I was cuddling with Jane one night before she fell asleep. She likes to rub the back of her hand on my arm to calm herself (as I've mentioned before). I was laying on my right side facing her so she could rub my left arm. After a few seconds she stops and says, "I love to wub you other awm." After I moved to her other side so I could lay on my left side and she have access to my "other awm." She was perfectly happy and fell asleep immediately. Apparently, my right arm is more special than my left arm.
When we were driving home from Missouri, Audrey was pretending she was a dragon a lot. She had watched The Pagemaster an alarming number of times. In order to keep order in the car, we occasionally offered marshmallows to little children who were being good. Josie asked Audrey if she wanted one and the reply was, "Dragons don't eat marshmallows. They eat people."
Jane has successfully avoided picking up a few of Audrey's bad habits (like chewing her nails and picking her nose and eating it), until recently apparently. I could hear Jane singing from some distant place in the house, "I eat my boogers! I eat my boogers!" The song just kept going. I guess Audrey has finally convinced Jane to give them a try. So far I haven't actually seen Jane eat her boogers, but that doesn't mean she doesn't do it when Audrey tells her to (and yes, I've heard Audrey tell her to).
Lately, the girls (Audrey mostly) has been really into asking me to buy things for them. They've figured out that if they want something, it usually needs to be "bought" first. They ask me to buy them anything and everything they see at any store I take them into. They also ask if they can buy things around the house. Randomly, while I was cooking dinner one night, Audrey wandered into the kitchen and said, "Mom, you can buy me anything you want." Then she wandered back to play somewhere. I guess she just wanted to clear things up with me about that . . . as if that might be what was stopping me from buying her everything she asked for . . . gosh, I just didn't have her permission!
Audrey likes to tell people "today is my birthday"! Well, since we just moved into a new ward, Audrey saw the perfect opportunity to announce that it was her birthday last Sunday. Unfortunately, in this Primary, you get some good stuff for your birthday: not only do they sing to you, but you get a little present with a nice picture of Jesus, candy, a CTR rubber bracelet, and all sorts of goodies. When we tried to explain to Audrey that what she did was wrong, she just got super mad and insisted that it was her birthday because "see, they gave me presents"! We told the Primary that her birthday is in April, just to clear things up. They were cool with it, we all had a good laugh, but now what do I do about this child who truly thinks it's always her birthday?
Today I heard Audrey talking to Jane in the hallway. Jane was messing something up. Audrey turned to her and yelled, "Quit ruining my life!" (Thank you A Goofy Movie for providing her with such valuable phrases.)
Speaking of quoting movies, it seems that my children are destined to inherit their Dad's X-Men power of being able to quote movies REEEALLY well. I mean, most people can quote movies, but not an ENTIRE movie . . . after only watching it maybe twice. Well, I know Audrey has it. We'll see if Jane does, but according to tradition (as observed in David's family), it's in their blood, and she'll surely be able to quote movie lines perfectly, as will the rest of our children.
Some of Audrey's favorite movies to watch lately (and quote) are as follows in no particular order: A Goofy Movie, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Lilo and Stitch, The Pagemaster, and Super Readers episodes. I think the best part is she uses any given movie quote and applies it to the current situation, as shown above. Still, I think my favorite movie quote comes from Sword in the Stone, and it's the one she chooses to use on me when she's mad, "You big bully, you!" (Thank goodness she leaves out the "bug-eyed" bully part.)
In other news, Jane is about to have a little paradigm shift. The binky must go. And so must the diapers. Stay tuned for how that goes in the next few weeks.
Claire? She's AWESOME! Her smiles and giggles are frequent, and we all love it. And I know that with her the binky won't be an issue, she's a little thumb sucker. It's SO CUTE! Unfortunately, it's going to be much more difficult to get her to stop sucking her thumb than to get her to toss a binky I think . . .
Friday, July 23, 2010
Trip to MO
I had planned to take a trip with Josie and the girls to Missouri to see my parents for a week while David was preparing for a big trial. Of course, just before we were to leave, his trial got moved to October and he was left home alone without insane amounts of work to keep him busy. BUT we pressed on and came up anyway. It was such a fun time.
During the beginning showers of a nice huge summer storm, we couldn't get the girls out of their beloved sandbox! It's definately their favorite part of coming to Grandma and Grandpa's house.
After much shouting over the wind and rain, frantic pointing toward the sky, and gentle but determined tugging, we got them inside and into the bathtub!
Of course, Audrey was the most difficult to get in. She's a stubborn little girl. But then again, we'll just say that's a strength, not a fault.
Among many other things (most of which I stupidly didn't take pictures . . . BUT which Josie did, so I'll post pictures later of those things) my cousin Melissa came up to visit with her little girl.
They colored. They bonded. But mostly Alexa stayed planted firmly on her mother's lap while my children screamed wildly and ran around the house in circles in their underwear . . . Alexa is a much gentler child than my own.
She really loved Claire. It was especially cute since they're pretty much the same size! And Claire is a small baby! Alexa is super tiny. Cute as ever.
So, some of the other fun things:
Mom and I planned and cooked something new every night we were there;
Spending time with old family friends and playing cards (which Josie and I had practiced for, and which Shane and Jenna upon being taught instantly beat us, and continued to);
Josie caught fireflies for the first time ever (after a lesson by me . . . yes, there is a trick to it);
Josie and I picked wild blackberries in the late afternoon, and it was beautiful . . . and delicious--fresh warm-from-the-sun blackberries + vanilla frozen custard from Dad's restaurant = SO GOOD! Forgetting the blackberries in the fridge when we left to come back home = really frustrating. :(
4th of July
On Saturday we had indoor BBQ with Brent and Cheryl and family. It was indoors because 1) we don't have a BBQ grill, and 2) it was TOO HOT! But honestly, hot dogs cooked in the oven on broil are just as good as grilled any day. And then of course we had the usual pasta salad, potato salad, watermelon, jello salad (the traditional blue jello with strawberries and whipped cream, AKA Hooberbloob Jello), and lots of classic and delicious hot dog toppings.
I'm hungry just thinking about it. I hadn't intended on telling all about the food but . . . it does sound good.
For some reason I had the energy to get festive this year. We taught the girls the national anthem, made these fun flags, and painted heart flags on their cheeks.
About the national anthem, they really did learn it pretty well. The funny thing was, in an attempt to be funny, we taught them to yell "PLAY BALL!" at the end. We hadn't thought that maybe we would be singing it in church on Sunday, and that having them shout PLAY BALL at the end would be a problem. We did sing it, but thank goodness, they didn't yell at the end. A small miracle since when singing it on the way home, they made sure to say it as loud as possible. Note to self: record them singing it before they forget the words!
On Sunday we drove up to Brent and Cheryl's house to go with them to see the Plano fireworks. Always a good show, always a great seat, ALWAYS good company.
(A random shot of Dave driving . . . )
In the 15 minutes it took us to drive to their house, we saw more flags than I've ever seen in my entire life. Honestly, Texans sure know about patriotism . . . which seemed ironic to me a little bit.
Anyway, Dave asked me to snap a picture of one of them. After arguing with him that I was sure I couldn't get a decent shot of a flag (which are about a dime a dozen) through the window while driving on the freeway, I just picked up the camera and took a couple of snaps at the nearest flag. We were both shocked at how well it turned out!
As for the fireworks, we were not disappointed. The finale was probably the best I'd ever seen!
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Say CHEESE!
I took pictures of the girls today. I'm not thrilled with how things turned out, but at least we now have some pictures of them! I think I'll try and do some better ones of Claire tomorrow. I'll post some sets of Jane and Audrey too. Oh, another lesson learned . . . don't over edit! They end up looking terrible and unnatural if you do. (And I do much better when I take pictures outside.)
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