Tub Crayons Gone Astray

And The Other

I only got around to one update the other day, so here's the other. 

Will got a trundle bed in December, a little on the early side for my taste, but he was threatening to climb out of his crib and I didn't want him falling. Of course he thought this new-found freedom from bars gave him a carte blanche invitation to come running out of his room whenever he felt like it, including nap and bed times. 

After miserably sitting and holding the door shut one day to ensure he actually took a nap, I broke down and got doorknob covers. I felt so bad for doing it. We never had to do it with Abby. Of course, when we told her she had to stay in her room after we left, she did. She didn't like it, but she stayed. She's a rule follower (not sure where she gets that!) Will is NOT a rule follower. 

We also reassembled the crib, which we had prematurely taken out of his room. So, now he gets to choose where he sleeps. Somehow the choice between crib and big-boy bed has made the transition easier. He picks the crib more, but the kids love playing on the trundle.

He's still into sports. He uses a tennis racquet to hit a volleyball and toy skillets/griddles as ping pong paddles. When he throws a football, he yells, "Go long!" thanks to his dad and his new favorite movie, The Incredibles. And he's learned how to "tackle" himself by falling over and yelling "Tackle!" I actually heard a neighbor kid walk by the other day and say "I think the only thing [Will] doesn't play is bowling!" That's about right although I'm sure we'll discover that soon enough. It's a good thing we have a big open space upstairs. It has become his indoor field/court/gym.

As for his movie preference, "I'n watch crebibles" has now become a regular request around here. Along with it has come a fascination with guns. Great. He runs around the house using whatever he can find as a gun and yells "Show yourself!" 

I say "No guns." 

He says "Yes guns. Mommy, please!?!?!"

"No, mommy doesn't like guns. They are mean and they hurt people."

He doesn't even own any kind of gun. A whole lot of use that's doing. So far, he's used a Barbie-sized hairdryer, a lotion bottle, his stroller handles and, of course, his fingers. Guess I can't take those away. Sigh. I knew it would come eventually. Just didn't know we'd hit it by two. It's pretty hard not to laugh at him yelling "Show yourself," but I'm really trying to stick to my, uh, guns (pardon the expression!).

He is at a fun age where almost everything he says and does is funny without him meaning for it to be. He puts himself in timeout when he's done something wrong. And now, he can't come out of his room until I open the door, so he yells "I want out!" when he's done.

At Christmas, every baby became Baby Jesus, including Simba from The Lion King. When he wants to watch that movie, he asks for Baby Jesus. There's gotta be some allegory in there somewhere. He's also named his one baby doll Baby Jesus. Apparently he learns something at school! :)

And he's really into playing the guitar. Sometimes he rocks out (and has great rhythmic instincts). Other times, he plays Twinkle Twinkle or the ABCs, which he sings A-B-C-D-H-E-B! This clip is a slow, lyrical ballad, albeit non-sensical. I just had to include it! And then I'm done. Really.

Thy Bed Overfloweth

Will is now napping with 4 footballs, 1 volleyball, 1 basketball, 1 baseball, 1 golf ball, and 1 non-sports-related ball. 

Whereas Abby goes to bed at night with 4 unicorns, 3 baby dolls, 2 lobsters, 1 life-sized frog, 1 gorilla, and various other animals and blankets. 

It's a good thing they each still fit in their beds!

GIRL SCOUT COOKIES

I realized I probably shouldn't have added that at the very end of a super-long post. So, here it is all on it's own. Abby is (and, by default, mommy is) selling Girl Scout cookies. Place your orders now!

Status Update(s)

Oh yes I did. I joined the millions of others on Facebook. And now I'm addicted. But I must provide status updates for the kids!

I'll start with Abby. She was home from school for two weeks over the holidays. The two kids got along so well and loved playing together that it made the time off really enjoyable for everyone (thank you, God, for small blessings!). 

She got to bring home the class turtle, Smarty, for the break. You've never seen such adoration and responsibility from a five year-old. Of course, she enlisted Will to help with mealtimes too. He loved it. In fact, he would have fed the poor turtle all day long if we'd have let him. He kept saying "Smarty. Smarty. Feed Smarty" Except his "sm" sounds like "p," so we kept thinking he was saying "party" or "potty." We grown-ups are sometimes slow to learn. Of course I should have known because his small football is his "par one." (I've had to explain that to a number of people!). But, I digress.

Okay, back to Abby. For Christmas, she got her first Webkinz. She really wanted to call it Butterscotch, so we went onto the website and typed it in. Well, the site came back with "I'm sorry the name you have typed contains a word that is not allowed." 

"Wow, I guess scotch is alcohol so they don't want it," I thought. So, we typed "Butter." Same message. "Oh, it's butt." We typed "Buterscotch." Same message. The pony's name is now Golden. And see if you can guess her log-in. . . . Oh yes, it's julialathrop. Remember her?

She also got a Razor Scooter. She figured it out in no time and it's really helped her balance! We may be well on our way to removing training wheels too!

Since school started, she has been working on an eggsperiment for her Science Fair. We'll turn it in tomorrow for display. The pictures say it all. 

She also starts a Spanish class Monday, aaaannnddd she is selling GIRL SCOUT COOKIES. Call or email and we can hook you up now through Feb. 27!

Abbyism of the Week:

(While I was tucking her in for bed) Abby: Mom, I love you. You're the best. You're the best Daddy was ever gonna get.

Thanks, I think.

Over Here Santa!

Darn it if he didn't look away from me the whole time I was taking pictures. He just kept looking at the kids. They have the drill down. Shouldn't he??

Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Visit from the Villains

My parents dressed as Cruella DeVil and Captain Hook for a Christmas costume party. Don't they look great?

Will's World

We're settling into two a little better now. It's been nice to have Abby home over the holidays. They've been playing so well together! How she gets him to obey her every command during make-believe games is beyond me. 

He still won't ride his McQueen scooter. In fact, Abby got a two-wheeled scooter for Christmas. He has now mastered that one. Amazing. He's also pedaling his new trike.

He's really getting vocal. His favorite catch phrases include "Ka-chow" (from Cars), "I ah no i ee ah" (I have no idea), and "Aw, man!" I may have to start writing Willisms too:

Brad: Don't step on the pictures please.

Will: Okay.

Brad: Well, you just did.

Will: (You're) Welcome.

I just happened to be going through our videos and found this clip from his birthday. I thought it was so cute I had to share.

Abbyisms of the Week:

(While playing outside) Abby: Hey look mommy, a UPS truck!

Six year-old: That says "ups."

Seven year-old: Yeah, it says "ups."

Emily: Actually it says UPS. It stands for the company's name. (In my head only, I was saying, "So there, nyah!")

Abby: Daddy, I made a Kwanzaa mat at school.

Brad: A what?

Abby: A mat.

Brad: A mac?

Abby: A mat.

Brad: A map?

Abby: NO! (frustrated) Mommy, will you spell it for him so he knows what I'm talking about?

Emily: M-A-T.

Daisy Mania

Abby has joined Girl Scouts and I have become her troop leader. One of the other moms from her class has volunteered to help me. It's a lot more time-intensive than I was expecting because there have been about 4 trainings so far this fall, but I'm loving it. Putting in 110% as usual, doing lesson plans, getting all the forms in, and planning which patches to earn when, but I think it's going great. Kindergartners are called Daisies. Aren't they cute?

P.S. Watch out for cookie time--we're going to hit you up in January and February! We're the only Daisy troop in our area actually selling cookies. It's the 110% coming out again.

Will's World

We've hit two like a brick wall. Every little thing sets off temper tantrums. My favorite (she says sarcastically) is when the football gets dirty, wet, or, worst of all, cold. You should hear him scream when the football is cold (defined as anything less than hot). He kicks and yells "blow up, blow up!" That's two year-old speak for "Breathe warm air on it to heat it up." Unfortunately for him (and us), winter is coming.

We've now graduated from Cars to Monsters, Inc., which is a welcome relief for all of us. And he's been fighting off nap time daily. Although it's a constant struggle, he says some pretty funny things when he's trying to keep himself awake:

Emily: It's time for nap time. People are sleeping.

Will: McCain sleeping. PAUSE. Obama sleeping. PAUSE. Matt work.

Matt's our neighbor with the garage. Still no luck on the new scooter. It's in Matt's garage. We now opt for skateboarding.

Tricks and Treats

As always, the kids were adorable in their costumes. Will even learned how to say "Trick or Treat," except he kept getting it confused with "Thank you!" How can you blame him? We'd say "What do you say?" and he had to guess which one to use. He's bound to get it right 50% of the time!

We got him to wear his costume by saying, "Do you want to dress up like a lion so you can get some candy?" It lasted the whole night. Abby, on the other hand, needed no convincing. She was already determined to wear her costume from last year. Made it easy on me!

They both got to ride around in our neighbor's wagon for most of the night, drawing comments from about every other house about their smooth ride. I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but I saw one girl in a wagon all by herself with blankets and pillows laid out like a bed. Honestly? Times, they have a-changed.

Let Them Eat Football Cake!

I'm getting into this fun cake thing. Will almost couldn't sit there and snap this shot before he wanted to eat his football! Have I mentioned that he likes balls? For his birthday, he got 2 footballs, a tee-ball set, and a Lightning McQueen scooter. Of course, if you ask him who's on his scooter, he'll still tell you it's Barbie. We've decided we probably need to put his new one in the neighbor's garage for him to ride it.

Kids' Politics

Before the election, Brad's mom and step-dad thought it would be funny to try to get the kids to cheer for McCain. They apparently had Will saying, "McCain!" and they would laugh hysterically so he'd say it again. Luckily, it wore off after about a day. 

Abby, on the other hand, never fell for it. In fact, she outright refused! She had a mock election at her school last week and came home talking about it. The teacher had asked why each child had voted the way he/she did. Abby said, "McCain wants to keep the war going and Obama is going to end it." Sounds simple enough.

The whole family walked her to school this morning (which hasn't happened since about Labor Day!). On the way there, Will pointed to a "Texans for Obama" sign still displayed proudly in a neighbor's yard. He said, "Obama house." 

Our job is done.  :)

Abbyism of the Week:

We were eating a picnic lunch yesterday in our backyard. Abby pointed to the swing set and said, "Wood." And then she pointed to the pole and said "Metal." 

I said "Good, Abby." (I was thinking "who switched my five year-old out for another two year-old into labeling things?")

Then, she turned straight to me, pointed at my face and said, "Meat."

What? All three of us burst out laughing.

Stick This

So one day, Will decided stickers were best used for his face. You know how it goes around here. What gets a laugh, gets repeated by both kids over and over and over. It was pretty hilarious.

YEE HAW!

I hope Obama can bring about so many of the changes that inspire me when he speaks. Be gone with obstructionism. On both sides of the aisle.

The Secret of Life

"Do you know what the secret of life is? One thing. Just one thing." 

Can you name that movie? I've left out the expletive.

I have strong faith that love, hope, and peace are the answers we need. Okay, so that's more than just one thing. I have hope for Tuesday.

Family Fiesta

National Instruments sponsored a family day to Fiesta Texas where they rented out the ENTIRE park for NI employees. I don't know if I'll ever do it another way. The waits were no longer than five minutes! 

When we first arrived, we ran into several Looney Tunes characters -- Porky Pig, Sylvester the Cat, Tweedy Bird. Abby asked me how I knew all their names. I said I guess I'm just that old! It's so weird that she had never heard of them!

The Family & Porky

It was great. We met up with another family with small kids, so we all took turns staying with them when they couldn't ride. Somehow, Brad convinced Abby to ride Tony Hawk's Wild Ride. We're talking real roller coaster here with all kinds of hills and constant spinning! He lost his hat on the ride and Abby nearly lost her lunch. She said she did NOT want to ride that one again.

Abby & Brad

On the Train

Abby Likes Bumper Cars

CHEEEEEEZ!

And, yes, I got lots of comments on my shirt (O*B*A*M*A)! Not so much on another of Brad's NI t-shirts. This time, though, he had LOTS of company. :)