On The Go

My Little Minion

Today we encountered some more fun firsts... Daddy put Arabella down for a nap, then went to bed himself. I opened Arabella's door when I thought she needed up from her nap. A short time later I hear her calling my name. I go in to see what she needed and I found her laying on her side, on the pillow, with her sunglasses on. Apparently she hopped out of bed, grabbed her sunglasses from her dresser (along with an empty pacifier holder), put her sunglasses on and went to sleep. How the heck she slept with them on, I don't know.

I tried to get a picture of her laying there with the glasses on, but she sat up and took them off before I could.

Proof she was wearing the glasses...gross sweat.

Pretty Little Lashes

After nap time, while I was fixing dinner, Arabella asked if she could play with "dough-dough." I agreed and fixed her up at the table with her usual pick of color, and multiple untensils to play her heart out with. About twenty minutes into fixing dinner I hear "Mama, I done."

I turned around and saw that she had packed up her green playdough in the container and was making a terrible face. You guessed it, she "ate" the playdough. Took a bite out of it and when she discovered it's lack of fabulous flavor, she packed it up. I quickly grabbed a water sippy and made her open her mouth so I could see the lovely green sprawled out over her molars. I shook my head, handed over the drink and let her pick out another color of playdough. This time she was well instructed that we don't eat playdough, no matter the color.

Recently Arabella has been calling herself a big girl. And she is. We tease her and "struggle" picking her up and she tells us that she's "too heavy." It's rather cute. So she's on a "Big Girl, I big help" trip.

She truly is getting into the aspects of helping around the house when asked. For quite a few months now she helps me round up the trash cans for trash night. Usually if we ask her to retreive something she's more than happy to help. She absolutely LOVES collecting/doing laundry. So tonight I asked her if she would help me clear the table after dinner. I allowed her to clear the plastic plates and the kids utensils. She neatly picked one plate up then walked it to the sink. She stood up on her tip toes and dropped it in. She repeated it for Bubba's plate.

As soon as she was done, she announced "I help! I a big girl." Yes Arabella, you are a big girl. Getting bigger every day. Mommy is so proud of you. Now to work on the "yes/no sir, yes/no ma'am." ;)

Still working at it...

Okay, so I'm still working on nailing my focus and working in manual. And I need some serious lessons in post processing...but tell me what you think.

I was going for a clean edit.

Of course these are snapshots, not technically perfect and it's difficult to get my kids to sit still while I practice, but hey I keep on trucking. I think I like the edits...

Silly Girl

We encountered some "fun" firsts with Arabella today. She found a "mommy bracelet" in which I kept correcting her until she understood it was a rubberband. From then on it was a "rubbermand." No use arguing there I suppose?

As of recently, the kids have had their first encounter with Kool-Aid. Today Arabella whipped up some Lemon-lime Kool-Aid. As I was preparing dinner I heard her laughing and giggling near the back door.

When asked what is so funny I heard "I lick it. I lick it." Of course that gets my attention and I find her squatting, staring into the recycle can. And I happen to see the remnants of saliva where she had licked the can. Apparently while looking out the back door she discovered herself in the can, even more funny she discovered the Kool-Aid had dyed her tongue green. And in the process of viewing said green tongue she started licking herself in the can. I mean really, is she going to survive "the real world" if she goes around licking her reflection in random objects? LMBO.

I eventually was able to get her to stop for two seconds so that I could get a picture of her pretty green tongue. The kid is digging on the Kool-Aid. Probably because of the gianormous amounts of sugar involved in it's making. Well, it could also be because Mommy lets her stir.

Rubbermand's and licking trash cans. Ah, to be two again. :P

You Capture - Smiles

I love smiles from my babies. Nothing makes me happier.

For more smiles, visit I Should Be Folding Laundry.



A Guitar!

This child has been OBSESSED with guitars for a month or so now. Anything and everything has turned into a guitar and is capable of being strummed. Some of my favorites include the spindles on the banister; the crocodile xylophone; the window screens; hangers, and my absolute favorite - her car seat cover.

You see there's an elastic band that runs from the top to the lower portion and it "hooks" under the side of the car seat to keep it in place. However, she discovered it and is constantly pulling it up and strumming it. It's annoyingly cute.

So finally...Adam promised her that if she took a nap, Mommy would get her guitar out after the nap and show it to her. She was over the moon and out in a flash. Of course when she woke up she found me and immediately began asking for Mommy's guitar.

I put Evan to bed that evening and then got the guitar out. She had a BLAST. She refused to quit touching it so I could play it for her. Little did she know that a present, just her size, was on it's way to the house.

Well, it arrived today. In fact it was two hours after she was supposed to have been asleep for a nap. Needless to say Adam let her get out of bed so he could see her face light up when she opened it. I did get a short video clip of her playing with it immediately out of the box and completely out of tune.

Adam tried out the "pitch pipe" and well it isn't exactly made for tuning; more of a kids toy I suppose. So he went and got the tuner from his case and it took nearly 20 minutes to tune it due to little hands constantly groping at the strings.

I tell you I have never seen her more obsessed with anything in my life. She has a definite love of music and singing. So perhaps guitar lessons will be in her future? Either way I'm glad we were able to make her dream come true and she now is the proud owner of her very own guitar.

*I know these photographs are far from technically perfect but I was in a hurry and wasn't paying attention. So, I'll have to try and take some better ones of her with the guitar, but I'm sure you "get the picture" of her happiness with these shots.

You Capture - Fun

Fun, what is more fun than dawdling around Bass Pro? Arabella has been there once before but she wasn't quite old enough to enjoy it.


Well, waiting in line for the car wash to start. Arabella thinks it's the coolest thing to do when we gas up. She's always asking if we're taking a "car bath."



Ah, the beloved Bass Pro Shop...



Nothing is more fun to Adam than knives...I can't blame him. I have a few myself. ;)



Evan had fun? Well he's teething so he didn't really care, but he love the elevator rides.



There's nothing more cool than Daddy raising you up so you can look out over the lake and watch the waterfall.





You can't say ATV without knowing the word fun.



Checkers = Fun.



I love to see Daddy Daughter moments. Melts my heart.





This is the reason we can no longer get in the car without hearing "waterfall?" Do you blame her?

For more FUN photographs visit I Should Be Folding Laundry.

Siblings

No, Evan isn't that much shorter than Arabella. He's just slumping so he can teeth on the crib.

All I want is a picture of the kids together. A decent picture. Apparently that's too much to ask if they are not locked up together. I mean really, who would think that asking a one year and two year old to sit still and look at the camera would be difficult? No? It's just me? Okay.

So out of the five pictures I took that was the best one of them together. And even that didn't last longer than 10 seconds before it turned into this...



Evan, don't bite your sister. It's not funny even if Mommy is laughing.



Evan, I said stop trying to scale your sister. She's not a rock wall.



You know Evan, choking your sister is really frowned upon by society.

In case your wondering; as soon as they are in a crib together he takes that opportunity to get her back for all of the horsey rides and shoving to the ground she's put him through thus far. Not to mention yanking on his limbs at the dinner table when Mommy goes to get more milk from the fridge. She has it coming, and unfortunately I just have to laugh.

27 Months Old

27 pounds 11 ounces, 34 inches

I feel bad that I've not been keeping up with our daily funnies, but they'll forgive me. I'm totally proud of my baby girl. She's growing up so fast. I'm pretty sure she went from toddler to teenager overnight. We have some funny conversations, pretty much daily.

She has become a music fanatic. Anything and everything is some sort of instrument; from guitars to drums. This child LOVES to sing even when she doesn't know the words. I'm going to take her to a Music Movement class put on my Parents as Teachers. I cannot wait to see her face when she finds out what she gets to do. We are also planning on buying her a youth guitar for her birthday!

Developmentally, I'm pretty sure she's either advance or on target for most skills. She can sing her ABC's and count to 20 on her own. She's also to the point where she points out letters to us. I bought a 5 pack of educational posters so I've been quizzing her and she pretty much knows everything on each poster. They include the ABC's, Colors, Shapes, Opposites, and Counting.

I'm also certain she's going to be a bookworm, which is great because I hated reading growing up. I'm pretty sure she'd make me read every book in her room before bed if I didn't enforce a limit. On the upside, she's not afraid to zone at the t.v. when cartoons are on (see example below).

14 Months Old

24 pounds 11 ounces, 31.5 inches

I'm pretty sure I've missed doing some of Evan's updates, but I'm here now. ;) Mr. Evan is officially 14 months old and we're still at the nursing game. He isn't really showing many signs of giving up (as long as my supply holds out). I'm really at the point where I'm enjoying nursing immensely. He's very interactive at this age, so it's nice that he cues me when he wants fed. I really thought he'd slowed down and wasn't nursing as much, but when I sat down and figured it out, he's still pretty much nursing full time. On occasion he skips a few feedings during the day, but not often.

I also feel the need to explain to Evan that I am sorry for the pathetic look of these pictures. It's partially to blame on teething, partially to blame on what I assume is a virus of some kind (he's snotty) and it's partially to blame on his father. I think Daddy learned a valuable lesson, we must NEVER leave a one-year-old unattended at the bottom of the stairs, even if it was only for a few seconds.

He really looked much more terrible yesterday, but the bruising is letting up. We're still not sure what happened. But he has the lovely wound on his nose, a bruise that streaks from his upper lip to his eye lid and then a spot on his forehead that did have a knot, but is now just a scrap and bruise.

Boo Boo's aside, he's a healthy non-stop growing child. This little man can pack away the food, but we're not quite sure where he's putting it as he's not really gaining a ton of weight or height. I really don't look forward to him being a teenager.

We love you little man, but please knock it off with the dare devil stunts. Mommy can't handle it and I don't think I'll live past your childhood if you keep it up. Mkay? Love you!