Thank You Vids!

As I rarely get thank you cards out, I often take pictures or videos of my kids playing with whatever whoever special sent them, and then of course I never get those pictures or vids shared with that special someone.  Well, today I'm being good.

 Uncle J, Aunt M, Cousins N&M . . . these are for you!

This was the last in a long stream of attempts to get a decent vid of H saying thank you.  I really should've included all the earlier attempts; they're pretty funny.  What a goof she was being! 

You know that train book you gave Lil'S forever ago that had little toy trains inside it?  Well, we put it up until he was just a bit older, and a bit older turned into a lot older.  S remembered them when I was lamenting that Lil'S didn't have a train set to play with, and a couple weeks later I finally grabbed them and pulled them out.  Were they a hit?  

Um, how about we just label them as the new obsession.  Or, more correctly, Lil'S's first obsession.  He's never been so excited about a toy before.  I mean, yeah, he loved his riding firetruck at Christmas time, but he could walk away from that.

These?  He carried them with him everywhere he went for two days straight. 

OBSESSION!

Happy Sunday

Brotherly Love

One Month Old
Thx again for the styl'n clothes, JW!
  

This Little Piggy

Happy 30th to Me!

Okay, so, really my birthday was in early January, but I'm playing catch up and will likely continue to do so for the next three months!  I've got H's 6th birthday and party to post on next, (wait, did I even post S's back in Dec?) and then there's baby's arrival, which will actually--hopefully!--happen before that.  (I'm scheduled to be induced on Monday, but that may change...long story.)  Then there's Lil'S's at the end of March, and visits from family and baby boy's blessing.  So, bear with me, and if I disappear from Bloggerland for a while, you'll all know why!

This was S's present to me. I was surprised to get anything and had to laugh that it was one of my favorite candies.

(He's not allowed to spend money on me because I'm always overspending, so please don't think he's a total loser husband!)

We were seriously being el-cheapo.  Theses are the donuts I found on Kroger clearance.  I also got like five boxes of cookies for super cheap at the same time for my birthday party (more on that later) and for freezing to snack on later.  It was the best!

Lil'S is a total sweet tooth.  All 28lb of him!

H's present to me, funny girl!

Aw, my visiting teachers got me this wall hanging and a couple of yummy smelling lotions.  I'd been totally wanting some framed scriptures on my walls--just perfect!  It now lives in my sitting room. :) 

See the tear?  ;)

I bought myself a new alarm clock while doing some Christmas shopping and gave it to S, telling him with a smile to give it to me for Christmas.  (It wasn't exactly in our household budget, so it could go in our Christmas one, right??)  I knew my current clock would drive me crazy once middle of the night nursings started up because I have to hit a button in the dark in order to see what time it is. Well, like I did for some of his presents, he forgot to give it to me Christmas Day!  He felt very sheepish giving it to me on my birthday, but I was thrilled. :)  I now have a clock that shows the time in the dark!  (Seriously, don't most alarm clocks do that without having to be "told" to?)

Oh, and I threw myself a birthday party. :)  Turned out S had three, day-long, gratefully local conferences starting my birthday and going into the weekend.  So, Saturday afternoon, I had a bunch of friends over to chat and eat yummy food so that I wouldn't sit around and feel sorry for myself.  ;)  It was great fun!

Valentine's Day Concert

Thursday night we attended H's Kindergarten Valentine's Day Concert.  The kids sang just four or five songs--short and sweet!  It was fun to see them perform.  

I have to admit, though, that during the days leading up to it, I kept joking with S about modern-day education, or the lack thereof:  Where's the Presidents' Day Presentation??  I wanna see the kids all dressed up, quoting famous lines!!!  ;)  

I wish I'd gotten pictures of all the parents standing, taking pictures and videos the moment the kindergarteners arrived on the scene.  Talk about paparazzi!  The kids hadn't even done anything yet!

Waiting for the concert to start. . . .

One of Lil'S's favorite activities: pushing things!!!

Just doing a little weight-lifting.

The PERFECT view, in my opinion!

Just making sure. . . .

We all loved the backward letters.

They lost it a bit here at the start of the second verse, but then they picked back up again.  H is such a little performer!  I wish the zoom on our camera was working because her expressions were fantastic.  (It won't focus in zoom.  The pictures above were the closest I could get to her without the pictures turning out completely fuzzy.)

Thanks for the fun night, Miss H and all the kindies & kindie teachers at her school!

Fall's Fun Pictures (Sept-Oct)

H was a little MUCH too tired to go to church Sunday, so while waiting for Daddy to come home, I let the kids get some fresh air while I tried to get some cute fall pictures.  I know it sounds crazy to say my 5-yr-old was too tired to go to church, but when you need 12hrs of sleep a night and only get 10, bad things happen.  Mama was feeling the same way, however, and appreciated the excuse to take a long nap.

Too bad my camera's not focusing when I zoom in.

baby blue eyes

These next two are from today.  I finally got to Target to exchange the fun Halloween shirts my thoughtful mom-in-law sent the kids.  I lucked out--there was just one of each in the next size up. :)  Happy day!  Lil'S liked the dog on his shirt.  I usually don't talk about what's on his clothes but did this time, and he smiled and pointed at it a few times and gabbed a bit.  Yup, that would be approval.  Thanks, Grandma!  Oh, and in the picture above, Lil'S is pointing down to tell me the handle of the wagon keeps falling down.

 H came home with round gold paper listing her name, grade, and teacher.  There was a post-it note attached saying she was a top reader for the Read-a-thon fundraiser held at school at the end of September.  I don't know if she was a top reader for her class or for her grade, but I guess I'll find out eventually. . . .

Man of the House

 A package from Grandma!

I got croup.

H and her cousin J

Lil'S found a puddle while H and I were playing ball with a neighbor.  I finally ran to grab the camera when he was lying on his tummy in it, splashing with his hands and kicking his little feet with the biggest grin on his little face.  Too bad I missed that photo opp.

H had to get into the fray once she saw a camera was involved. ;)

General Conference of the 

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Sunday Session

2 Oct 2011

Here's a bunch of pictures of our crazy crew by the end of Conference.

love the marker all over him

Lil'S's artwork (the black, I mean) 

very original piece by H . . . I think she said it's a girl on a boat in the rain (round blue circles). 

Couldn't decide which one of these I want to post, and I can't remember which one S preferred, so you get to see both of them.  ;)

I'm a Mormon! 

 I'm a cute little copy cat!

 As a child, I always wanted to grow watermelon in our family garden, so I was very eager to try planting it on our oversized, too-hot-to-grow-anything patio out front that was in desperate need of SOMETHING to make it look less bare.  We planted a few patio watermelon seeds in the two pots by our front door, and they grew four watermelon that we were so excited to watch grow bigger.  Well, they didn't grow bigger!  But life also happened after a while, resulting in our complete neglect of them.  Finally, the poor plants withered and died in the hot August sun, and the two surviving little watermelons sat . . . and sat . . . and sat there on our front patio, reminding me of their abuse every time I happened to chance by them. (We use the side door for our regular comings and goings.) 

Sometime in early September they were spotted by Miss H: "Our WATERMELONS!  We need to eat them!" and I Eore-ishly did the duty of a good mother and picked a watermelon from its shriveled vine and carried it inside, hoping she'd forget about it so that she wouldn't be disappointed when it was green or rotten inside.  A whole week later (things tend to get lost on my counter tops, but I guess there was a little procrastination in there as well), she discovered the little watermelon again and insisted we have it for dessert as we'd discussed during previous months--if it was any good, I again forewarned her, dreading the moment she'd find it was all moldy from sitting on the counter for eternity.   

Imagine my surprise when Daddy cut into the little melon and--

It was yummy!  

A little over-ripe, sure, but still yummy!

One happy H and one very relieved and thrilled mama behind the camera.  It was cute to watch the kids drink the juice from the rinds of those tennis-ball-sized melons.  We all really had a blast.  I'm looking forward to planting something again next year that--at least if I water it every now and then the first month or two--will actually bear some sort of fruit, despite my inattentiveness.

I found this "present" outside my door one day. :) 

I'm grateful I was feeling well that day so that I could kindly thank her for it and then later on talk to her calmly about the marker on the baby blanket!  I think it's still sitting on my dresser, waiting for me to attempt to get the marker out.  Such is my life!

Lil'S is 18 months!!!

(Actually, he's technically 19 months in a few days, but that's the life of a blogging, pregn mama with inconsistent internet service!)

Smiling for the camera is not a concept he's learned yet.

(Of course the camera lens was dirty when I attempted to take pictures. . . . You'd think I'd have done that enough times that I'd check it before the photoshoot!)

 Mom, why are you playing peek-a-boo with the camera in your hand?

To get you to smile for a picture, my child.

No, you're not going.

All About Lil'S

Little Mr. S has been on an independent streak the past month or two. Here are all the things S and I can think of that he likes to do on his own.  Not letting him do these things--or not knowing in advance that he wants to do these things--usually results in a shriek of frustration and a very cute angry face.

- unload utensils from the dishwasher--actually into the drawer!

- get his plate from the dishwasher and put it on the table

- turn on the bathtub faucet

- put on his shoes and socks (Or at least randomly shriek at me and try to grab the sock/shoe from my hand and bang it against his foot.  Gratefully this outburst is usually short-lived as this is obviously an area where he's needing much more development before he'll be able to actually put the shoe/sock on himself.)

- drink from a cup that doesn't have a sippy lid

- get his own bread out of the bread bag

- put his milk cup back in the fridge

- open and close the microwave door (S says he stood there letting him do that over and over for like five minutes.)
- steal fruit from the fruit plate and giggle as Mom chases him down

- climb up into one of the kid chairs to color at the kid table

- climb into his kid-sized car!  (PHEW!  new this past week or so)

- use the baby potty (No! Really! He's potty training himself! Not that I seriously think he'll go diaperless before this next baby comes, but if I were a dedicated, consistent mama, there would be high chances of that!) 

- use the baby potty standing up  

Yes, this morning my 18-month-old placed his potty where he wanted it, stood back, and let it go.  ACK!!!!!  After grabbing the potty and trying to catch what was coming, my initial thought was, "I really thought he had better control than that!"  But then realization dawned on me.  This afternoon I asked S, "Has [Lil'S] seen you use the bathroom standing up?"  S gave me this am-I-in-trouble-for-something? look and slowly replied, "Yes."  After I told him what happened, S defended himself, "You told me you wanted me to teach our boys how to do it" I just laughed, "Yes! But when they're like three!!!  Not 18 months!!!"

I still can't believe that happened, but then again, with how imitative Lil'S has been lately, I really can!

Other things Lil'S likes to do

- anything that has to do with water (Drinking it, playing in it, washing his hands, splashing in puddles, etc. Ah, that's probably where the potty training has come in. Not only do we wash out the baby potty, but he also gets to wash his hands afterward.  Bonus!)

- play outside! (I know I said it already, but he's finally mastered climbing into the car by himself! I haven't seen if he can go forward yet, but at least he can scoot himself backward.)

- color! (He is a drawing fanatic. He loves to sit at the kitchen table across from H and draw while H does her homework. He will seriously sit there for a whole hour! Too bad he likes to eat crayons and bite the tips off markers and colored pencils. . . .)

- play with toy cars and trucks

- push things around (doll strollers, real strollers, plastic drawer sets, library book carts....)

- read (He probably reads books with us or by himself for about 20-60 minutes day!)

- go with Daddy in the mornings to see H off on the bus

bye, Daddy

- watch Daddy leave for work on his scooter in the mornings

- sit on Mommy's lap and watch the cars go by while waiting to get H from the bus. (Well, actually, the past couple weeks he's been wanting to go onto the highway to see the cars up close; I might have to start strapping him in the stroller again to get sister from her bus. . . .)

- shriek at Mitzie to see her jet away (His shrieking phase would have been short-lived had she known not to react to him!)

- be Mr. Social (I had some friends come over Monday afternoon, and he immediately led them into the house and showed their 3-yr-old boy his toy truck. Another time, he sat at lunch with a 3-yr-old girl, chatting away like a perfect gentleman taking a woman out to dinner for the first time. As nap time approached, he started getting a little looser, and by the time the meal was over, he was as loopy-doopy as any man who drinks a little too much on a first date with a pretty woman.  Hilarious!)

- walk around the house with the hula hoop (Been a fav since the moment he learned to walk.)

- let us know when we forget to remove the oven knobs that are within his reach (Hey, Mom, I can reach this!)

- smile at Mom/Dad sweetly while she/he tucks him into his crib on good nights (I. LOVE. THIS. I can't even express how much I love this!)

Things he wants to do that we won't let him do.

- play outside at 7 in the morning (Mom's COLD!)

- walk around the house eating (But Mom and Dad do it!)

- open and close the oven door (new and gratefully short-lived)

- sit in a chair without his booster (He's been one happy man ever since Saturday when I washed his booster and didn't get it strapped back onto his chair.)

- get what he wants to eat out of the fridge

- stand on the kid table (new the past few days)

- climb onto the kitchen table (Also new. . . . Can you tell he's not much of a climber? Some kids'll be on top of the fridge by 18 months.)

First Words

Lil'S has mostly been doing monosyllables, but every now and then the past couple weeks he'll do the typical "na-na, ba-ba-ba" thing.  So, he's a bit behind.  We'll wait until he's two to get him evaluated.  (Ha, when I'm busy with a newborn? Maybe we should just make an appointment now for when he's two just so it's on the calendar!)

- Ma (Mommy)

- Da (Daddy, truck, down)
- mao (As in "meow", not the Chinese dictator. That's the way I taught him to say "meow" when I noticed he was only using one syllable at a time. He used to go over to Mitzie and sweetly chat with her while petting her. "Mao . . . mao . . . mao. . . ." Too cute.  They had a great relationship until he decided to experiment with shrieking.)

- ba (ball, although he only said that for a week or so, if that)
- na-na (Hannah, banana; usually only once every month or so, although I think a couple times the past few days. . . .)

newest word:

yeah! (very hoarse and very exuberant)

newest mode of communication:

A growly yell whenever he doesn't get what he wants. (Thanks to the Baby Sign video Daddy brought home for Lil'S during his breathing treatments, we had at least two days were he decided signing was a better way to get want he wanted. If only that had lasted. . . .)

newest sound:

Some funny "la-ol-lu" thing he's done with his tongue every now and then the past couple days.

First Signs

me!

ones he made up: 

(I love these.)

- tickle

- me! / for me! (I've only seen him do this three times, but I still lucked out and got a picture of him doing it when I didn't expect him to!) 

more!
(Sometimes I wonder about his eyes, too.
Well, we'll find out at H's appt in Jan/Feb.
Her dr. offered to check him out then too
 since it's genetic.  She's awesome.)

ones we taught him: 

(not as much fun, but necessary)

- milk

- eat

- please

- help

- bath (much more exciting here...water's involved!)

ones we're still teaching him

- drink

- water (At first I was surprised he didn't pick this one up immediately, but it is a more complicated sign, and he's always been at the latter end of the normal development range for his motor skills. For example, he just started pointing at things this past month or two and at things in books this past week. . . .  That's a little behind isn't it?  At least I was thinking it was. . . .)

- sit (Although this one is pretty pointless. I've really just been using it lately to add emphasis when telling him to sit, not that it necessarily helped much. ;) When would we want him to use the sign, telling us to sit?  Maybe if he wants us to read him a book?)

And, now in case you haven't heard or seen enough of Lil'S, here's a video of his cuteness.