Busy, much?

Yep. That's me.

And the kids are still growing.

Buttercup is perfecting her sassiness. Yesterday she kept going to her bathroom and turning on the water in the sink just to play in the water. I have no problem with her washing her hands, but she doesn't need to be turning on the water all the time. After the third time of me having to tell her not to do that, I decided to try putting her in time out. Off we went and I put her in the little corner in the living room by the bar. She sat there (and looked incredibly pittiful) until I told her to get up. About 30 minutes later she went back to the bathroom. I went to get her and told her she needed to go sit in time out.

"Ok, mommy!" And just like that, she hopped off the stool and sat in the corner. That little stinker!

I painted her nails yesterday, too. She wasn't sure what to make of it and cried through it all (thank goodness for Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri polish!) but afterwards, she kept holding up her hands to show me her pink nails! And today she wanted me to paint them again because a few nails had already chipped polish. This time she didn't fuss, and she appropriately blew on her nails to dry them. That cracked me up!

She likes to say, "LOOK, Mommy!" or "LOOK, Daddy!" whenever she wants to show us something. Lately that has been hopping. She can get off the ground and she's so proud of herself!

Buttercup pretty much wants whatever toy X-man is currently playing with. Learning to share can be a tearful experience. She also likes to sit down in front of the bookshelf and just pull off books and flip through them. She particularly likes the Dr. Seuss books. And both kids love to sit on the couch with me while I read books. That's usually when I get the most hugs and kisses from X-man. Buttercup is still pretty giving with her kisses! I love that!

She likes to eat "Slalamli" which is salami and she wants all the raw salmon at the sushi restaurant to herself. She loves eggs and bacon and peanut butter. She doesn't seem to eat much, but since her height and weight is in the 50th percentile, I think she's doing fine.

She loves her Kindermusik class and can tell me the names of kids in that class as well as the names of a few kids in her mother's day out class.

She loves to wear "pretty nightgowns" and every night want's to "go show daddy." She'll run into wherever daddy is and say, "LOOK, Daddy! Cute!" and then wiggle her bottom. This love for the nightgowns has translated into loving dresses or even long shirts that look like a dress. And today she wore a headband in her hair because I had a scarf in mine and she wanted a "pretty head" too! She's definitely got the girly role down!

I think that's "all I got" for the updates. Poor Buttercup won't have near the number of updates on her first two years as X-man. Hopefully she won't hold that against me.

Full of funnies!

Yesterday was X-man's birthday (and the Sunday before was Buttercup's).

He kept telling me that in the night, his legs grew longer and he was bigger now because he was four!

Well, before naptime, after Buttercup went down for her nap, I was reading X-man a book. He started kissing me and said, "Mommy, it's nice to give kisses and hugs and snuggles of love!" I smiled, said, "Yes, it is!" and gave him some kisses. He looked up at me and said, "Mommy, don't kiss me!" Ha!

Later I had the kids color some thank you cards for some friends of ours who gave them some birthday presents. I asked X-man what he wanted to say in his card and here's what I wrote down for him:

Thank you for the Toy Story book.
I love you.
Amen.

I cracked up as I wrote it!

And then he even wrote his own name! All by himself! I don't think anyone but me would recognize that's what it was without my translations of some of the letters, but I was so proud of him. I even had him write his name again on another piece of paper so I could keep it. It's so cute!

As for Buttercup, she's definitely got the 'tude of a two year old. She loves to say no and in fact, sometimes I think she's just saying no because she likes the word! And now that she has figured out about the words yep and nope, she likes to say those, too. However, we really work with the kids to get them to answer with yes, ma'am and yes, sir instead of yea, or uh-huh. So the other day, I asked Buttercup a question and she said, "Yep. Yes, ma'am. No yep!" She's going to get it figured out!

My daughter, the Breath-Holder

Doesn't that sound lovely? Buttercup has had two episodes in two weeks and this second one last night made me call the pediatrician this morning.

Two weeks ago Buttercup fell down (she and X-man ran into each other). She let out a scream and then...nothing. I picked her up and her face was still in "scream-mode" but there was no air going in or out.

Freaked me the heck out.

I whacked her on the back a few times, picked up the phone ready to dial 911 and she coughed, threw up on me and cried. Whew. I had never been so happy to see throw up! After that she was just fine. I figured that she just got choked on some phlegm since her nose was pretty runny.

Last night she was running around TC's legs and she tripped and bumped her head on the wall. I heard it from the kitchen and it didn't sound that bad, but I heard her scream. I asked TC to check on her and since he was right there, he said he was. Maybe a second later (seemed like a minute!) I asked him if she was breathing...I hadn't heard her cry other than that first wail. He said she wasn't. I put down the dishes I was washing and asked the same question again (just thinking about it right now is making my heart race) and he gave me the same answer. I think I made some outer worldly noise, grabbed the phone, and finally Buttercup whined and started crying and breathing again. My stomach was tied up in knots for the rest of the evening.

So this morning I called the doctor's office and related the above events to the nurse. She said she would talk to the doctor, but it sounded like breath-holding. She said she would call me back and let me know what he said.

Well, about an hour later, the Doctor called me back...not the nurse. We have such an awesome pediatrician! He told me that yes, this was called breath-holding and it wasn't like a child that gets mad and holds his breath. That's something totally different. This is just a strange reflex that some kids have and eventually they will grow out of it..."Not fast enough!" the doc said! He told me his own son had this when he was young and while it was definitely not fun to watch, the child would eventually start breathing again before any permanent damage was done. In fact, if she does pass out (Lord and Heaven help me) as soon as she passes out her nervous system will start the breathing again. These episodes usually happen after a hit to the head, a fall or something startling like that. The child just gets startled and the reflex is to stop breathing for whatever reason. Doc told me to just stay calm during these episodes and to not "feed" them by giving Buttercup extra/over attention after them. Obviously calm her and let her know that she's ok and someone's taking care of her. We don't want her to figure out that by doing this she gets secondary attention and then have her holding her breath on purpose.

I calmed down quite a bit after I talked to the doctor, but twice today Buttercup ran into something (one a doorframe and the other was the wall...what is up with kids walking forward and looking behind them?!?) and both times I held my breath waiting to see if she was going to freeze up on me. Thank the good Lord about that she didn't.

I have panic issues so I haven't googled this at all. I don't want to read any horror stories about breath-holders. That would only make matters worse for me. I don't even google symptoms that I think I might be having because you can get some wacky advice from Dr. Google!

So I would thank you not to post any comments with your horror stories of kids who had this or kids who held their breath in general. No freaking the momma out!!

I am so thankful for a beautiful family. My kids are my all and before kids I would have never known that I could let my heart walk around outside my body like that! I am thankful for so many things...I have been blessed many times over.

Hug your babies, your mammas, your friends and let them know you are thankful for them!!

Two more...

Teeth! Yep, Miss Buttercup has a total of 6 teeth now. The front two on the top and bottom and then two molars (!) on the bottom. I think her top molars are working their way out, too! And I will promise you that those little molars are SHARP! She didn't realize that when mommy stuck her finger in her mouth to feel if there were any teeth back there, mommy did not intend for her finger to be used as a chew toy.

She just keeps on making all of us laugh. Her vocabulary is growing and she's been putting words together to make two- and three-word phrases! I think my favorite one is: "Paw-Paw. Sugar. Funny!" When my dad kisses her, he shakes his cheeks and makes this really silly sound. Buttercup just loves it!!

Both of the kids had school this week. X-man did great on his first day of school. Thankfully he'd been to mother's day out so this really wasn't anything new for him. His teacher said she was glad that he was ok with being there as there were a few kids that were not happy about being apart from their parents.

I've got another 30 minutes or so before X-man wakes up (most likely he will be crying/screaming for me to tell daddy to come back home...he wakes up and immediately remembers that daddy is at work and he starts to fuss about it...I understand your pain, little man, but daddy's job is to go to work!). I'll be hanging out on Facebook or reading my parenting/crafting/stamping blogs!!

My daughter, the buzzard

TC and I had a meeting at church tonight. Thankfully there was child-care available. Otherwise we probably wouldn't have gone...or just one of us would have gone.

Anyway, we dropped the kids off in the nursery and the child-care worker in the twos and threes told us to bring X-man and Buttercup over to her room. I was a little confused because the ones were in a different room. I'm pretty sure it was because she wanted Buttercup in her room! I put Buttercup down and let her walk in the room and she made a beeline for the hamburger Happy Meal on the little table. I warned Ms. L that they better corral Buttercup or she'd eat anything on the table! Ms. L laughed, but as we left the children's area, I heard her tell Buttercup that food didn't belong to her.

My daughter, the buzzard.

Buttercup and the things she says!

Buttercup's vocabulary list is really growing. She's saying so much more that Xander did at this age!

One of her new things is to say "funny" and when she says it, there's a great emphasis on the last syllable and she scrunches up her face. So, when someone laughes, she'll look at them and say "funny" and then she'll giggle! Cracks us up every time!

Something else she likes to say is "noie-nee" which means "noisy." She'll say that if everyone's being noisy but she also likes to say it and then pretend to holler with a relatively quiet "Ahhhhhhhh!" That, my friends, is hilarious!

She loves to carry around her "bee-bee doll" (the little Madame Alexander doll that looks just almost like my baby doll) and her two little pink blankets. She'll tote those around everywhere with her until something better comes along...like her sippy cup of milk. Then, she drops her doll and blankets and makes a beeline for the milk! I never know where her little lovies are going to end up!

X-man and the things he says

I am constantly laughing at the things this boy says sometimes!

Just a few days ago, we picked up the kids from their week-long visit with Granddaddy. As we pulled up to the house, X-man noticed the, oh, 20 mushrooms in the front yard (TC and I had also been gone on a week-long vacation of our own!). So, he asked if he could go see them. Daddy said, "Yes, but don't touch them." X-man said, "Oh, I never touch mushrooms!" (with a great dramatic voice!) And would you imagine he proceeded to go right to them and touch them? (of course you would believe it!)

Buttercup and X-man were sitting on the couch and Buttercup dropped her toy. X-man picked it up and I said to Buttercup, "What do you say?" She looked straight at X-man and said, "tan too!" X-man said, "You're welcome! Mommy, I said 'You're welcome!'" He's quite proud of himself using his polite words...and he's working on "teaching" them to his little sister! Awwwww!

I was getting lunch ready and I was making peanut butter and honey sandwiches (or just peanut butter on bread is how X-man likes them). X-man told me he wanted "boy peanut butter." I knew exactly what he meant. We are a his and hers peanut butter household (thanks for that phrase, ^starshine!). I like creamy and TC likes crunchy. The fact that X-man logic-ed out that it meant the kind daddy likes is "boy kind" cracks me up. What cracks me up even more is that I'm always talking about how I prefer "girl" chocolate chip cookies over the "boy" kind.

I'll let you kick that around for a bit. Got it? Yep, I like my chocolate chip cookies without nuts. Ha ha ha!

Cuteness...and not so cuteness

My kids never cease to amaze me. They just get cuter and cuter...and now they've started to cop an attitude. Oh, man. I can not stand an attitude...from a child OR an adult. And I have varying levels of understanding depending on your age.

Buttercup, being 1 and a half, I can almost forgive most of her attitude, but I still remind her how we're supposed to be acting. She can throw quite the lying-on-the-ground-screaming-kicking fit. It doesn't get her what she wants, though.

X-man is getting quite the attitude lately. I still remember that he's a child and sometimes it's hard to control all these feelings/emotions/stuff that happens. I'll ask him to go do something and he'll just look at me and say, "No." And what really burns my tush is when he smiles at me after he says it. He knows he's doing something he's not supposed to. And he gets to spend time in his room for that kind of thing.

And he spends lots of time in his room.

As for cuteness, my dad has taught Buttercup how to say, "Mmmm, mmmm, good!" when she eats something. And she shakes her head back and forth when she says it! She also will come up to you, grab your finger and say, "wal" (which means walk). She's got a huge vocabulary now and is even working on two-word phrases! She can say, "daddy wok" (which means daddy is at work) and it cracks me up everytime!

X-man also has cute moments. The other day, we had some relatives over and their son was making X-man laugh. And he was laughing and laughing and laughing. Then X-man stopped and said, "I'm funny!" Of course, that made the rest of us laugh!

Yea for cuteness!!

Buttercup cracks me up!

Buttercup is getting an amazing personality. I'm fairly certain she's going to be the hardheaded one...

Her favorite toys ("toe-ee" as she calls them) right now are her two lovey blankets and her baby doll (the Madame Alexander doll I bought for her shortly after I found out I was pregnant...it's almost the same style doll I had when I was a little girl). She wants to carry these three things around along with her sippy cup and anything else she finds interesting. She tries to pick up everything with her little fingers and little hands. She just can't get it all most times and that really makes her mad.

And speaking of toys, when she sees something she wants to play with (which is often something she's NOT supposed to play with...like the TV remote) she points to it and says, "toe-ee? toe-ee?"

Do not tell this girl no. She has got her pout down pat! When she's mad she turns into noodle girl and if I try to pick her up (in order to keep her from going where I don't want her to) she just relaxes everything...so when I try to lift her up by holding her under her arms, her arms relax and I don't have a good hold. I have to be ready for it so she doesn't slip out! And if I'm holding her when she gets mad and I put her down, upon being set on the floor, she will throw her head backwards. That could lead to all kinds of problems if I'm not careful where I put her down!

This one's going to be a handful!

Up

Today we took the kids to see Up. I was pretty sure X-man could handle it, but I wasn't sure Buttercup would. I would have bet money that I'd miss the last half of the movie due to having to walk Buttercup around outside the theatre.

They both surprised me.

With about 15 minutes of the movie left Buttercup started to get antsy. But I was able to appease her by standing in the hallway so I could see about half the movie screen and still hear it. Both of the kids LOVED the popcorn!

The movie was really good. I was really amazed at how much I was "into" the Carl/Ellie relationship when all we really got was a combination of sceens with no talking. I just about lost it when Ellie and Carl were in the doctor's office (after they looked at cloud shapes...don't want to give away all the stuff!). I loved Dug, the dog and Russell, the little boy, was adorable!!

Anyway, I've been seeing other people's Photo 365 projects on the net and decided that today I would start My Adventure Book and do my own Project 365. I'm probably not going to Venezuela or anything terribly exotic, but I do have my own little adventure right here in my house...and they're not getting any younger (but they are getting cuter!).

I'm nowhere near a professional photographer. I don't even have a fancy-schmancy camera...just my little point and shoot. But at some level, pictures are pictures and I'm looking forward to this!

Rabbits

Buttercup has a few new words these days: duckie, bye-bye and banana (which comes out as na-na).

Her duckie is a little yellow duck that was X-man's. He never really took to it but Buttercup has! It's in her bed...along with a bunny-blanket (one of those with a bunny head and the body is the blanket), a little pink lovey, her Bunny blanket (it's a crocheted blanket that was made for her by TC's previous boss, named Bunny) and a blue rabbit that I crocheted for X-man that was meant to be his comfort item at mother's day out. He never took to that, either. And yes, I am painfully aware of the interestingly large number of bunny-related items. I don't like rabbits (due to one of them peeing on me when I was little...gross!) but I do know two people named Bunny and I like them both (one of them is a pledge sister).

Wow - that was off on a tangent.

Even though we've been through this with X-man, I am still amazed every time Buttercup learns something new. It's just a matter of time before she and X-man can work the computer better than I can...

15 Months

Buttercup is 15 months old today! I can't believe how big she's getting and how much she is learning these days.

She's got three teeth (two on bottom and one on top) and the second top tooth looks like it's trying to come through.

She has figured out how to climb. She climbs up on Xander's kitchen stool, on Xander's bathroom stool; she tried to climb up on his step in front of the potty, but I caught her before she climbed up there...I could see her falling in the toilet!

She can now say "diaper" which actually comes out like: by-bpur. And I love watching her say "uh oh." When we ask her to say it, she always looks to the floor first!

She loves to drink milk from her sippy cup and her favorite food is whatever's on my plate.

Daddy is always appropriately welcomed when he comes home. When she hears the door open, she drops whatever she's doing (even if it's having a little milk break) to walk straight to daddy. I'm sure he loves it!!

She and X-man are starting to play together even more. The best time is first thing in the morning when X-man and I go to get her out of her crib. She sits in her crib and he stands outside it and they just laugh at each other! She'll stick her hand out and he'll kiss it...then she pokes his face and he laughs! So fun to watch!

She's got her 15 month check up tomorrow. That should go well!

What we're up to now...

Well, we're up to alot.

Both kids are doing great with their second set of tubes. Thankfully Buttercup's cold seems to be going away so that unpleasantness will be gone soon. She's got her two top front teeth that are just trying to push their way through. She's been full of spit and vinegar for the last month and I'm pretty sure the majority of it is due to these teeth. Yesterday, though, I could see a tiny little part of the tooth that had come through. I'm hoping I'll see more of that tooth when I get her up in a few minutes!

Buttercup is talking up a storm. I don't understand much of what she says, but she sure is passionate about it!

She can say (in order of frequency):

da-dee (he loves that!)
uh-ohhh (and she makes the cutest little face when she says that!)
hee-haw (thanks to a Kindermusik song about a donkey)
zeh-duh (that would be her brother! I love it when she says his name!)
moo
woov-woov (yep, the sound a puppy makes)
yee-ya (that would be my mom - G-Joy)
ma ma (she'll say this sometimes)
paw paw (just yesterday she said this - that would be my dad)

So she's got quite a vocabulary. She is loving Kindermusik and will dance along with the motions to the songs when we're at home. I love to watch her pretend to play the little xylophone when we sing "Sweetly sings the donkey" and she'll "quack" her hands when we sing "All my little ducklings." It is so cute!

She's walking everywhere now. And she's pretty stable now! She can even stand up on her own. And when she does that X-man will say, "She squats, then stands up!"

Speaking of X-man, he is cracking me up on a daily basis. He just says the funniest things. Like one morning last week, he woke up and came to find me in the living room. He came up to me and said, "What a wonderful shirt you are wearing, mommy!" And when we're eating and he needs to excuse himself to go to the potty, he'll start walking away and say, "No time to stop and play!" He's even started telling daddy, "Be a good boy at work, daddy!" when we talk to daddy in the mornings. Cracks me up every time!

Yesterday is was such a beautiful day that we ate dinner a little early (5:45 instead of 6:00) and after cleaning up, we walked to our neighborhood park and played. Both kids really enjoyed that and I was glad that it wasn't just swealteringly hot. When we got back home, TC started the sprinkler on the lawn and I suggested to X-man that he go stand in it. He never did really get in the sprinkler, but he sure was having a good time! I even put Buttercup in the "line of fire" once, but she wasn't really enjoying the sprinkles on her face.

Kids are so fun!

Just going...

This have been crazy around here (and that really just means it's been normal). Since Buttercup's gotten her walk on, that's pretty much all she wants to do. Well, that and eat...

She will pull herself up to standing anywhere and then just head off in the general direction of something to hold on to. And watch out if X-man wants to get in on the action. He likes our newest "game." It consists of TC and me sitting a good distance apart in the craft room or the living room. Buttercup will walk toward me and X-man will either walk next to her, behind her or in the totally opposite direction. Both kids get praise for getting to their destination and both will giggle uncontrollably! The funny part is when Buttercup is walking and X-man will pass her going the other direction...she is totally watching him and loses her balance and concentration. Bump - on the floor. She will look at you with that pitiful face of hers (where in the world did she learn how to get such a pout?) and just cry! We have to remind her to just stand up! At that point she'll crawl to someone (not necessarily the nearest one) and pull up and then start it all over again.

She's been quite talkative lately, though we can't always understand what she's saying. We can sometimes pick out when she's saying her brother's name. And she loves pointing to people in pictures. We have a wall of pictures on the way to all the bedrooms and she loves to point to everyone. In our kitchen, we have two family pictures...one with us and my mom, dad and sis and one with us and TC's mom, dad, sis and niece. (Target portrait studios are really good and really affordable! Just get a coupon from their site first) Buttercup can identify my mom and X-man but the rest of the people she'll just point to. It's really cute!

She seems to be doing fine with the tubes. It was no big deal getting them last Friday. Since I'd already been through it twice before, I knew what to expect. When the nurse brought her out after the tubes were in, Buttercup was at the ending stage of a crying fit...you know...where there's a big sniffle and then several little breathy sniffles. Poor girl just couldn't get back to her happy pants. It took at least an hour when we got back home for her to finally start laughing again. And it's been all sunshine and roses since then! (and I'm not kidding...our kids have been incredible for the last few days!)

X-man cracks me up everyday. Yesterday he was looking for his flashlight (not this one...it's still MIA) and he asked me to help him. So I walked over to the toy area (it has broken the bounds of the 2 toy tubs) and started looking. X-man stood in the middle of the living room and said, "Flashlight? Where are you? FLASHLIGHT!!" I doubled over laughing. We finally did find that particular flashlight in Buttercup's room.

And X-man loves to make up songs either to his own tune or a tune of another song he knows. You just never know what phrase he will use to make a song. Sunday at lunch it was, "Jesus is good. He is going to sit with me." I can't wait to see what the song of the day is today!

She's walking!

Something clicked and Buttercup started walking yesterday! She's been taking a few steps at a time and then crashing on her bottom. But yesterday I propped her up with her back to the couch and I sat a few feet away from her. And here she came at me with her arms out in front of her, a giant grin on her face and laughing and snorting the whole time! She finally got to where she was walking almost half the length of the living room (which I understand means absolutely nothing to those of you that have never seen my living room). Even X-man was getting in on it and clapping and laughing right along! He'd say, "Good girl! You did it." probably because that's what I was saying.

And then she didn't want to stop walking.

She'd crawl to a wall, get herself stood up (is that right? sounds weird) and then walk - somewhere. She still bonks down on her bottom, but she is just so proud of herself! And yesterday when we were at church, she tried to wriggle herself out of my arms so she could walk to the car. But it was 8:45 and we were tired and she's not exactly the fastest and most efficient walker of all time.

She'll get her walking in today though! I bet I get to spend the better portion of today walking right beside her!

Ahhh...kids are so cute!

Tubes all around! Again!

Last Thursday, I took the kids to the ENT for an ear check. Thankfully, neither one of them have an ear infection. BUT, both of them still have fluid in their ears.

So, Buttercup is scheduled for tubes on Friday and X-man will get tubes in two weeks at the surgery center. Yes, anesthesia and everything. I think daddy is going to take him and after I take Buttercup to mother's day out that day, I'll head over to the surgery center.

In fun news, Buttercup can "say" X-man's name. She'll point to pictures of him and say "zeh zeh" and it's just adorable!!

1 year check up

Buttercup had her 1-year check up on Tuesday. Yes, it was a month late...I forgot to schedule the next appointment at her 9 month check up and when I finally called to schedule, they were already booked up in February.

At any rate, Buttercup still had (or had a new) ear infection. I'm guessing the ENT is going to want to put tubes in again. Hers have fallen out already. I'm not going to call the ENT until after X-man's appointment (3-year check up) today. I'm hoping the fluid in his ears has gone away.

Buttercup weighed 19lbs, 9oz and she is 29in tall. Just almost time to move her to the front-facing car seat! I remember when we moved X-man into that seat and how small he looked in it. He doesn't look so small in his seat now!

The doctor said we can move on to whole milk. So, when we finish this can of formula, milk it is! She's doing really well with the sippy cup so we'll be moving to that, too!

She talks all the time, but we recognize the words "ma ma" and "da-dee!" She mostly says da-dee, which I think is adorable. X-man said "da-da" but I guess since he's always saying daddy, Buttercup picked up on that, too.

She took a few steps at Kindermusik on Tuesday. She hasn't done it too much since then, but I think both kids (and momma!!) will be worn out when Buttercup learns to walk!

I was hoping Buttercup would share her "flirty eyes" with the doctor, but she didn't. I haven't seem them too often, but occasionally she'll look at you and blink her eyes slowly. Too cute!!

Happy Birthday...just one day late!

Happy Birthday, X-man! You turned 3 yesterday and I think you had a better understanding of it all. Not a complete understanding, though. You kept tell your sister that "today" was her birthday, too! Too funny!

We celebrated your birthday with family on Saturday. You specifically asked for an orange cake, so I made you orange cupcakes. And I made pink ones for Buttercup. You thought that was acceptable.

In the last month:

* You have started working on getting those two-year molars in. The two on the bottom are just starting to poke through which I think is leading to some of your extra fussiness and night waking.

* You are doing so well with potty training. We have had very few accidents in the two weeks that you've been in big boy underwear. We do put you in pull-ups for sleeping and going out, but I think that in the next few weeks, we won't have to do that except for night sleeping. You have managed to stay dry during naps and on our outings! I am so proud of you! I do have to laugh when you get the urge to go. You squat just a bit, get jazz hands (cracks me up!) and with a pained look say, "Oohh, gotta go potty!"

* You impress so many people by saying "Yes, Ma'am" and "Yes, Sir" and it makes me really proud when you do.

* You are always amazing me with the things you say. A few great ones:
"Mommy, my legs are bendy!"
Buttercup, "Come play with me!"
"I'm not a person, I'm a gentleman-boy!"
"I'm not gonna tee-tee on Lighting McQueen or Sally!" (Yes, you say Lighting instead of Lightening)
Buttercup, "Where's you paci-pyer?" You said this several times on Saturday while she was fussing...and all the "paci-pyers" were in the trash.
"I want snuggles!" And you specifically want snuggles...no hugs...just snuggles.

*Your favorite toy that you got on your birthday happens to be Buttercup's favorite, too. Gramma and Granddaddy got you a Handy Manny tool box (you have no idea who that character is). Anyway, the tools in the tool box all dance to a song when you push the button. Buttercup loves to push the button and dance along with the tools. And you do a great job of sharing your toys! Of course, Buttercup also shares her toys with you...you don't discriminate when it comes to playing with toys! All are welcome!

You are going to have so much fun with your sister this year. Soon she'll be walking and following you all over the place.

Happy Birthday...a few days late!

Buttercup turned 1 on Saturday! I can't believe it's been a whole year...I can still very clearly remember the day we brought her home from the hospital.

My parents and TC's parents and sister came for the weekend to celebrate both of the kids' birthdays (X-man's was yesterday) and we had a great time!

So, here's Buttercup at one year:

* You love to dance! You sit down and you'll twist your little torso and clap and just grin! I've even caught you boogying on your tummy...with your little bottom in the air and you just wiggle it! Oh, my...I nearly hurt myself laughing when I saw that!

* You still love to eat! Anything we put in front of you, you'll try at least once. You prefer those things you can put in your mouth yourself...and of course, anything off of someone else's plate!

* You are still only rockin' the two teeth. Just the two on the bottom. I keep looking for signs of new ones!

* Somewhere around your birthday, you got an ear infection. We found it at the ENT's on Tuesday after having X-man's ears checked.

* The ear infection explains why you were so difficult to get to sleep over the weekend and the long screaming jags you'd go on. Of course, I chalked it up to having relatives over and the fact that all your pacifiers (X-man calls it a paci-pie-er) disappeared. Yes, we disappeared them...but I wanted to do it before you really knew what was happening.

* You give the sweetest little kisses and just started giving hugs and snuggles. I'll be holding you and you'll grin at me and then put your head on my shoulder, nuzzle my cheek and then look at me and grin again. I just about melt when, after the snuggles, you open your little mouth and come at me for a kiss!

* You love to kiss X-man...and he loves to kiss you back! It is really sweet to watch. Just yesterday he said, "You are the sweetest baby I ever seen!" And he rubbed your cheek and kissed you. Awwww...

I can't wait to see what the next year will bring!

Who's on first...

Yesterday, all the news stations were predicting a winter storm that was going to really hit by the afternoon. And it did. The kids and I headed out in the morning for groceries and we got back before the roads got bad.

It continued to precipiate throughout the day and by evening it was really icy outside.

When TC came home from work, I went and got a flashlight to shine it in X-man's mouth...his two year molars are poking through! (Yes, he's about to be 3) After I was through, he wanted to play with the flashlight, so I gave it to him and told him to put it in a specific place so we could find it if we needed it. Can you see where this is going?

Around 7pm last night, the power went out. It was dark outside and it was dark inside...with the exception of TC's iTouch. That was a pretty handy flashlight! So, we asked X-man where he put the flashlight. The conversation went something like this:

Us: "X-man, where did you put the flashlight?"
X-man: "Where did I put it?" (in a most adorable little boy voice)
Us: "We are trying to find it! Do you remember where you put it?"
X-man: "Yes"
Us: "Where is it?"
X-man: "Where is it?"
Us: "Did you put it in the drawer like we asked?"
X-man: "Yes"
Us: "Well, it's not there. Did you put it in your room?"
X-man: "Yes"
Us: (in his room) "Is it in your dresser?"
X-man: "No"
Us: "Is it in your frog tent?"
X-man: "No"
Us: "Is it in your closet?"
X-man: "No"
Us: "Where did you put it?"
X-man: "Where did I put it? Mommy, FIND IT!"

And it just went on from there. It would have been funny if I wasn't so stressed. Buttercup was wailing mostly because X-man was whining. I did have another flashlight in my bedroom but it didn't work.

After the power came back on TC remembered that there was a really nice battery-powered lantern/lamp in the front closet.

And I ordered two crank-up flashlights from Amazon (one for my sister and one for us) so we don't have to worry about not having a working flashlight.

And no, X-man, you may not play with it.

And no, we have not found the flashlight yet.