Safety and Special Time

G asked me not to put her helmet on with the staple. I think she meant the clip?

At the doctors office he asked G what her last name was and she said Goose. Maybe it's time to drop the nickname?

Just using his awesome new helmet to keep him safe while reading:

Coop: they come in all sizes

Dude: that cannot be possible bc then they would have to come as small as molecules!

Coop: right. Thank you Captain Literal.

Dude: there are lots of molecules in your hands!

We just love exploring and biking through the countryside, which fortunately is just a few blocks away in multiple directions. Too bad there aren't shoulders for safety. Or water fountains. Or bigger wheels on Dude's tiny bike!

Wouldn't want to not have enough milk with your cereal...

Incidentally, after I began cleaning it up I noticed the milk carton was on the far side of the table meaning she must've poured, got down and put it on the far side, then returned to her spot. Did she think this way I wouldn't know who'd done it?

Coop to L: we do not give our babies swirlies! Get that baby doll out of the toilet! No swirlies! No swirlies in our house!

G got to spend a special weekend with Nana and Bopa all by herself. She got the kind of attention she has only dreamed of before and loved it.

When hanging out with Aunt Patti at her office, G told people that "my friend L misses me," handed out date stamp artwork that she had signed, and replied that she was so cute "because of my mommy." Awwww. We would skype with her and blow her kisses so she wouldn't forget us amidst all the glamor: 

And she was right! When L first saw her home, she pranced over to her shouting her name again and again. You'll have to trust me, it was darn cute.

Tulip Festival 2016

I'll just throw some pretty pictures (mostly from the Tulip Festival) in between the weirdo things our tinies have said this week:

G keeps drawing dead guys with chalk on the sidewalk (I know they're dead bc they have x's for eyes). Then she stomps on their heads and says, "blah," with her tongue out. Should I be concerned?

Dude: Mom, what if everything was awesome? Then even toots would be awesome.

M just said to me, "well, you're not really the mechanical engineering type." Guess she noticed.

G: I'll be really tippy-tippy quiet, okay mom?

G and I are playing a game that's missing its die. G goes, hmmm...maybe I can smell it and starts crawling around sniffing for the die.

G likes to draw more than one Candy Land card at a time "accidentally." Then she chooses which one she wants. The best part is she doesn't always choose the one that is most advantageous to her.

G just wished on a dandelion that her mom can be bigger and better than she and that when she grows up she can have a baby animal.

I told L to not even think about it. She walked in the room, shook her finger at me and said, "I no tink bout it." If only. If only.

Oh and we spent time at Omsi and at grandma and grandpa's! Here's grandpa with his two Gracies:

Having fun with our Idaho cousins:

L was hysterically terrified of this "magic" floating ball:

G asks me if she can please go potty on THAT toilet. Uh, I think not.

I'm pretty proud of myself for not losing anyone during the 3 hours I was alone with all of them at Omsi. I mean, I didn't always know where they all were but I came home with he same number I arrived with! I usually just followed L and prayed that the rest wouldn't wander too far, but I turned for a second and L was suddenly serenading the whole room with "I am a child of God," as she salivated all over that microphone:

Oh and then the week ended with the Big Three enjoying some sunny fun in Bend:

What a week. Why is it I'm always so tired?

Easter and terrible twos

Five minutes from our new house:

March madness has been strong in our house. 

M: can they just fall over? 

Me: yeah but that's called flopping.

M: flop! 

J: but that's cheating! 

M: mom never said it's cheating.

I asked G if we should watch Duke or Butler and she giggled and said smiling, "I picked Butler bc it was funny." This after Dude picked Butler to win the whole tournament possibly because the girls convinced him they were the Butler Butts, which is of course, side-splittingly hilarious. Though even they do not want to see the mascot.

G and L are going back and forth saying, "you go to time out." "No! You go to time out!" "No! You go to time out...."

Life is hard when your younger sister screams at the top of her lungs for the whole grocery trip. At the checkout, G told everyone, "she's kinda havin' a rough day."

And there's a lot of that lately. I could basically put together a whole list of the ridiculous things my toddler has cried over this week alone. Above was because I tried to hold her hand in the parking lot. Here was because I wouldn't let her delete all the apps on my phone: 

This one was because the cookies were too hot to eat (and still baking but that's beside the point):

Her pediatrician told me that it's adventurous kids like her that grow up to change the world. That was the polite version of, "oh boy, you have your hands full!"

There are occasionally moments of calm:

Usually that means something bad is happening. Like it's too bad L has orange marker all over her face and was lifting up her shirt to color her belly when I caught her...

Nana pretty much sewed these all in 24 hours:

They look so cute!!

I don't think the Easter bunny hid any up there M but maybe you'll see more from up high?

The morning after Easter, G wanted the bag of jelly beans for her cereal. Ha.