territories defined

chef cooking

floating market in Thailand

floating market wares

THE papaya salad

protest site campsite

protest site

protestors

udon flowers near a temple

carp at thai chinese cultural center

what's with the duck??  we don't know either

budda in the roots

Always needs to be in the upright position

headband for t made by W

painstaking care of copying the rainbow on the play dough box

A blue watch.  This pic is for Grandma, since I made fun of her that she still owns and wears a watch.  All three kids are fascinated by it

Startled look.  He was very surprised that his face got wet when he leaned into the stream of water

E is really starting to pick up speed.  He can cross the room in about 2 minutes.  We can see him coming and move stuff in time, though.  I still forget sometimes that he can follow me.  He tries to crawl on his toes so it slows him down a bit.  He could probably crawl faster, but he doesn't like the rug burn he gets on his knees and shins.  If I put pants on, he stops trying.  He also doesn't like hardware floors.

So this is where W and T set up shop.  They are now playing in the hall and in the kitchen where E is not to excited to follow them.  They also play on top of the desk I moved into their playroom to avoid E.  T always says "this toy is too small for E" even if it isn't.  This means T doesn't want E to touch it. 

The desk has holes to allow cords to go inside of it to stay out of sight.  T and W thought it was great fun to put their toys in it.  Until they discovered one of the holes doesn't allow for access again until Papa comes home.  T was very, very sad when W put his meow meow down the hole.  He kept talking about how sad that was for him at dinner to Papa.

T, W and Mommy are very glad to have Papa home to play wild with T and W.  They get worn out and love to play all these flips and wild games with him.

W worked on her Barbie coloring book for about an hour today.  She got out her 96 color crayon set with all the shades of pinks, reds and purples.  She put it on the easel tray, clipped in her picture and went to town.  With two of them.  Then when she was done, she put them up on the fridge and replaced her other works. 

T really wanted to pretend her easel was a mail truck.  So he kept moving it around the house while she was working on her project.  I thought it was so cute how they played this so nicely.  T would tell her when he wanted to move his mail truck, or W would ask him to move it to another place with more light.

They also put their bus and dump truck on "cement blocks" with their toys to work on it.  In the hall of course where E couldn't disrupt the fixing.  And they made cakes with their sneaky snacky squirrel logs, acorns and letters.

T has started pointing out flat bed trucks and hitches on cars when we drive around town.  The flat beds because of his toys and the hitches because Papa's truck has a hitch.

Papa brought home three flashlights.  Well, more like rapid fire strobe lights.  Two have Hello Kitty heads and one is an angry bird head.  T called it E's "angry chicken" one.  I laughed and W asked why so I told her it says angry bird on the box.  The next morning I asked where E's angry chicken was (he really loves to chew it), W told me in not so uncertain terms that is an angry bird, not an angry chicken because that is what it says on the box.  She has an amazing memory for what I teach her.  Watch out, Mom.

There are cute things they do on a regular basis.  W usually gets us a paper towel and divides it into three pieces for all of us at the table every time she needs one.  T usually likes to mix up E's food and feed it to him.  E takes it from him better than from me.

I'm trying to figure out how to raise a boy.  I'm sure I'll be scratching my head for much of my life, but today seemed successful.  I didn't feel like going outside and soaking all of us, so we played balloon bash.  I hit T with a helium partially deflated balloon and he hit back laughing for about a half hour.  Then we threw soft items such as stuffed animals and pillows at each other over the couch for another half hour.  He seemed to feel so, so much better and did much better the rest of the afternoon after hitting objects in an appropriate manner.  But W just sat and watched and didn't get why this was so fun.  Then she was needy the rest of the afternoon because I had ignored her all that time.  Heaven forbid.

Some more random T sentences that are often repeated: "Look!  I can walk on my nails!" and he is walking on his tip toes.  "James is at Target.  Gordon is at Target.  Fiery Flynn was at Target but Papa got the last one".  He has Thomas and Fiery Flynn in his train collection and knows where the rest are.  I think he got this from a discussion we had once of where those particular Thomas and Fiery Flynn came from.  W will say that they came from either Walmart or Target.

They were playing panda.  W was mommy panda and T was papa panda.  T said, "Where is baby panda?  It has to pop out of your tummy, mommy panda."  So W played along, put the stuffed animal against her belly button and then brought it away from her stomach saying "Pop out of the tummy baby panda!"

I now have to read books word for word.  We are in the books memorized stage.  I'm going to have to randomly skip words if I want to ever shorten book reading before bed again and not have them catch me.  W "read" the very hungry caterpillar book to me the other day.  And they read Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat to each other.  It was cute to hear them read to each other. 

T likes to make "funny faces" with Meow Meow.  He squishes her face in until it is all distorted then pretend talks  to E. It makes us all laugh, including T.

W went to town making rainbows "just like on the box" the play dough came in.  That means she used all the colors.  And of course play dough never stays on the table top.  I was sweeping up the floor later and she exclaimed in such a excited voice: "Oh Mom!  Your pile is so BEAUTIFUL!"  referring to my dust pile.

My favorite part of today was playing indoor snowball fight with the sheets.  I wadded up the sheets and T would run by as I threw the sheet at him.  Then it would go "splat" and flatten out on him or W and they would laugh hysterically.

E really likes to talk.  Loudly.  He also likes yelling.  He is pretty happy about it all, but T and W don't like his loudness so much.  But then we all love him when he sucks his fingers and snuggles up

Grandma leaves again, so sad!

Chef.  He used his pocket to gather onion, avocado and lemon from the fridge to make guacamole

 

T took this picture of W and I in matching purple shirts.  He told us to be still and smile



W used the triangle and circle magnets to make hairbows.  I'm always amazed at what she can create with what she has

One of many "scroll" pictures I took.  Who taught her those were scrolls?  Must be her great great grandma giving her lessons somehow.  It isn't me

All babies need a picture next to the dishwasher.  They have all loved it

T and W love to play grocery shopping.  I'm not a huge fan of this game either because it creates a huge mess very quickly in all the rooms in the house, but they sure have a blast.  They "select an item", a phrase from an ipad game, put it in their cart, which is a box or a deflated balloon, and then they run through the house and deposit the toy in their room.  They keep picking things like blocks, beads, magnets, you know.  Lots of little things. Clean up takes forever these days, but oh well.  They are running in the house, which is good.  only in the pacific northwest winters, right?

We walked like Grandma and walked like Mommy today.  This is something J invented over Christmas.  They stand on our feet and walk fast or slow around the house. 

It was sunny today, so I got this great idea to wash the car.  There was a long line because everyone agreed with me, so I decided to use the self wash area.  Did a bad job, but oh well.  I pulled into a bay where someone had left some time on, so I got down to business.  Apparently everyone in the car was having a grand old time laughing at the wild mommy car wash.  I heard nothing.

Have I mentioned how T and W think that the ATM is so, so funny?  They laugh hysterically at the card getting eaten by the machine and how the bills come in or get eaten.  I don't know why this is so, so funny.  So if you are ever feeling down, go to an ATM machine.  It will make your day.

E is getting slightly better at crawling, but really a lot better at pulling up and cruising.  He pulled himself up on a toy today and walked around it.  I guess it is because of his breakfast of champions.  He keeps waking up at like 3 or 4 in the morning hungry.  I'm tired of it.  I guess I need to feed him more.  I've been feeding him purees more often during the day and a bigger quantity.  Yeah.  No wonder.  I have no idea how he has been so happy, but feeding him until he stops opening his mouth for more results in five solid food feedings of twice as much.  Each sitting is 2 ounces of formula, the appropriate amount of rice cereal to mix with the milk and half of a container of produce pureed of second foods, plus breast milk from both or one side.  That's a lot of food.  He doesn't spit up ever.  I'm always amazed at how much my kids can pack it down when they don't look like overweight kids.  I guess that's how much they need.

T likes to skate.  He takes the ramps off of his flatbed truck and scoots up and down the hall on "the ice". 

It still amazes me how skills in kids turn on.  It seems sudden.  E continues to cry while he crawls, but he can do it if properly motivated by a ball.

W and T randomly started writing letters.  W started it.  I guess capital H, I and T are easiest to do.  W wrote those ones out and asked if they spelled anything.  Yep.  HIT.  But she also wrote F A A T along with some other letters so we read FAT together.  T liked the letters T, V, U, O and lower case E.  It was really fun to be part of their writing moment.

T takes his chef job very seriously.  He is also E's personal chef and E LOVES it!  T mixed in all the stuff I made for E in his bowl and ran over to feed it to him himself since E was in a conumption in his hated high chair.  T gives E very large scoops, but I guess E likes it that way.  It comes in fast enough.

My mom was reading how vinegar can work like round up.  I will let you know how the experiment goes.  T sprayed a ton of weeds around the house.  He used up two spray bottles worth.  He didn't particularly like the fact that I only wanted him to spray in certain areas where there were no other plants I wanted to live around, but after he got over that, he did a number on them weeds.  Which somehow think that spring is around the corner since they are about to go to seed, but we are completely covered in fleece lined clothing at the moment.

It was sunny today, so we went the park.  The fabulous park!!  T was in the lead of exploring different pathways while riding Fiery Flynn, his name for his bike.  W didn't particularly like the kid at the playground calling her bike "Henry" some other name.  There was another kid bundled up to the eyes showing only at the park.  He was very friendly.  W and T were wary.  Finally I told T to ask how old he was, and W got up the guts.  I told T it was another boy to play with and he didn't "want to play with ANYONE!".  Ok, ok.

They practiced pumping on the swings, now that they are 4, but didn't like it too much, so they reverted to swinging on their stomachs and winding the swings up to spin around instead.  E loved his swing and how high and wild he could go.  He has a deep growly laugh sometimes that makes us all smile. 

W had a blast on the magna doodle drawing "scrolls".  She did not learn that from me, so I was impressed.  And they look really quite cool, too!

We played "experiment" by picking out an experiment to do from the experiment book.  W chose one that has a girl doing it.  that was the basis of why she wanted to do the experiment.  It's one that requires soaking beans overnight.  Whoops.   Boring today, good tomorrow.  So T and I did the leaf freezing one.

He keeps working on his cruising skills, determined to walk, just like his silly siblings.

They invented another game of crazy balloon.  They hit the helium balloons down to prevent them from floating up to the ceiling.  When they get tired, they capture it and put it in their play oven or something.

T has a blast trying to match rubber foot prints casted from real animal foot prints in the area to the drawn ones on a poster.  It was really fun!  Then they fought over who got to look through the telescope and told me to keep E away from them figuring out the puzzle.  We ended our park visitor center reading a book on how butterflies grow.  Sunshine cheers us up so!

T did the cutest thing ever today.  He just randomly made W's bed for her this morning.  It so cheered me up to see him being so kind and cute!

E's top teeth are almost in.

W told me Grandma knows how to make patterns.  This was shortly after she left and we were playing with the beads she had left.  It's true.  That is stuff Grandma and Aunt B do better

The rest of the year....

This picture makes T laugh every time.  "Oh Uncle Ryan is holding me upside down on my head!"

Pushing Uncle Ryan.  They played outside doing this for many hours, barefoot.

cute T

E, Uncle Ryan and the cruiser

eating toes is so silly, Aunt Krissa

Bulldozer helping W pick up her beads

E was sleeping.  Not too bad a pic with the timer set on the couch

Visiting grandma Wilma

Playing in the dirt with Grandma Wilma

The sun felt fabulous!

E enjoying his new toy from Grandma An.  No other baby has chewed this!!

Another thing we did for hours.  Swinging through the leaf pile in the sun with Grandpa and Papa

W's turn!

Higher!

Playing in the leaf pile.  A result of odd weather in cali

cute T with cute E in Grandma's arms in the background

Checking to see if the rope is doing it's job.  Bulldozer is very close by

Grandma Kim giving E a deep bath

E's spa bath in Grandma's sink.  The light is actually a battery lantern.  I didn't know it, but it was the beginning of the end.  E was taking a bath at 10 at night because he threw up all over

E playing in the water

Ooooo! Light!

T played this with Grandpa for about an hour.  Putting sand in the top and filling up the bucket to pour more down.  Another kid came to play and asked T if he could play with it.  T politely responded "no you may not."

W did go on this train ride but was very, very sick without me realizing how sick she was until later

After we got better and recovering very slowly. 

On the hammock in colder weather, but still just as fun

T didn't have much energy, but enough to smile

very still spa time.

"I don't know why everyone is having such a problem.  I was better in 24 hours!"

T the next morning dead asleep in Grandma's arms at 10 am in the morning.  Very, very unusual.

E standing independently the first time.  Just needed a wake board to properly motivate E

How is this not absolutely adorable?

Or this one?

More fish going potty in the spa

The hideout revealed!

Food is coming!

A common sight.  T knows just how to help E

Helping grandma cook

More quiet activities.  This day I only let them have fluids.  1 ounce every 45 minutes to keep it all down.  Keep reading, Grandma!

I'm so cute!

Uncle Ryan riding wild in the wagon.  Go Uncle Ryan.  No one else will do your job right

T using the truck to add to the burn pile

Dumping the load

After Christmas, we spent a day with Grandma An and Grandpa.  It was absolutely fabulous.  I have no idea how warm it was, but to me it felt like spring.  We really enjoyed eating oranges fresh picked by W for lunch.  T totally choked down on BBQ potato chips, too.  Mommy decided to let grandmas rule and the kids totally loved it.

the orange tree was at grandma Anderson's house.  We enjoyed catching up with everyone.  after lunch we walked over to visit Grandma Wilma.  It was about 5 blocks away, one way.  T got a tractor and semi truck for Christmas.  He is slightly attached.  When we were getting ready to leave to visit the other grandmas, t asked if he could bring his truck home.  J asked him why and he said, because I really like it.  So that means he carried it on the walk to grandma Wilma's.  He also played in the dirt with it and helped w pick up all the beads she dropped on the sidewalk.  W loved getting her beads so that is what she carried over.  She was shaking it a little too much and they escaped.  But at least she had a brother to help her.

J stayed with E while he was sleeping at Grandma Anderson's.  I went back to feed him and left the two older kids with Cathy with Grandma Wilma.  t opened the door for Cathy so
she could push grandma Wilma's wheel chair through.  They also built a garden with the tractor.

After visiting with grandma Wilma, we went back and Paul and j pushed the older kids on the tire swing through the leaf pile.  For like, maybe two hours.  They kicked the pile up every time it got low.  W and T loved it!  The rest of us sat in the sun and chatted.  Then we ate the hickory farms package for dinneer.  a perfect day.

Friday we were back up at my mom's.  She brought us to her friends house to jump on the tramp and look at the horse.  That afternoon we met up with  aunt b at the Placerville park.

Saturday was the start of the end of fun.  We planned to go to the park and ride the mini train.  We did just that and T had a great time.  However, unknown to me, W had the stomach flu.  We figured it out about halfway through the outing.  Poor thing!  We were so far away from home and she wasn't doing so well.  But I had no idea.  Just before we got on the train, she said she had to spit.  She is by prone to motion sickness and was playing fairly normally, so I thought it was a one time deal, like when she had gotten off the hammock earlier in the week.  But then, it kept going.  She wanted to go on the train so bad I really didn't think she was sick, but after we got off, she crashed and completely fell asleep.  After that we went home and none of us really emerged from the house for five days while we all cycled through it.

Some funny and not so funny parts.  Tucker commented on how his poop melted.  That about sums it up.  They kept asking why they were sick.  I told them a flu bug made them sick.  Whoops.  That brought on all sorts of discussions about how bugs crawled into their tummies.  Whitney threw up three days and each time t would comment on how she ate a bug.  Then she would cry some more.  That's how I knew they were never deathly I'll because t would always have just enough energy to tease her at some part of the day and w would scream and react.  Although one day I was a little concerned about t because he slept until noon.  Very, very uncharactoristic for him.  I kept checking to see if he was alive.  He also asked to go to bed a couple of times and would just sit around.

Toward the end uncle r gave them wagon rides since they really didn't have energy to play but were bored of movies and books.  They had to get outside!  Grandpa took them in the spa and they would mostly just sit and stare.  But I was glad my mama could take care of us.  I'm certain it will be quite some time before we get invited back.  It will take a bit to recover from an entire week of sick house guests that kindly shared their germs and screaming children.

Even though I felt like I wasted 7 beautiful sunny days with family, we did manage to get in lots of spa time, looking at stars in the hammock, reading books in the hammock, drawing with sidewalk chalk, collecting pine cones, playing with truck and tractor,  making a crane, drawing, doing dot to dots, playing make spaghetti with play dough and swinging on the porch swing.  We'll come back again.  W has asked every day since coming back home from Grandma's when spring is coming.  Too bad she has to wait until summer to go barefoot here.