because every parent needs kids like this...

what goes in, must come out...

Bill had another stroke. So, while we were at the hospital Claire...well...this can be funny if seen in the right light. So, let's do it right:

Claire, Nick, Matthew and I went down to visit Bill (my father) in the hospital after this stroke happened. It was this past Sunday. Claire asks if she can take off this necklace that Grammie Krista gave her. 

Me: Ummmm...I don't know, Bear. You tend to put whatever you can in your mouth for reasons I don't understand. Will you keep it out of your mouth.

My Trained Monkey of A Daughter: Yes, Momma.

Me: Okay.

Matthew gets a stinky bum, and we left the diaper bag in the car. Nick and Claire go down to get it. Nick hears Claire coughing/choking. 

Nick: Bear, you okay?

Claire: cough cough, I swallowed my necklace. cough cough cough

Nick looks in Claire's mouth and sure enough, the necklace is gone. She gets spoken to sternly, I'm sure, I wasn't there. I was told after the fact. And then the two proceed back up to Grampa Bill's room. Claire stops.

Claire: Daddy? 

Nick stops and looks at her.

My THREE year old says: Don't tell Momma, okay Daddy?

Obviously it was the first thing he said when he got up to the room! We died. Seriously. Then Gramma Rosi turns to us and says

Gramma Rosi: Should you call your pediatrician?

Me: uhhhh...?

Rosi: I should just pop around the corner and ask Grampa Bill's nurse.

She returns while I am telling Claire that she promised not to put things in her mouth and then did exactly what I was afraid of...

Rosi: Yes, you should call your doctor. Just to make sure.

So, this is getting longer and longer. Basically, because the necklace was 10 inches long, the doc wanted us to get an xray after it passed through most of her body...just to make sure. The next morning we took her in, got an xray and found that is was clumped in a little ball and very close to being on its way out. She was fine. 

Is it bad that I almost hoped that it was something that would scare her JUST A BIT to help her remember how bad it is to put things in her mouth? That's awful though, right? Especially because I try so hard to not make her scared of the doctor. Hmmmm...sigh...grrrr...

Thanksgiving II

1. I am thankful for my amazing children. The more I watch, the more I care. I can't help it. They are positively amazing! Claire is totally PRE READING! And she loves it. She asks to do practice multiple times a day. Matthew is a total flirt. He can't help but liven everyone around him with a smile. And the way he attacks popcorn is something to be seen.

2. Aggies! WA-freakin'-hoooo! We went to the football game in the freezing cold this afternoon. It was awesome. Matthew was an ANGEL! He literally watched the game the entire time. And when he wasn't, he was flirting with the cute girls behind him. Claire was pretty whiny, but she was fairly okay through the whole thing. I was never ever a sports person unless my awesome brothers were playing, but I can't not watch this team. I'm sad if I have other obligations. And if we can't get free tickets, we watch it online! I can hardly believe this! I love it. I love the Aggies! They rock!

3. The Sorensen Family. They almost all came over for this Thanksgiving. It was awesome to spend so much time with them. Matt took us to see "Real Steel", which I totally recommend. Although I had a very hard time with the total destruction parts of this movie, but I really did love it. We ate fabulous food that we spent two days making. We had lots of fun playing games, going out as girls, playing with the kids, Black Friday watching---that turned into buying! ha ha ha!...etc. So glad they came. We love them. Thanks, guys.

4. This country. Glad we live here. Glad for our jobs. Glad for our security. Glad for our home. Glad for our ability to make changes. Glad to eat lots of food. Wish for a few changes, but who doesn't!?!

5. Heavenly Father...For allowing all of the previous. and more.

melissa villasenor!!!!

Everyone can totally be jealous! I went with my friend, Lizabeth E, to see this comedian on Thursday night up at USU. Not only is she a fantastic comedian but, she's CLEAN and she's a singer! You better believe that I feel in love because of that. She truly is amazing. I could do a complete critique of her vocal abilities, but I'd bore almost everyone but my mom, so...naw.

Check her out:

laughs...

There is a woman at a store that we use often who has a laugh...

An interesting laugh...

So, the story goes, we were in said store when Nick noticed Matthew had an 'eye bugger'. Matthew does not like to have his face 'picked' so I turn to Nick laughing out loud to see what happened. Nick was 'picking' at this 'eye bugger' when Matthew decided that he didn't like it. He squaked and squinched up his face, then took his pointer finger and jabbed at Nick's eyeball saying "Eye! Eye! Eye!"

After Nick told this adorable story of Matthew standing up for himself, I laughed out loud. Nick and I continued to glance at each other and laugh out loud again and again.

Low and behold, this woman of previous mention is heard laughing...from about 500 meters away.

Claire turns to me and says, "Momma! That girl laughs like you!"

So, Nick and I decided to ask. We recorded this woman's laughter by drawing her into conversation. She was ready and willing. I don't know if she recognized me from when I worked there years ago, but she is absolutely hard to forget, so I will always remember. But she totally told me some very personal things, keeping this upbeat, uproarious laughter at the same time.

Check it out and vote!

thanksgiving...

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving, I'm copying my dear friend Missy and writing a thankful blog post for a few days:

1. Claire's preschool. SHE LOVES IT! She is a better artist, better reader, better communicator, better sleeper, better helper, better big sister.

2. Matthew's cheery smile. That kid smiles at everyone! I can't get enough. When he adds that giggle, the world is a better place. (insert cheesy comment here)

3. Food. the end.

following maggie

I selfishly want this so I'm posting it.

free lds 16x20 temple picture

bulldog...

My friend, Regina, had me watch her kids one morning and as she was leaving, she picked up Matthew, said, "You are such a bulldog." and put him down.

I nearly died! What an apt description of the little monkey. It totally makes me wanna change his nickname. It's not only that he has the personality described by that title: he pushes through anything, he is obstinate as a...Well, he's obstinate...and then there is the crawling factor. That kid puts his little arms kind of to the sides and waddles his little hind parts to resemble the best bulldog around.

My favorite is that when he's in the mood to wrestle, his form of 'tackling' is to crawl up till his practically sitting on you, then just lay. Making it absolutely impossible to ignore the kid. 

His breathing might even resemble a bulldog because it's so audible. This kid is awesome. 

Not so happy news: he's bleeding out his ears with disgusting pus and nose and eyeball drippings. Poor kid. Doc thinks it's another sinus infection (which is supposed to not be possible because kids don't have any sinuses developed yet). He went in for a blood test on Friday. I am very interested in what the Doc decided to test for...

He's signing! Not even just a little bit. He'll do complete sentences. 

"Milk, please, Momma"

"More, please, Daddy"

"Thank you, Daddy"

"No thank you"

"All done!"

"Amen!"

Astounding...

Deb: Claire, will you set the table?
Claire: Sure, Momma.
I hand her four plates. One for Claire, one for Momma, one for Daddy and one for the French Toast to sit on in the center of the table. Though, i didn't bother explaining this to her...Claire sets all four plates in thier prospective places, in front of each chair at the table. I didn't bother telling her because it didn't matter.
 Deb: Why don't you get 1 knife for Daddy, and forks...
Claire interupts: and a spoon for Brother.
Deb: Great. thanks.
Claire gets out 1 spoon, one knife and four forks. Again, I didn't bother correcting her because it didn't matter and also, I doubted she knew she had too many and would put it on the table to get dirty. She places the silverware in a pile on the counter so she doesn't have to hold them all at once. I secretly take one fork and put it back. 5 seconds later, I'm still making dinner...
Claire: Hey! Where's my other fork?
drat! She noticed.
Deb: do you need another one?
claire nods.
Deb: okay, here you go.
She finishes by putting it by the extra plate.

 If you didn't catch it, my daughter counted. Not only did she count the forks, but she counted the plates to know how many forks to get. I'm sorry if this seems simple to you. This is amazing. She is asking herself questions, drawing conclusions and getting it right! My daughter is SMART! This is six year old material, this. If your kid can do it too at this age, or any age before six, make sure you're praising that kid up and down.

corn fed, well bred...

Sharing a bowl of popcorn means very little for the big kids around here.

firetruck

Let's talk about the fact that when you get emails like this at work, you're whole day is better...

It was titled: Where is he?

Message: Claire and I looked all over for Matthew, finally finding him in his closet on his firetruck,

This kid is hilarious. He can also climb up the stairs in his swing set and then go down the slide, all by himself! It is quite something to watch. I'll have to get Nick to record it for you.

daddy pleasing little boy...

Preschool...

I love it. She loves it. I wish it wasn't so far away. sigh. but I'm so glad she's going! I'm not nearly as impatient as I've been with her and she's so dang cute about going! she held her teacher's hand today as she was putting her in the car and didn't want to let her go. Then finally said, "I love you, Miss Lura!" too cute.

me and chelle

Last dress rehearsal. I'm not Miss Hannigan. It was between me and 2 other girls. I didn't get it, I am Mrs. Greer instead. And the other one that also didn't get it (Kat, she's Mrs. Pugh) will be in many pictures later, when I get a picture of her. This is Michelle. She's Annette, and adorable. We are in her dressing room (Mine is next door).

I love it, I love it, I love it. The show isn't what I love. It's being a part of this again. Makes me remember why I love to sing so much.

1st show in nine years...

So, I'm in this show. It starts on THURSDAY! AHHH!

I'm excited. 

And sad.

and ready to do another!

I've promised only one a year to help keep family and self sane.

Does this have to end?

Because she can't have gum till she's 8, she said

email to Grammie:

aACACBCBAEEE 8 IS FOR GUM
A FOR AGGIE
B FOR BOOK
C FOR CLAIRE
8 FOR GUM

LOVE YOU GRAMMIE.

CLAIRE BEAR


Response from Grammie:
Good job Claire Bear!

D is for dog
E for Eggs and Elephants
F for Frogs and French fries!
G for Grammies and Grumpies and Grandmas and Grandpas!

We love you!

Grammie and Grumpy
(Grammie sent us the pictures)

sandwiches...

We were all laying on the bed after naps. Claire is rough housing with Nick. Nick grabs Claire and says:

Nick: I'm hungry. I need a sandwich! Bread, I need bread on the bottom.
*grabs a screaming, giggling Claire and throws her down on the bed*
Nick: How about some Mayo!
*covers Claire with nearest pillow*
Nick: And some blue cheese,
*adds a blue cased pillow*
Nick: And maybe some avocado,
*another pillow*
Nick: maybe some meat,
*another pillow*
Nick: and top it off with another piece of bread
*grabs Matthew and puts him on top*
Nick: This is such a big sandwich, I need to mass it down a bit so it'll fit in my mouth.
*smooshes kids, pillows and all, then proceeds to make eating noises while tickling kids to death*
Claire and Matthew: AH! AHHHHHHH!!! *laughter...the good kind*
*Nick lays back, sighs and pretends to sleep off his large meal. Matthew and Claire creepy crawl to jump on Dad*
Nick: yawn. Hmmmm...I'm getting hungry again. I need a double decker sandwich this time!
*throws a pillow on ME! then a claire (because she's the cheese with flowers on it), more pillows, a Matthew, another pillow and then himself.*

obviously there was no one left of eat the sandwich, so I pulled out from all the tickling and screaming.

Nick: oh no! We don't have bread on the bottom!
*he picks up the remaining 'sandwich' and turns it over entirely and then smashes it again.*

Can I tell you how awesome my husband is?

Simba...

Matthew has a new trick!

From crawling position, he gets up on his knees and throws his arms as high has he possibly can, and then falls flat. Nick and I think he looks like a lion stalking his prey. It is only ruined by his huge grin, which is very un-lion-like. I want a picture of it, but it's over too fast! The camera never captures it! I'll have Nick keep trying.

He has a new word: Simba! which is so fitting!

he has not been feeling well lately. He has a constant running nose, won't suck on anything, whiny, white sores in his mouth...We think it's thrush. Poor kid. Doc is out of the office today. We'll see.

Deb just had a root canal yesterday. Her first. OUCH! Be warned...gory details ahead:
I had been having tooth pain for about a year. Dentist thought we should do a crown first. Did it. Said that the tooth was not doing so hot, come back if there's still pain. there was still pain to the point of inhaling through my mouth, swishing water, eating, drinking, anything put pain on the already constant dull pain.
Dentist sent me to a specialist. I went in and just touching didn't hurt too bad, but as soon as he medicated it and then went for drilling, it was all I could do not to punch him in the nose! OH MY WORD! He finally just took a needle filled with meds and stuck it THROUGH MY TOOTH about six times. You could feel (and see) his arm shaking with the exertion of thrusting that needle through! AHHH!!!! It hurt so badly. and that didn't even make it stop. He had to drill until he reached the nerve, try to deaden it, it wouldn't, so he just cut it out and THEN it was blissful. I hadn't not had pain for months and months. wow.

Nick is in charge of hiring a team of students that he'll teach how to...contact donors...and such...I'm being cryptic because I don't know if I should tell that story fully. Very interesting.

Claire is hilarious. We are working on identifying letters. Finding them on our walks, in our books, drawing them (ha! I'm drawing them, she tells me, "momma, you do it."), etc. It's great. "Momma, look, A for Aggie! C for Claire", etc. She's great. So smart. She always wants to know what time it is. She can tell me the numbers then hands are on, but wants the specific time. I've been thinking about making a clock for her and teaching her how to read it...we'll see. I think it's a bit early. We're looking for a preschool for this fall. Mostly because I'm too quick to get grumpy with her when I teach her new things. You should see us do a puzzle. NO Claire, NO! is all I ever say! I'm sure it's only hurting her. Makes me feel awful. I'm too impatient! She's so smart, though. Shouldn't she just know everything already?

We spend a LOT of time outside. We opted not to buy a second car becuase I didn't want a car payment. Instead I got a bike trailer for my birthday in May and we bike everywhere. Last week, I did about 20 miles in one sitting. WOOSH! Props to me, I know. We have very nice tans ;)

Anyway, nice catch up because I haven't been good about it lately. My MIL just asked me for one and I had to think for a while...

because it was sent on to me...and it's very fitting...ha ha ha

tease

Matthew is such a tease. I was talking to Nick on the phone, laying on the couch, when Matthew crawls to the couch, stands up, walks along the couch and then creeps his little hands along and then grabs me and says, "boo boo!" like he was trying to scare me.

Claire: Daddy, why you tease me?
Nick: Because I'm a father, it's my job.

Claire: Why?
Claire: Why?
Claire: Why?
This child is in that stage. But instead of really wanting to know the answer, I feel as if she is just testing my knowledge. She asks me 'why' to questions she knows the answers to. I discovered this when she started to correct me to the answer that she thought was more probable. My new response is to ask her "why?" directly after she asks me and usually she will tell me the answer she wants it to be. In the cases that she doesn't know the answer, she makes it up. Something like:
Claire: Why are you checking your email?
Mom: Why?
Claire: Because...it makes you feel better.

reasons I know my hubby loves me...

Whenever we go visit my mom, he wants a detailed list of jobs that she needs done around the house. He always, ALWAYS is helping with the kitchen in her home.

He takes my daddy on drives. I don't know what it is about that generation. I do not like to sit in cars any longer than necessary, but my dad loves to just take a drive and look at the scenery. My hubby will go with him. Talk to him. My father has had two strokes and three heart attacks and isn't able to do much, so this is one of the few ways that you can spend time with him and my hubby suggests rides with my dad regularly.

I am a bit of a clean freak. Whenever I come up with a new place to put the *towels, he tries to remember that and puts the *towels where I ask him to.
*towels stands for any random change I make.

My dishes are always done because I told him how much it bugs me to go to bed with a sink of even rinsed dishes.

When I tire of laundry, he takes the brunt and I will build up the pile and he'll do them.

If I leave him a recipe, he'll make dinner.

He does every kid duty that I do that doesn't include nursing, carrying the child in uteri or birthing the child.

He LOVES his kids. Does everything he can with them and for them, but still allows me to be the boss of how we discipline (though he is allowed to have input).

While I'm teaching, Nick is a full time daddy.

Let's me sing even though he could go his whole life without ever wanting a performing wife, he deals with it (Nick doesn't like to stand out---he likes to be in the background and with a loud wife, that makes it pretty hard).

I feel very lucky to be married to such a guy.

Matthew's first birthday!

a shirt of frosting


seeing Claire's and wanting more...

It has taken me weeks to get these pics because they were on Ashley's (newest wife of a BIL, Greg) camera. She was going to email them and then it was too hard to send the file. Then I was going to upload the video of my adorable baby going after his cake with abandon, but it was too big and I'm not capable of cutting the footage. Besides, I think the only people who would watch it would be my family! And maybe only for the first 30 seconds. I digress...sigh.

This is from Matthew's birthday party a few weeks ago. We mostly just had a cake with some family around and let him make a mess. Claire kept trying to put her fingers in it and was finally put in time out because she couldn't leave it alone. Poor girl. I bet I would have had a hard time with a cake sitting in front of me and seeing Matthew making a mess (very little eating went on here) and not have tried some for myself. But you know me, I'm a particular mom. It wasn't her turn, so she had to sit in time out.

STATS:

Matthew is a rolling 23 lbs, putting him in the 45th percentile for weight. He is 29 inches tall (5th percentile), which makes him the squat little boy that he is. His head is a circumfrence that I never remember other than it was in the 45 percentile, like his weight.

Claire is 60% for height AND weight (a shock for her mother).

Matthew:

cutest, sweetest boy. He loves his momma. Likes his daddy, but amazingly, the kid prefers his momma (I guess that's cool because Claire prefers her Daddy). Nick thinks it has something to do with the fact that I'm his walking milk jug, and will often call out to me "Ahn na! Ahn na!" when he's wanting for milk. While this is true, I hope that it's really because of my sparkling personality.

Matthew is not interested in sign language at all. AH! We're still working on it because I do not want a kid to whine to get what he wants.

He LOVES:

-balls

-water

-ropes (foreshadowing here, I'm sure)

-trucks, wheels

-HAIR (my hair is preferred, but he if he can reach Claires, it's a good substitute) to put in his mouth or pull really hard on

-SINGING! (can a mom be proud of this?!?) whether he's doing it or I am doing it matters very little to him.

He doesn't love:

-real food

-being told 'no' (too bad, kid. You cannot play with electrical cords!)

-holding still

Accomplishments:

-He can hold Claire down

-walk holding furniture or me

-crawl

-has 4 teeth

-communicate with specific word babbles for specific needs (ahn na! for milk, doo doo doo for ball are the 2 that come to mind)

I love this kid. He's the best 'mistake' we made.

matthew's 1st bday

sx mb m,nnmtevfg mvth gtmik fbnu vgmg bh g mklkL.

that was Matthew telling you how much he liked h7i0s3w his cake. He is still talking about it because he keeps trying to tyP@E more.

Ohmigoodness, you little boy. We love you so much. You are so cuddle-y. So funny. Your smile is so big. You LOVE milk. But only if it's Momma's and served in the correct method. You cut your first tooth at 11 months. You crawled at 10 months. You climbed stairs at 9 months! (Yeah, I know) You love to play hide and seek. You LOVE hair. If you are hungry or tired you grab it and try to stuff it in your mouth. You and your sister will end naps with Claire in your crib, you screaming and her jumping up and down. We know that one day you are going to clobber your sister and we don't feel bad for her at all. She really loves you to the point of mothering and disciplining. You love to crawl in her bed all by yourself. Any climbing you can get away with, you do.

You don't like bottles, sippy cups, or cups. You don't like waiting for anything. You hate it when i try and make you do sign language. You whine if I'm too far away when you're hungry.

there is just too many things to love about you.

WE LOVE YOU! Happy 1st bday!

all tied up...

I'm at work and Nick sends me this....ever wonder what your spouse does when you're not there? LOL

conversations with claire...

Things have certain titles in our house. For example, Claire has some hand me downs (that we are so grateful for, don't let the story detract from this. It's all about the funny factor). In one of the batches of hand me downs we received were some blue, Cinderella tennis shoes. They are absolutely plastic wrapped with gold sparkles and a prominent Cinderella displayed on each side. I think they are the most hideous things in the entire world. Hence: Claire LOVES them. I started calling them her 'ugly shoes' and it stuck. She asks me where her 'ugly shoes' are, or if she can wear them to church or whatever...(and now I have to explain that I teach Claire that Mom doesn't like pink...blech...but Claire can like pink. that's fine. But we don't have to always like the same things...it's all about independent thinking...I digress...ahem....)

So this is the preface to this story:

Claire is clacking away in these awful fake high heeled, princess, pink, plastic shoes. Nick and I hate these things. If she's not stepping on our toes in them, she's trying to tap dance, which literally shakes the house. I'm in the shower, oblivious. Nick is trying to put Matthew down.

I get out of the shower.

Claire barges in.

Claire: Mom, Daddy told me to take off my 'stupid shoes'. (In our house we try not to say stupid. Honestly, that was harder than I ever thought it would be.)

Mom: Claire! We don't say 'stupid'!

Claire: But Daddy calls them 'stupid shoes'.

So, we have named these too.

this was going to be several conversations recorded...but that'll have to wait. I took to long telling the first story!

mallory...

So, Nick works with this girl, lady, person named Mallory. I didn't meet her for a while, but her wedding announcement to Wes was on my fridge for...months. She is gorgeous. The typical blond haired, blue eyed beauty. Little bit intimidating.

Then I see her for the first time. She lived up to her picture. But, Nick had to leave in a hurry and never introduced us! So, then I felt completely awkward and left before I could really talk to her. I decided that was a bad choice and told Nick to tell her that I wouldn't wait for an intro. I'd just start talking to her next time like we were already introduced.

So we did. And we're friends. And she remembers my kids' birthdays and Christmas better than 1/2 my relations!

Anyway, she took Claire to a Princess Festival this last month for Claire's 3rd birthday. It was super cool. Here are some pics.

Her prince charming. She always wants to be kissed. Watch it, boys. I have a feeling she'll kiss before most kids ;)

Princess and the Pea---or Winifred's jousting equipment ;)

One of my students from MVHS---Kristen as Rapunzel and Claire

Her name sake...I love her growl face! Claire BEAR!

I'm a pretty princess riding in my carriage!

Birthday Bear! 3 years old today

It's my dear girl's birthday today!

Happy Birthday, Claire Bear!

You light up my days and nights. I still have to go in to see you before I go to bed because I can't help it. I kiss your soft cheek and you turn over in your sleep, usually away because you don't like to cuddle, which makes me laugh.

You're so opinionated! You want to be the boss of everyone. I love it when you sit and laugh with Matthew. You call him "My son" as if that were his name. You splash in the tub with him. You try and carry him (ahh!), you take things from him if you think he'll choke on it. You yell at him if he's playing with electric cords like Mom does.


You hate time outs, potty training, broccoli, and potatoes

You love your Daddy, Dora, Aurora (eek!), purple, you give your dad anything that's blue because "it's your favorite color, Daddy!", reading, apples, hot dogs
You would drink every meal if you could.
You ARE SO SMART! And maybe that is a very biased mother, but I still cannot believe that you ride your bike so well and how fast you learned to do it. You speak so well. A full year ago you were speaking how most of the 3 year olds I know speak and now that you ARE 3, you speak like a 5 years old.

I love you SO MUCH, little girl who wants to be big.

"I went on a bike ride last years!"

"I am a big girl so I can ride in the street!"

"Mom, can we go to the librahry to play on computers?"

adventures...part 1

Greg (Nick's brother) was married on June 18th in the San Diego Temple in San Diego. For that temperature I would move there in a second. The beauty is also extremely appealing. I wanna, I wanna, I wanna...

Expense---wow. Okay, probably not.

We went to all three (3)---yes I had to make sure that was clear. THREE) receptions. One in Oregon (in conjunction with Daniel and Sarah), one in San Diego and then one in Provo. It wasn't the amount of receptions. It was the fact that we went to all three. I have a 2 year old and a 11 month old. WHAT WERE WE THINKING!?! They were both so overly tired that we just about died. I remember specific times when Claire (who does not sleep in the car...at all) would finally fall asleep and wake up no less then 20 minutes later screaming no matter what we did. AH!

We also tried to be super cheap, so we drove to Oregon. A typical 12 hour trip was about an 18 hour one. We were crazy and flew to Vegas (normally an 8 hour car ride, with kids, prolly close to 10), then stayed with my sister a night and then drove to San Diego (normally a 6 hour drive, with kids 7...not too bad!). We then drove to Las Angeles and flew to SLC. It really was insane. Things took a lot longer than we hoped, but we saved over $200 bucks doing it that way. Phew!

So, the whiny part is over...

The trips were really very neat. We saw a lot of family, met some new friends, and figured we could and will do anything! The wedding was beautiful. Ashley and Greg were married by her grandfather. Neat! The reception was amazing. I loved her color choice (aqua, white, and silver). It was very posh.

more to come. I have to interact with children now.

Some adorable pics:

kissing princes...

Claire:
"MOM! Come kiss me!"

I look around...Is she in pain? she doesn't sound like it? I find her on the couch, with her eyes closed, clutching a beautiful and fragrant dandelion to her bosom. She waits patiently for me to figure out that I'm to kiss her to 'wake up'.

Through out the day, she continues to call my name and I find her in various places. The last time we played this senario, she had me scale a castle wall, fight and kill the dragon, kiss her, and then dance to "I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream".

Matthew:
SO CLOSE to crawling. Yesterday he had his legs working but didn't know what to do with his arms. We'd see him with his butt in the air, pushing himself with his legs with his face on the floor, probably getting rug burn.

He had ear tubes put in last Thursday (he had 7 ear infections in 6 months---it was like he was never without one). The doc even reassured us (I was almost against it, silly me) and said he had an ear infection when he put the tubes in and it was...ahem...congealed enough that it wouldn't have drained without tubes. Gray stringy stuff....BLECH!

picture catch up

We bought a load of top soil so that I could plant a garden this year. Hooray! Claire and Nick had a blast (ahem) moving all the dirt around the yard. I did very little due to other engagements. Toward the end of the evening, Claire was stripped down to her diaper and running around like a mad woman. It was in her nose, eyeballs, teeth, diaper...everywhere.



Matthew starting to drink from a cup. I can't believe how big he's getting. I feel like Claire was so much faster at all of these developments, but I'll bet that is also from not remembering what age she did what. I know teeth were 8 months. Matthew still doesn't have teeth. PHEW! He's a biter...Also Claire was crawling by about the same time. Matthew is sure rolling like crazy, but no crawling. I don't mind! And Claire is so helpful to get everything Matthew is reaching for that he'll never have to learn.

gettysburg drunk...

So we went to Gettysburg, PA and this is what we found...among other things...

nine month

Matthew had his nine month check up:

weight: 20.5 lbs
height: 27.5 in
head: I never remember.

He started to kiss the other day...And only Claire to begin with. He would reach out for her and pull her in (usually by the hair) and put his open mouth on her face and then shake his head...leaving a load of slobber and two grinning kids.

work...

Claire: Daddy, where ya goin?

Nick: To work.

Claire: Why?

Nick: Because it's fun.

Claire: Ohh...Can I wif you?

daaa daa daa da daaa pause daa daa daa!

Apparently it's important to do the same things for all kids. My favorite moment is watching him bounce his little self up and down just after the 'unveiling' at about 11 seconds.

8 months!

A new toy that I can't stop eating!

Daxton came over to play and we sat and screamed at each other...We were both very tired and upset and not interested in each other at all.

Aunt Marlies tries to feed my hungry self. I have it more on my face and body than in my mouth.

A picture of tradition. Apparently my sister has this same picture when she was nine months from inside Grumpy's truck.

This one is an awful picture because it's so bleary, but you can see my 'war paint' pretty well. It's medicine for my eczema that we put on me every few hours.


I'm growing like a weed! I've only put on 2 1/2 lbs since my four month check up, but I'm still pretty chubby looking! I'm sweet and cuddly and can't keep my hands outta anything! I am not at all interested in rolling (though I do it when pressed) or crawling. But I do not like things to be out of reach and my sister is so helpful to get me anything I want, whenever I want it. I mostly don't even have to say anything, and there are four toys, a blanket, my sucker (pacifer), a bottle (pretend bottles that drive me crazy), and even my sister pulling on me or giving me suffocating hugs or tackles.