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.

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!!

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!!

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!

Welcome to Fred, Jack and Thomas!

These are X-man's three little monsters. Yes, my friends, I think we have our first imaginary friends!

They've only been here for two days but X-man has taken them to bed with him and they even went with us to sushi for lunch today. And X-man did a great job of telling them how to act in a restaurant. Such a good boy!

Yesterday we were eating lunch and X-man said there was a monster in the kitchen! This isn't too surprising as he talks about the monsters...the friendly one from Word World and the scary one from Bugs Bunny. And last weekend we watched Monsters, Inc. several times on our trip out of town and back.

So, there was a monster in the kitchen and X-man clarified that it was a scary monster. Well, he wanted to scare it away so he roared at it. And Buttercup roared. I just laughed! Another monster appeared in the living room and we scared that one away, too.

Then one showed up in the kitchen again and X-man said, "Look! The scary monster brought a little monster and he's friendly!" Yea for friendly monsters!

So, that little monster sat on the table (X-man told him to be polite at the table) and the little monster sat on the couch while I read X-man his pre-nap book. Then the monster went to bed with X and even got covered up under the blankets. Several minutes later I went to check on X and he told me there were 3 little monsters on the bookshelf and he asked me to get them and put them in bed with him. I scooped them up and plopped them right next to X. I asked X if they had names and he said, "I don't know they names. We'll find out later."

The first thing he said to daddy when he got home yesterday was, "Here are my three little monsters, daddy!"

They finally got names this morning at breakfast.

Incidentally, my sister and I had imaginary friends. Shockapocka and Pooley. If I remember correctly, Pooley was my friend and Shockapocka was my sister's. Shockapocka was always getting in trouble. No further commentary on that... =)

WWJL?

What Would Jesus Like?

To get to this story, there is a bit of backstory, but I'm going to leave out some of the details because I'm not sure I want to blog about the whole thing...

Three weeks ago, my beautiful, gentle, caring mother-in-law died in a motorcycle accident. The night we got the news I prayed with my whole body for help with what to tell X-man about Gramma (along with other prayers!). He would absolutely know that she wasn't there if we got to Granddaddy's house and Gramma wasn't there.

So, I told him that Gramma went to heaven to live with Jesus. He said, "But I didn't see Jesus..."

"We don't have to see Jesus. We just know that's where Gramma is now."

"Where is heaven?"

"Heaven is way up in the sky so if we want to talk to Gramma now, we have to wave up to the sky and blow kisses way up high!"

We have sent lots of waves and kisses to Gramma and to Jesus in the last three weeks.

Ok, now to the story...

A few days ago we had pizza for lunch. I watched X-man pick off the bell peppers. I told him that Gramma didn't like bell peppers, either. He looked at me and said, "And Jesus doesn't like bell peppers?" I told him that Jesus probably did like bell peppers. So he said, "Only Jesus likes bell peppers. And me and Gramma don't like bell peppers!" He was very proud of himself with his little logic!

Kids!

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...

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!!

Now that he's 3 years, 1 month...

X-man had his 3 year check up last Friday.

He is just under the 75th percentile for height and weight and he apparently is meeting all the appropriate milestones. At this appointment, the Doctor mostly asked the questions to X-man. I would nod when necessary, but X-man answered all the questions correctly and did carry on quite a conversation with the Doctor.

At one point during the exam, the doctor pressed around on his tummy and then X-man pointed to his undies and said, "My pen*s is in there." Yep, he knows the real word...but I haven't brought myself to tell him what girls have. Only tell them what they ask!

We need to get him in to see a dentist and we need to get him a tricycle. That will be fun!

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!

Be strong, mamma...

We have a deadline for getting X-man potty-trained. If I want him to start going to pre-school in September, he has to be potty-trained. And I do want him to start in that program because it is the natural progression from the children's day out program he's in right now. So, I have 8 months (or less) to get him going to the potty. He knows how to go, he does it every day, usually at night before bed, but often in the morning when we get dressed for the day.

We've tried some (unsuccessful) attempts at training in the past and this weekend I decided we were going to go drastic...but not like wicked witch drastic!

So, we bought some underwear (they are the cutest little tighty-whities!) and some special Disney/Pixar character ones. I'm not one to have lots of character items (we do have some Word World stuff), but I know that X-man loves Cars, Nemo and Toy Story so I wanted to get these as an incentive.

When X-man went to bed last night, TC and I took his diapers and changing pad and put them up. When he got up, he noticed it was all missing and started looking for his diapers. He even opened the closet where I keep the extra boxes to see if they were in there. Nope.

I told him he was going to wear big boy underwear and he would learn to use the potty. He wore the undies this morning without incident. And we put on special "going out" underwear (pull-ups) for our trip to the grocery store. Yes, he pee'd in those. Oh, well.

We changed back into his undies when we got home and he was fine. I set the alarm on my phone to go off every 30 minutes and let the phone say it was time to potty instead of me. He tried to go once, but after that, he didn't want to go. note: I must be stronger about the trying part!

Around 11:15, he looks at me with this pitiful face and says, "Mommie, take off my big boy unnawear!" Poor kid had wet his pants. No biggie. We just went to his room (he walked with this hilarious bow-leggedness and his palms were turned outward...too funny!) and took of the wets and started to change into dry clothes.

X-man said, "I wanna wear diaper! I don't wanna wear unnawear!" And tears insued.

Not wanting to traumatize the kid, we snuggled and I finally determined that he didn't like the underwear because it felt yucky when it got wet. Good! I explained the whole concept of the potty to him and that seemed to calm him down enough to get him dressed again.

He had another accident during lunch. And then when we were through, he said, "Mommie! I gotta potty!" So I unbuckled Buttercup (poor girl, had no idea what was happening...why are we getting up and down so many times during lunch? I just want my carrots!!) And X-man went right to the bathroom and took care of his business! The three of us had a little party right there in the bathroom!

Now, I have only had to deal with the wet issue up to now. The other is probably going to happen later today. I am not looking forward to that.

Hopefully this will all go smoothly and he'll be a pottying champ soon!

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.

Out of the mouths...

The backstory to this could get cumbersome, so I'll make it simple. We were discussing how we were people/persons with X-man (one person, two or more people was a little over his head) and daddy said, "You are a person."

X-man looked at daddy with a very concerned look on his face and said, "I am not a person!"

Daddy said, "Well, what are you?"

X-man said, "I'm a gentleman boy!"

...

Tonight X-man wanted to take a bath with Buttercup. He likes playing with her in the bathtub and it's fun with all four of us in the bathroom!

They were playing just fine and Buttercup started to sing...more like hollering, but it was a happy holler. X-man clouded up, pouted his lip, looked at me and with tears running down his cheeks said, "Buttercup's hollering at me!" And he started wailing so Buttercup thought it was just in response to her song so she started singing louder! And you know how resonant the bathroom is!! (You do, don't you? Yes, I've practiced my flute in there several times...it just sounds so pretty!) X-man just kept crying and didn't stop until I took Buttercup out of the tub!

Anyway, I'm not sure what set X-man off about Buttercup's singing, but I'd have been laughing at him if it wasn't so pitiful!

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We bought Wii Music today. It's a cute little game and X-man was more interested in watching than actually playing. And the one time we tried to let him play (I think we picked the xylophone) he couldn't get the wii remote and nunchuck moving with enough force for it to register. Anyway, one of the songs on there is "Daydream Believer" so we played that song. TC started singing and out comes, "Cheer up Sweet BaJean!" I almost fell over laughing! He said he didn't think those were the real words but they fit...and he wasn't interested in looking up the real ones (Cheer up sleey Jean).

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And lest one thinks that *I* never mess up the words to a song, I'll go ahead and tell some on me. I don't remember the setting, but I was singing along to Seal's "Kiss from a Rose" and at one point I said, "To me you're like a rolling dictionary did ya know, yeah.*" I thought TC was going to hurt himself laughing! He didn't know what the real words were, but he was 100% certain that Seal wasn't singing about a rolling dictionary and what was that, anyway? I told him I had this interesting picture of a rolodex in a graveyard. I know...weird. And of course I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Aerosmith song "Loving it in Lovington" or George Strait's "I'm a River by Mornin'!"

So, any interesting song lyrics you've messed up lately?

*"To me you're like a growing addiction that I can't deny"

It's all too much

Yesterday, nap/quiet time was neither for either kid. They both pretty much talked or sang (or screamed at the top of her lungs) until I got each one out of bed. X-man was actually pretty good last night but Buttercup was another story. Starting around 5:00, we could not get her calmed down! She screamed and fussed and just didn't like anything we did. I did manage to stop her crying for a bit, but I'd move, or say something to TC, or X-man would be loud and she'd startle out of her calmness and start all over again with the fussing. She didn't each much dinner...but part of that was my fault. I didn't want to feed the screaming child for fear that she'd aspirate her food! She was so tired she didn't know which way was up.

And this morning at 4:30, she started the crying again. It wasn't too terrible sounding but after I got on my gym clothes (Since last Thursday, I've been every morning except Sunday since they don't open until noon) I went to check on her. She had pulled herself up to standing in the crib (good thing we lowered it last week!) and I think was up there and didn't know how to sit down. It is dark and that's a giant leap of faith to just fall into the unknown. I gave her her pacifier (that I will be throwing away in a month) and put her back down on her back and left. TC said she didn't make another peep.

Unfortunately I couldn't just let her sleep this morning. I woke everyone up at 7 since X-man had a hearing test at 8:30 and both kids were getting their ears checked. There's no worries about X-man's ears, it's just that the info sheet from the tubes when he got them said that he would need a hearing test at 3 years old. Since his birthday is in a month, I was hoping we could go ahead and do it.

He ranked about average on the tests, but he mostly was distracted and after a few beeps in his ears was over it and wanted to play. The test did indicate that there was probably fluid/wax build-up in his left ear.

The ENT looked at his ears and yes, the left one was full of wax. But X-man let Dr. M. look at his ears while sitting in the chair all by himself. I didn't have to hold him down and X didn't cry at all! He's such a big boy. He was a bit scared when they cleaned out the wax, but he was fine when he got back to the exam room. And then they brought in a prescription for antibiotics since X has an ear infection. Lovely.

Buttercup, on the other hand, has perfect ears. The tubes have fallen out and are still in her ear canal but her eardrums have healed. In fact, if I wanted to take both kids swimming, I could! I think I'll skip that for now...makes me cold just thinking about it!

So, it's been a long morning...I'm glad it's just about lunch time!

Where's the candy?

TC's parents gave X-man Candy Land for Christmas. He wanted to open the box immediately (only, I think, because it was a box to open...not because he really knew what was inside!). When we did open the box, we were telling him it was a game called Candy Land and that he and grandaddy could play together. X-man was grinning and bouncing and pulled the lid off and pulled all the stuff out then looked at daddy and said, "Where's the candy?" Poor guy!

So grandaddy and daddy explained the game to him and he understands the concept now, though he sometimes has a difficult time following the path. And TC said that after a few times of drawing the card to find the next move, X-man apparently gets bored and says, "Time to kiss!" He gathers up all the little Candy Land playing people and stacks them together. That's new. TC says he's started to do the same thing with his bathket balls (those are small basketballs for the bathtub). Cute!

They've got Chutes and Ladders to give him for his birthday.

They had some other great ideas for Christmas gifts this year. Check out this blanket I got...



It is awesome! It came from Adirondack Blanket Works and it's beautiful! The blanket is made from recycled cotton, double-knit and the photo is actually knit into the fabric. It's not screenprinted or an iron-on transfer. The photo is from homecoming last October. Paw-Paw was pulling the kids up and down the street in their wagon. I managed to capture both of their impish grins in this one photo, so TC did a great job picking the photo for his dad to put on the blanket! I'll be using this for a long time!