Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Eating some lunch



Time for lunch! Nathan loves his states placemat. He likes to point out all the spots he knows. He'll point to where Auntie LeAnne lives in Utah. He'll point to where our neighbors come from in Texas. He'll show me where Grandma Jane is from the tiniest state there is. He likes to create road trips for Miss Jennie (his imaginary friend). Miss Jennie is quite the traveler!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Watching TV

Nathan likes to watch some TV when he gets up in the morning. He eats some cereal and lounges. I think it's hilarious how he sets up his stuffed animals right next to him and they watch too.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star



Elizabeth loves to sing. Her favorite song right now is "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." The funny part is that she doesn't know how to end the song. She'll just keep repeating the verses over and over. If you tell her it's a nice song, she'll say "I'm almost done" and she'll keep singing for 10 minutes! It's pretty cute. It's handy it's the same tune as the ABC song as she loves to sing her ABC's too.

Field Trip to the Planetarium

Nathan's preschool took a field trip to the new planetarium at Spokane Falls Community College. He had a great time! He said his favorite part was watching the sun come up on one side of the dome and then go all the way across the sky and go down on the other side.


Waiting to go inside. They had little movies about space.



The lighting inside was a neat light pink color.


This was looking up at the "sky." We watched it get lighter and darker and watched the sun set. Then, we watched a movie that explored all the planets and space. It was really cool!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Overheard Conversations

I overhead this joke as the kids were playing today.

Nathan: Knock Knock.
Elizabeth: Who's there?
Nathan: Who.
Elizabeth: Doctor Who?
Nathan: No. Owl from Winnie the Pooh.

Their jokes make me laugh so much.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Grandma Pam came to visit!



Grandma Pam came to visit this weekend! The kids had a lot of fun playing. Nathan and Grandma spent a lot of time building with megablocks. She brought some fun Veggie Tales movies and books that Nathan loves!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Handholding

Our rule is that the kids must hold someone's hand in parking lots.

It's the only time Nathan will really hold my hand any more so I take complete advantage of this. His little hand is still so small and soft and I just love walking into stores with him. I'll miss this a lot some day! He never complains about the rule and knows it's important. It's adorable.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Bathtub Gymnastics



Mom gets a little nervous at bathtime when the kids want to do "pushups" in the tub. I had to snap a picture though.

Let's hope these pushups do not lead to big head bonks! I tell them not to do them.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Snowman




We had some good "snowman" snow on Valentine's Day. Here's Nathan with his snowman!

In true Nathan fashion, he knocked it over about 5 minutes after the picture was taken.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day!



Elizabeth is wearing her hearts shirt. Nathan is wearing a red shirt, but he doesn't always want to have his picture taken.



The shirt wasn't all! She also has a jacket with hearts on it.

Time to go to the preschool party!

Valentine's Day cards



Nathan worked really hard on his Valentines this year. He wrote the names of all his classmates on this cards and created some cards for the grandparents and Uncles and Aunts. He had a lot of fun. Elizabeth did some good coloring.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Elizabeth's 2nd birthday party


Happy Birthday!


She blew out the candle like a pro!

Eating cupcakes with Aunt Laura at her new little table.


No, you cannot have my cupcake Papa Ray!

Playing her new xylophone at her table.


Fun new car ramp! She LOVES this new toy.


Games with Papa Ray


New Xylophone


New bath toys



More new bath toys


Fun dress up clothes!!


She's getting good at opening presents

Eating her birthday lunch with Papa Ray. She wanted the Hello Kitty plates!

Me with my adorable 2 year old girl!


Balloon bonking games with Kim

Balloon bonking games with Papa Ray

Balloon bonking games with Papa Norm

Balloons are so much fun!

Static games are quite fun too.

Elizabeth with her presents

Elizabeth with her Gram

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Ag Expo

Papa Norm came up on Thursday to take Nathan to the Ag Expo at the Spokane Convention Center. Here are some photos.


Riding the shuttle bus over to the convention center. Nathan ate his lunch on the way!


Nathan loves the big combines. He can climb all the way up there by himself. He says it's his favorite part.


Sitting on a little Kubota. He said it was ok, but he likes Papa's 3 big Kubotas better.


It's fun to eat lollipops in tractor tires.


A bucket John Deere

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Elizabeth is 2!




Happy birthday!

It's hard to believe but Elizabeth is 2 today! She thinks she's 4 and she acts like a 4 year old. She wants to be Nathan and does EVERYTHING he does.

I find her so cute I just want to squish her all the time. I spend my days hugging and kissing her. Yes, this might seem a bit ridiculous but I just can't help myself! It starts in the morning when she's in her crib in her footie jams saying "Hi Mama! Morning! Good sleep." I just can't wait to hold her and start talking to her about our day and all the things she's excited about. She always wants all her stuffed animals out of her crib.

She loves going to preschool. Nathan is technically the one in preschool, but I bring her with us so she gets a lot out of it. She can sing her entire ABC's and counts to 16. She knows all her basic colors and most of her basic shapes. She can sing and dance to the hokie pokie, twinkle twinkle, patty cake, the chicken dance, and head shoulders, knees and toes. She loves to sing songs and repeat nursery rhymes. Her vocabulary continues to amaze me. She can say any word. Anything. She speaks in sentences and can string together pretty nice paragraphs too!

Her favorite foods are burritos and noodles with cheese. She likes to eat apples and grapes too. And of course she'll devour any cookie or marshmallow put before her if she eats a good dinner. Luckily, we've still not found any other food allergies besides the sunflower seeds. I hope it continues to stay this way! I haven't given her any peanut butter yet as we don't keep it in the house but her blood test says she's ok with it.

She LOVES to laugh at Nathan. She always has. She loves to play with him. He still doesn't play with her as much as she'd like and he doesn't always treat her nicely, but he is improving. Now that she can converse with him, they have cute little conversations in the car and at home sometimes. Tonight they both complimented the others pajamas. Elizabeth said, "Nice jams Nathan! I like footballs. Very nice." Then Nathan said, "Thank you Elizabeth. Your piggie jams are nice too. Cute."

All in all, she's a very good little girl. Yes, she has her moments, but for the most part she's very cooperative and a pleasure to be around. I wonder if this will change now that she's hit the magic number of 2? Uh oh.

She doesn't seem to be interested in potty training yet. She tells me when she goes, but isn't interested in the potty. She does like to make her stuffed puppy use the potty. She makes him go potty and then she wipes him.

She has a Mommy Obsession and it's pretty bad! She doesn't want Daddy at all right now. She only wants Mom. She wants me to get her dressed, change her diapers, get her food, play with her, etc. I guess I don't mind too much as I am kind of obsessed with her too. I remember Nathan was the same way around this age except that he had a Daddy obsession.

Her hair is getting longer and longer! She won't sit very still for me to trim it though...I love to put it in ponytails. She always yanks them out though. I wish she'd like the bows and ponytails but she just doesn't.

Eczema is still a big problem. Hers is HORRIBLE. She would scratch all day. I've used all kinds of steroids, hydrocortisone creams, powders, lotions, and ointments. She often scratches her legs and feet until they bleed. We often have to tape her socks on so she doesn't yank them off. She has to take naps in her footie pajamas too. We don't know when it's going to get better. Nathan's was much better by 2, but hers is still a daily problem and hindrance. You can see her hands in the top picture. She just scratches and scratches.

She say the cutest things when she hurts herself or bonks. She'll cry for about 5 seconds. Then, she'll tearfully say, "Getting better." She'll cry for 2 more seconds and then say with a smile, "Happy now!" She does not cry for long.

When she does something that she knows is naughty or if she just wants to be by herself, she'll go off to her room crying and say "Baby time out." She'll shut the door and cry for 4 seconds. Then, she'll start talking to herself and playing. Then she'll be perfectly happy when I go in.


Here's her daily routine.

She wakes up around 8. She eats breakfast (usually cereal and a bottle of milk) in her high chair. We get her dressed and brush her teeth. During the week, we usually leave the house by 9:30-10 to go to various activities. Preschool is Tues/Thurs, Library Storytime is Wed, we do our shopping on Friday mornings to beat the weekend rush, and church is Sunday morning. She's used to doing morning activities.

We usually come home around noon and she has her lunch. She likes to have hummus, sandwiches, burritos, or noodles and cheese. She also has fruit and a bottle. We play together until 2. We read a lot of books and just play silly games.

She usually naps from 2 to 3:30 or sometimes even 4. She's a tired girl! This is my break for the day so I spend that time exercising and playing with Nathan.

We play some more from 4-6. We like to try to get outside after her nap now that it's not dark and we can walk around some as a lot of the snow is gone! She likes to play around in the shop and with the gravel in the driveway. She likes to explore the fort and sometimes she likes to swing. She LOVES going for walks around the neighborhood.

We eat dinner around 6 and she sometimes eats what I cook. We eat a lot of meat due to Nathan's protein problem. Elizabeth doesn't like meat very much. She eats a lot of her starches and will eat some vegetables.

At around 6:30, the naked runners show up. Both kids strip off their clothes and run in circles around the kitchen while I clean up. They like to turn on classical music. Gosh do they run! Sometimes they run for half an hour! It's so funny. She likes to skype with the grandparents and Aunt Laura during this time.

7:00 is bathtime. She enjoys bubble baths and likes pouring water in cups, playing with little bath toys and pretending to "swim." She loves to have her tube towel after bathtime. Then, we get on her overnight diaper, LOTS of Aquafor on her horrible eczema, and then her cute footie jammies.

She's very good about letting me floss and brush her teeth. She takes her fluoride drop just fine. Then, she likes to help me set out the vitamins for the next morning.

After this, we read books. Jeremy reads Bible stories to the kids just before bed. Then, I get her her water cup and we do LOTS of hugs and kisses (she could hug and kiss all night to stall for bedtime) and I put her in her crib at 8:00.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Out for walks!

When the weather is sunny and there's not too much snow covering the roads we go for walks! Yes, we still have snow but it's melted enough I can get the stroller out of the shop and onto the road with only minor trouble.

Elizabeth loves to drink milk, eat crackers and talk about the things we see. I like to bundle her up like a little eskimo baby. It's just so fun!


Thursday, February 9, 2012

Pondering life



Elizabeth loves to ponder life while drinking her bottle of milk. It's so cute!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Tube Towel



I know I've done a tube towel post before, but she's just so cute in her tube towel!!

Elizabeth quote

Tonight after dinner, Elizabeth spoke this perfect paragraph.

"I'm resting in the brown chair. I'm tired. Too much naked running!"

Her vocabulary just keeps getting better and better!

Friday, February 3, 2012

Delicious!

We deposited a check today at the bank. The teller gave us 2 lollipops. We gave them to the kids. Elizabeth is not quite sure how to suck on a lollipop yet. She just takes bites. I asked her how it tasted. She said, "Delicious Mom!"
It was cute. Nathan was trying to show her to how lick it rather than bite it.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Before and After




I know he looks sad in the second photo, but it's a facade. He likes to build towers but enjoys knocking them over even more.

Quidditch



Nathan has been teaching Elizabeth to ride a broom. I wonder when Quidditch tryouts are?

End of the Year Survey

Nathan:  16 Elizabeth:  13 1. What is your favorite color: N:  Blue E:  Pastel lime 2. What is your favorite toy? N:  Legos E:   squishmello...