My Sweet Girl

Dainty little girl playing with soccer balls and digging in the dirt...

Clowns

After playing outside for a couple of hours, I gave the two Lucas kids an ice cream treat. They sat at the kitchen table while I washed dishes. It was SO funny to listen to their conversation. It went something like this:

Lucas E: "Did you draw that dinosaur?"

Lucas B: "Yes, I'm a great drawer. Are you a great drawer?"

Lucas E: "I'm going to the mountains tomorrow."

Lucas B: "Where did you get your gun?"

Lucas E: "I got the rifle at Wal Mart and the cap gun at Wal Mart."

Lucas B: "How did you got there?"

Lucas E: "You just drive there in a car."

Lucas B: "Oh, we'll have to use that black thing."

Me:... thinking about what he meant: "You mean the GPS?"

Lucas B: "Yes, it tells us where to go. Like to Grandpa's house."

Lucas E: "I have a GSP too."

Lucas B: "Where do you have it?"

Lucas E: "In my car. The PPS is just stuck on the window."

Lucas B: "I can only hold mine when my mommy knows where she's going."

I'm sure they said more... it was really funny at the time... they seemed so sure of everything that the said, even though they said "GPS" wrong most of the time : ) After that conversation they made jokes and silly faces, cracking themselves up.

Sping Break, Day 2

I took Tuesday and Wednesday as vacation days, so we had the entire day to just play. On Tuesday we went to the Science Museum in Raleigh. I thought Lucas would be bored with it, but he was really into it. He kept calling me over to look at things with him. Ellen wasn't as thrilled, but rode around and observed from her stroller like a sweet little girl.

Doesn't she look so old here with those little legs hanging out?

Lucas was in awe of something here...

And very excited to be going to the section with the bees here!

At the end of our visit there was a story about bugs and then Lucas got to touch some bugs (gross). He loved it though. And Ellen sat in her stroller for the story, which was nice.

After the museum we met some friends at a park for a while before Ellen's nap. Lucas E. and Lucas B. played in the dirt...

And then Lucas B. invited Lucas E. to his house to play some more... with the compost and all of the other non-toy things they could find.

Spring Break 2010!

Lucas is on break this week from preschool, so I thought I'd try to make each day a little more special. On Monday I worked in the morning, but in the afternoon we went swimming at Pullen Park. My kids are like fish... they just naturally love the water. Lucas got the feel of the water again pretty quickly and was jumping off by himself and swimming under water. And it's no surprise that Ellen was trying as hard as she could to keep up with her hero. She was pushing against me like she wanted me to just let her go, so I thought I'd dunk her to see what she thought. I counted to three and blew in her face before dunking her. She would come up with wide eyes, but never once choked... and then she'd make the sign for "more" : ) Next she made her way up to the edge to jump to my arms, but got bored with that pretty quickly. By the end of the two hours she was jumping in and I'd let her go all the way under before grabbing her. She is such a stinker. This summer is going to be fun. Here is the dynamic duo. Ellen only wore that get-up for a few min... it was too big.

Big Brother Lessons

Lucas was very proud this morning that he taught Ellen how to say "oatmeal" at breakfast. He spent a long time trying to teach her to yogurt, but no luck. Ellen cleaned her oatmeal bowl and when Jeff saw it he said, "Wow" and then Ellen repeated. So two new words this morning! A great start to her week.

Backyard Buddies

Finn and Lucas are having a blast since Will and Jeff tore down the old fence between our yards while they build a new fence. Ele and I thought it would be fun to share a backyard for a while, but we're both rethinking that now : ) Ellen heads into their yard as soon as her feet hit the ground. And the back of their house has a lot of glass, so she runs right up, stick her nose to the door and starts yelling for Emma (their dog). And someone, one of my kids I'm sure, pulled all of the flowers off of the stems in one of their gardens. And then Emma rolled in something in our yard... you get the picture. But these two are cute, right?

Preschool Easter Egg Party

The crazy Lucas Bryant had his Easter Party at school today. It was the last day before Spring Break next week. I just love, love, love his preschool and the staff, especially his two teachers. He feels so comfortable there and is making so many good friends. As you can see in these pictures, he isn't shy around his classmates... totally hamming it up during the snack break.

And this is Lucas with his friend, Landon. Landon has a 9yr old brother and so uses more advanced language like "dude" and "bud"... check out his fingers in this random pic I took:

And then of course Lucas had to run and play with Ian for 10 min after school:

Ellen and Karis

I posted before about how Ellen was showing off at Charles's birthday party - well here is the proof! She and Karis wanted people to look at them : )

Happy Birthday Charles!

Charles turned 4 on 3/18. His party wasn't until that weekend, so we went over to have a cupcake and help him celebrate on his actual birthday. He and Lucas are really good friends now... I mean they were each among each other's very first friends, but up until now they haven't always played the best together... mostly because Lucas hit the "can't share" stage at about 18 months and wasn't fun to play with... but now they play together SO well and Wendy and I are amazed. Now if we didn't have the little girls to watch we could actually sit and have a conversation while they played : )

Licking the frosting from the dinosaur on the cupcake

Wendy and Sweet Caroline (10 months old)

Easter Egg Hunt!

Lucas's preschool class had an Easter Egg Hunt today. Each child was instructed to bring in 12 filled eggs for the hunt. As expected, Lucas took this task very seriously and gathered as many eggs as his little bag would hold... much more than his share of 12. He and the other kids had a great time.

Oh yeah, the kid loves Easter Egg Hunts

Lucas working hard...

Lucas, Landon and Nicholas

The kid's class during the hunt

Lucas with his primary teacher, Mrs. Rosemary

Lucas with the assistant teacher, Mrs. Jane

A break with Mommy...

And his BEST bud in his class - Ian

New Reading Light

Jeff got Lucas a reading light that attaches to his headboard so that he can see to read books in his bed. Lucas thinks it's the coolest thing. For the first time ever he spent a long time in his room reading alone...

Muffins, just because...

The Bird, the Kid and I decided to make some muffins last night while Jeff was working late. As you can see, they are both big helpers. I let Ellen help pour the milk and Lucas got to break the egg and pour the oil in. Then they both got turns stirring and, the best part, licking the bowl and spoon...

Then while they were cooking Lucas requested a second dinner of pasta, and Ellen was glad to to follow suit...

Only 3 more minutes! The suspense was killing them...

Ellen at 17 Months Old

In the past week I have had friends or strangers refer to Ellen as "a pistol", "so independent", "not afraid of anything", "a girl with attitude" and "a lady who knows what she wants." These statements are all so true. She is such a hoot. And she is still amazing (or so we think!) I'm guessing it's a combination of being the second child and being a girl, which I think mature faster than boys, but she just seems so sharp for her age. And she still seems wise - definitley an old soul.

She can pretty much communicate anything she wants to us via sign language, made up actions or words, but here are the words that she can say now: dada, dootus (lucas), memma (emma - dog next door), TT (tyson), mine (she says this a lot!), apple, hot, poo poo (can you tell she has a 4yr old brother?), elf, uh oh, ouch, bye bye, dis, dat and diaper. The little stinker still won't say mama. She said it the other day when Wendy asked her who I was, but then she grinned at me like she had let it slip on accident and hasn't said it since.

Her schedule now is to wake around 6:30 or 7:00, nurse, play in her room and then head downstairs for breakfast. During the week Miss Karen arrives at 8:30 while Ellen is eating breakfast. She plays with Miss Karen, has snack, has lunch and then goes down for a nap from 11:30-2:30. Upon awaking she has a snack and then we play until dinner time. She goes to bed around 8pm. I lay with her until she falls asleep (no nursing) and then she sleeps until about 1 or 2, cuddles with me and then will wake up one other time to cuddle before she wakes for the day.

Some random things about Ellen:

- she LOVES dogs. When she sees one she makes a noise that sounds like Donald Duck, including when she sees Tyson. She is infatuated with the dog next door. She says "Emma" a hundred times a day and is always wanting to look out the window at their house to look for her.

- she has this look that we call "the stink eye". She squints her eyes and crinkles her nose like she smells something bad. This is the look you get when you make her mad.

- we like to bump heads, give kisses and eskimo kisses daily.

- she is a ham and loves attention. She'll lock eyes with a stranger and smile or wave at them until they respond. At the park this week an older couple were at the park with what appeared to be their 1yr old grandson. Ellen spent a lot of energy trying to steal their attention away from the baby... by twirling in the sand, dancing around, waving, etc. And at Charles's bday party this wknd she was rolling on the floor trying to get people to pay attention to her.

- Sometimes I sneak into Lucas's room to get a good bit of alone sleep in until she wakes up again (Lucas is with Jeff at this point). When Ellen wakes up to find me missing she walks across the hall into Lucas's room to get me. She walks in, I hear her, and then we both walk back to her room. Seems so mature.

- she smiles most of the time, although on film I usually get her serious look.

- she is a decent eater, but not great. She'll try just about anything.. any veggie, loves avocado, a fan of fruits, but she seems to get bored with it before she could possibly be full. It will be interesting to see where she is on the scale next month at her 18 mo. appt.

- If we in her room getting ready for bed she will often try the "I'm hungry" sign with her serious expression. Usually it's nothing more than a ploy to delay bedtime.

- She loves, loves, loves baths and showers... just like Lucas did and still does.

Tikki

Our good friends, Marie and Olivier, have a dog named Tikki that we love. He's stayed the weekend with us before and was over this week for a few hours for a play date with Tyson. I've always been a small dog person, but Tikki makes me want a big dog some day...

Naps

So the kids is napping again. He stopped napping about a year ago and hasn't really needed one until now. Lately he has had a few meltdowns in the late afternoon, which is not fun for anyone. We can tell that this behavior is caused from being tired, so I implemented a new schedule to try and get him more rest during the day. This schedule also works well now because Jeff is at work during the day and Ellen sleeps during the middle of the day, so the house is very quiet during his rest time. Here is Lucas's schedule. He has slept 4 out of 6 days during rest time.

7am - wake up/eat/play

8:30am - take to school

12:00pm - pick up from school

12:30pm - lunch

1:00 - 2:00 - rest time (must be quiet and still)

2:00-3:00 - watch curious george and have snack

3:00-6:00 - play

6:00ish - cook/eat

7:00ish - bath

8:00ish - bed (although this is closer to 9 now that he's napping again)