out and about

after being cooped up in the house all day yesterday, we got out for a little bit today.  nothing exciting, just breakfast at the diner and a quick food shopping trip.  the fun started with me telling johnny that we would be going out for breakfast.  he immediately countered with, "i'm having french toast."  i have to say, the kids were really good at the diner no problems today. 

we headed over to the a&p to pick up a few things.  in the parking lot, john went with daddy and i had gillian.  most things turn into a competition with john, and there was a race for the front door.  gilly and i had the handicap of putting gilly in the shopping cart.  so the boys won this time.  i walk in the doors of the store, and there was john with a gallon of apple cider.  "we won.  and i got the cider."  john then hands me the cider and jumps on the back of the cart.

i guess daddy hadn't seen john's new ability of riding on the back of the cart.  since john had an audience, he showed us some tricks.  there was a lot of "look what i can do."







i'm king of the world

after the cart tricks, we had john walk through the rest of the store.  it was a little hard for mommy or daddy to push the cart.  i was worried that he would just fall off.  so he created games with the different colored floor tiles.  we had to only step on the black or jump from one tile to the next. 

snow in october?

i saw the forecast for today.  i really didn't believe that it would snow in october, but planned to spend the day inside.  the morning was rough there was a lot of "no gilly, that's my toy" and "mommy, gilly's touching my stuff." 

gillian took her nap around noon, so i was able to start baking.  i promised john's teacher (plus the guys at work too) that we would bring in halloween cookies.  i got the dough ready and johnny joined me.  the first thing he says is "mommy, do you need more eggs?"  i got him started on the cookie cutters. 

normally he fights me and wants to roll out the dough, but today he was obsessed with the spatula.  it made things a lot easier for mommy to not have him help with the rolling pin.  gillian woke up in the middle of our baking, but she was content to watch from her high chair.  she became our official taste tester.   

during our baking, daddy was prepping the pumpkins for carving.  john decided the first pumpkin needed to be "mad. with one eye and an angry face."  while daddy was carving, johnny kept saying "daddy, he needs an eyebrow.  daddy, he needs more teeth."  daddy and john decided that gillian's pumpkin needed a silly face and the big pumpkin would have a happy face. 

after dinner a made a quick batch of chocolate chip cookies.  i gave the boys a big plate of warm chocolate chip cookies and milk for dessert.  i just caught john drinking some of the milk, and he was swishing it around in his mouth.  silly boy. 

off schedule

i've probably mentioned this before, but i keep my kids on a regular schedule. it is a lifesaver for a working mom. something has been off with gillian this week. on tuesday night she had a hard time falling asleep and then the fire station behind our house turned on the fire whistle. she (of course) woke up. not john - he is like his mommy. he will sleep thru anything. last night, gillian had another rough night. i put her down, while she was awake. she entertained herself for awhile. and then she started screaming. we went running to her and discovered a huge knot on her head. she must have hit her head on the crib and bruised immediately. the worst part was trying to put ice on the bump. she hated it and cried. tonight, she didn't want to go to sleep again. i had to rock her to sleep. something is different this week. the only thing i can think to explain it, is her teacher has been out sick this week. it's funny how one little thing can mess with the schedule or routine.

the question

gillian is fifteen months old today. and tonight in the bathtub, john asked where was gillian's "wee-wee". i went for the simple approach and told him that she was a girl so her "wee-wee" was different than his. he asked a few more times and my response was the same. finally he says "but i wanted a boy little sister." not quite sure about that reaction, but i am thankful that the discussion ended there.

the frosty

kyle had to run an errand tonight. he asked me if i wanted anything. i asked him to pick me up a frosty. john immediately says "I want dessert too." so kyle leaves and john is still walking around the kitchen saying he wants dessert too. i tell him that daddy is getting us chocolate frosties. "but i don't like chocolate i want a white one".

daddy gets back and the kids attack him (like i didn't feed them dinner). i was working on the computer so gillian was looking at john and begging him to give her some of his frosty. so john kept moving away from her. finally john looks to daddy for help. daddy says "it's because mommy is not being a good sharer." johnny says "well i'm not sharing!"

bumps & bruises

when john was first learning to walk, kyle and i decided that we didn't want a child that cried every time he fell down. so every time he fell, we would clap and say "yay!" it worked for us. he really only cries when he is really hurt. no fake crocodile tears for us. he is a tough guy. today he and another boy at school heads collided. john has a big lump on his head and all he says is "i got a boo-boo. fernando did it."

we have attempted the same thing with gillian. it's not working as well. partly because she likes the attention (she is a bit of a drama queen) and partly because john becomes very concerned when she cries. he immediately says "mom, gilly is crying. you need to fix her."

my little helper

john is in the helper phase. all I need to do is say, helper and he comes running. he helps me with everything. this morning he helped me wake up gillian. he is sweet and he tiptoed into her room. he was a little disappointed to find her awake. "mommy, she's awake already." in order to make it up to him, tonight he helped me set the table. it is pretty typical for john to help set the table. i normally stack the plates on the table for him (in the hopes that he won't break them). he can grab the utensils "but not the sharp knives."

not only does he help me around the house, but he loves to help daddy outside. this weekend the boys spent a couple of hours picking up sticks and raking leaves. johnny is the best at picking up sticks. although he may be a little messy with the leaves. his favorite part about leaf clean up is when he gets to do "jumpin johnny". which basically means that daddy picks him up and puts him into the bucket and has him jump on the leaves.