Are we having fun yet?

We've been doing experiments out of the book I bought. Right now I'm loving the book I bought. It's getting some use. One of the experiments is to track rainfall. It was pretty fun. We started last week and it was really boring. Barely any water in the container the first day and lots of zeros after. But I think that was good because now every day after lunch T and W are excited to measure the water. Why? Because suddenly the container is half filled every day. Here is how it's been since Saturday. 1 inch. 1.5 inches, 1.25 inches, and today was 2 inches. These are all 24 hour rainfall totals. So that should tell you how much it is dumping rain and how much we are staying inside. It is driving T crazy.

This one is for grandma and hoppy. E loves grapefruit. I think he is just really desperate to feed himself and so any food that I give him for self feeding he goes to town on. But I wasn't expecting him to down it. He loves it and made a huge mess eating it.

W made a hexagon track. That's exactly how she described it.

We all went for a 2.5 hour hike. I have no idea how much the distance was but it took us 2.5 hours to complete it, including the long snack bak. T asked to go back home every time we started walking uphill, but other than that they did great. Whenevere we go walking in the woods I've been trying to see if they will pick the correct pathway back. T hasn't done so well in the past. Usually it is w that gets it. But today he got every turn but one. The last one he missed, but I can't blame him since there were 10 turns or so and that last one was 2 hours previous. That is some skill.

I asked t who his friends are. He said he didn't know. I asked him who he likes to be with. Without hesitation, he answered papa! Then e. then mommy.

I changed their sheets to their summer ones. They are microfiber ones. W loves them. She even traded meow meow for dolphin to match them. They are hello kitty ones. T was awake an hour extra the night I changed them. I finally went in and asked why he wasn't asleep. He said his sheets and pillow were soggy and cold. He wanted his other ones because they were soft and warm. W asked if we were going to give them to another child that will use them. Yes. Hopefully e will like them and he can be the other child.

T was an awesome gardener. He helped me prune and does a fabulous job!

I let e crawl outside. He loved it. Me a little less. He is very adept at getting wood chips in at a rapid pace. He also got to play with the car we have outside. He can kneel and walk behind it. He was laughing hysterically at that.

The neighbor kids thought it was funny that e crawls. They were crawling with e on either side of him and declared it to be really fun. They are 6 and 4 years old

This week T was washing his hands. He stepped on the stool funny and it rolled out from under him so he totally smacked his chin on the counter. And bit a hole in his tongue. I could easily see that injury and saw it scab up, so I thought, other than an annoying pain, he would be good. That was at 11 am. At 2 pm I was smelling this horrible but odd smell that I couldn't pin point while reading books to them. I finally figured out that it was T's mouth after sniffing all sorts of normally offensive sites. It had started bleeding again and I couldn't tell the source, so I took him in the bathroom to make him swish out his mouth so I could see his teeth. He kept swishing and swishing and all I could see was red teeth, so I made him stop and pushed on his teeth. All were solidly placed. So then I took his toothbrush to brush his teeth. Ah. The Problem. A flap of tongue was stuck in his teeth and needed to be flossed out. It was sooooo gross! Poor kid. He must have been in lots of pain. He barely ate any food the rest of the day, just smoothies. At dinner he was desperate and ate a bean burrito, but it was hard for me to watch it because he had red bite marks each time he bit the tortilla. Broke my heart. And I should have known he was in pain if he asked at 6 to go to bed for the night, not to mention he did no running around that whole afternoon and just wanted to snuggle and read books. Sounds more like W, not T. But he made up for it the next day.

At joy school they talked about what made them happy. I think it was a fun lesson. They came home talking about it and a previous lesson about green eggs and ham. T brought his thomas the train sticker book. W brought her watercolor paint set. Those things cheer them up. They made pigs in a blanket for snack and they loved that. Apparently they used mr potato head to talk about emotions. His teacher got a kick out of how much T laughed at all the funny faces to choose from on mr. potato head.

I think a cute moment I had with them was when I found them all playing in the same room together with everyone happy with each other. E was immensly pleased he had pulled to stand on the IKEA chair the big kids turn on it's side to make a car or a hide out. T and W were lauhing at how they were playing with the doll house fruniture

E loves to follow us out doors now. It cracks me up because he sees that we are all leaving the room and he sets his face to keep up with us and works hard to do it. He is so determined. That and he laughs when he finds any of us or pulls his bib off. he really likes standing in the fridge or at cabinets to pull everything off the shelf. and he just keeps smiling and smiling and smiling while he explores and explores and explores. He's really excited to be on earth

Did you know there are cute hitches? T was stopping to check if a hitch was on a car, when w said,"it's not a cute hitch, it is a big hitch". I wonder when all this hitch checking put will end. It reminds me of when my brother r liked checking out public bathrooms, just to see what they are like.

I've been reading parenting books lately because I'm running out of ideas. I really liked this one in particular because it talks about how we are the parents and thus we are in control. I agreed with the part of if we are in control of rest and nutritious diet, it will really, really help our kids. But then it also talked about how we are in control of other behaviors too. They are usually a reaction to something. I totally agreed with the comments on how what are kids eat and how they sleep will influence their behaiviors greatly. I can see in them and how their behaviors change based on how much processed food they eat versus real food. I can also feel the difference in my own body. I also see and feel it in relation to sleep. But I guess it also means the other part about behaviors is a reaction to something. That's harder. That means I have to take a good look at myself and how busy I let our house be or not and have to agree to follow the rules of not getting to busy so that I'm messing up nap times or bedtimes. Or look at myself when they do stuff that I don't like. Maybe it is something they see me do...

E really wants to feed himself. Not a favorite of mine because it is really messy, but he loves it.

He is also well on his way to being a 6 tooth baby.

From the book Wacky Wednesday. "A shoe on the wall! That shouldn't be there at all"

W and T made a "bed for Ajo" It is in a bed of play lettuce

First time playing on the playground

Making tracks in the puddle. They also put flags in their bikes

T practicing "headstands" he asked for this picture

Practicing for future megaphone use

W pushing E

T pushing the cart. E looking for something to play with

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