toddler memories

Almost all of us

On the favorite play structure

Checking out the display salmon eggs on the bridge

Favorite play structure

Scenery shot of J's  This is the night we "chased the moon"

Scenery shot of J's

Look at the size of the fish here!

Salmon action shot

W is on the left in the background.  At the state fair

T on "fire" with his "party hat on"  This is obviously a very old picture

riding the bike downhill

Pandas in the tree

E's current most common pose

This is what T did with the origami paper.  He LOVES using this thing

Playing with pandas from papa's trip

Just playing with pandas

T being cute

Narita Japan.  It inspired J to bring home origami paper for the kids

W!  Just kidding, but not too far off

Great Wall

Great Wall

Tiniman square

Something is wrong with J's liver.....

W's favorite pic from Bangkok

kyoto

kyoto

kyoto bamboo forest

kyoto

Kyoto monkey park.  W and T. W on left!

E!

"I LOVE this thing!"

Another very common view of E at the moment eating a burp cloth

Pandas eating mango mochi ice cream in their tree

first sink bath

T eating apple pie dough and sugar apples while making a fabulous pie with J

scenery shot of J.  Yes, this is a local pic in the fall

The tree in our yard

W in the same tree

W popping out of the top of the tree and telling me about the beautiful leaves she found.  These later became hair bows for mop

T in dump.  I believe there is a pic just like this of Uncle R

Posing for mommy's photo shoot

It always surprised me how they randomly remember things. I guess it isn't random.  It is something they remember because it was something they like or was traumatic or whatever.  I had a discussion with my mom about when certain things that I vaguely remember happening.  She said most of those things were when I was about 3 or 3 1/2.  It will be interesting to see what Tucker and Whitney remember.

I have a friend that watched them this past week.  It is one of my friends, not theirs, just remember.  When I told them who was coming to watch them, they remembered her and were not at all concerned about whether or not I was staying or leaving.  They apparently had a blast with her.  The other day they asked about her in their list of friends:  "Are Joe and Aisley coming over?  Sister Black?  Jake the King?  Milli?"  Wow.  She hit the friend list.  I was trying to figure out why they would remember her, but she thinks it's because she gave them sticky rice when we ate dinner together and showed them how to stick it together and eat it with their fingers.  They really like sticky rice.  It's a bit like candy the way it was prepared.  Oh yeah.....

Another thing that they noticed and remembered was the bracelet they wore "to get into the balloon party".  They had to have a bracelet with my phone number on it to go to Wiggle Works.  So now that has been incorporated into play.  You have to have a bracelet to play with wild balloons.

They remember who bought them what presents.  I heard them mentioning Grandma in the Attic during their play, so I paid attention to what they were playing.  It's been awhile since they have seen that Grandma.  I guess they were playing something with Woof Woof and Meow Meow, and mentioning how she was the one that gave them those stuffed animals.  Crazy!

They also remember that they got candy when they were dressed up as Thing One and Thing Two.  I think they are also realizing their birthday is coming soon.  Here is what a very frequent conversation goes "What are you going to be for Halloween?"  Stare.  Then, if one of them is brave enough, usually Tucker, they explain that they need to be "three for Halloween, then four".  I'm guessing he knows that his birthday is after Halloween.  When Jeremy first asked them what they wanted to be for Halloween, he got a long, long stare from both of them.  Tucker said "Thing 2".  Because, according to his memory, you don't get candy wearing any other outfit.  And you don't want to miss out on candy.  When I pulled out their Halloween bags, they already had nicknames that they both automatically knew and must have given them last year without me understanding them.  Candy and Ghosty.

With practice Tucker can navigate the "what are you going to be for Halloween" question with anyone and Whitney, with people she knows.  Tucker is a lollypop, Whitney is a cupcake, Mommy is a leaf, and Ethan is the very hungry caterpillar.  It took forever for me to get a hold of a copy of the book from library, but Whitney was the most excited about checking out.  We have read it every night in preparation for the big night.  Whitney says each family member name when I that item in the book.  It is very cute how excited she it.  Only problem with this costume is that it makes zero sense unless Ethan is with us.  We are his accessories.  But we love being his accessories.

Tucker calls candy "trick or treats" at the moment.  I gave him a bite of candy today and he said "Mom, you shared your trick or treat with me".

We tried flying a kite.  It didn't work out so well.  It was barely windy enough to catch it and i had to run a bunch, but I couldn't run with Ethan, so I left him sitting in his stroller.  That meant I had to keep turning around to keep him in sight.  That doesn't work so well.  Oh well.  The park had better entertainment.  The vine maples here have huge leaves usually the size of our hands and bigger.  They also suddenly drop their leaves.  Like in 3 days time.  These trees are easily 4 stories high.  So the leaf pile we walked through on the path today made a ton of noise.  All the kids liked it and laughed as we walked through a pile that we had to shout at each other to hear each other talk.  The other great thing about this park is that is has a skate park that isn't in use in the middle of the day.  Tucker loves that place.  He likes to ride his bike on it.  Whitney likes to run around on it and bring different toys, but doesn't like riding her bike on it as much.  She brought wagon there to pretend to be Percy.  Tucker worked and worked until he figured out how to get up the biggest incline by starting from another incline and pedaling down it really fast to get up the next one.  I did not teach that to him.  It must be common boy knowledge, this skill.  Finding things that are fun (and sometimes almost kill you) purely because you are working at the maximum edge of your physical abilities.  Like Jeremy and hiking a canyon with a torn ACL and medial meniscus.  No worries.  I have no intention of doing his rehab.

I showed them how to take a picture with the camera. They like practicing.  They do pretty ok with vigilant supervision.  I have included some pictures of their choosing and taking.  I didn't help them at all except for the part about not dropping the camera.

We have a buck that is hanging out in the neighborhood this year.  I think it was the baby that we had last summer.  Haven't seen him except for the past couple of days, but it is pretty cool to see a deer with a rack on it's head.

Ethan finally figured out how to roll to the left.  Hallelujah.  He likes to roll to the left from his stomach to back to stomach without stopping.  I think he is liking the mobility.  He likes to practice at least 1/2 hour 4 times a day.  He also has taken up laughing with great joy when we toss him in the air.  We like to practice this with him at least 5 minutes 4 times a day.  He seems to be a lot more purposeful in his reaching.  He seems to look at something and want to grab it and get it about 75% of the time now.  He likes books and blankets.  Probably because these are things his siblings like and don't particularly like sharing with him.  I've had to already start teaching him that those things are not for sliming up with his "germs on his hands".  Today Tucker was turning off his time out timer on the microwave.  Tucker wanted to know how to get the number 34 on the display, so I was showing him, but Ethan was also very enthralled and paying very close attention.  I have a feeling that even though there is one of him, he will be a more normal child as far as getting into things he is not ready to get into goes.  He spends lots of time already doing those things and being very, very interested in getting mobile to reach them.

There were a few sweet moments with Tucker and his siblings.  Today Tucker was with me when we went to get Ethan out of his crib.  Ethan woke up all smiles and was grinning and moving his whole body at the sight of Tucker.  I told Tucker that he cheers Ethan up and Tucker said "It cheers me up to see Ethan, too."  Ooohhh! 

Tucker has starting pummelling Whitney lately.  She likes to tell him how to play with his toys and he gets mad.  And hits really hard.  I'm not sure how to handle it of late because if I say, go to time out, he gets up and gets as many hard, hard hits on her as he can on the way over.  Time out doesn't work too well.  So today I decided to hold his hands when he starts hitting.   All that did was make him cry.  Since he can't express his emotion through hitting, he had to cry or talk it out.  We talked about how that time Whitney accidentally let go of the slinky and it wasn't on purpose when it flung back and hit him.  I asked if he wanted a kiss from Whitney.  He said yes.  She said that she would give him two kisses.  They were so kind and cute.  But then as the day wore on, expressing his emotions with words was just way too much for him and he couldn't do it.  I think I either need to enroll him in sports or get a punching bag for him.

He can also be very loving and kind with Woof Woof.  He told Woof Woof the other day: "Woof!  You are sooo cuuute" with such a loving and tender voice. 

Here's a few things they frequently say.  Some of them don't make a lot of sense.  "baking powder".  When they play with the dishes while I'm washing them, they call the bubbles their baking powder.  "heavy pine cone".  I'm not sure why they say this, either.  Tucker is usually referred to as heavy pine cone.  They use the term when someone or something is too heavy.  I think it is like a pine cone that pulls down a branch?  but I'm not really sure and don't really get it.

Whitney came in crying today, not wanting to play outside because "Tucker says he's not Tucker!  Aaagghh!"  It cracks me up and annoys me a bit.  When Mina comes home from work, she often greets Tucker and Whitney.  Tucker tells her " I'm not Tucker, I'm Panda!" or "I'm not Tucker, I'm Woof Woof!"  Ok Tucker.  Whatever you say.  Mina just thinks she doesn't understand him because her English isn't too good, but it's really because it makes very little sense to others.

Tucker has moved on from only wearing red shirts.  He still prefers them first, but he will also chose shirts that have any black and white on them as that means he is "Panda" that day.  He also likes some of the grey sweat shirts because he can be "Spencer" that day.  Most of his blue shirts are not Thomas blue in color, so he waits until all the other shirts are dirty before wearing those.  He also has taken to asking for a white shirt.  He got tee shirts to wear under his shirts.  He likes it because it means he's big like Papa.

I hung a shelf.  That was exciting.  We used Daddy's stud finder.  They can use that tool like an expert.  It also prompted them to find their hammers to help me hammer the nails in.

This week their choices at the grocery store were as follows.  A Hello Kitty treat.  Marshmallows with strawberry flavor on the inside.  The other one was a pomegranate.  They love both.  Whitney picked out both, but once Whitney made a selection, Tucker wanted one, too.

Whitney prefers not to eat oatmeal.  They also are trying to learn the names of different meal times, but to them it is just a time to eat.  They call it snack, breakfast, lunch, dinner.  Whatever guess they think the meal is.  When I was making oatmeal for breakfast one morning, Whitney asked what I was making and was very disappointed.  She exclaimed "Mom!  I wanted grill cheese for this lunch!"  Tucker asked in perfect Spanglish for avena squares after his avena.

I have been rotating our 72 hour kits.  That has been a hit.  I decided to put in Balance bars, a kind of protein bar, as their food.  They finally have expired.  I think Whitney and Tucker want the next batch to expire soon.  They love eating those things.  I've been letting them eat them for snacks at the park on the random sunny days we've had.  I've been telling them which ones are Grandpa's favorites.  The first time I let them have one, Tucker downed it in 5 bites, about 5 seconds.  He wanted more, of course.  Whitney tells me "this is what we will eat if we have to leave our house quickly".  Yep. I'm thinking she would enjoy that part of an emergency.  I might need to reconsider how many I thought would be enough for three days.  Tucker wants about double of what I think he needs.  Yet another thing to look forward to visiting grandparents.  Meal bars for dinner!!!  Yeah!!!  Great idea!!

Jeremy was watching nature videos about killer whales the other day.  Apparently there is a place in Patagonia where the whales eat the seals off the beach.  People can stand on the beach and watch these huge whales up pretty close.  Tucker and Whitney liked the show, too.  Jeremy tried skipping the parts about eating the seals, but they didn't seem to be at all concerned about it when he didn't quite skip far enough.  Now Papa has new shows he watches with them instead of just Dora and Thomas.  Nature shows. 

We were reading a book that has a picture of a meal set at a table.  Tucker pointed to the napkin and said "that napkin is there in case our lips get soggy".

I battle a little bit with not going to the playground on a beautiful dry and sunny day at this point of the year.  However, I needed to get some yard work done that would be so much easier to do if it didn't get wet.  So I felt a bit guilty when Whitney asked to go to the playground because it was sunny.  It turned out better than I thought.  I told her we needed to work and we did the work together.  We were removing moss from the rocks.  I removed it and they threw it in the trash can with "scoop".  We had a lot of fun together.  It reminded me that we need to have fun together as a family working and playing and that the goal really is to have doing stuff together.  I knew this time it worked because at night when I asked Whitney what she enjoyed that day she said she "liked working for Mommy".  When we finished getting up the moss she also said "I will work for you so you can have time to read more books".  I don't mind reading books for her help!  Anyone that might read this must know that this is one random successful time after many, many not as rewarding times.

Ethan likes to run his hand over my shirts when he is eating.  Whitney noticed him doing it one day and pointed out "Mom!  He likes feeling sheets like me!".  Yep.  Must be siblings, those two.

We went looking for signs of fall.  I asked them what they could see that tells them it is fall.  Whitney picked up a red leaf and said " I found this leaf that tells me it's fall!"  Tucker kept walking.  He did find us tons and tons of mushrooms.  I guess fall is the time of year for mushrooms.  It amazes me how well Tucker can find them.  He is good at spotting them when at first glance I don't see them.  It reminds me of Scott's ability to spot frogs.

Tucker gets major helmet hair after riding his bike.  The first time I fixed his helmet hair, I rubbed it out.  Now he takes off his helmet, laughs, exclaims "helmet hair!" and rubs it out himself.
 
I asked Whitney after Joe and Aisley had been over if Whitney had fun.  She looked at me with that serious stare of hers and pronounced "I like playing with Aisley".  Blue Chalk was not mentioned.  I think she was remembering when just Aisley came over to play and how we had a blast having a girls day together.

Ethan, on the other hand, really likes playing with them both.  Joe and Aisley really like babies apparently.  They had so much fun playing with Ethan and making him laugh.  They rolled Ethan over and over working together to do it gently and Ethan shrieked with laughter.

Ethan is getting better and better at slurping down rice cereal.  Sometimes I think it is too much work, but when he is hungry it works very nicely.  He finally figured out how to open his mouth.  That was the hard part.  Getting him to just open his mouth without having to get the spoon in before his fingers.  Good thing because he doesn't get enough calories in the day apparently and has started waking up starving once or twice at night.  Definitely need to figure out how to get back out of that habit of a newborn. 

Tucker and Whitney's new game using the tents mimics their day.  They line up the three big tents.  I'm in the first one, Tucker's in the next and Whitney is in the last.  Just like in the car.  Tucker helps me put in a CD, then calls out the different numbers to me to push the button and starts singing the appropriate song.  We really need a new CD of kid music.  They also asked if I wanted to watch Curious George.  That is the one that is in the DVD player in the van.  I keep forgetting to take it out.  One time they got to watch Curious George in the Safeway parking lot so I could feed Ethan after a longer than anticipated shopping trip.  They are really good at helping me find the groceries, but it takes a bit longer to do it that way.

One of the tents has holes for bean bags.  We have yet to play with it that way.  Tucker used it to give me a ticket to go on a train ride with Grandma. 

Tucker has a big wheel truck that also doubles as hair clippers.  He used it to give me a "hair cut".  He mimics my hair cutting strategies so perfectly.  He asked me if it tickled too much when he went around my ears.  He also said " let me check" which is what I say to him when I need to get the last bits of uneven hair on his neckline that he never likes to have me cut.  He always shrugs his shoulders. And lastly, he ran and got me a lolly pop, because that is what he gets when his hair cut is over.  It was a big plastic bead and he stuck it in my mouth to "suck" on.

I think they grew.  Either that or they got a bit more adventurous.  There are some more branches that got "pruned" on the rhody bush.  I had to get in there and finish pruning the branches so it was a smooth cut.  Whitney was in heaven.  A bird nest!  Her size!  And even big enough for "her bird" (Tucker) to have a nest right next to hers on the driveway.  Yeah, those branches do wrap funny to make a bird nest.  Dump was really helpful after that, too.  He loaded up the leaves and dumped them into the trash can.  Creaky Cranky (mommy) helped lift him to dump it in.

Here are some things I hope they remember, but they are still really young.  We had our first big kid dates with parents.  I got to spend time with just Whitney and Jeremy was with Tucker.  I'm not really sure the boys have fun.  I got the usual short answer from Jeremy, Yeah.  Tucker told me all about his frog umbrella and not much else.  But Whitney and I, well I had a blast and I think she did, too.  I had no idea how fun it is to have one child.  We went to the Kid's Museum together.  When we got there, we did a little shopping.  I let her pick out some items.  She picked an ice cream hair clip and this foam play dough type stuff that she loves.  Next we played.  Just us.  I didn't realize how snuggly she is.  She usually defers to her brothers all the time.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe because she knows they need snuggles more or something.  When we were playing and sitting, she sat in my lap.  She gave me a few Mommy snuggles and said "my mommy!" a few times, too.  We played with the salmon fillet toy in the kitchen in the tree house, trains, built a house out of big blocks that she could sit in, looked through colored plastic toys at the lights to see what colors they were, looked at the fish, looked through the microscope, looked at the What Do People Do All Day book at the page that is ripped in our version, made monsters and just plain enjoyed each other's company.  She has started asking me "what did your mommy do when you were little?" or "what did you do when you were a baby" questions and she asked me some of those. We topped it off with a visit to the frozen yogurt bar.  I think she didn't want the time to end because this is the first time that I've really had a hard time to get her to leave a place.  She is usually pretty good about doing it the first or second time I ask her.

When we got home and Tucker was gone, we built a city with blocks around the tape road I made in the playroom, finished a puzzle, played with her new toy, made bread and snuggled some more.

Tucker went with Papa to the Kid Museum, too.  They left around lunch, so they went to lunch together.  Papa made his dream come true.  They went to Panda Express.  There were pandas everywhere!  Just what he is paying attention to now!  Jeremy said they played with the trains quite a bit.  He also said he kind of lost track of Tucker for a little, but Tucker didn't panic, although he went looking for him.  I guess Jeremy didn't realize that the tree house had a back exit.  They came back with the frog umbrella Tucker has been looking forward to plus more toys.  Jeremy apparently loves that place, too. 

a post just for Halloween

I figured the Grandmas would want to see this sooner than I would put together a post for the week.

We carved pumpkins the night before with some neighbors.  We were also going to watch It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, but I erroneously thought it would be on demand through Netflix.  Not.  Only on demand at Grandma and Grandpa's.  Tucker was very disappointed.  Me, too.  We ate apple crisp instead.

On the big night we went to our next door neighbor's for a tour of their yard, a little bit of food and play with other kids they invited over and then trick or treating.  My neighbor came from an area that was well lit with sidewalks, so our neighbor was new to her.  It cheered up the entire neighborhood, though.  I was the last of the bunch coming a few minutes after the party bunch.  My neighbors know me, but not my neighbor yet, so they were all smiles and excited about how they've never had this many trick or treaters.  We had a blast.  We were very noisy. 

Tucker and Whitney did the door knocking, saying Trick or Treat and saying thank you all by themselves this year.  Tucker started doing the potty dance fairly early in the game, but danced the whole time because he wasn't about to miss out on this.  They also really enjoyed holding their own flashlight this year.

After the last house they ran home really fast so they could use the potty.  Whitney also ran fast because we got ahead of the party, needing to turn back a bit early.  Whitney wanted to hand out candy, too.  She loved that.  After they each ate three pieces each.  Ethan hung out with Papa.

finished product day time.  The meow meow one is Tucker's.  The smily face one is Whitney's I picked a cat to carve because they like cats so much.  Whitney wanted a smiley face like her pumpkin placemat so that people would know it was hers, since it looked like her.  If that didn't really make sense, no worries.  I didn't quite get it either.

I have a feeling I have to explain my joke.  Ethan is the very hungry catepillar

night time pic

getting excited for night time

Tucker didn't exactly want to take pictures

all sorts of videos

 

playing buttons

 

Playing with their leaptops.  they love watching this one.  It makes them laugh

When Ethan first started liking to stand in this thing

Ethan's first swing ride

status quo. I love status quo

Jeremy decided he wanted home made apple pie.  Everyone got really excited, especially Whitney.  We went to get apples from the store and Whitney said "'We want to jump in the pie!' That's what the apples say, Mom".  They helped load the food processor, practiced their cutting skills under Papa's supervision and tasted the filling over and over again.  They also really liked the dough.  Amazingly they caught on to the rules about handling knifes and practicing cutting really well.  Jim taught Whitney how to correctly hand over a knife and to watch where the knife is.  They helped him remember the rules, too.  Tucker got really thirsty with all the samples and was so cute in first getting Whitney's water bottle for her because he was "the gentleman taking care of the lady".  He takes it very seriously at times.  Other times he hits her because she has his toy, but you know.  The idea is in his head.

After making and eating raw pie middle (sugar coated apples) they played wild horsey with Papa.  Then they picked playing a game with Papa over watching movies.  After attempting to play, we played a matching game.  Tucker wasn't as excited about it, so he asked for the original plan.  Watch Mahna mahna and Yip Yips discovering a telephone.  Apparently Whitney and I have the same sense of humor.  We both laughed at the Yip Yips.  Tucker laughed a little delayed, like he was supposed to think it was funny.  I think he still enjoyed it, though. 

He really enjoys music.  That's what he will spend long focused periods of time doing with me.  Playing the piano.  Whitney likes it, but not like Tucker.

It was sunny so we went to the park for a bit with bikes.  This is the first time the big kids went for a long bike ride for a significant distance.  They really liked it.  There is also a small skate park on the walking path we went on.  Tucker went up and down the ramps no problem, while Whitney was a bit more cautious, but still had fun.  She informed me if they accidently went a little too wild, it would be ok because she had her helmet on.  I'm glad that is processing.  She really doesn't like wearing her helmet.  Tucker thinks it's funny that he gets helmet hair.

I've been taking a lot of pictures of the amazing fall color that is hitting right now.  I guess I've been doing a lot of it because Tucker said "Look Mom!  Look at those trees with their beautiful fall clothes on.  You should take a picture!"

Of course we had to visit the potty while at the park.  I think Ethan is like Tucker.  He really doesn't like the sound of toilets flushing.  It startled him and he cried a bit but got distracted by the running water from hand washing of the big kids.  Phew!

Ethan is picking up on rolling over.  He purposely rolls over to get to preferred positions.  He is also holding his sitting postures independently for a good 15 seconds no problem.  He also is starting to get up on his elbows and knees to rock back and forth a bit.  He goes "swimming" on his tummy once he rolls over to play.  Now.  He just need to roll to the left.  He can only really roll to the right.  Kind of a problem.  He rolls around in his crib, but then gets mad that he can't roll into his preferred sleeping position because he gets stuck against the side of the crib.  So we have been very tired because we have to wake up about every 2 hours to roll him back so he can go back to sleep.  Physical therapist mommy is working on rolling both ways, ASAP.  With all these skills he is suddenly grasping this week, he is very impressed with himself.  He always has a great big smile on his face when he accomplishes them.

One night both Ethan and Tucker were frustrated.  Ethan rolled over a bunch of times in a row and then landed on the train track and fiery Flynn.  Ethan was frustrated and crying because it hurt to land there and Tucker said "Get Ethan off!  He pushed fiery Flynn off the track!"  Tucker is very convinced Ethan knows exactly what he is doing with his body.  Tucker also doesn't like it when Ethan spits on his blanket or "wipes snorks" on Tucker. 

The big kids played with their pandas and the buttons.  The white buttons were bamboo for the pandas.  They gave them food, then took it away when the pandas were playing too wild at the table.   They also change panda diapers by using the white baby blanket from the doll house.  They played for an hour with those buttons.  And here is what is amazing.  In order for them to play buttons I told them they had to keep the buttons on the queen size sheet.  Last time they played buttons they flung them around the room.  Getting them to clean that up was a big huge pain.  So they played for an hour in the square footage of a queen sheet.  They did get off the sheet to bring other toys over, but for the most part, they stayed put.  After that they had to go outside and play a bunch in their trees.

There are a lot of mushrooms sprouting in our yard this year.  I think it is because Rocky isn't around to eat them all.  Lots of changes have occurred in our yard not having dogs.  The deer sleep in our backyard.  There are also some resident bunnies that hang out in the open.  Lots of mushrooms are growing.  The other cool thing is that a woodpecker family stayed for a few days.  They were teaching their baby woodpecker the finer points of finding bugs.  Apparently we have a rich supply of bugs in our east and west facing walls.  It's really loud when they are working.  Tucker and Whitney like finding them.  They are amazingly good at not touching them.  I've told them over and over just to look at them and they remind me of the rules, thank heavens.

Tucker found a sword while looking at mushrooms.  He told us "the tree dropped the sword for the gentleman to find it". 

They had some friends come over this week.  It was interesting to watch the dynamics.  One friend was 2 and the other is only 2 months younger than them.  With the 2 year old, they didn't play with her much, but let her use their toys and took care of her.  The one that was close in age?  Well, that was more like Tucker and Whitney vs Aisley.  They ran and hid toys from her and played games that were sure to exclude her.  Hmmm. 

It cracks me up how much they like pandas.  We went to the Asian market and they noticed the panda eating bamboo on the label.    They were excited to see that.

We went to Wiggle Works.  They had a blast there.  A friend invited us to go with her and they had a blast.  Especially in the "wild balloon" area. 

Whitney is getting the concept of reading.  She is starting to realize that the letters have sounds.  Tucker does, too, but he isn't into having the patience to sound out each letter. He likes to just know the word.  If you ask him, he will say he doesn't know and then tell you the answer.  Whitney is fascinated with it.  She has always been interested in reading books and will go read books by herself often.

She is into miniature things right now.  She has always liked small things, but likes getting the "miniature" version of things.  When I vacuumed, she went and got her dollhouse vacuum and said "Hi Mommy vacuum!" with it.  I think doll house miniatures will be a hit with her like they were with me.

Although, Tucker likes some things miniature, too.  He helped me with sorting laundry a bit.  He pulled one of Ethan's socks out and said "Oh!  Cute little Ethan sock"

Tucker loves video games.  I got an app called gazilli science that I don't mind as much.  Whitney likes the seed one where she can plant flowers and Tucker likes the water one that he can get Purple floating.  But they also incorporate some of it in their play.  They've been having a great time laughing about  "Oops!  A toy scuba diver is non living!"  There is a part in the game that says that and Tucker likes to make it say oops.  So they go around and say that about living or non living items in the world and laugh hysterically while they categorize it.

With all this play, we've had lots of fun together.  The best part for me this week is when I asked Whitney what she liked best about her day and she said "I like playing with you, Mom". Made me glad I had played with her that day.

Another thing that absolutely melts my heart is the fact that my kids have figured out how to sing together.  When I play the piano, they can sing with me and with each other mostly on beat.  That is also true of the  CD that is playing in the car.  I think it melts Jeremy's heart, too.  He requested that I play a song that Whitney knows so he can hear her sing.  They both sing with such gusto, and Whitney is loud and on tune.  We love it.  It especially melts my heart at night.  We usually sing calm songs about Jesus before bed and they have started singing them with me.  It has made me think maybe the past 4 years of teaching and singing to them might be sinking in.

Tucker has all the songs and which number on the CD that it matches memorized.  He requests certain numbers so that I play the songs he likes.  Already.  But I guess it is worth it because he is also learning to count in the teens better due to the CD number that appears on the display.  He comments about what number will come next.  It was a bit confusing the time I accidently hit RANDOM on the control panel while driving and had to stop later to figure out how to take it off random.

watching the volcano

Whitney at Wiggle Works

Tucker capturing the wild balloon

Three amigos

Another photo op

pumpkins a comin'

Whitney track creation.  Tucker requests and she builds them for him

Ethan watching the big kids at the park

Fall color and wind. 

Tucker wanted me to take this picture of him

Glad to feel the sun on her face

Ethan's first "train ride"

They got the sleds out again to eat snack

Ethan almost sitting next to the pumpkins

I need to somehow get a video of Ethan sneezing.  Every time he sneezes, he makes this really cute cooing noise that almost sounds like he is saying bless me because of the timing.  He had his first swing ride.  Since he has started sitting up well and loves his bouncer so much, I decided to try swinging him at the park.  He loves it.  Smiles every time he goes the highest.  I don't push him too much higher than a baby swing, but just a little higher and he likes it and does amazingly well.  His rolling is improving day by day.  It's a bit of a frustration to him at times, though.  He only rolls to the right.  Jeremy calls him our Zoolander baby. Only can make right turns.  I even put a nice big blanket roll on his right side to encourage rolling to the left.  Nope.  All that did was strengthen those muscles even more because he was so determined to roll onto his stomach that he rolled over the blanket roll after much screaming.  Whatever.  I guess he doesn't like to listen to mom PT either.   And he is waking up about every two hours at night because he rolls around in his crib, but can't roll left back into his preferred sleeping position.

I was relieved to hear that the past weekend made a difference.  They incorporated what went in to their play.  They were playing "let's go whale watching" and "let's go watch conference" about equal time.  Phew.  Because they spent about equal time doing it the past weekend.

They are starting to show signs of learning to read.  It is more obvious to me that Whitney is getting the concept than Tucker.  She reads some three letter words.  At first I wasn't sure if Tucker was getting it because I would ask him what sound the letter would make.  He would say I don't know, then tell me.  He's not into such still and sitting games, but now he is getting more into it.  He also likes to mimic writing when he draws.  He will "write" different words small and his interpretation of what writing looks like to him in what he draws.

At the library this week we got a book about a fire truck.  It has a picture of a train it in, so that's why he likes it.  He wants another book with trains in it. 

We also got a book about mammals.  Tucker said "papa is a mammal.  He has a backbone.  He has a heavy backbone"  There is a part that says our skin is warm.  I asked Tucker if his skin is warm.  He touched his cold hands and said, no.  I guess he's not a mammal.  There is a part about how mammals breath air.  When I asked him if he was a mammal because he breathes air, he informed me he was not, as he breathes medicine.  True.

We went to the library after dinner, which meant it was pitch black.  Tucker pointed out to me that he "could still see in the dark with my brown eyes".  Then they had a discussion about how everyone's eyes are brown like Papa's.  Mommy's eyes are not brown.  They are blue.  Just like truck's eyes. Yeah.  So blue eyes are only on toys in this house.  Tucker really had to think about where there were matching blue eyes for me.

We went to the park on a freezing cold windy day.  I'm still not certain how many rainless days we will have, so we go to the park pretty much whenever it's not wet, even though it is really cold.  All the wind reminded the big kids that they had a kite that Papa bought them way back and they wanted to fly it. Good idea.  Except it was at home.  So we went home and tried flying it.  I didn't try too hard because, well, we have a lot of big trees around our house.  And power lines.  Not the best place to fly a kite.  So they ran around the driveway with them on short strings.  Tucker saw that and said, "Thing 1 (referring to Whitney) needs to get the kite out of the house".  He definitely has an affinity to remembering lines from books.

They like to climb in the cedar tree and "flap it's wings".  This means they jump up and down really hard on the limbs.  It does look like the tree is flying.

We spent an enjoyable afternoon together of them cooking noodles and salad for me.  They pulled a bunch of green needles of the well loved cedar and put them in their buckets.  They told me first salad, then noodles.  Hmmm.  I wonder where they've heard that before.  They cooked the noodles in their refridgerator and pushed the buttons on the nearby tree to turn off the timer.

We have orange mushrooms in our yard this year.  First year I've seen them.  They must taste good.  I suspect Rocky ate them all in previous years.

This one is for my dad.  They were "playing instruments" on their rhody leaves, just like he plays his recorder.

This one is for my mom.  Whitney started it first, but now they both do it.  They use different voices to make different stuffed animals talk.  Dump truck has an especially low voice.

They continue to melt my heart about the whole gentleman and lady thing.  They call each other gentleman and lady.  Tucker says "Lady!  Here is your water!" or Whitney says "Gentleman, can you help me?"  I love it!  Tucker made a point of taking out Whitney's bike first, even though his fiery Flynn bike was on top. He couldn't quite do it, so he got mad and yelled at Fiery Flynn for not letting lady go first.

Jeremy decided making a volcano would be fun. So we did it.  They had a great time putting on the newspaper to make the paper mache cone.  We were reading a book about Seattle.  It had a picture of Mt. Rainier.  Whitney pointed out that she wanted to make her volcano white like Mt Rainier.  I don't remember teaching her that Mt Rainier is a volcano.  But we did paint it white.  Whitney loved the pink lava coming out the most.

They came with me to Ethan's four month check up.  The doctor recommended that all of us get the flu shot.  I'm not a firm believer in those things, but they are free.  Tucker has to do it by injection, not the breathing in form like Whitney and I.  I was so impressed.  I couldn't believe how great of a job he did.  I tried at first to help him get his upper thigh exposed for the shot.  He wanted nothing to do with me.  After I explained to him what it was for and what was going to happen, he was totally fine with it.  He even helped expose the area of his thigh they needed on his own.  Then, when they gave him the shot, he flinched, but didn't even cry.  I told him after the shot, he would get a sticker.  So as soon as the needle was out, he was reminding the nurse she needed to next give him a sticker.  I made sure only he got a sticker.  This time he was also very attached to the bandaid sticker on his leg.  I think he thought this was his reward sticker.  He cried long and hard about it being gone when it finally fell off a week later.

Whitney helped me find a parking spot.  She found a good one right next to the door and told me to park there so they didn't have to cross the road and get squished.  That's what I was thinking, Whit.

Since we were out for the doctor, I went to Michaels.  The Michaels here has very small carts.  I guess it is not a kid friendly store, which is mostly true.  In order to shop there, I use our stroller.  Tucker took over and decided he would push Ethan. Ethan got tired half way through and some part of the stroller was probably pushing on his now tender thighs.  He started screaming.  Tucker wanted to calm him. He told me Ethan was crying, even though he was pushing him.  He finally pushed him over to the flowers.  Ethan stopped crying.  Tucker kept Ethan near the flowers the rest of the time there because "he likes them, Mom!"

Whitney picked out a miniature frame.  She loves that it is so small and has a picture of her.  I catch her often pulling it down to look at it.

waaaaaaay better than Disneyland

This post is dedicated to Sue, Marshall, and Autumn.  You are wrong.  So wrong.  There are other places way better than Disneyland.  Read on if you want to know where.

We went whale watching off of San Juan Island.  It was an amazingly clear and sunny day.  The Sound was like a lake.  It was warm for here.  And it was fabulous.  I've been wanting to do this since we moved here and I saw the tourist info pamphlets when we lived in downtown Seattle.  I finally just booked the trip and hoped for good weather.  I also picked a boat that had room inside for our kidlets in case it got cold.  That was still a good pick because that ended up being a life saver for us.  It was warm, but it still gets windy with the boat moving along.  Here's what we saw.

Sea lions, seals, bald eagle, one jelly fish, harbor porpoises, Dall porpoises, transient Orca whales, and humpback whales.  The absolute best part of the trip was the Dall porpoises.  They are about 5 feet in length and have coloring similar to Orca whales.  The best part was that they were playing in the pressure wave off the bow of the boat for about 15 minutes while we ooooddd and aahhed.  It was so fun to look straight down into the water about 6 feet below us and see these animals jump and jump and jump.  The next best part was the humpback whales.  There is a rule about whale watching that boats don't get too close, but in a boat you can kind of chase/follow them around.  And that is what we did.  The amazing part about the humpbacks was the size and slow motion of them.  We saw their blow holes and then the immensity of their tail fins as they both dove down almost at the same time.  Since they are so big, it almost seemed like they were diving in slow motion.  The third best part was watching the Orcas.  They were swimming near the surface of the water at a fairly fast pace for about 1/4 of the length of the San Juan Island.  It was so fun and amazing to see those fins pop up.  One of the decided to breach slightly out of the water and we all squealed in delight.

At first I wasn't sure if Tucker and Whitney were into it or could see them.  I had the advantage of binoculars, but they never did figure those things out.  But then Whitney commented that the whales were like cows because they were black and white.  Tucker wanted to look at more "whooo whoo trains" because when they blew out their blow holes it looked more like steam coming out of Thomas than anything else he had seen.

Being on the ferry was also really fun.  We saw an amazing sunset, a burial at sea (I didn't know you could do that on a ferry) and Whitney was fascinated that an entire school bus got on the ferry.

And of course, any time we go somewhere, Jeremy wants good food.  The place we went to had a squid salad which was papaya salad with squid on top.  Tucker and Whitney loved it.  Whitney loved the squid and Tucker downed the papaya.  I ordered a beet salad, which actually was very, very delicious.  It was apples, beets, blue cheese (the real stuff) and dark greens.  Can't tell you the greens because I'm not familiar with them, but all of it together was fabulous.  Whitney and Tucker begged the beets off my salad.  It's really fun to feed them real food because they love it so much, until it bites you back and you have to share stuff that is yummy that you didn't want to share.  I made them eat the salad, too, but they liked it.  The place we went was also decorated like the inside of a ship and they liked seeing all the parts big in the restaurant and small on the models.

Jeremy went to Utah a few weekends ago.  He got invited by a friend to go canyoning.  He called me and told me of his adventures.  The only way I was able to listen to his stories is because he was alive when he told me.  He went through a hole so small that he was only able to free himself by letting out his breath so his ribs could wiggle through.  He got through it and had to take off his helmet because it was too round.  Then he dropped 10 feet down after unlatching his helmet.  Then there was the story about swimming through the water.... twice.... in the dark after being so tired and beat up.  The water in a canyon is very, very cold.  He says he captured air in his waterproof bag that his parents gave him awhile back to give him a floatation device of sorts to get across the cold water.  And last but not least he jumped into mud and twisted his knee at the very beginning of the hike.  He heard a loud pop.  He hiked on it for another 10 hours.  He finally went to the doctor this week and the doctor thinks he tore his ACL, MCL and meniscus.  He would make the worst patient ever, so if any of this is confirmed in an MRI and surgery, he can go see someone else.  His co worker asked why I didn't tell him to wear a brace.  Why????!!  Because he doesn't listen to physical therapists, let alone a wife.  By the way, Sue, Marshall and Autumn.  This last paragraph is not part of the way better than Disneyland section.  This is why I stayed home and let him go do his thing.  As he was telling me these stories on the phone, his voice was the monotone of someone really tired, trying to recall events.  Yipes.  I can't believe he wanted to do this and that he lived through it.

All of Ethan's hard work of being upright during all waking hours is paying off.  He can sit unsupported for about a minute now.  He started sitting unsupported on the 30th of September, and he loves practicing.  He started off with a 5 second spurt.  To me, it is amazing that he is sitting up already, but I guess he is 4 months old.  It's passing so much more quickly this time.  Maybe because he's been pretty good at sleeping since 2 months, another lovely miracle in my life.

Ethan loves to be with his siblings.  When he gets bored and cries, I just bring him to watch them and he loves it.  They love to play with his toys I got out for him and show them to him.  Tucker decided that his "baby woof woof needs a baby rainbow".  Translation:  They call the arch thing that toys hang down from and is attached to a blanket a rainbow.  Woof woof is the stuffed animal dog that Tucker finally acknowledges is his from his package of birthday balloons from Grandma in the Attic last year.  Baby woof woof is when the dog is pretending to be a baby.  And of course he needed a smaller one for his own baby.

That same day I heard Whitney playing quietly by herself.  Here is what I heard her role playing.  Whitney doll:  "Papa, Mom's asleep.  Can we watch a movie?"  Papa doll: "Yes Whitney".

We had a crazy amount of rain for the first of the season.  Lots of wind and LOTS of rain.  It was a heavy down pour for four days.  So on the fifth day the temperature was not as bad and it was a light drizzle.  In years past, light drizzle is good for winter and I thought winter had settled in.  So we went for a wind and rain soaked walk.  Tucker and Whitney were good with it.  Ethan didn't love it as much.  I found out he's not really a fan of the wind in his face.  Oh yeah.  Whitney was very excited to use her Hello Kitty umbrella for real.  Tucker was jealous.  He informed me that Papa forgot to get him a froggy umbrella. Really. 

When I was pregnant with the twins, I lived on salsa.  Anything good with salsa really helped.  It was Tucker.  That's what he wanted.  This week he ate four of his handfuls of sugar snap peas because I let him dip it in salsa.  It tastes pretty good.  The same day Whitney downed an entire package of yellow cherry tomatoes.  She loves those things.  A different day they ate an entire small cantaloupe between the two of them.  I guess their bodies needed some serious yellow vegetable.

Jim went shopping and brought home these pumpkins on a stem.  They are alive and still growing like flowers.  It was pretty cool.  He brought those for me.  Then he brought the kids these brilliant flowers that had been dyed.  They loved it.  He picked out a bunch that had pink and blue in it.  That turned out to be silly.  They both wanted a pink one.  I picked one out for each and put it in an individual vase to put in their room.  They have been fascinated with how their water is turning pink. And how my water mixed together to make green water.

My new favorite thing that melts my heart and I know won't last long is Whitney likes to pick out her clothes based on what color I'm wearing.  If I wear purple, she wants to wear purple also.  Oh!  I found some mini frames and put a picture of Whitney in one of them.  I let her pick which miniature frame to put her picture in.  She loves the frame, and I think she loves the fact that she has her picture in it.  She looks at it often.

I finally got out that exersaucer thing for Ethan.  He loves that thing.  Jumps a bunch in it.  He also likes to watch others jump.  Whitney and Aisley had a play date of just girls.  They decided to make the couch cushions lily pads and would jump from one to another.  Ethan thought that was absolutely hysterical.  The girls loved entertaining him.

I had a blast having just the girls.  They still didn't really play together too much, but it was so relaxing to not have to tell Tucker to leave Whitney alone and for Whitney to not have abnormally loud fits.  We also made glitter princess hats and made cookies that ended up tasting gross.

Earlier that day they invented "going to the store and getting curtains" and then hung them up in their tree house.  The curtains were the covers to the chairs.  It was because I finally got window coverings for our windows and it was quite a lot of work to install them.  Took Papa all night and me the next day.

Here are some exclamations of Tucker that made me laugh:  "Mom! I have a big mole hole in my pants!"  Anything that is a hole is a mole hole.  Not sure why.  And yes.  Four of his pants have holes in the knees.  Another one: " I love my Ethan!"  He said this one day when we were loading in the car.  Tucker talking to Whitney: "Tomorrow I get to be the kid and you get to be the panda, OK Whitney."  He said this as they were coming in from playing outside in the rhody bush.  They have been playing kid/princess and panda.  Whitney is usually the kid or the princess as the kid/princess is the boss and tells the panda what to do.

They found a new place to climb.  Up a cedar tree.  The first time they did this, I was a little freaked out.  Ok.  A lot freaked out.  In no time flat they were up to the height of a fence.  Then I realized they have skills.  Climbing a cedar tree is like climbing a spiral staircase.  You have a lot of little steps.  But then I realized they stop at a certain point in the tree because the branches are too narrow.  Tucker told me this over and over one day about how I shouldn't go up higher because I'm too heavy, but not Bad Dedo or Panda.  Only Bad Dedo and Panda can climb on the skinny branches. They also stay next to the trunk the whole time.  And I also realized that if they did fall, they land on a thick layer of wood chips.  Ok. They can climb.  I have so many fond memories in trees from when I was a kid.

Panda.  I don't let them bring inside toys outside and vice versa.  I really don't like cleaning, so I have a lot of rules around keeping things clean.  One day, though, I put their pandas in their jacket pockets so they could go climb in the tree with them.  They thought that was so funny, Tucker especially.  He was laughing his Santa laugh about it.

And Bad Dedo.  Tucker first came up with bad dedo when "bad dedo took off the wheels of tow truck".  Any time Whitney starts screaming about what Tucker did, Tucker says Bad Dedo did it.  Riiiiiiight.  Bad Dedo always accompanies Tucker in time out.

They really know their way around town.  They tell me when I pass the street that leads to various parks.  Tucker also has other places memorized.  We went to another house that is in the same neighborhood as one of his friend's house that has a trampoline.  He was very, very upset that we left that neighborhood without stopping to jump on the trampoline.  It took a good half an hour once we got home to calm him down.  Jeremy was convinced he needed a trampoline, but I told him he wouldn't like it once he had one.  Plus it is only 2 months or so that it would really be used.  The rest of the time would be keeping pine needles, branches, leaves, maple seeds, pine cones, etc.  It's like a pool.  Lots of upkeep for not as much use.  He'll just have to keep those friendships alive. 
And then, at Christmas one year you will see that Papa got convinced and did it anyway....  Stay tuned.

canyon petroglyphs

The ACL jump

desert morning glories

canyon pictographs

Watching Jesus movies

This got Tucker and Whitney giggling hysterically.  Sideways toothbrushes

Our brilliant flowers.  Only one pink one left

Ode to fall

Making Woof Woof look at himself in the mirror while playing under the counter in the bathroom

Observing the scenery

The boys on the ferry

Tucker and Whitney scoping out Grandma's new dream house

Waiting to go whale watching

On the whale watching boat

sea lions and birds

Ethan had to wear a life jacket when he was out of his baby backpack.  Yeah.  He couldn't reach his hands to chew on them, so he was in the backpack the whole time.

The whales!!!

watching the whales

An Orca whale!

The Dall porpoises

The jellyfish

The humpbacks diving down

Whitney singing on the back of the boat.  She liked to watch the wake of the boat

Sunset on the ferry

Another ferry at dusk

Tucker and Whitney set this up for Ethan in his swing.  Two screening it, just like Papa

Papa showing Whitney and Tucker the sea lions

first day up the cedar

Up so high!

Ethan kickin' it in his jumper.  At last!