Wacky Wednesday

Last week we managed to squeek out a day where me, my mom & my sister Molly were all off.  That NEVER happens.  So we took advantage & spent the afternoon in Lincoln checking their Children's Museum!!  It was almost empty there, infact when we first got there I think there were maybe 2 other kids in the whole place!  We did all sorts of fun things & had a great time!

We drove a tractor

 It had a big TV screen inside & you could push a button to choose if you were "planting" or "harvesting" & the TV screen looked like you were really driving through a field.  Hayden was mesmerized!

 We went shopping...

 Played mail-man.

 Worked in a Pizzeria!

 We found some water, which is always a hit!

 There were SO many vehicles to ride in/on.  Hayden & Livi were all about it.  Logan was "tair-ed" {scared}.

 Airplane!

 "Ohhh....ohhhh truck" {think the sound a firetruck makes}

 Livi even got dressed for the part!

 We drove a "mack truck" too!

 And Logan, sat on mommy's lap but was still "tair-ed!"

 We played trains.

 Even Lee Lee got in on some action.

 We ran, jumped, climbed, slid & crawled through tunnels.  This was supposed to be a picture of me & Hayden, who obviously didn't cooperate.

 But look what it caught.  Check those pincurls out!!  She was having SUCH a good hair day in that humid basement!!!

Good thing we brought Aunt Molly along.  My butt was NOT crawling through those tunnels.

 Much better ;)

It was a great time!!!


Afterwards we headed to the mall for an early supper & a trip to Claire's for the little girlies.  Molly was getting Analiegh's ears pierced & I thought it would be a fun idea for the girls to do it together.  Livi talked about "ear pretties" & knew it would "hurt like a shot."  Actually, when we sat down for supper, she cried because she was mad she wanted "No supper, get ears pierced."

She very calmly sat on my lap.  She was a little anxious about the gal coloring on her ears with the marker though.

 She let out one screech with the poke, a total of probably 4 tears, & in one second, she was done.

 She picked the pretty pink flowers.

 Then it was Analeigh's turn!

 When she was done Hayden said "Go-gun's turn!"  To which Logan replied "No way!"  So I asked Hayden, "Hayden's turn?"  And he grunted & replied "No way!"

Livi wanted to see Lee Lee's pink pretties.

 Smiles from my beautiful big girl!!!

GREEN!

This week while we were driving, we stopped at a stoplight.  Hayden wanted to keep moving & said "More driving."  To which Olivia matter of factly replied "Wait a green light!" 

Where does she get this stuff??!!?

Now she can tell you "Red light... stop!"  "Green means GO!"  Does that mean 16 is right around the corner?  Growing up tooo fast!!!

Weekend Warriors!

We are all finally healthy.  So I figured... what the heck, lets get out & find some germs!  Actually I figured, if we don't get back into a routine of having fun, doing activities with the kiddos outside of our 4 walls, I'm gonna go nutso.  So we did!

Friday we had a play date with our friends Ryan & Connor at the Children's Museum.  Our first visit!  (sad that my kiddos are 2 & this was our first time there.)

They were pretty apprehensive at first, didn't want to play.  But we found an "ep-ant lide" {elephant slide}.  That got Livi & Logan going.

 I used to play on toys like these, if not these exact ones at Richmond Gordmon in GI, when I was a kid!

 I had to go up & down the slide twice to get Logan to finally go on his own.  And I was thrilled to find out my butt still fits between the sides of the elephant's trunk!

 Meanwhile.... my nearly 31 pound hunka hunka chicken-shit son Hayden.....would not let me put him down. 

 He did finally go inside the camel {which he called the little elephant}.  And 3 days later he still talks about not going down the elephant side because he was "tare-d" {scared}

 We found a water table & he FINALLY decided to play!!

 And last but certainly not least.... we found the ball room!!!!!

 

 Ryan showing us how things work around there.

 Hayden was a big fan of this swing. 

 You pulled a rope which pulled the swing "up a kye" {up in the sky} so he could "wig a sky" {swing in the sky}

More playing...

We had a great time & will definately be doing it again!!


Saturday we decided to have a fun, healthy, family outing.  So we hit up the Strategic Air & Space Museum.  A lot of the things there are a few years beyond our kids, but you can't go wrong with 2 year olds & airplanes!!  {Note to anyone who goes- dress warm.  Those airplane hangers can be chilly!}

The boys now actually can say a version of hellicopter, instead of calling them airplanes too!

They have a lot of interesting historical information & artifacts.  Not sure exactly where this came from or when it was used, but a panel of buttons & 2 red phones makes me a little uneasy!!

A purple heart!!

On a side note- independent toddler boy feet here.  Hayden INSISTED on wearing one white sock & one blue sock.  Weirdo!

There were some quarter riding toys {think riding horse at the grocery store} in the shape of airplanes, a tank & a helicopter.  And this toy for the kiddos to play on.

And one place to play with a control panel & crawl inside a cockpit!  The kids could have played there all day!

All this, followed up by a lazy, laundry filled Sunday.  Pretty much a perfect little weekend!

The things they say...

They are learning "Mommy name Katie" & "Daddy name Jeff" but they think its funny to switch them & argue with us about it. Or switch it up even more & say things like "Maas name Katie." "Ya-ya name Jeff." They are also learning "Mommy nurse. Go a working at appital" {hospital} & "Daddy teach." Again they think its funny to switch them up, just to get a response.

Olivia likes to repeat phrases like "wait & see" or "in a couple days." Though she's obviously not sure really what she is saying because as she plays in the bathtub with a "washkof" {washcloth} she likes to tell me "Ya-ya wash a butt in a couple days."
And all of the sudden, she calls herself "Wivi" or "Wivia" opposed to "Ya-ya." Hum?? She also CAN say Hayden {or "A-hen"}, but prefers to call him "Maas." Starting to wonder if Hayden will ever say his own first name?

They have started to verbally argue with eachother over lots of things. As annoying as it is, its comforting to know they all possess the vocabulary & language comprehension required to do so. Like it was Logan's turn to shut the refridgerator door {yes we have to take turns with EVERYTHING!} & naughty {I mean} Hayden did it.... and Logan yells at Hayden "NO MAAS! None-en do it!" Or when playing I asked what a cow said & Hayden replied "Moo.." Olivia got mad he answered first & screams "NO MY SAY IT!!" or "No I say it." She has actually started using the word "I!" sometimes, but its often "my" instead. This is a NEW form of fighting for us that I imagine will stick around for a lifetime.....

Logan has had kind of a taking spurt. He pulls stuff out sometimes we had no idea he knew. I think between Hayden's LOUD personality. And Olivia's chatty-cathy-ness. He just can't get a word in! Literally! His speech is still usually less clear than the other two. And he has some "words" that I have no idea why he says what he says. For example he calls Francesco from the CARS movie "Da-man." NO IDEA!

Hayden's favorite thing to eat right now is pizza but it has to have parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. And when we say our prayers before bed the first thing, always the first thing he says after we say "Thank you God for..." is "for Pizza. Cheese on it!" At least he's got his priorities right, he's thankful for a warm meal.

And I found a blog posting I had worked on a few weeks ago that I apparently forgot to post.  So here it is too!  Mostly just random pictures from the end of our sick-month.

Livi mastering taking off her own pants.  She has that part DOWN PAT!  Putting them back on she sometimes needs help because she gets both legs "stuck one hole." 

 So we got her the desired baby highchair!

 Hayden was pestering her so we got a half smile/half whine picture.

 Cooking "toffee" {coffee}, "za-za" {pizza} and "bok-lee" {broccoli} for her baby.  She constantly tells us "baby high chair potty train"  Though I'm not convinced she knows what that all means!

 I think our drinking woes are over.  In addition to a few glasses of water/juice, they did this in one day.  They still aren't eating much & mostly want to drink milk.  Living off of fruit, yogurt, applesauce, pretzels & rice crispy bars.  I've more or less given up on making them meals, its always a waste.  I'm just happy when they eat anything.  At least their bodies know enough to want to drink something with some fat & substance to it. 

 Watching daddy scoop the snow

 Tried something new & novel with the kids to get them to eat.  Edamame.  Huge, huge hit with Hayden & Olivia.  Chowed down.  And had a fantastic time popping the beans out of the pod to eat.  We laughed hysterically when they occasionally shot them across the room.  Logan of course, wanted nothing to do with it.

 Livi's mullet is in such a bad state.  Just not sure what to do with it?  The front pieces that hang over her forehead are too long to leave there, they 1/2 cover her eyes.  But we can't cut bangs really because of that dang HUGE cowlick.  Tried something different & just pulled it straigh back for the day & it looked weird.  But it was probably the 3rd time in almost 2 weeks its been combed, so still an improvement.

Politics

Women's Health issues are a big debate right now.  And I'll admit I'm not one to get involved in politics much.  But since its out there---Lets include infertility!

Please visit this website & sign the petition to help raise awareness of the magnitude of couples suffering from infertility.  Please sign this petition to help other couples like us. 

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/approve-infertility-coverage-every-state/W43WWdd6

Story Time

Welp, they survived their first day back at daycare.  It was a daddy drop off & pick-up day.  I talked to Jeff after he dropped them off.  Doesn't sound like drop off was very pretty.  But sounds like they had an ok day otherwise.  Stuck to themselves a lot.  {Unfortunate since we were making good progress being social!}  But I think its been 5-6 weeks since they have been there.  5 weeks of quarantine.  I thought about calling all day to check on them.  But decided not to.  What could I have done anyways??  Would have just sat at work after that knowing, instead of wondering if it was going badly.  But they survived. 

I always look at their report sheet from each day when I get home to get the gist of how the day went.  Especially since Jeff drops off AND picks up this semester because of his schedule, so I don't talk to anyone regularly.  We sent Livi in a pull-up & asked them to take her every hour.  {Figured the day would be rough enough, didn't want her to get upset if she had an accident with everything else going on.}  But she peed in the potty all day!  I asked them what they had for lunch & they correctly told me soup.  And for snack they say they had goldfish {though the only listed meal is lunch so I'm not sure}.

They also read the book "Three Little Pigs".... so I asked them about it.  I was amazed at the response I got from them.  AMAZED!  Amazed at how much their language, communication & retention has changed in the past month!!  Even Logan is talking real sentences lately.  {His speech is still just less clear.}

I asked about the 3 pigs.  "What did the pigs do?"
H:  "Break a house."
Me:  "The pigs broke the house?"
H:  "No, bear break it."
O:  "No, olf {wolf} break it."
H:  "No, bear.:
O:  "No, olf.  No I say it!"
Me:  "No fighting.  It was a wolf.  What did that wolf do?"
L:  "{enter sound of blowing~ ~ ~ ~}"
Me:  "He blew their house down?:
O:  "YES!"
Me:  "What did the pigs do after their house broke?"
H:  "Make more house."

Jeff asked them about it tonight & they went through the whole thing again for him.  Guess we know they were paying attention during story time!!