two new talents

Whitney loves the steering wheel
Happy together
A flower! It matches my shoes!
T-Tucky's shirt. Tucker LOVES this shirt. It is his shirt of choice (whenever it is clean). He points to it and says "T-Tucky" repeatedly until it is safely on his little body.
Looking at daffodils
Whitney is not convinced the yellow things are daffodils. She pointed these out and said "Daffodils" over and over, as if to teach mommy what daffodils really are. These are what the daffodils in our yard look like, how she learned the word.
Running up and down the pathways
Washing windows together. Very, very, very cute
Isn't he cute?
Whitney sang Twinkle Twinkle little star for about an hour straight yesterday, so finally Daddy found a you tube video of the song with a cartoon star and owl. Whitney was fascinated.
Ok mom. You were right. These bunch of primroses look way better with white mixed in.
Tucky washing windows in his "cool shirt"


I got a video of the babies' two new talents they worked on this week. Learning to wash the windows and irritating each other just because. I'll have to wait for Jim to get home to upload this video, or maybe next week.

This past week Tucker and Whitney had a cold that left them full of snot, sneezing and coughing, but didn't wear them out enough to make them tired, just really cranky, with lots and lots of screaming. Incessant screaming. Dad, I've decided I'm an kinesthetic, but also an auditory. Not only does the constant poking, hanging, clinging, underfooted-ness, and whacking from these kids drive me crazy, but the constant noise, noise, noise, noise of screaming. Screaming grates on my nerves quite a bit. So much so that by Friday I had no desire to be with my kids at all. I've felt this way sometimes, but I can usually distract them, feed them, nap them, or change them and then they do another cute thing, and the feeling goes away rapidly. Not this week. Too much screaming. I spent all day on Friday feeling like I didn't want to be with them, so I started thinking up things we could do together that wouldn't drive me crazy. We finally agreed on them playing in the car in the garage (really dampens screaming) while I sanded shelves in the garage.

This is what creates constant screaming. Just one of many formulas, I assure you. All other mothers probably agree. Have a cold, rain all week, transition to 1 to 0 nap at times, and have a sibling. This is what Tucker and Whitney both do to each other. They start saying "push, push" a few times, like they are announcing a game and then one of them shoves the other to the floor and vice versa. The other thing they do is one will say "no, no" to the other and the other one starts screaming like they've been hit. They are not even touching each other. This usually occurs at mealtimes when they are confined to their booster seats and can't touch each other. I guess I only have the rest of their lives to look forward to these games and other versions of them.

The other thing they learned, though, really made my day. They washed the windows for me. They only do it at their level of course, but it corresponds with the hand print level, so it works out fine. I had to get it on video. Then they started fighting about who was going to clean it and get the next squirt of Windex. So I have both new talents recorded

We also went to try to have a photo shoot on the temple grounds. It was perfect. This week the temple is closed, so there is very little traffic around the daffodils that line the parking lot. Plus, I think the gardeners there cheated and planted bulbs that have been in the greenhouse. But it makes for great photos.

The same day we got the photo shoot at the temple, we discovered a way cool playground that had a fire truck, tons of climbing structures and even tunnels. Totally old school and unsafe, requiring much more supervision, but way, way cool. Good thing we got out because that was the only 4 hours this week it was dry. There was someone there doing his workout, which included lots of jumping off of tall play structures and even doing some flips off of them (over a gravel pit). Tucker and Whitney were fascinated. Storing up ideas to try at home, I'm sure.

Daddy got suckered into getting Tucky a donkey kong shirt since Whitney took over the Luigi backpack that was originally for Tucky. I'm proud of him, though. He got it 50% off of company price, so it's not bad. Plus it's huge, so it's good for a few summers. Short sleeved. Which is why it is 50% off. I think I need snap-in long sleeves that I can move from shirt to shirt for all the cute summer shirts they'd never be able to wear otherwise. Tucker wanted nothing to do with that shirt when Daddy tried to put it on him. Until his sister wanted it on her and we laughed at how cute it was on her. Then he put it on. He only tries on clothes if it's safe, tested by "Big Sister"

Jim watched the babies most of the day Saturday while I went to a women's retreat that was a blessed 5 hours long. What wisdom those ladies who planned it had to make it so long! Jim was worn out from the screaming by the time I got home and we were down 1/3 of a goldfish bag when I got back, plus some BBQ sauce. Jim thinks whenever Tucker is upset, he needs goldfish, which Tucker pretty much agrees with Dad. Now Daddy has a new trick. Dip. BBQ sauce is this week's choice of dip. Although, I gave Tucker and Whitney some salsa I made this week. Tucker downed it and Whitney didn't like how spicy it was, amazingly enough. To make up for it, Whitney ate pickeled okra. Obviously disgusting to Tucker and many others alike.

Yesterday it snowed (didn't stick) and today it is sunny and literally freezing, but we played bubbles and sidewalk chalk anyway. That's when I got the photo of the new flowers and planted them. Nice reprieve. The week is starting off better.

cuteness becomes them

Spring time play. Can't you tell? We can. Spring=bird noises. Wintertime=bright, red hands
More rainy play
Whitney asked to take this pic. She is sitting on a rock next to her daffodil sprouts. She knows how to say daffodil. It's really cute! She's excited about the flowers.
Tucky could do this all day. At least it's not the microwave.
Valentine's Day at the friend's house.
Valentine's Day. Check out the red socks!
A meter on spring here. Some daffodil and hyacinth sprouts mixed with primroses.


Don't ask me where I came up with the title, but it just came to me, even though there aren't any particularly beautiful pics

For Valentine's day we had an indoor picnic at a friend's house, all of us wearing some sort of pink or red. We also web-cammed with my mom so she could see them eating the candy she sent in the mail. At 9 am. Definitely a special day. The babies wanted more, of course. Daddy brought home "Mommy flowers" and made a delicious dinner, which included some mushrooms and onions. Tucker sat on Daddy's lap and ate all of those onions, amazingly. He also ate the meat. But even I love that meat. He made filet mignon. Who doesn't love that???!! I personally loved the gnocchis. Mostly because I think it is a special touch to me. Every place that we have gone to that have gnocchis on the menu, I order that. I love gnocchis. Good mission memories.

Some funny Tucky stories. On Monday we had corn for lunch. All of a sudden Tucker was announcing "oh no!" several times. I couldn't figure out what "oh no!" was until he started saying nose. I looked in his nose and he stuffed a corn kernel up there. Lucky for me I figured out a way to get that sucker out. Pebbles next, right?

Another story is that we were walking in the park and all of sudden Tucker started saying "oh no!", but with a very distressed voice. I was looking around, but then he stopped walking and looked down. After that I started laughing hysterically and couldn't stop for awhile. Tucker's pants had fallen down below his knees and his cute little thighs and knees were exposed to the air below his raincoat. I don't know why I thought it was so funny, but the babies were not amused. Neither one of them cracked a smile. I don't think they could figure out what was so funny. Tucker did a courtesy laugh and I finally got it under control after that, only because maybe he was embarrassed, even if he has cute thighs and he had a onsie on over a diaper.

Whitney has figured out how to take off seals off of products. We were in Costco and I got some shampoo (my five year supply with the size they are, right?). A lady walked by and she smelled so good!!! Like she just stepped out of the shower. Then Whitney said "oh no!" (now you know the dreaded words in this family) and I looked down to see she had started squirting shampoo out. Well, at least I know it is a smell I like.

Tucker is really learning how to keep a balloon up in the air by hitting it. He's really getting it down where the balloon is going to go. They are both really into letters, Tucker more than Whitney. Everywhere we go, he points out different letters on signs and such. But he rarely gets them wrong, which is what is amazing to me. Whitney messes up on occasion, but it surprises me that it's more than Tucker. However, she is working on her pretend play and games.

She is usually the one that invents and initiates games. The ring leader. They have a book that has cut outs and she instructed Tucker to poke his finger through so she can go "tickle, tickle" to his finger. She also is setting her babies up at the table to eat the food she cooks in the kitchen. Tucker makes the babies cry and she feeds them. This week they also figured out how to work as a team to play Tucker's favorite game. Tucker can't quite turn the water on in the kitchen sink approaching it from the front. So Whitney pushed a stool around behind the sink and turned it off and on as he needed it to fill up his side-kick measuring cups. Yep. The ring leader. They also play "snuggle" which involved wedging themselves between the couch and the mattresses on the floor so one can jump off the couch over the other and land on the mattresses. A very safe, fun game. They also play take care of the baby. Tucker makes it cry and Whitney feeds it.

On Saturday we tried to get to the coast. We ended up just driving 6.5 hours. Lots of practice to get to Grandma's. For when they are older. We brought a friend and his wife called because she had to take her mom to the ER. We were just about to get to the beach to go razor clamming when the call came, so we had to turn around so he could take care of the 5 kids while she was with her mom. Crazy day. We would have been fine if there hadn't been an accident blocking the road to the beach...... Anyway it was a very frustrating long day in the car. We stopped to go to the bathroom and the only open one for Whitney to run into was a hugely clogged toilet. Never seen anything like it in nastiness, but I thought she couldn't hold it. Well, one look at that, and she could hold it. And hold it she did for another hour. She chuckled, smiled and ran into the clean bathroom when we finally got to one. I don't know if she is going to be roughing it type when she grows up. We'll see. She wasn't about to rough it then.

We ended up staying a bit to play at the friend's house to get out of the car. They have a 2 week old baby (hence the reason the grandma was there visiting) that Tucker and Whitney were amazingly soft to. These past two weeks we have been really working on saying sorry and being soft. I'm tired of the pointless time outs that they both seem to love and not care about. They still beat each other up and push and shove, but now, they are soft right after and seem surprised at times that they had hurt the other person. About a month ago we had a year old baby over that was teething and I had to work to keep Tucker from mauling them. So with this newborn, I was really watching Tucker. The newborn slept most of the time, but did wake up hungry and crying. They were both concerned for the baby, tried rubbing his head to comfort him and kept saying that the baby needed milk ("baby milk!"). When the bottle was ready, they both took turns holding it for him. So I guess kids are like dogs. They seem to know that the smaller, more delicate things need more leniency and to not get after them so soon. I'm just glad to see that they seem to be learning that the other person has feelings, too. I had to put a band-aid on Tucky's finger to protect a cut, and she gave the boo-boo a kiss! So cute! I bet you miss them! Enjoy the video of Whitney feeding Tucker rice and beans, something he doesn't like.

pathetic pics

Tucker: "What's up!"- mid chew
Just before I snapped this, they were both standing int it, looking out, like they were in prison
Tucker really likes diapers as a hat this week??????!!!
Whitney was being really cute, but put her hand up just as I took it. Still pretty cute.



The pictures are getting harder and harder to capture and videos are worse. Every time I have the camera out, they stop what they are doing and run over so they can see themselves on the camera. Very annoying. I almost caught some really cute stuff.

The picture of them in the fire pit ring on the back deck was taken at 5 o'clock at night. I was very excited about this. They ended up playing until 5:30. This means several things. It wasn't raining. It wasn't freezing cold. It was light until then. They were getting lots of energy out and slept well that night. All very happy things that means we are heading toward a warmer and less rainy season. I'm very excited. My primroses are also budding, the daffodil shoots are up and there are crows eating our trash (the green waste bin is slightly open from all those limbs from the tree I pruned last week). None of these things happen in the winter.

By the way, since living here, I hate crows even more. I didn't know they are bullies and scavengers like seagulls. Have the same sized nasty poop, too. Stupid crows. They chase all the other birds away that make pretty noises. Even Sammy and Rocky hate crows and bark at them incessantly when they are in our yard.

So this week we had a lovely time playing at the park, in the yard, or playing at the park with friends on Monday and Tuesday when it felt like spring.

Wednesday was a Valentine's party at music time. Whitney and Tucky's first Valentine party. It was then that I realized in getting rid of the diaper bag and going down to a back pack they carry and my purse, I don't have my camera with me. Lots of cute pics that I didn't capture. Whitney loves crafts and totally seems to get them. She's a bit of a perfectionist, though, in that if she can't make the craft look how she wants it, she gets mommy to do it. Tucker just kept handing Whitney supplies so she could make him one, too. I was absolutely shocked at how well she can do a craft. It was a craft that involved stickers and gluing and she got the concept and had her own idea. Definitely doesn't get that from me. It might explain, if I have a budding artist, why she likes the "Messy Me" book so much or why she is so messy in her eating. Just practicing her finger painting skills. But then she took her craft apart on the way home and then put it in the crucible we have for spices to smash it up a bunch. I guess she doesn't love her first attempts. She also knows how to sprinkle sprinkles on a cupcake almost as well as I did. She knew exactly what and how to do that. Tucker saw the cupcake and ate the frosting top off. He wasn't interested in the rest.

There were a bunch of veggie, cracker and fruit healthy treats at the party, but there were those cupcakes and another mom brought some valentine candies. Tucker saw those and couldn't concentrate on anything else except those two things until I took them out of his sight, and even then, he barely ate enough to satisfy his hunger. I guess he has mommy's sweet tooth. Whitney ate the whole cupcake in about 1-2 minutes. It was very good.

Thursday was a great day for mommy. After my clogging class I got to talking about a physical therapy topic with someone that was very enlightening for me. I had such a blast talking about it and it made me realize I really do like physical therapy. I need to sign up for my con ed class soon!

Friday we went to a new pediatrician. Jim's health insurance with this company is kind of like Kaiser from what I can tell in it's bigness and set up, but I do like the pediatrician. I think Tucker has a crush on her. Funniest thing. He was so good and helpful the whole time we were at the doctor, it almost made me laugh. Tucker took all his turns first, before Whitney. Climbing up on the scale, standing against the wall to be measured, getting a peak in the ears and getting his belly poked at, as well as his shots. When the doctor asked to measure his head, he smiled at her and leaned his head forward to accommodate her, like he was being such a gentleman. It seemed to really help Whitney feel better about her turn. Maybe that's why Tucker did it. To help Whitney.

Whitney is 2' 9.5" and 24 lbs. Tucker is 2'10.5" and 30 lbs. That puts Whitney in the 33% and Tucker in 45% for height. And Whitney 13% and Tucker 66% for weight. No wonder everyone says Whitney is so petite and Tucker is so big. Tucker is thick for his height and Whitney is slender for her height. Tucker still has a big head. in the 80%. Some shirts are really hard to pull over his head.

The doctor didn't seem to be too interested in testing Tucky for almond or milk allergies since the allergy just decreases his snot level, but I'm not about to go back to milk. That kid has consistently slept through the night, even when he had a cold, since then. I'm sold. If I don't have to wake up, no more milk. I guess it's like Scott's allergy to milk. Not life threatening, just really, really annoying. Surprisingly, Tucker hasn't had too big of a fit about not having milk. He seems to really like soy milk. Whitney likes it about the same as she likes cow milk. And I put soy in his smoothies. Seems to be doing very well.

We had to go downstairs to get the shots. The babies were very brave. They didn't cry or squirm too bad until the nurses had the needles on the way out. The nurses were awesome, too. They had a singing animal that the babies were fascinated with during the whole thing. And they had stickers. Tucker picked out the same sticker there as he did in the doctor's office. He saw the jaguar sticker, immediately said "meow" just like a small innocent kitten, and has been carting around that sticker, saying meow the same way ever since. He keeps trying to stick it to his belly, but it doesn't really work. I've been very surprised at how much he loves his "meow".

Whitney really likes taking her baby potty. Kind of annoying because she expects me to respond to baby needing to go potty the same way I respond to her needing to go. Good thing I'm not potty training Tucky. Then it would be like potty training triplets. No, thanks.

The videos are just as pathetic as the pics. I tried to get video of Whitney directing Tucker to play Tickle Feet through the stairway banister just like Mina does and of them finding poop for me. Kind of, sort of.

trucks and ducks

Whitney working hard on Mr. Potato
Whitney with the Elmo shirt and head band on that she picked out.
Whitney really wanted a picture of her baby
The face of glee she has when she puts her Elmo shirt on
Tucker would like to live in this thing. Under the blanket are a bunch of trucks and blocks he likes to play with. He doesn't have any other pics this week because they are lame.



The past week Jim was out of town from Saturday morning to Thursday night. So I didn't take any pics. The only ones we have are from his phone when he got home and was missing them. You'll have to do the old stand by of imagining it in your mind.

The weather has been drier this week. We've even had some sun. Today we went outside to play and it took them a bit to remember how to play outside. After a bit they found the rocks, golf balls and dirt and went to town. Tucker is so excited about the sun today he is not taking a nap.

Last week we went to the park a ton. One day we were at the park and they were using a dump truck and a tractor to load it. Holy cow. Very cool and very exciting. But, couldn't get too close. Very scary, too. They had a blast running up and down some short bleachers while they were watching. It was a great day.

Another day we went to a different park and watched the ducks. First we chased them off of their feeding grounds (a slow walking speed as they creeped up a bit a time to see if they could get closer). That turned out to be a very bad idea. They poop while they eat and Mom was very disgusted by the stuff in the treads of those shoes. So we went to throw rocks in the pond instead. Should have done that in the first place. Ducks came up by the dozens and pretty close, too. Whitney decided the bench was a safer place to stand. They stood on the bench watching and yelling a particular duck ("No, no!") that was twice as big as the rest for some reason. This duck was a bully and babies could recognize that, and kept reprimanding it. It was warmer than usual, and my Whitney who likes to go "inside" had a fit about leaving the park at lunch time. The two year old power struggles begin.

The babies really missed Daddy. The first night Jim was gone, Tucker got up from reading books before bed, bounded down the hall and ran into Jim's office, fully expecting Daddy to be there. He was very confused and surprised not to find him there. He didn't look again until Daddy got home. Once Daddy got home, Tucker didn't want him out of his arms or sight. Whitney was a little more snugly than normal during the week. Not sure if it is just a hard week or she was worried about Daddy. She pointed to his chair and said "Daddy seat" the first night he was missing from dinner.

Daddy had to run a few errands once he got home. We decided to each take a baby and go do errands on Sat. night. Tucker got the raw end of the deal. I had to do my calling, so he sat in the clerk's office throwing paperclips everywhere for 45 minutes. We did play jump, all by ourselves on the mattresses downstairs before Daddy and Whitney got home. Daddy went to Old Navy for pants and Safeway for I don't know what, but Whitney had a blast shopping. She watched Daddy pick out some clothes, then go try them on. She thought that was a great idea, so she picked some out to try on. Daddy did help by going to the clearance isle and the headband isle. She picked out an Elmo shirt. Duh. They are actually pj's, so she picked out some superman pj's for Tucky, too. Once at Safeway, she picked out some dried apricots. She wouldn't let Tucker even touch the bag. Don't worry. Tucker got a bag, too, but decided dried apricots are "yucky poop". Hmmmm Whitney. I think you really know how to pick things so you get two.......

They are starting to catch on to letters more and more, so I'm having to get creative. Today when we were outside, they were looking at a box and pointing to Tucky T's and double-whitney's (W). now they have Rocky R's, Sammy S's, Mommy M's, Papa P's, and Doggy D's somewhat down. It is really confusing about Mommy M's and double Whitney's and how they flip.

Whitney's books of choice this week are "Big Sister" and "Messy Me". She can very clearly say big sister, but calls the other book "mess-mess" book. She really likes that Big sister book. I think it might be because I told her how she is Tucker's big sister. Might have been a really bad idea to introduce that concept. She gets a big grin on her face when she says that now. Like she is big and powerful. There is a page that talks about poop in the diaper versus poop in the toilet, and that is a very true and interesting page for her.....

There are these smart baby videos I've gotten at the library that the babies have loved and I have no idea why. One time we got it for the car trip to Utah and that was the only video Whitney watched. Tucker never really watched it. This time I got the musical instruments one. They watched the whole thing, laughing and talking about all the animals showing up on the screen when the instrument being played changed. It was really funny and engaging and I have no idea why, but glad I found it

This week the Grandma that lives next door gave us the little Tikes workshop with all the tools and everything. I gave her a loaf of homemade bread. She seems to think we both benefited. It's out of her storage area and she got bread. I still think I got the better end of the deal. A new toy and a cool one at that. It is like the kitchen in that it is already giving me at least 1/2 hour of peace and quiet at a time. Whitney and Tucker both love it. Daddy also really liked playing with it when he came home. I invited the neighbor over to watch the kids see it for the first time, but I really should have invited her over for when Jim saw it for the first time. It's been an awesome week.

Since it is has been drier this week, I've been slowly trimming a weeping cherry tree we have in our front yard. It is old and big and looks like it should be a shower of pink blossoms, but last year I was dismayed in the few blooms it had. I found out it has a lot of dead wood. So I set about to prune it before it gets too late in the year. Most of the time, I could just knock the branch off instead of having to cut it. Saturday I took advantage of nap time, sunshine and Jim being inside with the babies to really finish the job. I cut two really big branches, having to get Jim to help me finish them off. He kept saying things like "Are you sure you know what you are doing?" and "shouldn't we wait to see what stuff is really dead?" and "why do you want those branches off?.... It's because they are the wrong shape??!!" I was up higher in the tree doing more pruning while he finished those branches off for me and it looked great from up there as far as dead material gone and the shape of the whole thing. I was really excited!! And then I got down and realized how much of the tree was on the ground as I hauled it to the green waste pile. I started getting really discouraged that I had killed it at this point. Then the Grandma next door came out and was really excited about all the work and commented on how nice it all looked. I felt encouraged. We'll see if I killed it in a few months. I would be really sad if it died. It is a beautiful tree.