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!

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!

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.

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!

What a dog!

My Aunt Patti and Uncle Jim have the most beautiful dog! They got him when he was just a puppy - he looked like the softest stuffed animal you've ever seen with these huge paws. Fast forward the better part of the year and he's grown into those large paws!! Isn't he adorable? This was as close as J got. And that was only after I carried her there and plopped her down on the bench for the picture. Poor thing. She talks big and really truly does want to like dogs and play with them but once they're within 10 feet she just goes nuts. She can't be talked out of it. Believe me, we've tried. This was a moment of peace but she was not going to take her eyes off of him for a second!M has no such reservations. As you can see, he's nearly as tall as her and she just giggles away.
He, of course, needs a closer look.
She soon decided he was her pal and kept hugging him around the neck. In a rare moment of bravado, J ran over touched him at arms length when he was distracted, and booked it out of there. She kept repeating that she'd touched him until everyone acknowledged her great feat.
We brought him in briefly to see what Buddy's response would be since he's like the size of Bodie's head. We were hoping for some laughs or funny faces at least, but alas, he was more interested in the camera. Not having been around dogs before, it's like he didn't think he was real, and thus not worth bothering to look at. Bummer.
Then they were off on a walk, despite the frigid temperatures. M wanted to hold the leash but you don't need much of an imagination to foresee what would've happened if she had and Bodie had decided to run. Oh boy.

P.E. Extra Credit

So J's P.E. teacher is awesome and sends out this monthly newsletter with funny things the kids say, health and exercise tips, what they're learning, and an extra credit calendar. It is full of suggestions of fun things to do with family or friends to get "extra credit" in P.E. By that he means you get a certificate and you get to sign your name on the Fitness Star Wall of Fame poster for the month. I know, cool, huh? Well I'm new to this whole kids with school, homework, papers to have signed, remembering to send the appropriate shoe wear on P.E. days and the the library book on Thursdays, etc. etc. etc. so I've glanced at it before and thought "that would be fun if I were a little more on top of things. Maybe when she's older. Afterall, she has her whole life to be an over-achiever." But I printed it out this month and put it in her homework folder for fun. And it is fun. Last night with daddy they did this: "Build a tower of pillows and practice throwing sock balls at the top pillow. Can you knock it over?" Daddy thought this was the best homework ever. Buddy, being held by daddy, was studying the whole thing as if we were from a different planet and he needed to learn as much as he could. Today we've been working on this one: "Take five pieces of newspaper and roll into a long, tight paper tube. Tape the sides so it will stay rolled. Balance the paper tube on fingers, hand, elbow, anything." Again, who knew homework could be this fun?
By the way, the ballet outfits were not required. Just for kicks. And by the way, now that I stopped being in charge, they have changed into witch costumes and are using their balancing sticks as bows and arrows to kill the crocodiles, and poke me from a safe distance away. Or I should say M is. J keeps sending her to do it. Their whispers from the hallway are rather intimidating. At least they haven't turned on each other ... yet.

A picture's worth a thousand words

Explanation of this picture by M:

"The little guys at bottom are the bird pirates and they are hunting out of their nest. The big one is the mama bird and the blue one is the daddy parrot, no I mean the brother parrot. And the bird pirates shoot poison water up to the birds and the birds drink it cause it reached all the way to the sky to where the birds went. Their nest is on the side over there with all those little circles. And the birds have spots on them so the pirates are teasing them. There are arrows pointing at them so everyone knows that the boys and girls are girls and boys. And the trees just are long." There you have it.

Oh and I love their wee little wings and tails!

Happy Birthday Blondie!

Our little M is 4! Por fin! She has wanted to be 4 for the longest time, because as she tells me, after 4, you get to be 5 (which she probably wants to be because J is 5)! Nana, Bopa, Grandma and Grandpa Smith all came up for the celebration. The day before we did fun things like go to the Harry Potter exhibit (which wasn't quite as interactive nor as interesting to the kids as we had anticipated) and then other parts of the Pacific Science Center (Omsi equivalent). There was the little kids' play area:the space section:and of course, the ninety degree, splendiferous butterfly house that even Fancy Nancy would approve of:You have to be really careful not to step on them because they land everywhere. J gets freaked out when they fly right in front of her, but loves to spot the ones at rest.I had a little friend that landed on my head and stayed there for like 10 minutes. You're told not to remove butterflies that land on you so he just chilled with us. Buddy was a little oblivious. Butterflies would swoop by right in front of his face and then about 10 seconds later he'd turn his head to see what it was. Love the reaction time.
Then we picked Bopa up from the bus station and went to cousin Hannah's Ballroom dance competition, and to a restaurant for dinner. Then on her birthday, she was such a doll and waited until everybody was finally all there at about 5 PM to open her presents!! I can't believe she handled waiting that long! By that time she was a little worn out so she wasn't quite as excited as she would've been earlier but she was such a good little birthday girl.Her favorite present:I got off so easy this year! She just wanted pink cupcakes with pink frosting and pink sprinkles! Pinkalicious!Poor buddy wanted to eat cupcakes too. Next year little man!We're so glad M is part of our family! She gives the best hugs in the world as she "tries to squeeze your guts out." She is so good at twirling, which is her favorite part of dancing, and apart from a rather good booty shake is pretty much the only move she does. She livens things up with a crazy look when things are getting too quiet. She loves her baby brother and "helps" him roll over and read books and eat Saltine cracker crumbs when mom isn't looking. She is so cute and loves to snuggle up to you. She gets so excited for her big sister to get home so she can show her all the things she did that day. She loves fruit and is constantly asking for me to go buy her a watermelon and other such out-of-season fruit. She is obsessed with music as of late and often drags me into her room to hear her new favorite song that she has playing on her ancient CD player. She is so sweet and darling and hard to ever say no to as she bats her beautiful blue eyes up at us. We just love her to pieces! Happy Birthday!! (She just told me that this was much too long and that she was tired of listening to all that I wrote but I couldn't help but include these things we love about her even if they're too much for her attention span :) )

Funnies

Last night after giving J a kiss goodnight, Coop lightly tapped his head on hers and said it was a "love bonk." M quickly asked for him to come down to her (on the bottom bunk) and smacked her head against his forehead with all the force she could muster. She left this mark:Yet she didn't complain at all. Just was pleased with herself for giving him a "love bonk." I'll have to remember to avoid those in the future.

The other day we were watching Sound of Music. It was pretty early in the movie and the girls were asking questions about why they were marching and why Maria didn't like the whistling and such. I explained that the dad thought kids should be serious, and wear uniforms, and march, and stand still in lines, and be quiet. But that Maria thought kids should play and dance and sing and have fun. Everybody just went back to watching and then like 30 seconds later M shouted out, "SHE'S right mom!"

The other night M was, as usual, the last one standing at the dinner table. Coop stayed to help her along. She was much more interested in conversation, however. She brought up how Halloween things are pretend like mummies and ghosts, to which Coop agreed. She then added bats to which he disagreed, bringing up how we had seen them in the zoo. Unfazed, she added, "and pumpkins. They're pretend." Coop responded, "No actually, pumpkin are real." M: "No dad, they're pretend." Coop: "Remember how we carved them? They were real." M: "No, but pumpkins that talk, they are pretend." Coop: "Well yes, that's true." M: "And REAL pumpkins that talk, those are pretend too." Coop: "Well they can't be real if they talk." M: "That's because REAL pumpkins that talk are pretend and pretend pumpkins that talk are pretend too." They went back and forth arguing this one point for the next 10 minutes or so as M put off eating, during which J ran down the hallway and yelled, "No way Dad. Pumpkins that talk are FICTION!" And a few minutes later we heard her yell from her room, "That's NON-FICTION!" Good to know they are really learning stuff at school!

We love visitors!!

We are really blessed to have moved to such a beautiful place with great people in our ward that's still in the Northwest, but sometimes we still really miss home. Some days more than others. So it's always nice to have visitors, since all our family and friends are clearly what we miss most about home. This weekend we got to enjoy: a new El Salvadorean restaurant with pupusas and some yummy desserts, M being sang to at Red Robin for her upcoming birthday while she shyly hid her head in Grammy's neck, baby I smiling till my cheeks hurt just watching at his grandparents, mommy and daddy going out on a real date Saturday night, Grammy helping decorate the all-important Valentine's box that couldn't wait another second although it's not needed for another week, watching Despicable Me while Grammy and Papa snoozed on the couch, and just hanging out while it rained and poured outside. Fun, fun!

We had a great time, appreciate all they did for us, and miss them already!

I'm not sure ...

if this picture would be best described as M holding I or I squishing M. What do you think?And you know that creepy feeling when you know somebody's looking at you? Just had it. I get that all the time when I is awake. And then I look over and sure enough, he's staring straight at me, watching my every move. Kind of a creeper thing to do but as long as he gives me one of those smiles, it's all good.

And I couldn't resist throwing in this adorable sleeping pic of I. He's pretty darn cute when awake but totally angelic when sleeping. Especially when he stays sleeping. Not so much when he keeps waking throughout the night because his binky fell out or because he rolled over or because he got unwrapped or because he's already plotting how to drive his parents batty or because he's a baby and he does that. But for this moment, aaahhhh, so cute!

Insert your own dialogue here ...