Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Toesies

I got a pedicure on Saturday and Jane has been obsessed with my toes ever since. I obliged her yesterday and gave her a little pedicure of her own. She stared at her toes and giggled for several minutes.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Grandma Kim and Aunt Stephanie

My Mom and sister came into town a couple of weeks ago for a few days. We did lots of fun things, unfortunately I forgot my camera for several of those activities. Nevertheless, I'll give you what I've got. There was much sidewalk chalk drawing and bubble blowing.

One day we went to Powder Mills Park, which is a fish hatchery. The kids loved feeding the fish. Here are Adam and Stephanie.


Jane loved it when the fish would jump up to get the food and splash her a bit.

Jane and Grandma Kim, Jane was breaking the rules and feeding the waterfowl (ducks). She's never had much use for rules.


After the fish we made a pit stop at Corbett's Glen, which has some gorgeous waterfalls. We had some family pictures taken there a couple of years ago. Here are Grandma and Adam.


When Jane sees something new she likes to experience it with all of her senses. So she felt a strong need to throw herself into the water. Luckily she obliged me by letting me take off her shoes first.

Grandma pretty much made Adam's day by ferrying him up to the falls.

That look on his face? Bliss.

He loved being able to touch the waterfall.

Jane is not one to be left out.

This pretty much fulfills the fantasy she has as she stands at the bathroom sink for endless amounts of time letting the water run over her hands.

Thanks to my Mom and sister for a great visit. We are looking forward to seeing my Mom again when this baby decides to make her appearance. Can we make that soon baby, please?

Daddy's a "Sucker"

You may remember a previous post regarding a certain cotton candy purchase. The picture below should come as no surprise to those of you who know Scott's weakness when it comes to spoiling his children:

To illustrate this, here is a transcript from a conversation we had the other day:

Scott: I know it's silly but Adam really wants (fill in the blank with anything Adam wants).
April: (being facetious) "Just Say No."
Scott: But why would I when I could say "yes"?

And that, my friends is why I am the "mean Mom". I don't exaggerate, Adam informed me of this the other day on the way to church. Being extremely pregnant and hormonal; it made me cry.

Even though I think Scott is a bit too indulgent, he is without exaggeration the best father I have ever seen. He is not only fun but thoughtful. He's read just as many (if not more) parenting books as I have. The kids jump up and down when he gets home and the first thing he does is lie on the floor to be mauled by them. The pictures below are from a couple of weeks ago. He let me sleep in one rainy morning while he took the kids for walk in the rain.

Jane was ogled by every passerby in her strawberry raincoat. Scott assured me when I looked at the pictures later that she was wearing clothes under that coat (just a onsie, but at least it was something)!


No doubt about it; these two love their Daddy. That's okay, my friend Deborah assures me that being a "mean mom" will make them respect me as they get older. Here's hopin'.


What He Does for Fun

Adam loves the vacuum. Jane hates it, which may have something to do with why Adam likes it. If I want to occupy him for 45 minutes or so, I just turn him loose in the kitchen. He prefers to use the hose attachment since he can then be sure to get every single crumb. He's very thorough. Seriously, I don't even have to re-do it after he's done. As with everything Adam does; clothing is optional.

Oh, and he likes to mop too. But I do have to re-do that. There is a certain amount of elbow grease involved in getting the food, that my kids so lovingly grind into the floor, to come up.

Bubbles. He can finally blow bubbles himself. He sat in this chair for almost an hour one day. All I had to do was occasionally comment on the size or proliferation of the bubbles. Oh, and I did have to change his clothes afterward due to all the dripping. But for an hour of independent entertainment? Totally worth it.

Adam likes to be entertained or to play with someone. Don't be fooled by the above story of him playing independently for an hour; that's rare. So, it's always nice to have a friend come over. It's a little counter-intuitive to think that adding a child to the mix makes life easier; but it does. Jack came to play the other day and they had a marvelous time. I love how it looks like they're having some sort of serious conversation here...

I promise this next one was completely unstaged. I looked up, saw it and dug around frantically for my camera before I missed it.

Stay tuned for more updates on our summer. Out.

So...

We finally got a new camera (which should please my friend Kelly, who has graciously loaned us her point and shoot for the last 2 months). So, I have lots of pictures to upload, including some from my Mom's visit a couple of weeks ago. I'm on it people. I'm nesting, and for some reason catching up on blogging is something I find biologically necessary before giving birth. While my pictures are uploading, here are some fun sound bites from the mouths of my babes.

Adam:
We were at Bill Gray's (a local burger joint) and Adam was eating his favorite food; french fries with ketchup. He happened to have a good view of the kitchen and could see the cook. It was then that he informed us that that was what he wanted to be when he grew up. A fry cook. Isn't that every parent's worst nightmare?

Jane:
Both kids were watching Dora (you heard me!). They are really good at talking to Dora when she asks questions. Here is the transcript from one such interaction:

Dora: "Who do we ask for help when we don't know which way to go?"
Both Kids: "Map!"
Dora: "I think you need to say it louder."
Adam: "Map!" (louder)
Jane: "It louder!"

Hey, you asked for it Dora.

One more interesting (disgusting?) Jane tidbit. We were at Tom Wahl's (another burger joint; I'm 9 months pregnant, okay?!) because they are selling $.99 rootbeer floats this month. I was sipping and enjoying my float while Scott went to pick up the rest of our food. All of the sudden Jane was saying, "Look me, Mama!" and I could see something green between her front teeth. And then I could smell it, and then I almost gagged as I scooped it out of her mouth. I would like to thank the super-classy person who put their chewed gum under our table. My daughter had minty fresh breath all afternoon. Yuck!