Pre christmas chocolate addicts

E's first two teeth popped through together the 2nd of December.  Now he's even cuter!  He loves to naw through what J calls "surfboards"  I got these baby mum mum rice crackers for him.  And I admit.  They are in the spitting image of surfboards.

E loves chewing on pretty much anything.  T and W get a little frustrated.  They don't like him touching them with his wet hands.  Or touching any of their toys or blankets because he gets it wet.  E loves exploring their toys.  One thing he really enjoys chewing on are bath toys, especially the sailboat Aunt Hannah gave the kids.  He's amazingly good at capturing it and chewing on the top sail. 

One of his favorite places is the bathtub.  Goes great with his love of being naked.  But he especially loves being in the bath with his older siblings.  He gets a great kick out of watching them play and pour.  He gets really excited and hits the water.  W doesn't like to be splashed that much.  I've started giving him a bath and then getting him out and letting him watch from the side lines.  He still gets really excited and bangs on the tub, but it doesn't get anyone else wet.

E also loves toys that are seemingly too big for him.  He loves the little people bus we have.  It looks like it is the same size as him!  He is starting to scoot on his belly to get to some of his toys and loves to empty out boxes. Already??!!  He is starting to try a bunch of different purees. He pretty much likes all of it, as long as it is mixed together.  He's not a fan of rice cereal or oatmeal by itself.  Nor is he a fan of anything tasting remotely like peas, but as long as he has two or three flavors, he wolfs it down.

T loves tools.  One of his favorite books right now is a book called.... Tools.  It shows all different types of tools for different jobs and he knows all the names of the tools pictured.  He used his tools the other day to "fix the elevator".  They love elevators, especially T.  Buttons, mechanical things working.  You know. So they have this "elevator" in the house.  It is their toy closet in the bathroom.  The handle is a little loose, so T got out his tools and fixed his elevator.

They found another way to play in the tents.  They were inside a big blue clam.  Maybe rubbing off from our trip to the aquarium in Vancouver.

A shocking thing happened.  They were up late three nights in a row due to traveling for Thanksgiving and such.  So T was tired.  So tired that he put himself to bed.  It's never happened before, so I thought I'd write about it.  He did a perfect job and knew exactly what he needed to get ready.

Then a few days later, W must have been tired.  She got completely ready to take a bath at 4:30 pm so she could watch a movie and go to bed.  Not such a bad idea, but I held her off for 3 more hours so she could sleep the night.

It is interesting to watch how W and T take care of E differently.  W is really good at making sure the toys of theirs that are choking hazards are not on the floor if he is up.  T is really good at knowing what toys E needs and his food.  He loves to feed E.  E obliges as long as T feeds him fast enough.

They like to call him baby egg, or eggy or huevito.  I heard T inform Papa that it means little egg in Spanish.

At E's 6 month doctor appointment, he weighed about 19 pounds.   Meeting all of his milestones, so that is pretty fun.  I like non eventful, status quo things like that.  I'm always amazed at moms that have more than status quo going on. 

T LOVES snowglobe.  This year he would ask me multiple times during the day which day it was, meaning which number.  We got a lot of good practice of dates and days of the week with snow globe.

T was telling me about something or telling me a joke and I was driving, so I wasn't paying as close attention to him as he would like.  So he informed me that "Mom!  you forgot to laugh!"  After that, the laughing came easy!

One of our neighbors was robbed in the middle of the day on Sunday. It was a little shocking to us because all of us neighbors were home all day and coming and going, yet saw nothing.  So we were talking about how their house got broken into.  I didn't realize how much they were listening and processing until the next day we left the house and W said "Look Mom!  The hole in her (their neighbor friend) house is fixed!"  It took me a second, but then I realized they thought the house was broken, like a hole was in it. 

We have a book that has pictures of all the relatives in it.  I was pointing out the picture of Jesse and stated how he was 10 (almost).  I was surprised that W made a connection with one of her friends at clogging.  She said Jesse is 10 just like Callen!  I guess she was paying attention to how old Callen is because I also told her that Callen is big enough to go to activity days.  W really wants to go to activity days for the treats that I bring, I think.

W also likes activity days because it gives her something to look forward to.  She asked me the other day if I could go to activity days, please.  I think she wanted to watch a movie with Papa.

They associate Papa being home with fun.  They told me in the car the other day that they were excited for when Papa came home that night so that he could play "games, games, games and it will be fun, fun, fun.  And he plays wild and flip with us"  Glad they look forward to his coming home.

T went to the ramp park (skate park).  There was a guy skating there.  T was engrossed watching him for a good while.  W wasn't as excited and broke T's mesmorized stare by stating she was ready to go.

E was holding his basket in his lap sitting on the floor early in the morning.  He didn't keep his balance and fell over. What made me laugh is fell over like a log.  He kept the same sitting position with the basket in his lap and completely fell on his back.  His toys cascaded over him and he just laid there, surprised, but didn't cry.

E loves to chew on sticks.  He has a wand thing he especially loves, but is also a fan of used glow sticks he finds on W and T's floor in the morning.    E also already is fascinated with TV.  T and W didn't like it so much when they were little, but E loves it.  Maybe because J brings him downstairs on the big TV, so the faces on the screen are REALLY BIG.  Or TV is just fun.  Pingu is a favorite of all three of theirs.

T and W made a pretty good tunnel with the couch cushions downstairs.  It went all the way around the couch.  Fairly good design.

T got kicked out of the library.  He was reading a funny book and was getting too loud.  The librarian came over to remind him that if she can hear him at her desk, he was being too loud.  She left, and he continued, so we left.  I told T we left because he couldn't be quiet.  He remembered because the next time I went to the library, I left him home and he informed Papa he couldn't go to the library that time because he had been too loud last time.

T is really good at getting ready in the morning. He likes to get all ready making his bed, eating, putting his clothes on, taking his medicine and brushing his teeth.  I love this skill of his.  W isn't really into it and needs constant supervision to complete the tasks.  So you all will know how going to school will go.

W organized all of her 96 crayons by color.  It turns out there is an entire box of different shades of pink. Good.  J wanted to buy her a box of pink crayons.  He did!  She loves it.  All the crayons are pretty much brand new except the pink ones.

T loves the book about tools in it.  I showed him that we have pinking shears, just like the tailor in the book.  He got pretty excited.

Here is a story that I don't think I blogged about, but maybe.  I sure did tell a bunch of people because it made me laugh.  I've come to the first step.  We have a problem.   We are all chocolate addicts.  Especially when it comes to Nutella.  I made chocolate bread for them one day.  T dropped his chocolate bread on the floor.  I was focused on my own chocolate bread and didn't notice how long he was down picking up the mess he made, but after awhile I asked him what he was doing. He looked up at me and I saw.  He was on his hands and knees licking Nutella off the floor like a dog because the bread had landed Nutella side down.  There were tongue marks all over the Nutella on the floor.  Obviously he isn't a dog, so he had nutella all over his nose, lips and chin.  I took him to the bathroom to clean up.  When I walked back into the room, W ran over to her chair and looked around rather guiltily.  I checked the nutella smear on the floor and saw multiple finger licks and very little of the nutella smear left.  She had gotten down to finish Tucker's clean up job with her fingers.  We definitely have a problem.

Here's another.  The other day I noticed a bugger on the wall.  We call them snorks.  I asked T why there was a snork on the wall.  He looked at it and said "I don't know.  Oh yeah.  That's a pretend snork!"  A pretend snork.  Right.

I was showing them the picture of Jesus teaching the sermon on the mount.  In the picture, something I hadn't paid much attention to is a man clasping his hands together, like he is concentrating or deep in thought.  Somehow we got on the topic that his posture with his eyes closed is another way to show you are praying.  So now they do all sorts of odd things and ask if it is another way to pray.  Usually not.  Including making binoculars out of their hands.

Snow globe is doing some good teaching.  T woke up on the 17th and said "It is 17 today!"  He had remembered that we had done number 16 right before bed and was excited to do the next number.

W and I went to the Bellevue lights, just us girls.  It was really fun to be with her.  T was being grumpy and ready for bed and E is never fond of the cold, either.  So we went, just us.  W liked the lights that looked like strawberries the best and I liked the garden pots and bench with light flowers and light leaves and a rake the best.  W talked to me the entire time.

It snowed one day. Barely.  The weather report said it would melt by late morning, so as soon as they got up, we went outside to play in the snow.  It was the day before winter solstice, so even though it was 7:15 in the morning, it was still fairly dark to be playing.  They got out their dump trucks and tried to play with them in the snow, but then quickly learned why the streets need to be plowed when the snow gets too deep.  They could only push the dump trucks a little bit before the snow collected on the tires too much to turn.  They gave up on that and went inside.  It was too cold. 

We took a break and then went out again after breakfast.  We made a snowman.  I started it and T helped a lot to collect the snow enough to make one.  I was trying to make him a snowman, but half way through, T said "Mom!  I am working very hard to make you a big snowman."  Here I was trying to make him a snowman, but he was trying to make me a snowman!

Because it snowed, of course school shut down, even though it was only a dusting.  That meant the neighbor boys were home.  Noah came over to play and later his mom came out to have a snowball fight with Noah.  Noah is six and a half, so he has some good snowball fight skills.  T and W haven't seen a snowball fight.  They were both nervous and not sure it was in fun, but figured out later it was.  But they still didn't want to play.

We had fun sledding down the hill, but I got to pulling T down the hill too fast.  He might have flipped out too many times.  So he said not too fast mom!  I'll have to remember these slower times when he starts driving,... or skateboarding. 

E just watched his snow fall.  He didn't like the cold.

Playing library.  They slide the books under E's backpack like the slot in the library for the book return

Truck and car on a raft

Sunbathing inside

Boys in grey, including Meow meow

our adorable baby

Our adorable girl

Whitney colored this the first week in December.  She is getting better!

E eating his favorite basket to dump toys out of

E helping me wrap Christmas gifts

I love you all!  Classic E pose

Working on getting the snow off dump

This dump is full of snow, too

Time to give up on dumps.  Back in the garage for melting

Proof E was up with the rest of us

Eating a snow goodie

Another way to eat a snow goodie

Proud snowman

bounce house dress.  It is over the heater vent and free standing.  T came up with the bounce house dress term

cute E

Our adorable boy.  He was always cold in December, so he took to always wearing his hood in the house.  Can't go into a bank like that anymore, but it is ok in the house.

cute E!

cute E

I'm freezing, mom!

The matching purple shirts

Papa got the idea to turn pizza boxes upside down and give them tacks and rubber bands to create designs.  They did this for about an hour

T and his drawings plus creation

the bigger kids

We had a lot of excitement with the bdays.  As soon as they woke up, T said, "which day is it?"  I asked him back and he said he it was sunday and he was already one year older.  They loved the surprises around the house.  The hearts with messages on the mirror by Grandma, the paper chains put up by aunt B, the flowers and bday girl/boy signs on their chairs.

I let them have smoothie and chocolate bread for breakfast made with the smoothie juice Papa had bought them.  Got to start the day off right with chocolate.  Then we had cream cheese and salsa for snack, in addition to the fabulous dinner.  They polished it all off very quickly.

I asked W what the best part of her birthday was and she said "watching Grandma put lots and lots of sprinkles on one of my cupcakes".  T didn't respond much to his favorite part.  Probably because all of it is the answer.  He loved his chef apron and took the pieces out of the squirrel game to use it to cook.  He also already claimed the miniature Hello Kitty piece from her Hello Kitty store. He hit E for chewing on his Hello Kitty spatula. He also loved his Thomas water colors and stickers. 

W so very carefully decorated her cupcakes she painstakingly made with Aunt B.  She placed each individual sprinkle evenly on all of her cupcakes.  T was done faster, so he gobbled up his two cupcakes and shared with the rest of us while W kept decorating.  They were perfect.  W also perfectly filled in her water color page. T poured the batter into his cupcake liners perfectly.  So there.

Another part we enjoyed was dinner together.  We had red cabbage, home made bread and brats.  Papa asked T if he wanted some chicken.  He started saying that from a year ago when the big kids called any meat chicken.  W corrected him and said "Papa, no.  It is bratwurst."  W also informed me that I needed to eat my orange before eating my chips and salsa.  Sigh.  She's right.  I told her they had to

They had their first day of big kid primary today.  I really talked it up, telling them how I loved singing time and the smaller but bigger chairs just for me to sit in. I topped it all off with telling them that they could go to the bishop's office for candy, now that they are in Primary.  He asks them all to line up and tell him what they learned in Primary in exchange for a coin to work his candy machine.  It is all overwhelming and exciting.  Their Primary teachers said they paid a lot of attention to the lessons and LOVED the singing time, especially T.  Apparently he couldn't take his eyes off of the singing leader or the sharing time teacher.  T told Grandma that he "got too big for his nursery class, so he got to go to big kid class".

Going into church, one of the men opened the door for us.  T looked at him and said "Thank you gentleman!" so politely, just like I say to him.  It made the guy laugh!

The fun never stops.  Grqndma and aunt b in town makes for a one t one ratios adults to kids.  So we got tons done and  had lots of fun.  Grandma had her day with w.  they made q tip trees heart shaped for valentines day.  Then they went to panera bread where w ate Mac n cheese and had a side of yogurt.  I asked my mom to go to michaels to return something for me.  Should have known that grandma and w would get distracted with all the cute valentine craft ideas.  They came back with more than what I sent them out for.

E also had a big day.  He started moving about three steps or three crawls.  Finally.  His motivation?  W's hello kitty convenience store toy that has tons of stuff too small for him to even touch.  The folded laundry next to aunt b.  and the acorns out of the sneaky snacks squirrel game, also a perfect chocking hazard.  Even with all the work, they also got to play on the trampoline and wings at a neigh it's house while ran errands with e and aunt b.

T kept up with his working hard.  He squirted all the toilets and mirrors and windows.  I suggested it to him and he started to doing it unsupervised.  So the windows were very very clean with lots of "rain" on it.  All in all, though, he got out the right cleaner and knew the basic idea.  He also helped me paint by painting with water in the shower while I painted the trim in my room with realaint.   Every time he needed a water refill, he asked me for a hug.  I was so charmed.

Tonight they were wild from playing swing backwards off papa's back to sleep soon.  So I asked who was going to sleep in mommy and daddy's tonight.  T immediately volunteered.  When I went in to snuggle him, he told me which pillow to use.  He said papa's pillow was dirty from papa's hair, so I could share his.

T had his day with Grandma.  He chose to have lunch with grandma and play trains.  But then he ended up playing sneaky snacky squirrel because he saw mommy and W playing it during his train time with grandma.  Grandma took him to Red Robin and only ate fries and ketchup.  He ate the whole order of fries.  My mom thought she would take some home.  Hmph.  Not on your life.

While they were out, someone commented on how cute Mom's son was.  Mom said he was her grandson.  The lady said my mom didn't look like a grandma.  T is a bit confused as to why she would say that.  He has repeated the phrase a bit off and on today, so I asked him tonight before bed who he thought grandma looked like.  He said "either the helper man (cashiers at the supermarket) or the bank lady"  I have no idea where he gets this stuff because I only go to the ATM.  No bank lady there, but whatever.  The ATM I go to is at a bank where there is a lady on the other side of the window??!!

Later Grandma was knocking on the door and asked them "Is there is a princess in here?" W said "No! Not at all!"  It always cracks us up how they say certain things.  I have no idea why they do because we don't talk like that, but they do.

They have been interested in learning Spanish words for things.  They say "How do you call  ______ in Spanish?"  I tell them and they copy it.  Another thing W will say is "what is ___________ out of Spanish?"  T has also started teaching J a few words in Spanish.  T will tell J such and such is _____ in Spanish.  Today he heard Grandma say  "uh-hmmm".  He said "uh-hmmm is yes in Spanish!"  True, but it made my mom laugh. 

I asked aunt B what her favorite part of today was.  She said sneaky snacky squirrel.

W has been having fun making valentine décor with grandma.  Grandma started making a heart garland for the fire place.  W asked for a heart for her room.  Grandma said she could make a small garland for her room.  W was very excited about that.  It was up in time for bed.  W asked me to take down her flowers because "those were for my birthday and my birthday is over now."  Then she asked grandma to put it lower where her flowers were so she could look at it while she was sleeping.

My mom was putting on her shoes when W noticed her earrings.  "Grandma.  I like your earrings.  They are cute!"  She so loves bling.  Poor thing.  Good thing she has grandma because her mom just doesn't think about that!

W amazes me.  She cut a fairly straight line using scissors.  She was so upset that it wasn't perfect.  "I didn't cut along the track, mom!"  But it was so close!  She also did a better job writing than I knew she was capable of.  It looks great!

Sneaky snacky squirrel game is played a lot in this house.  So one day I tried to take advantage of the one on one time with Tucker and speak only in Spanish to him while playing.  Only problem it that I didn't know the words for squirrel or acorn. When I said I didn't know, T said "maybe we should get the ipad so we can know"  Good idea T.  Wonder where you learned that.  Papa will be proud to hear

Then he decided to play sneaky snacky so that woof woof could be a player.  We stopped playing once Woof Woof and T both had won.

T and I went to the grocery store ourselves today.  When we walked in I told him we were looking for pumpkin.  Once we found it, he told me "now we are looking for cheerios. And grapes for Whitney because she wants some".  This morning we didn't have any cheerios left for breakfast.  And he remembered.  I thought it was cute he remembered what W wanted for breakfast this morning, too.

We made pesto today together.  I asked him to help me by being my chef.  He got an apron for his birthday and loves it.  He also loves the Hello Kitty spatula and the "fire" spatula.  The fire spatula is the IKEA spatula. And he is right.  The design does look like a flame.  When we were done using the spatula, he really wanted it cleaned so he could play with it in the playroom, too. 

We went to the park.  Downright balmy 41 degrees and very foggy.  But the water was still and there was no wind.  W really wanted to check out all the different trails.  The honey suckle had a great smell and we loved smelling it together. 

T had a great time riding around on "fire".  E thought it was so funny when we would "shunt" T on his bike back up the hill.

I have tried to get my kids to efficiently wipe their bottom.  I really don't like cleaning skid marks, so I "check" when they are done, for any left overs.  Today was an especially successful day.  T was so proud!  He said " I'm learning to wipe my bottom like a PAPA!"  We talk about how they practice different things at home so when they grow up, they will know how to do it.  And this is just another skill.

E is on the move.  He consistently crawls a couple of feet several times a day.  He is especially skilled when it comes to getting toys of T and W.  Nothing gets him crawling faster.  Their toys are so much cooler than his!

E also finally got his own room.  My mom and I took apart the desk in his room and moved it.  I thought it would be easier. J knew it was difficult.  No wonder he was dragging his feet on it.  But it's out!

E loves to feel soft material and suck his finger.  We love how he snuggles!  He loves to play wild and be flung around.  And be naked.   And the sound of an exaggerated "p".

T and W were playing "which CD do you have?"  They were asking each other that question.  What got me laughing was T answered W "I have spaghetti (on top of spaghetti), rock a by meow meow, and bammy"  Totally made up.  And I have to laugh because they don't particularly care for any other music except theirs when they are in the car.  T even knows its "Papa's music"  when he sees the numbers for the radio station pop up on the screen.

I took them rock climbing for the first time.  They didn't like it as much as I thought they would. Before we even left the house, W asked if Papa was going to come and T wanted Papa there so he could "check to make sure it is safe".  They were excited to try it and have their turn, but when they got to about the level of my head, they didn't want to go any higher.  It might be because they felt like they were going to fall.  My mom also tried it for the first time.  I couldn't stop laughing because of what she said.  She told me that she didn't like it because the rock things were not big enough to stand on.  I'm still laughing writing this.  I tried to explain to her that the reason people like climbing gyms is for the challenge and difficulty in the smaller grips.  She wasn't impressed and said she didn't like her "gecko" experience.  I still can't keep a straight face about this paragraph!  At least they all gave it a whirl.

E is totally into peekaboo now.  Every time his siblings come running into the room, he laughs hysterically, thinking they are playing peek a boo with him!

We've been back and forth to the airport 4 times in the past week with my mom, sister and hubby all coming and going.  Every time we go, W remembers she went on the train for her 3 year old birthday and how, for her 5 year old birthday, she wants to go on the train again.

W doing a head stand.  They are into head stands at the moment.  Her head is in a diaper box with all the diapers in it except one package removed.  E thinks this is ridiculous

There was a LOT of book reading going on around here this week.  Especially when Grandma brought out the big blanket and they all snuggled up together

Winter beach day

In Grandma's arms.  I love you all! says E

W made E a ball pit by turning the tents upside down  E loved it!  W loved cheering him up

Chef

First time officially rock climbing other than on a playground

Tucker's first attempt

Mom's first attempt

 

E laughing hysterically at poop poop poopy. It's really funny

last two weeks of November

They have this game they play called gate.  They throw all the outside toys over the backyard gate.  I don't like it so much, but they love it.  One part was cute.  W was on the other side while T was throwing toys over.  He was running back and forth from there to the garage because he "needed to get ice cream for princess".  She was making ice cream cones with the buckets and balls he was throwing over.  Ok.  They can play gate.

Last year for Christmas I got T a calculator thinking he would love buttons and numbers.  He is just now figuring out the connection.  He likes pushing the number and seeing it appear.  But they haven't figured out how to clear it or why it changes numbers

I started teaching them that some computer time is ok, but not all the time because our bodies need to do different things in order to stay healthy.  A few days later, W commented that "Papa sits at the computer too long".  All of us, including J, agree.

T is pretty good at knowing E's needs in terms of toys.  He found a bear that has an ear that is good for a baby teething and offered the ear to E by shoving it in his mouth.  "This ear is for E to eat!", he exclaimed.  He also rushed to get E more toys one day when E was crying, exclaiming "E needs more toys!"  He also can be attuned to E's feeding needs.  One day he commented on how "E needs more milk, Mom."  Sure enough, I fed him some more and he was still thirsty, apparently.

T prayed randomly "Thank you for Grandpa" the other night.  I didn't know he was already so attached.  He really likes to know who the boys are around him.

E loves the snail toy, even if it does roll away from him a bunch.  He also is really eating rice cereal and more of it as a regular part of his diet.

We were reading a book on different marine life when W pointed and said "that's an orca whale", very matter of factly.  They are also learning names of different tools and the correct ones.  Like try square, for instance.

T and W played "sleeping slugs"  the other day.  They rolled up in their blankets and slinked around on their stomachs on the floor for awhile.  Another pacific northwest play thing.  I never played that as a kid. 

W knows to lay water color flat to dry so the colors don't run.  She spreads them out on chair tops.

We have a lot of fun playing together, but we also have fun working together.  Everybody had a job and we all cleaned the bathrooms together the other day.  It was way more fun for me than previous cleanings.  T likes the toilet scrubbing job and W likes to clean the mirror because it makes a "sound like a snake"

They have nicknames for each other.  W calls T heavy pinecone and Panda.  T calls W "bicho" (bug in Spanish), bug and Princess when they play.  It is pretty dang cute.  W likes to help T and the other day I heard her say "Princess can do it for Panda!"

T still needs 2 hours of hard physical play, but neither one of us are motivated to stay outside just because.  So I invent short games that they don't really like playing. But it is fun anyway.  Like playing chase shadows up and down the driveway.  If it is sunny here, it is very, very cold, so it didn't last long, but was fun to do.  We have also played follow the leader.

J got them a penguin toy from Thailand.  Three different color penguins climb these stairs and slide back down to the bottom of the stairs.  The stairs are like an escalator of sorts.  The penguins are the size of my thumb.  Perfect choking hazards, right?  The big kids love playing with those things.  I had J disable the sound, though, because it sounded like amusement park ride music.  Even I can't stand the sound of that all day long.

T does this cute thing when he is done eating.  He pokes his stomach and says "the spots are all filled up.

These weeks have been clear, sunny and very, very cold.  It has been so cold that the frost is stacking up on top of frost.  We went to the park and I held my hand up to measure it.  The frost was as tall as the thickness of my finger.  We had fun making frost balls with it.  You know.  Instead of snow balls.  It worked the same, the frost was so thick.  Can't say I've seen anything like that, but plenty of others have this year.

The big kids went with Papa to the store and picked out some flowers for me, supposedly, even though J usually does that.  It was really cute and melted my heart, either way.  Which ever person did it.  I loved it.

They have been playing "going in the elevator". That is when they go in the closet and open the door a bunch of times.  T will also play fixing the elevator with his tools when the handle on it gets loose.  They also played kayaking where they sat in their tents, folded up around them.  It DOES look like a kayak!  Pretty creative. 

They know all the numbers and tracks on CD's after listening to them.  I switch up their CD's and it causes a bit of a stir for a little.  Like if it is W or T's turn to sing.  W can sing with the ladies and T can sing with the gentlemen.  So on one previous CD, it used to be W's turn to sing.  She wasn't too happy when the new CD was a gentleman.  She said " I heard number 6 and it was a LADY!" and cried because it wasn't a lady anymore.

E loves moving vehicles, especially big ones

admiring the tree

getting into the dumping out basket phase

T in a "kayak"

Tucker walking around with the penguin toys in between his toes

44 mpg

This post is for the first two weeks of November. I'm a little behind.

I saw a car that had the license plate 44 mpg.  The car was one of the first models of a Geo Metro.  I had a great laugh about that.  And then I sighed.  I remember my '83 Audi that got 40 mpg.  Those were the days.  Now I drive a lumbering beast of a van.  Not really, but in comparison to an Audi, it feels huge and clunky.  No worries.  It still has a sun roof like an Audi, but it works much, much better than that one did.

Here is our 9 days without Papa.  I actually am getting used to the long times without him and find things to look forward to while he is gone.  Like how about having quesidillas for five straight days in a row.  I was in heaven.  And I thought T and W were, too.  But even mana from heaven can get a little old.  W, who happens to LOVE cheese did ask me why we were having quesidillas again.  I've never had my kids ask me that before.

Whitney is turning into quite the food critic without much cueing.  I guess all kids do.  Let me know if these things are normal, though.  I made pizza to eat for the first 3 days of Papa being gone.  It was home made pizza made with 50% whole grain wheat flour, so it's not to the liking of J.  Nor to W.  She commented about it.  "Mom.  I think you cooked the pizza just a little bit too long.  It isn't soft like Papa's pizza."  Grrrrr....  nothing gets past her or J.  The increase in toughness is because there is whole grain in it and I haven't mastered making pizza dough soft with it being a little nutritious, too.  In my experience with whole grain wheat flour, it just doesn't happen compared to 100% white flour.  Any comments?

The last night before Papa was to come home, I asked Tucker what he wanted for dinner.  He requested french fries.  I think he was hoping we'd go out.  Nah.  I cooked them in the oven.  But I didn't exactly time it early enough for dinner when they were going to be hungry, so I tried speeding
up the cooking time by broiling them on low for a bit.  It did decrease cooking time, but they got stuck to the pan because you need more oil on them if you are going to do things that way.  I tried 
flipping them over half way through and they were mostly stuck the pan.  Whitney was flipping 
through the cookbook at the same time looking for the chocolate chip receipe.  As she was flipping, 
she found a potato salad recipe.  Here's how the conversation went. "Mom!  I found a potato recipe!  Look!  You need to peel the potatoes just like this recipe.  You should follow this recipe."  and then 
at dinner there were a few that were cooked a little uneven that landed on her plate.  She didn't like 
one of them so she said: " I think I'll try peeling them.  Oh yeah!  They taste much better that way".

Before J left, we had a girls day and a boys day out.  I took W to the kids museum and then we switched and J took T.  We had an absolute blast!  Us girls played with the trains, built a house out of the huge blocks, climbed up the tree house, looked thought the colored plastic blocks up at the lights to see them turn pink, and played with the trains.  W also got to pick out five dollars or less of a toy.  She was pretty economical and found two things, a ice cream shaped hair bow that is purple and yellow squishy stuff that is kind of like play dough, but dry.  We also stopped for frozen yogurt on the way home.  So many treats!!

J didn't say much about what he and T did at the museum, just mentioned the trains.  However, when it was his turn to take T, it was right around lunch time, so I figured that they would eat out.  T was in seventh heaven.  They went to Panda Express.  They are into pandas, so T was fascinated that there were pandas everywhere.  On the sign, on his cup, on the bag, etc.

When we got home, we made dinner together.  J started supervising the big kids cutting veggies while he cooks.  They actually do very well with it and are good at learning the rules.  They are getting some real skills.  We had orange wedges for the first time for dinner that night.  W didn't like biting off  the orange, so she cut it off.  And actually did a very good job of it.  We were all shocked.  
It still cracks me up when kids mimic us.  The other day t commented that "papa is on amazon" and W said "papa bought us apps in the app store"

This year I didn't let them eat all their Halloween candy at once, but let them have one a day.  Every day they we surprised.  One time t said "thank you for letting me have candy!" with such genuine gratitude.  Mommy doesn't usually do that.  Thank heavens they only had one weeks worth of candy because then w said one day " we haven't had trick or treats in a long time" with such a forlorn voice after we ran out.  Then they switched to loving meal bars.

T made an interesting observation about underwear.  He informed me that he knows that it is his underwear because his underwear "has straight on the top not ruffles".  Hmmm.  I would have noticed the cloth pattern first, but whatever.

They have been learning about mammals.  One of the characteristics is that they have a back bone and they drink milk when they are babies.  One day W came running in to me to say "T hit my backbone!". They also comment that E is a mammal because he drinks milk.

W is getting very good at painting and puzzles at the moment.  She can do a 48 piece puzzle on her own and likes it.  She also likes the paint with water book I got out and to use a coloring book to paint in instead of color in.  She spent quite a bit of time painting in a book and did a fairly good job of controlling water color.  I was impressed.

T learned how to check books out.  At our library there is a self check out where you have to scan the bar code individually.  You have to hold it at the correct angle and at a certain distance from the scanner, so sometimes it is a little annoying. However, Tucker figured out the exact angle and distance.

We are doing a thankful tree.  Everyday we are putting things up written on different leaves.  I'll take a picture of it up close to remember what we picked this year.  The idea is to get excited for Thanksgiving like Halloween and Christmas are exciting to look forward to.  I tell them I am getting them a prize.  I got them a chocolate turkey.  That way we can all be sugar and chocolate addicts together.  This week I decided to get rid of the Halloween candy.  I let them have a Halloween candy almost every day.  One day I skipped and W said the next day "Mom, I haven't had a trick or treat in a very long, long time".  Today was the first day without one and T was asking for all sorts of chocolate meal ideas.  Chocolate bread, meal bars, making cookies, asking for chocolate bread a second and third time, asking for peanuts so he could have chocolate chips and raisins after, etc.  I give them their chocolate chips and raisins after they eat peanuts or some sort of nut.  I got tired of them picking out the raisins and chocolate and leaving all the nuts.  They also put up on the tree that they were thankful for brownies, chocolate bread and chocolate chips.  Me, too.  Me, too.

W also melted my heart with some real sweetness.  T and W usually observe children that come over or when they go to another kid's house, for about an hour before they stop hoovering nearby and go play independently.  I thought they didn't like meeting new people.  This is true of the neighbors.  But last week, T asked to play with Evan and Noah and W asked if we could put Evan, Noah and Brighton on the tree because she is thankful for her friends.  They don't even play with the neighbor kids much since all of their parents work and so they are not home most of the time.  Interesting, but good to know that they truely are social, just cautious.

W got really upset with T this morning.  All he did was say "W, your strawberry pajamas are getting too small"  It is true.  They are too small, but she doesn't want to give them up.  As apparent by the screaming about his comment and then screaming "They are non-living!"  Non-living is a phrase on the Gazilli Science app we have on the ipad.  She thought that her pjs couldn't grow too small.  I had to explain they don't grow smaller.  They stay the same size and she grows bigger since she is a living thing.  The DRAMA!

After painting with water about 7 pictures, she wanted them to dry.  She knows you can't put water color pictures on the fridge until they dry, but that they have to dry flat and not touching anything.  So she spread them out to dry.  She had a picture on each bar stool and then ran out of room, so she put the rest on her chair to dry, since there is a towel on that, too.  It made me laugh to see her solution.

W finally found Thomas the train!  He has been missing for about 2 months.  Apparently he chugged into the station that was under the treadmill.  The irony of it all!

So we are back to playing with Fiery Flynn and Thomas again.  Fiery Flynn got completely covered in Scotch tape because "he is red and bleeding".  The Scotch tape was a cast, just like in the Huckle/Busytown movie we borrowed from the library.  After Fiery Flynn healed, he got his cast off.  I found his "cast" on all the dents on the closet doors and sewing machine.  Apparently the closet door had lots of ouches.  Very true.  That was W that noticed and did that.

Another time they played casts was when Tucker decided he broke his foot.  He tied the doll house bedspread on his foot and wouldn't walk on that foot because he needed to ride in a wheelchair, too.  It worked even better when I pulled out some rubber bands to play cast with them.  Then T had two broken feet.  He crawled around a bunch.  Then W took over and told her Panda when he was to have his casts on and when he was healed and had to remove his casts.  Ok, Princess, no prob.

T and I had a great time bonding over "making bread".  He got out the play kitchen stuff and ordered me around on when to put in ingredients and when to stir in the exact way I do it to him.  He also told me when it was ok to eat the dough or the bread and had me cook it in the oven.  He also brought me on a picnic to the beach, loading up the food, the children and the stuff in his car/bed, in the same way I do.  He pointed out the sights to me just like I do and sang me the songs on the CD numbers he likes.   I must admit, though, we really bonded and I could tell he had a great time playing with me because he could be the boss and he could decide how to play.

The beach was a bust.  The temperature wasn't too bad.  In the fifties.  And it wasn't raining or windy, so I told the big kids we would go to a beach park.  They informed me they had no desire to go to the long, long walk beach if they couldn't get in the water.  Agreed.  So we went to one that was a short walk.  I told them we could build sand castles in the sand and have a picnic.  We only got as far as the picnic.  There was goose poop everywhere on the beach.  I guess when it isn't swimming season, they scoop the poop or something.  Or the birds don't hang out there that long.  Or.... it gets ground into the sand.  Try not to think about it.  Tucker wouldn't even walk out to the picnic blanket without following my footprints to very carefully avoid the poop.  And it was almost a fisasco when he thought the rock I stepped on was poop.  I shouldn't have said anything.  We went to the playground instead and played on the train.  Tucker fixed his firebox by climbing on the train.  Whitney, Ethan and I sat in the dining car and ate fish crackers.  Whitney didn't finish her lunch because she was a little concerned about the crows staring us down.

We also went on a flashlight walk.  It was kind of short.  I thought it would be fun to invite the neighbor kid.  I think the neighbor kid had the most fun.  His flashlight was super, super bright and made Tucker and Whitney's bright lights look lame.  Don't be mistaken.  There lights are bright, too.  I've been letting them run through the house with them since it is pitch black at 5 pm.  When they come up the stairs, I keep thinking it is a car turning in the street.  But the neighbor kid's was even brighter.  Tucker and Whitney didn't say too much during that walk around his and our yards, but the neighbor kid had lots to say.  And his poor brother.  The reason I invited him out in the first place is because his kid brother was inside really sick, so I knew he had been couped up all day.  But his brother?  Looked at us in such a dejected manner out the window, feeling his sickness even more, I'm sure.  It was still an adventure.  Maybe we try it again as a family later.

They have started playing second pathway.  Not sure what that is.  There are also often snakes in the second pathway and I'm warned not to go that way.  They watched the Lowly Worm movie this week with Papa and I haven't seen it, so maybe that is what it is from.

E is starting to really sit up for long periods of time.  He likes it a lot and doesn't even cry when he falls backward with a loud thud.

We looked and T and W baby pictures.  E is wearing the same stuff T was his first Christmas.  I got out more baby toys for E since he is more interested in grabbing and eating them.  T loved it because it was "just like baby Tucker".

We made pizza together and suprisingly, the big kids are really good at it.  Tucker flipped the dough over like a pro and W sprinkled on the condiments beautifully.

We went to the library this week.  I told them they could pick out a video to watch with Papa while I was at Activity Days.  Amazingly Whitney picked out a Jesus movie to go with her Lowly Worm movie.  I was very surprised, considering there are lots of Thomas and Curious George episodes to choose from.  But I think she just knows I will go for that kind of a movie on a Sunday.

I let them pick one thing out at the grocery store.  They have started picking out meal bars.  They get very excited about it.

We went on a walk in the rain to use the froggy and meow meow umbrellas.  Whitney isn't usually a fan of wet and cold, but she loves her meow meow umbrella so much, she wanted to stay outside longer to use it, even asking to follow the stream down the hill.  We were following the stream down the hill and I stopped her at the street so we didn't get too far away from her siblings.  She wanted to keep going, but I explained why we couldn't go home.  She gets it.  She told me that "if Papa were home we could keep going, just me and your buggy" (buggy is my nickname for her that she likes)

E loves to play wild.  He loves to be thrown about, back and forward.  He also loves TV, especially Pingu and Dora.  I have no idea how I missed knowing about Pingu, but I love Pingu.  It totally cracks me up.  The first episode I saw was the one of Pinga when she was in an egg.  Still makes me laugh.

They were playing in the yard a bit when W fell.  She fell on some leaves and she said "good thing we have a soft backyard!"   They also played gate outside.  Playing "gate" means throwing all of their toys over the gate into the backyard.  Not my favorite game.  But T also started playing "getting ice cream for princess" which looked a lot like gate, but melted my heart.

We had a great time going to the park late one night.  The weather was surprisingly warm and calm, it was just dark.  Since it was like, 4 in the afternoon.  But we had fun playing on the playground by moonlight.  Before it got dark we went exploring.  I let them pick which way they wanted to go and they really had a blast navigating, instead of me, especially W.

This post is really disjointed since I had to remember really far back, but there you go.


You write something on the turtles then put them in a pond for good luck maybe?  Vietnam

The fish market.  Closed and empty because it is Sunday!

Godzilla is real in Japan

Imperial palace in Japan

Persistent motor/taxi guy that followed J for a few days.  Vietnam

post office in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam

enjoying a Vietnamese sunset

While J was there, he sat next to an American doctor on the plane that invited him to visit him in the hospital he set up to help with agent orange victims from the Vietnam war.  It affected J lots, especially since they were people his age

Family home evening playing trains with papa's game. T was in charge of the activity.  He picked to have Papa show him his game that has trains.  It is Ticket to Ride.  They lined up all the train pieces on the masking tape I had down on the floor to make them roads.

three beautiful children.  No one wanted to take this pic

slightly better

E really enjoying playing with the big kids in the tent.  They were hammering on their nails in their tent

T with Meow meow

Our happy laughy baby

more laughy happy baby

last ode to fall

Merry Christmas!

"Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift" 2 Cor. 9:15