Bathtub Boogie...

Tonight in the bathtub, Gillian was doing her usual routine. She likes to use the side of the tub as a piano and play us little songs, mostly humming. Tonight, she decided to add her some of her favorite "Max & Ruby" pretending and sing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" while playing her pretend piano. In the M&R episode, Ruby tells us that every one likes a "personalized" song so she changes the words to "Ruby Had a Little Lamb." Hence, Gillian was singing the Ruby version. Honestly, I don't think she knows the real words.

Anyway, I added HER name to the song and she loved it. So, then I did Colin's name in the song. THEN she took off. She sang her tune with Mommy, Daddy, Aunt Cedes, Uncle, and Great-Grandma. It was very charming!

Once Upon A Time.....

It was nice enough to poke our heads outside of our winter abode for a few days last week. We hit the playground and the park once or twice. We even broke out the sandbox for the first time this year!




The doggy next door even came out to say HI! Colin spotted him.


We took our (now way too small for us) ride on toys out too!


Sadly, it's been 30 degrees since then. And it's currently snowing. March going out like a lamb my FOOT.

Snakes

Our new favorite pretending game is to play "snakes." The kids hiss like pros and wiggle all about. Daddy kept telling them how much Grammy LOVES snakes and she would want to play snakes with them when she came to visit!! (Ok, Grammy has a HUGE snake phobia)

HISSSSSSS......

I don't think Grammy minded this particular breed of snake.

I Never

Gillian's newest favorite phrase is "I never...." It started with "I never have horsies on my side." You have to imagine the half sigh-ing, sad little voice she used as we were driving past the stables on our street. And, yes, Colin DID have horses on his side.

Soon after that, she was in her booster at the table, and she and Daddy were having a conversation about something and she told him, "I can never do anything." Again, sighing and sad. What? Is she suddenly fourteen? It certainly makes us laugh now, but it makes me a bit nervous for those pre-teen and teen years.

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Our singing star:


And nose picker.

Time Change Donuts

I have two older videos to post; it took a while to get them up on you-tube.

Anyway, this one is from the Sunday after we changed the clocks. I had picked up some donuts the day before for a breakfast treat since I knew at least Daddy and I would be dragging. Gillian really enjoyed hers', as she does most sweets. I thought I had a video of her eating some, but I guess I don't.

This is Colin trying his sprinkle donut. You can see exactly how much he loved it:

Then he had the nerve to ask for MY CHOCOLATE DONUT! No way, Jose!

That's PRINCESS Combat Boots, Thank-you Very Much

Oh yeah, and her prince.

Lucky Little Imps

GraGra and Papa Greg got the kids some fancy duds to help celebrate St. Patrick's Day. We wore them a day early to our Mommy and Me class. They were very popular.

Before we left, I tried to get some pictures. I got this sequence:






Imps. Cute, lucky imps.

I took this!

Usually all the quality photos on the blog are Michael's. I use our little point and shoot to take "documentary" pictures when I need to, but if we want nice pictures, Michael takes them. Well, last week the "little camera" was out of commission for some reason, so I had to grab Michael's "big camera" (a Nikon D50, just fyi). I just set it to auto and shoot. I was so excited to see how this one of Gillian turned out! Yay me!

Slush

One day last week it started to warm up a bit, perhaps to 50 degrees in the late afternoon. It turned what snow we had left on the deck to slush. Colin kept asking to go out, so finally I had them put on their rubber books and let them out. They had a best time just running in circles through the slush on the deck! Good thing we had boots though, and really, I should have had coats on them!




Colin was just so happy to be outside! And, really, I can't blame him!


Gillian just wanted to ham it up for the camera.


Hopefully it's just the beginning of outdoor play!

Haircut

The kiddos got haircuts last week. They both have nice full heads of hair and need haircuts about every 6 or 7 weeks, so they are quite familiar with Miss Mary Ellen. They do a nice job of sitting up in her chair and letting her do her work with a minimum of fuss.

After this trip to the salon, Gillian decided to start cutting our hair! She even gets out a "cape" and puts it over us. The she pretends scissor and "buzzer" to give us our 'dos.

Daddy's turn, this time!

Oh, and Weasel helped!

CAKE!

We know Gillian has a sweet tooth. She comes from a long line of dessert eaters. While we had that nasty virus a few weeks ago, Aunt Cedes and Uncle D came over for dinner and brought a cake with them. G had an upset stomach, and we didn't think cake was prudent. I promised her that when she felt better, we'd have cake. She was ok with that and proceeded to be sick for the next week, so no cake.

One day, ten days after our initial bargain, Gillian looked at me and said, "Me feel better, have cake now." Ummm, ok, I had forgotten about that. Obviously, she had not. We were headed up to GraGra's the next day, so I told G that we would have cake there.

GraGra was quite happy to provide her special little Bean with CAKE!


Gillian ate 3 pieces while we were visiting. She got her moneys worth, anyway!

A Max and Ruby Inspired Failure....

As previously mentioned, Max & Ruby is a big hit around here! One of C&G's favorite episodes is one where Ruby and Max pick a big bunch of berries because their Grandma promised to make them a surprise with the berries. As usual, hilarity ensues ending with Max squishing all of the berries in a toy cement mixer! Ruby is crushed, but Grandma reassures her that it is ALL FINE! Grandma was planning on making SMOOTHIES all along!

Colin and Gillian tell me about smoothies all the TIME, and about blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries. And how Max squishes them in the truck! So, I thought I'd be a nice, fun Mommy and make them (their first) smoothies for snack one day last week!

So after nap we got out vanilla yogurt, frozen berries, some ice cubes, and milk. We set up the food processor and got to work. The kids were all interested and excited!


So we whirled up smoothies and put them in our straw cups! JUST LIKE MAX AND RUBY!! And they kids were......confused???




Ok, so maybe the smoothies were alright?


Um. No. No love for the smoothies. Both kids drank a little bit and asked for water. I thought they were pretty yummy though. Thanks a lot Max and Ruby. That's what I get for being nice and fun, huh?

Off Visiting

Last weekend the kiddos and I headed north for the weekend, leaving Daddy at home to fend for himself! He seemed ok with it, since he had some overtime to work and a Video-game/Man Party to attend. Oh, and he cleaned the house. Thank you very much!

So Friday evening we headed over to Grammy and Papa Frank's house for dinner. Papa has been working on his train set up in the basement and he was pretty excited to show Colin his handiwork!

Colin and Gillian were suitably impressed, I think! We had a nice dinner with Papa and Grammy and the kids always love to play with their grandparents!

Saturday we spent most of the day at Great-Grandma Smith's house. My Aunt Lori had made new curtains for Grandma's bedroom. They are lovely, unfortunately they didn't match the 20 year old wallpaper in the bedroom! So, the plan was to remove the wallpaper and paint the room. In.one.day. I did not make this plan.....

So, we worked....


(Ok, so when I took the kids for a nap, I fell sound asleep too...)

At the end of the day 3 of 4 walls were stripped. Even with this kind of help!


Sunday morning we packed up, and went to visit Dickiedoo and Noonie for breakfast! Mmmmm, bacon! And doughnuts! Sadly, I didn't have the camera with me!

Then we went home to see DADDY!!! And I took another nap.

Bean Builds for Momo

One day last week (or two weeks, or something...we were sick, we lost track) the kids were playing on our bed. It happened that Momo had already been napping there. Usually he beats feet when we arrive, but this time he hung out. And Gillian built him a pillow house to sleep in. Doesn't he look overjoyed about it?

Double Trouble....

Trouble breathing, that is! Gillian ended up with crackles in her chest, and some wheezing at the end of her illness. And, of course, when Colin gets a virus we crank up the breathing treatments to about a million a day. Good think we now have two, yes two, nebulizers. Sigh.


And, just think how sad it is that two, two year olds are familiar enough with this stuff that they sit on the couch, holding their own masks, smiling during treatments. AND how sad it is that their mother laughed and took a picture.

Tea Time

So, I'm catching up on the pictures I took while we were hit with sickness....these are from when Gillian was the only one sick! She wasn't drinking enough, to my estimate, so I made her a little cup of decaf green tea. She did drink some of it, but spilled more than she drank, I think.


And, of course, Brother Bear wanted some too.....I think he drank even less than Gillian did!


If only the tea had kept us all healthy....

Breakfast!

Some people LOVE it.



Some....not so much.