Learning and exploring

Yesterday morning I was told, "Bye Mommy, I go to school" " I have my backpack" by a 2.5yr old apparently, ready to walk out the door with Daddy. So I suggested that we go to story hour, take the backpack and pretend that it is school She was game. However, when we got to the library we learned that story hour won't begin until Sept. 19th. AND it is only for 3-5yr olds who can be left unaccompanied. Does anyone else's library do this? I'm going to try and get a hold of the leader of story hour and get the details. But we of course picked up a couple of books and now have new favorites. --Does a Kangaroo have a mother too? and Five little monkeys jumping on the bed. The monkey book came with a CD...which is way more cool to listen to than Mommy reading the story. Fortunately the book is recorded twice on the CD so it lasts a whole 10 mins. In the afternoon, CJ locked me in the backyard --bad little monkey! It took a few minutes, but I convinced her to unlock the door, but I wasn't sure how long it was going to take as she stood on a chair in the kitchen getting into a cupboard shaking her head no at me.
This morning CJ and I went to the park early, before it got too hot...to find out that it was covered in heavy dew and unless we had an extra set of clothes it was not going to be fun. But we got to listen to a rooster greet the morning. No matter how many times I tried to explain that it was a rooster, CJ insisted that it was an elephant, and her elephant at that. I suggested we head to the farmers market and along the way we sang Old McDonald...disappointment, the market was closed AND there was no farm. See, CJ thought we were going to an actual farm. We walked along the river, that CJ kept assuring me would take us to the farm and saw the largest grasshopper type bug ever! It was 3-4 inches long, black with markings and really ugly. I had wished I had my camera, just so I could identify it later.
We headed to Walmart and picked up a new car seat for Laurelei. CJ thought she would like the pink one. From the moment I held Laurelei, I just knew that she was going to be more feminine than CJ, and I'm not the only one who senses that. Laurelei seems to love the new seat already. What is messier than a 6mos. old eating rice cereal? A 2.5yr old making her own rice cereal and playing with Mommy's new 12 x 12 card stock as place mats for her rice tea party! We had lunch with some friends who are leaving next week and now looking forward to a quiet afternoon. Play dough calls!

This and That

I had a grandma send me a note wondering what antics we have been up to lately. Well...since you asked. CJ mixed the hard boiled eggs with the raw ones...still working on sorting them out. She has also been a "big help" grabbing baby food out to help feed Laurelei at the first sign of unhappiness. She loves to play with un
-popped popcorn, I don't enjoy that activity so much, and has made dried bean art --that was with my help. The other night at bath time, Laurelei did the deed and pooped in the tub. CJ couldn't believe that she would do such a thing and began to tell off her sister for pooping on her toys...ironic because the very night before, CJ for reasons unknown and the first time in a year and a half, decided to pee in the tub. Laurelei is trying to keep up with big sister. The other night I caught her playing with a ball popper and getting upset at not being strong enough to make it work. I got it on video, enjoy. ***ok blogger taking forever to load video...I'll try and condense it so it will show******
Dispite being very close for a couple of weeks, Laurelei is not actually crawling yet. However, she does get around the room in her own scoot, roll, reach kind of way.

We spent some time at the beach this past weekend. It had been 2 months!! Shame on us! Love the waters at Fort Walton Beach...so clear and shallow for quite a ways out! Hope to head back out this weekend.
CJ is in a fall music class. She enjoys it very much, talks about it all week and on the way there she talks about her friends and all the fun things they will do. When we are at class, she doesn't say a peep!
Eric is busy trying to fly. He hasn't flown in a week due to weather mostly.

Sharing

CJ has really done a pretty good job in sharing, most of the time. This morning Laurelei slept in a bit and when we heard her wake up, CJ went running to say good morning as she normally does. Laurelei wasn't upset or needing immediate attention, so I finished what I was doing and followed in a moment later. Well, CJ had shared. Shared her washable crayons...that she wasn't even playing with when she went into the room.










CJ tried washable crayons back in May '06...she was a bit more messy.








This was CJ a few days ago after chocolate pudding. She manages to make the biggest mess out of nothing at times. And still pulls off cute!







As Eric headed out the door this morning, he apologized for having to leave as he sensed today could be "one of those days"

This and that

I had CJ in for a check up yesterday. Wanted to get a couple of things checked out, nothing serious. She is 37.5 inches and 33lbs. She did so very very good at getting all her vitals taken, including her temp! This is a major improvement to most of her appts. She got upset once the doctor walked in, then it was all over. But I'll take whatever I can get. Today she discovered sliding backwards, both sitting and laying down.

Eric has had simulators and flights late all this week. Tomorrow he might be home by 6, the earliest so far this week. Maybe next week he'll be on a morning schedule.

Our family back in Iowa has endured lots of rain this past week and flooding in the surrounding areas. Please keep everyone across the midwest in your prayers. Water can bring such amazing devastation, along with bringing life.

Nothing else going on with us, just looking forward to the weekend and trying to stay cool.

Check up

Laurelei had her 6 month check up today. She is 16lbs and 13oz and only 25.5 inches long, according to their scales. However, any outfit that goes up to 26" in length is too short for her. Anyway she is healthy and doing well. She fell asleep waiting for her shots..what a terrible way to wake up! She has recovered from the shots, not sure CJ has. She cried and cried when Laurelei was getting the shots. We also found out today that Laurelei does fit, a bit crammed, into a baby doll stroller and does seem to enjoy being pulled on a matt from one end of the house to the other. CJ had spilled popcorn kernels in the kitchen and the few seconds it took me to sweep them up, CJ had gotten her sister into the doll stroller and pushed into the kitchen to show me. Later today as I started a load of laundry CJ comes in pulling a rattan matt behind her, and I find Laurelei laying there having a blast. I have decided to have one of them at all
times attached to me. For safety reasons obviously. Right or wrong, I laugh at CJ's antics...after she is in bed and I have had time to reflect.

Eric had two sims today and again tomorrow. Long days foreveryone.

The Suspense!

The suspense is over. I don't watch much T.V., but I stumbled across a History Channel series on the Ice Road Truckers. LOVE IT!! Tonight was the final episode for season 1. It looks like crazy fun, and made us miss North Dakota. I didn't notice the Canadian "accent" so much when we lived only an hour away, but after living in the south, it is fun, fun, fun, to listen to it. Truckers, have just as bad of a mouth as sailors do. And oh the drama, don'tcha know it? You really can get into the -40 temps and by the end of the it is 40 degrees, on the positive side of zero. After living in ND, those numbers are familiar and 40 does seem like a heat wave. After 2 weeks of 110+ heat index here in FL, I would love to see some snow again! If you haven't seen this show, the entire season will re-air beginning next Sunday on the History Channel. They are even promising a second season!

We had a nice quiet weekend. Our friends in OK had a healthy baby boy, and we are anxious to meet him. We found out some friends here will be leaving in a couple of short weeks, to head to OK. This week is filled with doctor appts and the start of music class for CJ.

I'm looking for chocolate

The chocolate is for me. By 9:30 this morning we were on our third
outfit, had eaten snack, and apparently ran out of fun toys to play
with. I found CJ , dressing up Panther's food-- with ketchup. She told
me it is all gone...well yes, when you pour it out into the water dish
and over the food, you do quickly run out of ketchup . I have seen
pictures of kids getting into things. My friend's 2.5yr old poured
flour into their salt water fish tank on Friday...so I know I'm not
alone. But when you look at the clock and it is barely mid morning, and
you feel like it should be significantly closer to bedtime than it is, you or (at least I have a desire to) reach for the chocolate.



Oh gross!! As I typed this the dog threw up on my feet, and I got the
ketchup all cleaned up before she had a chance to consider the
meal...it is going to be a lovely day!

Big Sister

CJ has been a great big sister. Sometimes too helpful and too willing to share. While we were in IA, CJ began to get too rough with Laurelei and wrestling her every chance she got. To CJ's defense, Laurelei would laugh as it was the most fun in the world, but she still was playing too rough. So I set up the play pen as a safe area for Laurelei to play...only to find...

That's right, she climbed right in to play with her little sister. She also tossed out all the toys so Laurelei had to play with her. Now Laurelei really didn't seem to mind, I did! My mom likes to tell the story of when I would play in the play pen outside, our dog Lightning would jump in with me, so I guess this is what happens, but I found it scary and dangerous for Laurelei.

Yesterday was hot, today is hot, and they promise the weekend will continue with this 100+ temperatures. So we have been inside. After using the bathroom, I thought I heard CJ washing her hands. I told her to turn off the water and that she was done, and this is what greeted me.....
She told me, "I wash my hair" um great...but we don't just wash our hair, we wash our hands. Later, again after using the toilet she comes out with soaking wet underwear..."I wash my underwear". Isn't she the most helpful little girl around?
Eric's flight yesterday was the first one he managed to not get sick on. That was the good news, the bad news is, his instructor noticed that he wasn't as well prepared has he had been on previous flights. Oops, I guess chaos has returned home. We'll have to get studying at home with the girls worked out.

We're back

We had a fantastic time in Iowa. The girls already miss the grandparents and having extra people around. Our flights back went well. On the first one we were in the last row and then on the second one we were in the first row. Here are a few more pictures from our trip.
We ate lots of Sweet Corn, went to a parade, played cards with Josh, and checked out the fire trucks. A good time had by all.





Eric of course is happy we are back, and surprised at how much more CJ is talking. He took her to the store last night and came back telling me she is never quiet! Panther was excited to see us too. Laurelei grew out of her clothes while we were on vacation. Time to pull out the next size.