Getting over and on with it...

I've avoided loading pictures onto the computer and putting them on the blog because it now involves a couple more steps with the Mac than it once did. I realize I need to get over it --mainly so I can document these two yayhoots. (How do you spell that? There's no way I'm the only one who grew up with that word as part of my vocabulary.)

Grandparents sent some Valentine fun, and these lunch boxes are part of the booty. Lucky kids. We parents got chocolate. Lucky parents.

Okay, so here are a few things that I can remember I've wanted to write down about the kids that I haven't gotten around to....

*About a week ago I was driving the kids home from a friend's house. When we were pulling into the garage, Tessa told me that "Cole is really good at hip hop dancing."

"Really?" I asked, followed by a mumbled, "Do you even know what hip hop dancing is?" Then I realized I needed to seize this opportunity, because the possibilities were too good to pass up. I changed my response to, "Tessa, can you show me what hip hop dancing looks like?" She agreed, stepped out of the car onto the garage floor, and let loose a serious of moves that proved that she did, indeed, know what hip hop dancing was --a four year old version, anyway. Love my dancing girl.

*Tessa worries about dreams. I've tried to make her imagine fun things she loves right before she goes to sleep, which works sometimes, but lately, the approach has changed. I told her that sometimes I sing a primary song or hymn when I get scared or want to keep good things in my mind. She told me she could sing "I am a Child of God". It's become one of my favorite things to walk by her room soon after we've said good night and hear her singing that song with her sweet little voice.

*Tessa got put in timeout. What?! Not Tessa! She doesn't handle the punishment with grace very often, and hates being ignored. She was standing with her nose to the wall crying, smacking the wall, and yelling, "Mama!" to get my attention. Since Cole wants to be big like his sister, he watched her for a minute, walked over to the wall, started to fake cry, smack the wall, and yell for mama. He looked around, didn't see the sense in it and toddled off.

*Tessa's vocabulary....she's so funny...and dramatic. "I just can't take this much longer," or "I can't do this all day," is what she says when she's irritated that I'm making her do something she doesn't want to do. One day she let me know what her "hypothesis" about a certain situation was --go PBS! :) When she says "healthy", she actually says "helpthy", which I love. I told her to get one of her princess dolls dressed because she was tired of being naked, to which she replied, "Oh! There are beautiful dresses in the closet! (of her dollhouse) These are calories and will look ravishing!" She doesn't get all her new words right, but it's fun to hear her try them out.

*Cole loves to mess with things he isn't supposed to --and laughs when he's in trouble. He often climbs on the kitchen table and climbs to get to the computer and manages to open or change a myriad of programs before I can get to him. His skinny self is a lot more physically daring than his sister was at that age....even though he walked later.

*Along with the very basics like "Mama", "Daddy", "no", "ball", "hi/hwo" and "bye", Cole says, "peeaa" for please, "down", "done", "Sessa" for Tessa, "juuuuu!" for juice, "faffle" for waffle, "nana" for banana, "yeah" for yes, "doggy", "mine!", "nigh" for night, "moon", "baby", and a bunch more --since the list is getting longer than I thought it would be.

*Cole loves Baby Signing Time. Miss Rachel calms that kid down pretty quickly. Music CD's came with the 3rd and 4th DVD's, and I originally wondered what in the world I was going to use them for, but the sometimes cranky time of day, mom is making dinner time, is a lot more pleasant when he gets to listen to his music. Sometimes I can get him to sing the Baby Signing Time theme song. :)

*Tessa loves her art projects. She's got a little of me coming out in her though. Sometimes she'll get distressed when things don't look or come out like she'd envisioned they would. However, she comes up with some awesome drawings, color patterns, and ideas and is usually pretty proud of her creations.