Grandma Kim's

This is going to be a really long post because we had a ton of fun at Grandma's.  It will also be very random as I remember stuff.  I didn't blog while I was there, so the memories are not as fresh.

We went to Tahoe one of the days.  Absolutely gorgeous.  Blue skies and yellow leaves everywhere.  There were a ton of (very stinky) half alive salmon running.  Pathetically small next to the ones coming out of the ocean, but much easier to see as we could get very close to the stream.  On this day trip we left Froggy at home, but that doesn't mean there aren't any potty stories to be had.  Maybe even more.

Tucker really hates toilets that flush by themselves and yucky port o potties.  Well, the one at the park was too yucky for him.  Probably too hot.  What port o potty is hot in WA?  None.  It's not natural.  Anyway.  He didn't want to go potty in the potty, so we went in the woods.  Once we got back, my mom called Tucker "mountain boy"  Whitney thought that was so funny and yelled it at the top of her lungs.  You know how sound carries in a quiet wooded place.  Scared the steller jay.

Then we went on the short hike.  Got half way around when Tucker decided he wanted to use the real potties, so Tucker and I went back while Whitney stayed with Grandma and Papa.  We visited the potty like three times in a row until he could actually relax and finish the job.  Meanwhile, Whitney was on her way back.  My mom said to Whitney: "Let's go find Tucker and Mommy" when it was time.  She responded "He's in the potty".  Really knows her brother.

Went to the school park a few times.  They laughed gleefully while chasing their shadows on the blacktop.  There are about 3 sets of playground equipment to play on.  2 of them have a bunch of stuff to climb and slide down.  But what did they do for about 45 minutes?  Stay on the free standing curly slide and go up and down either the stairs or the slide.  I think I'm going to miss this age of simple pleasures.

I was surprised they picked the slide of all things to play on.  It was cold for about three days.  45 degrees cold.  I had brought summer and fall clothes, but no winter stuff.  Too hopeful, I guess.  So we stayed inside until the storm passed.  Which it does at my mom's house.  While we were inside so much, one of the things they loved playing was "slug" on her carpeted, non-steep stairs.  My Papa thought that was funny.  He made the comment that "California children don't play slugs".  Very true.  I remember Whitney doing a face plant that didn't hurt.  She called herself a slug.  We've got big ones out here.

Another thing they did a bunch was play with play dough.   They learned all sorts of games playing with play dough.  They would bury stuff in their play dough and also made lots of gusanos (worms).  Whitney would smash her play dough down into a container and say "punch the bread down!"

Patrick got a lot of exercise during those rainy days.  We kept Oliver locked up in the bathroom while Mom was gone to work, but let Patrick out a bunch.  They really liked playing with Patrick.  I think Patrick liked it, but he was pretty active.  Running and jumping around more than I've seen him do in awhile.  I like to think it is because he had some good playmates.  Tucker and Whitney liked making tunnels for Patrick with the couch pillows and their body.  Whitney snuggled Patrick a bunch.  Lined up crayons for Patrick to jump over.  Patrick didn't quite get that.  Tucker crooned "So soft Whitney!" to Whitney while she petted him ever so gently.  He talked nicely "Oh, Patrick!" when Patrick jumped up to sniff him and his finger

Tucker learned that the cut out in the wall above the couch is great for throwing things onto the couch below.  I'm sure if my mom had been home, she would have died, but I decided throwing blankets was ok.  They got lots of energy out by climbing up the stairs to throw the blanket, then climbing down to retrieve the blanket and climbing back up again.  Every time Tucker would throw his blanket he would say "Uh-oh blanket!  Haha!"  Whitney didn't really want to play this malicious game with Blanket.  She followed Tucker around, but with her particular blanket, she held on tight and said to her blanket "Hold on.  I don't want you to fall!"

Her caring side really shone through on day that Tucker fell off his chair during lunch.  Those two weeks were the first weeks of me not strapping them down in booster chairs and they both would stand up on the chair often to get to their food.  Standing means you probably need to dance and Tucker took a misstep during one of his dances and totally fell on the floor.  He wasn't hurt, but pretty startled and scared, so it took him a bit to calm down.  Whitney held his hand and gave him a kiss while he cried to help calm him.

Fish didn't make it back home.  Oliver chewed his eye off and made a bunch of other holes in it.  Tucker left it on the floor.  Can't blame Oliver too much.  They had been playing Tucker and Whitney doggie and picking up the fish with their mouth just like Oliver does with his stuffed fish.  Oliver thought that it applied to him, too.

Tucker loves the spa.  Another Uncle Scotti trait that he somehow inherited through sideways genetics.  Grandpa loved taking Tucker in the spa.  Good thing.  I like being in the spa, but don't like getting out.  That shock of cold air just isn't worth all the warmth.  So my dad would take Tucker in the spa on the nights he got home from work before bed time.  One time Tucker was eating chocolate pudding and my dad asked him if he wanted to go in the spa.  Tucker paused, put his spoon down nicely and jumped down from the table saying "Yeah!".  Same thing happened the next night with spaghetti noodles.  The spa is so awesome, it's better than his favorite foods.  One of the nights he played in there for an hour and 20 minutes.  Mostly with dumping and pouring cups.  He didn't like the "loud water" only the "quiet spa".  Sometimes the spa motor would start up to cycle the filter and Tucker would say "It's pushing the buttons".

Whitney also liked the spa, but only if mommy was in it, so she didn't go in as long or as often.  She's a bit like me in that if she starts to feel cold, she's ready to get out.  She liked sliding on the seats, but kept dunking herself (and thus getting her head wet).  I was impressed.  Once Tucker slipped and dunked himself and it took a few times of no incidents before he went back to playing in the spa.  Not Whitney.  I showed her how to hold her breath or blow out when it happened so she didn't breathe in water, and she got it.  Then she got more brave. 

We played outside a ton while we were there.  Whitney and Tucker really liked playing hide and seek.  You know.  The version where you laugh really loud or tell the other person where you are.  And you skip a few numbers to finish counting.  Although Whitney is really good at counting to 14.

Going to the pumpkin patch was very exciting.  It was made an even better experience by watching the Charlie Brown movie of the Great Pumpkin.  Every pumpkin was a great pumpkin. Tucker picked up a pumpkin I was sure was too big for him.  And then he picked up another one that I was, again, was sure was too heavy for him, for Whitney.  One night Tucker got stuck under the bed (they slept on the floor) and he came out screaming "I want to watch the Great Pumpkin movie!"  Whitney and Tucker still laugh hysterically at each other if either one says "Bonk! Like Snoopy!"  One of the funniest parts of the movie for them was when Snoopy fell off his dog house and landed in his food dish.  A part I'm sure you all remember well.

We went to a U-pick farm to pick apples.  Tucker and Whitney filled their bags in no time.  They had already had lots of practice picking apples off Ieva's tree and could show Grandma how it's done.

Grandma and Hoppy came up for a few hours on Sunday.  Of course they had to come in the afternoon.  After church and before dinner.  I don't know about the rest of you, but that's usually not a favorite time during my week.  There was a lot of noise, noise, noise.  I think Tucker was delirious with sleep deprivation from all the excitement and treats the previous three days with traveling and settling in.  Hoppy and Grandma left after about 4 hours.  I think they were exhausted with all the noise.  I sure was and I'm used to having them around.  The highlight of the visit was Hoppy's magic trick.  The one with the frog in the handkerchief.  Tucker's face showed how dumbfounded he was about how that frog could have disappeared like that.  Classic family story.

Part of the Sunday afternoon was saved by Uncle Ryan.  He brought home this huge box from work.  Very, very smart thinking, Uncle Ryan.  Tucker's favorite request, in between crawling in and out and shutting the door was "push me please!"  And Uncle Ryan complied.  Much to Mommy's relief.

Grocery shopping with Grandma was very fun.  Whitney really likes to sing when she is in the cart, so it was easy for Grandma to find us.  Not as easy for us to find her.  We went looking for her and couldn't find her for a little bit.  When we spotted her, Tucker shrieked in delight.  Grandma bought fruit snacks and Frosted mini wheats.  Tucker was especially happy the next day at breakfast and said "oh yeah!!!! Frosted mini wheats".  Another shopping trip we were planning on going in and out, so since there were two of us, we let them hold a basket each and walk.  It was funny watching them carry them, even though it was awkward for them.  They got to put bananas in it.  Very good thing.

Of course, Whitney and Mom couldn't resist doing a little shopping for Whitney together.  They picked out a pink polka dot shirt and another that had a diamond (fake) on it.  Whitney pointed to the shirt and said "That's my diamond".

We did joy school a bit while we were there.  One of the games was "where does it come from?" and you say man made or nature.  I pulled out a bunch random things to ask them about.  Two items were a piece of tanbark and the other was turkey lunch meat.  When I asked where the tanbark came from, Tucker looked at it, paused and said "the playground!".  Very true.  He also calls pieces of tanbark in his shoe "playground".  His sentence goes something like this: "I have playground in my shoe!  Get it out!".  In response to the turkey meat, Whitney looked at it and said "gobble, gobble."  End of conversation.

We talked about emotions during joy school.  One of them was feeling frustrated.  They really know what that word is because I often get frustrated.  Whitney said to me several times "Mom, are you frustrated?"  while we were there.  They also had a small review on manners by Grandma, so Tucker started repeating what Mom says and would say to me, "What do you say, Mom" when I asked him for something.

Going to church was fun.  As soon as we walked into the church, Tucker noted the most important thing.  "Oh!  The basketball hoop is up".  Very important.  They also had play keys and cell phones in the nursery that were absolutely fascinating.  And Tucker couldn't stop opening and shutting the door on the car in there.

They came home with some phrases they learned at Grandma's.  Like "slinky apple" and "push the button".  Slinky apple is for the apple they ate everyday for snack because they could cut, peel and core it themselves, once I got it set up.  That was the best thing ever.  Push the button is what they say to me (or whoever is playing with them) if they want to "keep going".  Like going upstairs or sliding down the stairs like a slug.

We went to my Grandpa's house, or Papa's house.  We came back pretty late for them.  Left around 8 pm.  They laughed and giggled the whole way home.  No sleepy, sleepy.  But they also had a great toy to play with.  Grandma's flashlights!  So awesome!

Some other random things they did or started doing while they were there was to push the Whitney and Tucker balls up the ramp.  Or splash in the water beneath the Weber with the bucket handles they took off their bucket. 

Tucker liked to sing me his demands. Like "i want a banana" to the tune of one nursery rhymes. 

Whitney had fun seeing how a teapot works in real life.

But of course, being at Grandma's spoils you.  Toward the end of the trip, Whitney wouldn't allow for any water in her glass to be anything but "refrigerator water".   Thank heavens the refrigerator stays at Grandma's!

Tucker showing me fish

very happy to be on plane.  by the window that goes up and down

Here we go to grandma's house

jumping back into summer, but not in the spa.  Not the first time

Tucker and Papa in Tahoe

The girls

Helping each other out.  They take turns doing this. Benefits of twins

Feeding Fishy fish crackers

Singing and covering her ears

Making Patrick a bunny tunnel

More play OUTSIDE the spa

Slug beds

Tucky and Grandma picking apples in orchard

Tucker showing Grandma how it's done.  Had lots of practice in neighbor's yard this fall

Helping Grandma with yard work.  Pine cones are supervising

Uncle Ryan gave Tucky a wagon ride.  In the afternoon.

bucket head. She was singing a bunch with this on,too.

Whitney walking to car from store in the rain.  Didn't want her pants to get wet.

more bucketheads

Playing doggy, just like Oliver.  Oliver has a stuffed fish he chases, so they got their rubber ones and copied the behavior

Whitney's seat

picking  a pumpkin

Tucky hauling around his Great Pumpkin

At the park with Grandma

At the park with Grandma

on a "nature trail" with grandma looking at Tucker and Whitney trees

At costco with Grandpa Anderson.  He got his workout trying to hold them back and steer

Whitney snuggling Patrick

no explanation needed

On their way to trick or treating

Playing with veggie man Grandma made for Halloween snack.  Olive on finger

Tucker doggy

week before vaca

check out the size of these leaves.  Whitney likes to collect big and little leaves

Whitney admiring her collection

We made some treats for the neighbors and Tucker insisted on carrying the plates over to the houses.  It was a little stressful for me to watch, but he was very good at looking at the plate.  All I had to do was to direct him in the right direction.  Pretty cute!

Whitney and Tucker have both been role playing a bunch.  It's their new phase in life.  Whitney put her baby in a "seat" in the playroom and "went on a trip to find Papa".  I guess she is a little jealous of all Jim's travels.

Once I heard Tucker go in the bathroom and flip up the toilet lid.  I thought he was going potty, but I guess it was one of many times he was taking Fish potty.  I heard some genuinely sad cries of distress.  I went in there and fish had fallen in while going potty.  It was sad.  Thank heavens Tucker didn't flush.

Sammy sleeps on the floor next to Tucker's bed when Jim is gone.  I guess it's because when Tucker wakes up and sees Sammy, he says "Sammy wants you to pet him" (you=me) and he very gently gives Sammy lots of pets.

Tucker also gets up to feed Sammy his "O's"  He repeats "Sammy eats O's" over and over until they are fed.

Whitney comes up with all these one liners and observations that let me know how much she observes and remembers.  She randomly said these things during play.  "Papa's on a plane".  "I'm happy with Mommy" and even corrected my Spanish.  I accidentally called her hijo and she said "Hija!  Not hijo!".

Tucker and fish on the "airplane" together

This one is as big as my head

Cuteness

Whitney monkey at the top (freaking me out)

The fort they made and the watch towers

My neighbor and I were having a discussion about gummy vitamins.  She cracked me up by saying how she is going through "calcium withdrawls" because she ran out of her calcium gummys and feels like she's "gotta have it" in the morning.  We had a good laugh about that and how we all look forward to the sweet treat in the morning.  The kidlets never let me forget either.

Grandma An's

Watching "Banana" with Aunt Hannah.  I had no idea what that started.  They absolutely LOVE this mini movie from the minions.  Tucker asks for it repeatedly and laughs hysterically at seemingly random parts of the movie

Whitney with her pumpkin face she requested to be carved

Tucker with his pumpkin with the candle lit

On the tractor at the pumpkin patch.  We rode in the trailer of this tractor quite a ways to pick out a pumpkin.  When we got there, the driver said we could sit in the seat.  Now.  If he had let Tucker touch the buttons

Getting ready for the wagon ride.  Paul, me, Whit, Hannah, Tucker doggy, Angel

Their second pumpkin carving in life

Whitney at Grandma Ann's trunk or treat party

Tucker at party.  After having eaten 2 whole hot dogs.  I didn't know he even liked hot dogs.  Whit ate the same number.  Then, two hours later, ate all the candy from the bags.  I thought they'd get sick.  Nope.

In wagon with pumpkins

Tucker was actually pretty good at pulling this himself, but not so good at steering

At patch

Tucker laughing while swinging with Grandpa.  Very entertained with this swing, especially upside down

They each took turns pushing each other

Whit on swing.  After a few times, they got brave enough to swing together.  Whitney in the hole and Tucker on top worked best.  Tucker could barely bend himself enough to sit in the hole. Not as flexible.

Nice dental shot

At Grandma An's the weather was a lot warmer and we had access to a car during her workday, so we went........... to the park!  There were some really fun parks nearby.  Their favorite feature of one of the parks was the web thing.  They played monkeys on it for a really long time.  Playing monkeys went kind of like this:  Tucker sat on the little platform near the top while Whitney climbed up and down and around him.  But then she talked him into "painting" his toes pink with the playground tanbark later.

The toilet at that park had a foot flusher.  I had no idea how long lasting of an effect that was going to have on Tucker.  He went home to Grandma An's and flushed her toilet with his foot.  He barely has the flexibility to do it.  That's what makes it so funny to watch him do it.  And he definitely can't do it with jeans on.  He has to stand on his tiptoe and bend his knee of his weightbearing leg, then hold on to the counter and toilet with his hands while he bends his back.  If he does all of that, then he can reach the handle with his other foot.  Once we got home, he found a better way to do it.  Just climb on the toilet lid.  Duh.

Grandma An's animals were very, very relieved to see Tucker and Whitney go.  They chased Kitty around the house quite a bit.  Then, when they couldn't catch her, they would send her "gifts" through the cat door into the garage.  Very calming to the nerves, I'm sure. 

The fish had a heart attack every time they would look at him.  And then when they would touch the tank, he was sure to never come out of hiding.  They tried to feed him by themselves while I was in the bathroom.  I'm really glad the top was too hard to open wide enough to get the abundance of food in.  Fish food goes up one shelf higher.

Another favorite thing at Grandma An's were her plastic bins.  She keeps the smaller kid toys in these bins.  After about 3 day days of playing with all those cool new toys, they dumped out the buckets and pushed them around the house.  Then they got the idea to put their pumpkins in the bins and push them around, too.  And then they got the brillant idea to roll the pumpkin on the floor like a bowling ball.  Tucker did that once.  Whitney and Grandma An wouldn't let Tucker near their pumpkins after that.  He split his open.

Getting dressed when the beds are blankets on the floor makes for a static electricity affair.  Whitney's hair was going wild one morning into her face.  She said "Where's Whitney?" and then took two hands to flip her hair back so I could see her face.  I laughed really hard at it, so Tucker did the same thing.  He leaned his head forward, said "where's Tucker" and moved his imaginary mane of hair back in the same manner.  Of course that made me laugh harder.

The pics explain a lot of  the good times we had there.  Grandma An is great with remember to bust out the camera.  We had loads of fun!

keep forgetting I have a camera again

Whitney being cute

Putting on Fuzzy

Fuzzy is on

I keep forgetting that I have a camera back in my possession and haven't been taking cute pics this past week.  I did remember a few times and got these pics.

This week was the last week of dryness.  The rains moved back in on Friday and I'm back to trying to figure out how to get enough energy out inside to get them to go to bed at night.

Today they played bicycle blanket.  They sit on their blankets and pretend they are bikes and try to ride them sliding through the house.  Never really works well, but they seem to really enjoy trying.

Today we went to some friends' house for dinner.  They had a old baby wipe container full of gerber jar lids.  It might be worth it to post it on Pintrest.  Tucker played with it for about 45 minutes.  Dumping them out then putting them through the slot in the container.  Whitney made a bunch of "cupcakes"  and "sandcastles" with the lids while Tucker made "chips" with them.  Tucker likes to make more savory snacks and Whitney likes the sweet ones.  But Whitney has added to her sweet reportoire of just ice cream from last week.

Have I mentioned that Tucker likes to "go potty" whenever we are close to new bathrooms?  Drives us insane.  He had to "go potty" about 10 times while we were at our friends' house just because they have "blue water for Tucker" in their toilet.  I made Jim be in charge of that, since I do it at playgrounds with two kids.

Yesterday I switched out the toys since they were bored with being indoors all day Friday.  It was nice.  About one morning's worth of peace.  We cut paper, made cookies, made frosting, and played with playdough in the afternoon and then gave up and walked laps around the mall to get some energy out.  Kind of worked.  It brought back all sorts of memories of keeping them entertained indoors last winter.  Yuck.  I think I will always associate mall smells with really cold, rainy weather.

This winter I was hoping that we would be able to play outside in the wet better since they are better at keeping on warmer layers.  On Friday it was more of a misty rain, so I thought we'd be fine outdoors for a bit.  Whitney even asked to go to the playground.  I was quite excited about this, so we went to the playground.  For about 10 minutes.  Whitney got out of the car, excited to be at the playground, but then started whining.  She wanted to snuggle.  She was too cold.  We went back home.

Later that day it warmed up a bit and there was less wind and rain than when we went to the park and Tucker was begging to go out.  So I tried again.  It lasted a lot longer, but after awhile I was getting cold.  Whitney plain gave up and ran inside to be warm.  Tucker didn't want to go inside at all.  "No! Outside!" was all I got when I kept asking him to clean up.  He didn't want to clean up.  He wanted to keep practicing his new skill of throwing a plastic ball on the roof and watching it bounce back down to him. 

We had a pretty fun week.  This week was my week to teach school.  We talked about nature and part of school was to be outside.  Pretty much everyone was good with being outside for about 1.5 hours each day of preschool.  They liked the dirt pile the best.  Of course.  They got out our plastic sleds and were pulling them around with pinecones in them.  Then started loading them up with dirt.  So far, so good.  But then when the other moms came to pick up kids, I got a bit distracted.  All of a sudden we were all choking on dust because Tucker dumped the sled full of dirt on the driveway while we were saying good bye.  He was pretty proud of himself.  He said "Mom!  I'm dumping!" as the plume of dust billowed around us.  They were all filthy.

We also pretended we were birds.  Made nests and ate spaghetti noodle worms.  One kid spent about 20 minutes making his nest of sticks in the dirt complete with two eggs, one a rock and the other a white ball.  The other kids made quick circles of pinecones so they could get to snack faster.  It was pretty fun!

Grandma and Grandpa visited for a night and a morning on their way back from Alaska.  My father in law worked up there for 6 months and they were doing a side trip to see us really quick on their way back into town.  That was fun!  We got to hear about the Alaska adventure.  My father in law really liked working on the boat the best and seemed to really like his co-workers (most of them) and the projects he completed.  Grandma got to catch the first part of school with us.  Tucker has been having fun because Daddy is home.  He pretty much never leaves his side when he is home.  Really misses him and shouts with such excitement and glee to see papa come in.  He really wants to play on the computer and watch music videos with him. Whitney likes to ask for treats and cheese from Papa.

My neighbor and I had a pretty funny discussion about Gummy Vites.  She starts off by saying, "Man, I must be going through some SERIOUS calcium withdrawls.  I ran out of my gummy calciums and feel like I gotta have them."  We had a good laugh about it together.  We don't know what is in those gummy vitamins, but all of us, herself, me, Whitney and Tucker, totally look forward to waking up to Gummy vites.  Sounds a bit like a Folgers coffee song I remember from when I was little....

This week Tucker went in to go potty and quickly came out crying a seriously distressed whimper of a cry.  I went in to see Fishy, the toy he was holding when he went in, was in the toilet.  Since then, he is very good about putting his toys up on the counter before using the bathroom so they can watch, not go swimming.

To end I'll write some of the cute stuff they said and did this week.

Whitney likes to make all sorts of things.  She made her babies a calender with torn up pieces of paper.  She made a closet rack with her rings and hung a bunch of hangers on it.  She made me soup to help me feel better with her pretend carrots and garlic.  She made a ton of ice cream. I have a particular ice cream, Papa has his ice cream and Tucker has his.  She has her own.  Don't taste any of the other person's ice cream.  She uses a plastic ring and puts a plastic ball in the middle.  She also started making animals and stairs out of her food for her toys to play with or use. 

She is really cute the way she says bottom.  It's pronounced bob-bum.  She also knows all the construction type vehicles by name and points them out when we're out and about.

Tucker really likes to fix things.  He found an extra key and goes around the house fixing things or noticing things that need to be fixed.  He talks in such a sad voice about "Papa's truck is broken" drawn on the driveway.  I got distracted while drawing it and it has no wheels.  He inserts keys into our door locks and fixes them. I check and re-check the outlet covers on a daily basis.  Making sure they are in and protecting Tucky from a shock.  As soon as Daddy started up the drill to fix the chairs, Tucker beelined it over to his side.

They both like to get a string or necklace and pull each other around, pretending they are leaving on a field trip, something they picked up from nursery.

Tucker calls all of his friends' parents by name.  "Annabelle's mommy, ect"

They both pronounce spaghetti, ba-sketti.  They both eat the "skin" off their cheese by eating all around the edge of the piece of cheese.

Will try to get more pics. The leaves here are beautiful.

japan pics

I found this on the table.  Whitney had been cooking dinner.  Each place setting has a ball, a cup holding the ball, a container holding the cup and a special O as a side dish.  She already knows how to put together a good meal.  That would explain why she doesn't eat anything that is a little bit off in taste.  Nothing gets past her palate.

The entrance to a temple up in the moutains that Jim visited last weekend

Jim didn't know what this meant, but he kept seeing rocks with dresses on.

You can't see too well for the glare, but there is a taxi driver taking a nap in his back seat.  Jim said that part of the work culture is that a short nap is acceptable.  Some of his co workers would put their heads down for a bit during work.  They also all do exercises together at work for a break.  Man.  I wish I could be a PT there!  But then maybe they don't need my services.

Picture of osaka.  Not where he was staying, but I was amazed at how big the city was

 

 

Jim really liked the gravel garden things

 



My hubby has been gone for 2 weeks and I'm definitely sick of it.  You also have to add in the 2 days after he got back that he wasn't really around because of jet lag and working still.  Grrrr.  It ended up being 3 saturdays and 2 sundays by myself.  My first real taste of people that have hubbies traveling all the time.  Or single moms. Or hubbies really involved in other things.  Definitely done with it all.  Now I remember why I wanted to coincide the time I would be gone with the time he was gone.  How dare his company not consult with me as to when he was to be gone!:)  And then I remember that some people's hubbies are killed in a war.  And life is great again.

Some things he commented on were about kit kats and airport security.  I guess part of customs into Japan is screening for cold or flu like symptoms. I asked him what would happen if he had had them.  He said he didn't know.  He had a lot of fun buying all the different flavored kit kats.  But being american, I really don't like the green tea one.  Tastes and looks like grass.  I only deal with that flavor if the food has nutritional value.  And the cookies and cream one. He also said it was fairly easy to get around and not get too lost, even though he doesn't know any Japanese.  He also said people like to practice with him.  One of the tables next to him in a restaurant they ate in noticed them speaking English and switched to english to make them feel more comfortable.  And people are honest.  He saw some money in a train station for 3 days where millions walk by and no one picked it up.  The cabbies were honest, too.

We had fun and lucky, lucky me that it was not my turn to teach preschool and I got some time to myself.  And some other willing friends watched them for me during some other times I needed to be gone.  Whew!  What would we do without friends?

Back to the babies being cute.  I'm sure if Whitney had a tea set and we had tea on a regular basis she would be playing tea party.  It still cracks me up how their imaginative play is just a repeat of days repeating.  She played feeding me several times this week.  She found a big blanket and put it over me, just like a bib, saying I need to put a bib on because I wasn't being careful with my food (usually ice cream).  That's what I tell her all the time about big huge messes down her shirt and her spilling food and the dogs eat it.  She makes me soup and feeds it to me to "make me feel better" after I get after Tucker jumping on me or hanging on me.

She also put me in time out for "hitting Tucker", one of her most common time out reasons at the moment.  Although sometimes it's a bit hard for me to put her in time out for that because Tucker has been beating her up for probably 2 years and she is just now defending herself.  I kind of want her to defend herself a bit.  Especially after the park incident.

This week at the park she was making nests in the playground tanbark.  Another kid, probably around 4 or 5, came over to fling chips around with her, too.  That was fine until Whitney looked up at him to see who was coming close to wrecking her nest.  When he saw her look up at him, he said "Oh!  You're cute!" and tried repeatedly to give her a hug.  She wasn't liking it, and neither was I, but the grandma kept telling him no touching and pulling him away from her, seeing her distress.  The boy was confused about this reaction from his grandma and said to her, "but grandma, I love her!"  AAAAGGGGHHHH!  And where was Tucker during all of this???!!  Not slugging the guy or telling him to go away!  Not even aware.  What is a bully smaller brother twin for anyway!  The boy was innocent and looked like that he was working on the no touching of strangers with his family for awhile, but it did unnerve me a bit.  Whitney did come to me, right away, though.  I was glad for that.  I decided I should probably have the good touch, bad touch talk repeatedly these upcoming weeks.  AAGGHH!  A reality check that the babies grow up every day and will soon be in school and such.

This week we were out  gardening and I heard Whitney say "oh no bug, oh no!" in a very distressed voice.  I turned around and a spider was climbing up Whitney's face and over her open and blinking eye.  She didn't like it, but wasn't totally freaking out.  She does have some toughness!  I, on the other hand, had to withold the scream I had in me to flick it off bare handed.  Whitney was definitely more brave than Mommy.

We have this nursery rhyme tape that they love.  I'm liking it less and less as the days go by.  But the other day Whitney was singing and the lyrics to this song are "won't you be my darling".  At least I thought they were.  Boy was I wrong.  I started singing with Whitney and said darling, but Whitney stopped and said "no mom!  Won't you be my dolly!"  She didn't get why I started laughing, just looked at me like I was weird.

Whitney made a bed for me with the couch pillows this week.  She told me to lie down and went through most of the nighttime routine.  The part that really got me was Tucker laid down on the floor next to my bed and said "Do you want Tucker to stay?"  So cute!  That's what I do with him when he is bouncing around the room.  I give him the option of staying in bed and mommy staying and snuggling or bouncing around the room and mommy leaves.  He also says "mommy stay?" if he wakes up and goes potty in the night when I tuck him back in.  I can never resist, no matter how tired I am.

Tucker found a new and improved way to eat noodles this week.  He puts them from the bowl into his bib and then slurps them up.  Less falling and flicking of sauce everywhere. The first time he did it, he finished off the meal with " Mom!  I ate them ALL!"

Their current favorite bedtime song is "small one"  I have no idea how this song got this title from them and it took me forever to figure out which song they were talking about it, but it is "I feel my Savior's love"  It amazes me how Tucker slows down and stills his body to listen.

This week they've been learning the five senses in pre-school.  It's my turn to teach this week, so I brought home the board that has pictures of eyes, ears, etc.  Tucker saw the hand on and exclaimed "touch!"  They must have had a touch lab this week he really liked.  Or he really likes touch.  A good snuggle will usually calm him down.  That or fish crackers.

This week I asked Whitney to leave her paraphinalia in the car instead of bringing random toys around with us.  She amazingly agreed rapidly, placed them in the sun and said "they LOVE the sun, Mom!"  just how I say it every time we are in the sun.  Lucky, lucky, lucky me I've been able to say it pretty much 3 months straight, a record for here. 

Thursday they babies were absolutely amazingly well behaved.  I couldn't believe it.  The girl that usually plays with them while I go clogging wasn't able to come, so they played by themselves for an hour and a half without whining or fighting.  I was blown away! I couldn't believe it!  I did bring out toys they haven't seen for a few months, but still.  No fighting over "new toys".  Then we went to the park and they listened to me and played together for 2 hours again!  They played walk up the slide then slide down as slugs, Whitney sometimes asking Tucker to sit on her lap like a baby.  They played on the bleachers  and Whitney made fruit snacks for Tucker with pulled off green pine needles and put them in a bottle cap.  Whitney and Tucker both said "I will help you" lots and lots.  Tucker wanted a boost to talk into the speaker thing and whitney helped him by shoving his head up.  I guess it didn't hurt, because Tucker was glad for the boost.   They helped each other jump off rocks and crawled through the duck tunnels.  It was very pleasant!

I love how Tucker says pjammys.  Tucker also did a really, really cute thing today.  He gave Whitney some of his fruit snacks to "help her feel better".  She wasn't upset or anything, but I loved how he knew how much she loves those things.  So do I!

Did I tell you about how they put their playdough on their toe nails like nail polish?  Cracks me up.  Whitney has purple ones and Tucker has blue ones.  Whitney also likes to make boots for her "dedos".

They are really liking Curious George more each day.  But I do have one regret of reading them Curious George.  We read the one about making pancakes and putting blueberries in the pancakes.  So I thought it'd be fun to make pancakes just like Curious George.  But then Whitney got me.  She started begging for syrup.  You know, just like Curious George.  Previous to reading that book, I had them convinced the way you eat pancakes is by dipping it in applesauce.  Nope.  Whitney knows better.  It's syrup from here on out.  Aahh, the influences of the media on the very small.  Totally effective:)

another non- pic week

I don't have pictures this week, either.  So you get a lot of blah, blah, blah this week, but I finally posted a bunch of videos in other postings from the summer that can keep you entertained.

This week the potty police came into town. Definitely my child.  Tucker is the potty policeman.  He has this discussion with Whitney about who has a diaper and who doesn't of their friends.  Like 10 times a day at least.   I figure my mom will get a kick out of this.  Apparently I did something similar when I was recently potty trained and my nursery buddies weren't.  The conversation goes something like this:  "...Aisley doesn't have a diaper.  She's big.  Joe has a diaper.  Tom is big.  He doesn't have a diaper.  Lucas has a diaper......"

Tucker is really starting to  like going to other places where he knows his friends are.  He walked out of nursery and his pre-school classes this week with a big, satisfied smile on his face, sighed, and said "Mom, Tucker likes nursery" or "Mom, Tucker goes to pre-school.  Pre-school is over".  Whitney makes no comment, only continues on her content and patient way. 

He really liked the house he went to this week.  I think it has to do with the tramp, sandbox and some really cool activities.  They did the five senses this week and Tucker had a grand ol' time with his buddy turning the smelling lab into a tasting lab.  They really liked how the strawberry pudding mix smelled and tasted, so they thought they would get the same effect with cinnamon.  Smells good, right?  So a big huge lick of it on the tongue must be even better.  Yeah.  I think they learned their lesson.  Dill weed was also on the paper and Tucker told me later that "mom, I LIKE pickles"  Not sure he has had pickles of late.  Who knows, though.  Might be a dad snack for them when I'm gone.  I stopped asking what happens when I'm gone.  It makes me too mad to think about it sometimes.

Another thing they did at pre-school was to try to guess sounds.  Tucker and his buddy (same as above) loved it so much they did it again.

I finally decorated for fall.  I normally do it first thing sept 1st because I'm so excited for fall, but not as much now.  I like to drag out summer and it's sunny days as much as possible.  So since I waited so long, I could put out the Halloween decorations.  I put their treat bags in their rooms.  They are these felt bags of a candy corn and a ghost that hold about a soup can worth of candy.  When Whitney walked into her room, she noticed right away.  She got a big grin and giggled at them for about a minute.  She really likes them.  She refers to them as "Halloween".  As in, "Where did Halloween go?" when I turn out the lights.

I read or heard somewhere that little kids don't necessarily know completely the difference between movie and reality.  I think that might apply a bit to books.  Whitney totally applies her books to real life.  Here are some examples:

I asked her to get her pj's on and she started reciting "...get pajamas big and small..." over and over.  It's a line from one of her books.

We went to a playground that has a monkey picture on the underneath of the slide and Whitney pointed out, loudly exclaiming: "Mom!  Look! There's George!"  We recently checked out Curious George for the first time and they love him.  He's real.

We went to a place that has trains.  Whitney started commenting "Tucker has train pajamas and Whitney has bear pajamas"  Yep.  You're right, Whit.

Her newer comments this week melt my heart.  She made me "soup", fed it to me, and after I pretend ate it, asked if "mommy feels better now".  She also says "I'm making Tucker feel better" whenever she does something to help him out.

The rest of this is just random silly stuff they say that makes me laugh.

Whitney finger painted her green smoothie on the table.  I came over to wipe everything up and she said to me "Mom!  I made pokey tree!"  Pokey tree is what they call the holly bush in our yard.  And it really did look like a leaf from the tree.  I wish I had a camera to take a picture of that.

Whitney got out her blocks one day.  There are some longer, straight, skinny blocks that do look a tiny bit like really thick french fries.  She said she was making herself French fries.  After she ate some, she made some more for Daddy, because "Daddy loves French fries."  Yep.  True that.

While we were at the playground one day, they were fighting over the little toy piano thing they have because Tucker wanted to play row row row your boat, but Whitney kept screaming "that's MY EMAIL!!".  It does look a bit like a computer keyboard.

She can count to 13 easily now.  I'm not sure why it's 13, but it is.  She also likes to say "I'm listening, Mom" when I'm getting after Tucker about something.  She calls going down the slide on her stomach "Whitney slug".  There were two benches facing each other at the playground, so Whitney sat down and asked me in a very serious grown up voice "Mom, do you want to talk?"  You bet!

 We went to Value Village and there were some tap shoes one size too big for only $2.  I seriously considered getting them for her since she loves to watch me dance, but realized another mom probably with a child really in tap lessons will want them, so I didn't.  But then Whitney asked for them the rest of the day.  She hasn't asked since, but I think she might be interested in dance when she is older.  Or now.

Tucker was very considerate of Whitney at the lake this week.  We didn't get in the water, but he threw rocks for a good long time while Whitney drew in the sand with her stick.  He brought her a pink rock he found for her to throw in.  And she wanted clam shells, so he brought her those when he found them.  It was really cute. 

Tucker likes to play take out the trash.  He drags our recycle bin through the house just like I drag the big cans up the driveway.  It cracks me up because he walks really slow and careful around the house like I do when they are "helping me" get the cans up so I don't trip over them.

One night I gave them goldfish crackers for dinner.  I think they've been missing them.  Tucker climbed up in his chair and said with his eyes big with excitement "Oooooo!!  Whitney! We got GOLDFISH crackers!!"

Tucker has started liking to take care of me.  He likes to feed me my food, give me water to drink and wash my hands for me, just like I do for him.  Kind of annoying.  Gave me a little respect for why he doesn't like it when I do stuff for him.

He figured out how to buckle himself in the seat so he always has to buckle himself in.  Add another 10 minutes on to the trip.  It gets worse if he thinks he needs to buckle Whitney in.  And even longer if Whitney doesn't want Tucker to buckle her in.  Whatever.  BUT it takes even longer if I try to do it for them.

Whitney is trying to figure out the rules.  And help others obey.  I fed them smoothie for breakfast one morning and was going to drink my smoothie while I checked my email.  Hah!  No checking email.  Tucker ran in and said "Mom.  Are you eating?" and climbed up to share.  Whitney came in and said "Mommy!  Go sit in your chair in the kitchen! (with kitchen pronounced as chicken).


all in all they've been really good this week and we've had a lot of fun together.

Tucker cooking.

I'm not in the video, but I'm directly supervising