pretend play is in ernest

This was a surprisingly happy moment at the frozen park. All the rest were cold.
Tucker sniffs and coughs a lot. Father like son. I accidentally caught this pic mid-sniff. Makes me laugh
They insisted on eating lunch at the park, even though I'm certain they were frozen. I think it is the red hands in the pic that give it away. They wanted to sit down and open the backpack. I made them stand up to eat because I thought it would keep them warmer. They ate their entire sandwiches, then listened to my suggestion of eating the rest in the car. Good idea. Before we had left for the park, I had packed the backpack and told them we were going to the park to have a picnic. Don't know what I was thinking. Every time I see that silly sun here, I think it has to be warmer outside, but I'm always wrong. Sun here means colder temps. Whatever. Wish I were in Cali.
Her daddy thinks this backpack is SO CUTE. Wonder why. She loves it, too. Her arms are up so she can hold it on her shoulders without it falling off.
"Um, mom. It's cold out here. What are we doing?"
Tucker situating the blanket for himself in the toy baby crib. He can barely squeeze in, but was very comfy.
Another random happy moment. Note. The gloves were ON. Funny.



I would have to say the biggest thing I've noticed this week is the babies sudden ability to pretend play. Tucker was walking around the house today sipping from his kitchen teacup, then going to his kitchen to refill. Living out his dreams, I guess.

Whitney loves her little people dolls. She likes to wash their hands when she has to wash up to eat, sit them next to her at meal times to feed them, and give them "snuggle-snuggle" at random times during the day. She also treats the toy cars and trucks the same way. Feeding, washing and snuggling them. She gave me a dump truck (the Megablock one that is about a foot long) to put under the covers with me and give it a good "snuggle-snuggle". Anyone that thinks boys or girls are taught how to play socially have it all wrong. Same toys, play with them different.

They have a truck book from the library that names all the different types. Tucker loves these books the best for the trucks themselves, but Whitney loves the new vocabulary she gets from it. She knows how to identify all the trucks and her favorite one to say is "tanker truck" (pronounced "sticker tuck")

We had a trade set up with some friends this weekend that involved me watching a 10 month old and a 3.5 year old along with Tucker and Whitney. Whitney was very concerned about the baby's constant cries, It was the end of the day, dinner and bed routine. This baby also is cutting four teeth. I asked Whitney to give the baby the teething rice cakes and cheerios at different times, and she stayed right by him, giving him what he needed. She was also very happy to give up her booster chair for him to sit in during dinner, telling me later that the big girl chair is "whitney seat". Tucker, on the other hand, doesn't like the constant crying. I had to work very hard to keep them separated. If the baby started fussing and I wasn't watching, Tucker would give him a good shove to tell him to stop. If he cried harder, he got more shoves. I finally ended up holding the baby or letting Tucker play in the water while the baby checked out the toys. It went on like this all night until Tucker started begging Cheerios from the baby and the baby hand fed him. Then they were both BFF's and both liked this game. Cracked me up. The 3.5 year old was a dream. Could focus on one toy for 45 minutes. New toys. So awesome.

After the freezing park saga, I decided to walk laps with Tucker in the mall instead. That was way better. Looked at the fish and other animals in the pet store, announced all burned out lights in store displays and practiced hopping from one square to the next. There is a Target in this mall. As we passed it, Whitney looked up and said "Tucky T!" We have been saying T for Tucker and W for Whitney while going through the alphabet books. She then scanned for a Whitney W, but was disappointed when she didn't find one. Not to worry. 2 days later we went to Safeway. And she pointed out the Whitney W. But she calls it "double-whitney" instead of "double-you". She also asked for strawberries while we were at the store. When we got home, she saw them and wanted a sample. She pulled over her chair and started opening them, so I washed them and showed her how to take the stems off. She is very proficient at taking stems off. She ate the entire pound of them throughout that day. She misses Cali, too, even though she's never lived there.

We got a babysitter for Friday night so I could go relax at a friend's house while she fed us dinner. Found out the "play while the cat's out" is learned very early. As soon as I walked out the door, she pulled on the babysitter's arm asking "watch Elmo?" Glad she didn't miss me.

Tucker is allergic to something. last Thursday he broke out in some sort of rash. It has calmed down significantly but is still mildly present after I took out nuts from his diet. Now. Which nut? And is that the only allergy. Things to figure out. Glad he's sleeping at night better, though. Everyone is glad.

Today when I picked them up from nursery, the leaders say they are singing the songs. My babies are growing up:(

The most exciting thing this week for me is that I got the family book made. The person of most interest in this book is Daddy, then Whitney and Tucker are close seconds. Whitney knows the grandmas (Mom and Cathy) but adds Auntie Jill as a Grandma also. I don't think Auntie Jill looks like my mom that much, but for Whitney, I guess it's close enough! She knows that lady somehow!

snow days

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Whitney combing her hair. She actually did a good job of it.
Whitney in a trash bin. It's obviously funny. Good thing I JUST finished giving her a bath.
Tucker doing a forward comb
Second snowman. First snowman is in the background
First snowman buried in second snowfall.
First snowmanWhitney being cute
I don't know what they are looking at, but it's something
"This is great!" and "I'm cold"
Running in the snow

Sledding at our house
Whitney waiting for Tucky to get ready
First slide down the hill



This week we have had snow on the ground for 8 days. For us it has been great fun. Pretty much everything else has been quiet, too. Schools shut down for three days and had a late start another day. Lots of people ended up working from home, either because they couldn't get out of their driveway (without a lot of effort) or because the daycare their kids attended was also closed. What was nice about all that is the silence. I didn't realize how much freeway noise we usually have that was essentially turned off for a day (the day it was snowing all day and they didn't plow roads). Another fun thing is all my neighbors that were usually working were home, out and about shoveling snow. I got to talk to a whole bunch of people I rarely see because they are usually out and about during the bedtime routine. That was fun! And it was fun for us mostly because we had power the whole time. There were people the next city over that didn't have power for 3 days, which makes life a little more interesting.

A comment about the snow here. I could easily have gotten out of my driveway if I really wanted to put chains on, but I was lazy and didn't. I think they didn't plow roads because usually it melts the next day. Which is partly true. It did melt the next day with the first storm, but the second storm came 2 days later with a freezing rain first. That snow still hasn't melted.

Whitney is starting to clearly say lots of phrases. One of which is "picture Whitney" when she wants to see a picture of herself on Daddy's Iphone. Tucker is also saying words and phrases, but his pronounciation is much different than Whitney's, so sometimes I don't always catch on that he has those words and phrases in his vocabulary, too. Whitney pretty much went outside to "make a snowman" a phrase she can say herself. Sledding was fun for five seconds. She learned to say "inside" quickly this week, too, in order to avoid being cold Tucker loved sledding, but didn't love his gloves, so it was short lived, too. Whitney did better when we went for walks. She liked to see her footprints in the snow. She would step, then step back to look at them.

Whitney continues to like to be independent. She is learning to put on her panties herself, comb her hair and pull apart orange segments. She also still loves to beg food off our plates. I've been getting really irritated with it. One day she was begging me for some of my salad, so, in order to stop the begging, I gave her a piece of feta cheese plain. Didn't work. Apparently she loves feta cheese plain. She calls it "mommy cheese". Jim also gave her a bite of kimchi. She ate it, but didn't ask for more. If you've never had kimchi in your house, it smells like bad breath. I've never tried the stuff, but can't get over the smell. It must taste as bad as it smells if Whitney didn't ask for more.

Tucker continues to work on gross motor skills. We were outside sledding and Whitney fell down on the walk back up the hill and couldn't get back up. Naturally. Tucker was still walking up the hill and I was already at the top, so I left the empty sled at the top and walked down to help Whitney up. In that amount of time Tucker reached the top and sat in the sled. The motion of sitting down also started propelling him down the mountain at a slow pace. He was sledding all by himself! But I think it scared him he was moving because he was also crying loudly. We played with balloons, throwing them down the stairs, then walking them back up. Tucker helped Whitney a bunch by walking down and getting her balloon for her. One time he brought both up at the same time. I about had a heart attack watching it, as he had to hold a balloon in each arm, barely being able to see the next step up between the balloons, but he did it. He has been doing some really cute things, too. He has learned to ask me for kisses by leaning his head toward me and I think he gives kisses by pressing his face against our cheeks. I also found him mimicking a baby crying, then walking into the playroom to feed Whitney's doll milk. That was pretty cute. One day I had to borrow some Tucky pants for Whitney to wear. Too many accidents and she had gone through all her clean pants. Tucker had a fit. He did NOT want her to wear them. I explained to him why she needed them. He was ok after that. I then started getting him dressed for the day and he tried to pull off his shirt saying "Whitney", as if he wanted her to wear his shirts, too.

Only videos

This week was a blast! I've uploaded a bunch of birthday videos, too, which accounts for the fun-ness of this week! It also amazes me how fast the week goes when I have things to look forward to. The only things I do consistently out and about is music time and clogging. And for some reason, it makes the week go by really fast and seem really fun. Which is great, considering it's winter.

This morning it snowed. Barely dusted the roads, but enough to convince lots of other people that they shouldn't be driving around to church. The only people at church were those that have lived in the snow and realized the roads being wet and not icy is perfectly safe for driving in. Tucker walked outside and first said, "uh-oh" then looked up and smiled as he blinked his eyes rapidly as he laughed at how it touched his face. Whitney was very confused and concerned. When she walked outside, she stopped on the porch, looking very worried and said "Mess! Mess!". She said that phrase over and over, every time we would pass a patch of snow she could see out the window. And to think that snow was such a part of their lives from day one, but is now a bit of a mystery. But very fun to see them react to it snowing.

This week was also a blast due to the addition of the play kitchen and trucks to the already large stash of new toys from Christmas. They love that play kitchen even more! Tucker and Whitney each brought a truck to church. Tucker was having fun driving the truck all over Daddy. When he drove up and down his back, he said "back!" in his indoor/outdoor voice over and over. Then, when he drove it over Jim's ears and nose, he said "bump, bump!" just like he says in the car when we drive over bumps.

Whitney has learned she can use her new found vocabulary ask for food. One of her favorite foods to ask for is "bubble cheese", a phrase she made up last Sunday for cottage cheese. That and orange, chicken and bread. If I try to offer her something, she often asks for something else. Good thing most of the time it is a healthy request, so I pretty much give it to her. Next are going to be clothes, I just know it.

Tucker may be phasing out of naps. I'm very sad about this and am hoping it's just this week since they haven't done any serious exercise this whole week. Every time I take them outside or to the park, we last all of 10 minutes, even with serious winter gear on. Their hands turn red inside the mittens. But it has been sunny, so I keep attempting it, thinking for some reason I'm still in Cali. Sweet dreams.

the recovery week

A neighbor gave Tucker and Whitney a cake pop. Whitney ate hers on the walk home and wanted Tucker's too. Tucker thought his was a magic wand to bop Sammy on the head with if he got too close. I gave it to him again after dinner, hoping he would know what to do with it, but he still didn't want to try it, so Whitney got it. Tucker turned to his animal crackers, taking each one out of the box to inspect what kind of animal it was. There was a lot of roaring.
Tucker and his "diaper bib" Why this is so amusing is beyond me.
Tucker hooked a bunch of these monkeys on himself
And then played with the barrel for the monkeys
One of Tucker's favorite things to do. Push buttons. But even Grandma An turned that feature off.
Grandma and Whitney reading night time books

We flew back home on Tuesday. This time Jim was with me and the flight wasn't so full so we had a row to ourselves. I don't know why no one picked the seat between us:)..... And Tucker had a major poop explosion in his diaper as we loaded onto the airplane. Impeccable timing. There was no changing table in the back of the plane and the rest of the passengers were still loading, so I changed it on the seat, not knowing when I started the process it was an up the back and front poop explosion. good thing I'm pro. Not a speck on the seat, even peeling off the onsie. I was impressed. And our steward was so awesome, holding out a bag to insert the diaper just at the right moment. Literally a Johnny on the spot. I was very grateful to him.

Even in the recovery week, we've had a blast. I'm amazed at how fast the talking thing is happening. Reminds me of how fast the walking thing happened, too. Whitney is copying sentences now, not just words, and copies almost all words I say. Tucker is really cute on how he says "Whitney" Now that his pronunciation is better, I didn't realize how much he says Whitney's name. I've heard him use it a lot before, but now I know he's saying her name a bunch. Usually to get her attention or for me to bring him over to her first thing in the morning to say hi. Very cute.

Today Whitney used her cooking skills that look amazingly and suddenly grown up to me. I think the thing that amazes us parents is how grown up they act and talk so fast. I feel like they are babies, but are most definitely toddlers. Tucker is also very adept at sliding across the bottom of Jim's phone to get to the next screen of typing in his password. Exactly the way Daddy does it.

With all these grown up skills they are engaging in play with each other. Whitney was using a bath toy, pretending it was saying hi to first her and then Tucker this week. They gave each other pretend (thank heavens) drinks out of their play watering can in the yard this week.

It was also really nice to get back into the routine of things. I got back to exercising and we went to music time and clogging this week. In the particular clogging class I'm going to, there are other women that bring their kids, as well as one mom that home schools a 13 year old. The 13 year old plays with Tucker and Whitney and is really good at it. I think that's why I like the class so much. The babies have fun playing as well as me. This week they got their chairs they love to push around and faced them toward the stage, looking like a mini audience for about 3 minutes while they watched me clog. I think they also like the music. They also play basketball and make towers out of dixie cups.

Life is good, even without the warmth and sun I enjoyed so much the past two weeks. The videos are mostly self explanatory. Apparently Tucker gets really excited about fish in tanks.

christmas part II

Tucker cooking up leaf soup in an abalone shell.
These leaves are so silly. Look at me fling one on my head.
Whitney not feeling well on Grandma An's couch. Very sad.
Kicking the leaves to dig down deeper.
The real use for a truck rack. To swing on, of course!
Tucker burying himself in the leaves.
"How does this thing work? Do you think it's safe?
Yep. It's safe. You can try it now, Whitney!
Oooo! A tire swing.
Tucker and Whitney supervising Grandma and Grandpa
Checking out the "chickens" at the zoo.
There was a monkey in this pic hanging upside down from half way up his cage to get the best sun spot.
what the "supervisors" were really doing. Eating fish crackers, of course.
Whitney playing the piano with Mommy. She also hung out to be with Grandpa and Mommy while Grandpa played his recorders.
Whitney page turning for Mommy Christmas Day
After Christmas dinner.

Playing with Uncle Erik


With the exception of Christmas Eve, we still hadn't seen Jim's family. Monday morning, my dad drove us down there on his way to work. Poor Paul and Cathy. The sleepless week begins.

Tucker had a bit of a cold when we came down, but he picked something else up along the way. He shared it with Whitney and we pretty much didn't sleep the rest of the time we were in the area. But we still had fun. Mommy decided, if they are going to be awake and grumpy, might as well have fun doing it. It was nice and sunny out most afternoons, so we went to the river to throw rocks and look at ducks, went to a couple of playgrounds, helped with yardwork a bit and went to the zoo. We also had Christmas with them a week later when Lindsey could finally get off work and come out with her boys.

This is the part of the post where I can ask for input. Due to the sleeplessness. I honestly don't remember much and didn't take pictures. I do remember that Tucker learned to say "snuggy papa" when he wanted to be held. That and he had a diet consisting of fish crackers. and a few cheerios once in a while. (for the record, he lost weight). So. if I'm missing any pics or funny stories, email them to me and post it later.....

christmas- part I

Tucker was entertaining us with the placemat at dinner. I wanted to put the pics in order of him putting it on his head, but I can't figure that out...



Whitney woke up grumpy from her nap on Christmas after church

The sister pic. I only wish I were taller than B.
Tucker taking cars in and out of his shirt pocket at the Anderson Christmas Eve party
Just for the record. Tucker, full of snot, of course had to throw up at dinner. Gross. This is him after, using the bowl correctly, just in case. Thank heavens he was done.
Siblings
Another for the record pic. Tucker does help Whitney. Tucker passing her her water bottle while waiting in the car for Daddy's plane to arrive Christmas Eve.
The sand box at Camino school is the best. We visited at least 3 times with hours of successful, happy playing. Tucker is burying himself.
This is actually in the car waiting for Daddy to show up, but this is what Tucker did for about 1/2 hour on the plane while we were sitting on the plane at the gait, waiting for repairs on the plane to be completed. Good thing there are buttons that are ok to push on the plane.
Whitney playing in the sandbox. I didn't quite capture it, but she was cleaning the sand off the top.
Whitney using her sugar pinecone as a walking stick. She started pronouncing pine cone very clearly on this trip.
A rare picture. Me with the babies. Tucker carrying the pine cone for a bit.
Of course, the sand DOES belong outside the sandbox.
"Mom. YOU feed the goats. We'll watch this time..."
Watching the donkey eat.

Going for a walk at Sly Park. Check out that sun and blue sky.
Sidewalk chalk at grandma's!
"OK Grandma. You give me the pieces of tanbark......"
"... and I'll show you what they are used for"
More sidewalk chalk.
Tucker
Tucker's nose.
Tucker talked Aunt B into sliding down all the slides first. They were frosty.
Whitney loves to "hang out" at the playground.
Discussing political cartoons with Aunt B
Note the dazed look. Tucker refused a nap, even though he had been up since 5 am. He started falling asleep on his feet looking at the donkey.
Tucker looking up at Aunt B
Watering the flowers at Papa's house.
This was hours of entertainment also. Very cool to pour the beads from the counter, into B's hand, into the container, repeat.
Watching the mechanic to make sure everything was repaired correctly before take off to..... GRANDMAS' houses.

Eyeing the animals.


We had a blast this Christmas. I flew out with the babies early, the week before Christmas, and stayed with my mom for most of that time. The second week we spent together at Paul and Cathy's. Here's our story.

Planes are REALLY exciting. And so is grandma's house. Tucker stayed up from the moment we got him up to go to the airport until bedtime at 6:30 pm. Crazy. It was a foreshadow of the next two weeks.

The plane ride with the two of them was better than I thought it would be. Whitney was perfectly fine with staying dry. They both played fairly well and I had some patient passengers around me. Like the lady that sat in front of Tucker. He kicked her seat or put the tray up and down, up and down, most of the time and she didn't say a thing. Next time I know to bring a candy bar for awesome strangers like that. The teenage kid sitting next to me was pretty patient, even when Whitney knocked his cup over on his tray. Good thing he ordered water. Whitney did watch him carefully though. He had a package of candy in his sweatshirt pouch pointing out toward her. I think she really wanted him to share, but didn't snitch any candy for herself.

We spent the week pretty much hanging out outside. At the park, at Papa's house, with the donkeys, at the lake, at the park again,etc. B spent some quality time with her new BFF, Tucker. She kept trying to teach him to say B, but it was Whitney that caught on the fastest. Although she didn't display her talents until AFTER B left. She saw a picture of B and said B! as well as look for her on the couch and in the kitchen when she had left already. Uncle Scotti is officially scary. But S isn't concerned. He said "I'll be the cool uncle when you are older". We'll see. Uncle Ryan got hugs and Whitney attempted his name.

Oliver made Whitney look amazing. Whitney had one accident the whole week and Oliver had 3 a day. Mom blamed it on having guests and a change in routine. But Grandma, really, what do you call traveling? Status quo? Whitney is amazing!!

To end this post of the first part of christmas, I'll have to describe Christmas. We were having so much fun watching the babies, we didn't get pics, really.

The babies know how to open gifts. Tucker and Whitney especially loved their stockings. We didn't get past the fruit snacks for awhile as Tucker had to eat every single packet before moving on to any other present. Whitney got a pretend fruit basket. The banana peels, so I did it to show her, then went to offer to her to play with the toy banana. Instead of grabbing it, she took a bit. Uncle Scotti got a helicopter. The babies eyed it and he almost crashed it on Whitney's head (see above comment of Uncle Scotti). But this observation came in handy once Tucker got his hands on Grandpa's remote helicopter later.

On to the next post.....