Hurricane Prep

Saturday, Daddy and I decided to split up and do some errands separately. I took Gillian. We went to Costco and the A&P. Costco was a little crazy but nothing more than a regular Saturday. We needed our regular supplies for the week, plus I did want to buy a few cases of water just in case. Costco was out of water, but our next stop was the A&P. We found water there plus everything else we needed. One thing I really needed was powdered sugar (for my cookies). Gillian decided that she needed to hold the bag of powdered sugar. At one point in the store Gillian was rocking the bag like a baby. She sang "Rock-a-baby!"

Daddy and John went to Target and stopped at he mall. John needed a haircut and Daddy needed a new video game. John was awesome during the haircut. He told me "You can't move, because they will kick you out if you move!" Gotta love his logic.

Today we spent the day being comfy in the house. I finished my Halloween cookies and made chili, pumpkin muffins and chocolate chip cookies. The kids favorite thing to do today was run around the kitchen table. They waited until I was on the phone then they would run around screaming and giggling. John would chase Gillian and he would grab her shirt and she would just laugh at him. I am so glad they are easily entertained.

Piano Lessons

Tonight Gillian was playing quietly with her babies. She had them napping and walking around. They sat on John's chair for a little bit and ate a snack. Gillian brought Baby over to the piano and made Baby's hands play a few notes on the piano. Gillian then pulled the stool out and said "Baby sit on my lap!" The two of them sat there and played the piano for a little bit. Gillian then abandoned her babies at the piano and moved on to something else. The picture below is how Gillian left her babies.

Table Manners

We had spaghetti for dinner tonight.  Gillian took Messy Eater to a whole other level.  Even John, who normally has pretty good table manners, was out of control.  I know, I should have taken this opportunity to teach them better manners.  I just couldn't.  It was too much fun to watch them get dirty and really enjoy their dinners.  Don't worry, I got it on video too!




Here's John eating his spaghetti:



Here's Gillian eating her spaghetti:

 

 

Fire Truck

A fire truck visited the kids school today. When I picked them up both of them were so excited to show me their new firefighter hats. And Gillian was so proud of her "necklace." It was a firefighter badge hung on a piece of yarn. She told me "I made it myself!" John told me "We got to talk to the firefighter and sit inside the truck too!" Gillian didn't tell me much, just that she made her badge. But both of them wore their hats all the way home and even posed for a couple of pictures too!

How was your day?

I picked the kids up from school and I asked the kids "How was your day?" John said "Good." Gillian said "I hit Dora." Let me give you a little backstory first. Dora is Gillian's best friend at school. Her name is Dorlisa, but Gilly calls her Dora. We correct her and she says "Noo! Dora!" Anyway they are best friends. They hold hands in line and play together all day. I was a little surprised that Gillian hit her best friend. Unfortunately it's a little hard to get any good information out of a two year old. When I asked Gillian why she hit her friend, she said "I dunno." John took this opportunity to tell me "After nap today I was putting my blanket in my cubby and I stopped to say hi to Gilly. And Gilly's teacher said her was in timeout. I think that Gilly hit Dora during nap. Maybe they were laying next to each other." Great. So now John is a spy (and a tattletale). Later tonight when Gillian was telling Daddy about her day, she added "Rock wall." We think they were playing by the rock wall outside and that's where Gillian hit her friend. But I will get the full story tomorrow when I talk to her teacher.

Witch Hat Cookies

I picked the kids up from school on Friday, and John had two witch hat cookies on a plate.  He was so proud of these cookies.  He told me "They are for you and Daddy.  We got to make three today, and I had one at snack."  As soon as Gillian saw the cookie she had to have it.  I told John she could have my cookie.  He said, "But I made them for you.  I know how to make them.  We just need the ingredients.  We need icing and a chocolate cookie and a big chocolate chip."  We went out to dinner and on our way home, John and Gillian ate the two witch hat cookies.  We stopped at the food store and got the "ingredients."  We found the Hershey kisses, and green icing very quickly, but had a hard time in the cookie aisle finding a big chocolate cookie.  While I was looking at every option of cookie, John started to do the pee-pee dance.  We threw our stuff on a shelf and ran to the bathroom.  On our way back, I said to John, ok now we need to find a big chocolate cookie.  He says "Yup with a hole in it."  Thank goodness he said that, because I saw those cookies.  We bought our ingredients and went home.  John immediately went to work and showed Daddy, Gilly and I how to make the witch hat cookies. 

A little fussy

John and Gillian are spending the night at Grandma's tomorrow. Aunt Betty was asking me about what kinds of food the kids will eat. She asked if they would eat veggies. John said "what kind of vegetables?" Aunt Betty said peas and carrots. John said "I like carrots. But I'm a little fussy with broccoli." At least he is honest.

Tonight John made a secret, special snack to bring to Grandma's house. He made it all by himself and he is super excited to share it.

Why?

Gillian has reached the why stage. She asks a question, you answer it and she automatically replies "Why?" I love that she is curious, but sometimes it can get a bit frustrating.

This morning in the car on our way to school, we have the following conversation:

"Is that Daddy's car?"
No, Gillian, that is not Daddy's car.
"Why?"
Because Daddy's car is not that color.
"Why?"
Because that is not Daddy's car.
"Why?"
Because Daddy's car is behind us.
"Why?"
Because Daddy has to go on the Parkway.
"Why?"
Because Daddy has to go to work.
"Why?"
Because we like our house and like to send you to school. Daddy needs to make money so we can stay in our house and you can go to school.
John says "Gilly, I like going to school. Don't you like playing with your friends?"

Thankfully John was there to help me. If not we would have continued this cycle until I said because I said so.

I talk

I picked up the kids today and I asked John about his day. He couldn't remember much so I had to keep asking him questions, like "did you play outside today?", "what was your job today?" and "what did you have for snack?" As I was questioning him, I could hear Gillian say "I talk." She was whispering and I could barely hear her. So I asked her how her day was. John replied for her "Her got one timeout today. She was keeping all her friends up during nap. I know cause I saw her sitting at the table when we were done with nap." I asked Gillian if this was true. She nodded and frowned. Based on her reaction I assumed it was true. Not a good week for the kids.

At dinner, I was telling Daddy a story about work. Gillian started yelling "I talk! I talk!" I tell her that Mommy is talking and when I am done I will listen to her story. She waited patiently and then tells me "I all done!" She thought she was finished with her dinner, but I made her eat some more. She finished her chicken and again told me "I all done!" She then asked for some applesauce. Can't really complain if she wants applesauce after dinner instead of dessert.

Green Meadow Farms

Today John's class and the Dinosaur class went on a field trip to Green Meadow Farms. John told me all about his trip. "First we got on a bus! Adriana was in my group and my chaperone was Miss Denise." I asked him what happened when they got there. He said "Then we got to pet and feed the animals. We got to feed them on the inside." I didn't understand what he was talking about. He meant the inside of the fence. They got to go inside the fence and feed and pet the animals. I asked what kinds of animals he fed. He said "Cows and sheep and geese. And what says 'gobble gobble?'" I told him a turkey. He says "Yea a turkey and ponies." He kept telling me animals and I could hear Gillian say "I like ponies!" He tells me that they fed the animals and then they got to pick their pumpkins. "At the end we got to go on a hayride. And can I tell you something? I got in timeout by accident." Now it's been a long time since John has been put in timeout at school. So I ask him why he was put in timeout. He says "I accidentally hit Ryan." In my opinion you don't accidentally hit anyone. I asked him what happened. He said "He was pointing at me!" We had a long talk about how hitting is way worse than pointing. He then admitted "I hit him two times. One time because he was pointing at me. And another time because he wouldn't let me move the wheelbarrow." Again we talked about how hitting is wrong and that he would get no dessert and no television shows tonight as punishment.

Pumpkin Picking

This morning we went pumpkin picking with Mimi, Poppy, Uncle T and Aunt Missy.  We walked to the pumpkin patch and Mimi noticed a corn maze.  She asked John if he wanted to check it out.  John didn't hesitate and the two fo them rushed off to the maze.  The rest of us went to the pumpkin patch to pick out a oouple of pumpkins. 

When Mimi & Johnny got back, we heard the whole story of what happened in the maze.  Mimi said, they got into the maze and John said "Mimi, do you have a cell phone?  You will need to text Mommy in case we get lost."  They wandered through the maze and John had to go potty.  Mimi told him it was okay to just go in the maze, because it could be awhile before they got out of the maze.  John argued with Mimi, "I can't go here.  I can hold it."  Mimi looked around and confirmed that there was no one around and told him just go in the maze.  John did and they got out of the maze safely ansd dtarted to walk towards the pumpkin patch.  "Mimi, you need to text Mommy and ask where she is.  So we can find her."  Mimi explained to John that they would be able to find us, the pumpkin patch was not that big.

John started the quest to find the perfect pumpkin.  He used a lot of the same critera as he had last year (check out pumpkin pickin from last year).  It had to have no holes, a stem, round and not too dirty.  After some pretty extensive searching, John found the perfect pumpkin.  We headed up to pay for our pumpkins and decided to stop to feed some of the animals.  John was not too excited about feeding the animals.  He didn't like them to eat out of his hand.  Gillian, on the other hand, loved feeding the animals.  She was very particular about what animals got the carrots she had.  She also liked talking to the animals and would say "Hey! Hey!" 

John found a goat (ram?  I'm not really sure what it was), with three horns.  He told Mimi, "He knocked down all the trees.  He has three really strong horns and knocked down all the trees here."

After feeding all the animals, we paid for our pumpkins and headed to Mimi & Poppy's house.  We had to help Mimi with her new Halloween decoration.  John and Gillian were big helpers and helped Mimi with putting out additional Halloween decorations.  After Mimi's house, we headed home and Gillian took a nap. 

 After nap time, we headed to Thompson Park Day.  I did not realize that it was that big of an event.  We got there and the park was full of cars and people.  They had rides, activities, races and all kinds of fun for the kids.  We immeditely ran to Aunt Betty's Auto Zone.  The Auto Zone had big wheels for the kids to ride, an obstacle course and some building blocks.  John and Aunt Betty ran thru the obstacle course a couple of times and then they built a little building out of the building blocks.  Gillian got to knock it down.  After visiting Aunt Betty, we went to see a magic show.  John loved it.  He giggled and was surprised with all the simple magic tricks.  Gillian got a little antsy, so we moved on and walked around some more.  We tried to get John in one of the races for his age group, but we were just a few minutes too late.  But the ladies running the races still gave John an inflatable ball which was the participation prize.  We walked around some more, and John and Gillian both got to talk to the pumpkin head man walking around on stilts and the raccoon too.  We were only there a short time (today was just a busy day), but we will totally make an effort to get to next year's Thompson Park Day.

The jungle

Daddy and John had the following conversation at dinner tonight.

John: I want to explore the jungle when I get bigger. I want to see all the animals even the tigers. And the cheetahs too. I even want to ride a cheetah!

Daddy: The cheetahs will eat you!

John: What?!?!

Daddy: Cheetahs are meat eaters. They would want to eat you.

John: I know. Giraffes eat plants. I could ride a giraffe!

Long Day

I had a very long day at work today. Our new project has presented me with some new challenges and I was exhausted when I left the office today. I got home and was immediately greeted by John and Gillian. John came running to me and Gillian was screaming "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" That greeting can make any day better!

They were awesome at dinner. Ate everything that was given to them and the seconds they requested too. John told me "I'm full!" I told him I was very proud of how well he ate and that he could have a brownie for dessert. He said "I have room for brownies. But not dinner. Just for brownies!" I just love his logic.

A bad word

I picked the kids up from school. When the kids got in the car, John started to tell me a story. "Can I tell you something? Landon was not nice to me today. He said something really bad. He said the baddest word ever." Now he has me concerned. I just figured Landon didn't want to play with him but now he said a bad word? I'm not ready to be a crazy mama yelling about how your kid taught my kid a bad word. So I say to him, it's ok you can tell me what Landon said and you won't get in trouble. "Landon said, I hope you get dead in real life. Mommy he said in real life!" I know. You read that and said what's the bad word? Well keep in mind, John is five and we don't like him to say dead. Mainly because he has a vivid imagination and we don't want him to pretend that people are dead. So Landon said this mean thing to John and John was really upset about it. Luckily John has a very distracting sister. After John told me his story, Gillian started making this crazy siren noise. She did it the entire trip home. By the time we got to the house John was no longer upset about Landon. He was annoyed with his sister.

Can I tell you something?

As you all know, John loves to talk. He loves to tell stories and lecture us on all the things he knows. He has been starting every conversation lately with "Can I tell you something?" It's cute the first time, but it gets old.

"Can I tell you something? I remember when I was in the Dinosaur class and we had all that crazy weather?"

"Can I tell you something? Gillian is not sharing. I shared my toys and she never shares."

"Can I tell you something? I've been sneezing a lot. Even when I am sleeping."

"Can I tell you something? I can't sleep. It's too noisy."

"Can I tell you something? My tummy is really hot! Can I take my shirt off?"

Eskimo kisses

In modern Western culture, an eskimo kiss is the act of pressing the tip of one's nose against another's. It is loosely based on a traditional Inuit greeting called a kunik. ~ Wikipedia

In our house we don't call them Eskimo kisses.

The other night when I tucked John into bed, he said to me "Can we do nose kisses?" Of course I knew exactly what he was talking about.

Tonight I went to check on Gillian. She was wide awake at 8:30, even though bedtime is 8:00. I tucked her in again and gave her tons of kisses. I leaned over and rubbed my nose against her nose. She giggled and said "Betty kisses!" She remembered that Aunt Betty was the last person to give her Eskimo kisses.

Finger-painting

It was a raining cold day today. I wanted to keep the kids entertained so I broke out the finger-paints. I thought it was something different and the kids would enjoy it. Gillian was so excited as I got the paints ready. She didn't hesitate and put her hands right into the paint. John, on the other hand, only put his fingertips in the paint. Once John go his whole hand covered in paint he said "Mom, can you get me a wipe?" While John was worried about a little paint on his hand, Gillian had both hands covered. Every time she put her hands in the paint she said "It tickles." They are so different and wonderful at the same time.

Shake the Baby

This morning Justin came to visit. The kids all shared some munchkins for breakfast. Justin was a good big cousin and made sure that he didn't eat any of the chocolate ones because he knew Gillian liked them the best. The boys played all morning with John's superhero toys. At one point Justin came upstairs wearing a Wolverine mask, holding Thor's hammer and carrying a Nerf gun. John was wearing the Thor helmet, wearing a Wolverine claw, a cape and one of Iron Man's blasters. All the kids were great today. I'm so thankful that they get along well.

Gillian was playing with her babies today. She gave one to me and one to Daddy. Daddy held his baby and asked Gillian what he should do with her. Gillian said with a big smile "Shake the baby!"

Not Daddy

This morning Daddy shaved his goatee off. It wasn't planned, Daddy trimmed a little too much and had to shave the whole thing. While Daddy was shaving, I got Gillian ready. When she was fully dressed, she started calling "Daddy! Daddy!" Daddy came to her and she stopped in her tracks and just stared at him. She immediately noticed that there was something different with Daddy. She stared and then started saying "Noooo! Daddy!" She then climbed into my arms and hid her face. We explained to her that it was still her Daddy but she didn't understand. It took her about 20 minutes before she realized he was still her Daddy.

Letters

This week John's class started the letter G. I asked him to explain to me how to make the letter G. He said "First you make a letter C and then you come up a little bit and you make a line across. But you make a little line. You don't go all the way across. That's how you make a big G. Do you know how to make a lowercase G?" I asked him to describe it for me. He said "First you need to make a little O. Then a stick that goes down and then you make a hook. You know how to make a little P? You make a little O and a stick. And the stick puts his toes in the water to feel it for the G!" Love the way he thinks.

The lunch bag

This morning I asked John to get me his lunch bag. He brought his book bag into the kitchen and started pulling stuff out of it. He got distracted and started looking at his paperwork. I asked him again for his lunch bag and he says "I can't find it!" We finally figured out that Daddy forgot his lunch bag at school. I told him that he could use Gillian's old lunch bag (it's bright pink). He said "That's ok. I won't go then." Yes. You read that right. He decided it would be better to stay home than to bring a different lunch bag. I did find another lunch bag. He didn't have to bring the pink one to school.

1 year anniversary

One year ago today I posted my first blog entry.  I have to say that I am very happy that I stuck with it, and continue to post.  Over the past year, I have posted 286 times and the kids have been on many adventures.

Here are some of my favorite adventures:


The Turtle Back Zoo



iPlay America

Gillian's First Haircut



Zzzz and not sleeping little lady

First Cooking Class



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And let's not forget one of my favorite adventures: Wheeeee!

 

 

Over the past year, my little blog has been viewed almost 8,000 times.  And my top five most viewed posts are these:

Home From Work

The Wedding

 

 

Betty's Clues

 

 

Check-Ups

 

 

The Circus

 

I hope you have enjoyed all my rambling as much as I have enjoyed writing and living it.  Looking forward to another year of John & Gillian's adventures!