Are we having fun yet?

Sunday, August 10, 2014

mommy's gone!

I got this great idea to walk the energy out of T. It doesn't work. It walks the energy out of me. We were hiking uphill and I was huffing and puffing with 24 sudden extra E pounds on my back. E started mimicking my breathing patterns.

T has asked to "run races with my feet". We race up and down the driveway for mommy and T time. T is pretty fast and tells me so.

They made "frosting on the front porch" It is chalk that has been soaking in bin water for a few days since Papa was in charge, rubbed against the exposed aggragate front porch step. It does fabulous hand and foot prints. They used it to "paint" their tree house. E wasn't allowed in the tree house because of all the wet paint. It is true. It is on very thick out there.

A few things have been happening around here. Sold a house. Got a job. My brother got married.

I left J in charge while I went off to that for 48 hours. T and W continue to confess Papa "sins" I think he must have fed them some sort of sugar for every meal. They told me they got a popcicle on the way to and from the air show. Another confession "We really like capri suns mom We finished one box so we had to eat the next box". Another confession "my ice cream was pink and T's was green" "Pudding is so good, mom" "We had Meow Meow and Papa treats at the air show" Those are fruit snacks and fruit strips, respectively. "we watched movies in the DAY and on SUNDAY"

Like I say, not how I would do things. But the very first thing out of W's mouth when I got in the car? "Mom. We had LOTS of fun with Papa!" complete with a huge grin. Whatever. Stuff like that isn't in the mommy job description, my little sugar addicts.

We also went hiking for a bit as a family. T wanted to go back to the car every time we went uphill. W found a huge leaf for her and T. T found a family of banana slugs all snuggled together. It looked more like dog poop to J and I, so good eye, T. E walked about a 1/8 mile or so. He was talking up a storm, gathering rocks and flopping his body over logs to see what was on the other side. When he needed a break, he would kneel down and get some good portable fuzzy time in.

T decided to take me on a drive for his mommy time to make some dust with his pick up. He was pretending to drive the couches downstairs through dust. He mimics the key turning on and off perfectly. He drove us to the tire store to fix his tire, and also drove to work. But he isn't sure what he does for work yet. Decisions, decisions.

W and I played my little pony. She used her doll house furniture to make all sorts of pony play structures. But I have to play with it her way, or she keeps repeating what I'm supposed to say.

E loves necklaces at the moment. Or anything he can put around his neck. He thinks it's funny to put W's head bands on his neck. Or the binoculars (pronounced bee-noculars by T). or the broken necklace. Then waddles off with it bouncing off the budda belly.

We went to the beach and E made a friend. He helped a little girl about a year older than him build a sand castle by throwing sand into her bucket. Thank heavens she was not picking about her help. I thought it was cute, but who knows what the parents were thinking. I think they were ok with it. The were smiling. but they were also speaking another language. Hopefully it was ok.

We made a bath with huge bubbles in it and I actually let E and T take a bath together. This usually results in fighting because E can't keep out of T's territory. But they were playing very nicely together. There was a plastic knife in the bath that day. Getting a bath from being thrown in the toilet after taking it from the floor amongst the play dough pieces. T asked E if he "wanted to taste delicious" and proceeded to spread bubble butter on E. They were both having fun.

We were reading scriptures and I was trying to get the kids to engage in the reading by asking them questions instead of playing. It wasn't successful in the slightest. I finally asked "if dolphiny knew the answer" and W shouted "all dolphiny knows about is STUFFING!" It's true. And then of course we were all laughing.

I have noticed T and W have been missing joy school. So I asked them which friends they would like to come play. T said I just want to play with you Mommy, but they could come over. It is ok. Melted my heart. We didn't invite anyone over that week. W said "Just Milli. Only milli." Then T remembered his friends he played with the day before and their trains "Just Jake and Luke" W chimed in and said not Jake and Luke because they play too rough. She wanted to play with Zak, their big brother, because he had a cool rock collection that included crystals.

We went to a park that apparently had their play structure revamped last year when I went nowhere due to E being so tiny. It is soooooo cool. It has a merry go round. And a zip line. Seriously, right? Do you know any new parks that install merry go rounds? They set it up where the level of the merry go round is flat with the surrounding surface, so no one gets caught underneath. But is it seriously the best park ever. We've gone like three times this week because it is so cool. I was impressed that W knew how to take turns with a line with the zip line. Usually, since there are two of them, they kind of dominate the play area they are in. So I didn't think they would let someone have a turn without verbal cues, but W did great all on her own! I was so proud of her.

E found a part that has a board and moving pegs. He loves it there. He could move those peg pieces for a whole 10 minutes or so.

E has also figured out that you can kick a ball. He stinks at it at the moment, but he can do it. Even though they are both boys, it amazes me that E is so much more attracted to balls than T ever was, but T is so much more interested in mechanical things.

E also folds his arms. Kind of. When it is time to pray, he stops moving and pushes his hands flat on his budda belly. Oh! I'm in love!

E loves to continue spitting. The other day T and W were pretending to be snakes in a snake pathway and was making the S sound. E tried it too and can do it, all while smiling a bit. So cute to me.

And right on target for scribbling. He loves it!

E has been paying attention to airplanes ever since the air show. When he hears the noise he looks up in the sky and tracks them.

T invented his "motor boat". He puts E's push car in a bin full of water. It floats for a bit before it fills up with water. T bounces on it and calls it his motor boat. Then he takes it out and the car is "filled with gas" which he drives around the driveway and makes train tracks. Then it is out of gas and the whole thing starts over.

We did the heart hunt for FHE like our home teacher suggested. It was actually really fun. We all cut out and created hearts, then hid them everywhere. The kids hid some of theirs where they could find them and others that we could find them. The hearts were supposed to remind the person that found them of the family member that hid them and that they love them. We had a really good Tuesday.

We also did a bug hunt, just like the bear hunt at the party. But I think the hunting games wore off after that. No more hunts, mom.

T woke up one morning with Meow Meow still in bed with him and Fish had fallen on the floor. We were playing and I told Meow Meow to get fish from off the floor so Fish wouldn't feel lonely. T said "that's silly! have you ever seen a cat scuba dive for fish??!!" Later that day I heard them looking for razorclams. Like I say, everything that goes in, must come out in play.

T putting gas in his car

The bubble butter day

at the beach!

My cool bro!

T is in this position often. I'm not sure why. He does this with most of his toys that have wheels. His trucks, bikes, wagon, etc.

T cruising in his motor boat

E looking for a refill on blueberries. T would pick blue berries and fill up the cup holders for E. E ate them all

W decided to stop giving E blueberries because she wanted to the farmers to earn their money. I had explained to her what the no signs meant. So she wanted to be honest instead of continuing to fill E's bottomless pit

T searching for the perfect blueberries for E

Milli time

Right before E popped this water balloon

Now that fiery Flynn is officially broken. Not even duct tape can fix him

boys watching the air show

after air show treats

E slept 2.5 hours after I came home

bro is married

One of J's favorite pics of W. It is obvious she is happy to be with him

T enjoying it all

Raspberry boy

W at park

W requested this pic be taken

W drew this pic of Papa eating grilled salmon

E doing his medicine ball exercises

When Oliver was here

E scribbling with markers on the refridgerator box

T in my garden

just some thoughts for aunt B

Ideas for mom's wiener roast party

They worked hard on this mudpit

handy dump

My cool kids

sibling bride informal pic

sibling bride formal pic

W's star pencils

Thursday, August 7, 2014

E blows his own "horn"

E walks

E started really walking well July 6. Then he started running the next week

Summer has made me think pics are worth a thousand words and I'm not writing much but I wanted to put some stuff in about E. He really figured out the joy of walking today and I can tell it has fully registered why everyone walks around on two feet. And he is pretty excited to practice, laughs and is immensely pleased with himself. He should be picking up speed this week. Perfect. Grandma is coming into town.

He also is very patient with T. T pushed him hard to get him to move out of an area he considered his space but E laughed. Can't believe it. W starts whining right away.

E is definitely verbal and throws fits when he doesn't get what he wants. We went to his check up and he is 24 pounds. His MD commented that he babbles and talks like the 15-18 month check up. It was reassuring because J asked me this week if T and W did this. I told him I don't remember them doing it so young and by the time they talked that often, they were using words, not babbling so much. But E likes to talk and use voice fluctuation in positive and negative ways.

We camped on the side of a mountain in a turn off on a dirt road two weekends ago and this past weekend J chickened out on camping. We went and just enjoyed the real beach. No exploring road trip. T and W found big puddles to wade in, sometimes up to their shoulders. E laughed and loved crawling in the sand. Fast. Then smashing sand castles. T did instant replays of getting the car stuck in the sand. W decorated the sand castle Papa made with shells and found all sorts of color ones.

The next day they had a blast helping papa build a shelf in the garage for the bins. T had the most fun with that. He talked and talked and talked to Papa about all of it. Loved writing on the wood to practice measuring with his new measuring tape Papa got at the store.

Then they used the hose and squirted everything in the yard as well as the neighbor kids. But that squirting game stopped when T decided he didn't want to get wet and play that game in the slightest. The neighbor kids were confused. Didn't T start it?

W and T went shopping with Papa and came back laughing hysterically because they "saw a sign chasing a plane, Mom!" Yeah, I guess if I looked at it that way, it is very funny.

In june we went camping every weekend. It was our family vacation. A good thing that I might make a wall hanging of is when we got to a dead end on a dirt road that really looked more like an unused hiking trail. We were driving the truck. I got out to help direct Jim's 20 point turn while we were on the side of a mountain. A steep mountain. I got back in and said we had worked as a team. The other day T said "when we get to dead ends, we work together as a team to turn around" Might be a good family motto.

While we were driving on this "road", W was on the cliff side. She was a little nervous. She was leaning toward the uphill side of the mountain, telling T to "lean that way!!" and got seriously upset when he wasn't leaning that way. Once we had gotten turned around, T told W to lean toward the mountain. W understood and obliged. It was a pretty good drop off.

Here are the pics!

The boys sitting on the "summer bench"

blowing bubbles together

Everyone in the "tree"

forlone E. He wasn't allowed to touch the tools

T and W kyphying the smallest "miniature" wrenches while Papa is ignorning them while looking up how to fix the truck

This is a picture of a miracle. I woke up and found this in our kitchen on our 10th anniversary. I have not known him to ever remember a date on his own, but he figured it out this time

up close pic of my miracle

I let them play with shaving cream while I painted in W's room during E's nap. They painted themselves this time. T helped W.

T only wanted his legs done

E in the morning in W's room

Milli and W playing hair things. T informed me before Milli came to play that day that "w likes to play hair bows with Milli"

Our hillside campsite. It had an amazing view. I'm sure no one has camped in this spot before. It is a turnout in a road just before a fallen tree

E in truck during breaking of camp

E supervising breaking camp

Hiking to the top of our peak

hiking

Some of the view along the peak trail

at the very top of the mountain

Mommy and T kayaking

W and Mommy kayaking.

E at the beach

Sand and tractors mix

W beach time

playing together

E in the sand castle fort W and Papa made together

E storming the castle

Smashing sand castles is funny!!!

anticipate longer wait times

I t is warm and sunny here. This is no time to blog. I need to use up all the daylight hours I can and have. I have little recollection of what happened but thank heavens there are pics to remind me.

E and T had their first spitting contest or game. Not sure which. They would each take a turn to spit and then laugh after because that is just so funny.

T is becoming better at being a big brother. He is doing more blocking of E's body when he doesn't want him touching and less hard core shoving or pushing him out. He also is getting better at talking in a kind voice when doing it. This part is just to remind me that it eventually starts taking root, even if it has taken 2 months to see some results since I figured out the blocking technique for T's invisible territory lines that no one really knows about until they are suddenly crossed.

W is continuing to be an awesome big sister. Whenever E is crying she is the first to run and get either portable fuzzy or full on fuzzy, depending on the crying amplitude. E fell off the step and landed on his face. That was a definite full fuzzy run.

E thinks making beds is really funny. And he really loves it when W tries to fold blankets, especially her fuzzy, by spreading it out on the floor. He crawls over and kicks around on it like he is swimming in fleece.

E is really good at putting things away. He especially likes to fill the recycle bin and the toilet with whatever object he is carrying. Grrrrrrr. Back to shutting the bathroom doors for sure. At least he hasn't figured out how to flush yet. I had forgotten about the months on end that we had to pick through our recycle bin before emptying it. Those days are back in full force.

He is fully entertained and amused that walking lets him move objects around the house. I forgot about this phase. anything he touches literally walks off. W gets mad about not finding her flip flops and I get mad about not finding my phone for hours. T doesn't seem to be too concerned about the train tracks that are in every room in this house.

In keeping with putting objects in the recycle bin, he loves open and close. He will play open and close the room door for at least 10 minutes at a time. No ADD worries with this child, I think. He can stay focused on the task just fine.

E loves to climb on the stool and brush his teeth. He does it every time someone doesn't shut the bathroom door. After he brushes, he dances with glee on the stool and smiles at himself in the mirror. any time he finds the door open, he will get on that stool, brush his teeth, and dance in glee. Today he found another added activity. Throwing his toothbrush in the potty with a big splash. Sigh.

My favorite thing is how he imitates stuff already. These examples are not to be caught on tape. I have tried multiple times, but it is only for my enjoyment. If I talk or make a noise into a tube of any sort, then put the tube to his mouth, he makes a noise too, to mimic me. E honks my nose with his fist, grabbing the whole nose, but then he will honk his own nose at times, too. My mom was tickling his knee one night, then stopped. E tickled his own knee in the same way. He also plays peek a boo himself. He hides behind stuff himself

E figured out how to set his unwanted food on the counter. Not always, but on occasion he will do it.

And E loves to eat sidewalk chalk. Tastes kind of like dirt, I guess.

Something I can't video record, but I hope I remember is how funny it looks when E scratches his diaper elastic lines when I give him a bath. He stands there and gives everything a good scratch, with a very uncoordinated open and close of his fist. I have no idea why that makes me laugh. but the uncoordination of such an activity is just funny. PT humor, I guess.

We have a two wheeler bike. I put the training wheels on really loose. The training wheels get them to sit on the bike, but they don't do much in helping keep the bike upright. W, being less concerned about how her body feels or how clean it is, is more apt to practice riding it, but she did inform me today that she wants a bike with white wheels because that is more beautiful. Good grief.

She also told me today that she wants her ceiling to also be painted yellow (we painted her walls a light yellow) because that would be more beautiful. When I told her I didn't want the ceiling painted yellow, she told me a pink sparkly one would also be beautiful. I found her a pink sparkly art box instead. A neighbor had set it out with a free sign on their curb. They also thought pink sparkly boxes are ugly, but maybe they wouldn't mind a pink sparkly ceiling....

T has been making mole holes in the dirt with Henry. Translation. He is sitting on W's pink bike and riding in place as the plastic wheels spin in place and dig deeper in the dirt. This is to imitate when J dug a "mole hole" with our van wheels and we got stuck while driving on the beach. My mom commented: "boy. Talk about never living it down". T has been playing that game for about 10 days and every so often he will come over and tell me again about how Mommy got in the front seat and told Papa she would drive now. And Papa said he wanted to drive, but Mommy said "Fine. But don't get the car stuck again"

W told me the other day that "words like this help cheer me up. 'Yes W, I will help you' or 'W I will help you now'. That is how I will remember to be kind and say yes mommy or Mommy I will when you ask me something" We recently had a discussion about how we are changing tactics in response to the talk back phase of their life. W remembers this discussion well and reminds us, too. Obviously.

Back to the two wheeler. T really wants nothing to do with it. He practices only under duress. Fiery Flynn is broken again and there is no need to fix it. Because he will commodeer all the other bikes. W's bike, E's bike, E's other bike, mop bucket, wagon, and the pink sparkly art drawers with wheels. Sigh.

T likes to make roads with chalk with me as mommy time. I love how when I am drawing them, he encourages me in such a loving helpful voice "Mom, you are doing a good job of it". But E is not allowed on the chalk roads. "He might rub them off, mom". But E seems to like to follow the "pathways" too. He also likes to sit right in the middle of these roads, probably just to bother T.

T likes to play trains on the bed as part of mommy time. Apparently the designs on my bedspread "are made of threads" and look much like a train track. T likes for me to pick which one Hiro will drive on "the snake pathway or the safe pathway". Once I chose the snake pathway and he informed me that was wrong.

T drew me a parking spot in the garage that I have to park in or I re-park.

E likes to knock on doors. He laughs when someone answers. T answers "No hay nadie" if he doesn't want E let in.

Have I mentioned that E loves the dollhouse the most out of everyone right now? He loves the minture easel.

T and W went to a birthday party. When I went to pick them up, W informed me that "she had a really, good time". I'm not really sure what was the most fun for her, but she informed me that she had smores and cake, not to mention a second dinner. I asked them if their stomachs hurt and they said no. Whatever.

T told me about the bear hunt. There were pictures of different kinds of bears they needed to find on their paper and they found them all, but the panda bear was the trickest. But they found them all.

I found a wind chime for a good deal. I'm really glad I bought it. I have no idea why, but I feel like I finally moved into my house, even though it has been almost 4 years later, now that it is up. It must be because my mom has always had wind chimes or something. But we all love it. T likes to "ring the doorbell" or hit the dapper a bunch going in and out of the house. W woke up one morning and said that she "heard the wind chime playing a beautiful song last night". E looks around when it is chiming, for the new noise.

We got a refridgerator. Don't ask. Just add it to the list of broken stuff, right? But now we have a non-broken refridgerator. And a BOX! I let them have markers during E's nap and they drew a whole bunch of signs. There are bunch of no smoking signs. Probably really a good idea in a cardboard box. And of course there is a no E sign. Gotta have that. One thing that amazes me is that W can draw hearts. I can't draw hearts. Why can my four year old draw hearts? She drew a heart the size of one of the box walls, a papa heart, then another one only slightly smaller, a mommy heart, then a W, E and T heart on the floor. How is it she can draw all these great hearts? I drew a chalk outline of T on the floor. It looks like a muppet. no neck, detail-lacking eyes, and spiky hair. Looks nothing like him.

Everybody had to put up with going refridgerator shopping with me. I was sort of growling about how all the refridgerators are all standard 35 ". But we have a 33" space. So my choices were significantly limited. I found some 33" but then they all love to have the freezer on the bottom. Why is that? I'm still unsure of the logic. I was muttering how digging through frozen goods and having to always restack would "drive me up the wall" at the same time I was measuring refridgerators I liked and finding that they were 35" wide. Too fat! I would exclaim. So once I stopped measuring, T took his measuring tape back from me (papa bought him and W their own measuring tapes last time they went shopping) and started measuring refridgerators while I was looking at my couple of options. He pulled out his measuring tape, measured out the width of the closest refridgerator and said "Too fat! That will just walk me up the wall!"

Dude. And if you every wonder if T is strong. He can pull a fully loaded Costco cart. I have started giving him the job of pulling the shopping cart around the store. He is allowed to as long as he doesn't run into or anyone or anything. He is actually very good. But I thought for sure he would need some help with a fully loaded Costco cart. No Mom. I can do it. He was very slow, but he did it. And of course I got tons of comments on what a big helper I had. All from retired folks who probably wished their grandkid was around to do that for them. I thought he would be tired from all that. Not on your life. He then went to safeway and pulled that cart around, and then went to bed late. Not tired at all, just getting started.

We had a horse fly in the house the other day. W was running from it, calling it a bee. I told her it was just a horse fly and to not worry too much. Then I had to explain what a horse fly is and why it is called that. The next day I heard her pretending she was a horse butterfly. I've never seen one except the one she was pretending to be, but it was very big and very beautiful.

The other day I went into his room and apparently he was a little cold, so he wrapped up in his blanket and had just his head poking out. In his sleepy, but still pretend play voice, he told me he made a cocoon, but then he nibbled a hole and was popping out.

Whitney told me the other day that "I love it when you leave mom. Papa lets us watch movies". Another facet of motherhood. Doing things they hate because it is good for them. Like staying unplugged.

My mom came to stay. We picked raspberries together then she made several jars of jam while I played with the kids. T slathers on that jam tons. He loves that stuff.

We also took my mom to lunch, a town that reminds me of her, went to a beach and rode the ferry. When my mom left, T wanted to play "ferry" with me. He parked his car on the deck below, then had me climb the stairs and sit looking out for awhile. Then we went back down the stairs, he sat on his car for awhile and then drove away to the front. That is the exact sequence of a ferry ride.