Water Baby

While the girls went to a movie with David's cousin, Joel got to play outside in the pool. He quickly got out of the pool when David started watering the garden. He stole the hose to help with the watering process; he loved spraying it over his head, and when David would tell him to take a drink, he'd stick his face right in the spray and try to drink some of it. Joel LOVES the water and, I'm afraid, has no fear of it at all!

4 kiddos

Zach was here for two weeks this month. The kids had so much fun with him. Hope talked him into setting up their little pool and watching them- David and I get sick of sitting out there, but Mr. Never-sunburns is fine with being in the sun till the girls are sick of the pool. While he was here, I had to work on one of my normal days off. I took Joel to daycare, but Hope and Naomi stayed home with Zach. I think all they did was watch Spongebob and play in the pool. Joel liked having someone besides his sisters to play with; they wrestled and had sword fights and played in the back yard. I enjoyed having someone actually eat what I made for dinner and enjoy it:) Too bad he has a job- he couldn't stay very long because he couldn't take a month off of work. It sure was nice to have him here even if it didn't last very long.

Stinkbug...........or Snugglebug?

Naomi has always been my little Stinkbug. Hopey is Sugarbug, and Stinkbug definitely described Naomi for the first two years of her life. Joel was such a cuddly little baby that he became Snugglebug. But now every night when I put Naomi to bed, she says "snuggle me?" before I leave. She loves it when I just lay in bed with her. And Joel has become more of a stinker; maybe I nicknamed them too soon.

The other night after I'd snuggled Naomi for a few minutes I told her it was time for me to go downstairs. When she asked why I said I had to go see about David. In her sweet little voice, she said "No, see 'bout me." I stayed a few extra minutes to see 'bout precious little mimi.

Breakfast choices

Sunday I asked Naomi if she wanted breakfast. "Yes, I have cheese and crackers". I asked if she'd rather have some cereal, or maybe some oatmeal. "Uh, aybe eyesheem?" No, maybe not ice cream, you goofball. I guess there's no harm in trying, right?

I'm a genius!!

Hope has had a spelling test every night for the past week or two. The catch: she has to write her spelling words on my back:) I've thrown in an art lesson by having her draw some pictures on my back as well. I'll rent her out- all you have to do is come up with simple words for her to spell.

A spot of tranquility

I've been trying to clean rooms at a time, rather than dust the whole house, vaccuum the whole house, etc. That way at least some rooms feel entirely clean and decluttered. I worked on our bedroom/bathroom/closet last week and it made a big difference. But as I'd walk up the stairs and see our clean bedroom, I'd also see the loft that had become the dumping ground for anything that didn't belong somewhere else. The tv cabinet was open. Hope's video game system was permanently plugged into the tv, as was Zach's xbox. The movie drawers were open, dvd cases stacked on the floor, Naomi's toys that I'd taken away were shoved on top of the tv cabinet so she couldn't reach them. Chairs were set up so the kids could watch tv, which they never sat in when they did bother to watch tv there. Chalk and markers littered the easel, and the box my printer came in was still sitting there, a year and a half after I got it for Christmas.

So the other night I decided to clean it all up. It probably only took 15 minutes to clean up, put away and throw away the things that didn't belong, dust, and shut the electronics up, but oh, what a difference. Now, when I walk up the stairs, it's like a breath of fresh air; open space that feels clear and decluttered, rather than the always-present 'stuff' that robs my feeling of peace. Now there are two, albeit small, but two areas of my house that I have taken back from the three little (and one big) clutter monsters who live with me. Small victories!!

Delayed Response

Pork chops were on the menu for dinner last night. Hope vacillates on pork, chicken, and steak- some nights she loves it, other nights it's gross and why on earth would we try to make her eat it?? David gave her a bite of the pork, she decided she didn't want it, and had chicken nuggets instead.

After I put the girls to bed, I heard Naomi crying so I went to check on her. Hope was also a little weepy, like she'd been crying but was getting herself under control. She told me she really needed to talk to David. When I asked why, she said, "Well, I think it might be too late, but I decided I want the pork for dinner". Yes, Hope, dinner ended two hours ago, it is indeed too late.

All Boy

Joel is such a little boy. Who teaches boys that they should like to wrestle? Or that it's mandatory to make car sounds and push around any object you happen to be holding? Why is the remote the first thing he goes for when he comes into the family room? Today at the zoo, we sat down in a grassy area to let the kids run around. Joel could've run anywhere, but he headed right toward the two boys playing catch with a football. He waited until one of the boys dropped it, picked up the football, and took off. And he wasn't giving anyone that football back. David finally took the football and gave it back to the boys, and took Joel to another part of the field to play. I think the boys thought it was funny that Joel liked their football, because they ended up over by Joel again. And again, Joel stole their ball and had no interest in returning it. Guess we'll be taking a stroll down the football aisle the next time we're at Target.

Nocturnal convos with Naomi

"MMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!" Whatever I was dreaming about is completely gone from my mind as I hear this shriek coming from the girls' room at 3:00 AM. So I go in there to see what's wrong and Naomi is in the middle of the room. She can't quite tell me what's wrong; I assume it's a nightmare of some sort. I put her back in her bed and notice she's covering her eyes- maybe the lamp is a little too bright. Ten minutes later she's wailing again, still with her face covered and buried in her pillow. This time Hope is awake too and a little scared. I go get Naomi and just put her in our bed. David asks what's wrong and she says something about naaah-suh gonk (gonk is scared or hurt, depending on the context). "Nasa? That's the space organization and they aren't going to hurt you. You don't need to be scared." It took her awhile to go back to sleep.

The next morning when I was a little more coherent, I tried to ask her again what was wrong in the night. She told me naah-suh again,and I finally figured out she was trying to say monster. Apparently there was a big green monster in her bed that scared her. I've called dad to see if Boston is missing part of their park, but somehow I think it's a different green monster residing in her room. So now Tubby is the Monster-nator and mosquito spray had become monster repellant, God made the monsters disappear and Naomi still is buying her face in her blanket at night.

Another month gone by.....

...and nothing inspiring to blog about. I had a week off of work and got absolutely nothing accomplished. I was actually going to clean the house all at once, instead of in spurts whenever I felt the need...didn't happen. I was going to walk every day...didn't happen- well, I walked two days. I was going to scrapbook each day...Joel figured out how to open the cabinet I keep everything in, but he's the only one who got into everything. Nope, I sat on the couch, ate easter candy and read harry potter, and gained three pounds. Exciting vacay, no?

Naomi is half-heartedly potty training. She doesn't care. She likes the candy and new undies, but not enough to tell us she's about to pee. So I have to ask her every half-hour if she needs to go to the bathroom; at least she knows and can answer yes or no reliably. Monday I finally just took away the diapers completely; she didn't have any accidents that day. But Tuesday at daycare she had two, today only one- although they did put a diaper on her when they went outside to play and she pooped- at least it was in a diaper instead of her Elmo undies like yesterday:(-- Maybe no accidents tomorrow?? Hope was so much easier- she peed on the carpet once and was trained. Hope realized one of the girls in her sunday school class was on her soccer team last fall, so now all I hear about is "is it fall yet?" Dude, I'm really excited for warm weather and summer- could we not rush it?!?

Poor Joel had a 104 fever last weekend; I took him to the doc on Monday and he figured it was probably an ear infection. He actually offered antibiotics, which is unheard of for this guy. But within 24 hours, Joel had a rash all over his trunk. So I guess I have one child who is allergic to amox- how much you want to bet I'll forget- I'm so used to saying Nope, no allergies... And yesterday I discovered two new teeth in his mouth; no wonder he's been crying more in the night. Luckily he loves tylenol:) Hope has a bunch of wax in her ears and can't hear us lately unless we talk loudly, so we're going back to the doc Friday to have her ears checked. Oh joy.

Hope dyeing Easter eggs:



Mimi's new Elmo runders:


Mr. On-the-go:


And cause he's just so cute:

Joel is 1!!

Stripped down and ready for cake! Notice that he's digging in before the candle has even been blown out- Naomi took care of that for him
Utensils are highly overrated!
He was mad because there wasn't more cake to eat
Clean-up time!

I love you, Baby

A year ago today, Baby took her last trip to the vet. Those were the last words I said to her. I had actually planned on blogging about what happened that day, but my vision is being obscured with tears just thinking about it. I guess nobody gets to know except Baby and me.

A Trip to the Firestation

The other day our new firestation had an open house, so I figured it'd be a good field trip for Hope. Off to the fire station we went. Hope got a fireman's hat when we first arrived. We saw their classroom, library, kitchen and living areas, workout room, and office areas. They showed Hope all their gear they had to wear, and then she got to explore the fire engine a little.
Of course, the highlight for Hope was the firedog mascot Sparky. When then said they had a mascot, I thought they might actually have a real dog; she would've been even more excited about that!
Right before we left, the alarms went off and the firemen had to go save somebody. It was fun for her to hear the alarms and hear the dispatcher tell them all the info she had, watch them bolt for the truck and take off.
So now Hope is the expert at all things relating to fire. We have our fire safety coloring book, fire escape plan (sans schedule for fire drills), and firehats for all the junior firefighters stationed at our house.

Oh Hopey:)

We all know how Hope picks things to dwell on. She's been in tears over if it will hurt when she has kids and sits around wondering what it will be like when she gets married. So yesterday she and I were talking on the way to dance; I don't even remember what we were talking about but she said "It's ok, though, cause Jesus is always by my side, right?" Yep, Hopey, He is. Then I hear her back there talking to herself: "I wonder which side? Naomi sits on my right side when we sit on the couch; what if that's the side Jesus wants to sit on...." "Hey mom, which of my sides is Jesus on?"

'sup homies...

Naomi thinks her name is mimi. If you ask what her name is, she says mimi; if you ask if her name is Naomi or mimi, she says mimi; if you ask if her name is Naomi, she says 'no, mimi'. So in an attempt to teach her what her name really is, we've ditched the nickname for now. But she can't say her name very well. She says Homey. David thinks it's hilarious to make her say What's up, Homey. Poor little girl- she doesn't know he's making fun of her.

Little brothers

Today I saw a glimpse of the annoying, michevious little brother Joel will probably be. He loves to pull hair right now, and since Naomi plays with him quite a bit, she gets the majority of the hair-pulling action. So he grabbed a handful of hair and yanked on it. When she said Ouch and jerked away, he started grinning and clapping his hands. Little poop already delights in tormenting his sister.

Disneyland

For lack of any blogging inspiration, I decided to post some of our disneyland pics.

Oh, the weather outside is......

cold. We went outside Friday to play in the snow. Hope loved it and spent a few hours outside. Naomi spent about two minutes before she started trying to go inside. But I've realized I'm quite good at driving in the snow. Either that, or everyone else here is really bad and make me look good by comparison.

We got some Christmas cards from Grandma the other day and I told Hope I wanted her to help me read her card. She gave me a funny look and said, "Do you not know how to read it?". Yes, smarty pants, I can read it; I want to see if you can sound out any of the words.

Hi Mom!

These are the words I hear almost nightly around 2am. A little head appears at the side of my bed and says "Hi mom". I just say, "Go back to bed, Naomi" and she trudges back to her bedroom. But it's the same routine night after night after night. What does she think she's doing wandering around the house in the middle of the night? One of these nights I think I'll just ask her what she's doing and see what she says.

Birthday Ideas

David asked me yesterday what I wanted for my birthday. He said he wanted to get me something nice. At first I thought a new camera- a really nice one. My pictures always seem bad to me- blurry and just not great quality. But would I really have the patience to learn all the fancy-pants stuff? And would I use it any more than I use the one we have now? David just had to have that expensive video camera last Christmas and we've taped less than an hour's worth of stuff, I bet. So I decided maybe not a camera. Asking for my old house is probably out of the question. I could use a new computer, but David wants one too, so that's out. Any ideas what I need, don't have, and can't live without? I can't even suggest jewelry, cause I never wear the stuff I have. It shouldn't be this hard to come up with something I want.

Halloween

Ok, I know alot of people think we should be condemned for celebrating Halloween. But it isn't like I've started my own coven in honor of the day. It's just a fun time to dress up the kids and get some sugar. And exercise. Since our neighborhood must be anti-halloween-ites, only every third or fourth house had anyone handing out candy, and since I couldn't very well tell Hope to be content with her five little pieces of candy after we finished the block we were supposed to ToT on, we walked quite a ways. And thanks to whomever thought it was a great idea to build houses on hills, we got to walk up and down everyone's stairs- some of these houses have 10 stairs up to their door. I carried Naomi up most of them so she didn't fall or get trampled. By the end of the evening, I had shed my sweatshirt, pushed up my sleeves, and was breaking a pretty nasty sweat. I can tell Disneyland is going to be lots of fun if I can't even walk up and down a few flights of stairs without huffing.

I found an angel costume on ebay several months ago that was either 1¢ or 99¢, I can't remember. But with shipping, it was about five bucks. I really thought about getting a devil costume for Naomi, but I thought that might be pushing it, and I couldn't find a cheap one, so she wore Hope's skunk costume. She loves hats, so she loved the hood to it; I put it on her early in the day and had to hide it from her so she wouldn't wear it all day long. Joel had two pumpkin costumes, so he wore one of them, but he and David stayed home and handed out candy while Hope and Naomi went ToTing. Naomi got the hang of things pretty quickly, holding out her bucket and taking handfuls when people let her pick her own candy. She was so sweet- she couldn't say trick or treat, but she never missed "thanks, bye bye". She learned quickly how to say candy and chocolate, and most of her candy has been removed from her pumpkin so we won't have too many days of listening to her ask for it.

Seriously? I have to drive this?

I really didn't want a minivan. After ending up with one as a rental last year and seeing how nice it was to sit on the floor between the girls to help them eat lunch, I decided it might not be the worst thing ever. And after the trip to Spokane last Thanksgiving in which I got to spend most of the five hours leaning over my seat trying to catch the vomit before it got all over Hope, I decided it might be a pretty good thing to have a minivan so I could actually get to her in situations like that. But holy cow, I don't want to drive one. They're just such a soccer-mom thing. But here's our new car.

Who cares what the polls say

People in this country think we actually elect the president. How foolish. I just watched an hour-long debate about who is going to win the election. Do these people not remember the last two elections? George Bush lost the popular vote, and yet he's still the one residing in the White House. We don't elect the president; the electoral college elects the president. Yes, it would be nice if the process was a little more democratic, but it isn't. Living in a very blue state, I know my vote counts for nada in any presidental election. Washington State's 11 electoral votes will always go to the most liberal candidate. So why even bother? I will vote, because I have a responsibility to do so. But don't try to convince me that "my vote counts" or that just because the polls say McCain and Obama were neck and neck a few weeks ago, McCain has a shot in heck of winning. Obama already has 260 electoral votes that are a given- the states historically vote Deomocrat. There are 90-some votes that are up for grabs in the battleground states. Obama needs 10 of those to win. There is no way he won't get them. That's basically one state. All he needs is one of the 7 or 8 states to go his way. Even if McCain gets all the votes for the states that are strongly Republican, weakly Republican, exactly tied, and weakly Democrat, he still doesn't have enough votes to win. Obama will be president; it's a mathematical certainty. So can we waste air time on something else?

Neighborhood of Make Believe

Hope is sitting on the couch making up some story between her hat and a hair clip. They got married-she performed the whole ceremony. I asked her how she knew what people said at a wedding. Her reply? "I knew cause we watched that movie where the boy and girl got married outside in the snow". Ah yes, the episode of Friends that we watched about SIX MONTHS AGO!! So the make-believe continues and pretty soon the husband tells his wife he doesn't like her. So the hairclip that's the girl tells her mom that her husband said he didn't like her. The mom says, "I'm so sorry he said that to you. Do I need to kill him?" Looks like Hope has the basics figured out: when someone says something mean to you, tell your mom and she'll kill them.

The days are long, but the years are short.

Today actually didn't seem that long:)
I was just upstairs rocking Joel and had to fold his legs up so he'd fit. It's amazing that he's already that long- to go from a little tiny thing- ok, he was never technically tiny- but little enough that we'd have to really bend our arm up just to support his rump, and now he lays his head on my shoulder and his feet are hitting my legs?!? Holy cow, that's gone fast. And Hope and I went shopping for shoes today for her. She's already out of the little girl shoes and into regular girl shoes. HOW is that possible? Naomi is so much more fun now that she's grown up a little that I don't mind the fact that she's getting bigger, but I bet in a year when she's too big to comfortably sit on the arm of my chair and look at pictures on my computer or snuggle in front of me on the couch, I'll wish these stupid years would slow down for her too. I don't recall giving any of them permission to grow up.

Ok, I know my geography isn't the greatest......

But on a weekly basis this summer, some patient would tell me that they went to "Eastern Washington" on vacation. When I questioned them further, they had gone to Chelan or Moses Lake or somewhere similar. Yes, I suppose technically if you divide the state of Washington in half, the Cascades are pretty much in the middle, so anything east of the mountains is eastern Washington. But isn't central Washington a more accurate description of where you were??

Thursday at work, someone brought in some wonderful peaches and plums. That led to a discussion of where to get good fruit. One of my coworkers, who is really not the brightest star in the sky, said she always gets her fruit "from that fruit stand in eastern Washington". Oh yeah, THAT fruit stand. You idiot, there is more than one fruit stand in the eastern half of the state. As she elaborated, the one she meant was the Thorpe place right before Ellensburg. Ok, since CENTRAL Washington University is in Ellensburg, wouldn't that pretty much be CENTRAL Washington?

And then at lunch, same coworker (who, as a side note, rivals Laurie on her health issues) asked me what state Chicago is in. Really? REALLY? Ok, if she'd asked what state Edwall was in, I could see not knowing that one. Even some mid-sized towns I'd have understood. But Chicago is the third-largest city in the country. That's like not knowing what country London or Paris is in. Do they not teach geography in school anymore?

Who's sleeping with whom

I swear, nobody in this house sleeps in their bed. Joel starts out in his crib, but sometimes ends up next to me. Hope has to start out in Zach's room, cause she and Naomi talk and keep each other up if they're in the same room. David usually ends up in Zach's room too, since he doesn't enjoy being kicked by Joel or kept awake by my snoring.

So last night Joel and Naomi started out in their respective beds. Hope went to sleep in Zach's room, and was supposed to have been moved back to her bed after Naomi fell asleep. Something was severely wrong with Joel, who woke up three times shrieking and had to be rocked back to sleep, which is unusual for him. The last time I couldn't get him to settle down. When he gets really worked up like that, the only thing that works is to lay down with him in my bed. The plan was to put him back in his crib after he fell asleep. However, laying down in a cozy bed with a little snugglebug is quite condusive to sleep, so I fell asleep too. By the time David went to bed, he was too tired to move Hope. So I slept with Joel, David slept with Hope, and poor little Mimi just slept with Tubby.

More teething???

Hope discovered yesterday that she has a loose tooth. I was pretty sure she was making it up, but I checked and, sure enough, it was wiggly. As I was playing with it, I noticed the one next to it was loose too! They certainly aren't going to be falling out this week, but they move around quite a bit. Joel's getting teeth, Hope's losing teeth.

Guess who else has two toothers!

There already was a post 2 years ago about guess who has two toothers, so I had to put the 'who else' part in there. While Joel is proving to be my best baby so far, he certainly has been the worst teether! Hope was fussy the day she got her first tooth; Naomi just opened her mouth one day and there was a little tooth poking through. No such luck with Mr. Man. He's been a shrieking, whining, big 'ole crybaby who has drooled and chewed on everything in sight for the last few weeks. His biting has lost him his breastfeeding priviledges; the thought of going to the ER to have a nipple replaced doesn't excite me:( And just think, we have 18 more teeth in the next couple years to deal with.

Doesn't it just figure that the one time I don't bring the camera....

is when a great photo op occurs. We went to the zoo again today, and Hope wanted to feed the birds again. No, she didn't sing the Mary Poppins song- I know Bryn will be so disappointed in her. David decided we should all go in, but strollers have to stay outside and I didn't think about the camera. When we were there last month the birds weren't too hungry and it took a long time before they'd eat the birdseed Hope had. This time, they'd land on you as soon as you got the birdseed in your hand. One landed on David's head, and another perched right on little Joel's shoulder. Joel seemed fairly confused, but he didn't cry and he held still, so the bird stayed there for a minute. WHY did I not have my camera??? That would've been such a great picture! But the girls got to feed one of the giraffes and we got pictures of that, so I guess I should be happy about the pictures we did get and hope that our next visit to Willawong Station will involve hungry birds.



Hopey last month feeding one of the birds

Naomi feeding a giraffe today

Not my little helper

Naomi loves to help with the laundry. She takes clothes out of the dryer and hands them to me to fold. She takes clothes out of the washer and puts them in the dryer, and swats my hand away when I try to help. She spins the washer tub to check for any stray socks, and declares "No mowa!" after she's checked.

Yesterday she was helping me fold kitchen towels and baby blankets. Apparently she didn't want to help very badly. She'd hand me about three towels and then say "ok, no mowa". Well, you goofball, I can see twenty more little towels in there. So I'd say, "yes, Naomi, there's more". Same thing- three towels and no mowa. It took awhile but we finally got all of them folded. She even crawled into the dryer to make sure there really were no more.