How was your day?

Tonight I picked up Gillian, in the car on our way to John's school, I asked "How was your day?" She said "I can't talk to you now." I asked "Why not?" She said "I can't talk to you now. I'm talking to my bunny." And she didn't talk to me. I could hear her whispering to Clovee. But she didn't say anything to me until we were almost to John's school. 

We picked up John and once everyone was in the car, I asked "John, how was your day?" John said "Good. I guess. I don't remember. Gill? Did you hear mom?" She said "I'm not talking about it now." And that was it. I never officially heard about anyone's day. 

Sweet dreams

I always check on the kids before I go to sleep. I give them an extra kiss and make sure they are covered with their blankets. They are so innocent and sweet when they are asleep. Here are some of my favorite recent sleeping pictures. 

 

In the hall

Gillian wanted to watch Frozen again this weekend. We have been singing the songs ever since. Tonight at dinner, we were listening to Pandora and "Do you want to build a snowman?" came on. The kids faces lit up and they sang along.  It came to the line "Do you want to build a snowman? Or ride our bikes around the halls?" Gillian said "That's bad. You have to ride the bikes outside. Not in the hall!"

Tee-Ball

Daddy signed John up for instructional Tee-Ball.  This Saturday was his first session.  We got there early.  John and Gillian had plenty of time to play on the playground and make a few new friends.  Aunt Betty arrived just in time for John's first session.  We went to the field and John met his coaches and teammates.  They started by running all the bases and learning all the names of the bases.  Then each kid got a chance at bat.  When John went up to bat, he hit righty and had a hard time. 

Next they got split into two teams.  John was on the orange team and his team got to go up to bat first.  The coach lined up four tees and each kid stood by a tee.  We made sure that John told the coach "I'm a lefty!"  John had a much easier time hitting lefty. 

He hit the ball three times and as you can see at the end of the video, he was really impressed that one coach kept catching his ball.  Then they switched and the other team got to hit the ball.  John was very patient and well behaved in the dugout. 

 

Then John's team got up at bat.  And this time, the other team was in the outfield.  They were each given one person to watch and they had to catch their partner's ball.  John did great in the outfield.  He knew exactly which ball to watch and went running for it. 

    
The last thing they did was my favorite.  Everyone got a chance up at bat.  Once they hit the ball, and put down the bat, they had to run the bases.  Then the coach would motion to the kids in the "dugout" and they would chase after him. 

Daddy got the best video of John in slow motion.  Check out that form!

We had a great time at tee-ball.  I am looking forward to next week.

Tuesday

Tonight, Gillian said to me "I want to go back to GiGi's house." I smiled and said "Maybe we can go back this summer." Gillian said "When?" I said "This summer." Gillian asked "When? Tuesday?" I said "No. Not Tuesday." She said "Wednesday? Thursday? Friday? The next day?" 

When Daddy got home, he asked Gillian "I heard you want to go back to GiGi's house." Gillian said "I want to go yesterday!" She cracks me up. I love that they had such a good time and want to go back again. 

The magazine

Gillian got her National Geographic Little Kids magazine in the mail today. When John and I got home, she ran across the living room, grabbed the magazine, and said "No! It's mine!" She made sure no one would take her magazine. 

Before bedtime, John reads to us. While John was reading tonight, Gillian was looking at her magazine. She flipped through the pages and Daddy stopped her on a page with a bunch of pictures  of animals. 

Daddy asked "Can you name these animals?" Gillian pointed at each picture starting at the top left and said "Llama, llama, llama, lama, llama, llama, llama, llama and llama!" We giggled and Daddy said "You know the animals!" Gillian then named all the animals correctly. She continued looking through the magazine and was excited to find a llama! She said "Look a llama! It's a white one!"

The kiss

I picked up Gillian from school yesterday. She came running to me and said "Dorlisa give us all kissies!" I started to say "That's nice", but I was interrupted by her teacher. She said "Hersey kisses. Dorlisa gave everyone a Hersey kiss." Gillian and I said goodby to her friends and went to her cubby. I said "I put your kids in your backpack. You can have it for dessert." She said "I want it now!" I repeated, "You can have it for dessert." We got her sweatshirt on and walked outside. Again she said "But I want it now." I said "I know. But you can't have it now. You can have it for dessert." She fell to her needs and sat on the sidewalk. I had to carry her to the car. The whole time she was saying "But I want my kissie!" She was screaming by the time we got to the car. I buckled her in and said "Because of this tantrum, you lose Clover tonight." Well this didn't make things better. She screamed the entire car trip home. 

At home, she calmed down. She came over to me after dinner and hugged my legs. I picked her up and gave her a big hug. She said "Do you still like me?" I explained to her "I love you. I am not happy about your behavior and your attitude." She said "I don't got an attitude." She is a fiesty little lady, but I would never change her. 

Easter Morning

Since we were visiting GiGi and Pop-Pop for Easter this year, we brought the kids Easter baskets with us. The kids put out their empty baskets for the Bunny to fill.  When we tucked them into bed last night, we asked "Do you think the Eastwe Bunny will find us here?" Gillian immediately responded "Yes! Hims will find us!" John was a little unsure "I don't think so." 

John woke up first this morning, and we had to wake up Gillian. The two of them searched everywhere for their baskets. Finally John spotted them in the great room. He said "I told you he would come!" Gilly said "He found us!" I didn't get any pictures of the kid's baskets or them finding the baskets. They were super excited to get jump ropes, bubbles, bouncy balls, chocolate bunnies, Legos, a necklace, princesses and super heroes. 

After opening baskets, we all went out to get breakfast. After breakfast, we returned back to GiGi and Pop-Pop's house. Daddy saw that the Easter Bunny left some eggs around the house. The kids figured out that the Bunny left green and blue eggs for John and pink and purple eggs for Gillian. The kids were awesome this year. They really worked as a team. We heard a lot of "John, over there!" Gilly, I see a pink one!" 

We went inside to see what was inside the eggs. John was super excited to find a quarter in one egg. "I'm rich!" he said. In a big egg, he found gold coins. I said "Look John, you got Gold Doubloons!" This made him very excited. He said "Yes! Gold Doubloons! Hey, are these chocolate?" 

I asked the kids "What was your favorite part of today?" John said "Finding all the eggs." Gillian said "The candy." As always Daddy and I enjoyed spending time with our kids and Daddy's family too. 

Happy Easter!

Quad ride

Gigi and Pop-Pop have a house on top of a mountain and we call it the ranch. We decided to go up and spend Easter with Gigi and Pop-Pop this year. The kids came up on Thursday night with Mimi and Poppy. Uncle T, Aunt Missy, Daddy and I came up this afternoon. We arrived to find the kids outside playing. John, Uncle T and Daddy went for a quick ride on the quads. 

While Gilly, Aunt Missy and I took Gillian's baby's for a little walk. As we were walking, Gillian said "Maybe I get a ride back!" When we saw Daddy, we asked if he would take her for a little spin. So joined Uncle T and Gillian got on Daddy's quad. 

 

She loved it. She was grinning ear to ear every time I saw her. Daddy even showed off how Gillian would hold the throttle. He said "Ok Gilly, make us go." She grinned and hit the throttle and off they went. 

We asked the kids if they would like to go for a quad ride again tomorrow. Gillian immediately said "Yes!" John said "Yes. You just need a little faith and trust."

Grandma's house

The kids slept over Grandma's house on Saturday night. I went to pick them up on Sunday. John was not happy to see me. He said "Can I talk to you?" And he pulled me outside and aaid "You know, it's just the beginning of spring break. I thought I would get to stay longer." I told him that he would be back again on Tuesday. 

John spent today at Grandma's house with Sammie and Kyle. He looked exhausted when I arrived. They had a busy day. Even though he was exhausted he said to me in the car "Am I going back again tomorrow?" I'm so glad he had a good time with his cousins and grandparents. 

A zoo or China

A few weeks ago when I picked John up from school, he asked me "Can we go to a zoo? Or China?" It turns out that he was working on a panda puzzle and wanted to see pandas in their natural habitat. This week is John's spring break. I decided I would surprise him and take him to a zoo. I gave him a few clues, but he wasn't able to guess. 

This morning we got in the car and before we hit the parkway, he said "The zoo! We're going to the zoo!" He was right. We were headed to the Cape May Zoo. We arrived before the gates opened. John played on the huge playground while we waited for the zoo to open. Then we headed inside. John led the way. He is really good at reading maps!

We walked around and saw a cow, an owl, some goats and peacocks. Then I pointed out two bald eagles. John said "They are like the most important animals here." I asked "Why?" He said "Because they represent our country!" 

We walked through the bird house. Two steps inside the door, John said (very loudly) "It stinks in here!" I shhhed him and we walked through and checked out all the various species. He even remembered, "Flamingos are pink because they eat shrimp!"

We saw a camel, some llama (Gillian would have loved them), bison, a lion, a capybara, and a bunch of turtles. The turtles were all sunning themselves on the rocks on the edge of their pond. John told me "I can't wait to tell Travis about all the turtles! They must be friends."

 

Next we saw some snow leopards, giraffes, an ostrich and zebra. We also saw a red panda. Now this wasn't the kind of panda John had hoped to see, but he was still very excited. 

We walked through the reptile house. John pointed out every snake, lizard and turtle to me. He loved seeing all the turtles. We checked out the sea otters and a few more animals. Then we took a little break and John went on the carousel and we both road the train. 

We visited the gift shop. John picked out a stuffed snow leopard for himself and a stuffed sea otter for Gillian. We had a little lunch. After lunch I asked John, "Do you want to go back and see any of the animals again or do you want to go home?" "Well, I want to take my new friends to see their relatives." Basically he wanted to take the snow leopard and the sea otter back to their exhibits. You can't say no to that so we headed back. 

On our way back through the zoo, John said "I can't believe no animals are following me!" I asked "What are you talking about?" He said "Well I'm a boy that likes nature. And I thought that animals would know that and would follow me around the zoo. Cause they would know that I am nice to animals and nature." I love his big heart. 

I had a great day wth my boy. I can't wait to do it again!

What's your many?

We frequently ask the kids "How old are you?" They then either tell us their age or hold up their fingers to show how old they are. I guess over the past year, we have been asking Gillian "How many are you?" And she holds up her three little fingers. 

This past week was a big birthday week for our family, Grandma on Wednesday, Poppy on Thursday and Mommy on Friday. After telling the kids all about the birthdays, Gillian asked me "What's your many?" I told her how I was turning 35. Daddy joked "She's getting really old." John came to my defense and said "Hey, at least she is not 53!" That didn't satisfy Gillian. I had to show her how many I turning on my fingers. I cheated and held up one hand with three fingers and five fingers on the other hand. She seemed satisfied. Just be warned. If Gillian asks you "What's your many?" She really wants to know "How old are you?"

Ooh La La

I have established that Gillian is very silly. She gets little words or phrases stuck in her head and uses them constantly. Last year it was "Best Ever." If she liked you she would say "Mommy best ever!" Her new favorite thing to say is "Ooh La La." If I pick out a cute outfit in the morning she says "Ooh La La!" If you don't acknowledge that she said it, she says "I say Ooh La La!" 

We went to the doctor on Tuesday. Gillian was diagnosed with an ear infection. As Dr. Yee wrote out the prescriptions and handed them to me, Gillian said "Ooh La La!" If she only knew how much she would hate the medicine. 

I love all her "Ooh La La's." It is quite the compliment. 

The art show

Tonight was the art show at John's school. When I got home from work, I asked John if he wanted to go. He said "Can we?" I said yes. Daddy asked "Do you want me to go?" John said "Yup! But who's going to watch Gill?" 

We pulled into the lot at school and got an awesome parking spot (it was right out front). John ran to the front door. We had to keep telling him to slow down. We barely made it inside when John said "That's Shawn. Hi Shawn!" He led us down a hallway and was practically running. We told him to slow down so that we could see all the exhibits. The first grade students created their own universe. John's universe "Looks like our universe, but it has extinct animals. Like dinosaurs!" 

We walked through the rest of the exhibit and ended up at John's classroom. I held Gillian so she could see inside. She said "Wow!" He told us what table he sits at. And then we checked out his spring project outside his classroom. 

We ran into a few more of John's friends on the way out. When we walked out the front door, John asked "Are you sure you don't have to go to the bathroom?" He was so proud of showing us around his school. He desperately wanted to impress us with his knowledge. I was impressed. He has grown up quite a bit over this past year. 

Pajamas

Every night after bathtime, I dry off John and then send him to his room to get pajamas. He is pretty good at picking out his pajamas. Tonight I sent him to his room and finished rinsing the soap out of Gillian's hair. A few minutes later we heard a crash and then a cry. I ran in his room to find him sitting on the floor with his pajama drawer on the floor in front of him. I asked him what happened. He said "I was looking for pajamas and it fell." And he burst into tears. Apparently he hit his back on his bed when the drawer came out. We told him that he needs to be more careful. He said "I didn't know that was going to happen!"

Smellies

Daddy likes to use Vic's vapor rub whenever the kids have a cold. When John was little he renamed Vic's, Smellies. Tonight I went to give Gillian some bedtime kisses and I said "Oh Daddy put on the Smellies!" She nodded and said "Can you smell it? It makes me feel better!" I gave her kisses and squeezies and went to see John. He asked "What are Smellies?" I said "You know what they are! Daddy puts it on your chest when you have a cold and it helps you breathe better at nighttime." He didn't seem to remember at all. Since he has the beginning of Gillian's cold, I rubbed some on his chest too. I said "Do you remember now? When you were little you called them Smellies." He said "Yeah, but what's it's real name?" Where's my little boy? When did he get so big?

Llama

Tonight at dinner, we were talking about John's favorite animal.  He said "I bet you don't even know what my favorite animal is!"  Gilly didn't hesitate and said "A llama!"  He said "No!  It's not a llama."  Daddy and I joked with him and said "We know.  You don't have any secrets.  We know everything."  He said "You don't know!"  Gillian again said "It's a llama." He said "It's not a llama.  My first favorite animal is a lion!"  Daddy said "Yup.  I knew it!"  John said "You didn't.  And I bet you don't know what my second favorite animal is!"  Gilly said "A llama."  John said "No.  I'll give you a hint.  It is a dark animal."  Daddy said "What?"  John said "It's a dark animal that flies."  Gillian said "A llama."  John said "No.  It's a dark animal that flies."  Daddy said "I know.  There's a superhero that uses it too."  John didn't understand and said "It's not a superhero.  It's an animal."  Gillian said "A llama."  I whispered to Gillian "Say nah nah nah."  She did.  But John didn't understand our little hint.  So I said "It's a bat!"  He said "I bet you don't know my third favorite animal!"  Gillian said "A llama!" By this point, any time Gillian said llama, I would just start laughing.  Her timing was perfect and hilarious.  John didn't find it funny at all.  All he wanted to do was talk about his favorite animals.  He said "No.  It starts with an O."  Gillian again said "Llama?"  John said "Gill, that doesn't start with O.  It's an orca!"  Gillian said "A llama?"   

Dinner and homework

While preparing dinner tonight, I had a pot of water on the stove. John came over and blew at the flames on the burner. I said "What are you doing?" He said "What? It's flambago!" 

For the past couple of nights, Clover (Gillian's bunny) has been sitting in the baby seat at the dinner and breakfast table. Gillian likes to tell us what he is eating. At breakfast, "Him is eating carrot muffins!" At dinner tonight, "Clover is eating carrot soup! Him is a good boy!"

After dinner, John had to study for his spelling test. I would give him a word to spell and he would write it on a dry erase board. I said "Tight." While John was sounding out the word and trying to spell it Gillian tried to help. She said "No. Kite. Write kite." She wasn't helping. 

Jinx

Gilly is always trying to jinx someone. But she really doesn't understand how to do it. Tonight at dinner, she and John said something similar and she yelled "Jinx!" John said "That's not how it works! You need to say the same thing at the same time. Count with me." They both said "One, two, three." And John said "Jinx!" And then a few seconds later Gillian said "Jinx!" John whined "You can't say that if you can't talk." I explained to Gillian that to jinx someone you need to say the same thing at the same time. She said to me "Ok. Count!" I said "I'm not counting. You're going to jinx me!" She said "Come on talk!" I didn't say anything. So she said "blah, blah, blah, blah. Jinx!" 

Paying attention

Gilly and I ran to the food store tonight. In the car on our way there, Gilly sad "See that red spot?" She was pointing at her shoe. I said "No." It's kinds hard to look at shoes when you are driving. Anyway, she says "It's Ryan'a strawberry. He wasn't paying attention and I step on his strawberry." Sounds more like Gillian wasn't paying attention. So she continued her story, "Him doesn't like strawberries and he knocked them down. Sophia (his twin sister) at them all. Her likes strawberries. But Ryan wasn't paying attention. So I step on them and get red on my shoe!"