January Life

The last couple weeks of January were full of funny toddler stories. I love the honesty that toddlers speak with. Olivia always has her wheels turning, and if you pause life long enough to listen, she has quite interesting insights into every day things :). The kids are also getting more and more helpful. They love to help with the chores I am doing around the house, and are getting big enough that they can often do parts of jobs without help. One thing they are great at is switching the laundry. They move it from the dryer to the couch, and after I load they dryer they can load the washer as well. I learned recently, however, to keep an eye on them when they are putting clothes in the washer. When I was switching the load through, I pulled out the hugest, most full pull-up I have ever seen. Luckily it didn't burst. That would have been an AWFUL mess in the washer, but was avoided by Huggies. I love Huggies!!

Here's a picture from one morning that whenever I sat down, Carter would come to give me kisses, and smash his face into mine...probably 50 times in one day. I'll admit that it went from cute, to hilarious, to a little bit annoying, but kisses from an 18 month old are always fun :)

I also recorded an interesting conversation with O from the same day. 'Mom, there are two babies in your belly.' I replied, 'no honey, I don't have babies. Niki does though! Niki has two babies in her tummy.' 'But it looks like babies in there! (I'm silently cracking up now...) when you laugh the babies are shaking. Do they laugh?' She proceeds to pat my tummy aggressively, then adds: 'No, there are no babies. Just one BIG belly.'

Thanks Olivia! Weight loss to start soon I guess :)

Olivia is full of sweet questions and statements, always very honest to whatever she has planned. One day I was so thrilled to have her give an unprompted compliment:
'Mommy, you made a great dinner today. You can have a mommy treat!' I said thanks so much, and asked her what kind of treat I should have. She replied 'The brown kind (salted caramels that I don't share with kids). And I and Carter will have suckers.'
I'm not sure if she intended this compliment to be so self-serving, but it worked :) She got a sucker, and I really enjoyed that caramel.

As we got closer to February, Olivia got help from Elli to make Grandpa Gary a birthday card. When she brought it home I was so proud of the teamwork these two girls went through to make this! Elli transcribed Olivia's words, even when they didn't make sense to her. I will transcribe below:

'Dear Grandpa. I love you Grandpa, I want a cookie. I love Africa. I love Ellie. I love Kade. I want you to color. I love flowers. I am going outside. I inside the G**'s house. I eat food. I changed my chart I decorated. I read in my brother's read bag. I color words. I play with my brother. Olivia has pretend puppies behind my chair. I watched movies with my brother. I color with my brother.'

I really enjoyed how much of this was about how O and C play together. They really have become the best of friends most days, and they have a cute way of communicating. Carter's words are very limited at this point, but Olivia interprets however she'd like to get whatever she wants, and Carter usually just goes along with it.

This is the kids playing puppies...I finally had to put a stop to the leash around the neck, but they just walk around the house, get treats, and learn tricks. They learned this game from cousins, and play it every day, probably a dozen times. They take turns being the puppy, but C doesn't really understand walking slower for the crawling dog, so O just gets dragged around the house until she finally gets the leash off... :)

This is what I walked into during nap time. I am proud of my daughter who loves to organize almost as much as her mom :)...now if I could just get her to love sleep as much as me!

Some days mommyhood gets to me, and I need a little grown up conversation. One day I was explaining this to Alex, who was trying to understand my frustration... I said that she just kept repeating the same thing over, and over, and over. His reply: 'Don't you mean egg nausea?' The birth of a new saying in our house. 

One more thing that I was really excited for this spring was the opportunity to plant my first garden. I researched different methods of gardening, trying to find an easy and fruitful way that I could start fairly simple and hopefully succeed enough to expand in future years. I decided to try square foot gardening. I will speak more later to the success and/or failure of my garden, but I love this philosophy and the efficiency and organization that is required to be successful. Definitely a method worth trying if you have limited space for a garden!!

At the end of January we have a bunch of birthdays to celebrate. We went over to Amber's to celebrate Teagan and Elli...and I had to capture this picture of Carter's face. I wish I had gotten closer to see how crazy the blue is...it was everywhere. I'm not sure he really had any idea, but when both Amber and I both pulled out cameras, he started getting into it on purpose. His face was blue for 3 or 4 days :).

 So fun to celebrate this fun 3 year old! I love living so close to Teag. He is a ball of fun, loving energy with big plans that he is never afraid to try. I could watch his antics all day; in fact I have thought multiple times about the logistics of putting a camera on him at all times just so I could sit and laugh all day at the things he does. We love you Teag!

Elli also turned 6! I laugh as I'm typing this because as of today she is closer to 7 than six, but I do my best :). I think Elli is the best. She is such a great cousin for my kids. She is always on the lookout for ways to help Carter be involved and have fun, and he gravitates toward her when we are together and he needs help with something. Olivia totally looks up to Elli as her 'big girl' cousin. Even our ponytail has to be an 'Elli ponytail' these days. We love you Elli!

Later that week, on Elli's actual birthday, I was able to take her on an Aunt Shopping Spree. We went out to lunch, then to the mall. I had a blast scouring the racks with Elli, who is quite the bargain shopper! We got some great after-Christmas deals. I can't wait to do it again next year!

On January 30th, I figured out Carter's biggest secret. He really does stash plugs for later use. I've long suspected that toddlers had secret hiding places for this most prized possession, but Alex caught Carter in the act one afternoon when he was adding a found plug to his already established hiding spot that we hadn't seen before. Sneaky kids!

And one final story, a nursery rhyme courtesy of Olivia's rambling mind:
'Humpy dumpy sat on a wall, and the Huns came to kill them (Mulan). Humpy dumpy had a great fall. He cracked, and the snowman doo-sn't know that he can melt (Frozen). If a snowman has a hat he can talk (Frosty the Snowman) but not turn into a mean bear (Brave). I like Humpy Dumpy, Mom!!'