanted to play inside, even though it was nice out.  I think they missed their toys and last week I had pulled out a few new ones, so they were playing with those a bunch. 

In the evening on Monday, we went and picked blackberries.  They were the first of the season and most of them were a bit tart and not quite ripe.  As we pulled away from picking, I hadn't gotten my seat belt on after buckling them in.  Whitney yelled out to Jim, who was driving: "stop, papa, stop!  Wait for Mommy to get buckled!"  She used all those words and knew the rule of the safetey belt.  It made Jim laugh that so much could come out of her in her cute little voice, so he stopped and waited. 

Tucker has been anxious lately that Daddy will leave him.  As soon as Daddy is in view, he is right by him.  This made for some crazy scratches and scars on blackberry picking night.  Tucker followed Jim right into the bushes a few times until his was so scratched up and frustrated that Jim finally sat on the grass and let Tucker snuggle him.  Tucker is a cute little snuggler.  During the day he often comes over to give me some squeezes and says "mommy, mommy, mommy" in an affectionate voice that wins me over every time. 

When he gets out of the bath, he is very careful now.  He used to like to jump on his towel, but the towel is often over my legs at some point.  Now, when he jumps out, he is careful not to jump on me and says "don't jump on Mommy!" just like I say it when he jumps on me and hurts me.

His new favorite songs are I am a child of God and I feel my savior's love.  A very welcome break from Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam.  Although, every time he wants to play the piano, he picks the Sunbeam song first out of the book. He likes to play on the keys and sing at the same time with music up.  It's something Whitney likes to do, so he mimics her.

Another thing he does to mimic whitney that cracks us up is holding his hair back.  If she doesn't have a hair bow in, she'll hold her hair back to eat or get a drink from the water fountain.  So Tucker holds his hair the very same manner.  Except his hair isn't long.  Cracks us up.

This past week our neighbor was on vacation, so we watered her flowers.  The first day I did it, but after that, the babies took over the task in a team.  Whitney would tell Tucker which flowers to water and how long and Tucker would water them with skill.  It went like this:  "Tucker, Tucker, this one!" and he would run over with the hose and say "Oh! Yeah! This one!" Then they would watch for the water to fill up in the dirt.  It was really cute to see them work together.  I didn't ever need to correct them!

Tuesday I went and got my hair cut while one of their favorite babysitters, Brynn, came over.  Brynn said Tucker showed her his big bed like he was really proud of it.  I'm not sure why he was showing it to her.  He doesn't really like to sleep in it.  I find him anywhere but in his bed.  He is often snuggled up against Whitney's bed on the floor when I go to check on them at night.  On Tuesday I walked in when I thought they were asleep.  Tucker wasn't asleep.  He popped up when I walked in and said "Hi Mom!"  Except I got a bit a confused because the hi mom was coming from Whitney's bed.  I walked over to check things out.  Whitney was asleep at the foot of her bed and he was near her pillow.  He said to me: "I'm sleeping in Whitney's bed!".  I relocated him, much to his dismay.

Whitney kept trying to convince Brynn to watch a movie.  She said she wanted to watch frogs (the letter factory movie that has frogs as the main charactor).  Brynn had no idea what that was so she kept repeating herself.  Jim says she does the same thing to him.  "Papa, I want to watch..... I want to watch.... Jonah!" or whatever movie she wants to watch.

Wednesday we did a bit of yard work in the morning.  I raked up all the holly berry leaves.  Those suckers are deadly.  They fall in early summer.  you know.  When no other leaves fall.  I don't get that about them.  Their leaves fall between pinecone season and pine needle season.  There is always something to rake up around here.  I rake those up because the leaves are very spiny.  When I walk back there, the leaves stick in my shoes like thumbtacks.  A little painful to fall on or brush against, so I got rid of them.  I use a big dust pan with the rake to pick them up to put them in the green waste.  It was really cute because Whitney got her mini rake and dust pan and mimicked my actions exactly, including how I hold the pan and rake together to put it in the trash.  She wanted to be lifted up to put it in the garbage can.  Once Tucker saw that something was going in the garbage can, he wanted to do it, too.  He loves to open the lid and throw things away in the trash.  He stopped riding around on Whitney's barbie bike and filling its trunk with apples to yank Whitney's dust pan away.  We're working on taking turns or trading.

With all this working on trading, one day Whitney did a most excellent trade to get something she wanted from Tucker, and ran over to tell me.  "Mom, I traded!  I'm sharing!"  She was very proud of herself and so was I.

Whitney loves to dance and watch me dance.  One day she brought in her Farmer Tadd toy and said "Hey!  Do you want to dance?"  Who could resist!

Thursday and Friday were actually kind of warm.  I actually got hot.  We ate cereal two days in a row for dinner.  Thursday we filled up our wading pool.  The babies put their small chairs they usually push around in the pool and sat relaxing.  Good idea!  Tucker couldn't get to sleep that night due to the heat, so I gave him an ice pack to sleep with.  He loved it and finally could settle down to sleep.

Friday we went to the beach and pretty much lived in the water the whole time.  Tucker practiced throwing rocks. It amazes me how much aim and throwing distance he has.  Reminds me of Scott in that regard.

He still loves mechanical things.  His new favorite thing is to go in the bathroom, shut the door and lock it.  He prefers our pocket door, so he always wants to go to the bathroom in our bathroom......  but at least he always shuts the door.  Maybe I'll get my privacy back??

This weekend I went to a continuing education course, which meant I was gone all day Saturday and Sunday.   Daddy had the kids and boy did they have fun.

Friday after work he got all prepared.  He went to the store and got all sorts of snacks.  Yummy things like potato chips, salsa, bean dip, hummus, pre-cut mangos and cantelope, manderin orange cups, jello cups, fruit roll up things and some doughnuts.  Everything wasn't too bad because he went to Trader Joes for all that except the doughnuts and there were doughnuts left over.  He also stopped at Fred Meyer and had a blast in the half off summer stuff isle.  I think he bough 2 of each sale item.  2 kites, 2 bubble blower machines, only one football.  He wanted to take them to the coast and fly kites, but yesterday was 60 degrees.  Bummer.  It has been sunny most days since the end of June, so I think he thought it was going to stay like that.  But not on his weekend.  So they went to 4 different playgrounds throughout the day instead.  And they went to Jack in the Box for dinner.  All in all a very fun day for them.  Tucker passed out at 8:40.  Good job, Daddy!!

Sunday was church.  Not too bad.  They were dressed appropriately and probably got there on time, knowing Jim.  Jim took him barefoot on purpose because his sandels stunk so bad.  Tucker got them wet the day before at the park.  He remembered Whitney's brush, but not her hair bow.  That's ok.  Her hair bows fall out a bunch anyway.  Pretty good!

Jim said Saturday morning when they woke up, he asked them what they wanted for breakfast.  Tucker said "Ummmmm...... GOLDFISH!"  Whitney responded by saying, "No Tucker, Mommy says oatmeal".  Go girl!

Some of my favorite things to come home to was to hear Jim talk to me about the babies and the cute stuff they did with him.  Here's what he noticed:

Tucker fights with Whitney a bunch and gets in trouble for all the fighting.  Jim said he was trying to teach Tucker to keep his hands to himself.  This will most likely be an ongoing battle until Tucker is about 16 or so.  Because of the fighting, there was a lot of screaming.  I can understand that.  Although it amazes me that Jim thought there was a lot of screaming with all the fun stuff they did.  Sounds to me that it would be a less screaming day. 

He thinks Whitney is getting close to "making up stories".  He said there were several times during the day that Whitney would do something a little wrong, then say Tucker did it.  He also noticed if he was getting after Tucker about not doing something, Whitney would come over and remind him verbally that she wasn't doing that particular behavior.  Jim worries that she isn't getting enough attention because she is behaving better.  Yep.  A struggle for me too, to pay attention to Whitney and ignore Tucker when he is doing something really annoying.

I noticed that the babies defer to whoever they were with the most, even when we were both in the room.  Usually they ask me for food, or a paper towel, more juice or to go to the bathroom, etc.  But since Jim was the one around the most, even though I was home before bedtime, they asked Jim for all that.  Talk about heavenly!!  I ate 2 dinners sitting down and eating all of it in a row, nice and hot.  So nice!  I also noticed that Jim commented a couple of times both days how tired he was.  Reality will come back tomorrow, but it sure was a nice, lovely, intellectual break.

Most of the pics and videos are on Jim's phone this week, so there will probably be a different post for that.

how could I forget kayaking!!

My brother and I hiked, well, to the clouds.  When we got there, we had a stunning view of .... Mt Rainier!

Another stunning view of Mt rainier... WA style

Whitney getting ready with Aunt B.  A total natural at it.  Definitely not something she learned from me.  Minnie drying in the background from the flush incident.

Girl's day!  Whitney thoroughly enjoying the food

Tucker right before naptime in grandma's arms.

naptime in grandma's auto

Naptime in grandma's auto, but seriously.  How does she do that????

waiting for the ferry  Pretty cool to see this ship come in

Whitney made beds for them to read books in

Whitney wanting her picture taken "with her teeth"

One day I was getting them packed up to go somewhere in the car.  They both went in and sat on the stool together, swinging their legs.  They were having so much fun waiting for me to get ready!  It was cute.

a better pic of when they were in a moment of playing nicely together

I was trying to catch the shot of Tucker with his arm around his watermelon and patting it like a good ol' buddy.  But then he saw the sticker and got really distracted.

Whitney set this up  on her own, then came to tell me, very seriously, that "baby was hungry and needs to eat"

Big Fish finally went belly up

First kayaking trip.  Tucker is with Mommy

Whitney and Mommy

whitney and Grandma

I forgot to blog last week about Tucker and Whitney's first kayak trip.  I tried it with my mom.  I wasn't sure if they would like it, sit still enough or how long they would like it.  My worries were unfounded.  They took to it naturally.  They sat where they were supposed to, tried to row and directed me where they wanted to go next.  They kayaked probably for about 15 minutes.  I was the one that got bored, not them.  It was a hit!

Today Tucker asked to talk to Grandpa for the first time.  He usually asks to talk to Grandma.  I guess it's because my dad talked to him a bit on web cam today.

They say the funniest things, so this will be a random blog of random things they say, usually when playing.

They still really like taking all of Baby's clothes off, but can't figure out how to put them on yet.  Kind of like how they are with their own clothes, I guess.  Finally Whitney just gave up on getting clothes back on one of her babies (the one pictured above) and said "Baby has orange pajamas".  Fine by me.  I don't get asked to put her clothes back on.

This is yet another tired blog.  Last time I was tired from having too much fun.  Today I'm tired because..... Tucker is growing.  He woke up at 1 am, 3 am, 5 am and 8 am, all asking for food by saying in this really sad, but whiny voice.  "I need to EAT".  Then he went to church and ate the lunch I usually give him in the car on the way home within the first hour of church.  When I went to pick him up from nursery, I asked how things went.  The nursery leader said, "well, they were hungry today.  Tucker was really upset when we left snack room, so I brought him back in for seconds"  I couldn't believe it.  He had hit up his nursery leader for more food.  At the five am feeding, I asked Jim to take over.  Whitney had woken up between Tucker's two feedings, so I felt I'd been up 3 times.  Just like they were newborns.  But then Tucker proceeded to eat for an hour.  Poor Jim.  He was up a long time today.  Tonight we are installing a bag of fish crackers by his bed.  Not waking up.

Yesterday was a fun day.  We had a service project thing we did that involved replacing rotting parts of the deck.  Lots of really cool power tools.  Tucker did not let Daddy out of his site.  Probably a good thing.  Yesterday was also the first day that we forgot Tucker's shoes.  My part included weeding.  It hurts to weed if you don't have shoes.  Lots of pokey weeds.  We both thought the other had put shoes on tucker and he had walked out to the car barefoot, so we just didn't think of it.  Usually he waits on the step to put his shoes on.  But he was really afraid that Daddy was going to leave him, so he beelined it to his car seat.  Oops.  The weather was gorgeous and this particular deck had an awesome view.  Very lovely.  They had a play area that we could play in, too.  Lucky us!  Made for a much more enjoyable day.  Tucker found a truck with really big wheels and pushed it down the slide to see how far it could "run" for about 30 minutes.  Whitney had a blast in the new kitchen playing with all the new food.  She was especially interested in a toaster with a slice of bread that fit and when down with the lever.  She must have been worried Tucker would get it because she brought it in the bathroom for a potty break so no one else could take it.

When we got home, Jim gave him the attachment clip of an old badge to play with.  You know.  Those things that you clip on, but you stretch the badge out to reach the door swipes while the badge is still attached to you.  Well, Tucker was in heaven.  Daddy was is a good place to snuggle with, but he also had this cool toy. So, he would snuggle daddy for a few seconds, then pop up to pull out the string, then go back to snuggling.  He repeated this several times.  Cracked us up.  Life is just too good.

Friday we were reading the new library books we checked out.  For the last three weeks we've had these books from the library, three of which had similar titles.  I love bugs.  I love trains.  I love boats.  Anyway, this week, we got a book that has the title, Can you guess what I feel.  It has a picture of a cartoon kid holding a stuffed animal sheep up against his face.  So Tucker asked to ready the "I love sheep" book. Cracked me up.  I also traded out some toys on friday, so they have their wood blocks to play with again.  I heard Whitney chanting a phrase that was in those books, but replacing the word with blocks.  "Blocks, blocks, blocks.  I love blocks." It still surprises me how much they retain what they are exposed to right now.  I keep saying how surprised I am, but I'm always surprised.

One of the other toys that they got back out was this alligator xylophone that has a hammer on a string.  They pull it around the house by the hammer more than anything.  I was sitting playing the piano holding Tucker and Whitney was playing right by me, so I wasn't paying too much attention to what she was doing.  But then I kept getting wiffs of what I thought was someone cooking a really good dinner.  She had gotten some rosemary out of the fridge and was feeding it to alligator (he also has a mouth that opens).  Yep.  Aligators probably like plants.

We've been taking advantage of the still beautiful weather.  I still can't believe that it could be sunny yet another day, so I've still been acting like the sun will never come back.  Monday we played at the park with the animals for 3 and a half hours.  We played, ate lunch, looked at the animals, played some more.  It was awesome.  I had a friend there, so we got some talking in between, which also made me not want to leave.  It was just so pleasant!

We also went to the splash park.  We started at the dry playground, went to the splash pad, then came back to dry playground.  We were there most of the day. Another lovely, non-housework day.  A couple of funny things about that.  Tucker left the splash pad dry.  He's not into the spray on his face.  He stayed near me and played Tucker doggy instead.  We ate watermelon for lunch (surprise, surprise) and, as we were walking to the playground, I heard Whitney laughing.  I turned around and she was squeezing her fingers together with her other hand, then trying to separate them, laughing, and saying "sticky fingers!"  They were so sticky the skin was deforming the shape of her fingers as she pulled them apart.

At night Jim and I have been trading off to do stuff.  I went to dinner with my visiting teachers, way fun.  And kayaking with another friend after.  Jim went night diving for shrimp and evening diving (sun still out) for crab the next night. Summer is so much fun!

Today they were playing "drums" so nicely together on the i-pad.  Another instrument on that game is a saxaphone.  In Whitney's Clifford book, there is a picture of a saxaphone and Whitney pointed to it and said "Tucker likes that one!"  So I said, oh, the saxaphone?  And they say saxaphone now.  It sounds so funny, like it is a word too big for them.

Whitney has really been having a blast with these blocks.  She is making computers, seats for her dolls and Whitney and Mommy houses all over the house.

Here's something Aunt B would like.  Whitney one day grabbed the mushroom from the kitchen.  It is soft and is in the shape of a blush brush.  Whitney started dabbing her eyes and cheeks, and mine too, saying "I'm putting on my blush!"  Another thing she DID NOT learn from me.  But picked up on very quickly.  A natural.

There are a few things they are doing that really pull at my heartstrings in a good way.  Tucker has started saying to me at random times of the day: "Hi Mom!  How are you doing?"   He also says thank you for things I help him with or that Whitney helps him with.  So cute!  They both continue to sing whatever primary songs we've been singing on their own at random times in the day as well as asking to read "noah", the old testament scripture picture thing they like to look at in the morning.  Melts my heart!

the good life with grandma and grandpa

Wow.  We had SO MUCH FUN.  I can't believe it has only been a week with Grandpa and Grandma (and Aunt B and Uncle Ryan).

My parents arrived Friday night after driving since 4 in the morning.  Good thing they didn't take two days this time.  I think Tucker and Whitney picked up on my excitement.  Every time I talked on the phone, they asked to talk to Grandma and I kept telling them they were coming.  We tried to distract ourselves by going to the park and the blueberry patch with some friends.  Worked pretty well until dinner.  Then none of us could stand the suspense.

Saturday we actually went to Jim's company picnic while my parents and siblings toured around town.  There was some miscommunication and I had thought my parents were driving saturday to saturday, meaning they would be there after the company picnic, so I had told Jim to count on it.  He signed up for a beach volleyball team and was ready to compete when I found out my parents were driving friday to Friday.  Oops. 

But the company picnic was totally awesome.  Tucker and Whitney had so much fun, they left the picnic totally dazed.  Or maybe that's because the sun was out.  The bounce house was the biggest hit, with Tucker most especially.  He laughed and jumped with Whitney for 2 hours.  We never made it past the bounce house.  But Daddy waved a clown over  so they got ballons and the rest of the stuff was on  the way back to the car from the bounce house.  They got shaved ice after all that bouncing. 

Whitney loved the picnic part.  She got to eat lots of different yummy food.  Tucker loved the 4 pieces of garlic bread he ate.  There was a petting zoo.  They were most fascinated with the bunnies and chickens.  They got their arms painted (easier than their face painted).  They both really loved that.  Tucker got a lizard and Whitney got a butterfly.  There was also a tortoise loose on the grass from the reptile man that they watched a bunch.  I didn't let them pet the yellow boa.  I was too freaked out.  Tucker passed out as soon as he sat in his car seat, and whitney fell asleep shortly after him.

After the company picnic, we went blueberry picking as a whole family, though.  The first grandma/grandpa activity.  It was really fun.  We had blueberries and crab for dinner.  Whitney kept saying " Mom, I need more crab" during the whole meal.  Tucker ate more bread and blueberries.  After dinner was more Olympics.  Very addicting, those Olympics.  We stayed up too late most nights.

Sunday was a relaxing day of church, chalk drawings and playing with Bozo, the clown, a punch balloon thing Grandma brought.  We also had a fire and roasted marshmellows.  We got a little family reminicising started.  The funniest memory was Brittany saying that Scott and her would try to sneak up on Grandma.  But they'd start in the car.  "Hey, let's be really quiet and sneak up on Grandma".  I got a kick out of that.  At least my mom got to drive in silence for 2 blocks.  Priceless.

Monday Whitney had her first girl's day and loved it.  She is a natural about putting on make-up.  I have no idea where she learned to tilt her head just right, but I can tell you it's not from me.  Brittany ate that up.  Whitney had the works.  But what's funny is that Tucker started the whole thing.  He asked for Brittany's lipstick, thinking it was chapstick.  Which lead to Whitney getting make up on. 

We went to a pot sticker restaurant that was delicious.  Then we went shopping a bit for me, but got Tucker and Whitney stuff instead.  It was just so much cuter!  While we were eating and shopping, Tucker was getting a scenic tour of town.  Grandpa went to the park up the road that has a bathroom close to the potty.  He didn't like the playground.  No kids on it and no Whitney.  What to do?  Grandpa took him for his "potty break" and let him flush.  Then they pushed some other buttons and walked around the visitors center.  Tucker was apparently bored because HE ASKED TO LEAVE THE PLAYGROUND AND GO TO THE CAR.  Crazy.  Never had anything like that happen to me.  So my dad started looking for another playground and ended up going all over the place.  It ended in a power nap for Tucker early in the day and a meal bar for lunch.  My dad laughed at how fast he polished off the meal bar.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we had fun, fun, fun.

Tuesday we went  up the space needle and on the duck tour.  Tucker was very concerned about the bus going into the water, until we went in and were safe.  Then he talked about it the rest of the day.  "silly bus!  Went into the water!".  The space needle was very relaxing.  It was sunny, and even with lots of people, it was a subdued tone of talking for everyone.  Everyone was enjoying the view.  We also got to see some ships come in.

Wednesday we went on the ferry.  We just missed one, so we were front and center for loading.  Pretty cool.  We went to the park, beach and ate ice cream, all in the middle of the day. We threw lots of rocks in the water.  Whitney was especially happy.  When we pulled off the ferry, she asked to go to a playground.  I told her we weren't finding a playground, so she said, "ok, a beach?".  We laughed about that. 

Thursday  we went to the airshow practice.  It was boring.  Dad started playing songs for Tucker on the xilophone on the I-pad.  so we left.  We went home, grabbed some lunch and went to a museum about planes.  Which ended up pretty cool because it overlooked a run way where we were able to watch planes take off from the kid zone.  Good thing.  That way I had something fun to do. Because we were in the kid area for about 3 hours.  Tucker found a button that let an air balloon go up and down, so he did that for 20 minutes straight.  I preferred watching the planes.  Whitney loved the cockpits to climb in.

This family vacation led to some serious adventures with froggy.  We won't discuss those in too much detail, but I'm no longer mad at jim for buying froggy.  And mom and dad are only gettting grandkids out of me and Scott.  Me, because I already have them.  Scott because he wasn't here for the 4-6 pm fussytimes.  I think Ryan and Brit had enough of the screaming.

Friday was a day of discussion between Whitney and Tucker about how we can't go in Grandma's auto because it's gone.  Yep.  It was hard to get back to real life again.  Good thing this week has been nice weather.  We've enjoyed the park for multiple hours this week.  Oh yeah.  My mom was commenting on how she doesn't remember going to the park for long periods of time when we were little.  That's because we grew up in California.  Here we squish all park hours into 2 months instead of all year round.  But I still go to the park a lot.

We went to the park all afternoon for two days after Grandma and Grandpa left.  I had had so much fun not listening to screaming every day from 4-6 pm, that I decided we should go to the park or beach during that time when people were gone, too.  So far it's been pretty nice.  The only screaming I get is about 15 to 20 minutes from leaving the playground to pulling in the driveway.  Much, much better.  On Saturday we went to the beach for 3 hours.  It was heavenly.  The air was warm! We also went to the park with some friends for 3 1/2 hours this week because of all the warm air.  It's been so relaxing!
One day the babies were trying to snuggle Mommy while she was trying to type an email to Uncle Erik.  Amazingly they played nicely.  Tucker offer Whitney "one leg Whitney" on his own leg.  It was pretty cute to see Tucker letting Whitney sit on his knee without getting too mad.  We usually read stories "one leg Whitney, one leg Tucker" on my lap.  Tucker or Whitney say this phrase if they are ok sharing reading time.  But when they are not, it's "both legs Tucker", meaning, I'm not sharing.

I'm learning that imaginative play takes off with the verbal skills.  It's interesting, and humbling, to watch them play.  I see a lot of my behaviors and house scenarios occuring during this play.  Whitney plays a lot of discipling and following the rules scenarios along with lots of cooking scenarios.   She makes me soup a lot for me to eat.  She also goes to get Tucker the play watermelon when he's upset, knowing he likes it so much. They can eat 1/2 watermelon each in 2 sittings.  Whitney has also been making "computers" all over the house with her blocks.
Yesterday, when Jim came home, the usual requests started spouting out of Tucker's mouth.  He wants to eat fish crackers and watch Tick Tock (hickory dickory dock on simple songs website) every time he sees Daddy.  I asked Jim not to feed him fish crackers, as he already had his fill, but Jim did it anyway.  Whitney said to Jim "Daddy, Mommy said not to give Tucker fish crackers!"  Jim laughed really hard at that, so Whitney started laughing and smiling, too.  Then Jim said, Whitney, are you going to be my little tattletale?  And she smiled a lot like it was a good thing.  Yep Whitney.  It's a good thing for me.  I'm sure I'll learn all sorts of interesting things until she learns that, if she tells mom, life isn't as fun or tasty.

Tucker plays take care of baby pretty well, in addition to playing with all things mechanical.  Like the closet doors.  We just leave them off the track now.  If we don't there's a lot of slamming and even more play "watching movie" in the changing table.  He fell asleep in the top level of the changing table.  What was funny about it is that it looked like he did it on purpose.  Everything was situated in  that "top bunk" like it would be in his bed.

Most of the pictures were taken on phones, so I don't have too much.  Everyone.  Send me your favorites off your devices!