Mean Lizard

Yesterday I was in the backyard with the girls when Kate discovered a little garden lizard. She was very interested in talking to the lizard and wanted to touch it. She poked it a few times and after my encouragement, picked it up.

It wiggled and then bit her.

(shrieks & hysterics)

She insisted on going inside after that and once she was calmed down (it scared her more than hurt her), we decided to name the lizard. And what was the name Kate & Emma came up with?

Sinbad Stupidhead

An obvious choice since the lizard was both bad and stupid. Right? Then Kate told me that she was going to go back outside and find that lizard so she could put poop on it. Lovely. We were relieved of that chore by our dog, Jelly, who had already eaten the lizard. Darn.

Now we know that Jelly is a good guard dog and was protecting her from the mean lizard.

Kate's Powers

This morning I was chatting with a co-worker about kid stories. I mentioned how I took the kids the park yesterday after dinnner and when it was time to leave, one of them begged for a slurpee on the way home. When I said no, she cried and screamed the whole way home.

My coworker asked which child it was, and I said "Kate. Always Kate".

My coworker replied "Hmm, when she gets older, I hope she uses her powers for good".

Little Mermaids

Every summer, Miss Kelly gives all the kids at school swim lessons. The first year is usually just about getting the kids comfortable in the water and dunking their heads and gradually works up from there.

Yesterday when I picked the girls up from school, Miss Kelly reported that they are officially swimming on their own. Now, I have to take her word for it, because we don't have a pool of our own, and when we go swimming at Grammy's pool, all they really want to do is crab walk around the edge of the pool. So we haven't actually witnessed any of this 'swimming on their own' first hand.

But we look forward to it!

Middle Names

Yesterday, Kate was asking me about middle names. She wanted to know her cousins' middle names. I wondered if she even knew her own middle name, so we talked about that for a while.

Katelyn Paige...

Emma Reese...

Then Kate says "I wish my middle name was Grandma Kathy".

What???

Kate goes on to explain to me that Grammy is her first name, and Grandma Kathy is her middle name. Don't you know that, Mommy? You need to talk to Daddy. He knows.

Apparently I just got schooled by a four year old. At least she thinks so.

(this all started because Eric read stories on Monday night and Tuesday is book sharing day at school. The girls brought the books that Daddy read, which were gifts from Grammy on their very first Christmas when they were only 10 days old. This was all before we started calling her Grammy, so her inscription on the books says that they are from Grandma Kathy.)

The Many Uses of Toilet Paper

Yesterday, the girls were fighting over a toy and Kate ended up in tears. I referreed and got it resolved, and just after that, Kate decided she needed to go potty. I helped her get a wad of toilet paper so that she could do pat-pat, which she did...and then she used the same wad of toilet paper to wipe her tears with.

So then I made her ask Daddy to give her a kiss on the cheek.

Just kidding!

I washed her face, I promise.

15 Midgets and Cinderella Beds

At the park yesterday.....

Kris: Ok, you have 15 minutes left to play.
Emma: Let me check your watch.
(I show her my watch & she pretends like she can read a clock)
Emma: Yep, 15 midgets!


Then at bedtime, they requested that I read Mr & Mrs Noah, which led into a discussion about God, Jesus, and heaven...

Kate: Can I have my bed in heaven?
Kris: You can have any kind of bed you want.
Kate: I'm gonna tell Jesus I want a Cinderella Bed!

Wishing Wells

Anytime we pass a wishing well, Kate & Emma will ask for a coin to throw in. We passed by one or two at Disneyland last week and another at the local mall this week. So we gave them pennies and told them to make a wish. We expected them to wish for toys or candy (especially at Disneyland), but they clutched the pennies to their chests with both hands squeezed together and said...

I wish I could go to Grammy's every day

and/or

I wish I could see Auntie Erin's new puppy and kitty every day.

Kris's 35th Birthday at Disneyland

Daddy & Kate on Dumbo

The lady's chariot

Inside Mickey's House...

Tarzan's Treehouse

We had a great time at Disneyland. The girls were super cooperative and didn't whine or complain, even after we had walked and walked for hours without a nap. Kate is normally very nervous on rides, but she was way more confident and happily agreed to go on everything, even the roller coasters! They requested Big Thunder Mountain four times! Space Mountain wasn't her favorite, but there was no drama over it. The only rides we didn't do on were the Matterhorn, the Haunted Mansion, and Indiana Jones. The girls were actually wanting to go on Indy, but they aren't tall enough yet.

We bought annual passes, and since I bought mine ON my actual birthday, it was discounted $69 which is the cost of one day's admission. We're definitely looking forward to going back several times throughout the year.

Soccer

The girls are officially signed up for La Mesa AYSO starting in August. We're all looking forward to it. AYSO really pushes hard for the parents to volunteer, so we may end up being a lot more involved than originally intended. We'll keep you posted on that, team name/colors, and of course, photos.

Warning: "Hotel for Dogs" causes nightmares!

We rented Hotel for Dogs for the kids to watch. Its about a brother and sister in foster care that take in all the stray dogs around town and care for them in an abandonded building. Sounds pretty harmless, right? Rated PG and all that.

Too bad both girls woke up in the middle of the night with nightmares about being abandonded. Repeatedly. I've been awake since 1:15 am.

That movie is so going back to Netflix today.

Note to self: If you want to get any sleep, you will not freak out your kids by renting "kid-friendly" movies where the kids are orphans.

Kate & Emma are oh-so-very posh

I love that when Kate & Emma are playing any kind of person of authority in their make-believe scenarios, they speak with a British accent.

They are pretty much always pretending and playing make-believe. They pretend to be animals, princesses, dancers, etc. and they talk normally. But somehow, when they pretend to be, say...a teacher, the mommy, a doctor, a queen, or any other role that they view as an authority figure, they suddenly start speaking in a British accent.

Well...a four year old's version of a British accent, anyway. And it delights me.

Easter

The Easter Bunny brought backpacks instead of baskets

Fancy Easter dresses
The backyard egg hunt after we made them wait all day for Grammy to arrive

I found all the eggs!

Philadelphia, Part 3: QVC Beauty Bash

The box of free goodies that we got when we checked into the hotel. We haven't even gotten to the Beauty Bash, and already there's free stuff!

Inside the box...

Mom with Holly Mordini, the Smashbox rep

At the end of the day, after carrying about 60 pounds worth of free swag (not that we were complaining!)

And here's what we got!

Score!

Philadelphia, Part 2: Amish Country

One of the many horse and buggy's that we passed on the road.

Horse & Buggy traffic sign


Lots of wide open country and farms

Just a cool old house we passed by

Off to Market


We toured an Amish home and farm, but weren't allowed to take pictures inside. We also learned how to identify the Amish homes as we passed - there are no power lines going to the homes, and they have dark green shades on the windows. To our surprise, many of the homes on the main roads that we drove were occupied by Amish families. We had assumed that they lived farther back on side streets, clustered together with other Amish families. Apparently we were wrong!

Philadelphia, Part 1: Historic Stuff

Yo, Adrian!

Christ Church Burial Ground, where Ben Franklin is buried

Christ Church

3 Front doors of Elfreth's Alley

Elfreth's Alley - The oldest residential street in the U.S. People still live there! Only now they have plumbing, kitchens & bathrooms.
A tour guide taking a smoke break
The room where the Declaration of Independence was signed
Mennonites touring historical sites (Mennonites wear pastels & brighter colors, but Amish wear only dark colors)

Independence HallThe Liberty Bell with Independence Hall in the background

Single Ladies

Does it make me a bad mom because I taught Emma to sing "Single Ladies" by Beyonce? I caught her saying the "Oh-o-oh-o" part and helped her learn the chorus. Now she can sing...

All the single ladies, all the single ladies
Oh-o-oh-o
If you like it, then you shoulda put a ring on it
If you like it, the you shoulda put a ring on it

I'm a horrible mother, aren't I? But it is so stinking cute. It cracks me up every time.

That little girl just loves to sing. She even makes up her own songs and sings about her dolls, our family, the dog, etc. We went to the park on Saturday and we were playing in the sand while she sang fairly loud. She was singing about a sunny day, and I'm not sure if she was making it up as she went or not. Another little girl was digging in the sand with us and didn't want to be left out, so she sang "la-la-la-la" too.

Bedtime routine and the not-so-routine

Putting two very talkative little girls to bed in the same room isn't always easy. They like to talk, giggle, play with toys, stall by going to the bathroom 100 times, or sneak into the living room. Some nights are easier than others. Last night we had a slight emergency (Emma) and slight hysterics (Kate).

About 5 minutes after we put them to bed, we could hear Emma whimpering and Kate calling us in the room. When I went in, Emma was coughing and sneezing (though it sounded fake to me). When I asked her what was wrong, she said she had a flower stuck up her nose. Again, I thought she was pretending to be allergic to flowers because of a kids show that we had just seen where one of the characters is allergic to wool. Turns out, she was serious. Eric had seen her playing with a teeny-tiny little flower shaped bead, and sure enough, it was stuck way up her nose. Eric tried to pull it out with some tweezers, but Emma kept sniffing it up. As soon as Kate saw the tweezers go in Emma's nose, she freaked out and started wailing hysterically. I don't know if she thought we were going to hurt Emma, or if she thought Emma was going to be hurt by the bead up her nose, or what. So Eric had to handle Emma and I had to handle Kate. Eventually, Eric got Emma to quit sniffing, and blow it out of her nose on her own. What a relief! Kate was still shook up and made us tell Emma over and over again not to put things up her nose. She gets so worried about Emma!

On a more heart-warming and less traumatic night, I overheard the girls talking at bedtime and was just about to go in and tell them to be quiet when I actually heard what they were saying...

Emma: What Katelyn? I can't hear you.
Kate: I love you, Emma.
Emma: I love you too, Kate.

Awwwww! My little sweeties!

Good Intentions

I had really good intentions of posting some new photos of the girls this weekend. I really did. But I wasn't feeling well, then Eric went out of town, and then on Friday night the girls got sick. We spent the whole weekend couped up at home, watching cartoons and doing laundry. You'd think that since I was home the entire weekend, I could manage to download some photos, but...obviously I didn't.

The girls are still stuffed up and coughing and hacking, but hopefully their stomach issues are gone. Maybe don't count on me getting the photos up during the week, but maybe next weekend?

Muddy Puddles

Today was really rainy and Eric was home with the kids. He bought them rubber galoshes and let them loose on a big puddle in our backyard. As you can see, they had a blast!

Dance Recital

So I'm a little behind on posting these pictures. The recital was on Jan 30th and it didn't go as well as we had hoped. First off, we were late getting there and hadn't had a chance to take photos of the girls at home. By the time we got to the recital, there was such a huge crowd and chaos that the girls (Kate in particular) really freaked out. There was crying, clinging, and refusing to dance. It made picture taking difficult.

The performance itself was fairly anticlimactic...Kate & Emma stood on opposite ends of the stage and didn't move a muscle during the entire routine. Emma only moved enough to do a giant yawn right in the middle of the song, which was pretty funny.

Our ballerinas looked beautiful, but we're not sure they will be willing to perform at any more recitals in the near future. The next one is supposed to be at the Del Mar Fair. We switched them to a slightly older class, and so far the entire class seems to be paying more attention. We'll see whether they change their minds about performing come June.

Baby Memory Lane

I love that blessing photo of Kate so much that I decided to post a few of my absolute favorite photos of the girls from when they were little babies. The girls also love it when we show them their pictures posted on the web, so they should get a kick out of this too. They love talking about "when I was a little baby..."


They ate so many carrotts and sweet potatoes that their noses turned orange. Just their noses.

Back when they were small enough to bathe in the sink

At super chub stage

Neener, neener, neener!

So smiley! And you can see the blankets in this one. Funny, Kate's hair looks lighter and Emma's hair looks darker. They were both born with coffee brown hair, but Kate's is now medium/light golden brown and Emma's is honey blonde. They sure do change, don't they?

We've been tagged

Both Madison and Nikol tagged us on their blogs for a picture post. Here are the rules:

1. Go to your sixth picture file.
2. Go to the sixth picture in that file.
3. Post it and blog about it.
4. Tag 6 friends

Here's the photo that came up:


This is one of Kate's blessing photos, circa April 2005 at 4 months old. She's killing me with that pouty lip! This series of photos are some of my favorite EVER of the girls. Eric's mom made the dresses and bonnets and my mom made the blankets....although you can't see the blanket in this shot, can you? Oh well, they're gorgeous too.

I'm gonna tag Kelly Dodson, Joy Boaz, Janet Downey, Paul & Amy Touchet, Jessica Yergensen, & Tricia Varvel.

Coming Soon....Dance Recital!

We just got our costumes for the girls' dance recital, and they are so stinking cute. I still have no idea what dance they are doing, because they haven't really been practicing a choreographed routine. They're still at the stage where they just follow the random instructions of the teacher, so perhaps that is what they will do onstage. Who knows? We're looking forward to seeing it, no matter what.

All are welcome to attend and there is no cost (as far as I know), so if you're in the area and want to check it out, come on over! It will be Friday, January 30th in the La Mesa Community Center at 5:30pm.

Let's get ready to....RUMBLE!

There has been a battle going on in our household lately. Actually, its been building for quite a while....pretty much since the girls learned the word "no". We have a strong battle of wills brewing between me and Kate.

Kate is very intelligent, inquisitive, sensitive, energetic, well spoken, and has a great memory. She absolutely knows what she wants/likes/dislikes, doesn't mind sharing her opinion, and has her share of moxie. These are all wonderful things that I love about her. They make Kate, Kate. What parent wouldn't be proud of an adorable little smarty-pants daughter who speaks her mind? I admire those qualities. However, all these endearing traits work against me when I am locked in a battle of wills with that same 4-years-old-going-on-40 daughter. I mean, really? Where does she get this stubbornness from? Certainly not from me, right?

This is the part where my parents laugh hysterically and remind themselves that indeed, what goes around, comes around. I suppose you could say I was a willful child. Stubborn. Opinionated. I distinctly remember a heated argument with my Mom over my outfit and hairstyle for my kindergarten school photos. A long, heated argument. At age 5. Over hair and fashion. Much to Mom's credit, she did not let me win that argument, and I wore the Dorothy Hamill hairdo with the burgundy corduroy jumper and white eyelet blouse that she sewed herself. I was less than pleased. However, the picture turned out adorable, if I do say so myself. Now that I am in a similar situation, I have a whole new appreciation of my parents and the importance of not caving and letting her get her way. Its exhausting already, and I have 9 years before she becomes a teenager.