Roller Poster

In a couple weeks we are going on our first vacation since Donovan was 10 months old.  We are going to Branson, and Silver Dollar City is going to be the main attraction. Once I figured out Donovan was 36 inches and therefore tall enough for some roller coasters I told him as much. He has been so excited ever since. We are going with our friends Kris, Lynn and Penelope so any time I tell him we are hanging out with Penelope he thinks we are going to go to the "roller posters".  Also, any time we do something out of the ordinary, he asks if we are going to go to the roller posters then.  It is so dang cute but the poor guy's complete lack of time refrence was killing me so I helped him make a vacation countdown chain.  Every morning when he wakes up, we rip a link off until we have no links left! Then, it's ROLLER POSTER TIME!  

In other news, we went to our friends house today for a swimming birthday party and Donovan had a swimming break through! At the beginning of the day he was very adamant that I not ever let him go, and hold both of his hands at all times. By the end of the day he was swimming all over the pool all by himself, and even jumping in and going underwater a little bit! He was so proud, telling random people, "Hey, look at me! I'm swimming all by my self!". He was wearing his water wings (puddle jumpers) so he isn't swimming without assistance, but still! Such a big breakthrough in just a couple hours. He loved it so much we called our friends Kris and Lynn and invited ourselves to their subdivision pool tomorrow so he could swim again (he woke up crying from his nap, saying he wanted to go back to the pool).

Reese also had an awesome time at the pool, but that healthy fear of the water that her brother has, has not settled at all on her yet. She is a water baby through and through but after 20 minutes in her floaty, she wanted to swim by herself. And I really mean by herself. She didn't want any floatation devices or any parents helping her. I can't wait til she gets that water fear at least a little bit. 

What we have to do to get things done around here

Stinker butt

Reese is becoming quite the little stinker. Probably about a month ago she discovered that when she was mad at Donovan, she could express this by pulling his hair. Then she decided to take it up a notch and bite him. The first time she did it he cried really hard and she left a big mark on his back. Now, it is a daily occurance that she tries to bite you and usually Donovan just shouts, "SHE BIT ME!!!" instead of crying. She know's what she is doing is wrong, but she just cannot help herself. Her fuse is so short. When she doesn't get her way she still throws herself back, lays on the ground and cries and kicks her legs...but now to add to that she tries to bite whatever is close. Tonight in her multiple fits of rage, she bit petey's leash, a chair leg, Donovan, and the carpet.

I think she is so used to being picked on by Dono that now she knows she has to fight back, and it is her knee jerk reaction to any percieved slight by him or us. Last night she got mad at him for taking a toy away (I think it was), and right away she pulled his hair. So I yelled at her that we don't do that, and instead she walked over to me and bit my hand. Then I yelled at her for that and she put her face in both hands and walked away fussing. Like I am the bad guy. She is such a turd. A wonderful turd, but a turd none the less. I remember when Donovan was 1, one of his friends bit a lot and I was so thankful he never did. His friend was a second child though, and now I see why he was a biter. Those second children don't have the vocab to explain their frustration, but they do have some sharp, shiney new teeth that they need to practice with. It makes sense. So consider this your warning. If you hang out with Reese anytime soon and you plan on not giving into her every whim, you might want to dress in layers as you may get bit.

Updates

So we have been busy as you may have guessed. Every night this past week was busy doing things. Things with my car for three days, then things with friends for two. So I am behind blogging. Here are some pictures from this past week.

Reese loves to play with dog food. And try to sneak it in her mouth when you look away or blink for anything longer than a millisecond. But it makes her so happy to play with it and she is trying to learn how to fill up his bowl so I let her. Tom, not so much with the letting her play so it is usually a mommy, Reese thing.

Saturday we slept in for the cure. All of us were decked out in our breast cancer support shirts. Reese's shirt said "Grandma is my hero". My mom is 2 years in remission right now with many more years to come! One of these years we will make it to the actual parade. It just wasn't this one. But we rocked our outfits just the same. This is the closest we got to a whole family picture. Donovan was cracking me up. We took about 6 pictures and he refused to do any smile other than this. He calls it his "silly" smile. He also tells us he can't see when he does it. Shocking.

Donovan showing his shirt off. It says, "Real men wear pink" and the I in "pink" is a pink ribbon.

Had to show the whole outfit. It was pretty stylin if you ask me.

Tom showing off the shirt both him and I were wearing.

Today's theme was "Reese is a crab" and also "silly hat day". She was so fussy all day that both Tom and I at different times said, "I am so glad tomorrow is Monday and I get to go to work" and we meant it.  At breakfast she took some time off fussing to eat strawberries and then put a half eaten one on her head. 

She was so proud of herself. It was a good comic relief and good to see her doing something other than complaining.

Later both kids wanted to try out some other funny hats. Donovan wore his bug hat that he made at school a couple months ago and Reese wore Dono's Marvin the martian hat.

Then she took a turn with the bug hat. It was a little big. So she took it off and ripped it to shreds. Sad face. I loved that hat.

Butterfly house

Two Sundays ago Tom and I took the kids to the butterfly house, another thing to scratch off the list of things I wanted to do with Donovan when he was 3! We had a great time, that is after Donovan was convinced that the butterflies would not eat him. "They gonna eat me all up?" "No, they aren't going to eat you at all." Reese was super brave and would have tried to grab them had we not been on super high alert with her. All in all, a great success!

Reese trying to get a butterfly. You can see the one she was going for just out of her reach, flying to safety.

About as relaxed of a smile as we were going to get with Donovan posing near a butterfly.

Dono was helping feed his sister. She doesn't really need help but she took it just the same.

Donovan even helped push Reese for a while. He still pointed out the sights to her so she didn't miss anything.

Reese's face that Tom liked so much. We were watching a butterfly come out of his chrysalis.

After the butterfly house, we played on the playground for a little before Donovan realized that there was the carousel. So we ventured to the carousel and our children loved it so much. See, can't you tell from their faces?

(Not a happy face but a getting ready to thrash around and scream one).

Both weirdos wanted nothing to do with the cool horses that go up and down. Or the horses that don't go up and down. They wanted to sit in the most boring place possible. Then Reese proceeded to fuss and cry and try to get down and run around the whole time. I thought about offering to pay for everyone else who riding with us to go another round after we got off but then I realized I am not made of money and some days it's your kid screaming, and some days it's not.

Feeling Blessed

We had a perfect day today. Or as perfect as they come when you still have to work. Our good friends Kris and Lynn suggested we meet them at a local park after work for playing and a picnic and we took them up on their fantastic idea! I got out of work 30 min early, picked up Donovan, swung home to change and gather some things and jump in the car with Daddy and Reese. Then we picked up some food at the grocery store and headed to the park. The kids were in heaven! Donovan was running around and bravely trying everything on the playground like I had never seen before. Kris and Lynn's daughter Penelope must have thought he was crazy. Reese spent the first 20 minutes in the swing. She goes into a toddler coma of happiness in the swing. Donovan was never that much of a fan of swinging. But Reese, she could do it all day. After 20 min we drug Reese kicking and screaming out of the swing and had a lovely picnic. Reese ate her weight in grapes and everyone had a great time. Donovan showed Penelope how to play "fris-beef" and the adults even got to finish their food without speed eating. What a shock!

After that we headed to the lake and fed the fish and geese. The kids were adorable and had a great time. Next was more playing on the playground where Donovan met a girl friend named Cali. He followed her around and thought she was great. So much so that when we left, he ditched us, and ran ahead to walk to the car with her as she was leaving at the same time. We hit Fritz's for some ice cream afterwards and luckily for Donovan, so did Cali and her family. Donovan didn't even sit with us at our table with Kris, Lynn and Penelope! He was so obsessed with Cali, insisting he wanted to sit next to her, that we asked her grandparents if he could sit with them. They were lovely people and of course were very welcoming with him. So there he sat, talking with Cali and her family. Cali's grandma said, "I am surprised how friendly he is." Kid knows how to turn on the charm. When we left he hugged her. It was pretty cute. Don't know how Penelope feels being stood up but I think she will forgive him.

I did not take a single picture but Lynn took lots so hopefully I will get some from her at some point. It was such beautiful weather, spent with my family and close friends, having a wonderful time. Nights like these are what makes life so wonderful. I need to remember these nights for times when we feel crummy, or the kids are being fussy or the weather is gross. Nights like these will give me hope of more great ones to come!

The other part of tonight that made me really happy was prayers with Donovan. For several months now whenever I put Donovan down, or snuggle with him before bed, I say prayers with him. He folds his hands and closes his eyes but he never likes to add anything. In fact, until 2 nights ago, he had only told me things he was thankful for on 2 occasions, and it was after I asked him too. Instead, every night when we pray I say "Do you want to say prayers Donovan?" and he says, "Yeah, I don't want to say anything." So he puts it out there right away that I will be doing the talking and he will not add anything. Well Saturday night right as I laid down, before I even suggested praying he says to me, "I want to say thanks for Jenna and Tyler". I was shocked! So he said "Thanks for Auntie Jenna and daddy's friend Uncle Tyler". I about cried. They were both over hanging out so of course I had to tell them they got the first shout outs ever (the other things he had said thanks for in the past were objects, not people). Then last night, after hanging out with my parents and my side of the family he said "I want to say thanks for Auntie Jenna, and Grandma and Grandpa, and Aunt Jody". Surprised again!  So tonight when I went to bed he said, "I want to say thanks for those two girls. What were there names?" Now I knew exactly who he was talking about but I wanted to hear it from him so I said, "What two girls?". To which he replied, "Penelope and that other girl, what was her name?" Of course he was talking about Cali, so I reminded him her name and he said, "Yeah, thanks for Penelope and thanks for Cali". Then I went on and said the rest of our prayer and at the end I asked him if we forgot anything and he said, "Yeah, and the 3 trains". We had seen three trains on the way home from school and he wanted to say thanks for seeing the 3 trains. It is times like these when I think, "I am doing something right! I am not raising a jerk! I am raising a lovely human being and I am so privileged to do so!".

Great weekend

When you have such wonderful weather as we have had this weekend it is hard to have anything other than a wonderful time. And that we did, helped by the fact that one of Tom's best friends, "Uncle" Tyler was in town to spend the weekend with us. Tyler is a very talented professional photographer and an all around great guy, but the only problem is he lives in Austin so we don't get to use his talents often. We were long overdue for some professional pictures of Reese so instead of having someone here do her pictures, we decided it would be more fun (and really not all that much more money) just to fly Tyler in and have him do them for us for free. So that we did. He came in on Thursday and left today. We all had a great time with him. In fact, I think I am more sad than Tom is than he left. The kids loved him too, especially Donovan. I asked him today if he was sad Tyler was gone and he said, "Yeah. I like Uncle Tyler. Sometimes he was nice to me. Sometimes he was nice to everybody. He's a nice guy." It was a good thing that he had 3 days to spread all of the picture taking over because the kids were not all that cooperative (cough, cough...Reese!) but I know that we will get some winners out of all of the ones he took. Yesterday we were trying everything we could think of to get some pictures of Reese in a red Tutu and she was just not having it. At one point myself, Tom, Auntie Jenna, Donovan, Tyler and Petey were all doing whatever we could to distract her and get her to sit and smile to Tyler could get the shot.  These are some of the pictures of the circus that it took to get Reese happy, then posing (before Jenna got there and we got real desperate).

Donovan was sitting on Tyler, waving glowsticks and making funny faces. I was trying to get her to laugh, then sit before I ran away.

Me seeing if a quick game of airplane would help cheer the crab up.

It was a wonder Tyler could work in these conditions. Hope he got something good!

Hoosiers no more

Last weekend we finally broke down, shipped the kids off to the grandparents, and landscaped our super hoosier front lawn. We had pulled everything out of there last year as everything that was in there was overgrown and unattractive. It took us a year to find the time and energy to go pick out some new plants, clean up the area, plant them and mulch over it. I am really proud of our effort and I think our finished product is beautiful!

Our new tree. A Japanese maple.

A "low and behold" butterfly bush (we have two) and a knock out rose bush.

Two Peonies, St. John's wort and the other butterfly bush. Day lilies are in the rear, far left.