Language Smiles

With all this vocabulary explosion from so many kids, we're back into the land of fun misheard words and silly pronunciations.  It makes me happy.

Alice:  HA-YO!  (hello.)  SO happy to see us when we go in to get her up from nap.  Usually followed by, "I POOP!  BUM!"

Hercules: Have-a-doctor.  I think helicopter is my very favorite word because there are SO many silly variations of it.  He'll say, "Have a doctor and a airplane!" and for awhile I thought he was telling me that he had a doctor and an airplane.  But no.  He has a helicopter and an airplane.

Roo: Melon.  She's very big into play food and ordering off the restaurant menu and constantly asks what we'd like to eat.  Whenever we say LEMONade, it turns into melonade.

Our summer boy likes to eat "manny" for breakfast rather than banana. I always want to ask him if he's handy.  He also says "there he are" instead of "there he is", which I love because when I was in college we had friends with a little boy who said that and I haven't heard anybody do it in about 15 years. 

Friday Focus: Tigger

Tigger has turned two with a vengeance.  He's at that age where you want to squeeze his fat cheeks and love him and he pats your face and tells you he loves you.  He's obsessed with squirrels and chases after them like they're exotic, never-before-seen creatures.  He plays with trains and makes sound effects and shows you fun insights into his mind.  He's got large chunks of his favorite books memorized and will sit for a quite a while pointing and telling you what will happen next.  He's a doll.

He's also at that age where the pictures of him are cuter than the reality.  The reality is a snot-laden, pouty, defiant mess.  He lies on the floor and screams for no reason.  He sticks so close to Kanga that she can do nothing alone, and yet he still manages to run away when she calls him to come do something.  He jumps off furniture constantly, antagonizes Roo and his friends, and has smashed his mouth so it bled four times in the past two days. He's a beast.

Basically his day goes dollbeastdollbeastdolldollbeastbeast until your head spins and you never know what is coming next.  The highs are so high, and the lows are so very low.  Welcome to the downward spiral into "two and a half".   This is pretty standard, and it's this age where I've heard parents say they must be failing at their jobs because the kid used to mind and now he doesn't.  It's just the age.  Tigger will be all doll again soon.  :)  I'm not always this candid about behavior on the blog, but he is Kanga's and I love him like my own.  I'm not saying anything we haven't discussed at length, and we take turns talking him off the ledge when he gets into a mood.  In fact, there are times where he listens to me so much better than he does to his mother that I have to talk HER off the ledge.  Also normal.

You'd never think he misbehaved, ever, judging by this wide-eyed goodness:

Take my picture, Auntie, he yells as he RUNS at me.  This is what I got by the time the camera clicked, and I actually like it a lot.

Water fun during Songkran.  Love to squeeze the fat doll baby...

Suspicious beast...

I have no idea what you're talking about.  I'm just sitting here eating my pizza nicely.

Where Does the Time Go?

It has been way too long since I posted.  I've got three Friday Focus posts in draft that I haven't quite finished.  We got a new little boy who started the first week of June and is only here for the summer, and I haven't even mentioned him.  Alice is talking.  Perdita is walking.  Roo is potty trained.  It's ridiculous, all the monumental occasions that are passing us by without being documented.

I still want to go back and do all that, but my good intentions fall by the wayside every now and then.  So here are a few quick shots:

 Here is cutie pie Summer Boy.

 We're working on The Little Engine That Could for our "read it once again" program and pretty much everyone is big enough to color now.  Alice, Mater, and Lady are especially pleased to sit at the table with the bigger kids!

Perdita thinks my kids are hilarious and they chase her around and make her laugh so hard she falls down.

Summer is flying by- come schooltime O'Malley will be going off to kindergarten and Duchess will be in fourth grade.  Aurora's new baby sibling is slated to be arriving sometime this fall, and we've still got a slot available.  Give us a call if you need childcare!  :)

My Daddy Dressed Me

I love dads who get involved.  There's something about a cute little girl and a daddy that is just awesome.  But baby girl clothes are so foreign to daddies.  One of the first girls I ever took care of is now about to finish fifth grade- her dad told me, "I knew I was in trouble when her mother told me I put her socks on the wrong feet.  Boy socks don't matter!"  And it's so true- girl socks have the cutesy little bows and ribbons and you're supposed to put them on the outside ankle, not the inside.  Hair is complicated, and clothes?  Forget it.  Men always think that a shirt should button up the front.  You never see any guy clothes that button up the back.  We get little girls coming in on a fairly regular basis with their clothes on backwards. It's immediately obvious to us and it's hilarious.  Or else they do things like put on a zip-up hoodie and track pants with no shirt underneath, so when you unzip you've got bare chest.    I love daddies who try.  I don't mean to mock them.  But it's still funny.

This whole episode made me laugh, partly because Lady was so angry for no good reason.  After all, her clothes were on properly.  :)  I was trying to take pictures of Perdita, who happened to be our backwards girlie.

 I'm happy!  But my dress is on backwards!

 No Lady, please scoot over so I can take a picture of Perdita's back.  You're in the way, sweetie!

 There, see.  It's backwards.  Want me to take a picture of you now, Lady?

 Oh wait.... apparently I offended you deeply.  My apologies.....

Songkran

I've made several references and put up a couple pictures about Songkran, but I never did the big picture dump post.  This is our second year to celebrate and it's one of my favorite days.  I wish I could actually be in Thailand during the festival one year to be more a part of it and really "get" the whole thing.  Kanga says it's amazing.
I was going to link to last year's post and then I realized I never did one like this.  There's a Songkran album on the facebook page, I think, but I never got around to posting here.  Shocking, I know. Anyway... pictures!  Out of order and chaotic, but that's kind of how water days go!

Copper and Roo jockeying for pool space

Hercules still is not super excited about getting very wet.

I totally forgot to tell her mama that we were doing water day- she's only here on Fridays.  Looking sporty in O'Malley's big t-shirt!

Getting ready to dive in

Tigger with a bucket of water, hunting Kanga down so he can throw it on her

Perdita had a great time watching from the porch

No such thing as too much water for Copper

Tarzan took control of the water guns!

Whoa!  Lots of water!

Cute watcher

Hmm... wonder if I could drink that?

Yes!  Yes I can!

Really?  Seriously?

Lady loves the water!

Mater didn't want to get in the pool, but was very happy to have friends throw water on him.  Silly boy.

Tasty mud?

Hi! 

Friday Focus: Alice

Miss Alice is quite the big girl now. She's been walking for months, so for her that wasn't really the defining factor. Not sure what it is, but all of a sudden she's one of the big kids and not one of the babies. She wants to be in the thick of things, whether that's on top of the table or exerting her dominance over Perdita. :) This picture totally cracks me up. They were both having a great time. Perdita was smiling until she heard me say "excuse me young lady!"  And then they both looked at me like I was crazy.

 

She climbs like a mountain goat already.  She's so tiny and yet so nimble.  I think she's got the perfect build and temperament to be a star gymnast if she decides she wants to do that.  I could totally picture her on the uneven bars or doing triple flips off the beam in a few years.

When we celebrated Songkran she wasn't sure at first if she wanted to get wet or really get involved in any of the craziness.  It took her a few minutes of watching before she made a decision.

Then she realized mud was a good thing.  She splashed and played and let people throw water at her.

She's got the most infectious silly grin.  I love listening to her laugh.

Alice's mom is very generous about sharing things with us that they've outgrown at home, or things that Alice isn't using.  It's funny though, seems like the last few things she's brought over because Alice won't play with at home- those have become her favorite toys here.  I'm not sure if it's just the comforting feeling of recognizing stuff from home, or maybe things look a lot more interesting once you have to wait in line to play with them.  The cup she drinks from every day here is one from home that she threw on the floor and wouldn't drink from.  The girl's got herself some strong opinions and isn't afraid to let us know, even if they change daily and are based on location.  :)

Yummy Breakfast

I found this baked oatmeal recipe on pinterest and it is so deliciously fantastic!  I make it probably once a week now and almost everyone LOVES it.  Parents have started asking for the recipe, so here is the link.  I use cinnamon instead of five spice powder and leave out the orange zest.

YUMMY oatmeal.