we love being outside

We did a ton of fun stuff today.  I'm surprised it all happened on a cleaning day, but it worked.  The big kids are getting into a routine that Monday is a cleaning day.  It's ok because they have FHE/treats to look forward to.  But we still had a ton of fun, AND I got the basics done.  aka the floor ready for a crawling child.

We made a huge tent in the playroom and they brought all their coloring books and crayons in to work on in there.

We went for a walk to splash in the puddles.  They were super silly and giggly about this.  T went running through and totally splashed a trash can next to a puddle.  For some reason that was absolutely hysterical and they said "Ew trash can" at every trash can (trash night was that night) we passed and laughed so hard they could hardly walk straight.  T laughed the hardest.  And got completely soaked, even though he was covered in rain gear.  When we got home and tried to pull his sopping boots off he said to me "They went swimming mom.  I need help getting them off"  Then he could barely pull back hard enough because he thought it was so funny.  I think part of it was extreme fatigue from staying up until 10:15 last night and it was a walk that ended at 5:45 that night so he was also very hungry.  When I put him to bed at 7:30, he asked for me to leave the music off because it would keep him up.  Maybe that was the reason he was in his room awake for two hours last night.  Who knows.  I don't get it.  Although W did comment that T was talking and being silly during the "marching music", so she couldn't sleep. 

W may finally have her own stuffed animal.  Aunt Samantha sent her a purple dolphin home with Jim and W loves it.  It's very purple, soft and sparkly.  But then again, she loved Pez, but T took it over the next day.  We'll see what happens tomorrow.  T already took it from her "to protect it from getting dirty" when she was sitting at the table with it.  He's jealous.

We also put together an experiment to collect and measure rain and record the measurement.  They are pretty excited.  The next one they want to do is grow an onion in a jar.  That was on the opposite.  We page.  T helped me experiment with vinegar as glass cleaner since Papa put in dish soap in the glass cleaner bottle.  J told me, but didn't tell T, so when I said it was time to clean the bathrooms, T went in to do his job and we had concentrated dish soap on the mirrors.  Vinegar did wonders and even worked as a cleaner of the hand prints.  Good thing because I had forgotten and didn't buy any at the store.  We'll see what happens when the sun comes out in 4 months.  I don't know how streak free it is, but now it looks good.

W and T are starting to include E in their play a bit.  It was nice out so I put E in the playpen for a bit to be outside while they played.  So they push the playpen around to include him.  He likes the change in scenery.  Then they started "painting" him with their kid rake and broom like they were painting their tree.  No thanks.  But later W wrapped E up in her blanket.  He laughed hysterically so W kept playing with him and he loved it as much as she did.

E loves to pull off his bibs.  As soon as I put it on him, he pulls on it until it comes off.  Then he is immensely pleased with his skills.

I think he also might know to go to the kitchen already for food.  We were playing nicely in his room together when he crawled out of the room.  He doesn't usually like to be left alone and likes to keep me in sight.  But I didn't follow him, so he went looking for me and stopped at the refrigerator.  He was head butting the fridge when I walked in.  I think the head butt is "I need something" to him.  He head butts my leg when he is hungry, tired, poopy or who knows what.  So I fed him lunch early and he was one happy baby.

I think E melted Papa's heart.   He heard him at the front door getting ready to leave for work and crawled pretty fast to get to him.  E was excited to catch him.

E did his first long time standing hand free Friday.  In the tub.  What kid learns to stand independently in the tub??!!  It was pretty crazy.

We went to plant trees at a local nursery that keeps the natural fauna growing and healthy along the freeway for a church service project.  We had a three hour shift.  I was completely prepared to leave after 1 hour and let the other families without kids keep things moving.  But amazingly T and W lasted 2.5 hours!!  I was amazed.  I guess our kids do more than we think they can.  J kept rotating jobs with them, which I think made a huge difference.  Plus, what kid doesn't like digging in the dirt.  T told me later that he "helped Tai's dad because he was having a hard time in the dirt, so I helped him with the shovel".  They liked doing their part.  They scooped dirt into the pots that we prepped the trees for.  We packed it down.  They also unloaded trees off the cart and carried them down the isle to be put in their growing spot.  Then they pulled apart buckets so the buckets would be ready for stacking.  They helped a bit digging in the big dirt pile.

The part that made me laugh and enjoy the most was W giving T crustys.  T just wanted to play tug of war with mommy with the buckets, but W grasped the concept of placing the buckets neatly in rows so others could easily collect them for their next tree.  T would pull them apart, then stack them back up again.  W would go behind him when his attention was on the next Mommy-T tug of war and unstack the bucket and place it correctly.  She was kind of really annoyed that she had to do this.  Reminds me of what I do with cleaning at home at times.

Or maybe that wasn't my favorite part.  Maybe the part was T and W laughing hysterically going up and down the isles carrying the plants to place them.  They thought it was sooo funny to do this.  Not sure why, but their laughter made me smile.

We just had a really good time being outside and working together.

After the service project we went jumped in the car to visit the coast for possibly the last razor clam season for a long time.  When we left, the weather forecast said the wind was 2 mph.  Perfect!  It had changed dramatically by the time we got there, so we spent a bunch of time inside the car playing jump around the car.  T remembered the last time the wave came in farther than we anticipated and J was a bit slow picking T up when that happened.  T wanted nothing to do with getting anywhere near the wet sand.  So we went digging in the sand.  I also found some sand dollars whole.  That is always fun for me!  We listened to the Thomas sound track CD the whole drive, round trip.  I truly could shoot that CD now. 

We just had a lot of fun being together outside.  It was a fabulous end to the week.

Oh yeah.  Dolphiny is soon to be T's.  J told W that when he was a kid he had a stuffed dolphin that was grey that he named dolphiny. W loved it and named hers the same.  T wanted it about 5 days after she got it.  It is currently being "borrowed" by T.  W said T could borrow it because he likes playing with it so much.  He brought it to church today.  People commented on how purple it was.  Didn't bother him.  He likes Dolphiny.  Sigh.

This week we also have a couple of fabulous sunny days.  My mood has improved significantly.  It was to get us ready for the next week of rain.  i'll take it.  We walked to school both days this week.  It was so, so refreshing to hear the stillness of the air that happens in the morning and hear the birds sing.  Our flowers are starting to bloom.  Spring is here!   We went to the park a bunch.  It was lovely, lovely, lovely.

E peeking at me through the stair railing.  What I see when I descend to do laundry

T invented this game when he was about 18 months old with Mina.  He wants us to capture his feet or tickle his feet when we walk down the stairs.  He is still doing it!

Papa playing sleeping slug with the big kids.  They wanted to play with him, but he wasn't really in the mood to play wild with them one tiring day.  It looks a lot like praying to mecca to me, but whatever

W creating.  This is a position I often find her in while working hard on art work

They are bonding against their common enemy, E.  They barricaded themselves in one chair surrounded by 3 stools so he couldn't touch them with his wet hands while they were eating lunch.  They actually ate all of lunch squished like this.  Normally this much touching illicits fights, but not when there is a common good result I guess.

W singing happy Bday to tucker in his "special underwear"  He has the huge sheet wrapped like special underwear, whatever that means.

T trying to help E get out of his crib right before church

A position I often see T in.  On the floor, usually laying on his side playing trucks running over a "bump bump" multiple times

They are playing "laying in the sun"  Their heat source of laying in the sun is the heater vent underneath them

E loves looking outside

And loves seeing Mommy

One of T's things to do while getting dressed lately.  I need to get them ready a full 15 minutes earlier to let this play out.  Upside down shirt and pants he calls it.  His legs are in the arms and the pants on the head

E is tall enough to play the piano now!!

W's first three d creation.  Beads, glue, q tips and torn paper

First day it is "warm enough" to play outside without a jacket.  They ate snack in the rhody bush.  Pez is nearby

"This flower is purple like me!  We match!"

For those who can't see the ground under all that snow.  Spring is starting to creep toward you

Ummm.  T hasn't fallen asleep eating in a long time, but here we go again.  I guess he had turned around to ask for more food, but I didn't hear him because he fell asleep.  He was jerking when I took this picture.  This was two days after staying up until 10:15

E's yelling voice.  His first day outside in the playpen  I cut logs while he was in there

W just enjoying E.  She wrapped him up in the blanket and snuggled him.  He loved it and laughed a ton.  Very sweet memory

"I don't know what happened.  I was minding my own business when all these apple bubbles appeared on me.... T was playing nicely while he let W put apple bubbles on him in the bath.  This is the end result 

snack in the tree with froggy and meow meow (water bottles) hanging

W told Papa when he got home from work that "we went to the temple to take pictures and that was IT!"  It was a little cold and they couldn't relax to smile normal because they were too cold.  Hopefully they get married in the summer otherwise all their wedding pics will look like this. 

The boys playing a very nice duet.  They are actually pretty good sounding.  No pounding, just nice music

Well.  E looks good.  The other two were holding on to him

T was way too cold

E on the way to the beach

E watching Papa create a hood from a sweatshirt.  It was really windy and cold

their duet

W drew about 15 or so pics of flowers, flowers with sun, flowers with sun, sky, dirt, puddles and rain drops. I'm pretty impressed with her artwork.  Way better than mine

E in the car at the beach

It was so cold, they opted to do this instead of dig in the sand

Reading books in the car in E's carseat with dolphiny under his arm.  We were parked on the beach

Ummmmmmm ... the shovel broke.  What made me laugh was T staring at it and trying to put it together for a few minutes before standing up and laughing at it

beautiful day to dig

Maybe E will get some good wedding photos if it is cold when he gets married

driveway picnic with friends!

coming back from razor clamming with Papa

I love thighs.  E loves his blanket and fingers

 

Milli.  Vrrmm, vrrmm.

T with Papa and W in the background

W

W and Papa

Papa in charge

Reading "game books"

at the dentist.  The dentist gives them sunglasses to put on before they start the cleaning

W in dentist chair

Hiking in the snow globe

Helping each other find stuff

T found something of W's

T placed meow meow in the window to watch us

W with her "treats for the party" on her "plate"

Playing in the tree with mommy.  they were making scarves and fixing the holes by winding up the scarves on the branches of the tree

Mmmmm, pomelo!  Now what do I do with it?

T decorating the house for "my birthday"

W decorating for my b-day. The orange flowers are what was originally in it.  The others are additions

"This baby doesn't want to sleep"

Mama was kind of gone this weekend.  I came a bit earlier than expected and didn't text J when I left so when I walked in the door, he wasn't prepared.  I walked in and heard him say "Uh oh.  That sounds like Mommy."  I heard Dora playing and smelled popcorn recently cooked.  I walked downstairs.  E was in the middle of calming himself down after a bit of a cry, but happy.  He wasn't crying when I walked in, but apparently he had been frustrated about something just previous.  W and T were having a bit of a time suddenly transitioning out of watching TV, but still munching away on popcorn.  J said "everyone is happy!"  True.  Very true.  And apparently E has had his first taste of popcorn.  J wanted E to pick up all the popcorn on the floor.  Grrrrrrr.  T and W love watching it cook.

Papa did a fairly good job keeping everyone happy, including Mama.  He chose to order out pizza for dinner and have leftovers for the next day.  This meant not having to work on cooking or cleaning with three kids around.  Probably a good idea.  The house was messier than what I would have liked but he did work on some life skills with them while I was gone.  I don't mind that!

W went to the dentist and had 9 cavities that need to be filled but a total of 16, just the other 7 don't need fillings.  This all occurred in the past 6 months.  I kid you not.  T?  He had no cavities.  We're trying not to think about the upcoming bill...  Anyway.  That got J to thinking.  He figured out all sorts of strategies.  He is not fond of brushing W's teeth.  Neither am I.  But I just do it anyway.  He figured it out.  He bought her Thomas toothpaste and this weekend they worked on it. After being home  with Papa all weekend, I found W had fairly good technique.  She needs cueing to do it long enough, but at least she is brushing, not chewing.  And she will floss most of the teeth she can see on her own!  Yeah papa!

He also let E cry a bunch so he learned to crawl faster while I was gone.  E hates being alone.  And I hate listening to him cry.  So I haul him around when I start moving around the house a bunch.  J doesn't.  It worked out though.  Today E thought that's what I was going to do, so he didn't cry, but beelined it behind us all day today to keep up with us.  He did pretty well.  J also taught E to stand up in his crib in order to get picked up after nap.  I heard E talking a bit after nap, so I went in to get him and he was up, happy and pretty impressed with himself standing.  T walked in and said "that baby doesn't want to sleep".

We had a fabulous day where everyone was asleep by 10 to 8 pm. Crazy, huh? I walked them up to the "new park"  My mom found a park last time she was here that was within walking distance.  It is a great find for lots of reasons.  It is a destination worth walking all uphill to.  I love the energy they get out walking this far.  They love the park.  Especially today.  Best place ever.  We are going to have to go tomorrow.  The backhoe was operating!!  T's eyes were riveted on it the whole time we were there.  He didn't really want to go home, even though we were all freezing and E's lips were starting to turn blue.  THEN Papa came home to fix a majorly flat tire.  T was in heaven.  After fixing the tire, Papa TOOK OFF THE HITCH!!  T walks around commenting on missing hitches all the time and which cars have them.  Now we have a missing hitch.  Every time I pull out of the driveway this is what I will here.  "MOM!  A missing HITCH!  Papa's truck has a missing hitch."

My crazy neighbor tore out most of the plants in her yard.  Now she is planting things.  She came home with this bare root tree that will turn out huge at maturity and decided to put it right under our power lines to the house.  I tried to talk her into where it should really go.  I should have walked farther over so her compromise would have been the right spot.  Sigh.  Now it will grow into our wires, but at least the center of it won't be directly underneath it.  Someone is going to hate her later.  We went out and dug the hole with her a bit so the tree wouldn't die.  W dug a whole bunch.  She had a miniature shovel her size to let W borrow and W went to town.  I was impressed.  She dug her own hole.

W also did a color by number sheet today.  She really, really liked that.  But when I asked her what her favorite part of today was?  Twisting and dipping oreo cookies just like the commercial.   She explained it to me step by step even though I was there for all of that.  Papa taught her and she is absolutely sold.  We did that at the end of FHE.  More on that later.

Today they got out my ribbon bag.  I had no idea how many ribbons I had.  They were "decorating for Mommy's birthday".  They put a ribbon everywhere they could think of.  They were hanging off all doorknobs and off of the banister.  W found some flowers in there and added them to the table centerpiece.  It was a fabulously beautiful and well decorated Mommy's bday.

They made barricades from E.  He isn't allowed in the playroom.  But to be nice to him, they dumped all his toys over the barricade.  Whatever.  He was happy.  He kept up his yowling and growling.  He really likes to shout in glee.  Like shout in glee.  T plugs his ears and yells back. 

E likes to bother W the most.  Probably because she screams the most.  He always pulls up on her chair when she is eating and she throws a fit.  E yells, too, but I think he thinks she is playing.  Or he doesn't care and is just so impressed with himself that he can pull to stand and lower himself without just falling over.

I love to record the sweet things W and T do for each other.  Don't get me wrong.  They are very normal children that like to fight by pushing on each other and screaming.  But it is also interspersed by such kindness that it melts this mommy's heart.

Yesterday W brought T out his mittens without being asked when we went outside.  T and Mommy just ran out the door, but she took her usual long time to get ready.  One of the reasons, she had gotten her and T's mittens.  "Lady was taking care of her gentleman"

"Gentleman takes care of his lady", too.  He got her straw for her smoothie down.  He picked a peach colored straw for her.  He also dragged a bar stool into their room so he could get his own shirt down and hers also to get dressed.  He is also sweet with E.  He said with such concern to E "oh no E!  Be careful!  Your fingers are being pinched!" and he held them out of the way while I buckled E in his seat.  E wanted to play with the buckle, not get in his seat.

Another day he said to me "I thought of helping everyone today!"  He made W's bed, mixed E's food and got Mommy her vitamin.

They had their well child check up this week.  It blows my mind how they don't like shots, but don't seem to be overly concerned about them, either.  Neither one of them cried when the nurses gave the shots.  Wow!  Mommy doesn't even do that!  They were pretty excited about their stickers.  But then they put them on the counter to wash their hands and I forgot to pick them up.  That was definitely a problem.  They are going to check for their race car sticker and Ariel sticker next time E has his appointment.  And.  One thing I'm really excited about is T is 39.8 pounds!!  Thank heavens he is big enough.  I was wondering if he was going to be able to get a booster by the time E needs his car seat in a few months.  I really didn't want to buy E a car seat when there is one to inherit.  Because W is 32 pounds.  Very far away from a booster.

J and I were talking about what kinds of things W and T like.  Mostly because we were watching all the little kid videos of Olympians.  It is rather obvious with W.  Art stuff all the way. There is definite interest in dance and gardening, too. She even tells me she is going to be an artist when she turns 8.

T is a little less obvious.  His likes seem to be more along the lines of normal boy stuff his age.  He seems to prefer tools and mechanics of things.  Possibly cooking.  He loves his apron and wants a chef's hat when he is big enough.  We did an "experiment out of his book where you blind him and they try to figure out what I put in their mouth.  T knew every one the first time I gave it to him.  That was fun.  But he also might like skateboarding.  He rides his bike like a maniac at the ramp park and is fascinated when older boys are there doing tricks.  But don't all boys like that stuff?

We did a density experiment with syrup and T really liked that.  He pretty much knew how the oil would be on the water and water on the syrup.  He guessed half of the objects to float on their appropriate liquids.

W doesn't like the coldness.  Oatmeal helps take the morning chill off.  She wasn't too happy when I made smoothie and toast this morning as it was a cold food.  She told me that "normal people eat oatmeal for breakfast".  Hahahahaha!

I also discovered the reason why W has become so compliant for brushing her teeth.  Papa knows.  The thomas toothpaste is a very sweet flavor.  Last night after dinner I was bathing E and she came in and said "can I brush my teeth mom?   Instead of dessert I will brush my teeth with dessert toothpaste."  It must taste fabulous.

We started doing treats with FHE.  Now W wants to do FHE every night, purely for the treats.  I left her with J for the evening and she was already for everyone to do their part and for Papa to be in charge of the treats.  She was very disappointed when J informed her FHE is for Monday nights only.  So sad!

It hasn't really been rainy this winter until about 2 weeks ago.  Just cloudy and cold.  Now the wetness is back.  It is a very good thing considering all the moss was looking pretty sad.  And not much water in all the streams??!!  Unheard of.  I think it must be pretty dry.  There is a desperate deer around here that is eating any new growth, regardless of the type of plant.  I think it must have been looking for sugar water or something.  Now that it is raining, I'm losing fewer plants to that deer.  Or it's because it ate all the new growth.  But now it's been long enough where I am searching out ways to get energy out of T while keeping E warm enough.  E needs to crawl, best done indoors, and T needs some space to move.  So this is how the following story came about.

We went grocery shopping and I got a small cart on purpose so there wasn't room for them to ride.  E was in the seat.  T was steering.  W was looking for products called out on the list.  T wouldn't let me take over his job.  I probably shouldn't have gone shopping on a Friday afternoon, but it was when I went. There were probably a few too many people in the store for us to really navigate like that. But T was determined.  Thank heavens for some reason there were lots of people grandma and grandpa age and they were patient in waiting for T to get his steering under control.  They gave us a very wide berth.  And T seemed to have gotten a minimal amount of energy out.

While we were shopping, T said "Oh.  This isn't on sale."  An older gentlemen stopped shopping and stared at them, then said "You've already trained them to look for things on sale??!!  I wish I had done that!"  He was pretty impressed.  I was impressed too, because they haven't said that to me before either and I didn't know I was training them until he said it, but it was fun to see his face.

We also went hiking.  It started out dry and ended in huge beautiful flakes.  T and W loved it, but we turned around because E was not having a good time of it.  He was probably very cold.  He had a death grip on the umbrella, so that didn't help since it was metal.  When we got home, I put him in his bed and he slept with his hood on face down.  Only way to get his nose warmed up I guess.  For some reason finding exposed roots was absolutely hysterical.  T would find them and W and he would laugh.

Then T and W played road with the scarfs.  They put it over the heater vent and T would open the vent to make a bridge with the scarf and close the vent to make it a flat road again.  Pretty good idea!

W had to go potty right as I was half way through checking out a HUGE stack of library books.  It is right next to the potty entrance, so I told her to go potty herself since I could hear everything.  T decided to go to "keep her company and to help W"  I heard him give her step by step instructions. 

He also is the designated button pusher and machine worker.  He is the one that slides the books through the check in slot.  Aka the "inside flock".  He is the one that scans the books to check out.  And he pushes the button to open the door for us.  No one else.

They are playing shots and doctor a bunch.  Even Hiro got a bunch. Probably busted his buffers.

J likes making obstacle courses for E.  It charms me how he likes to find things E loves to do.

W started making a list of husband qualities.  We were on the topic of husbands (that's another story) and W said she wants to find a papa for her children that is kind, plays flip, and teaches people how to brush teeth well like her papa.  And this is a direct quote "and if he cooks pizza that would be an even better papa".

W and T were playing getting married.  They were cleaning their house and putting on extra eyelashes (using paint brushes with water) to get ready.  Then they switched to giving each other shots.  Unrelated.

Today T told me about 7 times in a row how the garage door broke.  He carefully took the motor off the garage floor, where it has apparently rested in peace, and brought it out in the light so he could explain things to me clearly.  He showed me how the gear used to attach here but now it is broken and all the other parts of the machine that he knew.  The wire went out and "connected to something".  I told him he should spend some time with Papa taking it apart and learning how it worked and should be working.  He is very excited about that idea.  I guess a gene that is being handed down.  Both his papa and grandpa are notorious for taking things apart and have many stories about that love from when they were little.  I have a feeling I will be able to add a few of my own to the family male tree.