Two Peas in a Pod.

Lately, June and Ruben have really started to act like buddies. This morning when Ruben woke up (on our bed where he had been sleeping since 1 am), June ran into the room and climbed up on the bed (with a little assistance).  She and Ruben spent about ten minutes just wrestling and giggling their heads off. I know the years ahead will bring plenty of fights and disliking one another, but for now I'm truly enjoying their friendship.

 

That is what Nana is for...

Our kids are spoiled.  By our friends, by family, by the congregation, but most especially by Nana and Papa. The ole' grandparents showed up this weekend to celebrate June's birthday and what we thought was already an over-celebrated third birthday ended up getting more exaggerated. But let's start at the beginning...

Last Monday we celebrated June's birthday as a family. We went out to Riefe's for breakfast and Julie, our waitress, gave June a choice of free pie or free chocolate cake the size of your head.  Hm...guess which one she picked. I was going to make a cake that afternoon so we could blow out candles, but I just made frosting and Karl drew a princess on the top of our "piece of cake" (that took up an entire plate so I'm pretty sure that means it was just a small cake). Jan stopped by with her presents - a beautiful afghan for her bed, princess pajamas, earmuffs with a built in ponytail, and balloons for both kids. During Ruben's nap we opened presents from Mom and Dad - harmonica, CD, baby, and Melissa and Doug birthday cake.

Tuesday was June's actual birthday and we celebrated by inviting all her little friends out to Fun Town to bounce the night away. It was super fun, but we really didn't take any picture because we played the whole time. Even though a bunch of our friends had to bow out because of a nasty flu bug we still ended up with 18 little friends to bounce around with!


We took a short break, although on Friday we did go get a free cupcake (again the size of her head but this time vanilla) at Barnes and Noble. Oh, and then June got a package in the mail from her godmother Katie. June still carries around her "princess suitcase" (jewelry box) with a necklace for each day of the week.  Then the fun really began. Oh Nana and Papa.

Papa's gift really arrived Wednesday as it was delivered via special post to our house. Garrett's Popcorn. Yum. The adults ate the popcorn but June will enjoy the beautiful pink tin it came in. Nana's gifts started out tame enough. Two outfits from a eco-friendly store in Dallas. Super Cute! Then, a Yoga video that works on phonics - we're hoping to try it out during Ruben's nap tomorrow. A read with me book. Oh, and a teeter totter.  That's right. You heard me. A teeter totter.  At first I thought perhaps it was a box she had repurposed because where would we put a teeter totter in January? Oh right.  Our living room. I had serious reservations about this toy being 1) used or 2) safe. However, as Papa and I sat on the living room floor assembling the pieces I began to get a nagging feeling that this was going to be the coolest toy ever. It's true.  Everyone should have a teeter totter in their living room.

Today we had the Henderson clan plus two over for lunch. It was also a Madeline morning and a Hallie afternoon which intersect for two hours. That meant we had nine kids under the age of six. And they had fun. I've never seen so many kids get so involved with a toy in such a small space without a single batch of genuine tears.  We had some miscommunications about whose turn it was but overall, it was a blast. We even managed to tear them away from the fun to eat some lunch.

So Thank You, Nana for doing what only you can do best. Thank you for making June that cool kid with the awesome toys. Thank you for giving our living room a new sense of space. And please remember that we are living in a 1200 square foot home and cannot house the rest of the playground as well.

June turns 3

It is my hope to ask each of our children these same questions on their birthdays. Enjoy!

1. What is your favorite color? orange

2. What is your favorite toy? truck, a big truck

3. What is your favorite fruit? pear (it's funny because this was her answer, but 10 minutes later at breakfast she said she didn't like pears at all)

4. What is your favorite show? Caillou

5. What is your favorite thing for lunch? Samwich

6. What is your favorite outfit? Green dress (actually any dress that swirls)

7. What is your favorite game? Hi Ho Cherrio

8. What is your favorite snack? cereal

9. What is your favorite animal? giraffes

10. What is your favorite song? Angels we have heard on high

11. What is your favorite book? big red book (collection of easy reader stories given to Ruben from Great Grandma)

12. Who is your best friend? Hallie

13. What is your favorite cereal? Kashi Cinnamon Harvest

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? go on the slide

15. What is your favorite drink? orange juice

16. What is your favorite holiday? mine birfday

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? (last night she took her harmonica that she got for her birthday. Most nights she doesn't take anything but folds her hands under her chin.)

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? cereal

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? cereal

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? I don't know. (last week when I asked her what she wanted to do when she grew up she said, "wear big clothes like mommy.")

Winter...Finally.

So Iowa decided to try to stave off winter, but alas, January prevailed and we finally had some weather that could be considered winter. I forgot how much fun winter could actually be. There's tons of energy for roughhousing in the living room, playing hide and seek in the bedrooms, and occasionally taking a foray into the cold. Granted, we try to also pretend it is not winter by swimming indoors as much as possible (Tuesday night trip to Bettendorf Y, Friday night trip to Bettendorf Y that was ruined by another child puking in the pool, and a birthday party for a friend at an hotel with an indoor pool). June also prefers to wear tank tops whenever I'll let her.

Here the kids are sporting their winter digs. Ruben actually does love this hat (despite the bottom picture).  He chews on that chin strap like it's his last meal. It's actually quite disgusting. The gloves June is wearing are a hand-me-down from her friend Abby. Pretty much anything Abby gives her is awesome but these gloves made the top of the list.  She'll have very vivid conversations with Elmo when we're in the car.

Roughhousing is quite the work out. June loves to rest her head on my knees while I hold her body up.  She just giggles and giggles in this position.  Warning. When roughhousing with June, Ruben will insert himself into the fun no matter how awkwardly.

We froze some colored water to create ice blocks.  The kids had fun playing with them on the kitchen floor (although Ruben had more fun playing with the red food coloring container he hid while we were making the colored water. He found it later and managed to get the lid off.  Thankfully only his fingers turned bright pink.  Our carpet was saved by the grace of God.

June has given up her nap and so spends more time with me while I make dinner. She has her own knife and has started to help me cut up vegetables. I thought this would be one of those "teaching moments" that actually ended up being a lot of work for me to help her learn a skill, but truthfully she gets it and is very cautious and is actually quite helpful.

We love Monday mornings. Everyone gets to sleep in.

When shall I blog?

I feel bad about not keeping up with this blog recently but I have good excuses on hand, I promise. First of all, I used to blog when after I put Ruben to sleep while Karl was getting June down to sleep. Well, bedtime routine has changed slightly and now I end up being a part of both kids' routines. I read June stories while Karl plays or reads with Ruben and then we switch so I can nurse Ruben to sleep while Karl gets June to sleep. Or if I finish Ruben off faster than June she is pretty adamant that I be the one to read outside her room.  Plus I've enjoyed reading the Steve Jobs biography and now I'm on to The Omnivore's dilemma.

My other blogging time was during nap. That doesn't exist anymore. June's officially given up the nap (even when Hallie is over and takes a nap it doesn't entice June into sleeping). Ruben has started napping closer to 11 which means that I spend most of his naptime doing lunch stuff with June and Karl. So, you might ask, "What is life like without a nap?" Quite frankly, I'm still in shock.  Since I started watching Hallie in September of 2009 I've had a consistent noon-to-two nap schedule in our house. When the kids were babies that was more flexible but I've always reserved that time as Kendra time - time to get two handed chores done like cleaning sinks, bathrooms, floors, folding laundry, watching shows on Hulu, relaxing or resting if the night was particularly bad and getting dinner prepped. It sounds like I worked a lot, but that was my down time. Kid free. Quiet. Do you know what I did from noon to two today? Ruben woke up at 12:45 and we changed diapers, loaded the diaper bag, got a snack, got in the car and went to the mall. My down time was spent at the mall. I'm sure that hasn't happened since middle school.

Oh, and now when do I blog.  While dinner is simmering on the stove, June is sleeping on the couch downstairs (because she fell asleep on the way home from the mall, and Ruben has spent the time playing in Nova's water bowl and wreaking havoc in the bathroom upstairs. Yeah Down Time!

Giving my kids away...

I haven't blogged lately because I wasn't sure I was going to keep these kids.  You know how when you buy a new shirt and immediately tear the tags off and then look at it again and say, "yikes, this shirt is not for me" so you hang it in the closet and put the tags on the dresser and wait until you either run out of clothes and need to wear it or accidentally throw the tags out while in frantic clean up mode and then you're stuck with the shirt and decide, "hey this shirt suits me just fine"? I guess these kids will work after all (although as I type this, Ruben found a piece of dog food on the ground and started to eat it)

The reasons I wanted to give them back have been plentiful lately although if Ruben could remain toothless the rest of his life and if June had a transposition knob so I could turn her down an octave, the list would be quite short. Ruben finally pushed a singular tooth through his gums two days ago. There better be like six more on their way shortly or else that crabbiness was totally unwarranted.  I forgive some whining when a child is teething because seriously that can't feel good.  However, the two straight weeks of incessant  crying was starting to get to me and had turned Ruben into a child I didn't know.  June has been, I hate to say it, acting like a baby lately.  She seems to no longer be able to pull her pants down by herself, put her shoes on by herself, feed herself, play independently for more than 2 minutes, or even sleep through the night (which wasn't cool at all since Ruben also couldn't sleep). I think we're finally over the hump with both kids though. Ruben is his regular self - even the sitters at Mom's group mentioned that he was a totally different kid on Wednesday.  He didn't even care that I left and wasn't ready to go when I came back. June and I have had some battles of the will that involve a few tears (mostly hers) but she once again will put on her own clothes and play with Ruben without needing me to  participate. Eating is tonight's challenge.  Hopefully this Moroccan Chicken Soup simmering on the stove will entice her to eat independently as well.

The Living Room

After taking down the Christmas tree, we were too lazy to rearrange furniture to account for the large bare opening in the middle of our window. So I hauled in blankets and pillows and created a nice little nook for reading, snacking, or just lounging around.  We've had such a hard time getting Ruben to sit still to eat, but if he's sitting in the Cuddling Spot he has no problem sitting still for the length of a small snack. June and Karl are lying there right now reading bedtime stories while I write this blog.

 

One of our Christmas presents from a congregation member was this beautiful Swarovsky (sp?) crystal light catcher. From 10 in the morning until nearly dinner time we have rainbows splashed around our living room. We even cleaned off some awards Karl and I received in high school and college (little glass statues)  and put them in the bay window so that more rainbows would appear. Ruben spent about five minutes trying to catch a particularly strong rainbow that was bobbing on the wall near his high chair.

 
Our living room is the best!