Thursday, March 31, 2011

Why learning to spell is important

M: "Grilled cheese sandwiches are just for girl." (that's what I thought I heard)
J: "No they're not. Boys can have them too."
M: "Huh uh. Only girls. That's why they're called GIRLED cheese sandwiches, right mom?"

J: "You know you don't speak French M. But Fancy Nancy does."
M: "Fancy Nancy knows how to speak Futch? I wish I knew how to speak Futch."

Hide-n-seek aka nap time

Last night I mentioned to the girls that daddy would be home soon. Soon to me = 20 minutes. Soon to the girls = 20 seconds. They both started squealing and running around the house yelling hide, quick! Where should we hide? I quickly evaluated the situation. I'd just put dinner in the oven. Buddy was sleeping. If I could just convince the girlies to stay in a hiding spot, I might just be able to lie down and take a quick nap. Wouldn't that be great? But how to keep them excited to stay hidden for 20 minutes without them asking if he was here yet every 2 seconds, waking me up? Here you go:
Ta dah! I am a tricksy little hobbit, or I would be if I were a little hobbit. My brilliant scheme could only have worked better if getting them set up hadn't taken half of my power nap time.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Too Much Dora

Just looking at it gets me singing "I'm a Map, I'm a Map, I'm a Map ..." And when did she start using apostrophes? We should probably start working on spelling but it's hard to correct her when this way is SO dang cute! (For those not lucky enough to be familiar with Dora, they have a map to help them get somewhere and Dora explains the steps to get there, just like J did on these papers) And I love the teamwork. M drew the map and J wrote the directions/story line. I find maps like this drawn by M nearly daily. I will also occasionally hear little Swiper sounds behind couches. I love it.

His favorite new toy

And for $25 at a Used-Toy store, what's not to like? Love that smile!I wanted to insert some witty caption here but the face is just too good for anything I can think of. What do you think he's saying here?And is this not a crazy boy face? Looks like he's ready to be chasing his sisters around the playground with a worm laughing his mischevious little heart out. Fun times ahead. I can hear the squeals now.
J always had an extremely expressive face and still does actually. As a baby I remember my mom asking if I could get any normal pictures of her smiling since mostly I got crazy expressions and funny faces. While I get lots of smiles from Buddy, I don't think he's much behind her in expressiveness!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Was that in the job description?

M: Mooooooom! We didn't ever do _____ today.
Me: I know honey, but we did do ____ and ____ and ____ and ____ and well, Mommy just can't do everything.
M: (looking thunderstruck) But you're the MOM!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Moses and Minnie

This week J taught our Family Home Evening lesson (Family Home Evening is something we do once a week where it's basically a family night. We sing some songs together, have a lesson from the scriptures, play a game, have dessert, stuff like that). She prepared it all herself and was SO excited. M got to be the helper that held the pictures while J read her "talk." Here it is:In retrospect, not the best idea to let her learn the scriptures by watching movies. Prince of Egypt is very entertaining but what she got out of it was that God yelled at Moses so loud Moses took his shoes off. We might have to review the story in more detail next week. But so cute regardless!

Then here are M's two favorite subjects. We see slight variations of these two pictures dozens of times each week. On the left we have princess M and princess J, obviously. Can you tell me what's on the paper on the right?
Why that's Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse of course. And in case you have ever wondered about their relationship, your questions are all answered here. Minnie, as you can see, is clearly pregnant. She draws a variation of this picture probably half a dozen times each week. Hey, when you find something that works, stick with it.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Eating Pros and Woes

As I think I've mentioned before buddy LOVES these new solid foods. You put him in the high chair and it's the highlight of his day. Although, you better be ready to get started because highchair = eating. Highchair does not in any way, shape, or form, equal patiently waiting until the food gets to him. But as long as the food is coming, he is an extremely happy camper.
He loves the food, he loves the cup (although he hasn't figured it out and just chomps on it), and he loves the spoon. Fortunately, we're not yet to the "I do" phase, just the quick-give-him-the-spoon-to-make-him-happy-before-he-notices-the-food's-all-gone phase.
In fact, there had yet to be a food he didn't liked. And then he met green beans. I'm not so sure about the looks of that stuff, says he.
What is this stuff? Do I like it?
Uhhhh, this tastes like ... I don't think I do.
Blah. Get it out of my mouth.
GET IT OUT! GET IT OUT! GET IT OUT!
Turns out he doesn't like green beans.

Still with the feeding thing, I need advice. Buddy has had nursing trouble since day one, having to do with his acid-reflux (he's been on medicine for it), and the fact that he prefers wrestling/biting/twisting/pulling/squirming/mashing/arching/pulling off every two gulps to nicely sucking. We struggle. And his weight percentage has just continued and continued to drop until the doctor just told me to call it quits and give him formula in bottles to try to get him more food and more weight. I don't think the problem has ever been me having enough milk, but he won't keep eating long enough to get enough and thus, isn't gaining weight as he should. This has been so difficult and frustrating and I was a bit emotional about it but it's what's best for him. But now that I've accepted that, he won't take a bottle. Won't take it if it has my milk, won't take it if it has formula. We've tried three different kind of bottles/nipples and he thinks they're fun toys for a few minutes, won't suck on them at all, lets most milk that comes out dribble down his neck, and then gets mad. Coop has tried giving them to him without me around so he doesn't want me instead. No go. So here's where the much-needed advice comes in. How do we get him to take a bottle? In the meantime I've been nursing him every 2 hours in hopes that he'll get more, but I'm not so sure that it doesn't just mean more time for him to scream at me. It's so draining trying to get him to eat. So can anybody tell me how to get him to take a bottle?? Help please!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

My new trick!

What are you doing? Oh, I'm just sitting here.
What did you say? Oh nothing much. I'm just SITTING. Look! No hands! Hard to believe isn't it?
I'm pretty happy about it. I think I'm pretty cool now that I can sit up all by myself and go eye-to-eye with anything. Well, okay, anything that's about one foot tall. Still, pretty awesome.
And true, sometimes I fall over. But I'm no less cute when I do!
And plus, when I fall over, I can easily play with these really sweet feet. It's hard to grab them and get them in my mouth though with them kicking so fast. Oh well, it's fun to try!

Monday, March 07, 2011

Playground rules for the dolls

I especially love the last one. Very important that nobody be caught "playing dog." Who knows what would happen if we let them get away with that.

Thursday, March 03, 2011

Our big/little boy

Here's a bunch of pictures for you to enjoy. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!! He's just so cute.
Enjoying some sister time (lots of pics of the same thing, I know, but each face is different):
Watchin' Blazers with daddy time:
Is this not a "do-you-see-what-this-crazy-chick-is-doing-to-me" face?
Cool and knows it too:
We actually got a picture with Papa! Hurray!
He loves him his baby food! Do you see how he's attacking that spoon? Wish you could see him eating live. Before he's even swallowed he starts yelling for the next bite. It is not a pretty sight when the bowl is empty.
And no joke, he grabbed this out of my hands as I walked by. My mom was holding him and he just snatched it and then did this. How does he even know that's what you do??
We can't believe how darn fast the little peanut is growing. It's rather disturbing. He has been sitting by himself the last few days. Of course he falls if he gets distracted and quickly looks to the side or something (which makes the girls laugh hysterically), but the fact that he's doing it means he's getting big WAY too fast!