Dance Party

We had a little dance party tonight in the basement.  The kids really took advantage of the open space. Of course I got videos of all their awesome moves.

I love Gillian's interpretative dance moves at the beginning of this video.

I love John at the end of this video.

 



Finally, the kids kept playing air guitar, so Daddy took out a couple of Rock Band guitars for them to dance with.  Gillian is a real natural with the guitar. 

As always the dance party was a lot of fun.

Backwards

The kids went to bed a little after 8 tonight. I could hear them still moving around by 8:45. So I went to check on them. Gillian was laying with her feet on her pillow. I giggled and gave her a kiss. She said "You know, I'm backwards!" I laughed. "Yes Gillian I can see that." She said "Whatcha doing in here?" I said "I just wanted one more hug. She did a reverse somersault and stood up. She jumped into my arms and gave me a big hug. I laid her back in her bed and tucked her in. I also checked on John. He was still awake, but now had two extra blankets on top of him. He said "I just wanted to get really warm!" I gave him a kiss and went back to my room. 

I checked on them a little while ago. Gillian was asleep laying on top of her covers, but with her head on the pillow. John was also asleep, but was already sweating. Maybe he has just one too many blankets. 

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. 

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. 

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?

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!" 

Snowy Tuesday

When I got home today (after an hour and half drive home), I found Gillian snuggling on the floor in the living room. She said "I was cold. And I take your blanket!" How can you get mad at that?  

We waited patiently for John to get off the bus. My poor little boy was stuck on the for almost two hours! But he was still happy to be home with us. I was a little surprised to see that he was assigned four spelling assignments due on Thursday. I made him a deal, we would watch one tv show and then do one assignment. He was ok with the deal until I turned off the tv. He whined but we for the assignment completed and he was able to watch another tv show. We ended up completing two spelling assignments and a math worksheet this way (less for mommy to do tomorrow).

After bath, Daddy found Gillian and I in Gillian's room. He said "Hi pretty girl." And Gillian said "We was jumping on the couch. With no cushions!" This is funny for two reasons: 1) No one questioned Gillian. She freely gave us this info. 2) Daddy yelled at the kids yesterday and told them not to jump on the couch. 

As I tucked the kids into bed, Gillian said "Let's talk." I snuggled with Gillian and she told me all about Repunzel and Cinderella. When she was done with Cinderella's story she said "Let's talk about ponies." And she started to tell me all about Twilight Sparkle. I had to stop her because it was getting late (and I still needed to tuck in John). She wasn't happy with me but I have a feeling that tomorrow night I will learn about all the ponies. 

I love my kids and I can't wait to see what adventures we have tomorrow. 

The magician

John got a magic kit for Christmas.  He opened it today and learned a few tricks to show me.  The first one was a magic box.  I had to pick a color on a cube then put it in the box.  He then put the box behind his back and then "guessed" the color I picked.  Of course, he guessed my color.  I was completely amazed.  As I was praising him for learning such a great magic trick, he said to me "Want to know how I did it?"  Clearly he has a lot to learn about keeping magician's secrets. 

Later he found me in Gillian's room, "Mom!  I need quarters!  Two of them!  I'm learning a new trick!"  I told him where he could find quarters and he ran away.  He came back later with a magic wand.  I asked him, "Did you find the quarters?"  He said "Nope, I learned a new trick!"  He then showed me how he could float the wand in the air. 

Once again, he showed me the secret to how he made the wand float. 

Before dinner, John had another trick to show me.  He had a rabbit that he made disappear.  I got this trick on video.  Enjoy.

Christmas

Christmas seemed to go by very quickly this year.  It would take too long to write about all of our adventures, but here are a few of my favorite memories:

On Christmas eve, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Gillian was the last one opening presents.  Because every present she opened she would say "I love it!"  Then hug whatever she got.  She did it with everything. 

Grandma made Gillian an upside down doll (it's a doll that doesn't have feet, when you flip up her skirt there's another baby on the other side).  Gillian named her sleeping doll "Ba-nana" and as she says "the wake up baby, Ba-neeny."  Silly names, but it was the first time she has named any of her baby dolls. 

Christmas morning, Daddy woke up me and said "Their awake!"  I could hear John waking up Gillian saying "It's Christmas!"  Then they came running into our room to wake us up.  "It's Christmas wake up!"

We all went downstairs to see if Santa came.  They went running towards the big pile of presents.  Gillian wasn't slow to open her gifts, but John was more methodical.  He opened everything from Santa and was a little sad.  We asked him why he was so sad.  He said "Because I didn't get Skylanders Swap Force.  The one thing I asked Santa for!"  We told him to get the gifts from Mommy and Daddy and open them.  He was very happy to see that he got Swap Force. 

We went to Mimi and Poppy's house in the late morning on Christmas.  After opening presents there, Gillian stood up and said "Is there anymore presents for me?"

Uncle Jay and Nicole brought John and Gillian gifts.  John loved his Superman toy so much that he had to put his coat on and take it outside.  He was joined by Uncle Jay, Daddy and Uncle T.  I love that all the boys had to try out the new toy too!

The morning after Christmas as I was getting John dressed, he said to me "I wish everyday could be Christmas!"  Me too, John.  Me too. 

St. Nick

I picked Gillian up from school today.  She was playing babies with Nicholas and Clarissa.  When she saw me she jumped up and hugged me.  Then she said "I got candy!"  She was so excited!  I asked her why, and she said "Nicholas came.  And him left us candy.  We put out our shoes (and she picked up her foot to show me her shoe) and him come."  Then Clarissa came over and said "I got candy too!" And Nicholas also said "I got candy too!"  I asked them, "Did St. Nick come during nap time?"  They were all trying to talk at once, but Clarissa won and said "We put out our shoes and ba-bam! We got candy!"  Then little Nicholas said "And I heard footsteps on the ceiling!"  They all nodded in agreement.  I love all their imaginations. 

Oh John

Today we were running errands with the kids.  In the car, I told the kids that they needed to behave at while we were shopping or there would be no shows when we got home.  John said "Well I mostly cleaned the basement."  When he said "mostly" he put his hands in the air and wiggled his fingers.  I really didn't think much of it.  But later tonight, he said something very similar and again raised his hands and wiggled his fingers.  Daddy and I realized that John was doing air quotes.  The best part is that he was actually using them appropriately. 

John doing air quotes

After dinner tonight, John read Daddy a few books (we read every night).  When John was done, Daddy asked him "Do you want to take shower now or later."  John said "Let's do it now.  I want to be efficient!"

The Lizard Guys

The Lizard Guys went to the kids school today.  John loved it when they visited last year (check out last year's blog post "Monday").  I couldn't wait to pick the kids up from school today to hear about all the animals that visited.  Check out the video below.  It's the kids telling me about their visitors. 

When Daddy got home from work, I had the kids tell him about their day.  Gillian changed her story and told Daddy that she didn't touch the snake.  And again, she said "There was a caterpillar!"  She also got mad at John when John corrected her and said "Gillian, there wasn't a caterpillar!" 

Funnies

Busy weekend here. Daddy rearranged the living room while Mommy was busy baking, shopping, and cleaning. Today the kids kept themselves busy by playing and basically just staying away from Mommy and Daddy. I went food shopping and Gillian greeted me at the door when I came home. She took a bag from me and I went back to the car to get the rest of the bags. Daddy found her rummaging through the bags. She told Daddy, "I can't find bananas! I look everywhere!"

Gillian was playing a Mickey Mouse game on Daddy's iPad. She was doing pretty well, but I guess she got stuck and asked John for help. He says "Sure. I've won this game lots of times!"

While I was baking, John was running around the kitchen. I stopped him on one of his laps and asked him if he could stop. "But Mom! I'm doing an obstacle course!"

Gillian has been potty trained for awhile now. But she has been having a lot of poopy accidents. We are trying everything to encourage her to go on the potty. Today we showed her nail polish and new dress up jewelry and told her that they would be hers if she went poops on the potty today. At some point she went in you the bathroom and after a few minutes called for help. Finally! She made it to the potty! After Daddy and I congratulated her, she said "I open presents now?" We painted her toes and told her that if she does it again tomorrow that she will get her finger nails painted too!