Thursday, May 31, 2007

From the Other Room

I put in a Little Einstein DVD for the kids so I could get some much need laundry done. This is what I hear from the laundry room...

Leo: We're helping clean up (someone's) room. Do you ever clean up your room?
Jaycob: NO! No, clean up!

Silence........

I couldn't help but laugh to myself!

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Environment Strikes Again!

Yep, we found another tick in the house. This time it was attatched dead center on the top of Jaycob's head! Daddy found it while giving baths and removed it. The poor bug is now dying a slow painful death inside TWO Ziploc bags. Daddy did some research and found out that it was for sure a dog tick, which is a non-Lyme carrying species!

Daddy, our hero!!

Guess that little sign Jaycob is holding in the last post really didn't mean a thing!!

Yet Another New Park

Went to another new park today for play group. I've drove through this one before, but had completely forgot it was here!

Abygail LOVES these climbing walls and she's actually better at getting up them then Jaycob. Shortly after this picture was taken by Valerie she had to pull Abygail off of here. Abygail was saying it was hot! That I don't doubt!

Yep! Here goes the mother of the year award again! Jaycob picked this nice sign up over by that drainage ditch you see behind him. That cave, as he called it, entertained him and Trenton (Valerie's oldest) for quite a while!

Speaking off entertaining... Our stroller kept all the kids busy at one time or another! Here we see Talen (Valerie's youngest) and Ryan sitting down. With Abygail trying to pull Ryan out and Jaycob trying to push them all!

Getting Out the Door

Trying to get out the door this morning I'm hurrying up and I have things gathered. I have all the bags I need in my hand and Abygail by my side. Where's Jaycob?
I walk around the corner in the living room to see him standing there with his pants and underwear down around his ankles, A&D in hand, and a great smearing of the A&D across his bottom!! Great!

Egg Hatching

This morning I threw clothes on the floor and told Jaycob to get dressed. As I walk by a couple minutes later I notice he's just playing with the clothes in the spot where I left them. I tell him, "Put on your clothes." A couple more minutes go by, he's sitting on his clothes. I sit down in front of him and tell him, "Ok buddy lets get dressed so we can go bye-bye". He looks at me with a big grin, says "Nest, Mah-ma". "Oh really? Your pretending your clothes are a nest?" And I notice he did in fact make a nest shape with his clothes. Then he just barely lifts his butt up off the clothes, underneath him a rolled up barely wet diaper of Abygail's I left on the floor, and says "Oh! Oh! Oh! Egg Mah-ma egg. Broke! Egg broke!" and he's signing bird!! Me, "Oh you're sitting on an egg in a nest and it just hatched?" Vigorous head shaking ensues and he starts getting dressed! Go figure!

Monday, May 28, 2007

Our Memorial Day

For the holiday we went to Melissa and Kaylee's. I'm not sure if I've mentioned before or not, but Melissa's been pregnant since I've known her. Last Wednesday she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, who they named Brooke! The reason I mention this is that I knew Daddy and I would be holding and paying a bit of attention to Brooke and I was slightly worried about how Abygail would react to this!! Daddy was the first to hold Brooke and Abygail came running over kinda concerned about it all. But she was fine after that first few minutes and she really couldn't care at all if I held the baby!

The kids had a blast playing in the pool! I think Jaycob barely even came away from the the pool. We had to yell at Abygail a few times to stay away from the grill while the food was cooking. A few minor toddler disputes, but all in all the kids were very good!

For lunch we had some very yummy hamburgers, hot dogs, and all their fixings. I made a pasta salad and we had chips as well! Between the 3 kids I don't know who ate what. There was so much 'sharing' going on between them... I just have no idea who ate how much of what. But all well I know they each had a little bit of something and seemed content enough to get up and play!

We had decided to do it in the afternoon opposed to the evening due to the children's naps. Oh boy and did they let us all know they were ready for naps! We got them out of the pool, brought them inside, got them dressed and ready to go when all of a sudden Jaycob starts freaking out! We couldn't figure out what he was saying and what it was he was saying. He kept pointing outside and saying something we didn't understand. We finally figured out that he was worried about the baby! He had noticed that no one was holding her and he thought we had left her outside!! Up until this point he hadn't even really acknowledged the baby. So it was a surprise to me that all of a sudden he thought we were all being very neglectful and leaving her outside! Not to mention the fact that how does he know that is would be just wrong for us to have left the baby outside?? We promptly showed him that Brooke was inside and napping. He was fine after that!

We had the kids pass around hugs, came home, and put the kids in bed! Both Jaycob and Abygail ended up sleeping a little over 2 hours. I guess playing with Kaylee wore them out!

Thanks guys for having us over!!! We had a blast!!

Memorial Day

Freedom Is Not Free
By LCDR Kelly

Strong I watched the flag pass by one day,
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Service man saluted it,
And then he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil
How many mothers' tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of Taps one night,
When everything was still,
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times
That Taps had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin.
Of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.

See Parents Jump

Early this morning, way too early. We're talking 0300 here people.... The smoke/fire alarm went off!! Ohhh Yeah I don't think I've ever seen Daddy move so fast! And I was right behind him! I think we both hurt ourselves hopping out of bed so quickly!

Daddy went and made sure it wasn't in Jaycob's room. Then went downstairs to check around all the alarms there. By the time Daddy had gotten to Jaycob's room the alarm had went off though.

We still don't know what alarm/s it was, why it/they went off, and if ours was the only one or not. We have 2 alarms that our hardwired into the house and 5 or 6 that we bought and put up, so we're not sure if it was the ones that are wired in or one of the other ones. Daddy also swears that he heard the neighbors up and about then too...

I think this one may never be solved. I know that it took both of us a long while to fall back asleep. Yes, both kids slept through all of the ruckus!

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Plantless No More

Ok well you can't see it that well in these pictures, but I do have plants!! At both ends the hostas are growing, the one in the middle is not! I see no signs of the pansies. And the grow balls
(the wild flowers) are all sprouting plants. I can't tell what they are yet, but they ARE growing! If you look really hard in the pictures (click on them to make them larger) you can see the sprouts coming out of the balls!


Kids in the Pool

Today the kids got to play in the pool some. Nothing to exciting to write about, but I took plenty of pictures and this little video!!

Because the slide wasn't wet enough!

If he can do it so can I!

She's not getting me with that is she??

Mama finally gave up the balls!

For your viewing pleasure!


Hey, it was her choice!

I think I can! I think I can!

Friday, May 25, 2007

A Boy and His Underwear

I thought these were a bit too cute. His little non-existent butt cheek hanging out of his undies! Like any other boy this age he insist on wearing them backwards so HE can see whatever picture is on the back. This particular pair has trains on them. Sometimes he couldn't care less to see the picture other times its the most important thing of the day! I'm thinking of trying to find iron on transfers to put on the fronts of them so we don't have such issues!

A Girl and Her Cookies

A couple things about these pictures...

First off, this is the first time I've been able to get her hair up into one ponytail on the top of her head like this. Jaycob thought it was all too funny!

Second, this is the first time she's worn this dress, she was very pretty in it and seemed to float in it. She kept holding out the sides and flouncing around. Too cute!

Third, the real reason for these pictures, the way she eats these cookies. When we first started feeding her Oreos she would eat the whole cookie as was. Then she started eating the cream filling before eating the chocolate cookie. And then she just started eating ONLY the filling!! It was all such a big mess for her only to be eating the filling out of them.

Well, a couple weeks ago I fell upon these 'blond' Oreos and thought "Wow, a sandwich cookies that won't make a big of a mess as the chocolate ones!" The 'blond' cookies ended up being a big hit for both Jaycob and Abygail. Abygail still eats all the filling first, but most the time she eats the cookies too!



Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Beach Fun

Today we went to the beach with a bunch of friends. I really didn't think the kids would have much to do with the water, but I was wrong! At one point I had to yell at Jaycob a couple times to come closer to the water line. And Abygail I just worried about her lack of balance and attention in the water! They both had the time of their lives though! Neither really wanted to come home, but Abygail was more then ready!

I also lost my mother of the year award again today.... The kids were wearing shorts and t-shirts... I lotioned them all up really good while we were waiting for one of the other mothers. We got down to the beach and the kids were getting so into the water that I decided to put their suits on them. In the process totally forgetting to relotion Aby in the newly exposed area of skin. Needless to say she's now my little lobster. I feel so bad!!!

Too boot I'm nice and red too! Even though I put on lotion.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Walking

Ok well they're riding, we're walking... But here's a couple pictures of all that fun!

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Black into Green??

That is, I'm trying my hand at turning my black thumb into a green thumb! Do you think its possible? Probably not, but I'm trying anyhow!


A few weekends ago I tore everything out of my front flower bed. Earlier this week we bought some soil and bed edging/border. Today I put up the border and added the soil. So I'm trying to grow many various wild flowers, hostas, and pansies.... I'm really not counting on any of it growing, but I planted them all anyway!


This is what the bed looks like right now. Pretty but plantless!

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Biking

Abygail riding her bike. She thought she was hot stuff! Especially since Jaycob doesn't have a bike anything like this!


But he has his truck, good enough this particular day!

Friday, May 18, 2007

Childproof, Huh?


Abygail, all of 18.5 months old, has figured out how the child safe locks work! I guess that wouldn't be so easy for her to do if she couldn't get a hold of the key, but she DID get a hold of the key and knew exactly what to do with it! Which isn't as easy as it would be in a more updated, modern kitchen. But in our 1970 something kitchen where none of the hardware has ever been replaced and someone new has lived here approximately every 3 years.... There's a different knack for opening each and every cabinet. She still managed to get 3 out of 4 of the locks to unlock on the first try!!!

Not sure whether to be angry with her, in awe of her, cautious of her, or proud of her!?!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

About His Day

Once again you all may not get a lot out of this without the visual, but this one is more for my memory! This is Jaycob was telling Daddy about his day playing at Kaylee's!!

Me: Jaycob you gonna tell Daddy what you did today?

Jaycob: "Yeanh-Yeanh, weeee".

Me: We went to the park and played with Kaylee?

Jaycob: Shakes head yes. "Yeanh-Yeanh truck. No car" (they got a new van instead of a truck). "Bye-bye. Yeanh-Yeanh"

Me: We left the park and went to Kaylee's?

Jaycob: Shakes head yes

Daddy: What'd you do at Kaylee's?

Jaycob: Slightly, slowly bends at the knees and says, "Weeeee Yeanh-Yeanh!"

Daddy: You went down the slide at Kaylee's?

Jaycob: Shakes head yes. Bends at knees and goes all the way down and falls on bottom saying, "Yeanh-Yeanh weeeeeee umph!"

Me: You went down the slide and landed on your butt? But where was the slide? Tell Daddy where the slide was!

Jaycob: Bends at knees puts hands down and brings them up repeatedly. "Yeanh-Yeanh!"

Me: You splashed in the water at Kaylee's in the pool?

Jaycob: Shakes head yes all excited and continues to show Daddy about how he splashed in the water!!

I got up and had to finish some sort of motherly task as the guys continued to talk. During all these motions Jaycob is babbling some unknown language that we know we should be understanding, but is one dialect off of what we know!! Lol

Day in the Sun

We went to the park this morning with Melissa and Kaylee. The kids didn't really seem interested in playing so......



We went to Kaylee's and played in the pool! Everybody's having fun!


In the first picture Jaycob pushed Kaylee down the slide before she was ready and in the second he's kissing her telling her he's sorry!

Monday, May 14, 2007

Mum???

Usually Jaycob refers to me as Mama... Though I guess it usually actually sounds more like Mah-ma! Yesterday out of the blue he started saying Mum. I was hoping that he would get up this morning and revert back to Mah-ma, but no such luck. All day today it's been Mum.
Ok, that's all, I just wanted to note that!

Monday Library/ Park

Ok I know this picture stinks, but hey! It is a picture!
We went to the library this morning, forgetting that there is no more story time until the middle of June! We ended up getting 2 movies, one about trains and the other about firetrucks. And we still have the farm one too. We also got books about a flamingo(Hi! Pop-Pop!), friends, spring weather, and a dump truck.

After the kids were done at the library we went to one of the parks nearby. The kids played on the playground equipment for a bit but then just didn't seem into it. So I walked them down to the field and we threw around these kite/frisbee things for a while. Jaycob is getting really good at figuring out how to throw them, its kinda tricky!

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Sunday Walk

We went for our extra long walk today, as what has become normal Sunday thing. We seen tons of wildlife this time out. On our way we seen the turtle on the top. We also seen a turkey that I chased after to get a picture and still didn't get and all kinds of birds, including blue jays and cardinals (Jaycob's favorites!). On our way back we seen this turtle in the bottom pictures and rabbits.
I've noticed the kids don't get so excited over the rabbits anymore. We see them most nights when we take our shorter, after dinner walks. But somehow they manage to get excited over every little bird!?!

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Easter Grass... The Final Chapter

Yes, this is it... The final chapter...

The grass is dead...

We watered it like the package said and everything... But it ended up growing mold so the grass isn't doing so well :( We had fun while it lasted!

Oh and the marigold that we were growing... Yeah, first I don't think they were marigolds. Second, the poor little things never had a fighting chance againt the monster Abygail!!

I Feel Like A Thief

Have you ever went garage/yard sale-ing and found such a deal on something that you felt you should offer more money for the item?? That's what happened to me today. I'm ecstatic that I got such an awesome deal, but even now, over 2 hours later I'm feeling like I should go back and give her more money!!

We seen signs yesterday advertising a yard sale in one of the communities here on base. It started at 0700... Well we all know if you want the good selection you have to go early, so I really was debating going. Since Jaycob got up at 0530 this morning I figured why not!!

I'm usually not a yard sale person (not for any particular reason other then I never want to leave the house early enough!), but here on base the circumstances of people getting rid of stuff are a bit different. When you get transferred and the military moves your stuff it has to be under a very specific weight limit. So when people are getting rid of things around here the chances are there is some good stuff they just CAN'T take with them!

Anyways.... I went and took Aby with me! She got up way too early too! The yard sale the signs were for was just one house and she had a few tables out of all girls clothing. I ended getting Abygail 3 pairs of pants, 1 skort, 1 dress, and 2 shirts for $3. So I figured that was worth the trip across base! But then the lady told me that down and across the street some other people were setting up spur of the moment like! So Abygail and I walked down there and oh my!... It looked like a flea market down there!! I really didn't find much of anything. That is except a whole large box of GeoTrax... The box was marked $1.00. I asked the lady what was a dollar, figuring she was asking a dollar a piece. She came back with, "I'm asking a dollar for the whole box".... WHAT??? I told her she was crazy, handed her a dollar, and took off before she could change her mind!! The box ended up having the WHOLE mountain bridge starter set, the train depot, 2 remote control trains and the cars to go with them. The only thing missing was the boulders and signs!! All for a mere dollar!! This is what I feel so guilty for. This set retails for $60 I think... eBay is usually about $49. plus $20 for shipping!

I sooo feel like a thief!!! Ever feel like this??

Oh and the kids were completely thrilled with my purchase!

Edited to add: Pictures!!

Friday, May 11, 2007

Thoughtful Evils

I'm having a hard time accepting that Jaycob is old enough, smart enough to premeditate the evils he commits!!
  • The fact that he knows Abygail is going to walk in a certain direction and set up obstacles for her to trip over....
  • He can know that she's crabby and looking for her baby and he'll go and hide it on her, knowing this will upset her and push her over the edge...
  • She'll drop a snack on the floor, go to get it, and he'll race down before her and eat it. Sending her into fits of screaming while he laughs at her...

The list goes on and on and on!

How can my child be old enough (maybe the question should be evil enough?) to think these things out??

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Chocolate Pudding Pie

I made chocolate pudding pie for dessert tonight. The kids loved the pudding, hated the crust. Both did at least try it, I don't think either knew what to think about the texture of the graham cracker crust!