french toast

john's favorite breakfast food is french toast.  john decided this morning that he wanted french toast for breakfast.  and of course he wanted to help.  we got the eggs, cinnamon, bread, butter and frying pan.  guess what john was in charge of...

check out all the cinnamon

i can't get mad, because he eats it up.  he loves french toast and so does gillian.



being shy

sitting in a big chair

friday night

daddy got stuck in court today therefore i had to pick up the kids. friday nights we normally treat ourselves to a meal out. since it was just the kids and i, we went to mcdonald's. i know. not a very nutritious meal, but our mcdonald's has an indoor playground. normally, i wouldn't attempt to go without backup, but i know that john needs to get some exercise. it has been cold the past couple of days and they haven't been able to play outside. we got there, ordered food and sat down. within 15 seconds of sitting, john says "potty, potty, potty!" i quickly grab gillian and we run to the restrooms. and luckily it was quick and we got back to our food a few minutes later. we ate and played with the touchscreen computer at our table. then john got to play on the playground.  he would climb up a level and then shout "mommy, do you see how high i am?"  gillian got to play too.  there is a small area for toddlers.  daddy called and said he was almost home and decided to meet us there.  john kept playing, but gillian immediately ran to daddy when he walked in.  after daddy ate, we headed home.

when we got home, we fed the fish.  feeding the fish is john's job, so we have to move a chair next to the tank so he can reach.  gillian immediately climbed into the chair and pointed at the tank and said "fish."  we then went upstairs to get the kids in their jammies.  i was changing gillian and daddy was in charge of getting john changed.  john was in gillian's room and was arguing with daddy.  he wanted daddy to change him in gillian's room.  daddy said to john "get your ass in here."  and without fail, john says "ass."

you would think that daddy learned his lesson after the last time (check out this post the parrot). 

timeout

we use timeout in our house as a form of discipline. we base the length of time in timeout on the age of the child. john is four years old and spends four minutes in timeout.

i had to put one of the kids in timeout tonight. i know you are expecting that i had to put john in timeout. not tonight. my sweet little gillian bit her brother. he was sitting on the couch with me and she wanted to get in my lap. as she was climbing on the couch she leaned over and bit his leg. i immediately put gillian in timeout while daddy examined the wound. gillian's timeout spot is john's chair. it's soft and easy for mommy to keep her in the chair. as i am trying to keep her in the chair (for the whole minute and a half), john comes over and tells me "mommy you are punishing her and thats not nice." he continued "it's not nice to punish her in someone else's chair."

dinosaurs

john loves dinosaurs. he got a triceratops pillow pet for christmas this year. along with some dinosaur books. yesterday he was reading gillian one dinosaur book. she loved the snugglely time with her brother. later in the day, we caught her reading the book by herself. all we heard was gillian growling. we like to think that she was making noises like the dinosaurs.

tonight after bath time, gillian had the monkey towel and john got the monster towel. john pretended to be a scary monster and was growling at gilly. she wasn't afraid of him. she laughed and laughed. after a few minutes, she started to growl back at him.

he said what?

john says a lot of funny things. here is a short list of his funniest:

anatomy: in john's world a forehead is called a "poi-head"

flatulence: "when you toot, your tushy is saying: go potty, go potty, go potty."

obedience: "it's hard to be good when gilly is around."

famous people: "wait a minute. did you say yoshi? i know him!"

introductions: after meeting gillian for the first time, he said "where's cooper?"

bieber: "i don't like justin bieber. only girls like justin bieber."

furniture: john don't sit on the table. "but mommy, it's my table!"

yard work: "daddy, we need a monkey to help us. he could climb up the tree and cut the branch."

television: "daddy, do you want to watch clues clues? it's really cool!"

hot food: "mommy, my dinner is hot. put it in the refrigerator it will make it cold. you gotta trust me."

pets: "i wish i had a dragon."

proper names: john thinks and says his full name is "john daniel locascio big brother to gillian"

grandma's house

i am very lucky. my parents and daddy's parents are local. and both sets of grandparents love to watch the kids. we started a new school in december and i was told that the school was open the week in between christmas and new years. unfortunately i discovered (after i submitted my vacation request) that was not the case. the kids school was only open on wednesday and thursday of that week. we had off on monday, so i needed sitters for tuesday and friday. mimi and poppy (daddy's parents) took the kids on tuesday and on friday the kids went to grandma's house (mommy's parents).

gilly eating her sammich

the kids had a great day at mimi's house on tuesday.  they were able to spend some quality time with gigi (their great grams).  plus they got to go to the "grilled cheese sammich store"  (aka panera).  gilly and gigi tried to take a nap, but got interrupted with a little messy diaper.  after a quick change of clothes, gilly was not willing to go down for another nap.  so they got to play and they also got to take gigi to meet pop-pop so they could go home to their puppies.   

gillian and aunt betty outside

i dropped the kids off at grandma's on friday and john was able to wake up aunt betty.  they immediately settled in and ate their breakfast.  i left them.  after breakfast, john got to watch the dinosaur train show with grandpa.  he loved the dinosaur train.  they got to watch it again later in the day.  they had played outside with chalk.  aunt betty put together some betty's clues for john to solve.  all the clues directed john to making pretzel dough.  john and gillian gave aunt betty a hot pretzel maker for christmas.  and as we all know, john loves to cook.  making pretzel dough was a perfect project.  the dough needed to rise a little bit.  they had lunch and then it was time for gillian's nap.  gilly is a good napper.  well, she needs to fall asleep first after that she can sleep for two hours or so.  aunt betty tried to rock her to sleep, but she called in the big guns: grandma.  grandma rocked gilly and got her to fall asleep. 



making pretzel dough



sleeping angel



while gillian was napping, john and aunt betty played betty's clues again.  this time the clues directed john to watch a movie with aunt betty.  they started to watch cars 2 and i guess my little critic decided that he didn't like that movie and they had to switch to something else.  sorry, i can't seem to remember what they decided to watch.  they had a great day at grandma's house!

john playing his "ds" in grandpa's chair

popcorn

i love popcorn. john and gillian love it too. we occasionally do movie night and make a big bowl of popcorn to go with it. aunt missy and uncle t gave us a popcorn maker. daddy and i knew right away that it would be a big hit.

early this morning we promised john that we would have a movie night and use our new popcorn maker to make our snack. john was super excited to use the new popcorn maker. at one point today he was misbehaving and we threatened to cancel movie night. he burst into tears. "but i wanna make popcorn!" don't worry we didn't cancel movie night.

after dinner, john quickly got the box with the popcorn maker in it. and we started the process. john and gilly pulled a chair over and watched the maker in action. i wish i had it on video. the two of them jumped when the first kernel popped. and then after that they laughed and jumped up and down in excitement. john kept saying "and it goes pop pop pop!" who would have thought that the popcorn maker would have been more exciting than the movie.