Smorgasbord

This morning John found Buddy the elf in the kitchen. Buddy was making snowflakes. He left a big mess of pieces of paper. John saw Buddy and he said "Mommy, we were talking about decorating!" I said you are right, Buddy must have heard us talking. John said "He better clean up this mess!"

We put Gillian to bed tonight at 8. It normally takes her a little while to fall asleep. Tonight was no different. We could hear her in our room singing "Jingle bells! Jingle bells!"

Daddy picked the kids up from school and said to Gillian, "Come on Miss Marie." (Gillian's middle name is Marie) Gillian turned to him and said "I not Marie! I Gillian!"

Daddy had the kids in the car yesterday and the done "We are young" came on the radio right before they got home. John started singing along. Daddy pulled in the driveway turned the car off and the song stopped. But John kept singing in the back seat, "We set the world on fire! How can you set the whole world on fire?"

The Field Trip

On our way to school this morning, John says "I remember something important. Today we are going on a trip!" I agreed with him and said do you remember where you are going? He replied "To the puppet theater! Are you coming today?" I told him that I would love to go on the trip but they didn't need any chaperones today. I would have rather gone on a trip to the puppet theater than sit in the office all day. John thought for a minute then h said "Oh! Do you know why? Because Kindergarteners are like grown-ups!"

At dinner tonight he told me about the trip. First he said "I got to sit by the window on the way there and the way back." Yes, it's very important where you sit on the bus. Way more important than the show you got to see. Then he said "We saw two shows. First was the night before Christmas. And then we saw the snow queen!" We asked him if he like it. He said "Yes!" And that's all the information we got from him. Hope you weren't expecting a full review of the show!

Relay Races

John had Amazing Athletes today. When we asked him what he did today, he said "Running!" Running seemed a little lame compared to previous weeks where they did basketball, baseball and soccer. So Daddy said just running? He said "We did relay races!" I asked him if he had to tag the other people on his team. He said "No. We had to high five!" Later I was tucking him into bed and I asked him about the relay races. I said so you started with the running and then what. He said "First we did running, then we did frog hops. Then..." I asked what did you do next. He said "Come close. I don't want to scare you." I turned my ear to him an he whispered really low "We did bear crawls." I had him explain to me what a that meant. He explained "You put your hands and feet on the ground. Then you go really fast. You have to go fast because it's a relay race!"

Caught

I think I have mentioned in earlier posts that Gillian likes to take her Jammie's off at night. We put her to sleep and it normally takes her awhile to fall asleep. I guess during that time she gets bored and unzips her Jammie's and snuggled under the covers in just her diaper. I do check on her quite a bit and most nights I catch her and put her Jammie's back on her. But sometimes I'm too late and she has already fallen asleep. So all I do is put some extra blankets on the bed and hope she doesn't get cold. We have been putting her in regular Jammie's instead of feetie Jammie's. This has helped her stop striping.

Tonight Daddy put her to bed and said "if you take your Jammie's off, I will take away your manket." I checked on her once and she had her clothes on. I checked on her again and she was only in her diaper. I called daddy. I didn't say anything to Gillian. But as we were waiting for Daddy to come in the room, she whispered "No!" She knew what the consequences were. She would lose her manket. Daddy came in and took her blanket, folded it and put it on the ottoman. She cried. I got her dressed again and we talked about why she lost her blanket. Daddy picked her up and hugged her and again explained why she lost her blanket. She wasn't happy but she finally fell asleep. I hope she has learned her lesson.

Gilly says relax

Gillian is a good mommy to her babies. She feeds them, she rocks them, she swaddles them and pushes them around in her stroller. Lately I have noticed that when the babies are crying she rocks them and says "Relax." The other night, Duncan wanted to play and was running around and barking at Daddy and I. Daddy and I were telling Duncan to calm down. Gillian also tried to help. She was petting Duncan saying "Relax. Relax. Relax."

Ring Around the Rosie

Gillian loves to sing. This weekend she was either singing the ABCs or Ring Around the Rosie or even her own little mash up of the two. This morning she took two of her Barbie dolls by their little hands and started singing. She sang "Ring Around the Rosie pocket full of posey." While she was singing she was walking around in a circle. She sang "Ashes, ashes, ashes, ashes, ashes, ashes, ashes, ashes,ashes! We all fall down." And she and the barbies fell to the ground. She giggled and got back up. And started the song over again.

Family Day

Today we spent the entire day together. The kids woke up and found Buddy (he was hanging out in our bathroom holding a toothbrush). We then went to the movies. We saw Rise of the Guardians. John loved it. He sat and watched the whole thing. Gillian started out by sitting but go up and stood for most of the movie. Thankfully there was no one sitting in front of us because she spent most of the movie rocking the chair in front of her. Daddy had to take her out of the movie for a little bit because she was crying. He took her out to the hallway and said what do you want? She said "chocolate." He caved and went to the concession stand and said how about M&M's? She said "I want chocolate." Daddy told her that M&M's are chocolate. They came back with two bags of M&M's, one for John and one for Gillian.

We got home and Gillian napped. John played with his dinosaurs while Daddy and I worked around the house. We had a quick dinner and then watched the Muppet movie. I made some chocolate chip cookies for a snack. John and Gillian came running when they heard the timer go off. Gillian said "I have cookie!" This was before I had even taken them off of the cookie sheet (I guess I make a lot of cookies). We all enjoyed our snack and afterward Gillian ran around the kitchen flapping her arms saying "I a birdie! I flying!"

What a fun family day.

He's back!

The kids have an Elf on the Shelf. John named him Buddy. Buddy comes to visit us after Thanksgiving. Earlier in the week, we told John and Gillian that Buddy would be visiting us soon. John said "I gotta clean my room!"

Well Buddy came back last night. John woke up this morning and came running into our room saying "He's not anywhere up here! We gotta keep looking!" We woke up Gillian and the two of them searched the first floor. They found Buddy on our china cabinet with a turkey cookie in his lap. John said "what's he doing with that cookie?" Daddy picked John up so that he could see Buddy better. That's when John saw a bite out of the cookie. Gillian said "He's eating your cookie!" I can't wait to see what Buddy is doing tomorrow morning.

Thanksgiving

We started our Thanksgiving by making monkey bread. It was so much fun watching John eat the monkey bread. He loved it this year and put a pretty sizable dent in his side of the bread. Gillian loved it too. And again Mommy and Daddy ate too much. We then watched the parade. Gillian loved it. She would shout out the names of the balloons and waved as they passed by.

We went to my Mom's for dinner. John was so excited to see his cousins again. "I'm bringing my Nerf gun, just in case we have a battle!" Gillian fell asleep in the car and was a little cranky when we arrived. John immediately started playing with the kids. They played outside. They did play with their guns but the battle was not as big as last weekend.

Dinner was delicious (like usual). The kids ate with no complaints. They even found room for dessert. Gillian had two cookies and two pieces of pumpkin pie. John had two pieces too and somehow he conned Grandma into giving him some extra to take home. It was another wonderful holiday and we were lucky to spend it with our family.

Snuggles

I'm currently snuggled next to John in my bed with Duncan at our feet. John asked me yesterday if he could sleep in the big bed with me. Normally I wouldn't allow this, but Daddy is away so I decided it would be okay for one night. We watched one TV show and then I turned off the TV and we counted sheep. I thought he was sleeping so I rolled over and checked my phone. As I started writing, I realized that he was faking it. That silly boy tricked me. I told him he needed to go to sleep or he was going back to his room. He fell asleep within minutes.

Once I was confident that he was asleep, I checked on Gillian. I found her awake in just her diaper curled up in a little ball. Her Jammie's were behind her crib. I quickly got her PJ's back on her and tucked her in. She is such a crazy little lady.

Shoes and the man

This morning while I was getting ready, Gillian was exploring in my closet. She first pulled out a pair of flip flops. She put them on and walked to me and said "I a jumping frog!" Then she jumped across the room. She got bored with those flip flops and went back to the closet. She pulled out another pair, put them on and walked around the room. She continued to pull shoes out of my closet and put them back when she was done. She found a pair of silver high heels that she called "Princess Shoes." She asked for help with the straps. I put the shoes on her and helped her stand up. She took like two steps and stopped. That's all she needed a few steps in princess shoes and she was off to play in a laundry basket.

Daddy is at a conference and told John that he was "the man of the house." John loves being man of the house. He thinks its just an opportunity to boss me around. Tonight at dinner, he said "Can I sit in Daddy's chair? Cause that's where the man of the house sits!" At bedtime he also said to me "You know, the man of the house gets to sleep in the big bed!" It's going to be a long couple of days.

War

Today we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for lunch. We met Aunt Betty, Uncle Joe, Uncle Bob, Aunt Trish, and the cousins. We had lunch and the kids went outside to play. Sammie only stayed outside for a little bit and ended coming inside to play with Gillian. The girls decided to watch Cinderella. The girls snuggled on the couch and watched Gilly's favorite princess movie.

I was talking to Grandma and Aunt Betty when we saw Uncle Joe, Uncle Bob and Daddy walk past us. All three of them had Nerf guns, with additional magazines and bags full of extra darts. They headed out back to blindside the boys.

When I got out back I saw Daddy on the deck firing down to the boys below while Uncle Joe and Uncle Bob were running around shooting at the boys. Justin and John were running around and giggling. It was chilly outside so I only watched for a few minutes.

When they came back inside they shared their stories. At on point John got a Nerf gun set it up with the bipod and laid down on his belly. He aimed and fired right at Uncle Joe. He hit his mark and shouted "I got his gut!"

Getting ready

This morning Daddy and I were getting ready in the bathroom. John came in and said "Good morning!" He didn't want to get changed yet, so I told him to brush his teeth. He climbed up on the toilet, leaned over and grabbed his toothpaste and toothbrush from the sink. I went back to doing my hair and I look over at John. He was just standing there staring at Daddy shaving. John caught me looking at him. He smiled and said "This is my favorite thing to watch!" John stood there watching his father shave. He stared until Daddy finished and once he was done John brushed his teeth.

My funny boy

First thing this morning John says "Do you know what today is? It's the greatest day ever!" After a few questions he told me "It's cookie day! I get to bring cookies to school to share with my friends."

The other day I picked the kids up from school and it was already dark out. John said "Mommy, is it dark outside? I know
what I can do!" We went outside and he says "See mommy? My shirt lights up!" And he was totally right he was wearing a glow-in-the-dark shirt.

John got a new Halloween shirt this year. It has a cape on it. John calls it "a cave."

On our way home from school today, John said "Do you see those strings?" I said what strings. He said "The ones high up in the air! They connect all the phones together."

I love his perspective.

No TV

On Sunday, Daddy and I looked around the basement and decided that the kids have created a ridiculous mess. Their toys are everywhere. The basement is such a mess that we cannot find the remote controller for the television. Daddy and I decided that the kids cannot watch any TV until the basement is cleaned. When I say no TV that means the TV in any room cannot be on while the kids are awake. So yes, we are all being punished a little bit, but considering the mess in the basement it is worth it.

It is now Wednesday and the basement isn't much cleaner and the kids have not watched any television. John did try to negotiate with me yesterday saying "It's going to take forever to clean up. Maybe you can help too." I told him I would help him but that Daddy and I would not clean the entire basement like we normally do. He sighed and said "we are never going to watch TV again!"

The kids are doing anything possible to not go into the basement and avoid cleaning. Last night they entertained themselves by John laying on the floor and Gillian sitting on his back. The basement needs to get cleaned before these kids hurt themselves.

Changing story

I picked the kids up from school today. As I put Gillian in the car, she said "I nice today. I no hit Dora! I hug Dora!" Of course hearing that I told her that I was very proud of her. We got home and I had Daddy ask Gillian how her day was. She said "I hit Dora!" She totally changed her story. Throughout dinner she continued to say that she hit Dora. During bath time, however, she told me "I nice to Dora!" I'm still not sure what happened at school today. I guess I will find out when I drop her off tomorrow.

giggles

Today Daddy and I were upstairs watching football and decorating cookies.  We could hear the kids in the basement playing and giggling.  They sounded like they were having a good time, but we couldn't see what they were doing.  Gillian's giggles could be heard upstairs and it sounded like she was having a good time.  Daddy went downstairs to investigate.  The video below is what he found:

Whistle Not Nice

One silver lining to being stuck at home for Hurricane Sandy, was that Gillian has finally come to terms with the fire whistle.  I'm sure I have mentioned it before, but we have a fire station behind our house.  The fire whistle goes off occasionally and Gillian has been afraid of it for awhile now.  When the whistle would go off, Daddy and I would go running to find Gillian paralyzed and crying.  She would shake and cry until the whistle stopped.  During Hurricane Sandy, the whistle went off every couple of hours.  She progressively got better with the whistle every time it went off.  We are now at the point where she covers her ears and says "Whistle Not Nice!"  Even though she is really cool with the whistle now, it went off during her nap today.  Daddy went running to find her very upset.  That I can totally understand why she was upset, I would be crying too if a whistle woke me up from a nap. 

Rice Krispies Treats

A few weeks ago I made Rice Krispie treats for the kids. They loved them. Daddy and I made some again last week. But this time John got to watch and "help." Now every time you ask John what he wants for a snack he says "Rice Krispies!" Unfortunately the batch we made last week didn't last long, but that didn't stop John from asking for them.

Tonight after dinner, I asked John what he wanted for dessert. He sat there quietly. Daddy's eyes lit up and he called John over. Daddy pointed John to the counter, where I had a box of Rice Krispies. He looks at the box an says "I know what I want for dessert. Guess!" I said something ridiculous and John says "I'll just tell you. I want Rice Krispies treats!" Then he proceeded to run around the kitchen trying to "help." Probably would have been easier to make them ahead of time without our helpers.

Don't Worry

I dropped the kids off at school this morning and TLC was prepared for the bad weather forecasted. On the sign-in sheets there was a note asking for a phone number in case they needed to close early. I was working from home again (no power at the office) and the weather was getting worse as the day went on. I had just decided to pick the kids up at 2:30 when my phone rang, it was TLC letting me know that they were closing at 4. I headed right over to pick them up.

I got to school and got Gillian and John's stuff ready to go. I found Gillian in her classroom. She was the only one awake. According to her teacher, she was good just no nap today. And Gillian doesn't know how to whisper and she yelled across the room "Where's Johnny?" Luckily no one woke up. We went to John's class. It was the complete opposite. There was one kid asleep and the rest were awake.

I got all the way home and realized the I left Gillian's backpack and lunch bag at school. Completely frustrated I said John I forgot Gillian's bag at school. He said "Don't worry Mom! You go get the bag and I'll stay here and watch Gillian!"

Belated Halloween

Hurricane Sandy ruined the kids Halloween this year.  After the hurricane hit, the Governor postponed Halloween until Monday, November 5th.  We still dressed the kids up on October 31st, even if it was to run errands.  They had fun dressing up and we put smiles on a lot of people's faces that day.   

 

 

So the Governor postponed Halloween until Monday, however our town cancelled Halloween on Monday.  On Monday, Tinton Falls still had about 20% of the town without power plus the department of public works did not have time to clean the brush or branches up.  The mayor deemed it unsafe for the kids to go trick or treating.  The kids school reopened on Monday, and asked that all the kids wear their costumes to school today.  John was so excited to wear his costume.  He dressed as Flash this year.  In case any of you forget, John is super fast! And since Flash is the fastest super hero around, it just made sense for John to dress up as him for Halloween.  Gillian was a beautiful lavender fairy.  She loved being a fairy, but I think this may be my last year to pick Gillian's costume.  I packaged up two Halloween cookies per kid in both John and Gillian's classes and the kids brought them to school today too. 

I got to pick the kids up from school today (one of the perks of working from home when the office has no power) and I also got to talk to the teachers.  Miss Mary Ellen, John's teacher, told me that she put cookies in each of the kids pumpkin buckets and the extras we opened and used for snack.  I'm so glad they were able to use them.  Landon also stopped me in the hallway and said "I had one of your cookies today!  It was yummy!"  His grandma said "Oh, you're the cookie mom!"  I leaned over to Landon and whispered "We will have cookies for Thanksgiving too!"  He jumped up and down and said "YES!"  I am so glad that he loves the cookies too.  Anyway, John had a pumpkin bucket full of Halloween goodies (a glow in the dark sword, cookies, rings stickers etc).  Gillian also had a Halloween bag with all kinds of goodies.  Even though the kids didn't get to go door to door trick or treating, they still ended up having fun.   

Gillian and her book

Gillian has grown up a lot over the past week.  Daddy and I are not sure if it was because we had nine days home with the kids so we were able to see it or if she is just at that stage.  She is talking a lot more.  She is more independent.  She used to wake up and stay in her bed until we came and got her, but now she gets up and walks downstairs all by herself.

Daddy has discovered that she is really good at finding animals in one of her books.  The video below showes Gillian looking in the book for animals and all her funny comments. 

Play time

We found out today that the kids' school is open tomorrow. At first I told Miss Kim that the kids would be there unless I didn't have power at the office. After thinking about it a little bit, I decided that they need to go to school. They need to be with other kids and get back into the routine of regular life.

Gillian has started following John around the house. She wants to do whatever he is doing. John decided today that he wanted to use his sleeping bag. He got it all set up in the living room and when Gillian woke up from her nap she wanted to play too. Of course they can't share one sleeping bag. Daddy found another sleeping bag for Gillian and they played quietly together.

Sometimes it's better when they are fighting. When they are quiet is when they are getting into trouble. Daddy found Gillian stuck in her kitchen sink yesterday. We are not sure how she got in there. All she said was "My head! My head!"

Post Hurricane Sandy

Well it's been almost a week since my last blog post. As many of you know we were hit with a hurricane on Monday, October 29th. Both my office and Daddy's office were closed on Monday in advance of the storm's arrival. We kept the kids home and we got prepared for the storm. We were lucky and didn't lose power until 8:30 on Monday night. Daddy didn't sleep much that night. He patrolled the neighborhood (we have quite a few large trees that could do some damage if they hit the house). Again, we were very lucky. One tree fell in the wires in front of our house but that was it.

Day one without power was fun for the kids. John and Gillian loved playing in their tent (I set it up in the living room). They seemed to eat none stop. Every time I turned around they wanted another snack. John understood about having no power. Gillian did not. Throughout the day she would ask "Micky Mouse? I watch TV?"

Day two was Halloween and still no power. We gave the kids a bath (we have a gas hot water heater) and dresser them in their Halloween costumes. The governor postponed Halloween to next Monday, but w decided it would be fun for the kids to dress up. Plus, we had a mission to find ice. Everyday without power we were slowly losing the contents of our fridge and freezer. Daddy and I found the Ice King in Neptune. We got in line behind easily 15 cars. We told John where we were and he said "He's the king of ice? A penguin?" We waited for our turn in line and as we pulled up to the gentleman selling ice, John rolled down his window. The ice guy laughed at John in his Flash costume. When we told the man it was Halloween. He was shocked. It's amazing how quickly you forget the little thing when you are worried about electric, water and heat for your family. I'm glad that we were able to make him smile at least for a few minutes. We got our ice and wet to visit Mimi and Poppy. Our next stop was Grandma and Grandpa's house. We couldn't stay long at either place we needed to get back home before it got dark. Daddy and I cleaned out the freezer and fridge.

Day three I took the kids to my friend Laura's house. Laura lives in Toms River and she got her power back. We work together so she was more than willing to let the kids watch tv while I got some work done. Plus she let us charge everything and fed us. I am very lucky to have a friend that would take us in for the day. While I was visiting Laura, Daddy was helping Mimi and Poppy with a little cleanup at the dealership. After dinner, we put our jammies on and piled into our bed and watched The Lorax on our iPad. Such a fun night snuggling with the kids watching a movie. We put the kids to bed that night and at 8:30 we got our power back.

Day four after Sandy, we spent the morning cleaning up the disaster of our house. You would be surprised how much of a mess you make with poor lighting. I also spent a good portion of the day doing laundry. I also tried to get caught up on some of my "day job" work. We offered our house to family and friends because we were the first in our family to get power back. The only visitor we received on November 2nd was Kristen. She needed a hot shower. I'm so glad that we could help with that. We also sent a really long extension cord over the back fence to Mr. Matt and Miss Brittany's house. They may live just behind us, but their power is still not on.

Day 5 after Sandy, I gave kids a bath. While I was cleaning out John's ears, he said "Can I see it (the q-tip)?" I showed him and he said "Eww! Ear boogers!" Daddy and John worked on cleaning up the leaves while Gillian and I did a little food shopping. I cooked what couldn't be refrozen plus some pumpkin muffins. It was nice to get back into a little routine of normal life.

I am very thankful for only losing power for three days. I'm also very thankful for nice people. Also for all the utility workers, without them working long hours away from their families we would have power now.

(Below are some pictures from our week)