like mother, like daughter

I got my camera out this morning to take a few pictures of the kids since I'm leaving for the weekend and I'm going to miss them....

A couple of hours later, I saw Miss C setting up her own "photo shoot" with baby. That's my girl!

Then she saw me taking pictures of her and gave me this look

But doesn't skip a beat and goes right back to work :). I love that she holds it up to her face to look through the viewer

besties

All the fighting and sibling rivalry doesn't fool me. Deep down, I know these guys are best friends. They even started calling each other that. And when one ticks the other off, they love to declare, "well, I'm not going to be your best friend anymore." Kind of cute. The other day I was upstairs and the kids were downstairs watching Super Why. When I came down to check on them, this is how I found them.

frisbee

Last weekend we headed over to Mee Maw and Goompa's house so that I could clean out the mom van. The quote of the day had to go to Mee Maw when she said, when you give them a snack, "what do they actually get in their mouth?" Bwhhhhhaaa! It was that bad. Our lease is ending this month and we were cleaning it out getting it ready to be hauled away. Bye, bye mini van. Can't say that I'll miss you too much. It was a great car when the kids were really little, but it wasn't "me" and I'm definitely ready to move on. But of course, it wasn't going to go without a fight. After we spent all afternoon cleaning it out, the sucker wouldn't start. Kind of a final F you to us I guess. Fortunately all it needed was a jump, but I have a feeling a bill for a new battery is going to be coming my way from the leasing company. Hopefully that's all I'll be charged for! At least we were able to remove the thick layer of half eaten snacks that was all over the floor.

While taking a break from cleaning (I really mean while the ladies were cleaning this is what the men were doing), the fam started a game of frisbee. Little J is a natural. I'm shocked at how well this kid can throw a frisbee. Basketball and frisbee, those will be his games.

On the other hand, Miss C needed a few lessons. So Goompa was happy to step in and teach her. Mind you, these lessons went on for about 20 minutes and included a discussion about triangles and various other geometrical shapes. Who knows what was going on. But Miss C sat there and listened to every single word. She's just that type of kid.

Whatever he said, it worked. Her throwing capabilities improved dramatically.

Double thumbs up to Goompa for the great lesson

And a thumbs up to her adoring fans

for halloween I want to be....

So, we're already talking about Halloween around here. For the longest time, Miss C wanted to be Princess Leia and Little J wanted to be either Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader. Then a couple of weeks ago, Miss C decided she wanted to be Super Why. It's a new show (well, new to us) that we've been watching on PBS. Good old public television. It came highly recommended from some friends, and now they are addicted. I've noticed that they are already repeating episodes, and we've only been watching for about 2 weeks or so. I guess that's public television for you. They kids don't seem to mind and beg for it daily.

They are so addicted that Miss C now wants to be called "Wyatt". I'm not sure how that relates to Super Why, but in her mind the two are connected. I think she thinks it's his last name or something like that. Kind of funny. Better than "Pam" (sorry for any Pam's out there) which was the name of choice about a month ago.

Anyway, back to halloween. So we had our semi-annual dentist visit this morning. We've been prepped Miss C like crazy since the last two visits have been disasters. This is our third dentist and I was pretty hopeful. She seem really excited to go and did great while she was there. She even let them take x-rays.

Huge for us. Usually we get to the point where they lean the chair back to start and she melts down. Not this time. I'm so proud. While Little J was in the chair for his turn, they gave Miss C "dentist gear" and let her "help". When we were all finished and leaving in the car, I turn around and see this (they let her take the gear home and she had put it back on by herself)

She then told me she wanted to be a dentist for halloween. You would never have thought this was the same kid that practically hyperventilated at the dentist 6 months ago.

Now back to Little J's experience. While we were waiting for Miss C to finish up, Little J kept asking when it was going to be his turn. He seemed totally into it and even was "brushing" his teeth while waiting

Now, that's the last picture I got. When it was finally his turn, it did not go so well. Imagine me practically sitting on top of him holding his arms and legs down while he flailed about in a screaming protest. Niiiiiiiice. I thought it was going to go better than that since Miss C did so well. Nope. But they explained that is how most first timers act. So, I guess it was to be expected. I will admit that he did do better than Miss C did during her first time. So maybe next time will be better.

When we left and got home, he talked about it like it was a totally different experience. In fact, they were back to role playing dentist like it was no big deal. I guess he wasn't too scarred and they both have been carrying around the goody bag all afternoon. His favorite thing? The dentist floss

He says it tastes spicy. I don't think he's used it properly yet. He just opens the case and likes to lick it. Funny guy.

quite possibly

my two most favorite images. ever.

Doesn't that look like an add for jcrew?!

gone fishin'

Last weekend we had a bout of beautiful weather (thank goodness) so Sunday afternoon we took full advantage. We packed a picnic dinner and headed over to the lake for some fishin'. The kids just love this, and honestly, so do I. It was so nice to get outdoors for a chance. I can't wait for spring.

After dinner and some fishin', we headed to the park for some Olympic sized relay races. Miss C has been studying the Olympics in school and loves to talk about it. So we timed her as she started from one end of the playground, up the ladder, across the bridge, down to a deck, up the tower and down the slide. Her best time was around 18.5 seconds. We were all pretty impressed. She learned that alternating your feet while climbing the ladder shaves off a good 5-6 seconds.

The other day, Little J was talking about that weekend and fondly remembered that he went fishing in the ocean and pooped in the bushes. Yes, nature called for both kids in the 1 1/2 hours that we were there. Good times.

The natives are restless

and I don't even mean my little natives. I mean the grandmas. Or one particular grandma in this case. I guess it's been entirely too long since I've posted and I knew I was going to get a reprimanding email sooner or later. Amazing that some one who is 29 (ha!) can still be told what to do by their mother :). I guess that wouldn't be half bad if said 29 year old wasn't also being told what to do by her 4 year old. It's fun when you get it from both ends.

So the other day, Miss C went through a pile of Christmas presents that haven't even been touched yet. I secretly put some aside so if we ever had one of those "break glass in case of emergency" days, I'd have stuff to entertain them with. This particular gift (thanks P family!) was a paint by numbers shadow box. She loved it! And so did I because it kept her busy for the better part of an hour.

Just look at that concentration.

She actually did really well with it. I'm going to have to get some more paint by numbers activities since it was such a big hit. So as I'm marveling at how artistic Miss C is, I look over and see this hot mess.

Gotta love the difference between boys and girls. Or maybe it's just the difference between first and second child. Whatever it is, it made me laugh.

When I was younger, my dad used to always say "well, that's what we had kids for" when it came to doing anything housework related. Washing dishes, raking the leaves, basically we were made for manual labor. It used to really irk me as a kid because you never really knew if he was kidding or not. My pop had the kind of sense of humor where it really could have gone either way. Now that I have kids, I think he might have been on to something.

Well, I'll post more later. We are having the house painted downstairs and I'm getting a head ache from the fumes. Hopefully this will keep someone at bay for at least a little bit!