extreme squeaking

"Watch this, Daddy!!"  Flora holds a toy fish closely to her belly and runs as fast as she can into the recliner.  The fish squeaks on impact.  She is so proud!  After a few rounds of this, Chris shows her how she can make it squeak by simply squeezing it or stepping on it.  Hm....just as effective but not nearly as dramatic (also not nearly as likely to give Flora whiplash).

i wonder if he texts too?

I had a bad headache today and asked Flora and Scout to pray for me.  Scout loves to pray for sick people.  He very seriously scrunched his eyes shut, folded his hands, and prayed, "Fodder Dod, please to make Mommy's head to not hurt.  Tank you.  Aaaaaa-men." 

Flora said she didn't want to pray but she would call Jesus on her Barbie cell phone.  She dialed a LOT of numbers (obviously not a local call???), waited a moment for Jesus to answer, and said, "Hello, Jesus?  How are you doing?  Please make Mommy feel better.  Ok?  Ok.  Bye-bye." 

I thanked them both and told Flora she should call Jesus back to tell him that we love him.  She dialed all the numbers, waited, and then said, "Hello, Jesus?  I love you and Mommy loves you and Scout loves you and Timber loves you and Daddy loves you because.....um, because.....you are Jesus.  Ok, bye-bye!" 

role reversal

Scout picks up his toy phone and calls Robbie. 
He says, "Hi Robbie!  What you doin'?" 
After a few moments with the phone to his ear he says to me, "Mommy, you say, "Who you talkin' to?" to me."
I obediently ask, "Who are you talking to, Scout?" 
He looks right at me and says, "SHHH!" 

I laughed but what I should have done is keep asking over and over and over and over.

*****
Also, Scout was saying his VBS Bible verse today but got a little bit confused.  He said, "When I am afraid I trust in Flora."  Oops.  He'll learn soon that he shouldn't put too much trust in his big sister!  She's still very self-centered at the ripe ol' age of 3.  I'm pretty sure she would totally bail on him in a scary situation. 

I'm also just a teeny bit sad to announce that Scout can say Flora's name correctly now.  It was very cute when he called her Fora.

Oh! --and I just thought of one more thing!  Yesterday Scout told me that Timber was "his very best guy."   

Flora and Scout both say such silly things every day.  Instead of a blog I need a live video feed from our living room.  But then you would see how messy our house gets....  Nope, sorry, you'll just have to be content with the little snippets that I remember to blog about. 

good times

Fun trip to Arkansas!!  Flora and Scout played at parks, watered flowers, went for walks, acted as Flower Girl and Ring Boy for Amanda's wedding, baked cookies, swam in a mini-pool, played in pink sand, watched Shane coach basketball, ate ice cream, visited Great Grandpa and Grandma Dot, fed chickens and met their first crawdad.  Good times!

Flora befriended a stuffed sheep at Poppy and Gigi's house and begged to take him home with us.  I told her I'd have to think about it because the sheep's home was at Poppy and Gigi's house.  When it was time to leave, Flora left the room for a moment and came back to walk nonchalantly out the front door with a huge sheep-shaped bulge in the front of her shirt.  I asked, "Flora, what's in your shirt?" She looked down at her stuffed shirt, looked back at me, shrugged, and said, "I think my belly just growed." 

We heard a lot of this on the ride home: 
Timber:  Ba-ba-ba-ba
Scout:  Blah blah blah
Timber & Scout:  *giggle*giggle*giggle*

While snuggling with Scout before naptime, he told me that he was a lot like Avee (Bryan and Sara's dog).  I asked him why he was like Avee and he said, "Because Avee is SO cute."  He went on to say, "And Sara is SO cute too and Bryan is so sweet.  I love Bryan and Sara and Avee." 

timberrific

It's good to be the parent of an 8-month-old and probably even better to actually BE an 8-month-old.  The eighth month is the beginning of my VERY favorite stage.  Here's the deal--8-month-old babies are FINALLY able to move around on their own!  Timber is crawling and cruising and trying his best to figure out how to run with Flora and Scout.  He is entertained for long periods of time just crawling from area to area exploring toys and extension cords and eating paper.  Yeah, I guess there are some down sides to being on-the-move.  However, overall I think life takes a turn for the better once babies start crawling. 

And guess what else??  Today Timber got his first tooth!!  My kids were all late teethers but for some reason I thought Timber would be different.  I have been crying "Tooth!" for about six months now but today my cry was finally justified.  Of course, no one came running to see the new tooth since they all assumed I was exaggerating a small bump on his gums, but really, there's a tooth this time.

Tonight Timber spent about an hour in a small plastic pool at Poppy and Gigi's house while Flora and Scout were chased around the yard by Uncle Shane.  Shane was trying to throw water on them and they were shrieking and laughing while running away.  Flora was quite distressed that her hair was getting wet.  She's such a girl.  

Ohhh, and Timber LOVES to eat.  He is a very noisy eater.  He literally "nom nom noms" while he's eating his baby food.  His favorites are oatmeal cereal, mango, sweet peas, pears, and mixed vegetables.  Actually, now that I think about it I there isn't a food that Timber has rejected.  He's getting better with some simple finger foods.  It's all in preparation for that big piece of birthday cake that he will dig into in a little over three months.  It makes me a little bit sad that he's done being a baby but not too sad.  Babies are sweet but they just aren't much fun.  Timber is fun now.  Every smile is an open-mouthed smile.  He loves life!

Timber wants to be a big boy so badly.  Lately he and Scout have been wrestling....or at least rolling around nicely under my close supervision.  We call it wrestling -- it's more like gently hugging on the floor.  But I'm sure it's a taste of things to come.  I don't have any experience with brothers so I don't know how to expect Scout and Timber to interact.  It will be fun watching them grow up together -- with Flora keeping them in line of course.  Ok, I really just wanted to blog about Timber being 8-months-old so I could put all these cute pics on here.  Teeth are great but there's something SO cute about a big toothless grin! 

flora is from venus. scout is a piece.

Flora gets SO excited when Diego shows up on Dora's show or vice versa.  She was really happy the other day because Diego came to Dora's birthday party.
Me:  Do you wish Diego would come to your birthday party, Flora?
Flora:  YES!  But....I think Diego and Dora live on their different Venus.
Me:  What??
Flora:  They live on a different Venus.
Me:  Where do we live?
Flora:  We live on OUR Venus.  (duh, Mom)


After a chaotic evening I curled up in our recliner hoping that the kids would ignore me and play with Chris for a while.  Of course, Flora and Scout immediately jumped on top of me.
Scout and Flora:  "What you doin', Mommy?  What you doin'?" 
Me: "I'm trying to have a peaceful moment." 
Scout: (yelling right in my face)   "I'M A PIECE!  I'M A PIECE, MOMMY!"


Flora has been really into lipstick lately and often puts it on by herself when we aren't looking. She tells me, "Mommy, I put lots and lots and lots and LOTS of lipstick on because then I am very very very VERY fancy."

She usually doesn't see her results in the mirror.  We were getting ready to go to a rugby dinner (don't ask why I'm still going to rugby dinners) and Flora got into my lipstick and then went to the mirror to view her work.  "Oh," she said, "too much."  Then she went to find a wet wipe, came back to the mirror and very carefully dabbed the tiniest bit of lipstick off her mouth.  "Puh-fect," she said, obviously pleased with her clown mouth.


And finally, tonight I smelled something and asked Flora if she had tooted. 
Flora:  "No . . . well, I don't think so.  Can you listen to my bum, Mommy?" 
Me:  "What?"
Flora:  (completely serious and sticking her bum out in my direction) "Listen to my bum to see if I'm tooting."
Chris was especially amused by this one!

talking with timber

Me:  Mama
Timber:  Blah-ahhhhh
Me:  Mama
Timber:  Ba-ba-ba-ba
Me:  Mama
Timber:  Ow-yooo
Me:  Mama
Timber:  Ehhhhh
Me:  Mamamamamamama
Timber:  DADA!

lyric laughs

Scout and Flora learned a song at their playschool a couple weeks ago for Mother's Day.  It goes (to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star):

Mommy, Mommy, I love you 
Yes I, Yes I, Yes I do
You're so sweet and oh so fine
I'm so glad that you are mine
Mommy, Mommy, I love you
Yes I do, Yes I do

Cute, right?  Scout never gets the words right though.  Today he is walking around the house singing "Mommy, Mommy, I love you / You so glad that I so sweet." Well, yeah.....I guess I am glad that he's so sweet. 

I also wanted to share Scout's version of Row Row Row Your Boat:

Wo, wo, wo a butt
Gently down da stream
Merrily, merrily
Like a butter dream

P.S. --- And last night he was singing "Mommy, Mommy, I love you / You so sweet and I so fine."

lowering my expectations

Flora and Scout are spending their first solo weekend with Poppy and Gigi.  I had such high hopes for this weekend.

I was going to organize and run a successful yard sale, catch up on all the laundry, go out to eat several times, reorganize my bedroom, clean the toy room (aka Timber's room), do some leisurely shopping, go to the library and actually spend some time in the adult book section (adult reading level not ADULT books), meet up with a friend or two for coffee or lunch, nap, attend a few graduation parties, eat whenever I want without having to share bites, read, and rotate the toys.

Do you see the problem?  Well, two problems:  1) there's not enough time to do all of that in one weekend, and 2) Timber is still here with me.

So, I'm having a hard time lowering my expectations.  I don't really want to be a crazy person who tries to fit SO MUCH into every spare second but I also wanted to mark more than three things off my list.

The yard sale was a failure.  This morning was cold, very windy, and threatening rain.  We gave up our Friday yard sale dreams at about 10am.  Tomorrow is still supposed to be cool and windy but I'm hoping there is more traffic just because it's Saturday.  I love having yard sales.  It's fun to price and get stuff organized and ready, and it's REALLY fun to make money.  When the kids are older I may start a side business organizing and running yard sales for people who think it's too much hassle.  BUT I say "when the kids are older" because I was very unorganized for this sale.  There is still so much in the basement that hasn't been priced.  So.....yard sale = FAIL.  I'll stop whining about it.  There will be other yard sales.

There is so much that I won't get done this weekend but a bright spot has been spending time with the little T-man.  Obviously, he's been getting more attention than he usually does and I think he's enjoying the extra Mommy and Daddy time.  So that's good.  He looks so much like Baby Flora that I almost feel like we've traveled back in time 3 years.  We went out to eat today and three fellow diners took the time to let us know what a "perfect," "sweet," and "adorable" "little doll" we had.  I haven't heard those kinds of comments from strangers for a while.  I guess a 3-year-old and a 2-year-old can really overshadow a sweet 7-month-old.

Speaking of 7-month-old, Timber has one more week to learn how to crawl.  Flora and Scout both began crawling during their 7th month and I'm hoping Timber will too.  I love crawling babies!  He is trying SO hard to crawl -- I think he may figure it out very soon.

And now I'll leave you with one silly conversation I had with Scout this week:

Me:  What do you want to eat?  (why was I dumb enough to ask a 2-yr-old that???)
Scout:  Jelly beans!
Me:  No.  What else do you want to eat?  (apparently I just don't learn)
Scout:  Broccoli!!

He's 2-yrs-old so of course he prefers jelly beans but I'm glad that broccoli is a close second.

this is what we talk about....

Flora:  Mommy, I want to go to outer space.

Me:  Well, maybe you will someday.

Flora:  But Mommy, I want you to help me.

Me:  I don't know how to go to outer space.

Flora:  But I really need someone to help me.

Me:  Not very many people go to outer space.

Flora:  But Mommy, if no one goes with me then I will be shy.

Me:  Why do you want to go to outer space?

Flora:  To see the planets.

Me:  People who go to outer space are called astronauts.  Do you want to be an astronaut?

Flora:  Yeah!  With you!  ....so I won't be shy.  But we don't have a rocket ship to float to outer space.....

Me:  Where could we get a rocket ship?

Flora:  From a rocket ship store.  Or a rocket ship church.  Or a rocket ship office.

Scout:  WHEN IT GET DARK OUTSIDE I WILL GO TO DA PLANETS AND TO DA MOOOOOON!!!