Last Day

Today was the last day of school for the summer. It was John's last day in the Dinosaur class. And Gillian's last day in the Tigger class. It was a sad day for Mommy. I'm not ready for my little man to go to Kindergarten. I know that the transition will be easy for him since he is staying at TLC. It's just a little hard for me to realize that my little baby boy is growing up and is ready for real school.

While I knew that today would be hard for me I did not count on the fact that John would be sad too. Over the summer John has become very close to Rishaub. Rishaub is going to first grade. So today was their last day together. Daddy picked up the kids today and he said John seemed upset. Almost that he didn't want to go home. He just didn't want the day to end. At home tonight, he was very quiet. I hope that he will not miss his friend too much. I hate to see him sad.

Singing Girl

We have discovered that Gillian loves to sing. The first song she sang was "The Wheels on the Bus." The best part of the wheels on the bus is all the motions that go along with the lyrics. She has now added quite a few songs to her repertoire. The other night in the bathtub I asked her to show me her happy face. She responded with "Happy birthday to you!" Not quite what I was looking for. But she did smile while singing.

Her favorite song to sing is the "ABCs." She knows most of the letters but does get stuck occasionally. My favorite is when she just starts singing in the car or the bathtub. She doesn't care if anyone hears her. She just enjoys singing.

Keep singing sweet girl.

Sweet nothings

On our way home tonight, we saw a telephone pole on the side of 520. John asked what it was and I told him it was a telephone pole. He said "I thought it was a cannon!"

"I got no timeouts and was on the green all day!" John proudly told me about his day. I asked Gillian how many timeouts she had today. She said "Two....Five....Six!"

During the bath tonight, I caught Gillian kissing John on his shoulder.

John said to me this morning "Do you know the best way to beat an enemy? Make him your friend!"

I put the kids to bed and gave them tons of kisses (like every night). I was folding laundry in our room when John came running in. "I forgot something!" And he leaned over and gave me a hug. Then he ran over to Daddy and gave him a squeeze and even Duncan got one too.

Secret Agent Spy

John is my big helper. He is big enough now that we have him do little errands. He is really good at getting sodas or juice boxes for him and Gillian. I also have him be a secret agent spy. This job requires him to be super quiet and sneaky. He will tiptoe upstairs and check on Gillian when she is napping. Then he will come running back to us to report her status. "Her still sleeping." We have been doing secret agent spy long enough that now all I have to say is "I need my secret agent." John will smile big and say "I know just what to do!"

Bike ride

We took the kids to Thompson Park this morning for a bike ride. We put Gillian's seat on my bike and the girls went cruising. Daddy stayed with John. We met up at the playground. The boys made it to the playground before us. John immediately said "We beat you here. We are faster than you guys."

We played on the playground and had a little snack before we were on our way again. This time we moved Gillian's seat to Daddy's bike and I stayed with John. John is really at riding his bike, but he needs to concentrate. I was riding behind him and I told him to move over to the right. Before I realized it, he was in the grass. He gets so distracted. He looks around at the people or the trees or his feet. But we will keep working with him. He will need to fix this concentration issue before he loses the training wheels.

What's in a name?

Gillian frequently gets asked "What's your baby's name?" I always feel obligated to say that Gillian's babies do not have names. Well her Cabbage Patch Doll is named Katy Katherine, but she calls the rest of her babies, Baby. Today on our way to school (I know. The kids are very amusing in the car!), I asked Gillian if her new baby had a name. She said "Gillian!" I asked John if he heard what she said. And he said "No!" So I told him that Gillian said her baby's name was Gillian. He said "That's weird!" I really thought that maybe Gillian was confused so tonight after school I asked her again. She held up her new baby and said "Gillian!"

Really?

I picked the kids up from school today and on our way out the door I said "Say goodnight, Gillian." Gillian turns and says "Goodnight Gillian!"

I have a bad tendency of saying "really?" when I get frustrated. Tonight on our way home from school the car in front of me hesitated a few seconds at the green light. I honked my horn in an attempt to move them along. From the backseat I heard Gillian say "Really?!?!"

No ice cream

Once again on our way home from school, the kids and I discussed our days. Gillian was a good girl today. She napped (yesterday she didn't nap). John proudly told me "I had no timeouts today!" He paused and then said "But I have something to tell you. I was on the yellow light today." I said well you know what that means, and before I could finish Gillian says "No ice cream!" She was right. No dessert for little boys that are on the yellow light. John tried to talk his way out of it. "But being on the yellow light isn't bad. I just talked when the teacher was talking. That's not bad. If I was bad I would be on the red light." Meanwhile, Gillian is saying "No ice cream. No ice cream. No ice cream." Sorry Johnny. No ice cream for kids on the yellow light.

The Wedding

We have had a busy couple of days.  I think my last blog post was on Thursday night after the rehearsal dinner.  Let me apologize up front, this may be a long post.

Friday night we had a barbecue at Mimi's house.  I had to meet up with the girls for a nail appointment, so I dropped Daddy and the kids off at Mimi's house early.  Like I said, we were getting our nails done, so I didn't have my phone out.  I enjoyed the night relaxing with the rest of the bridesmaids and the bride (of course).  As I was paying, I looked at my phone and there was a text from Daddy.  "Can Gill have grab cakes?"  From that one text, I knew the kids were having a good time and Gillian was being adventurous.  I found out later that she did try the crab cake, but didn't like it.  When I arrived to the BBQ, John was playing with his cousin Mckenna and Alexis (the junior bridesmaid).  The kids were great at the BBQ and after dinner everyone enjoyed watching John and McKenna dance. 

Saturday was the wedding, and Gillian and I had hair appointment early in the morning.  Daddy and I gave the kids baths and then we separated for majority of the day.  When Gillian and I arrived at the hair salon, it was raining.  We quickly ran inside and waited for our turn.  I was the first one to get makeup done and while I was sitting in the chair, Gillian played with Mrs. Aker.  Well I say she played, but for a good portion of the time, Gillian ate Mrs. Aker's bagel.  She was very good.  Cristin's hair was finished and it was my turn for hair.  So Cristin played with Gillian.  By this point, Alexis was there too.  She was really good with Gillian.  From my spot in the chair, I could hear Gillian and Alexis giggle.    Every once in awhile, Gillian would run across the salon to find me.  After my hair was done, it was time for Gillian to get her hair done.  This was the part I was dreading.  I wasn't sure how she was going to react.  I brush her hair every morning and put it up in pig tails, but some morning she can get very squirmy and won't sit still.  We put her in the chair and I had my cell phone ready.  She was good for a few minutes and then I started to play YouTube videos for her.  They were taking too long to load, so I simply started to show her videos of herself or John playing.  This worked for awhile while her hair got curled, but as soon as the hair dresser tried to put more bobbie pins in her hair, she squirmed.  I picked Gillian up and was able to hold her while the hairdresser pinned the rest of her hair up
After the hair salon, we went to the Aker's to get ready.  The weather was starting to clear.  It hadn't rained in hours, and the sun was starting to come out.  We had a little bit of time to kill when we got to the house, and Gillian helped herself to a yogurt.  In typical Gillian fashion, she had a quarter of the yogurt all over herself.  Then it was time to get changed.  I figured I would do a quick diaper change for Gillian before we got into our dresses.  Well unfortunately, she had a dirty diaper, which she proceeded to get all over herself.  We needed a wet washcloth to ensure that she was clean.  We got changed and met the rest of the girls outside.  Aunt Missy looked beautiful and we all posed for pictures with her at the house and then piled into the party bus. 

Gillian loved the party bus.  She kept saying, "big bus!"  She got to sit next to Aunt Missy for most of the trip and of course her new friend, Lexi.  We arrived at Clark's Landing and Gillian immediately took off her shoes.  When it was time for us to take some more pictures, I tried to get Gillian's shoes back on, but she gave me a hard time.  Aunt Missy said it was ok.  So Gillian took pictures without her shoes on.  Aunt Missy and Uncle Travis decided that they wanted to attend the cocktail hour, so they opted for a "first look" picture.  Basically, they would get to see each other before the ceremony.  It was just the two of them (and the photographers of course).  The boys arrived and Uncle T took his position outside on the dock.  Our little family got to see each other for the first time when the boys arrived too.  John and Daddy looked so handsome in their tuxes. 

Anyway, we got to watch Uncle T and Aunt Missy have their first look.  It was beautiful, and I'm so glad that they got their special moment together. 

Gilly and Lexi looking outside

After Uncle T & Aunt Missy had their first look, it was time for the entire bridal party pictures.  Again, we tried to get Gillian to put her shoes on.  We failed.  But again, the bride was ok with no shoes, so there was no reason for us to put pressure on her.  The pictures of the bridal party went on without a hitch and before we knew it, it was time to line up for the ceremony.  Daddy had to go in with the boys, and the kids were going right before the bride  I decided it was best for me to not meddle with them.  I let the maid of honor, Cristin, talk with them.  Thank God for Cristin.  She talked to them and had them all ready to walk down the aisle.  I walked down the aisle and then next was Nicole.  I was relieved to see Cristin walking by herself.  Our backup plan was to have Gillian walk with Cristin.  So Cristin walked down and next I see John and Gillian.  Gillian started to walk the wrong way, but between John and Don (the maitre'd) they got her turned around.  They did great.  Gillian didn't end up carrying her basket of flowers.  All she carried was one yellow flower.  She walked right to me and I picked her up.  While the ceremony was going on, Gillian started to pull the petals off the flower.  I tried as hard as I could not to laugh, but she was being so cute.  In the process of pullin the petals off, she broke the flower off the stem and says "Broken!"  She pulled all the petals off and looks at the head of the flower and says, "I eat it?"  I told her no.  So she threw it.  She squirmed a little bit and end up walking over to Mimi.  Luckily for us, the ceremony was very short.  On our way down the aisle, Daddy and I stopped and picked up Gillian.  So the four of us walked down the aisle together. 

After the ceremony, we all got to go to the cocktail hour.  John did not like the cocktail hour.  He said "It's too loud out here."  So we got him some snacks and put him in the bridal suite.  Daddy also gave him his phone so that John could watch some shows and relax.  Daddy and I went back out to the cocktail hour with Gillian.  After a little while, Uncle Jay came over with John.  John was crying.  Jay told us that he saw John walking around lost.  Johnny said "I was all alone, and I didn't want to be alone."  Poor baby.  While Daddy calmed John down, I rocked Gillian.  Sleepy baby fell asleep in my arms. 

Shortly after Gillian fell asleep, it was time for the bridal party to do our big entrance to the wedding.  The DJ did a quick shuffle of the bridal party, so that Daddy and I could walk out with sleeping Gillian and John.  John was awesome.  He walked out to one of his favorite songs "I'm sexy and I know it."  He danced the whole time.  I'm so proud of him.  I thought he would have been scared to dance with all of those people watching him.  Gillian woke up during Aunt Missy and Uncle T's first dance.  She woke up and said "Poppy."  She squirmed out of my arms and ran across the dance floor to Poppy.  Meanwhile, the maitre'd came over and asked me "Is someone coming for the children?"  Even now it seems so funny to me.  I told him yes, my parents were on their way.  He replied "They are waiting by the elevator."  After the first dances, we brought Gillian and John over to Grandma and Grandpa.  Gillian jumped into my mom's arms.  And we sent them on their way. 

According to Grandma, on the way to their house John asked "Is it still summertime?"  That was John's way of finding out if Justin would be at Grandma's house when he arrived.  They were pretty good for Grandma.  Gillian did shed a few tears when it was time to go to sleep, but Grandma let her cry it out and she slept.  Aunt Betty found Gillian in the middle of her bed spread eagle when she got home.  The next morning, they both had two pieces of french toast and a bath.     

I picked them up the next morning and we moved onto our next event, brunch at Mimi's house.  John was super excited for brunch.  That meant he got another opportunity to play with his new friends, Mckenna, Gregory and Alexis.  They played while the rest of us ate and laughed while we told stories of the wedding.

After brunch, we returned tuxes and headed to the Aker's for a pool party.  John didn't waste any time jumping into the pool.  Gillian had to go in too.  Which meant that Mommy did too.  The pool was chilly, so as soon as I got in the pool I tried to convince her to get out of the pool.  We weren't in the pool long (lucky for Mommy).  Gillian walked around and talked to her new friends (the bridesmaids).  After John had enough in the pool, we dressed the kids in their PJs and we headed home.  It was a long, fun, exciting weekend.   

Wedding Weekend: Rehearsal

Daddy's brother, Travis, is getting married on Saturday. Gillian is the flier girl, John is the ring bearer, Daddy is a groomsmen and Mommy is a bridesmaid. Tonight we had the rehearsal. John did a great job of holding Gillian's hand while walking down the aisle. He also got to take a ride in Uncle T's boat. Uncle T drove his boat to Clark's Landing for the rehearsal and then to the River Rock for dinner. John loved it. He told me "It was my job to look out!" According to Aunt Missy, John was a great navigator. After dinner a band started to play at the bar. Gillian loves music. She danced with Mommy and Miss Cristin. Miss Cristin got John to dance and John showed the entire group his moves. Everyone was in awe of his dance moves.

It was a late night for the kids. They were very good considering how off schedule they were. Can't wait to see them all dressed up on Saturday.

Ninjago

John came home from school yesterday and said "me and Rashub, Gus, Nick and
Eva are in Ninjago."  Daddy told him that was great and that he was happy that he and his friends were pretending to play Ninjago.  John said "We aren't pretending.  We made a wish to be Ninjago for real." 

Ninjago is a television show about 4 Lego boys that are ninjas. Each of the boys get their strength from the four elements.  John decided he would be Kai.  Kai is the ninja of fire.  His color is red and his weapon is a sword.  Nick is the blue ninja also known as Jay.  He is the ninja of lightening and his weapon is nunchucks.  Gus is the black ninja known as Cole.  He is the ninja of earth and his weapon is a staff.  Finally, Rashub is Zane or the white ninja.  He is the ninja of ice and his weapon is the shuriken.  Oh, I almost forgot Eva.  Eva is the only girl on the show.  She is Nya, the sister of fire.  The five of them got together and decided that they would wish themselves into Ninjago. 

The four ninjas

John told us before bed last night that he needed to wear something red to school.  "I need to wear red, because that's what the red ninja wears!"  Daddy helped John pick out some clothes last night.  This morning, John got up early and got himself dressed.  He was very excited to go to school today, because all of his friends were going to wear their ninja colors too.   

John's outfit for school today (notice the socks)

After school today, John said "There was a problem at school today."  When we asked him what happened he said "The problem was that we didn't turn into ninjas today!"  I asked him if he and his friends were able play Ninjago today.  He said "No.  We can only play Ninjago if we turn into ninjas!"

Water Baby

We took the kids swimming today. We put Gillian in a tube similar to John's swim vest. Basically it's a tube with a vest. Gillian loved it. She wasn't afraid to get her face wet. As a matter of fact, she constantly put her face in the water. The big benefit of this tube is that she could swim around the pool and I didn't have to hold her. She did awesome. She also jumped off the side of the pool. She is not afraid of anything.

John did great too. He remembered a lot of what he was taught in his swim lessons. He swam all throughout the pool. He was not as courageous as Gillian. He did not jump off the side. But he did an awesome job swimming.

Red Light

John's class has a traffic light that they use to rate the kids behavior throughout the day. If you are on the green light, you are good. If you are on the yellow light, you need to think more. And if you are on the red light, you are not listening. When the kids have a good day or week Miss Courtney awards them with a certificate and a little prize like a temporary tattoo.

Yesterday John was on the yellow light. Daddy and I told John today that he needed to think more and listen to what the teachers say. Tonight I was driving the family to dinner and in the car John was telling us about his day. "I have to tell you something. Today I was on the red light. But I got a certificate. It was really weird." I have to admit it, I lost it. I am so glad that I was driving and he couldn't see me laughing. Of course we ask him why he was on the red light. He responded "I don't remember. But I got a certificate." We are still not sure why he got put on the red light, but I did get a good laugh out of it.

Surprise Visit

After bath time tonight we were having a dance party in John's room. While we were dancing, Duncan ran out of the room and downstairs. Daddy and I looked out the window and saw Grandma and Grandpa's car. We all went running downstairs and Gillian was yelled "Grandma!" John immediately started to perform. He ran around the living room. He started to tell Grandma about what he is going to do in the olympics. He asked "can I go upstairs and get the laundry basket?" He ran upstairs and showed Grandma how he "vaults" over the laundry basket. Grandma gave him scores on his vaults. Daddy and I explained that John wants to "run and jump" in the olympics and we have been showing John all the different events he can do. Gillian, meanwhile, was walking around the living room with her blanket. At some point she had the blanket over her head and John tried to help take it off. Instead of helping he ended up pushing her to the ground. My little drama queen. She did hit the floor hard. But there were a lot of tears. Grandma calmed her down and also cheered up John (who was a little upset that Gillian got hurt).

Grandma and Grandpa did not stay long. But I am glad they stopped by and got to see the kids and all their silliness.

Thud in the night

Late last night Daddy and I heard a thud. I went running into Gillian's room. I found Gillian climbing back into her bed with a rag doll. I asked her if she was okay. She just nodded. She snuggles under her blanket with her rag doll. I asked her again if she was okay. She nodded again. I asked her if she wanted music. Again she nodded. I put her music on and tucked her in. I think she was asleep the whole time.

Timeout

Lately Gillian has been putting her babies in timeout. She puts them on the stairs, whispers something to them and walks away. After a few minutes she will go back to the babies and take one out. I like to ask her why the babies are in timeout. She replies "Pushing." Sometimes she says "Baby hit. Baby not nice!"

Today I picked up the kids from school and I was informed that Gillian was not a good girl. Gillian pushed one of her best friends. You could see Gillian was guilty of pushing her friend. She is too much like Mommy. She can't hide her emotions well. Anyway, I told the teacher about how Gillian puts her babies in timeout for pushing. Her teacher said its because Gillian hears the boys get in trouble all day long for pushing.

Random people

I don't know if it is just my kids or it's me. But we attract the most random people. Today we were eating lunch in the food court at Monmouth Mall. A little old lady passes by our table and starts waving at Gillian. Gillian saw the old lady and started to squirm in her chair. Well the old lady came right up to Gillian and started talking to her. That was too much for Gillian and she completely fell off her chair. She didn't get hurt. She just slid off the chair onto the floor. The lady felt so bad. Gillian was her typical dramatic self an cried which made the lady feel really bad. I found out that she was a grandma and has 7 grand kids that are all grown up. She was walking past our table to go cash in a lotto ticket and just had to say hello to Gillian. Gillian finally calmed down and we finished our lunch. The lady came back and brought John and Gillian some fruit snacks she bought at the connivence store. She felt so bad. She didn't want Gillian to fall off the chair. Luckily John was on his best behavior. John shook her hand and said hello. I felt bad for that sweet lady. She just wanted to say hello to my kids and was greeted with tears.

Trampoline

Tonight Gillian pulled all the cushions off of the couch. She started jumping up and down on the cushion-less couch. She would jump up and land on her tushy and she would laugh. John noticed what she was doing and had to join her. The two of them jumped together and laughed. I know we should have stopped them but they were so happy. They started to get a little crazy so we told them to stop and relax. After a short break they started jumping again. They were very good for awhile but then they got out of control. So we had them stop. I suggested that John build a pillow fort. John replied "that's exactly what I was thinking!" The two of them built a little fort. That took a lot longer than usual because Gillian kept knocking down the walls. I am so happy with how well they were getting along tonight.

Cake

The kids and I had a relaxing night at home. I made grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner and put on John's favorite movie (this week): Popper's Penguins. I asked John to explain the movie to Gillian. He said "Gilly, there's this one penguin his name is Loudy. And he's really noisy." That's how he explained the movie. I think he touched on all the plot points.

After we ate dinner and I cleaned up, we moved our movie night to my room. Gillian brought her blanket and Kertmit too. Gillian kept covering me with her blanket and telling me to go to sleep. She would also rub my belly too. So relaxing. At some point she decided to sit on my belly. She started playing with my charm bracelet. She saw my cupcake charm and said "cake!" And she pretended to take a piece and feed it to me. Then she took a piece and ate some too. "Yummy! Cake!" I just love her imagination.

Friends

I love that Gillian is becoming like John. She has her little group of "friends" that have to join her in bed. John calls his stuffed animals his "friends." Every night when I check on her I take some of the friends out of her bed, but yet every morning she has them in bed with her. Right now she has Kermit, Scout, butterfly pillow pet, Eeyore, rag doll, lambie, and bear. There is barely any room for Gillian. I think we need a bigger bed.

Rain, desserts and Olympics

Wednesday is water day at school. The teachers had a little pool and a beach ball sprinkler set up when I dropped the kids off at school. It was supposed to rain today so I didn't think the kids would get a chance to play outside. I asked John tonight if he got to do water day today. He said "First it was on and then we were going to go outside and then it was cancelled. Cause it was raining. And then it stopped raining and we went outside. And I felt a raindrop on my head. But it was from the beach ball."

After dinner and bath John asked "What's for dessert?" I told him he could go upstairs and get something out of the snack box. He goes upstairs and comes down with one Kit Kat bar. We sent him back upstairs to get something for Gillian. He came back downstairs with a box of raisins. Really? Raisins?

I let John stay up late tonight. He really wanted to watch some of the Olympics. Daddy and I love watching the Olympics so over the past couple of days John has learned a lot. He says to me "I'm going to be in the Olympics for running. Cause I'm fast and I'm good at jumping." I asked him if he would run short or long distance. He didn't hesitate and said "Long!" Then he got off the bed and ran around my bedroom. He also turned over a laundry basket and put it in the middle of the floor. I must have give him a crazy look because he said "What? I'm not going to jump over the bed!" He then ran and "jumped" over the laundry basket. He did it a few more times until he needed "a rest." We watched some more of the synchronized diving. He loved when then did the backward dives. "Mommy. I like the backwards the best. Did you see that?" He gives the best play by play. I highly recommend watching any event with John.