Are we having fun yet?

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.