Making Papa proud and Look Ma! no hands

 

Grandpa, you should try eating mistake noodles this way with chopsticks!

learning about magnets and the force of gravity

These my little ponies have magnets on their feet

playground games

 

playing with dumps

Tucker "feeding" Meow meow

fishing video

The "trash" is the laundry basket they use to store their stuffed animals.  Or in this case, their "fish"

grandma comes again!!

A series of Ethan pictures.  this one is the what is that thing? face.  Referring to the camera

Discovering face

talking face.  he coos really loud, but we like it

exercise face

I see my Mommy face

I'm outside and I love it here face

This is relaxing but a bit bright out here face

...Hop, hop.  We like to hop.  We like to hop on top of Pop....

Ethan with Papa

Two birds in a tree.  One bird is "looking out the window"

The bird up in her "room"

The bird in her living room.  This is where the mommy bird can also sit

another bird in his room

bird feet and bird upside down

in the bird house

swinging wild

impromptu picnic with friends.  It happened to be dry during lunch

Whitney likes drawing and building fences at the moment.  A fence for the cars

Tucker's feet left

inside the tube

drying off carefully so the sand doesn't get on the towel

drying off feet

last day with Grandma

Fiery in the fort

playing in the tree fort

as seen together

train ride.  The part with the view

overwhelmed by fun

Ethan on the train with big sis

snuggle me Grandma

The gang on the train

how they spent most of the ride

cheek to cheek with Grandma

Ethan snuggle nap with Grandma

loves to be in the upright position during all waking hours

prepping for grandma.  I found them like this after picking up all their toys so I could vacuum

playing with dumps

We had a ton of fun with Grandma in town.  And I was glad to have another set of adult hands while Jeremy was traveling the world again.  He went to Japan for work, but decided to go to China "for the weekend"  I'm only mostly jealous.  While he was gone, Ethan was really sick with a cold.  Just like Tucker, his snot comes out his mouth, not his nose.  What a mess.  And I had some issues with my teeth that ended up in me having a root canal.  I wasn't feeling so awesome, so it was good she was around.  She brought Oliver, new books to read (like Katie Caboose) and lots of fun ideas that I would never do alone.

They loved her cooking and gobbled all of her food.  Like my dad said, "they can really pack it down".  When my mom made lentil haystacks, Tucker commented on how she made "really delicious food".  They had a great time saying lentils over and over.

Oliver was sometimes a friend and sometimes a foe.  It really helped with speedy clean ups.  Any toys left on the floor had the potential that Oliver would chew on them.  Tucker and Whitney went with my mom to take Oliver potty and were very entertained with that.  We always let our dogs out and let them do their thing, but now the yard isn't fully fenced.  My mom gave Oliver a treat and said good boy, so Whitney did the same to Tucker when they played "taking Oliver potty".  Tucker did a great job perfectly imitating Oliver's stance in going potty, too.

Tucker's snuggle blanket looks very similar to Oliver's.  Tucker spent lots of time explaining to Oliver in no uncertain terms that "this is not an Oliver attack blanket" as he held it high over his head or ran down the hall with it trailing behind him.  Right Tucker.  Oliver ignored his words and chased the blanket anyway.  

My mom decided that Tucker would love a train ride.  Boy was she right.  Tucker did.  And so did Whitney.  We went to the train museum and then took a ride on a train to the next town.  While at the museum, they found Katie Caboose in real life!  They were very observant the whole time, finding Creaky Cranky and other such characters.  Later that week they played "ticket" where they took leaves off the rhody bush and punched holes in it just like their ticket had after the conductor took it.  They also used the same leaves to give each other tickets for driving their bikes too fast.  My mom asked if it was someone in our house that got a ticket.  Not that I know of.  Jeremy?  But I do think it is from a book that Tucker loves (and I have very little love for) called Goofy's Big Race.  Donald gets a ticket in that book for going too fast.

With Grandmas you go on new and exciting adventures.  Stuff the mother would never dare consider.  Like going clothes shopping.  Talk about a really bad idea to do with three children.  If I fin them clothes, I kind of just hold them up to them and make sure the garment has an appropriate waist adjustment or fastener.  My mom decided to take Tucker and Whitney clothes shopping.  Can't imagine why.  I don't think those ill fitting end of summer outfits had anything to do with it.  She promised to take them each individually.

Whitney went first and was very compliant.  They were gone for three or four hours and Whitney came back with an entire winter wardrobe complete with adorable accessories.  Phew.  Something grandma and granddaughter enjoy and have in common, and one more thing Mommy doesn't have to do.  Tucker was very stressed out about whether he was going to get his turn or not the whole time they were gone, but Grandma had to keep her promise.  Poor grandma.  She had to keep her promise the same day.

When grandma pulled up just in time for dinner, Tucker was ready and raring to go.  We had to convince him to eat dinner first and let Grandma do the same.  Then he was out the door as soon as he was done eating to get in Grandma's car.  Once in the car he had all sorts of comments about how he was going to pick out "all the delicious vegetables".  Imagine his confusion when they arrived at a store that had NO VEGETABLES to pick.  What kind of store is this???  No food??!!  And trying on clothes?  What is that?  He asked Grandma if he "should keep my panties on or not?"  As far as he knew, any changes of clothes other than the morning involve getting into a swimsuit or getting into the bath.  Once my mom pulled into the shopping center parking lot, Tucker started rehearsing for her which of the potties flushed by themselves and which didn't.  He had them all memorized correctly.

After Grandma left and we went real shopping, I told them they could pick out whatever vegetable or fruit they wanted.  Whitney knew she wanted the yellow cherry tomatoes.  Since she was so certain and excited about her choice, Tucker was certain that's what he wanted, too.  But he doesn't like tomatoes much.  Whatever.  He was excited about it anyway until we got home and he tried one.  Then he remembered he's not really a fan.  Whitney ate both containers.

We had some funny stuff come out of their mouths.  Of course.  They are three.  Once when we were in the car, Tucker started to go to sleep to take a nap.  None of that.  Grandma tried to wake him up and he insisted that he wasn't asleep but that "my eyes closed and made my body go to sleep".  True.

My mom and I also had some bonding time.  Like the time when I got this great idea to move the bookshelves upstairs.  Just us.  Ryan, the mover man, would have been very frustrated with the manner in which we performed this herculean act.  We also decided to go the beach in the evening.  Happened to thunderstorm just as we pulled up.  My mom asked before we left if I thought it looked like rain.  I pointed out that it had looked like rain all day.  And of course it rained.  Hard.  But only for about 15 minutes and then it cleared up and was beautiful the rest of the time we were there.

This past week we had some clear skies and it was kind of warmish.  So I took my big kids out to star gaze before bed one night.  It was a blast!  It still wasn't really all that dark yet, but close enough.  They were able to count some really bright stars.  It was very calming.  Tucker was very chatty about the day in general.  Whitney counted up to 39.  I have a feeling today might be the last warm day of summer, but maybe not.  More on that later.

Had I known that cutting the rhododendron bush would have provided all sorts of entertainment, I would have done it sooner.  They actually helped me prune it.  Tucker is very good at using the small hand pruning shears.  He helped me quite a bit and did it just right.  He was pretty proud of himself and would show me every time he pruned a small branch.  They have played in that thing for three days.  Or maybe it is because I let them play barefoot up there.  More on that later.  They figured out which branch they can hang upside down on.

They like to play cheep cheep or panda in the rhody bush.  Tucker is usually Whitney's pet panda.  Today I served them chocolate bread for snack.  Mostly because I wanted chocolate bread.  They were commenting on each other's moustaches.  Once Whitney said that Tucker had a moustache, Tucker pointed out that he "now turned into a Daddy cheep cheep".  Yep.  I guess you can't be a daddy without a moustache.

One morning they started playing cheep cheep as soon as their eyes were open.  I was holding Ethan and Whitney started quoting the Are You My Mother book about Ethan.  It went like this: "Baby bird (pointing to Ethan) can't fly, but he can walk".  Then after a short pause she said:  "Well, not that one."  

They have finally figured out how fun bike riding is.  They biked for an hour straight while I clogged.  That was the first time since Ethan was born I put him in the baby Bjorn.  He loved it.  HE went right to sleep.  I guess it was just like being in utero for him.  I was clogging the Thursday before he was born not knowing he was going to be so early.  I was surprised he slept this time, though.  He usually never sleeps when in the upright position.

So, the saddest bit of news for Tucker is the loss of his flip flops for good.  His other Hello Kitty flip flop finally broke.  Poor guy!  Summer has ended for real!  But the bummer is that it broke when we were very far from home.  He had to walk very slowly to keep it on (sort of) in the library.  It was sad and cute.  He was very patient with the flip flop.

If Ethan is awake, he wants to be upright.  Or he will cry.  The librarian asked if he is always that happy.  He was standing on the counter smiling at her and cooing.  Yep. As long as he is upright.  Today, though, I think he was crying because he could hear his siblings, but couldn't see them in their play.  Once he was outside watching them, he was happy.  He tracked all of their movements.  He also is a little frustrated that he can't handle toys.  He tracked the movement of a ball, but couldn't quite grasp it and cried about that.

Ethan flipped himself over this week from his stomach in a controlled fashion.  He also is starting to grasp objects, but it takes both arms to bring objects to his mouth. I thought he also might be ready for rice cereal.  hah!  Yeah right.  The whole time he had this look of "what IS this stuff mom?  It is sooooo gross".  Hmmmm.  I did use formula to mix it up.  I have to admit, formula is so gross smelling. I have no desire to taste it.  But either way he couldn't figure out how to take it with a spoon and it got all pushed out by his tongue.

Tucker told Ethan that he couldn't feed Oliver because he doesn't have open hands yet.  He also informed Ethan he needs feet as big as his in order to stand and keep his balance.  Whitney shows Ethan all the time how to walk.  She says "You walk just like this" and walks around in front of him.  She HAD to bring that up!

After Grandma went home and we all were recuperated, we went to the state fair.  That was Papa's idea.  That was overwhelming, and later, downright boring for them.  When we first got there, we walked around and looked at all the rides.  I figure might as well go when there was no one in line. I don't think they knew what rides were, or it was too many choices.  I told them they could each pick one.  So Whitney decided on.... drum roll... the train ride.  Duh.  Tucker picked that one, too, after Whitney wanted it.  Waiting in line was pretty fun.  There was a huge "Diesel" engine painted on the entire wall.  They stared at it in amazement.  One of the best parts of the ride.  The other best part was when we went by a bunch of old previous train cars the size of the train we were on.  Tucker pointed out each one and said their "names"

Another part of the state fair they absolutely loved was being pushed around in a stroller.  Tucker fell asleep, it was so relaxing.  Ethan wanted nothing to do with the stroller, but to be upright in the front pack and stayed awake for a good three hours, it was so exciting.  Child of mine that doesn't sleep longer than 30 minutes outside of his crib.  Whatever.  At least he sleeps at night.  He went right to sleep that night, no problem.

Jeremy wanted to go to the fair for the food. We ate corn dogs, fried pickles, curly fries and a caramel apple.  I asked Whitney which food she liked the best.  She said the curly fries because they were springy. She spent quite some time bouncing it like a spring.

Whitney stayed with me while I fed Ethan.  We were seated by the giant pumpkin carving exhibit.  That was fun.  We watched as six men worked to get it tilted up on it's side and Whitney was fascinated as they sawed off the back and opened it up.  All of my kids could have fit inside that pumpkin together.

Tucker and Whitney watched the piglets the longest.  They were pretty stinkin' cute.  I guess at this fair they try to put a sow and her piglets there that are born the day of the fair.  The ones we saw were about a week and a half old.  So cute!

Whitney and Tucker also looked at the horses.  The one they watched the longest was not happy about being in the cage.  This one also had some sparkle paint or horse tattoo or something under it's eyes and on it hind legs.  Whitney liked the sparkles.

We went on a carousel together.  I'm not sure if they liked it or not.  It was in the beginning when they were overwhelmed.  The only time Tucker seemed excited was when he talked about what color horse he was on.  Whitney commented that her horse was going wild.  The gear it was on didn't turn smoothly and so it would jerk at a certain point in the up and down.

We decided to go when they started to ask if they could play on something and started fighting over who got to ride in the bigger stroller.

Another fun thing about fall is the salmon run.  The local fishery is getting full of fish right now.  We had a blast going there as a family and showing Papa the fish.  Tucker and Whitney loved watching the fish "jump into the shower" trying to get over the dam.  Papa had fun practicing taking pictures and we even tried "chasing the moon" and "capturing it" while we drove around trying to get a vantage point of the full moon.  We don't often get view of that around here.

Whitney started asking to play with the buttons from her great great grandma.  Someone asked me where the buttons came from and Whitney remembered what I told them the next day.  She asks to play buttons with me at the moment.  We made pictures with them.  Tucker and Whitney like to play throw up.  So gross.  They dump buttons from one container to the next, saying, "that one had too much snot".  Never fails.  Whatever is going on around the house gets put into their play.  Ethan was sick for it seemed two weeks and is still a baby, so throw up is a topic of interest, apparently.

As the weather turned cold, I told them they needed shoes and socks to play outside.  No sirree bob.  Better to stay inside ALL DAY than put on shoes to play outside. I wonder how long that is going to last.  Probably until Mommy goes crazy.  Toward the end of that day I got tired of them inside the house and said they could take off their shoes in their tree, since it is safer for climbing anyway.  Well.  All they did was play in the tree.  Hmph.  Kids 1, Mommy 0.  They are starting to get it, though.  By the end of the day Whitney shut the door behind her.

When they can play outside, they have started putting their pandas in the window to watch them play "panda" in the tree outside.  They also like to ride their bikes on the chalk "track" drawn on the driveway.  I wasn't smart the first time I drew it and traced it from the garage back into the garage.  I soon figured out they would ride their bikes along the car and scratch it up very nicely.  New track.  It is a complete circle on the driveway only.

I've been rearranging toy play areas to accommodate a very hopeful move of Jeremy out of the office to another area in the house.  He hasn't moved yet, but we have.  This has created other play ideas.  They like to take the blankets off their beds to make tents with the new sewing machine desk they have in their room.

Tucker or Whitney made a new Rubik cube for Jeremy to figure out.  Somehow they put three trucks into the doll house fireplace.  It took my hubby a good couple of hours to figure out how to get those dumb trucks out.  He pointed out that it must have been easy because there  were no marks on the fireplace to show any jamming.  Right.  Figure it out, hubby.  He did, but before then Tucker kept commenting over and over how the "trucks don't like it.  They don't like getting burned up".

Speaking of doll house furniture, Whitney has started feeling the doll house couch.  Hmmm  Good point.  There is a sort of silky material on the miniature cushion.  I like this because the doll house couch is very portable and she doesn't have to be in her room to feel her sheets.  Usually when she goes into her room, she falls asleep.

They love each other, though.  One morning Tucker told me "Mom.  Go check on Bug, please".  Bug is my nickname for her and he wanted his playmate to wake up.

A bit about Jeremy's trip, since he probably won't comment much on it.  He went to Beijing after staying in Bangkok for a day.  The funniest part of his trip was the Frenchies he met and how much they loved their pee dolls.  It is a doll that tells if the water is too hot for the tea.  He went and walked around on the great wall a bunch.  He also saw the longest reclining Buddha in Bangkok.  That's the second time he's been there.  He likes it for the sound of money tinkling in the collection tins behind the Buddha.  It's very peaceful except for the sound of that.  It reminds him of a wind chime.  He took a video of driving around.  He visited Tienanmen Square.  I asked him why and he said it is because it is famous.  He also visited the Forbidden City and the Ming Dynasty Tombs.  Lots of people everywhere he went except the Ming Tombs.  Apparently it is bad luck for the Chinese to visit.

While in Bangkok he watched some people fish with birds catching the fish.  He also decided not to be with tourists and had another person taking pictures talk to him in Thai first.  He said other people asked if he was Thai.  He feels he was welcomed to his homeland this time.  You know.  The second time he went even though I asked him not to go to Thailand without me.  I'm not too happy about that either.  I know he's not going to want to take me there if he's been too much.

The best part according to Whitney and Tucker was the monkey park.  They liked the monkey videos he brought home.

He finally brought back a kimono and another outfit for Tucker and Whitney, as well as origami paper.  They had a great time cutting up the paper with the scissor in the package and Mommy's slide cutter.