Shake It

Bug has been doing this hilarious booty shaking thing lately. We really shouldn't encourage it but it makes us laugh every time. And of course Boo wants to do whatever her sister does but she ends up just bouncing up and down. :) I thought this video was funny b/c at the end Boo comes up to me and starts chatting. She has been doing this a lot lately. She just starts jabbering up a storm and then looks at us like we should totally understand what she is saying. It cracks me up. :)

Her Favorite Spot

Boo has a favorite spot: these two little stairs off the kitchen. She has been fascinated with stairs ever since she started crawling and at first she would just crawl up these two and shake the gate and yell. :) But then she discovered that the stairs also made a wonderful spot to sit and read, play a game, or just have a little quiet time away from your rambunctious and sometimes overly loud sister. :) I often come around the corner to find this...

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Perfectly content in her favorite spot.

"Laugh With Me!" - Part 10

I found the ones from November! And one from October and December too. So here goes...

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October 30th

Having another funny conversation at dinner.

Daddy: "So who will you marry?"

K - "A husband."

Daddy: "Oh ok, and then what?"

K - "Then I will have babies and live at N's house."

(N being our renter in our old house...she knows that we lived there after we got married and that we had her when we were in that house).

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November 2nd

K was doing her United States puzzle. She got all excited and held up the state of Kansas. "LOOK MOMMY! This is my friend that is coming today! Candace!"

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November 14th

K is such a girl! We were playing with some dinosaurs and I was telling her the names of some of them.

Me: "This one is a triceratops, this one is a brontosaurus, oh, and that one is called a tyrannosaurus rex! I don't know what that one is called though."

K takes the dino out of my hand and says matter-of-factly, "That one is a mommy."

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December 28th

We were in the car singing.

K: "Mommy can you sing the one about the floody floody?"

Me: "Sure. (start singing) The Lord told Noah..."

K: "No, no! You have to do the commotions too!"

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Okay, now I'm caught up. I'll have to do a January post soon, but for now we are off and running.

Goodnight Kisses

Several people have asked lately if Boo blows kisses. She gives kisses she just doesn't blow them. :)

Saturday

I think Saturday has to be my favorite day of the week. Especially when we don't have anything on the calendar. There is nothing better then sleeping in a little and then having both girls pile into our bed for a little family snuggle time.

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Or silly time.

Funny faces.

I think it's Bug's favorite day of the week too.

And Boo's also pretty fond of the extra Daddy-time. :)

Boxes

Yesterday, while Bug spent the day with Noni, I cleaned out her room. I think I got half a sack full of old papers that I tossed out. Other than that it was mostly tidying up...and removing boxes. I knew she had a few in there but I didn't realize how many! She's a box hoarder! Most of these had a stuffed animal or baby doll tucked in with a blanket around them. Some had toys and some were just empty. The girl loves boxes.

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Although to be fair, she does come by it honestly.

:)

Busy Busy Busy

I don't know how it happened but our schedule has gotten out of control lately! Mostly just the mid-week part of it. The girls have been seeing T about a total of 3 hours during our Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday slot. So when they go to bed on Monday I feel like they should say, "Bye Daddy, see you Friday!"

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I think it feels out of control lately b/c of baseball season. T tries to make it to practice everyday so instead of being able to come home for an early dinner before all our usual evening activities he just meets us wherever we are.

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Tuesdays we have bible study (at our own house at least), Wednesdays are Awana, Thursdays are gun club for T and worship team for me since I have recently started playing the piano at church. Combine that with Wednesdays management team (so he doesn't get to come home for lunch) and Thursdays where the girls and I usually go to town for groceries/errands/appointments and there you have it...crazyiness. :)

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We do have Tuesday lunch with Daddy which = 1 hour, Thursday T picks the girls up from worship team which is another hour for the three of them, and then we have 5-10 minute transitions (like morning and bedtime) for the 3 days and that gives us a total of about 3 hours. I think this bothers me more than the rest of my family since one of my love languages is quality time. I feel like we're definitely not getting much quality time these days!

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Okay, I'm done complaining. :) On the plus side we usually get to spend Thursdays with Noni and sometimes Mama. Since Noni has Thursdays off I always schedule appointments on that day and we save all our errands for that day. We didn't go to town today since I've been feeling like I should try to stay home more because of the ridiculous gas prices. I can't believe how fast they went up! I guess I notice it a lot more in an SUV than I did in my little blue car.

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But when we do go to town we try to do something fun with the girls. More often than not it is just the little playground at the mall. They love it!

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I love whatever the mall playground is made out of. I have no idea what it is. It looks like plastic but its a little bit squishy.

Although who needs a playground when you can play with the wonder that is your sister's shoe?

I love that they are starting to play together more. It's so fun to watch them.

Bug is so funny when we go here. She is pretty shy around strangers...like 99% of the time. This is the other 1%. I guess she just feels like it is a safe place. She will go up and talk to every single parent in the play area. She tells them her name, about her sister, asks their name and all about their kids. So funny. She would never do that in any other place but I guess the mall playground is free game!

On a mission!

Still lovin' that shoe!

"Let's go down the slide together!"

Love Boo's expression on this one.

Again, again! Wait for me!

Sister fun.

Well, since its Thursday we'll soon be reunited with that person we call Daddy. One good thing is that it does make us appreciate the weekends a whole lot more!

Little Picasso

So the easel that T so thoughtfully and painstakingly created for Christmas has been sitting in the garage gathering dust since...well, since we came home from Christmas. Oops. :{ I have thought about getting it out several times but I was just not looking forward to the mess. Alas, one of my friends inspired me to get it out and allow K to get in touch with her inner Picasso. She was so excited.

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Of course, being the perfectionist that she is, she started out with four colors. Red, yellow, blue, and green. Why, you ask? Because she had four paintbrushes, in...you guessed it, red, yellow, blue and green.

She delicately applied each brush stroke with precision.

A masterpiece in the making.

But then, the child in her started to come out and she got CRAZY. She put the red paintbrush in the yellow paint, the yellow paintbrush in the red paint, the blue...you get the idea. Sheer madness!

Madness which apparently unlocked the true artist within...

Then we got really crazy with it and got out the rest of the colors. She painted three pictures in about 30 minutes, and yes, it took me about that long to clean up the mess left behind.

But you just can't put a price on artistic expression!

Hidden Monster

Daddy and the girls invented a new game today: the Hidden Monster. K and Daddy started playing it first and they were being so loud and roughhousing so much that I thought it would scare Boo. Much to my surprise, she thought it was HILARIOUS. They did it for about ten minutes straight and both girls were sweating from laughing so hard. :)

Toddler

Well Boo is officially a toddler. She toddles around everywhere and rarely crawls these days. She is definitely on the move and into everything! :)

I had to post this video because at the end she does her half-kneeling one-legged scoot that was her main mode of transportation between the crawling and walking stages. I never thought anything of it until other people pointed out that it looks kind of funny. :)

Look out world, she's on the loose!

Say Ahh

Today I was shocked...first because when we got up there was no snow except for the few patches left in the yard and then two hours later we had about an inch and then it snowed all day...

...and second because Bug did AMAZINGLY well at the dentist! Seriously shocked. For the past week all I have heard is, "I don't want to go to the dentist!" and "Let's not go to the dentist, okay?" I tried role playing with her a few times to get her used to opening up her mouth for someone and she refused to do it. So imagine my surprise when we get to the dentist and she is cool as a cucumber, obeys the dentist and hygienist without hesitation and has a generally good time!

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I had a map but didn't know exactly where I was going so when I exited the highway Bug piped up, "Where is it?"

Me: "I'm not sure, I think it's up here."

Bug: "Call Daddy."

Me: "Give me a sec, I think I can find it."

Bug: "I think you should call Daddy."

(glad to know she has such confidence in my navigational skills)

Me: "There's the street. Now we just have to find the building."

Bug: "I don't think you're going to find it."

Me: "Look, there it is, we found it."

Bug: "Yay!"

Quite a different tune than someone who has been trying to avoid the dentist like the plague. We got inside and she immediately went in search of the promised toys. They had a little playroom all set up so she was happy as a clam while I filled out the paperwork. I checked the box for "Is your child feeling apprehensive?" They probably thought I didn't know my own child because she appeared anything but apprehensive as she chatted with the hygienist "I have a little sister...red is my favorite color" and tested out the "chair that moves!"

She went from one toy to another checking everything out.

She was very excited to find a crayons and pages to color. You'd think she'd never colored a picture before she was so happy.

When the dentist came in she immediately abandoned her picture and obeyed his request for her to come sit in the chair. She opened as wide as her little mouth would go and let him look inside with the little mirror. Then she went back to her coloring while I talked with him.

She was doing so well the hygienist asked if I wanted her to go ahead and get a cleaning. She obeyed each command as if she does this sort of thing every day, although she didn't like the taste of the strawberry toothpaste.

And the good news is that nothing needs to be done. He was pleased with the way the broken teeth look and said that as long as they don't abscess we are just going to leave them alone. If she was in any type of pain he would come up with a game plan but for now he said less is more. If she starts to get any signs of infection or complains of any pain or sensitivity we'll have to take her back in, but other than that, no big deal. He said her teeth might fall out a little sooner than they would have without the trauma but otherwise there shouldn't be any problems. The only negative is that they could discolor. We are praying that they won't.

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I was so proud of how well she did that we went straight from the dentist to Sonic and I let her get a sundae for the first time. She loved it. Probably not the best choice teeth wise with all that sugar :) but I wanted to reward her for doing so well. If only all our experiences could exceed my expectations like that!

Dizzy Zebra

Boo recently discovered the zebra that we bought K for her first birthday. She really likes it and has learned how to get on it by herself. They were being so funny yesterday that I had to get a video.

And this video cracked me up. Bug had spun her around so much that she started getting dizzy. You can see when she starts to lose control and is leaning with the turns.

I thought that was hilarious when she tried to get back on and her foot didn't go exactly where she planned. So funny. :)

Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

I am already starting to enjoy the benefits of having daughters. Today I received a coupon for a free manicure at Bug's Beautiful Princess Parlor. I arrived at the counter and presented my coupon only to learn that in order to be redeemed the patron is required to first give a manicure to the proprietress. Then and only then can one's princess beautification process begin.

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And don't bother trying to pick your color. ALL colors must be used in order to properly channel your inner princess.

Another satisfied customer.

And let's not forget the Princess herself.

If at any point it become necessary to articulate that polish goes on the nail only and not the surrounding tissue, it may be in your best interest to request another technician.

Beautiful AND magical.

I declined the complimentary pedicure.

Presents

Boo bear got a few more birthday presents this week! She LOVES presents. I mean, all kids love presents, but she seems to have an even greater excitement than is typical. Maybe gift giving is one of her love languages. :)

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Presents!

She got a really cute purple outfit and two onesies from Pawpaw and Nana. She is wearing one of the onesies today...I should have taken a picture. It's really cute. It has a picture of a guitar on it and it says, "Little Sisters Rock".

She likes cards too. :)

Hugs for the card.

Auntie Nina also sent a birthday present! I set them down on the floor and she knew exactly what to do. She toddled over and started in on them.

See? Loves the presents. :)

Maybe one reason is because she also loves shredding paper. :)

But it's not just the paper. Once she got the paper off she held up the box to me to get the toys out.

Look how excited she is! She loves Weebles!

Yay! New Weebles to play with!

She started playing with them right away, although she was very concerned that only two of them could go in the car at a time. She kept taking them out and trying different ways to get them all in. :) Funny girl.

"Oh, did I leave a mess? Would ya clean it up for me Mommy?"

Thanks for my fun presents Pawpaw and Nana and Auntie Nina and Uncle Mike!!!