A short clip of how Tucker salts each and every cucumber. He did this for his thanksgiving dinner
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Tucker pickling his own cucumbers
A short clip of how Tucker salts each and every cucumber. He did this for his thanksgiving dinner
Saturday, December 29, 2012
a week of bliss
I forgot how fun the week after Christmas is. They still love their toys and play independently quite a bit. I've been getting caught up on random projects, none of which you can see or include cleaning the house of course. Maybe I'll get to the point where I can paint my room the color I have painted in swatches. Put those swatches on almost 2 years ago. Don't even notice my four toned walls anymore. I don't know. Painting sounds really ambitious.
Whitney is going to really love Activity Days when she gets old enough, I'm sure. Today she said "activity days is for eating cupcakes" randomly. Last time I made cupcakes and/or did activity days included that.
We had a blast today. We went to a new park. They had an education building that included following a water cycle. You pick a ping pong ball with a number on it and put it in different chutes, starting at the ocean. These pipes went all over the place. Thank heavens we were the only ones there for much of the time. We were there 1 1/2 hours just doing that activity. Forget about the rest. Whitney and Tucker were running wild. Another great thing is that a grandma was running the place today and didn't mind all the ruckus. She was just glad they loved it so much there. Even after such a long time, I had to tell them we were leaving. They didn't even want to eat goldfish crackers for snack. What made the activity even better is that they found (by themselves to my amazement) the number one ball and the number two ball, so every time they found it in some other chute, Tucker would exclaim about how it is number one for Whitney and number 2 for Tucker. This Thing 1/2 carries over to a lot of their life.
Speaking of which, my grandma called today with very important news. At least that is what she said on her voicemail. She said the Rose Bowl Parade has Dr. Seuss as the theme, so that's what we need to see on New Year's Day.
Today I caught Tucker reading books. Normally, if he even plays with books, he sits and just turns the pages. But today he was reading his book. He had the Cat in the Hat book open in his lap and making all sorts of comments about various pages. Like "No, no, Thing 2. Don't bonk that!" or "Keep your hat on Cat in the Hat" and then "Good job Cat in the Hat" when he turned the page and the Cat in the Hat had his hat back on. He also ran over to Whitney and asked her "What's in the box, Whitney?" for the page that the big red box comes out. It's a question I ask them sometimes when I'm not speed reading it before bed.
Tucker has lost a lot of his hesitation of talking in front of strangers. Lots of my friends have commented lately about how good he is at talking and how much he talks. Previous to a few weeks ago he was mute in new or different environments. I keep telling them that he's talked this clearly for awhile, they've just never known. But he is only just recently coming up with his really silly stuff.
He is the one that most often gets disciplined, probably because Whitney screams bloody murder when he hits her for Whitney hitting him or taking a toy from him. This translates to him telling Whitney, his Thing 2 or truck, or Mommy what to do or what the rules are.
He also is quite the commedian in training. He seems to understand humor to a point. Whenever they squeeze out play dough he does this perfect teasing "Wha ha ha Ha!" exclamation and gets Whitney to do it with him.
Other times it's just us coming out of him in a funny way. I'm always getting after Jim about how much toothpaste he puts on their toothbrushes because they always swallow most of it. I say "it's too much!" when Tucker comes back with a ton of extra from Jim helping him. So the other night he ran to "use Papa's" and brought it to Jim yelling "Papa, put too much on!"
A couple of days after Christmas Jim was playing with the train with Tucker and decided to put batteries in Thomas. As if Tucker wasn't in love with Thomas before. Now Thomas is alive and real. Who cares about Santa. Tucker ran around and around the track chasing Thomas most of that night. Whitney would lay on the track and lift her hips up just in time to make a bridge for Thomas. Thomas gets lots of How are you's and I'm happy about equal to Thing 2 now.
Jim also has been having fun with the doll house. He stuffed Snowflake into the baby high chair and put Thing 1 in the doll house bathtub one night. Whitney didn't seem to notice, so after waiting a bit for her to start playing with them, he asked Whitney where Thing 1 was. Without skipping a beat she said, "In the bath". Jim was shocked about how observant she is. Yep. She doesn't miss much. Always been my observer bear.
One thing that I'm not fond of during vacation breaks is not having a lot of fun with time off, so we've actually done a lot of getting out of the house. We went to the fish hatchery. Not a new place, but since it was raining, I discovered the indoor section that lists the fish life cycle names (eggs, sac fry, fry, fingerling, etc). We had a lot of fun learning those together. I also said I would follow Whitney where she would go, and she loved that. It was totally fine to walk in random patterns, since, for some reason, the rest of the sane world was not outside in the wet during non spawning season. Surprisingly there were some fish big enough to see in the profile, though.
We went to the lake, taking a path purely for the sake that I knew Tucker needed to get some serious energy out. It turned out to be really fun because there was a stream on the side for them to splash in almost all the way down and back to the lake. Tucker managed to fill up his boots again. He doesn't seem to mind the wet and cold if it involves big splashes. I wear my boots simply to protect myself from his big splashes.
Whitney and Tucker both like to know what are things are girls and what things are boys. Whitney tells me in no uncertain terms that girl cows have udders and boy cows (don't mind the cow thing meaning a girl) do not. She can say all that very clearly and did so during church. Good thing she has a quieter voice than Scott and Tucker.
Whitney also likes to snuggle her "girl pasauvas" raisins in a blanket of oatmeal. I love this new game. There is a lot less picking out of raisins only and a lot more eating of the actual oatmeal since this game began.
She has also come up with all sorts of observations about girls and boys. She comes up with this stuff all by herself. She first started saying that "when I grow up I will turn into a mommy". This has evolved to several other observations like "when I grow up I will turn into a mommy and visit the temple" (this last bit came from a conversation we had about how no one lives at the temple, only visits). Or "when I grow up I will turn into a Mommy and Mommy will turn into a Whitney". Sadly, yes, I'm sure I will have to yield my independence to her, but I decided to correct her observation and so now she says "when I grow up I will turn into a Mommy and Mommy will turn into a Grandma". Today it finally transferred over to boys and her and Tucker were having multiple conversations about how "when Tucker grows up he will turn into a daddy and Daddy will turn into a Grandpa" using her cute "grampa" pronunciation.
Happy new year!
Whitney is going to really love Activity Days when she gets old enough, I'm sure. Today she said "activity days is for eating cupcakes" randomly. Last time I made cupcakes and/or did activity days included that.
We had a blast today. We went to a new park. They had an education building that included following a water cycle. You pick a ping pong ball with a number on it and put it in different chutes, starting at the ocean. These pipes went all over the place. Thank heavens we were the only ones there for much of the time. We were there 1 1/2 hours just doing that activity. Forget about the rest. Whitney and Tucker were running wild. Another great thing is that a grandma was running the place today and didn't mind all the ruckus. She was just glad they loved it so much there. Even after such a long time, I had to tell them we were leaving. They didn't even want to eat goldfish crackers for snack. What made the activity even better is that they found (by themselves to my amazement) the number one ball and the number two ball, so every time they found it in some other chute, Tucker would exclaim about how it is number one for Whitney and number 2 for Tucker. This Thing 1/2 carries over to a lot of their life.
Speaking of which, my grandma called today with very important news. At least that is what she said on her voicemail. She said the Rose Bowl Parade has Dr. Seuss as the theme, so that's what we need to see on New Year's Day.
Today I caught Tucker reading books. Normally, if he even plays with books, he sits and just turns the pages. But today he was reading his book. He had the Cat in the Hat book open in his lap and making all sorts of comments about various pages. Like "No, no, Thing 2. Don't bonk that!" or "Keep your hat on Cat in the Hat" and then "Good job Cat in the Hat" when he turned the page and the Cat in the Hat had his hat back on. He also ran over to Whitney and asked her "What's in the box, Whitney?" for the page that the big red box comes out. It's a question I ask them sometimes when I'm not speed reading it before bed.
Tucker has lost a lot of his hesitation of talking in front of strangers. Lots of my friends have commented lately about how good he is at talking and how much he talks. Previous to a few weeks ago he was mute in new or different environments. I keep telling them that he's talked this clearly for awhile, they've just never known. But he is only just recently coming up with his really silly stuff.
He is the one that most often gets disciplined, probably because Whitney screams bloody murder when he hits her for Whitney hitting him or taking a toy from him. This translates to him telling Whitney, his Thing 2 or truck, or Mommy what to do or what the rules are.
He also is quite the commedian in training. He seems to understand humor to a point. Whenever they squeeze out play dough he does this perfect teasing "Wha ha ha Ha!" exclamation and gets Whitney to do it with him.
Other times it's just us coming out of him in a funny way. I'm always getting after Jim about how much toothpaste he puts on their toothbrushes because they always swallow most of it. I say "it's too much!" when Tucker comes back with a ton of extra from Jim helping him. So the other night he ran to "use Papa's" and brought it to Jim yelling "Papa, put too much on!"
A couple of days after Christmas Jim was playing with the train with Tucker and decided to put batteries in Thomas. As if Tucker wasn't in love with Thomas before. Now Thomas is alive and real. Who cares about Santa. Tucker ran around and around the track chasing Thomas most of that night. Whitney would lay on the track and lift her hips up just in time to make a bridge for Thomas. Thomas gets lots of How are you's and I'm happy about equal to Thing 2 now.
Jim also has been having fun with the doll house. He stuffed Snowflake into the baby high chair and put Thing 1 in the doll house bathtub one night. Whitney didn't seem to notice, so after waiting a bit for her to start playing with them, he asked Whitney where Thing 1 was. Without skipping a beat she said, "In the bath". Jim was shocked about how observant she is. Yep. She doesn't miss much. Always been my observer bear.
One thing that I'm not fond of during vacation breaks is not having a lot of fun with time off, so we've actually done a lot of getting out of the house. We went to the fish hatchery. Not a new place, but since it was raining, I discovered the indoor section that lists the fish life cycle names (eggs, sac fry, fry, fingerling, etc). We had a lot of fun learning those together. I also said I would follow Whitney where she would go, and she loved that. It was totally fine to walk in random patterns, since, for some reason, the rest of the sane world was not outside in the wet during non spawning season. Surprisingly there were some fish big enough to see in the profile, though.
We went to the lake, taking a path purely for the sake that I knew Tucker needed to get some serious energy out. It turned out to be really fun because there was a stream on the side for them to splash in almost all the way down and back to the lake. Tucker managed to fill up his boots again. He doesn't seem to mind the wet and cold if it involves big splashes. I wear my boots simply to protect myself from his big splashes.
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| Thing 2 in his bed. Looks REAL comfy, right? |
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| Whitney looking out on the lake while raining. She decided it looked like snow |
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| splashing in the creek |
Whitney and Tucker both like to know what are things are girls and what things are boys. Whitney tells me in no uncertain terms that girl cows have udders and boy cows (don't mind the cow thing meaning a girl) do not. She can say all that very clearly and did so during church. Good thing she has a quieter voice than Scott and Tucker.
Whitney also likes to snuggle her "girl pasauvas" raisins in a blanket of oatmeal. I love this new game. There is a lot less picking out of raisins only and a lot more eating of the actual oatmeal since this game began.
She has also come up with all sorts of observations about girls and boys. She comes up with this stuff all by herself. She first started saying that "when I grow up I will turn into a mommy". This has evolved to several other observations like "when I grow up I will turn into a mommy and visit the temple" (this last bit came from a conversation we had about how no one lives at the temple, only visits). Or "when I grow up I will turn into a Mommy and Mommy will turn into a Whitney". Sadly, yes, I'm sure I will have to yield my independence to her, but I decided to correct her observation and so now she says "when I grow up I will turn into a Mommy and Mommy will turn into a Grandma". Today it finally transferred over to boys and her and Tucker were having multiple conversations about how "when Tucker grows up he will turn into a daddy and Daddy will turn into a Grandpa" using her cute "grampa" pronunciation.
Happy new year!
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
the most fun christmas so far.....
Man, this Christmas thing is really fun the more they get it. Until they get demanding. We had so much fun.
I've never done Christmas completely myself before. We've always had family or friends to invite over, but never just us. I've really been missing out. I was worried about it being fun enough, but it was definitely fun. The babies made it so fun. We had so much fun watching them.
It started around 7 am. Tucker has been falling asleep late the last three nights. One night 9, the next 9:30, last night 10:00. And of course he wakes up the same time every morning. Around 7. Since we waited for him to fall asleep to finish prepping, we got to bed late and I was hoping for a bit of sleeping in. Nope. This morning he turned on the light in his room and went and sat back on his bed. I went in there when I saw the light go on. Whitney needed more sleep and didn't even flinch with the light turning on. I walked in and asked him, "Tucker, what are you doing awake?" He looked at me and said " It's sunny outside". This is their standard response to it's light enough to stay awake. When they wake up in the night, I say they have to go back to bed because it's dark. Anyway, I had to laugh, because it's not sunny here in the winter. I opened the blinds for Tucker and asked him "Do you see the sun?" The sky was only barely light enough to differentiate the sky from the trees, but only barely. Still very, very dark. He looked at me and said "I don't see it!" Whatever, we were awake.
We were doing the usual morning routine in their room. I acted like it was a normal morning until Jim got up. When Jim came in, Tucker got all excited and said he wanted to watch Papa out the window. Usually when he sees Daddy in the morning, it's only to see him off to work out the window. So Jim explained he got to stay home this morning. To Whitney he asked, "Whitney, do you want to see if Santa came?" She said, Yeah, in her casual Whitney way, not really convinced Santa came and having no expectation for something exciting. Then she walked in the living room. Her face lit up and she laughed a bunch. Then she looked at Jim, like, is this for real? And laughed some more and ran over to check out..... the doll house. I told Jim I thought Whitney would really like a doll house about now and was looking at the smaller, plastic ones for toddlers. Then Jim found this one and bought it. It's pretty fun. Both kids absolutely love it.
Jim stayed up to assemble it. He had put all the furniture in it and even added a great touch of putting her Thing 1 doll in the bed. That's what she saw when she walked into the living room.
My favorite part about this Christmas morning is how much fun we had opening presents. They checked out each and every one. We didn't even start opening presents for a half an hour because they were so busy playing with the doll house. Whitney took her doll up the stairs, checked it all out. Tucker liked sliding the couch down the doll house stairs. I think my mother will laugh at this. There is an iron and ironing board that came with the doll house. Whitney has no idea what it is, let alone how to play with it. We don't own an ironing board and when I iron on a rare occasion, I'm not sure she's been present for it.
Tucker also discovered the blanket on the bed is the perfect size to make a burrito with his Thing 2 doll. He wrapped and unwrapped Thing 2 several times throughout the day saying " He wants a burrito. He is tired".
The next exciting gift was the train set. As soon as he got a bit of paper off and saw the Thomas train car, he could barely contain himself. He was right there with Daddy setting it all up and played with it off and on most of the day. This train set also has some mechanical parts that he loves, like a plug to turn on a light and a coal chute that puts it in the train as it goes under.
The other toy they enjoyed a bunch is the playdough ice cream shoppe. I was just looking for the play dough press that made spaghetti that I played with as a kid, but of course they don't sell simple toys like that any more. It has to be cooler. So I found the press idea in the ice cream maker. But boy did we (me) have fun playing with it, making ice cream cones and brownies for daddy.
It was so fun to have them play with each thing for a good long while before even wanting to open another gift.
To "wrap it all up" they helped me get the boxes ready for the recycle. It all started because Whitney liked the popping noise the styrofoam I was breaking down. It turned into an indoor snow globe in Jim's office that I'll be vacuuming up for months to come. Next time you see the little tiny round bead in a styrofoam cup, think billions of those in our house. But it was so funny to watch them play.
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| Styrofoam stuck to his eyelashes early in the game. When it was all still in the box |
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| THE doll house |
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| Tucker holding Thing 2 in his burrito |
Monday, December 24, 2012
What happened to December???
We've been having a great time living it up with the Christmas cheer to blog. I've also decided to do Valentine's Day cards instead of Christmas cards this year.
We haven't seen much of Papa. Work, work, work. But he often gets home around 8 to tuck them in. He invented a game with them. It started with making them burritos with them in their blankets. Now they won't go to bed if he's home without him making them a burrito. One time he came home after Tucker fell asleep but before Whitney did. Whitney called out to him from her room to make her a burrito. It has also evolved into tacos and potstickers. The first night Jim made Whitney a potsticker, she was too excited to sleep and kept saying "I'm a potsticker!" with glee every three minutes. If they aren't super tired they play "burrito in the morning" where they stay in their burrito, but sit up and then fall back over and over.
Another girly girl trait Whitney has is her love of beautiful things. For some reason she loves plain white shirts. Probably because I never buy or let her wear them. For some reason I let her have a plain white one on. The minute I put it on her, she exclaimed "It's so pretty!" She says that about a lot of things she likes.
Apparently she loves nail polish. This is not something I taught her. It is purely her. On Monday night she spotted my non- nail polished toes. Only a bit remained of the summer job on my big toes. This distressed her. She pointed to the other toes and said "Mom! This toe, this toe, this toe and this toe need more pink on them" Then she asked for some on her toes. I told her we would do it tomorrow after lunch because she was about to take a bath and it would wash off in the tub. After lunch on Tuesday, she went in her room, took her socks off, rolled up her pants and waited for her nails to be painted. She giggled gleefully and wiggled her toes after each one. But then that night she didn't want to get in the bath for fear the paint would wash off. Took a bit, but she finally got in. Ever since she looks at and admires her toes.
She also loves dancing. Tonight I asked her want she wanted to do with Mommy and she requested to dance. I told Jim this and he said she asks him, too. Except he talked her out of it and showed her Curious George instead. He's not fond of dancing. And she's hooked on Curious George.
A big box arrived last night. It is perfect for a dancing stage. Whitney"put on her tap shoes" (her socks), danced around on the box a bunch, then sat down and said she was done dancing and took off her socks. Just like Mommy does!
Tucker loves to make things talk. Mostly Thing 2. Thing 2 is his toy of choice. The other day he was holding Thing 2 by the tummy and having him talk to me. Then he gave me Thing 2 and said "I want him to talk to you"(you meaning me). I was apparently doing it wrong because he said to me "No Mom. You do it like this" And showed me how to move it front to back instead of side to side by holding its belly. He also plays this game with Snowflake, a very small white Christmas bear. When he wants them to talk to him, he brings me either one and says "I want Snowflake to talk to you". Another favorite sentence is to have his Thing 2 say to him "I have a shirt like you!"
Tucker likes to be a birdy. He has figured out how to wrap his blanket around his stomach for his "nest". It is pretty funny because the blanket he has for his nest is one of those fleece tied ones, so it does look like a nest.
Tucker is quite a ham. He likes to repeat things that I find funny. He goes around the house, often coming up close to me and saying "Hey Mom. Got some grapes?" since I laughed so hard at the first time. The first time we were riding in the car home from church when he says to me, "Hey. Hey, Mom. Got any grapes?" with the same voice intonation of a teenager teasing me.
They both really like to find and identify numbers as well as count. Whitney really likes to count items. Tucker really likes finding 2's.
We went up to a field of snow just to play for a bit. Whitney thought it was sooooo funny to crunch through the snow. Tucker really enjoyed his sledding ride. Papa didn't enjoy it as much as Tucker. It was on flat ground, no hills to help. They were both fascinated by the previously made snowmen and did their best to flatten them. Tucker liked snowballs more than Whitney. Whitney never complained of getting snow in her boots.
For Activity Days we were talking about exercise and I decided to show them an exercise video, 15 minutes, of beginning Yoga stuff. 2 out of 13 girls liked it. Not a do again activity. But in the process I had checked out 4 different exercise videos and previewed them with the babies. They normal jump around the room unless it is one of their shows, but surprisingly they were somewhat interested. I was laughing pretty hard because, once they saw that I was doing what the video was doing, they started copying the video, too. I picked the Yoga video because out of all the videos, Tucker and Whitney followed it the best, so I figured the girls would, too. Not so, but it was still so very entertaining for me to see Whitney and Tucker doing the various poses. Whitney even made herself a Yoga mat out of the blanket thrown across the couch. Tucker was more amused by going through all the "Mommy tunnels" I made moving into different poses. Whitney also made me laugh by saying exhale a few times after the lady said it. She said that word a bunch, so I guess she figured it must be an important word to learn.
This week while cleaning Tucker and Whitney figured out that Tucker can easily push Whitney around the house in the mopbucket. I don't know why they haven't figured that out before. Tucker really likes pushing that thing around the house. It's how I get a bunch of housework done without them fighting. It was pretty cute. He could only push her on the hard floor, so when he came to the doorway of their room he said "This is where we park!". They also pretended it was their shopping cart.
I wrapped a bunch of presents the other night and put them under the tree. Whitney was the first to notice them there. It happened to snow a bit, just a dusting, the night before. We were looking out the front window at the snow when she saw them. She peered over the edge of the couch and, as soon as she saw them, she had a very slow, reverent tone about her. She crawled over to the edge of the pile on her hands and knees and didn't touch a thing, as if touching would make them disappear. She said "Presents!" and continued to inspect them. Then she came back to me and informed me they were all full of cookies. She is still convinced they are all cookies and talks about how she can't wait to unwrap all of her cookies.
The night before I had made Jim help me wrap half of the presents. I made him wrap them individually, thinking the fun part for them will be the unwrapping, not necessarily what's in them. After wrapping about half, he pronounced they were sure getting a lot of presents. I'm pretty sure he hates wrapping gifts. I told him we could return a bunch of them. He said "No. It will be fun giving them to them" The next night I told him we were definitely off the hook and could return them all. Whitney is convinced they are all cookies anyway. He didn't go for it.
Whitney thinks all presents are cookies because of Joy School. For Joy school, they wrapped up cookies for their mom and dad. Who ate the cookies? Yeah. Anyway, then next Joy school, we wrapped up candy for the other kids as gifts. Whitney was enthralled with gift wrapping. She was actually quite the helper and seems to already understand where the tape needs to go.
I'm not sure what the benefit of having a fake tree is this year. Everyone keeps asking me if it is real. I think the pile up of "pine needles" underneath confuses them all. Or maybe it's the couple of branches that are bent at funny angles. Or maybe the spot that looks a like a hole in the branches. It has been about as difficult keeping them away from that tree as it is to keep a cat out of one. They really like to throw their toys at it. Hence the needles falling. They think it is especially funny when a toy sticks fast. I should have left Thing 2 in there. Then maybe they would have learned. The bent branches are from Tucker stepping on a few a couple of times. The hole is an optical illusion. it is created from the fact that all ornaments front and center have been relocated, including the garland. That's where they usually throw their toys into.
I'm also going to have to invest in plastic ornaments next year. Tucker plucked the "apples" from my garland on the staircase and threw them down the stairs, shattering them instantly. He got three good shots in before I could get off the toilet and get out to him. Grrrrrrr.
One of their favorite past times is prying the heater vents off (we have floor ones) and throwing stuff down them. Usually it's not that big of a deal, but one day, when Jim came home, I threatened to do whatever job it took to screw those vents to the floor. I was sick of it. I had rescued ornamants (and another broken glass one) out of there, pulled their blankets, pillows and pants out, and was unable to rescue about 5 plastic balls that are now a permanent fixture of our heating system. That pipe slopes down and turns. When I told Jim they threw all his plugs for his phone, MP3 player and his ipad charger as well as his MP3 player down, too, he was ready to take immediate action. Funny thing, though. The only one that he was actually able to secure was the one in their room and for some reason they think they are all fixated to the floor. Fine by me. I was sick of the heater vent game.
Thank heavens most of their other favorite past times are less destructive. Whitney loves to color. Her pictures are charactorized by complete and full color. She colors in her entire paper with different color. Her favorites are pink and purple. Tucker likes circles and lines. She is really good at matching. She doesn't like to use a spoon or fork that isn't the same color as her bowl. This can be a serious problem lots of times. She also was pointing out in the Go Dog Go book that the red dog should be on the red tree and the blue dog should be on the blue tree, not the other way around like it is written. Color also relates often to ownership. Anything pink or purple is hers. Tucker knows this well and automatically gives her anything of those colors to her immediately without question. Whitney does the same for blue, green, orange or red for Tucker. I didn't realize they had designated towels. I have put a green and tan towel on the chairs in my kitchen to protect the pad. One day when I cleaned, I accidently put them on different chairs. So, they switched places.
They invent lots of games, like uh-oh pillow and mountain, which include stacking and making furniture items with the couch and outdoor furniture cushions.
They also continue to love play dough. I usually give it to them when I'm working in the kitchen. The other day Tucker smashed his play dough all over different body parts and looked at the shapes and textures. His lips, closed eyes, his hair, his belly button, and last but not least, his chin. What cracked me up was his description. He held out this cup looking thing to me and said "mom! look what I made!" I turned and looked and didn't know, so I said, "what did you make?" He said "My chinny chin-chin" quite matter of factly. That got me laughing pretty hard. I have no idea who read him the three little pigs, but they remember it.
But then, a scare. Tucker discovered the discomfort of shoving something up his nose. Thank heavens it was play dough and easily dissolved with nasal spray. But I'm sure I'll get the rock up the nose later.
One of the nice things of them doing imitation play is that they can also be very, very kind and sweet to each other. Every time Whitney coughs at the table, he asks ever so concerned "Whitney, are you OK?" since I usually ask him that when he's choking on the food he's trying to swallow whole. He also very nicely put on chapstick on Whitney's lips while in church. Someone spied him doing it from across the room and thought it was so cute. Good thing because it was totally melting my heart, too.
The rain stopped for an afternoon last week, so we went to the park for a bit. Even Whitney loved it. More on that later. They hunted for sticks or reeds to "go fishing" in the puddles and openings in the plants over the wetland. When they pull their sticks out of the water, they give me their "fish" to eat, saying "it's ready". They like to throw rocks in the puddles. We also discovered the indoor ranger visitor center at their favorite park. Ok. Mommy's favorite park. Whitney absolutely loves playing with the floor puzzles. She is starting to get stuff on her own.
We went to our ward Christmas party. It was a breakfast. Whitney licked every inch of frosting off a huge cinnamon roll. Hopefully the lady that made the roll didn't see it go to waste like that. That was after two full bowls of generic captain crunch. Whitney ate out all the berries first and Tucker ate out all the orange squares. When Santa appeared, they were fascinated, but didn't go see him. They both said no to that idea. But then, what's the draw of a small candy cane compared to the amount of sugar they both got for breakfast? I didn't even bother trying to feed them lunch.
We went caroling with some friend the other night. I think they liked it, but maybe not the same reasons I liked it. I borrowed a double jogging stroller from the friend and they thought that thing was a blast. They would bang their heads back and giggle at the top of their lungs. Tucker got everyone smiling (and annoyed) with his loud belly laughs, while they were singing or not. They also liked looking at everyone's lit snowmen. Costco special this year, I think. Almost all the houses on this particular street had them. One house had the reindeer with the heads that move. They've probably had those reindeer for awhile. The heads move very roughly, like they have arthritis and all this cold humidity gets to their bones. But who knows. Maybe they are only a few years old. Things outside age very quickly here. We had a cloud break while we were out caroling and the babies were fascinated by the stars. Whitney more than Tucker. Toward the end of caroling, Tucker started to pass out, so I decided to just drive him home and get him in bed. Whitney wasn't tired. And she really wanted to stay. She said she wanted to "do it again". I told her Tucker was tired. She opted to bring him home to sleep and then come right back. I told her Papa wasn't home, so we couldn't do that. She wasn't concerned about leaving him alone in his warm bed. What was really upsetting to her, I think, was all the cookies she missed out on by going home early.
Whitney is really grasping this Santa thing. I think it started with the Santa video she received through my email. Tucker doesn't really get Santa, but he also has not been interested in watching the video. When we watched Whitney's video, Tucker wanted to eat noodles. So I didn't have Tucker watch his. But Whitney kept reminding me over the next 2 days that we needed to watch Tucker's video. So we finally did. She watched it, totally glued to the screen and fascinated. Tucker played with Mommy instead.
She has quite the memory. She tells me different parts of the story often. Another thing that tells me about her memory was when she spotted the clown balloons in a parked car. There was a car in the grocery store parking lot that had a basket fashioned out of those thin balloons clowns use to make different things. She said "I like my flower balloon. Tucker got a nose." She was right. In July, for my hubby's company picnic, she got a flower balloon from the clown. Tucker got a sword that did kind of look like a long nose. Those balloons soon popped and she hasn't mentioned them since until the day she saw those balloons in the car. Amazing to me.
Tucker has this huge affinity to being outside and Whitney has a huge affinity to being warm. Sounds like Jim and I. Jim loving the cold, me liking outside. I have a feeling Tucker will be my hiking buddy until he's about 8 and I hike too slow for him. I've lately come to a compromise. Tucker can play in the driveway riding Whitney's pink bike while Whitney plays quietly just inside the house. This has been much better than listening to Whitney fuss about wanting to go in because she is cold or Tucker literally bouncing off the walls because he hasn't gotten enough energy out. I just open the door and check on her every 5 minutes. She is usually pretty good at telling me where she is and she isn't destructive on her own. One day, though, even I had my limits. Tucker rode "the pink bike" outside in the pouring rain for a half an hour until I told him I was too cold and he had to come in. It felt like it was 33 degrees out that day. And he was totally content. He couldn't get his boots off that day, but he was happy.
He has this huge fascination for playing "bump, bump". If it isn't outside on the driveway with the mopbucket or bike over the speedbump, then it is on the dishwasher with his tow truck. He does it for hours and has still continued to like it for, um, about a year and a half.
Whitney likes to make me soup. Usually she does it with the stuff in her kitchen, but one time she used the bucket and filled it all with her favorite toys for me.
Tucker put the butterfly wings on his Thing 2. Took some effort.
They are getting much better at clean up. They know how to sort their toys, even counting them or calling out the colors. But I still have to work hard at keeping them on track. I'm sure I have about 15 more years of that or more.
They really like to cut play dough. It keeps the play dough playing going on for a lot longer.
Tucker seems to really like little kids. He was very intent on feeding a baby that I watched the other day. He was also very kind to a little kid at the playground today. The kid was about 15 months old and has zero respect for personal space. Whitney said "I don't like you" to him and ran away. Tucker let him touch his bright orange snaps on his jacket and said "That's right! That's a button!"
Every time I give either on of them two of something, they automatically assume that the second thing is for the other. This even applies to cookies. I gave Whitney two cookies and told her to go sit at the table. I went over to check on things and she had put one of the cookies in Tucker's spot, waiting for him to eat it.
Phew! Finally caught up. Just in time for Christmas morning!
We haven't seen much of Papa. Work, work, work. But he often gets home around 8 to tuck them in. He invented a game with them. It started with making them burritos with them in their blankets. Now they won't go to bed if he's home without him making them a burrito. One time he came home after Tucker fell asleep but before Whitney did. Whitney called out to him from her room to make her a burrito. It has also evolved into tacos and potstickers. The first night Jim made Whitney a potsticker, she was too excited to sleep and kept saying "I'm a potsticker!" with glee every three minutes. If they aren't super tired they play "burrito in the morning" where they stay in their burrito, but sit up and then fall back over and over.
Another girly girl trait Whitney has is her love of beautiful things. For some reason she loves plain white shirts. Probably because I never buy or let her wear them. For some reason I let her have a plain white one on. The minute I put it on her, she exclaimed "It's so pretty!" She says that about a lot of things she likes.
Apparently she loves nail polish. This is not something I taught her. It is purely her. On Monday night she spotted my non- nail polished toes. Only a bit remained of the summer job on my big toes. This distressed her. She pointed to the other toes and said "Mom! This toe, this toe, this toe and this toe need more pink on them" Then she asked for some on her toes. I told her we would do it tomorrow after lunch because she was about to take a bath and it would wash off in the tub. After lunch on Tuesday, she went in her room, took her socks off, rolled up her pants and waited for her nails to be painted. She giggled gleefully and wiggled her toes after each one. But then that night she didn't want to get in the bath for fear the paint would wash off. Took a bit, but she finally got in. Ever since she looks at and admires her toes.
She also loves dancing. Tonight I asked her want she wanted to do with Mommy and she requested to dance. I told Jim this and he said she asks him, too. Except he talked her out of it and showed her Curious George instead. He's not fond of dancing. And she's hooked on Curious George.
A big box arrived last night. It is perfect for a dancing stage. Whitney"put on her tap shoes" (her socks), danced around on the box a bunch, then sat down and said she was done dancing and took off her socks. Just like Mommy does!
Tucker loves to make things talk. Mostly Thing 2. Thing 2 is his toy of choice. The other day he was holding Thing 2 by the tummy and having him talk to me. Then he gave me Thing 2 and said "I want him to talk to you"(you meaning me). I was apparently doing it wrong because he said to me "No Mom. You do it like this" And showed me how to move it front to back instead of side to side by holding its belly. He also plays this game with Snowflake, a very small white Christmas bear. When he wants them to talk to him, he brings me either one and says "I want Snowflake to talk to you". Another favorite sentence is to have his Thing 2 say to him "I have a shirt like you!"
Tucker likes to be a birdy. He has figured out how to wrap his blanket around his stomach for his "nest". It is pretty funny because the blanket he has for his nest is one of those fleece tied ones, so it does look like a nest.
Tucker is quite a ham. He likes to repeat things that I find funny. He goes around the house, often coming up close to me and saying "Hey Mom. Got some grapes?" since I laughed so hard at the first time. The first time we were riding in the car home from church when he says to me, "Hey. Hey, Mom. Got any grapes?" with the same voice intonation of a teenager teasing me.
They both really like to find and identify numbers as well as count. Whitney really likes to count items. Tucker really likes finding 2's.
We went up to a field of snow just to play for a bit. Whitney thought it was sooooo funny to crunch through the snow. Tucker really enjoyed his sledding ride. Papa didn't enjoy it as much as Tucker. It was on flat ground, no hills to help. They were both fascinated by the previously made snowmen and did their best to flatten them. Tucker liked snowballs more than Whitney. Whitney never complained of getting snow in her boots.
For Activity Days we were talking about exercise and I decided to show them an exercise video, 15 minutes, of beginning Yoga stuff. 2 out of 13 girls liked it. Not a do again activity. But in the process I had checked out 4 different exercise videos and previewed them with the babies. They normal jump around the room unless it is one of their shows, but surprisingly they were somewhat interested. I was laughing pretty hard because, once they saw that I was doing what the video was doing, they started copying the video, too. I picked the Yoga video because out of all the videos, Tucker and Whitney followed it the best, so I figured the girls would, too. Not so, but it was still so very entertaining for me to see Whitney and Tucker doing the various poses. Whitney even made herself a Yoga mat out of the blanket thrown across the couch. Tucker was more amused by going through all the "Mommy tunnels" I made moving into different poses. Whitney also made me laugh by saying exhale a few times after the lady said it. She said that word a bunch, so I guess she figured it must be an important word to learn.
This week while cleaning Tucker and Whitney figured out that Tucker can easily push Whitney around the house in the mopbucket. I don't know why they haven't figured that out before. Tucker really likes pushing that thing around the house. It's how I get a bunch of housework done without them fighting. It was pretty cute. He could only push her on the hard floor, so when he came to the doorway of their room he said "This is where we park!". They also pretended it was their shopping cart.
I wrapped a bunch of presents the other night and put them under the tree. Whitney was the first to notice them there. It happened to snow a bit, just a dusting, the night before. We were looking out the front window at the snow when she saw them. She peered over the edge of the couch and, as soon as she saw them, she had a very slow, reverent tone about her. She crawled over to the edge of the pile on her hands and knees and didn't touch a thing, as if touching would make them disappear. She said "Presents!" and continued to inspect them. Then she came back to me and informed me they were all full of cookies. She is still convinced they are all cookies and talks about how she can't wait to unwrap all of her cookies.
The night before I had made Jim help me wrap half of the presents. I made him wrap them individually, thinking the fun part for them will be the unwrapping, not necessarily what's in them. After wrapping about half, he pronounced they were sure getting a lot of presents. I'm pretty sure he hates wrapping gifts. I told him we could return a bunch of them. He said "No. It will be fun giving them to them" The next night I told him we were definitely off the hook and could return them all. Whitney is convinced they are all cookies anyway. He didn't go for it.
Whitney thinks all presents are cookies because of Joy School. For Joy school, they wrapped up cookies for their mom and dad. Who ate the cookies? Yeah. Anyway, then next Joy school, we wrapped up candy for the other kids as gifts. Whitney was enthralled with gift wrapping. She was actually quite the helper and seems to already understand where the tape needs to go.
I'm not sure what the benefit of having a fake tree is this year. Everyone keeps asking me if it is real. I think the pile up of "pine needles" underneath confuses them all. Or maybe it's the couple of branches that are bent at funny angles. Or maybe the spot that looks a like a hole in the branches. It has been about as difficult keeping them away from that tree as it is to keep a cat out of one. They really like to throw their toys at it. Hence the needles falling. They think it is especially funny when a toy sticks fast. I should have left Thing 2 in there. Then maybe they would have learned. The bent branches are from Tucker stepping on a few a couple of times. The hole is an optical illusion. it is created from the fact that all ornaments front and center have been relocated, including the garland. That's where they usually throw their toys into.
I'm also going to have to invest in plastic ornaments next year. Tucker plucked the "apples" from my garland on the staircase and threw them down the stairs, shattering them instantly. He got three good shots in before I could get off the toilet and get out to him. Grrrrrrr.
One of their favorite past times is prying the heater vents off (we have floor ones) and throwing stuff down them. Usually it's not that big of a deal, but one day, when Jim came home, I threatened to do whatever job it took to screw those vents to the floor. I was sick of it. I had rescued ornamants (and another broken glass one) out of there, pulled their blankets, pillows and pants out, and was unable to rescue about 5 plastic balls that are now a permanent fixture of our heating system. That pipe slopes down and turns. When I told Jim they threw all his plugs for his phone, MP3 player and his ipad charger as well as his MP3 player down, too, he was ready to take immediate action. Funny thing, though. The only one that he was actually able to secure was the one in their room and for some reason they think they are all fixated to the floor. Fine by me. I was sick of the heater vent game.
Thank heavens most of their other favorite past times are less destructive. Whitney loves to color. Her pictures are charactorized by complete and full color. She colors in her entire paper with different color. Her favorites are pink and purple. Tucker likes circles and lines. She is really good at matching. She doesn't like to use a spoon or fork that isn't the same color as her bowl. This can be a serious problem lots of times. She also was pointing out in the Go Dog Go book that the red dog should be on the red tree and the blue dog should be on the blue tree, not the other way around like it is written. Color also relates often to ownership. Anything pink or purple is hers. Tucker knows this well and automatically gives her anything of those colors to her immediately without question. Whitney does the same for blue, green, orange or red for Tucker. I didn't realize they had designated towels. I have put a green and tan towel on the chairs in my kitchen to protect the pad. One day when I cleaned, I accidently put them on different chairs. So, they switched places.
They invent lots of games, like uh-oh pillow and mountain, which include stacking and making furniture items with the couch and outdoor furniture cushions.
They also continue to love play dough. I usually give it to them when I'm working in the kitchen. The other day Tucker smashed his play dough all over different body parts and looked at the shapes and textures. His lips, closed eyes, his hair, his belly button, and last but not least, his chin. What cracked me up was his description. He held out this cup looking thing to me and said "mom! look what I made!" I turned and looked and didn't know, so I said, "what did you make?" He said "My chinny chin-chin" quite matter of factly. That got me laughing pretty hard. I have no idea who read him the three little pigs, but they remember it.
But then, a scare. Tucker discovered the discomfort of shoving something up his nose. Thank heavens it was play dough and easily dissolved with nasal spray. But I'm sure I'll get the rock up the nose later.
One of the nice things of them doing imitation play is that they can also be very, very kind and sweet to each other. Every time Whitney coughs at the table, he asks ever so concerned "Whitney, are you OK?" since I usually ask him that when he's choking on the food he's trying to swallow whole. He also very nicely put on chapstick on Whitney's lips while in church. Someone spied him doing it from across the room and thought it was so cute. Good thing because it was totally melting my heart, too.
The rain stopped for an afternoon last week, so we went to the park for a bit. Even Whitney loved it. More on that later. They hunted for sticks or reeds to "go fishing" in the puddles and openings in the plants over the wetland. When they pull their sticks out of the water, they give me their "fish" to eat, saying "it's ready". They like to throw rocks in the puddles. We also discovered the indoor ranger visitor center at their favorite park. Ok. Mommy's favorite park. Whitney absolutely loves playing with the floor puzzles. She is starting to get stuff on her own.
We went to our ward Christmas party. It was a breakfast. Whitney licked every inch of frosting off a huge cinnamon roll. Hopefully the lady that made the roll didn't see it go to waste like that. That was after two full bowls of generic captain crunch. Whitney ate out all the berries first and Tucker ate out all the orange squares. When Santa appeared, they were fascinated, but didn't go see him. They both said no to that idea. But then, what's the draw of a small candy cane compared to the amount of sugar they both got for breakfast? I didn't even bother trying to feed them lunch.
We went caroling with some friend the other night. I think they liked it, but maybe not the same reasons I liked it. I borrowed a double jogging stroller from the friend and they thought that thing was a blast. They would bang their heads back and giggle at the top of their lungs. Tucker got everyone smiling (and annoyed) with his loud belly laughs, while they were singing or not. They also liked looking at everyone's lit snowmen. Costco special this year, I think. Almost all the houses on this particular street had them. One house had the reindeer with the heads that move. They've probably had those reindeer for awhile. The heads move very roughly, like they have arthritis and all this cold humidity gets to their bones. But who knows. Maybe they are only a few years old. Things outside age very quickly here. We had a cloud break while we were out caroling and the babies were fascinated by the stars. Whitney more than Tucker. Toward the end of caroling, Tucker started to pass out, so I decided to just drive him home and get him in bed. Whitney wasn't tired. And she really wanted to stay. She said she wanted to "do it again". I told her Tucker was tired. She opted to bring him home to sleep and then come right back. I told her Papa wasn't home, so we couldn't do that. She wasn't concerned about leaving him alone in his warm bed. What was really upsetting to her, I think, was all the cookies she missed out on by going home early.
Whitney is really grasping this Santa thing. I think it started with the Santa video she received through my email. Tucker doesn't really get Santa, but he also has not been interested in watching the video. When we watched Whitney's video, Tucker wanted to eat noodles. So I didn't have Tucker watch his. But Whitney kept reminding me over the next 2 days that we needed to watch Tucker's video. So we finally did. She watched it, totally glued to the screen and fascinated. Tucker played with Mommy instead.
She has quite the memory. She tells me different parts of the story often. Another thing that tells me about her memory was when she spotted the clown balloons in a parked car. There was a car in the grocery store parking lot that had a basket fashioned out of those thin balloons clowns use to make different things. She said "I like my flower balloon. Tucker got a nose." She was right. In July, for my hubby's company picnic, she got a flower balloon from the clown. Tucker got a sword that did kind of look like a long nose. Those balloons soon popped and she hasn't mentioned them since until the day she saw those balloons in the car. Amazing to me.
Tucker has this huge affinity to being outside and Whitney has a huge affinity to being warm. Sounds like Jim and I. Jim loving the cold, me liking outside. I have a feeling Tucker will be my hiking buddy until he's about 8 and I hike too slow for him. I've lately come to a compromise. Tucker can play in the driveway riding Whitney's pink bike while Whitney plays quietly just inside the house. This has been much better than listening to Whitney fuss about wanting to go in because she is cold or Tucker literally bouncing off the walls because he hasn't gotten enough energy out. I just open the door and check on her every 5 minutes. She is usually pretty good at telling me where she is and she isn't destructive on her own. One day, though, even I had my limits. Tucker rode "the pink bike" outside in the pouring rain for a half an hour until I told him I was too cold and he had to come in. It felt like it was 33 degrees out that day. And he was totally content. He couldn't get his boots off that day, but he was happy.
He has this huge fascination for playing "bump, bump". If it isn't outside on the driveway with the mopbucket or bike over the speedbump, then it is on the dishwasher with his tow truck. He does it for hours and has still continued to like it for, um, about a year and a half.
Whitney likes to make me soup. Usually she does it with the stuff in her kitchen, but one time she used the bucket and filled it all with her favorite toys for me.
Tucker put the butterfly wings on his Thing 2. Took some effort.
They are getting much better at clean up. They know how to sort their toys, even counting them or calling out the colors. But I still have to work hard at keeping them on track. I'm sure I have about 15 more years of that or more.
They really like to cut play dough. It keeps the play dough playing going on for a lot longer.
Tucker seems to really like little kids. He was very intent on feeding a baby that I watched the other day. He was also very kind to a little kid at the playground today. The kid was about 15 months old and has zero respect for personal space. Whitney said "I don't like you" to him and ran away. Tucker let him touch his bright orange snaps on his jacket and said "That's right! That's a button!"
Every time I give either on of them two of something, they automatically assume that the second thing is for the other. This even applies to cookies. I gave Whitney two cookies and told her to go sit at the table. I went over to check on things and she had put one of the cookies in Tucker's spot, waiting for him to eat it.
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| Helping with making cup cakes |
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| Very delicious |
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| Taking Thing 2 for a ride |
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| Whitney getting a ride in mop bucket |
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| Next to the baby Whitney and Tucker snowmen |
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| Walking in the snow was so funny to them. They liked hearing the crunching, I think. |
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| Tucker with Daddy |
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| Smiling! |
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| On top of the picnic table |
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| Holding the snowball she made for Tucker |
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| Tucker with the snowball |
thanksgiving
Jim cooked for Thanksgiving. The adults loved it. The kids not so much. They didn't like deviled eggs. Good. More for us. We had a some friends over that had kids Whitney and Tucker's age, so they played for most of it.
The kids made acorns out of Hershey kisses and mini Nilla wafers put together. I was pretty impressed. The kids helped make them right before dinner. I told them not to eat anything because it was for later and they all waited and didn't sample. I used them for centerpieces on the plates. We also played a game of finding a list of stuff hidden around the room to remind them of what they were thankful for.
Tucker kept us entertained with his eating of cucumbers and bread only. The funny part was watching him oversalt his cucumbers. I don't get how he can eat those with a straight face. It looked like he was pickling his own cucumbers right in front of our eyes.
The next day Whitney was having a heyday. She really loves decorating for Christmas. She totally gets it. I have no idea how, but she does. Then I found the ornaments for her little tree and after that she was asking if every ornament was hers or for Mommy's tree.
Sometimes she still surprises me about her thinking skills. I like to pride myself on being a bit of a MacGyver in a pinch. If I don't have the right thing, I look around and try to make something else work out of something else. I think Whitney might have the start of that. Today we had crackers for snack in the car while parked at the park. I wasn't planning on having snack in the car, so I didn't have water. Whitney got really thirsty. So after running through a bunch of options including going home and coming back, she finally came up with the idea to use the plastic container that held the crackers to get water out of the bathroom (the drinking fountains are turned off for the winter for those that live in warmer areas and this isn't necessary). I was proud of her for solving her own problems.
There is a song on her music CD that is a medley of The old man is sleeping and Insy Winsy Spider. One day she said to me: "Mom. This song is all mixed up. They should sing the spider song then the old man song" She was right. They went back and forth singing the song.
But then again, they sing "the rains came down and the flowers came up" instead of "the rains came down and the floods came up"
They totally absorb everything they see and hear. Today they were playing "Do you like my hat? No, I don't like your hat. Goodbye. Goodbye." Lines straight out of the go dog go book we've been reading a bunch.
It shows up after Joy School, too. Yesterday they came home playing "make popcorn" and started noticing their polite words they say.
Any recommendations on toys for three year olds? I think I might wrap up sticks, leaves and rocks for Whitney. And anything miniture. As far as Tucker goes, some sort of climbing gym on his bed would be his favorite, in addition to anything mechanical. He also loves a bucket. And putting balls down the heater vent. Grrrrrrrrr. But he has started putting the toilet paper back on the roll after he unrolls it all off.
The kids made acorns out of Hershey kisses and mini Nilla wafers put together. I was pretty impressed. The kids helped make them right before dinner. I told them not to eat anything because it was for later and they all waited and didn't sample. I used them for centerpieces on the plates. We also played a game of finding a list of stuff hidden around the room to remind them of what they were thankful for.
Tucker kept us entertained with his eating of cucumbers and bread only. The funny part was watching him oversalt his cucumbers. I don't get how he can eat those with a straight face. It looked like he was pickling his own cucumbers right in front of our eyes.
The next day Whitney was having a heyday. She really loves decorating for Christmas. She totally gets it. I have no idea how, but she does. Then I found the ornaments for her little tree and after that she was asking if every ornament was hers or for Mommy's tree.
Sometimes she still surprises me about her thinking skills. I like to pride myself on being a bit of a MacGyver in a pinch. If I don't have the right thing, I look around and try to make something else work out of something else. I think Whitney might have the start of that. Today we had crackers for snack in the car while parked at the park. I wasn't planning on having snack in the car, so I didn't have water. Whitney got really thirsty. So after running through a bunch of options including going home and coming back, she finally came up with the idea to use the plastic container that held the crackers to get water out of the bathroom (the drinking fountains are turned off for the winter for those that live in warmer areas and this isn't necessary). I was proud of her for solving her own problems.
There is a song on her music CD that is a medley of The old man is sleeping and Insy Winsy Spider. One day she said to me: "Mom. This song is all mixed up. They should sing the spider song then the old man song" She was right. They went back and forth singing the song.
But then again, they sing "the rains came down and the flowers came up" instead of "the rains came down and the floods came up"
They totally absorb everything they see and hear. Today they were playing "Do you like my hat? No, I don't like your hat. Goodbye. Goodbye." Lines straight out of the go dog go book we've been reading a bunch.
It shows up after Joy School, too. Yesterday they came home playing "make popcorn" and started noticing their polite words they say.
Any recommendations on toys for three year olds? I think I might wrap up sticks, leaves and rocks for Whitney. And anything miniture. As far as Tucker goes, some sort of climbing gym on his bed would be his favorite, in addition to anything mechanical. He also loves a bucket. And putting balls down the heater vent. Grrrrrrrrr. But he has started putting the toilet paper back on the roll after he unrolls it all off.
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| Whitney in the box |
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| Helping Daddy find the right tools to fix the dish washer |
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| Assisting in fixing the dishwasher |
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| Whitney requested that I take this picture of her. She had strung her beads through the drum so it hung from her neck just like in the Hand Hand Fingers Thumb book |
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| Whitney next to her nest with an egg in it |
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| Tucker calls this crown his Halloween. He wears it a lot |
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| Not sure why Tucker likes doing this to Thing 2 |
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| Carrying a gallon of water in each arm |
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| Carrying the gallons of water down the hall |
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| Whitney made one ring... |
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| ...then two rings!! She wanted this pic taken. |
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| Daddy's princess. The rings on her feet are her high heels. She has her skirt and wings on, drinking out of the cup from her favorite restaurant. |
Sunday, November 18, 2012
weeks after vaca
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| rub a dub dub five kids on a whale |
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| Tucker sitting in baby's lap |
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| Whitney with baby |
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| I'm Thing 2! Whitney is Thing 1! |
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| Whitney's leaf |
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| Making cookies and feeding them to ponies. They put the beads in the drawers and mixed it with spoons. Made a lot of noise. |
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| In between clouds. The sun came out for an hour and it was glorious. We stopped at the park on the way home and they pushed Candycorn on the swing. |
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| They were jumping up and down in the recyle bin. They put the stools up so they could climb in and out on their own |
Whitney was still awake. When we got home she exclaimed "Oh! My blanket! Oh! My pillow!" She also remarked to me as I was unlocking the door that "Sammy and Rocky don't jump." She wasn't a fan of Oliver's jumping.
Earlier in the day we were playing in Grandma An's side yard and they found some worms. They were talking about eating them and I said, we don't eat worms, just pretend eat them. Whitney paused and said. "No. Papa brought me worms to eat". She's right. Jim did bring her gummy worms home to eat 2 weeks previous. Got me there.
The next day at church was interesting. I've never had this problem. I had to take Tucker out in the hall for the rest of sacrament meeting because he was rolling on the floor, laughing hysterically and couldn't stop. He didn't stop when we were out there, either. It was making everyone else laugh. Better than crying!
We've been trying to see if they will repeat prayers for a bit. Hasn't worked, but Tucker kind of got the idea while we were in Ca. So the other day, while they were playing Whitney said a full on prayer, in play of course, by herself. They'll get it. Melted my heart.
Each day this week they remembered different things from Grandma's house and incorporated it into play. One of the things Whitney remembers are the trick or treat bags. I hadn't unpacked them to let them play with them, but they found their own "bags" to fill and their own "chocolate". Another thing they like to do is to make bunny or cat cages with their blocks. Whitney spelled out to me how to walk up to Grandma's house from the car, including opening the bunny gate during play one day. She made a garage for Kitty with her blocks. Tucker informed me one time as I was pulling toilet paper off the roll "that's enough! I don't want to break the toilet!" Oh yeah. That's something else that happened at my mom's. Tucker often looks at Whitney and says "Bapple?" similar to the minion mini movie they watched with Aunt Hannah. They also play "push the button" (push on their backs to keep them going) but with a new twist. Sometimes I get "that button doesn't work" as a response.
We went to the store to get some food for the house. Tucker fell asleep in the car on the way there. I usually take him out of his car seat and have him stand up until he fully wakes up. He never likes it and always screams for snuggles so he can nestle in and go to sleep. He was crying for snuggles in the parking lot so Whitney reached over and gave him a really soft hug to snuggle. He knew what she was doing and offered her a snuggle back. Another heart melter.
And of course most of the play are things that happen to them. Whitney filled up her play cup with play dough and punched it down. Then looked at me in all serious to say that I shouldn't punch it down. It will be ready in 20 minutes to punch down. Not sure where 20 minutes came from, but the rest happens every time we make bread.
They like to take their toys potty and have liked doing it for awhile, but this one made me laugh pretty hard. Whitney jumped up from the floor with one of her My Little Ponies and ran to the bathroom saying "Pony had an accident. Pony! I don't like cleaning your pants." That one has definitely happened a LOT over the past year.
I updated a picture of them in one of the frames. My mom took me to the mall to get some more recent professional pics. Tucker and Whitney were super cute getting them taken and we got lots of cute poses that turned out. What was funny is when I put the picture up on the wall, Whitney said "Haha! We went BONK!". That's what they were playing when we took that particular picture.
In joy school we are learning about emotions and names for different ones. Whitney and Tucker totally get frustrated. As soon as they learned that one, they have started saying to each other or to me "Mommy is frustrated with Whitney and Tucker" or "Mommy are you frustrated with me? No? Oh. With Tucker?" I definitely must get frustrated too often in the day. My little mirrors told me to stop it.
Tucker pronounces teapot as teapop. Whitney corrects him.
Whitney wags her tail. Her tail is when she sits on her foot. She calls Rocky "my doggy". The other night at dinner she said "my doggy wants to stay with me". Rocky was sprawled on his side with his mouth closest to her chair.
Tucker really likes to play bump bump with anything with wheels. His bike, his truck. It's when something goes over the speedbump. I about had a heart attack the other day, though. I hadn't noticed a speed bump in a parking lot, but he did. He was standing by me at the car door while I was unbuckling Whitney when he suddenly took off for the speed bump. Lucky, lucky me that there were no cars. I caught him only half way there. That's it. Whitney gets out first.
Tucker looked at me Wednesday morning in all seriousness and said "Christmas is coming". I couldn't figure that out for awhile until I realized that they were watching the christmas cartoons in the nursery the night before. I think I remember something somewhere in those movies about Christmas coming soon.
Tucker likes to announce things. He is getting the concept of girl and boy. He likes to say things like "I'm a hungry boy, Mom" after asking for a third bowl of cereal. Or "I'm a naked boy!" when getting ready for bath. It cracks me up because one day he said "Whitney is a hungry gwril".
The other day the babies were helping me make meatloaf. I had a carrot out on the counter with the grater. Tucker was trying to grate the carrot and was having some success. Whitney was helping me stir and put things in. She looked over at Tucker and said "Is that a good trick for Tucker to be learning?" Not sure where they picked up the word trick.
One day we tried to go to the Children's museum. It was really crowded so we came home and splashed in puddles while going on a walk. It was pouring rain and we all got soaked through our jackets. Tucker and Whitney splashed a little too much and water got in their boots. Whitney stopped when only her pants got wet, but Tucker kept at it. When we got back, Whitney promptly went in to change. I wanted to, too, but I had promised Tucker if he went on a walk, he could ride his bike when we got back. I thought he was too cold and wet to play outside for long, but he was out there quite some time. I wanted to go inside with Whitney, but not him. He drove his bike over the "bump, bump" a bunch, then got out his dump truck.... Finally I told him he had to go in. He must have agreed it was cold because he came quickly. He wouldn't let me help him take his boots off. He worked on them quite a bit until he let me pull them off. He couldn't get them off because the socks were so soaked and full of water they filled up the extra space. He really likes to be outside. Just like me!
We went in and played playdough for awhile. Whitney asked for turtles, so we made a Whitney, Tucker and Mommy turtle. She tried to give Tucker his turtle, but the legs fell off. That was sad. Then Tucker asked to make a saxaphone. To finish off the rainy day, we played pillows downstairs.
One day after I finished feeding them, Tucker said "I feel much better". Now he pretends to feed his Thing 2 doll and then makes the Thing 2 doll say "I feel much better"
Another day Whitney was very concerned for Tucker. He said his tummy hurt. So she helped him to the potty by holding his hand. Then she held his hand while he was on the toilet. Then she asked if he went big poop and needed his bobbum wiped?
We were making lasana. Whitney was in love with the amount of cheese that went into it. She commented "I ate a lot of that at Grandma's house" pointing to the ricotta cheese. Yep. It does look like cottage cheese and she ate one container of it over the course of the week herself.
I've been trying to teach them to rinse their mouths and spit out the water after brushing their teeth. Whitney totally doesn't get it. She rinses, then swallows, then spits in the sink and says "I'm learning". Tucker figured it out early november. He is very impressed with his skills. He likes brushing his teeth even more now.
Another boy skill he has aquired is smashing the trash down before taking it out with his foot. Looks silly, because he's so small, but he is very good at it.
Auntie Jill was 2 years ahead of her time. She gave them their Thing 1 and 2 dolls and their "aaagghh" dolls (those things that you push their stomachs and their mouths open and they sing. Tucker calls them the "aaaggh" 's He points to them and says Aaaaggh or asks where is aagghh? It cracks me up because he copies the tone they first make when you wake them up to a tee.
It is an act of love for me to do the things Whitney likes to do. She is very girly. She loves to shop. The other day I told her we didn't have any more pears when she was demanding more. I told her she ate them all. So then she asked for O's. Same response. So she said "we need to go to the store and get some more".
She also remembers gifts. Another sign of a shopper. Thank heavens I have my mom and sister in the family. They'll all get along great. She remembers that Daddy brings her cheese home from the store and that Grandma got her ornaments.
Whitney really likes art and is a bit of a perfectionist. We sometimes draw on the white board. Whitney asks me to draw her things first, then she'll try, but gets frustrated. Tucker doesn't care. He's really good at making big circles. He draws his "rock piles" then erases like mad to make another one. Sometimes he erases Whitney's side. Never a good moment.
I finally got Whitney to eat a leafy green without it being ground up in a smoothie. She really likes the "dip" on ceaser salad. She ate about 5 bites of salad with that on it. Tucker, no way, but he'll down a couple of smoothies no prob.
We were invited to some friends for dinner the other night. They have a little girl, too. Some of the toys they had out was a snorkel and mask and a balloon. Tucker figured out how to "play" the snorkel like a trumpet. It made us laugh pretty hard. They took turns stuffing the balloon up each other's shirt.
Tucker came walking in the room once holding his Thing 2 and his "aagghh" doll. He looked at me and said "two babies!" He was snuggling them just like I hold them when I have my two babies.
A couple of people have said to me lately that they seem to be bigger all of a sudden. I agree. They suddenly grew out of shoes and pants. I actually had to go buy pants. I guess for some reason I have no 3T size pants for him. I do now. Another indicator is the increase in the quantity of food. My dad commented on it once about how they can really "pack it down". Tucker ate 5 kid bowls of cheeries one time. He's going to have to get a part time job to support his food habits as a teenager if he's like this now. He announced "I'm a hungry boy!" Yep.
They are both getting more proficient in the kitchen. They can usually stir and dump fairly well. Tucker usually likes to dominate those activities. One time Whitney beat him to it stirring chili. Tucker spotted her and came over to take over. She yelled quite a bit and said "No! It's MY job!"
Whitney has placed ownership on the dogs. Rocky is her dog and Sammy is Tucker's dog. She will open the door to let in Rocky, but if it's just Sammy, she asks Tucker to let him in. Tucker has fed the dogs pretty much every time since he learned to feed Oliver at my mom's. Whitney put a new twist on it. She gets her play dishes to dish out the food. One time she gave the play dish directly to "her dog" full of food and sat there while he ate it. But I don't let her do that any more. I get grossed out and don't want to be washing play dishes all the time.
Whitney has gotten a bit more nervous lately about being away from me. She will often say she wants me to go with her to joy school or nursery. She ends up going anyway, but makes the comment. One time she said "My brother wants me to stay and play with him" to get out of joy school.
I love those mini oranges. The best part about them is Whitney knows how to peel them herself if I start it. Heaven!! She ate 5 or 6 the other day, I think just because she can peel them herself.
Tucker invented this game called "knock down the towers" They stand on their beds and fall onto them, holding their bodies straight. They also play "uh-oh pillows" with the cushions off the couch and the outdoor furniture that I brought in.
They had a really good day at joy school this one day. It was really cute. They talked about who their best friends were and Tucker and Whitney each picked each other while the other kids picked other friends of theirs. They also made this elephant face with a hole where the nose is. They stick their finger through the hole to make the trunk and sing a song about elephants they love. Whitney drew a smile on her paper when instructed while the rest scribbled.
At the park they have figured out how to land from a high jump, with their hands out to the side and stick the landing. Uncle Scotti, you should have them give pointers in your crossfit classes
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Grandma Kim's
This is going to be a really long post because we had a ton of fun at Grandma's. It will also be very random as I remember stuff. I didn't blog while I was there, so the memories are not as fresh.
We went to Tahoe one of the days. Absolutely gorgeous. Blue skies and yellow leaves everywhere. There were a ton of (very stinky) half alive salmon running. Pathetically small next to the ones coming out of the ocean, but much easier to see as we could get very close to the stream. On this day trip we left Froggy at home, but that doesn't mean there aren't any potty stories to be had. Maybe even more. Tucker really hates toilets that flush by themselves and yucky port o potties. Well, the one at the park was too yucky for him. Probably too hot. What port o potty is hot in WA? None. It's not natural. Anyway. He didn't want to go potty in the potty, so we went in the woods. Once we got back, my mom called Tucker "mountain boy" Whitney thought that was so funny and yelled it at the top of her lungs. You know how sound carries in a quiet wooded place. Scared the steller jay. Then we went on the short hike. Got half way around when Tucker decided he wanted to use the real potties, so Tucker and I went back while Whitney stayed with Grandma and Papa. We visited the potty like three times in a row until he could actually relax and finish the job. Meanwhile, Whitney was on her way back. My mom said to Whitney: "Let's go find Tucker and Mommy" when it was time. She responded "He's in the potty". Really knows her brother. Went to the school park a few times. They laughed gleefully while chasing their shadows on the blacktop. There are about 3 sets of playground equipment to play on. 2 of them have a bunch of stuff to climb and slide down. But what did they do for about 45 minutes? Stay on the free standing curly slide and go up and down either the stairs or the slide. I think I'm going to miss this age of simple pleasures. I was surprised they picked the slide of all things to play on. It was cold for about three days. 45 degrees cold. I had brought summer and fall clothes, but no winter stuff. Too hopeful, I guess. So we stayed inside until the storm passed. Which it does at my mom's house. While we were inside so much, one of the things they loved playing was "slug" on her carpeted, non-steep stairs. My Papa thought that was funny. He made the comment that "California children don't play slugs". Very true. I remember Whitney doing a face plant that didn't hurt. She called herself a slug. We've got big ones out here. Another thing they did a bunch was play with play dough. They learned all sorts of games playing with play dough. They would bury stuff in their play dough and also made lots of gusanos (worms). Whitney would smash her play dough down into a container and say "punch the bread down!" Patrick got a lot of exercise during those rainy days. We kept Oliver locked up in the bathroom while Mom was gone to work, but let Patrick out a bunch. They really liked playing with Patrick. I think Patrick liked it, but he was pretty active. Running and jumping around more than I've seen him do in awhile. I like to think it is because he had some good playmates. Tucker and Whitney liked making tunnels for Patrick with the couch pillows and their body. Whitney snuggled Patrick a bunch. Lined up crayons for Patrick to jump over. Patrick didn't quite get that. Tucker crooned "So soft Whitney!" to Whitney while she petted him ever so gently. He talked nicely "Oh, Patrick!" when Patrick jumped up to sniff him and his finger Tucker learned that the cut out in the wall above the couch is great for throwing things onto the couch below. I'm sure if my mom had been home, she would have died, but I decided throwing blankets was ok. They got lots of energy out by climbing up the stairs to throw the blanket, then climbing down to retrieve the blanket and climbing back up again. Every time Tucker would throw his blanket he would say "Uh-oh blanket! Haha!" Whitney didn't really want to play this malicious game with Blanket. She followed Tucker around, but with her particular blanket, she held on tight and said to her blanket "Hold on. I don't want you to fall!" Her caring side really shone through on day that Tucker fell off his chair during lunch. Those two weeks were the first weeks of me not strapping them down in booster chairs and they both would stand up on the chair often to get to their food. Standing means you probably need to dance and Tucker took a misstep during one of his dances and totally fell on the floor. He wasn't hurt, but pretty startled and scared, so it took him a bit to calm down. Whitney held his hand and gave him a kiss while he cried to help calm him. Fish didn't make it back home. Oliver chewed his eye off and made a bunch of other holes in it. Tucker left it on the floor. Can't blame Oliver too much. They had been playing Tucker and Whitney doggie and picking up the fish with their mouth just like Oliver does with his stuffed fish. Oliver thought that it applied to him, too. Tucker loves the spa. Another Uncle Scotti trait that he somehow inherited through sideways genetics. Grandpa loved taking Tucker in the spa. Good thing. I like being in the spa, but don't like getting out. That shock of cold air just isn't worth all the warmth. So my dad would take Tucker in the spa on the nights he got home from work before bed time. One time Tucker was eating chocolate pudding and my dad asked him if he wanted to go in the spa. Tucker paused, put his spoon down nicely and jumped down from the table saying "Yeah!". Same thing happened the next night with spaghetti noodles. The spa is so awesome, it's better than his favorite foods. One of the nights he played in there for an hour and 20 minutes. Mostly with dumping and pouring cups. He didn't like the "loud water" only the "quiet spa". Sometimes the spa motor would start up to cycle the filter and Tucker would say "It's pushing the buttons". Whitney also liked the spa, but only if mommy was in it, so she didn't go in as long or as often. She's a bit like me in that if she starts to feel cold, she's ready to get out. She liked sliding on the seats, but kept dunking herself (and thus getting her head wet). I was impressed. Once Tucker slipped and dunked himself and it took a few times of no incidents before he went back to playing in the spa. Not Whitney. I showed her how to hold her breath or blow out when it happened so she didn't breathe in water, and she got it. Then she got more brave. We played outside a ton while we were there. Whitney and Tucker really liked playing hide and seek. You know. The version where you laugh really loud or tell the other person where you are. And you skip a few numbers to finish counting. Although Whitney is really good at counting to 14. Going to the pumpkin patch was very exciting. It was made an even better experience by watching the Charlie Brown movie of the Great Pumpkin. Every pumpkin was a great pumpkin. Tucker picked up a pumpkin I was sure was too big for him. And then he picked up another one that I was, again, was sure was too heavy for him, for Whitney. One night Tucker got stuck under the bed (they slept on the floor) and he came out screaming "I want to watch the Great Pumpkin movie!" Whitney and Tucker still laugh hysterically at each other if either one says "Bonk! Like Snoopy!" One of the funniest parts of the movie for them was when Snoopy fell off his dog house and landed in his food dish. A part I'm sure you all remember well. We went to a U-pick farm to pick apples. Tucker and Whitney filled their bags in no time. They had already had lots of practice picking apples off Ieva's tree and could show Grandma how it's done. Grandma and Hoppy came up for a few hours on Sunday. Of course they had to come in the afternoon. After church and before dinner. I don't know about the rest of you, but that's usually not a favorite time during my week. There was a lot of noise, noise, noise. I think Tucker was delirious with sleep deprivation from all the excitement and treats the previous three days with traveling and settling in. Hoppy and Grandma left after about 4 hours. I think they were exhausted with all the noise. I sure was and I'm used to having them around. The highlight of the visit was Hoppy's magic trick. The one with the frog in the handkerchief. Tucker's face showed how dumbfounded he was about how that frog could have disappeared like that. Classic family story. Part of the Sunday afternoon was saved by Uncle Ryan. He brought home this huge box from work. Very, very smart thinking, Uncle Ryan. Tucker's favorite request, in between crawling in and out and shutting the door was "push me please!" And Uncle Ryan complied. Much to Mommy's relief. Grocery shopping with Grandma was very fun. Whitney really likes to sing when she is in the cart, so it was easy for Grandma to find us. Not as easy for us to find her. We went looking for her and couldn't find her for a little bit. When we spotted her, Tucker shrieked in delight. Grandma bought fruit snacks and Frosted mini wheats. Tucker was especially happy the next day at breakfast and said "oh yeah!!!! Frosted mini wheats". Another shopping trip we were planning on going in and out, so since there were two of us, we let them hold a basket each and walk. It was funny watching them carry them, even though it was awkward for them. They got to put bananas in it. Very good thing. Of course, Whitney and Mom couldn't resist doing a little shopping for Whitney together. They picked out a pink polka dot shirt and another that had a diamond (fake) on it. Whitney pointed to the shirt and said "That's my diamond". We did joy school a bit while we were there. One of the games was "where does it come from?" and you say man made or nature. I pulled out a bunch random things to ask them about. Two items were a piece of tanbark and the other was turkey lunch meat. When I asked where the tanbark came from, Tucker looked at it, paused and said "the playground!". Very true. He also calls pieces of tanbark in his shoe "playground". His sentence goes something like this: "I have playground in my shoe! Get it out!". In response to the turkey meat, Whitney looked at it and said "gobble, gobble." End of conversation. We talked about emotions during joy school. One of them was feeling frustrated. They really know what that word is because I often get frustrated. Whitney said to me several times "Mom, are you frustrated?" while we were there. They also had a small review on manners by Grandma, so Tucker started repeating what Mom says and would say to me, "What do you say, Mom" when I asked him for something. Going to church was fun. As soon as we walked into the church, Tucker noted the most important thing. "Oh! The basketball hoop is up". Very important. They also had play keys and cell phones in the nursery that were absolutely fascinating. And Tucker couldn't stop opening and shutting the door on the car in there. They came home with some phrases they learned at Grandma's. Like "slinky apple" and "push the button". Slinky apple is for the apple they ate everyday for snack because they could cut, peel and core it themselves, once I got it set up. That was the best thing ever. Push the button is what they say to me (or whoever is playing with them) if they want to "keep going". Like going upstairs or sliding down the stairs like a slug. We went to my Grandpa's house, or Papa's house. We came back pretty late for them. Left around 8 pm. They laughed and giggled the whole way home. No sleepy, sleepy. But they also had a great toy to play with. Grandma's flashlights! So awesome! Some other random things they did or started doing while they were there was to push the Whitney and Tucker balls up the ramp. Or splash in the water beneath the Weber with the bucket handles they took off their bucket. Tucker liked to sing me his demands. Like "i want a banana" to the tune of one nursery rhymes. Whitney had fun seeing how a teapot works in real life. But of course, being at Grandma's spoils you. Toward the end of the trip, Whitney wouldn't allow for any water in her glass to be anything but "refrigerator water". Thank heavens the refrigerator stays at Grandma's!  |
| Tucker showing me fish |
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| very happy to be on plane. by the window that goes up and down |
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| Here we go to grandma's house |
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| jumping back into summer, but not in the spa. Not the first time |
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| Tucker and Papa in Tahoe |
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| The girls |
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| Helping each other out. They take turns doing this. Benefits of twins |
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| Feeding Fishy fish crackers |
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| Singing and covering her ears |
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| Making Patrick a bunny tunnel |
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| More play OUTSIDE the spa |
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| Slug beds |
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| Tucky and Grandma picking apples in orchard |
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| Tucker showing Grandma how it's done. Had lots of practice in neighbor's yard this fall |
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| Helping Grandma with yard work. Pine cones are supervising |
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| Uncle Ryan gave Tucky a wagon ride. In the afternoon. |
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| bucket head. She was singing a bunch with this on,too. |
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| Whitney walking to car from store in the rain. Didn't want her pants to get wet. |
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| more bucketheads |
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| Playing doggy, just like Oliver. Oliver has a stuffed fish he chases, so they got their rubber ones and copied the behavior |
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| Whitney's seat |
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| picking a pumpkin |
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| Tucky hauling around his Great Pumpkin |
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| At the park with Grandma |
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| At the park with Grandma |
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| on a "nature trail" with grandma looking at Tucker and Whitney trees |
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| At costco with Grandpa Anderson. He got his workout trying to hold them back and steer |
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| Whitney snuggling Patrick |
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| no explanation needed |
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| On their way to trick or treating |
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| Playing with veggie man Grandma made for Halloween snack. Olive on finger |
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| Tucker doggy |
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