The fountain

We did a little shopping tonight. At The Grove there is a fountain with four frogs and a turtle spitting water on two ducklings. The kids checked out the fountain. Gillian said "Ewwwww! Why they do that?" John ran around sticking his fingers and hands in the water. Actually, he was karate chopping the  streams of water. Also there was one frog and the turtle that were not spitting a full stream of water. John approached both of them and said "Come on! You can do it!" Gillian followed John around and again realized that the ducks were getting hit with the water. She said "Ducks! Oh no!"

Who would have thought that a shopping trip would be so much fun?

Shoes

If you are a dedicate reader of my little blog, you know that Gillian and Dorlisa have a love-hate relationship. Most days they are best friends, but some days they are enemies. I never know what to expect when I pick the kids up. Tonight I asked her how her day was. She said "Good." Clearly I needed to be more specific. I followed with, did you go to timeout today? She said "No. But Dorlisa be bad to me today!" I asked her what happened. She said "Dorlisa say I little shoes." I'm confused. Did she really just say "little shoes?" I asked her to explain. She says "I have big shoes. Dorlisa have little shoes." I asked John if he understood what she was talking about. He didn't understand ether. I asked her, were you playing with big shoes and Dorlisa take them? She said "Dorlisa say to me, I have little shoes. I say no, Dorlisa have little shoes. I have big shoes." So apparently Gillian was mad that Dorlisa said her shoes were little. I guess it doesn't matter your age, never talk bad about another lady's shoes. 

Dealership

Today, we went to the dealership to visit Mimi, Poppy, Uncle T and Aunt Missy. Plus, on Memorial Day Mimi always cooks hot dogs for the customers so the kids were able to get lunch too. The kids shared a hot dog and had some popcorn too. We spent some time talking to Aunt Missy and then the kids went inside for an adventure. I stayed outside with Aunt Missy. Before I realized it, we heard a loud crash. Gillian had walked into one of the floor to ceiling windows. Daddy brought her outside to me. Poor Gillian was crying. She said to me "The window! The window hurt my nose!" While I was consoling Gillian, Daddy told me that tho was the second window she walked into.  She did the same thing just a few minutes earlier in the sales manager's office. Poor little lady isn't used to all those glass walls. 

John loved being at the dealership. He loved running around the showroom and testing out the new cars. He also loved helping the customers when they came over for a hot dog. He would show them where the drinks were and point out the snacks too. He was so sad when it was time to go. He didn't even say good bye to everyone. He was having too much fun. 

Cleaning

Since yesterday was rainy and cold, we spent most of the day inside. The kids spent most of the day in the basement playing with their toys. This morning I told them that they needed to clean the basement before they could watch any television shows. Gillian nodded and started to pick up some toys. John asked "How many?" I understand that, sometimes we tell them to only pick up a certain number of toys. But not today. Today they needed to clean up all the toys. John understood and started to clean up. Meanwhile, Gillian was playing. I called her over to me and told her that she needed to clean and not play. She said "I don't wanna!" I told her that I didn't make the mess and that she needed to clean it up. She said "no!" I told her that she had two options, clean the basement or go to timeout. She started to clean. But the second I turned away she would stop and play or sing a song or read a book. It took them about 45 minutes to clean the basement. It will probably be a mess again by tomorrow. 

Cake, part 2

Last night was Little Kyle's birthday party. Aunt Trish made cupcakes with blue and white icing and a cake too. Gillian inspected the cupcakes and decided she wanted a blue one. She licked all the icing off first and then attacked the cake. She ended up with blue icing all over her face, but she enjoyed it!

Today, our neighbor, Mr. Matt, dropped off a big piece of wedding cake. He and Miss Brittany got married last night and he thought the kids would enjoy some cake. The kids had some cake for dessert. John said "It's better than delicious! It's delish!" Gillian didn't say anything about the cake, but she did pick up about half of it on her fork and try to shove it in her face. I think she liked it.  

Pigs

Last week John's class was learning the letter P. Yesterday he brought home some of his art projects from last week. He was so excited to show me his pigs. One is made out of paper plates. He made a big point of telling me, "It's all pink. See I didn't leave any white!" The other pig was made out of a toilet paper roll. He told me, "It's a puppet. See I can put my fingers in the bottom. And it's a puppet! And look, he has a tail." 

Donuts

I picked the kids up from school today. In the car I asked the kids what they wanted for dinner. Gillian said "Yogurt!" John thought about it for awhile, then he said "Fancy grilled cheese!" In our house a fancy grilled cheese is basically a cheese quesadilla. 

I needed to pick up jelly so we needed to stop at the store. We got to the store and John went right to the carts, "Can we get this one?" I told him no. This was going to be a quick trip and we would carry everything we were buying. He said "Don't worry Mom! I'll carry everything." We got three steps in the door and John said "Can we get donuts?" How can you say no to that? Plus they ganged up on me. Once Gillian heard donuts, she joined John in the fight. "I like donuts! I get the black ones?" They both carried their donuts thru the store and John carried the bag to the car and to the house when we got home. 

When we got home, John asked "Can we have donuts for dessert?" I said yes. As I was making the fancy grilled cheeses, John asked "Can you open the box now? I know we can't have it now, but can you just open the box now?" All I'm thinking is that these donuts were a mistake. I said no and that we would open them when everyone was done. They ate the fancy grilled cheeses and they each got one donut for dessert (although Gillian tried to scam an additional donut). Then John had me write notes to put on the donut box, "Don't Touch! John's Donuts!" And one for Gillian's donuts too. What can I say, they love donuts!

Lazy Sunday

Today was raining and yucky all day. John and Gillian didn't complain at all about being inside all day. I think they were a little exhausted from playing outside all day yesterday. They spent most of the day in the basement playing with their toys. 

John came upstairs and said "I knew it! You are making cookies! I couldsmell them   downstairs!. He then stayed upstairs to help me cut out cookies. He is a good helper. Every time the timer went off, he would say "Mom! Do you hear that?"

We called the kids upstairs for dinner tonight. We could hear John on the stairs, but Gillian was crying. John yelled at her "Come on Gill! You know where the door is!" Daddy yelled downstairs and said "Did you turn the light off?" John said "Yea! But she knows where the door is!" Gillian, still crying, walked upstairs. She was not happy that John left her in the dark. And John got a lecture about turning the lights off when someone was still in the room. 

Softball, babies and bruises

Today Daddy had a softball game with his work colleagues. The softball field was at a park with a playground and a picnic area. When we arrived at the park this morning, it was raining a little bit. But a little rain did not stop the kids from playing on the playground. Their pants got wet but they didn't care. They climbed and slid and climbed some more. The rain stopped and we took out some toys that we brought. John had some super hero weapons and masks. Gillian had babies and a baby stroller. John immediately made friends with a couple of boys. They ran around the playground with the super hero weapons. They were playing nicely until John came running over to me crying. I asked him what happened. He said "I fell!" Poor boy didn't get hit, but fell going up the stairs of the playground. He fell headfirst into the stairs and hit his nose on the steps. He did a good job, his nose already look bruised when he came over to me. 

Gillian didn't meet friends right away. She was shy, but finally a little girl came over and asked if she could play with Gillian's babies. Gillian said yes. The little girl, Juliana, took the stroller for a walk. Her mom came running over and yelled at the little girl. I explained to the other mom that Juliana asked to play with it and Gillian said yes. Juliana's mom told me that Juliana likes to steal babies. Gillian and Juliana were best friends after this. They played on the playground together and pushed the babies in the stroller. There was a rock wall on the playground and on the back of the rock wall was a "fossil" of a dinosaur. The girls kept parking the stroller under the playground by the rock wall. Gillian would run over to me and say "The dragon is scaring the babies!"

We did watch Daddy play softball (a little) too. Daddy was up at bat and Gillian shouted "Go Daddy go!" Daddy hit the ball and ran to first base. John saw this happen and shout "Go Kyle!" All of Daddy's colleagues burst out laughing when they heard him. 

Outside

I love that the weather is getting nicer. John and Gillian have been playing outside everyday at school and when they get home they just want to play outside. When I got home tonight the kids were playing outside. I watched them play. John was collecting "helicopter seeds" and Gillian was following him around. He found the "helicopters" and brought them to the top of the slide and would drop them over the side. I called them inside when dinner was ready. John came running and Gillian cried. I think she was a little surprised that it was dinner time already. We ate dinner and when we were finished, John immediately asked "Can we go outside?" I can't argue with that. I sent them outside while we cleaned up the dishes. I went outside to see what they were doing. I pushed them on the swings for a little bit. Then John decided to get off, so that meant that Gillian was done with the swing too. Gillian went under the swing set and was pretending to serve John and I some milk. I am so glad that they have active imaginations and the desire to play outside. 

Cake

Gillian is clearly my daughter. She loves cake and chocolate. Here are a few of her cake stories. 

A month ago, we were at Daddy's cousin's baptism. While sitting at the table and talking Gillian pointed and screamed "Cake!" Yes, the cake was being served, but she didn't need to announce it to the entire room. 

On Sunday, we had dinner at Aunt Missy and Uncle T's house. I asked Gillian what she wanted to eat. She had a few options, hot dog, cheeseburger or chicken. Gillian pointed at the counter and said "I have that!" I didn't know what she was pointing at. I named a few things. She shook her head and repeated "I have that!" We finally realized that she was pointing at the pan of uncooked brownies. She ended up eating a cheeseburger and when dessert was served she gobbled up her brownie. While her mouth was full of brownie, she asked for more!

Today was Dorlisa's birthday. For her birthday, Dorlisa was having a pizza party for Gillian'a class. On our way to school I was talking to Gillian about the pizza party. Gillian wasn't too excited about the pizza. But she did say "I wanna pink cupacake!" I told her that Dorlisa may not have pink cupcakes, but all she did was argue with me about it. When I picked her up today, I asked about the party. She said "I have five pizzas! I have brown cupacake! It was delicious." So glad she enjoyed the cupcake and wasn't disappointed that it wasn't pink!  

Mother's Day weekend

John brought home his Mother's Day gift on Thursday last week. He "hid" it on the windowsill in his room behind the "window sheets" (aka curtains).  When I was tucking him in on Thursday night, he told me "I can't wait to give you your gift tomorrow." I explained to him that Mother's Day was Sunday. He was very disappointed. He went to school on Friday. That night, the kids wanted to have a sleepover in John's bed. It didn't last. They were too close. So we moved Gillian to her bed and left John in his room. 

Saturday morning, I was just waking up in my room and I could hear John get up out of bed and fumble with the hallway gate. He came into my room holding his Mother's Day gift. I felt bad. It hurt to tell him that Mother's Day was Sunday. He didn't care. He just wanted to give me the gift. He have me a plant and the pot was colored by him. He was excited to tell me "There are two other pictures. You can change them. And I didn't finish coloring the last one. And Miss MaryEllen tied the bow!" He also gave me a beautiful card. He wrote it all by himself. We went downstairs so he could color the other liner for the pot. Gillian woke up and found us in the living room. She saw me with John's gift and had to run upstairs to get her gift. She gave me a cute card and a keychain with her picture on it. 

Sunday morning, Daddy ran out to get coffee and yummy bagel sandwiches from our favorite bagel place. While Daddy was out getting breakfast the kids climbed into bed with me. We snuggled and giggled. John asked "Where's Daddy?" I told him that Daddy ran out and would be back. John said "Well he is either working or golfing!" 

I got to spend the rest of the day with my family. I am very lucky to have such wonderful kids (and husband). 

The wipers on the car go...

My kids are like all kids. They love automatic doors. John and Gillian think that they make the door open by sticking out their hand. They do this every time we go through an automatic door. And it is a competition to see who can "open" the door first. 

Yesterday morning, it was raining on our way to school. I started to back out of the driveway and Gillian was saying "Come up! Come up!" I couldn't figure out what she was talking about at first. Finally I realized that she was talking to the windshield wipers. She was telling them to come up and wipe the window. She did this the entire way to school. This morning as I buckled her into her carseat, she said "Come up! Come up! Swipers no working!"  

TV time

The kids have been really good the past couple of days, so they got to watch a few TV shows tonight. They mainly watch shows on Netflix. Since John knows how to operate the remote he normally gets to pick what they watch. They started watching an episode of Super Hero Squad.  During Super Hero Squad, there is normally a point where all the super heroes "Hero Up" like the clip below.

Tonight while watching and the Hero Up started, John said "Finally a Hero Up sequence!"

We have also discovered, that when the kids watch TV, John has a tendency to walk around the room.  Gillian likes to sit on the couch.  John starts in one spot and then gets closer and closer to the TV (unless something scares him, then he hides from the TV).  If he happens to stand in front of Gillian, then she will shout "Can'tseetheTV!"  And yes, she says it so fast it sounds like one word.   

No nap

I picked the kids up from school today. In the car on our way home, I asked the kids about their day. Gillian said "I don't wanna talk about it now!" She crossed her arms and refused to talk to me. I asked John about his day. He said "It was great. Mom, can I tell you something?" I said of course. He said "I saw Gillian in timeout today. I was walking past her classroom and she was in the hallway." I asked Gillian if she went to timeout today. She said "No!" I asked John if he was sure she was in timeout. He said "I think so. She was all by herself in the hallway. And then she took a nap." I said maybe that was the problem. Maybe she didn't take a nap and she was in the hallway because she was making too much noise. Gillian did you take nap? Then Gillian burst into tears. She calmed down and John and I stopped talking for a little while. I looked back at the kids and told them that they looked like sleepyheads. Gillian said "Not me! Johnny is sleepy! Not me!" I said you look sleepy to me. She again burst into tears "I not sleepy. I don't wanna nap!" Clearly someone did not nap at school today. 

Dress-up

Gillian loves to play dress-up. She loves wearing her princesses dresses and more recently she has started to dress up as a super hero. She loves to wear John's cape and all the various super hero masks. She always asks for help with the masks and they need to be placed on her head so that she can see, but not out of the eye holes. I don't think she likes to have the mask on her face.

On Sunday, she wore the red cape, carried Captain America's shield, Ironman's blaster and Wolverine's mask. Daddy says that most days she wears a princess dress and fairy wings under the cape, shield, blaster and masks. Love that she knows all the super hero names and that she mixes the princess with the super hero.

Costco adventures

In the car on our way to Costco today, I said to Daddy "What's that clicking sound?" The clicking I heard sounded like it was coming from the engine. But from the backseat, Gillian said "It's me!" And she started clicking her tongue and continued to do it until we got to the store. The kids love going to Costco. They like sitting next to each other in the cart and they love the samples. Today we went to a different Costco than usual, because we had other errands to do this morning. We rolled into the store. John proudly showed the greeter my Costco card. He then said "Wow! I'm really impressed!" Daddy and I asked him why he was impressed. He said "Cause they moved everything around! I'm really impressed!" We explained to him that it was a different store. He said "But it's Costco!" Again we explained that it was Costco just not the same Costco we normally go to.

We went through the entire store and got to the register. We left the kids in the cart as the ladies rang us up and loaded the cart. The one lady said hello to the kids. You never know how they will respond. Either they will not say anything or they will talk their ear off. Today it was the latter. Gillian said "Them are my parents!" The lady giggled. John said "Don't squish the bread! We don't like squished bread!" So embarrassing! Daddy and I simultaneously said "John!" Luckily the lady was very understanding and said "I won't squish it! I don't like squished bread either."

Too much FaceTime

Yesterday we called Mimi for her birthday. We had Daddy's phone on speaker so Mimi could hear both of the kids. John talked first and then Gillian got a turn. She said "Happy Birthday! Look at my kitty!" And she took the phone and pointed it at her shirt. She was trying to show Mimi the kitten on her t-shirt. This is not the first time Gillian has done something like this. Daddy and I think it is because she is used to using our phones to do FaceTime. So anytime she is on the phone she thinks the other person can see her. She has done this to Grandma too, asking her "Can you see me?" Another time, Gillian was watching videos of Winston and Jaxx on Aunt Missy's phone. She kept yelling at the dogs as if they could hear her.

Playground

It was so nice outside today. Daddy picked up the kids and decided to go to a local playground. I met them there. John had already made a friend by the time I arrived. John was chasing the little boy all around the playground. Then John started yelling, "Hey! I got a sister! Her name is Gillian!" "Hey I'm over here!" Then John banged his head on a slide and he blamed it on the little boy. I made John apologize. It wasn't the boy's fault. He was no where near John.

Gillian was playing contently by herself. She would climb up a ladder and go down the slide. Or climb up the rock wall. One time she went down the slide and then lost her footing and fell down. She giggled and got back up again. She went down the slide again and "fell" at the bottom. Again she giggled. She thought it was so funny. "I fell down!"

John's new friend had to go home. So it was just John and Gillian on the playground for awhile. Gillian was trying to climb the rock wall. She had done it a few times during our trip but somehow she lost her confidence. John stood at the top of the jungle gym and said "Come on Gill! You can do it! Keep going!" That's all she needed, a little support from her big brother.

Passing the buck

Tonight, Daddy and I asked Gillian to get her brother for dinner. He was upstairs in his room. She started to walk toward the stairs and stopped. "I can't do it." Again, we encouraged Gillian to go upstairs to get John. She looked at us, pointed at me and said "Mom can do it!"

During dinner, Gillian didn't really want to eat dinner. She kept starting conversations to keep herself busy. At some point she pointed to my glass and said "I drink that?" I told her, "No, it's Mommy's milk." Gillian shook her head and said "That's not milk! You no drink milk!" She was right. I'm not sure why I said milk. It just came out. I was drinking water. Can't get anything past The Bean.