Sleeping Beauty's First Snow

So we've had our first snow storm that has actually stuck around this year. I took the kids out to play in it. I thought Sleeping Beauty would get tired of it quick and want to go back inside. But she surprised me. She actually enjoyed laying in the snow, and rolling around. It seemed to be a fun new experience for her.
Cinderella was really into making snow angels.And after Sleeping Beauty fell down I "helped" her make one. Then Guy said, "This is my snow angel."
I told him he needed to lay down in the snow. He then told me he didn't want to lay down. This was his snow angel.

Later we were attempting to build a snowman. We never got there because Cinderella kept wanting to eat the snowball. Guy however said, "This is my snow man." He had put a little snow ball on top of his ball that was covered with snow. I tried to take a picture but he knocked the ball off before I could.
This is Guy rolling his "snowball."

Yep we had lots of fun in the snow.

She's being an orange

This morning Cinderella didn't want to get dressed. As a result she ended up spending some time in her room stomping on the floor because it makes a big noise.
I was downstairs with Guy, and he asked me what the noise was. I told him it was Cinderella being a pill.
He then said "We don't eat peels, we eat oranges. She's not eating a peel, she's eating an orange."
I told him, "she's not eating anything. She is BEING a pill."
His reply was, "She's not being a peel, she's being an orange."

Which sibling does she look more like?

I asked some friends and family who they thought Sleeping Beauty looked like. I had a lot of people tell me they think she looks like Guy. I haven't seen it that much myself, but as a parent, when I look at my children I just see that child. Well we were eating at a restaurant the other day, and the waitress referred to Sleeping Beauty as a he. Now this isn't all that uncommon, for someone to get a baby's gender mixed up, and she was wearing a brown shirt, so I can see how someone could be confused. Anyway, when she said that, my husband looked at Sleeping Beauty, and saw a miniature Guy.

Well Sleeping Beauty has always looked feminine to me, and Guy masculine, but I wondered how much of that is in the clothes. So I decided to do an experiment. I dug out one of Guy's old outfits and took some pictures of Sleeping Beauty in it.
To be fair, I decided to also post a picture of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty wearing the same outfits.

So this is comparing them at similar ages. Now I want to know what you think. Which sibling does she look more like? Cinderella? Or Guy? Or neither?

It's not a car, it's a van!

So Guy is pretty particular about his vehicles. You have to call it by the right name or he gets upset.

Yesterday we were going somewhere in the van as a family, and I just happened to be sitting in the back, next to Sleeping Beauty. She was enjoying my company, and I asked her if she enjoyed me sitting by her in the car. At this point Guy yelled, "It's not a car, it's a van!"


Another time, we were at my parents house. They have a toy tractor of some sort. Guy was playing with it. I asked him something about his tractor, to which he replied, "It's not a tractor, it's a bulldozer." OK. Well a little bit later he turned to me and said, "I said it was a bulldozer, but it's a DIGGER! Isn't that silly?"
What I find silly, is his sense of humor.

No more boosters!

So ever since Cinderella was about 18 months old she has been sitting in a booster seat at the table. Guy joined the ranks when he was about 18 months as well. Well yesterday Cinderella asked if she could have her booster taken off her chair and just sit on a regular chair. I told her that was fine, and that I would take it off and clean the chair. (I'm terrible about cleaning under the boosters and they can get really gross.)

Well yesterday I didn't have a chance to take care of it, and she remembered at breakfast this morning. I told her I would try to take care of it today. Then Daddy suggested that she could just move her chair back into a corner and use a different chair. She seemed to think this was acceptable and so he helped her move it. After he joined me again in the kitchen, I looked over and saw, Guy get down from his chair, push it into a corner. Then he walked around the table, took my chair, and slid it back to his place. I think he wants to be done with a booster too. Don't you think?
This last picture is in here because Sleeping Beauty wanted her picture taken too.

Rice and Ice Cream

I made the mistake of leaving my kids unattended in the kitchen yesterday. I heard an "oh no," and went to check. This is what I found.

That and two kids happily chewing on raw rice. When I asked what they were doing they told me they were eating their ice cream. Isn't it interesting what kids will come up with?

Say Please

My children have a tendency to ask for more food at the table by sliding their plate, bowl, or cup to either my husband or me, or directly at the serving dish. Sometimes no words accompany this action, or if they do they are usually a statement like, "Juice." Or "I want some pancakes."

I've been trying to teach them the polite way to ask for more. I will usually say, "what do you say?" I then usually hear, "please." For a while that was good enough, but I have since started trying to teach them to use a complete sentence. Like, "Please can I have some more pancakes." That kind of thing.

Well this morning, Guy wanted some syrup on his pancakes. He slid his plate across the table, and didn't say anything. When I didn't respond he shouted, "I WANT SYRUP!"
"What do you say?"
"Please."
"Please, what?"
"Please." pause for a moment, "please."
"Guy, say please can I have syrup," said Cinderella. "Say, please"
"Please,"
"can I," pause no response, "say please can I"
"can I, please can I"
"Have some syrup."
"Have some syrup."

Then later he wanted some more pancakes. We went through this whole thing all over again. Only this time when Cinderella prompted him to say, "Please can I have some more pancakes." His response was "Please, I WANT MORE PANCAKES." Oh well I guess it is a work in progress.

I LIKE YOU!

Yesterday morning Cinderella came and sat down at the table for breakfast. At that same time, Guy was sitting across the table happily making some loud noise. Cinderella started to ask him nicely to not make that noise.
She said, "Guy, I don't like you make..."
At this point Guy interrupted, "I LIKE YOU!"
She tried again, "I don't like you making.."
"I LIKE YOU!"
"that noise can you please be quite?"
"I like you Cinderella."
With that Guy got down from his chair, walked around the table and gave Cinderella a big hug. "I'se giving Cinderella loves. Cinderella's happy now."

Big Boy

It is so fun to watch Guy grow up. Now that we have a baby in our family, he really wants you to know that he is a big boy. If I slip and call him "baby" he firmly replies, "I not a baby!"

Well the other day Daddy and I were talking about how it doesn't seem like people grow that much, and then you look at pictures, and are amazed at how much they have changed in that amount of time. I said, "even the kids. It is amazing to see how much they have grown since just last year." Daddy then replied, "I know, Guy is so tiny."

At this point Guy interrupted with a firm "I not tiny!"

Out of the mouths of babes

Guy is always saying the funniest things. Here a just few of his latest ones.

The other day we were singing a song that goes:
"If you chance to meet a frown, do not let it stay, quickly turn it upside down and smile that frown away." This is a song that the kids sing at church. Often times there, they have a paper that has a face with a frowny face, and if you turn it upside down the face is smiling. Well Guy turned to me and said, "I can't turn my head upside down."

We were having dinner the other night, and Guy took a bite of his food before his dad could blow it. He turned to his dad with tears in his eyes and said, "I burnt my face off."


One day while driving in the car, Cinderella and Guy got in a disagreement. Cinderella got mad and told Guy that he was the "meanest Guy in the world." His reply was "I not in the world, I's in the car."

"I have a star today!"

We can learn so much from children if we let ourselves.
My kids love to take their vitamins. I don't give them the gummies, I think they look too much like candy. I wouldn't want the kids to find them and down a whole bunch thinking they are candy. I just use the standard chewable ones.

I have however had a hard time finding the chewable ones in a dose for a 2 year old, with out it being cutting a larger dose in half. And come on, what 2 year old wants half of a dinosaur? In our last location, one of the grocery stores that I would shop at had some. These were stars. I stocked up before we moved, because I wasn't sure how easy it would be to find them in our new location.

Cinderella's vitamins have been circus animals, and now she had dinosaurs. Guy could be upset that all he gets are stars when his sister gets a variety. However this is how the conversation usually goes at our breakfast table.

"I have a purple lion today!"
"I have a star today, Dad! I have a star today!"

Every day, no matter what his sister has, Guy is thrilled that he has a star. I am so glad he can be happy with what he has instead of wishing for what others have.

Unfortunately, the stars are almost all gone, and so it is time to try to find what I can around here. Hopefully he doesn't have to settle for half a dinosaur.

Good Morning

So Cinderella is not much of a morning person, if anything wakes her up instead of waking up on her own. If she wakes up on her own she could be up at 6 and be as happy as can be.

Well this morning I woke her up about 7:30, which is not early for our house. Her response, in a ornery voice was, "Why do we always have to get up so early?" I responded that it wasn't early. We went down to the kitchen, and I had her sit in her chair at the table. Guy was also at the table. I turned to put Sleeping Beauty in her swing, and overheard this conversation.
Big long whine- Cinderella

"Don't scream Cinderella"- Guy

"I'm not screaming, I'm talking with words so you have to believe me."

"You sad, Cinderella?"

Now said in an ornery voice, "I'm not sad. I'm happy."

"Sorry, Cinderella."

I had to try really hard to not laugh. It was obvious that Guy sensed the tension in his sister, and was trying to make her feel better, but she was not wanting to admit she had a problem. At least after she proclaimed she was happy, she started acting like it. Mornings can be quite interesting in our house.

Lightning McQueen

You know the movie Cars? I personally don't like that movie, and it is one that we will never own, because of some language in it. However, I have a little boy who loves vehicles, and his latest hero is Lightning McQueen.

It started when his aunt gave him a Lightning McQueen car for his second birthday. He loves that car. And calls it by name.

He also loves towels. He always has. As soon as he gets out of the tub, he wants his towel on. Then he doesn't want it off, even after he is dressed. He runs around the house with a towel over his head. His towels have been the hooded baby towels. Well as he has been getting bigger, and with another baby needing the small towels, I wanted to get him some larger ones. Cinderella has 2 large hooded towels, and with his love for towels, I wanted to get him some hooded ones too, even though I know regular towels work perfectly fine.

Well our source for getting things like that is my mom who sells Avon. At the time, the towels available that I knew about were Disney Princess, Dora the Explorer, Sponge Bob, and Cars. Well I'm not a big fan of Sponge Bob (even less than Cars), so I didn't want to get him that towel. My mom, then told me that there was also a Winnie the Pooh towel. So I got him the Pooh Bear, and the Lightning McQueen. What can I say, when you have to go with characters, you pick the best available.

He LOVES his Lightning McQueen towel. I know big surprise huh?

Then there is one last thing. I am making Cinderella's room a "Princess" room. My mom had some cloth expanding buckets with Disney Princess on them available from Avon. So I got some for Cinderella. Well Guy loves them. He loves to empty them, and put his stuff in them. So I decided to get him some too. Once again, there was Sponge Bob and Cars. I was really hesitant to get this one, because I feel like I am promoting a movie to my 2 year old, that I don't really want him watching a whole lot. But I finally decided to get the buckets, because he is already a big enough fan, I don't know if one more thing is really going to make that big a difference.

Sleep

So ever since Guy was born we had him share a room with Cinderella. There were times that it was a little inconvenient, and one would wake the other up in the night. But for the most part they adjusted and we had little problem. Until now.

We have moved out of our apartment, and are staying with my parents. Cinderella is on a twin size bed, that is against the wall. And Guy is on a trundle bed, on it's lowest setting, right next to the twin. So part of the problem is probably proximity.

Every night since we got here, I have had to put the kids to bed at different times from each other, because if I don't Guy won't let Cinderella go to sleep. The first night we were here, Cinderella came out to tell me that Guy was crying to keep her awake, and then he would grab her arm and pull her from her bed, to his, to the floor. So that night I started keeping Guy up until Cinderella was asleep. Then I would put him to bed, and she would just sleep through his crying. Well I kept doing this every night, because when ever I tried to put them both down at the same time, they wouldn't go to sleep.

The down side is that Guy isn't getting enough sleep. He is striking on naps. Plus my nephew needs that room to take his naps, so I don't feel right putting Guy down when he probably won't sleep, and keeping my nephew, who would most likely sleep, up. He stays up late, and is up early in the morning. So tonight I am trying a different approach. I put Guy to bed, and put Cinderella in my bed. After Guy settles down, I'll try and get Cinderella moved to her bed. Hopefully this will get them both down at a decent time. I just hope that it works and that I can get Cinderella moved.

Only time will tell.

So here is my question. We haven't found a house yet. But I want to get a house that has at least 2 other bedrooms on the same floor as the master. Who shares a room with who? If you were me would you put Cinderella and Guy together and leave Sleeping Beauty on her own? Or put the girls together, and leave Guy by himself? Or put Guy and Sleeping Beauty together and let Cinderella have her own room?

My little monkey

So Guy is a climber. He really enjoys climbing. He looks for anything to climb on and does. I am constantly telling him to get off the table, or off a chair, off Cinderella's bed, off a toy, etc.

Lately, he has really enjoyed that because I was packing up, he had many more things to climb on. We moved all of the toys out of our "playroom" so that we could stack boxes in that room. Most of the toys were then put in the living room. We had taken our bookcase that was in that room, and emptied it of books. It also looked like it had mold growing behind it, so we took the wall anchor out, and moved it away from the wall to verify, and to see if it had mold on it too. Yes, there was mold on the wall, but thankfully not on the bookcase. My husband cleaned up the mold, and then we turned the bookcase on it's side. I didn't want it to fall over on anyone. When it was standing up it was over 6 feet high. On it's side it was about 3 feet high. We then stacked the toys on the side of the bookcase. Later the kids were playing too much with the table in their room, instead of going to bed, so it was moved to the living room as well.

So what did my monkey do? He would constantly climb onto one of the sitting stools that goes with the table, then move to the table, and reach on top of the bookcase, and pull what ever box of toys he wanted to play with. Most of the time they would fall to the floor, but occasionally they would end up on the table, and he would then sit on the table and play with toys. Then there were the few times that he would actually climb over on top of the bookcase. It made me very glad we had turned it on its side.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him on top of the refrigerator some day, but I hope that day never comes.

Sleepless nights

So as I mentioned in a previous post Guy has been sick lately, and it has been disrupting sleep. Pretty much all of the members of our family have had their sleep interrupted. But last night was the worst. Hopefully it gets better soon.

We woke up to Guy screaming and coughing about 12:00 or so. Actually I think I woke up, I don't think Daddy was awake, because he said something about ice cream, so I think he was still dreaming. :)

I went and got Guy, as has become my nightly routine. I picked him up, got his pacifier and blanket, and took him to the rocking chair. We sat down and he kept screaming, he started thrashing around on my lap, and didn't want sit down. I tried standing up. He didn't want to stand. I tried walking with him. He didn't want to walk. He just kept screaming and kicking. Finally I was just so frustrated I was crying. I went and woke Daddy up, and told him I couldn't calm Guy down, it was his turn.

He took Guy in his arms, and rocked him there on the bed. I just stood there and watched. I wasn't sure I wanted to get back on the bed, because then I felt like I would be pushing all the responsibility off onto him, but also I didn't want to rock the bed at all and stir Guy again. I was sobbing, feeling so bad that my son was suffering so much, but wouldn't do what he could to calm down. It was so frustrating. I wanted him to calm down, but I couldn't make him. Finally Daddy got him to calm down, and got him back in bed.

About an hour later, I woke up to the same thing. I felt completely useless, so I sent Daddy in there to begin with. This time Daddy couldn't get him to settle down either. So I tried again. I couldn't get him to settle down. I was so frustrated, I couldn't figure out what to do. So I put him in the middle of our bed and tried to ignore him. He continued to scream and thrash around. The whole while I had been praying, and finally I had an idea. This night was the first night we hadn't given him Tylenol before he went to bed, because he didn't have a fever. I thought, maybe he is hurting somehow, and if we give him some Tylenol he will be able to settle down. So I suggested it, and we gave him some. He instantaneously settled down. So I don't know if he was hurting, and knew the Tylenol would help him feel better so he calmed down. Or if he just decided he felt better because he got some meds.

Anyway, I hope he does better tonight. Currently he is sitting on my lap trying to type on the keyboard, instead of going to bed. But he and Cinderella were keeping each other up, so I'm keeping him up till she goes to sleep, and then we will see what happens. I'm definitely ready to get more sleep.

Sing Song Boy

So I woke up earlier than the kids this morning, and decided to write a few blog posts. We will see what I can get done, before I hear the pitter patter of little feet.

Guy loves music. He loves to sing. When ever I have music on he is singing along. It is so cute to listen to.
Last week at church. When we were getting ready to go home, the congregation that meets after us was having choir practice. Guy was enraptured. He stood in the door way of the chapel, just starring at them, and listening to the music. And all they were doing was warming up. They were making an "Ah" sound to scales. But he was fascinated.

On our way home from church, he sat in his car seat doing his own little variation to the warm ups he had heard. Seeing my son like this makes me glad that I have a home, that I try to have music be a part of. We don't have a piano, although one day we would like to get one. We don't do musical instruments. But Mama and Daddy sing a lot of the time. And we often have fun, uplifting music playing in the background when we are trying to work, or clean up. So it hasn't taken a lot of effort on my part. But I can see how it has influenced the lives of my children.

Preschool P

Not it wasn't my turn to teach preschool again this week. But thanks to a cold bug, Cinderella did get me for a teacher. She has been coughing all week, and Guy recently picked up the same cough, and has a runny nose. So I figured it probably wasn't just her asthma, and I didn't want to get others sick. So I told her we would do preschool at home.

The letter for the week is P. So we started the day talking about all kinds words that start with P. Anytime we came in contact with a P word we would say the word, and say, "that starts with P!" For example, we had pancakes for breakfast. So we talked about how pancakes starts with P.

It was really short notice, of course, so I didn't have a bunch of stuff planned, so we just had to wing it. When ever Cinderella showed some interest in doing something to do with Preschool, I would think of a P activity and we would do it. We were going to play princesses, but she decided she would rather look at books. But that is OK.

Our one big thing we did, is we painted with pudding. I made up a box of chocolate pudding, and let the kids paint with it. I put some of my grubby T-shirts on them, so I didn't have to worry too much about the mess. They also wanted to eat the pudding, so I gave them spoons as well.

Guy's method for painting was to take a spoonful of pudding, dump it on his paper, then grab it with his hand, and eat it. Then smear the remaining pudding around on the paper. He kept insisting he was painting a horse.

Cinderella I think was mostly just having fun, but hey isn't that what it was all about anyway. I think she painted 5 or 6 paintings. Guy kept getting upset when he would drop some pudding on his lap, but finally decided not to worry about it.
I painted one too. :)

And of course we finished the painting with a bath, that they loved as well.

Goldfish and Granola

What does the box of Goldfish crackers you get at Costco have in common with a box of Kirkland Signature Spiced Pecan Cereal? Other than both items are bought in bulk at Costco?

They contain foil bags which have the food items stored inside. I didn't notice this at first. Guy did. The first time we had the cereal on the table at breakfast, Guy kept asking for Goldfish. I couldn't figure it out, until I saw the silver bag sitting on the table.

However Guy isn't the only one to mistake the two bags. The other day, Daddy was getting the kids some cereal, when he grabbed what he thought was a bag of cereal, and poured it into Guy's bowl. Out came Goldfish. Yes, Guy was pretty disappointed when he didn't get to eat Goldfish for breakfast.

Why didn't I think of this sooner?

So Guy has this frustrating quirk, where whenever he eats, what ever he eats a good percentage of it lands on the floor. Now this wouldn't be quite as frustrating if it wasn't for a couple of facts:

• We live in an apartment with carpet in the dinning room.
• I am pregnant, and large enough that it is kind of hard to bend over and crawl under the table.

To combat this issue, we have put another rug under our table to try to keep the carpet clean, and we have plastic mats that go under each of the kids chairs. This saves our carpet, but the floor still gets really disgusting. Well today I had an idea. It was such a simple, and good idea, I wondered why it took until today to think of it.

Last night Daddy cleaned up the large pieces that had accumulated under the table, but I hadn't really had a chance to vacuum the small stuff yet. I was having people come to my house today, so I wanted the floor to look nice, and was trying to figure out how to clean up his breakfast mess off the floor so I could vacuum. Then I had the thought, "why not have Guy clean it up." He is old enough to understand if I ask him to pick something up and put it on his plate. So I suddenly decided at breakfast today, to have the kids clean up after themselves.

Cinderella has done really well, with me giving her basic instructions on taking care of her different dishes. Guy has also done well. I have him gather up his food pieces that are scattered on the table, and then put them on his plate. Then I get him out of his chair, and have his pick up the large pieces off the floor, and put them on the plate. Then I have him help me carry the plate over to the sink. Today it has required a little more stooping and bending than my belly wants me to do, but that's OK. I think if I can stay consistent in this long enough, it will become a habit, and the majority of the problem will be taken care of. Hey, he may even decide he would rather not throw his food on the floor.