Grandma Blankets

My mom makes the most beautiful crocheted baby blankets. Every baby gets one. John still sleeps with his blanket. He calls it his "Grandma Blanket." When I was pregnant with Gillian my mom actually let me pick out the pattern and colors I wanted. I picked two shades of green. Gillian loves her blanket. I don't like it when kids have security blankets and I mean anything that kids become attached to (binkies, blankets or stuffed animals). I don't want her to become a Linus and therefore she isn't allowed to have her blanket outside of her bedroom. Gillian still loves her blanket. There are some mornings when she cries because I make her leave the blanket in her crib. There are other days when I find her in John's room holding his Grandma Blanket. She gets the blanket and sticks her fingers through the crotchets. She has already made a little hole in the middle of her blanket where the squares are sown together. I found her the other morning with her hand through a loop of yarn. I had to cut it so she wouldn't cut off circulation. Below are a few of my favorite pictures of Gilly and her blanket.

My Little Dinosaur

John has a book called "How Does a Dinosaur Say Goodnight?" It is one of his favorite books to read. Last weekend he got another book by the same author "How Does a Dinosaur Say I Love You?" Again this book has moved up in status to one of John's favorites. We have to be careful with books in our house. Gillian loves looking at them but she also likes destroying them. Tonight I found Gillian reading John's book very quietly. I kept an eye on her. She was good and didn't do any damage. She did occasionally roar while flipping through the pages. She then brought the book to me so that I could read it to her. After I was done reading she leaned over and kissed the dinosaur on the last page. That's my sweet dinosaur.

Super Hero Cookies

I received Super Hero cookie cutters for Christmas this year.  Check out this link to see a sample of the Super Hero Cookie Cutters.  John has been dying for me to make them.  I have been making my mom's recipe of butter thins with a simple coat of icing for years.  They are John's favorite cookies.  Check out my previous post about Cookies to get an idea of what I normally make. These cookies are a little more complicated than my normal cut out cookies.  John has been asking and asking me to make them.  I determined that I needed a little help with these cookies.  I couldn't just do my normal icing and have him be okay with that.  I have been following SweetDaniB on Facebook for awhile now.  I know that she sells an icing kit.  I have been wanting to buy one for myself, and now was the perfect opportunity.  I got my icing kit in the mail on Friday, and this weekend was the perfect opportunity to complete John's cookies. 

I started with red for Iron Man and Spiderman.  It was my first time using a new gel dye.  I couldn't get the red bright enough, so unfortunately it is pink.  After doing the red, I moved on to the blue for Captain America.  And then the green for the Hulk. 

stage one

I had to wait a few hours for my first base to dry.  Then my next step was the golden yellow for Iron Man and white for Spiderman's eyes and Captain America's A.  John checked on me when I was doing the white and I showed him my Captain America.  Within 10 seconds of looking at it, he says "Mommy, you need to put white on his wings."  And he was right.  I totally missed the wings.  When I was done with Captain America I added eyes and a mouth to Iron Man.  Again, I showed John my cookie and he goes "but mommy, you need black to go here and here.  Mommy, look at the box."  Ugh, seriously?!?  This little boy is such a rough critic. 

stage two

I took a little break and ran some errands and ate dinner.  After dinner I tackled the black around Spiderman's eyes and Hulk's hair.  I also completed all the little details that John wanted. 

finally completed

The cookies took me all day long.  Believe me, I'm not going to open up a shop tomorrow.  But I will continue to practice and use my new skills on my cookies.  It will be awhile before I make these cookies again.  Although, I will never forget the smile on his face when he saw the final result.

One happy little boy

Super Hero Power

What's your Super Hero Power?

According to John, Daddy's Super Hero Power is jokes. When you ask John what his Super Hero Power is, he says "my super speed!" Even though I think that super power is directly related to his fast shoes. We asked John what Mommy's Super Power was he quickly responded "telling!" I think I would rather have the super power of jokes than telling! Also according to John, Gillian's Super Power is eating.

playing school

John and Gillian go to daycare during the week.  Daddy and I have been really consistent with saying that they are going to school.  We want the kids to get used to going to school and to enjoy it at the same time.  When John wakes up in the morning, he always asks "Mommy, is today a school day or a stay at home day?"  Either way he gets up excited for the day.  He truly loves going to school. 

This morning he woke up and found Daddy playing video games in the basement.  And that's where I found them this morning.  I woke up Gillian and got everyone upstairs for breakfast.  During breakfast John says, "I know!  Let's play school."  We played school last weekend too.  Basically it is just an opportunity for John to boss Gillian and I around.  Plus he always has art and I get to color too.  So of course we played school.  I love to stretch the kids imagination any time possible.

We go into the living room and the art supplies are all over the coffee table.  He is sitting on the love seat and Gillian is standing on the window seat behind him.  I asked him why Gillian was in the window and he says "Cause that's where I have the little kids stay."  I got Gillian out of the window seat and we all sat in circle time on the rug.  He starts with "Today we are going to talk about pom-poms.  Pom-poms are really soft.  Feel them."  And he proceeds to have Gillian and I touch the pom-pom.  He then says "They are soft not sticky like stickers."  And that concluded the lesson on pom-poms.  He then asked us what we had for show and tell.  I was totally unprepared for show and tell.  Gillian had a baby (no surprise there).  Luckily for me, John supplied me with a blanket that I could use for show and tell.  After show and tell it was art time.  Yay!  I love art time.  We got to work on a new picture. Gillian would steal a couple of markers and just walk around the room.  Mommy is very lucky that Gillian has not figured out how to get the top off of a marker yet.  We got to color for a little bit, while the teacher got to put stickers in his sticker book.  After coloring, John decided it was time for free play and we got to go downstairs to play.  Before going down stairs, both Gillian and I got stickers because we were really good in school today.

Gillian and her sticker

the proud teacher holding up our artwork

bath time tears

Bath time started like normal tonight. John and Gillian were well behaved and were playing nicely together. John started using a cup to deflate the bubbles. While pushing the cup into the bubbles he was getting water all over the tub and some out on the floor. Daddy told him to stop. John continued and proceeded to get water all over the floor. Daddy said "that's it. You are losing a friend tonight!" John immediately said "no. I won't do it again! I promise!" After the water incident, we stopped play time and started to actually wash the kids. John and Gillian got Mr. Bubble foam soap for Christmas from Mimi. John has a blue one and Gillian has a pink one. A few weeks ago Gillian threw her foam soap out of the tub and broke the top off of hers. It still works but it is broken. We washed the kids and somehow Gillian got John's blue foam container. John started yelling at Gillian saying "you aren't going to break mine Gilly!" Gillian burst into tears. I said that's it. You are losing another friend. Never mind. You aren't losing any friends. You cannot have your light up turtle tonight. The kids were each given new night lights for Christmas from GiGi. John has a turtle that projects stars on the ceiling. As soon as I said that John said "but that my greatest thing ever!" And that's when he started to cry and argue with us. Daddy told him to stop arguing there was no reason to be this upset and that Gillian didn't break anything. John responds "well you broke my heart!"

fast shoes

John got new sneakers for Christmas.  They are black with flames on them.  He thinks that they make him faster. 


fast shoes

Every morning he puts them on and then does a few laps around the kitchen.  The first morning he put them on and tried them out.  He said "I'm so fast.  When I run you see a hundred of me!"  We think he got that idea from watching super hero shows.  Whenever you see Flash run, they make it seem like it is slow motion.  And you see a bunch of him. 

Here is a quick sample of Flash in action.  Let me know if you think John looks like the Flash in the next video.  I personally love his stance at the beginning.  He is so prepared.