A Goodnight Kiss

Roscoe found a special friend to kiss goodnight. We found him passed out asleep in this position:

Reminds me of a book we like to read, Kiss Good Night by Amy Hest.
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Flashback

This post the other day reminded me of a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo we took in 2007, when M was just C's age.

They have some great exhibits at that zoo that let you get some awesomely close views of the animals.  M was fascinated by the fish.

This was back in her Binky days.  She couldn't go anywhere without her pacifier, and we had to bring extras in case God forbid we lost one or one fell on the ground, or else it would have been the end of the world!  We are all glad those days are over (she finally gave up her binky when she was 2.5), and for this exact reason, we never once offered C a binky.

The giraffe exhibit was one on of my favorites:

Later, baby M became a tiger herself. :-)

We have since tried to make the Lincoln Park Zoo an annual event.  Since Aunt E and Uncle S live walking distance to the zoo, it makes for an easy field trip and a nice visit.  We love spending time with family, especially when it involves seeing some neat exotic animals!

In 2008, I was pregnant with C, so it was not quite as involved of a trip. I was easily fatigued.  We first went north to the Peggy Notebart Nature Museum, which was great fun:

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Insect Fear Film Festival Fun

Had a fantastic time at the 27th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival!  Brought M for the second year in a row, and C for the first time.  This is a tradition that I bring to my kids - I've been going to this festival almost every year since I can remember.  We held tons of bugs, and petted a horseshoe crab!

M was psyched for the event, got dressed in her butterfly shirt, and let me put her hair in pigtails (a.k.a. antennae).

Mama held many creatures, while M and C petted/observed:

M pets a Tobacco Hornworm.

C pulls away, reeling in repulsion, as a event person presents a hissing cochroach.

M and I pet the surprisingly docile and pleasant giant grasshopper (I don't think it's the same species shown in this link, but it looked similar).

Also not pictured, Mama held a hissing cockroach, and also another kind of cute little digging beetle.

I ♥ the IFFF! 

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P.S. For the record, I actually have a moderate insect-phobia, so tonight I will do my heebee-jeebee shake-off dance before I go to bed!

Cowboy Wonder

My husband cleaned out the front closet last weekend and found both his cowboy hat that I gave him as a wedding gift, and his toy guns.  The kids enjoyed them momentarily, until they went back into the closet.

Better behave yourself; the sheriff is comin' to town:

I'm the cutest cowboy you ever saw in these here parts:

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Coolest T-shirt Ever

I've always been partial to this T-shirt for C.  I like the faded look:

















 September 2009


But then I found this one in the drawer!!

Awesome!

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Building Blocks

Our "family game night" this week was building with blocks in the playroom.  Mom builds with Duplos and Megablocks, and dad gets to use the awesome wooden blocks.

Dad builds a fortress with M:














"Dad, that's a pretty zee-sign [design]!"

Close the door.

Open the door

Put block in.

SMILE!

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Sick Is No Fun Part 3

Now C is sick with a high fever.  After a doctor's visit this afternoon, we discovered the cause: a nasty ear infection.  :-(  My poor baby.

But I really think I will miss my baby just down-right laid out on me, resting and cuddling.  Just being sweet and nuzzling, and snuggling, and wanting comfort from mom.  I'll be glad when he feels better, but I will miss that.

And for a photo:  Fish at the doctor's office:

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Baby Pictures

M and I were looking at a brag-book of her baby pictures this evening.

 "Look, Mommy, I'm wearing lipstick!"

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The Pilgrimage

M has been enjoying "walking the dog" lately.  We think its partially fun for Roscoe, and bordering on cruel (since he gets so excited about a potential *real* walk, until he realizes whats really happening...), but we figure its good exercise.  He is very well behaved for her, very good at heeling.

C followed suit and got on board too.   Hitch up the horse and buggy - here we go!

















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Father Knows Best

M has been quite ornery lately, arguing and testing boundaries.  Tonight was no exception.

She was disagreeing with Dad about how to put her pajamas on (she was trying to put them on backwards, and Dad was only trying to help).  Dad was flustered and said something like "sometimes Dad knows what he's talking about"

To which M responded it "When I get big, I'll listen to you"

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A Passion for Chocolate Milk

Our family has a history with chocolate milk.  In fact, I distinctly remember my mother mixing her chocolate milk - she always used a sparing amount, so the milk was barely tinted.  She didn't like it very syrupy.  Now that's how I always prefer to make mine too.  I also remember when my dad would take half-full gallon of milk, and add a ton of syrup to it, put the lid on and shake it up.  It would be gone in a flash!

When M was little, we had a terrible time getting her to drink milk.  All she wanted was juice (half-water, half-juice).  Eventaully, it became a problem after she stopped nursing and really needed the nutrients from milk.  So, we decided to see if a little "chocolate juice" would do the trick.  She called chocolate milk "chocolate juice" for a least a year after that, and drank milk (both white and choclate) willingly from then on.

My husband likes the Choco-riffic chocolate drink.  I find it repulsive, and after reading the ingredients, and finding out that it isn't even made with milk, I was even more disgusted.  Its all corn syrup. Eww!

M agrees with my opinion on Choco-riffic, and always asks for "white milk, chocolate in it"

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Belated Valentine's Day

We thoroughly enjoyed the St. Valentine's Day holiday this year.  Not only did we create our own hand-made valentines, but we received many as well!  M had a V-day party at school and we traded with friends from daycare.  The kids made V-day crafts at daycare:

(Note who is in the bottom right corner!)


Then, on Monday, we got a bunch more in the mail!  Which was awesome:

The kids even got a V-day gift from their Aunt B, Uncle T, and cousins T, L, and F - Legos!

All in all, M really enjoyed receiving little acknowledgments of love, especially by mail.  We laid them all out to see for a few weeks:

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More!

C's verbal communication is skyrocketing.  He has comprehended well for a while, but he is finally starting to say a few words.  When you work on a specific word, he tries again and again, and you can tell he puts a lot of effort into making his mouth move to pronounce the sounds. 

Last weekend, he learned the word "More".    Its so cute, because he says it more like "Moe"  

Watch out!  "More" can be a dangerous word to start throwing around!

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Good Hair Day

Some mornings, M lets me do her hair before school.  This usually involves one of three choices

• A headband
• A ponytail
• Pigtails

Lately, however, she has wanted no less than four hairties in her hair, along with a headband.  I made pigtails, braided them, secured each braid with a second hairtie at the end, and then placed the headband on.

Typically anytime I put effort into her hairdo, it is prompty removed after school is finished, before her nap.  This makes for some very wild-child afternoon hairstyles.  Luckily, this evening, she actually left her hair in until bedtime, but when we took it down, it was hilarious:

Cute from the front

Party in the back!

Although, I have always been fond of that 90's crimped look you get when the braids come out.

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Animal Noses

"When you push it up, its a pig"

"When you push it down, its a cow!"

Apparently!  (Sorry for the creepy pictures of me!)

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The Good, The Bad, and The UGLY

While most of the time I try to keep this blog about the positive experiences, some occasions need to be mentioned that I hope to soon forget.  C's nighttime routine is one of those.

1. He still goes to bed with a bottle.  The pediatrician told us that babies should be completely off of bottles by 15 months.  He is now 16 months.
2. He wakes up every night around midnight.  Usually this is because he has rolled out of his blankets and wants to cuddle to warm up.  So, I bring him into bed to snuggle up and we fall right back to sleep.
3. He wakes up again screeching around 4am.  Usually this is because he is too hot under the blankets and wants to be tucked back in his own bed.
4. But not without another bottle.
5. If we don't change his diaper in the middle of the night during one of these waking episodes, he almost certainly soaks through it before morning, after all of this milk.

I'm sick of washing bottles. I'm tired of waking up twice in the middle of the night, and I dread changing diapers on a screeching baby so as not to risk wet clothes in the morning! 

Any advice out there?  I'm getting desperate!

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Evening Munchies

"A brownie is a dessert, and fruitsnacks are a snack"   M told us, when we got to the "have a snack" part of her bedtime routine.

She had already had a brownie, and was justifying having fruitsnacks on a technicality!  I think she thought she had found a loophole.  I love how kids are always trying to push the boundaries, to see how much they can get away with.

We tried to explain what a synonym was, but she was less than thrilled.

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You can pick your friends...

As I have previously mentioned, M has a bad habit of nose-picking.

We were painting our nails the other night, and she explained:

"Its ok for you to paint my toenails, because I can't pick my nose with them."

"Oh, really?"

"No!  They can't reach!" she said with a giggle.

I think she was trying to tell me that the nail polish on her fingers makes her unable to pick her nose...although I have yet to see it deter the behavior...

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A special thanks to Francine for poking me on an update.  She was the catalyst for why I started this blog, after I recieved her hilarious and inspiring Christmas letter where she did a "year in the life of P." 

Early Reading Skills

For a while now, M memorizes the words of a given book after only one or two read-throughs.  It has often amazed me with how much accuracy she can recite a book page-for-page.  This evening was no exception.  We checked out Smile, Princepessa! from the library last week, and M adores it.  Great book:  attractive illustrations, captivating words, and a theme any three-year-old can relate to.

This evening, when we got to this page, M pointed to each of the words and stated "snap, snap, snap".  There are lots of other words on the two-page spread, so it impressed me that she was able to pinpoint the correct words!  Very cool early reading going on over at our house!

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Dancin' Baby

C has been showing a lot of interest in music and dancing.  Just mention the word dance and he starts into a happy bounce.

He has some hilarious dance moves.  I'm slowly working on a video inventory of his best maneuvers:

• The bob and weave - just like the boxing move. awesome.
• The one-foot stomp
• The disco-style arm-reach
• The bounce and dip:

• the drunkenly dizzy spin:

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Oops!

"Mommy, HELP!" M cried from her bedroom.  I came running down the hall.  I found a comical scene: M had inadvertently put her arms in the leg holes of her pajama pants, and was upset that she couldn't get her head through!

"Oops!" I said, quoting one of our favorite books, Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton. Silly turkey, what a goof.

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Upgrade

We all got new phones at our house. My husband and I got BlackBerry smartphones, so the kids inherited our old phones. We all couldn't be happier!

Photo taken with and post uploaded from my phone! :-)

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Super Pooh

"He's like Superman because his arms stick out"

Super Pooh!  Awesome.

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Pedicure

Thanks to my good friend, who happens to be a groomer, Roscoe was treated to a nail-trim this evening.  My husband and I each took a turn holding him down while she clipped and dremmelled each nail.  He was so happy afterwards - its been way too long.  And now his nails don't go "clink, clink, clink" down the hallway.

Usually Roscoe likes to nose his way into photos.  As seen here:

January 2010

And here:

September 2009

And here:

C and the nice fire December 2009


And here:

Preggers April 2006

And here!

Baby M October 2006

But the nail trim must have worn him out - M took this picture of him this evening.  He wouldn't even budge off of the floor.  He was all tuckered out from the excitement:

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Busted

M woke up and wondered into our room.  She proceeded to lecture me:

"Mom, why is the green box in here?  You can't open the green box until the purple box is all gone.  You shouldn't have those in your room.  We only eat in the kitchen.  Did you eat those after I was asleep?"

What she is referring to is the box of thin mints that my husband and I polished off as our bedtime snack.  We ordered girl scout cookies the other day, and realized we still had some in our freezer from last time.   They. Are. Fantastic.  I think she was jealous that she was not included in this cookie binge.  And, what she didn't know, is that we finished off the purple box (caramel delights) too...

We deserved a scolding for that.

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Sick Is No Fun Part 2

The coughing-induced vomiting returned for a second night.  As M describes in a strangely upbeat way:

"Mommy, it was orange this time!"

That was two nights ago, and it appears the worst is over.  She seems to be on the up-n-up.

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Sick Is No Fun

M stayed home sick today from school.  I felt it was a bit of an obligatory sick day at first, since she was acting normal other than this persistent cough, which led to a vomiting episode last night before bed (hence no school for 24 hrs).

However, after being home with her this morning, I realize now that I'm glad I kept her home.  Get a kid bored enough, and they will start to show how they really feel!  She started out happily playing around the house, but then relaxed on the couch to watch TV, and eventually decided she didnt want the TV on at all, but just wanted to rest on the couch under a blanket.  She's been crashed there for almost two hours, not asleep, just zonked.  Not talking, or moving, or anything.  Just staring off into space, coughing now and then.  Poor little thing.  We'll be off to the doctor at 4pm.

C on the other hand has been hilarious.  He is not sick and has no cough.  But every time he hears M start hacking, he can't help but join in! He has the most fake little cough you've ever heard.

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Clever Little Booger

C figured out how to open the sliding cover of our couch's center console.  My husband used to hide things in there (remotes, game controllers, things we would confiscate from him, etc.).  But now, no space is sacred!

It was funny when he realized he could slide it open, because he did it accidentally the first time.  My husband tried to stealthily hold it closed after the first time, to psyche him out - but it didn't work. He's too clever and cannot be bamboozled.  He just kept prying on it, would give up for a few minutes, then return to it to try again, until finally he came when Dad wasn't there.  And quickly realized that it was no accident when he opened it, that he had conducted this momentous action on his very own! 

He checks back with it every day to make sure he can still open it - just checking!

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That Crazy Alphabet

"It's a   W   when its upside-down, and its an   M   when it's upside-up"

Who knew?  hehehehe.

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