Hil-Arious

Julia has a toy microphone that came with some "princess stuff." Dave showed her how to hold the microphone and say, "Ladies and Gentlemen!" It's really cute when she's all dressed up as a princess.

Even funnier is that we apparently neglected to tell her the actual word "microphone." So now whenever she's looking for it, she asks, "Where's my 'Ladies and Gempulmum'?"

Finally!!!

Saturday arrived!





Ever since we went to Penney's and Julia picked out her dress, she's been asking to go to "the ballerina dance." It only got worse when we headed to Target and got her "ballerina shoes." (with sprinkles! and a bow! and them pink, Mommy!) She would ask to go and then cry and cry when I told her that the dance wasn't until Saturday night. Then she'd tell me, "You make me sad, Mommy." This Mommy stuff is a rough gig!

But, time marched slowly on and Saturday night finally arrived. Julia got dressed up and headed out to dinner and the Father/Daughter Valentine Dance at church with her Daddy.

(and I know we've been gone for a while. I wish I had a ton of pictures to show what we've been doing, but I don't. I'll post what I have ... hopefully sooner rather than later, but I make no promises)

Things Kids Say ...

Dax was looking out the front window the other day, pointing and grunting, "Mon-key! Mon-key!" I finally walked over to look out and had to break the news to him, "Dax, those are squirrels."


Julia and her daddy were wrestling when Julia twisted around and fell crooked. It knocked the breath out of her so Dave had her lie flat and take deep breaths. She rubbed her chest and told him, "Daddy, my feelings are all hurt!"


My mom was outside with the kids on a cloudy day. Julia asked where the sun was and Mom told her it was behind the clouds. Julia looked at her Gran and said, "No, that the moon, Gran." Mom told her that it actually was the sun and Julia disagreed again, "No, that the moon, Gran." Then Dax looked at Mom and said, "It da MOON!"


Julia's biggest wish right now is that "Dax will be three in December just like me!" When I tell her that's not possible because Dax will turn two in March, she just cries.


The following conversation has happened multiple times over the past few days while riding in the car ...
Julia: Mommy, I have a pink birthday party. Dax have a green party. You want a green party, Dax?
Dax: Geen pahty.
Julia: I have a pink birthday cake. Dax, you have a green birthday cake.
Dax: Geen cake.
Julia: Dax, you share your cake with me?
Dax: No.
Julia: Please, Dax? Please share your cake with me?
Dax: No.
Julia: Please, please, pleeeeeeeeeease, Dax?
Dax: No.
Julia starts to cry.


Dax calls his sister "Dee-yah"


Julia's current favorite word game is to call me "Granma." After I ask her to do something, she'll tell me, "Okay, Granma!" and giggle. I have to say, "I'm not Granma!" in an offended tone so she can answer, "Yes you are! You Granma!!" However, she did not like it when I turned the game around on her and called her Elizabeth. She looked shocked and told me, "No, Mommy! I Julia!!!"


Dax usually responds to any offers of help with a cry of "I DOOD IT!" (translation: I do it!), but after about five seconds follows it up with "Hep, peese!" (Help, please!) If he manages to do the task on his own before help arrives, he proudly declares in a high squeal, "I DEED IT!!"


When Julia was helping Dave with her kitchen, she asked about the Nerds he kept eating. Dave told her it was “Daddy’s candy.” Later, he let her have some because she "was helping so much." She hammered one more nail and asked for more candy. Dave said not right now and she countered with “Daddy workin’ hard and Daddy get candy. I workin’ hard. I get more candy now?” He just smiled at her; so she tried again to convince him by holding up her hammer and pointing around the garage and telling him “See, I have lots of tools.” She got her candy :)

Helping Daddy

The other day, Dave was working in the garage building Julia's kitchen (Christmas present!) When Julia woke up from her nap, she wanted to "help Daddy." We didn't really think she would stay out there for very long because it was very cold. But then Dave came up with this brilliant idea for using an old box, a bunch of nails and a hammer. It was a hit and kept her busy for a long time.

Safety first

Hard at work

I like how she bends her knees to hammer

Dax's Christmas present is sitting behind Julia

Stubborn Boy

Recently, David found out that Dax can say his name. He somehow manages to stretch out his little nickname to three syllables which makes it extra cute: "Daaaaaa-thsssssssssssss" Our Boy takes after his parents (and uncles and aunts and grandparents and great-grandparents) however and has been blessed/burdened with an extra dose of stubbornness. Fortunately, he's also not even two years old which means that on occasion, his parents are smarter than he is and can trick him!

Mommy/Daddy: Say "Dax!"
Dax: *shakes head*
M/D: Say "Dax!"
D: *shakes head harder*
M/D: Come on, say "Dax!"
D: *shakes head* No!
M/D: Say "Dax!"
D: No!
M/D: No? You won't say "Dax?"
D: No! No Daaaaa-thsssssss!
M/D: No "Dax?"
D: No Daaaaaaa-thsssssssss!
M/D: Okay. Will you say "Dax-a-ROO!"
D: No. No Dathsaroo.

And at that point he sees us grinning and figures out that he's been tricked and wanders off. Good times.

Guess Where We Went Yesterday?

(answer to be posted when I have time to post the other pictures :P)

Little People Pics

While on the boat, Elena and Julia wanted to use my camera to take pictures.

Sure.

Why not?

(picture by Elena)

(picture by Elena)

(picture by Elena)

Elena: Look, Dax! This one's of you!!

(picture by Julia)

(picture by Julia)

Just Imagine ...

... the excitement Dave must have felt when he answered his phone at work with his usual "This is Dave" only to hear "I TALK MY DADDY!!!!" And his patience as he spent the next five minutes listening to his daughter babble about her day while he tried to convince her to "take the phone to Mommy."


... the joy on our children's faces when they open up their Christmas stockings to find a plumber's bill from when they shoved their bath toys down the toilet! (just kidding ... a little ... we'll see how much the bill comes to before making a decision :P)



... the frustration of their parents when we learned that bathtime is still fun even when you are being punished by having no toys in the tub.

Two Things

1) We are saddened to announce that Julia no longer refers to letters as "BCDs." She doesn't call them "letters" or "the alphabet", but she has now put that pesky letter "A" back in its rightful spot. We do still get a little thrill by how excitedly she exclaims, "Look, MommyDaddy! ABCs!!!" whenever she sees letters, but we loved her little quirky way of referring to them. Since we can't grab hold and stop time or even slow it down, we have these little bittersweet "Do you remember ..." moments instead.

2) It is definitely fall here in East Tennessee so when we got dressed for church yesterday, it was time to break out the tights for Julia to wear. I told her we needed to put on her pantyhose instead of socks because it was cold outside and the pantyhose would help keep her legs warm. The tights were pink which definitely helped convince her as did the "boo-ful" new pink dress she got to wear. She was eating breakfast after all this and chattering away about seeing her friends when she commented that she wanted to show her friends her "sock panties." I really couldn't figure out what she meant and kept asking her to repeat it. Finally, she got so exasperated with her dense mother that she said, "You know, Mommy! SOCK PANTIES" and grabbed her leg. The light finally clicked on in my brain.

Now, the real question: Do you correct her or refer to the item in toddler-speak because it's just so darn cute? We tend to go with her words for things and based on our experience with her "BCD" reference it does no harm. We passed through that phase much faster than we would have liked even without our help.



And a bonus item ...

3) Dave takes his last exam today. Or as he refers to it, his "last in this first round of tests." We now have the nail-biting wait for test results. Pray for him this morning.

And Friends Are Friends Forever ...

Did anyone else graduate from high school in the early 90s and spend an enormous amount of time in a swaying group hug as this song was played at the end of every school dance or awards ceremony during the month of May? Ah, memories.

Anyway ... Dave and I dumped our children off on my parents last weekend and made tracks for New Orleans. It was our first getaway without kids. And the longest this Mommy's been away from her babies :) The evening before we left for New Orleans, we were sitting in my Mom's computer room when Dave had the genius idea that we should look up our friends, Brant and Liz Pitre. Along with Stacy and Harvey Crenshaw, the Pitres were our best friends in college. We played long games of Sequence, ate many dinners together, drank a ton of grape Kool-Aid (Brant's favorite) and even worked at Wal-Mart together one summer! They knew us before we were DaveandJo. Liz made me an awesome birthday card for my eighteenth birthday that I still have in my Bible. I was the first person Liz told that she was going to marry Brant. Brant was in our wedding eight and a half years ago ... and that was the last time we saw them.

{The following is a very long, detailed story. Short Version: We found him! And surprised him! And then he took us home with him and we surprised Liz! Screaming, jumping, hugging surprised. It was great. Then, just like college, we stayed up talking waaaaaaaaaaaaay too late. I don't think either of us realized how much we miss them. Picture at bottom.}

So we looked him up. And discovered he's teaching at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. We decided to stop by on our way to our hotel and see if we could catch him in his office and surprise him. Turns out the college isn't in that great of a part of town. (Side note: Is there a good part of town in New Orleans anymore? We didn't see any. Post-Katrina NOLA broke my heart just a little.) The door to Brant's building was locked and he wasn't in his office to answer the phone.

So we decided to head into what looked like the main building and see if there was a way to leave him a note. As we walked toward the building, a woman walking out asked if she could help us. We told her about our thwarted plan to surprise our old friend we hadn't seen in years and she said, "I just saw him go into the cafeteria to eat lunch. Down the hall, to the right!"

When we got to the cafeteria, I realized that in a Catholic seminary, I stood out. I don't think many women wander through those halls. We had to wait for a man making announcements to finish before we were willing to stand in front of the glass doors of the cafeteria and scan the room for Brant. I'm sure we were quite a sight. A man walked out and asked if he could help us. We told him who we were looking for and were told to head back to the professor's lunch room "behind the partition, through the kitchen and through the door on the left." We're such troublemakers.

We made our way back to the room and poked our head in the door. And Brant's reaction was fabulous. :) He was flabbergasted. He dragged us outside and asked us a million questions, mostly "What are you guys doing here?" I think he was in shock. He was desperate to try and surprise Liz so we made plans to meet up with him after he got off work and follow him home.

We ended up having to change our plans to the next day. I was sure Brant would never be able to pull it off. He's a horrible surprise keeper. He managed it by not saying a word to Liz until after he left for work. He called her on his cell phone and told her he would be bringing a surprise home after work so she should be napped and dressed :)

When we got to the house, he went inside and made Liz cover her eyes and led her outside. She took her hands down and SCREAMED!! Then hugged me for the longest time. Then she moved on to Dave. It was great. We met their four awesome children and the rest of the evening was spent jabbering away. It was like no time had passed at all. Except that our conversations were more about kids and jobs than homework and tests.

It was the highlight of our trip.

Odds And Ends

1) Loving my new stove :) It's so easy to clean, it heats up quickly, and our pots sit flush on the burner. Nice.

2) And that's all very good since David and I are trying a No Eating Out in September plan. We've stopped by Sonic twice and picked up drinks, but otherwise are doing quite well. The month is only a third done, but I'm proud of us :) Oh, since we've started the Fireproof study at our church that meets Wednesday nights, we do eat dinner at church on Wednesdays. That's a really nice break for me and gets Julia an extra day to go to her favorite place. I'm choosing not to count that as "eating out."

3) Potty training is going. We're still working on it. I'm still not brave enough to take her out shopping or on errands in her panties yet. She asked to go to church in her panties last Wednesday, but she wet them and I think that made her sad. On Sunday she emphatically stated her preference for diapers.

3a) Julia has caught on. She now says, "Mommy, I go pee in potty. Get MnMs?" She doesn't want Pez, she wants CHOCOLATE!

4) Dax is doing well, too. He's such a happy guy (as long as he gets fed large quantities of food on a regular basis). He cracks us up all the time with his faces and noises. He'll be headed to the doctor for his 18-month checkup soon so we'll have some new stats to report.

5) My brainwashing of my children is taking hold. I tell Julia all the time, "Dax is your brother. He's your best friend. You've got to take care of him." And I tell Dax, "Julia is your sister. She's your best friend. You've got to take care of her." Yesterday the kids were running up and down the hallway and Dax fell. Julia looked at me and said, "Uh oh! Dax fall. I go help him." She ran back and I could hear her cooing to him, "It okay, buddy. You alright? You hurt? It okay." She ran back to me and said, "Dax my best friend ever. I take care-a him." (The brainwashing idea was stolen from another blog I read: vitafamiliae.com ... That site is also responsible for my desire for this mattress and a Wii. She's also given me a wonderful idea for Sit Time ... so I think I'm still allowed to read it.)

6) We bought Julia new tennis shoes this weekend and she now wears a size 10. I'm not sure how she got so big so fast.

7) And we ate cereal and smoothies for dinner last night, but at least we didn't eat out! :)

Do You Remember ...

... what my old stovetop looked like? I'll refresh your memory ...

And, yes, that child or one that looks similar, but with shorter hair, is usually in front of it.

Well, thanks to Dave's hard work yesterday, I have a NEW stovetop! I can't even tell you the first thing I've cooked on it because I haven't used it yet!!! I'm so excited. Dave is, too. After we went to bed, we stayed up discussing what should be its first job. Eggs and pancakes seem to be the plan ...

Late, But Still Cute

Julia practiced and practiced for Daddy's birthday. (The kids are playing with the bottles from Dave's birthday present. We currently have a plastic keg in our closet just a fermenting away.)

Band Aided

Before they left, we had the kids paint Christopher and Jamie a Going Back To Texas painting. (By the way, Chris? Jamie?, we never got a picture of the finished product. Would you mind? Thanks!)





While Dave was prepping the canvas with some electrical tape, Julia saw him and wanted some of his "band aids." (She loves band aids. She's forever pointing out imaginary owies and asking for one. We're taking donations since we're running through our stash at an alarming rate. They don't even need to have pictures. Just the plain brown ones will do.) Anyway, Dave decorated her with electrical tape.







(And just so you know, experience proved that to be a BAD idea. Well, the real bad idea was letting Julia have her way about leaving the tape on for the night. Removing it the next evening was a traumatic experience. This Public Service Announcement brought to you by the letter B and the number 2.)

Happy Easter!!!

Uh, no, I don't have a picture of our precious family all dolled up in our Easter clothes.

Why?

Because during the 11am Easter worship service at our church, I worked in the toddler room at the nursery. And David worked with the three-year-olds. And when we got home ... we were tired! Exhausted, really.

Thankfully, I had prepared our lunch casserole that morning. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn on the oven before we left for church. So when we got home, I turned on the oven and we heated up some leftover pizza for some Very Hungry Kids and their Very Hungry Parents. And while Dax napped (cranky!), Julia entertained her Uncle Christopher.

She hunted for eggs in the yard ...

Please note: The basket is purely for decoration purposes only.
One, maybe two, eggs made it into the basket.
None for longer than five seconds.

And each time she found one, she carefully carried it over to her Gathering Spot and put it in line ...

EchoDog didn't care much about the eggs, she preferred her ratty, old tennis ball ...

Once Julia got all her eggs lined up, she spent some time jumping back and forth over the line ...

After Dax woke up, she shared a few eggs with him ...

Mom, it's bright! Don't make me look up!

Of course, we had Easter baskets ...

Julia's had her two favorite things ...

Yum! Chapstick!

And stickers!!!

Dax liked his stuff, too ...

Mommy may regret the foam swords :)

And then there's this picture. Which I include not only to show you how big our boy is growing (He can stand up! And bend over to grab something without losing his balance!), but also to show off his new shoes that he wore all day without whining!

And afterward we all sat down to eat Easter lunch/dinner ... which turned out to be more of a soup than a casserole. Ah, well, I tried. The kids ate off their new trays (oh melamine plates and bowls and divided trays from Target! I am powerless against your cuteness!) Then everyone relaxed for the rest of the evening!

(Aunt Jamie, we missed you!!)

Fun Stuff

When Julia counts things, she points emphatically and says "Twooo, Nine, Twooo!"

Dax looked up at me last night as I was rubbing his back to try to stop his coughing and said, "MAMA!"

Julia has been waking up in the morning and asking, "Church today?"

Last night on the way to Parents' Night Out at our church, Julia kept telling Dax, "Dax, church today! Church today!" Until we started to pull into the parking lot when she yelled, "PEE-BA!!!" And I told her, "That's right, sweetie! You get to eat pizza at church today!"

Dax loves to walk now. He will crawl over to something to get himself up to a standing position, but otherwise he's walking. I wonder when seeing him walk down the hall will stop being a cause for Dave and I to tell each other, "Look at him go!"

Julia is really starting to remember people now. At various points during the day she'll ask about "Matt and Tanty?" (our friend Matt and his dog Candy); "Da-Da home 'sippi?" (Yes, Grandad is at home in Mississippi); "Tan home 'sippi, too?" (Yes, Gran is at home in Mississippi, too); "Un Cee-two-fer home?" (Yes, Uncle Christopher is home); "An Tee home, too?" (Yes, Aunt Jamie is at home, too); "Pa-Pa home?" (Yes, Pappa is home); "Nanna home?" (Yes, Nanna is at home); "Bay-bee Tay-son home?" (Yes, Baby Grayson is at his home) ... the trick is that she doesn't do it all at once so you have to listen closely to figure out who she is talking about.

Dax loves to come over and lay his head in your lap or shoulder and snuggle down. He won't stay for long, but he gets his cuddle in and then goes back to exploring.

Julia loves to follow "big girls" (5-8 years old) around. She'll do whatever they suggest or try to copy whatever they are doing. She's nearly fallen off more than one piece of park equipment because of this.

Dax is jealous of anyone around his mom. If Julia is getting a hug or kiss or standing near me, he heads over pronto and starts wiggling his way in between us, pushing Julia away.

Julia's favorite thing to say right now is "I sorry." Anytime Dax fusses, "I sorry, Dax" or one of us gets hurt "I sorry, Mommy" "I sorry, Daddy" She also says "Thank you" a lot. We have several conversations a day that go like this:
" 'Scuse me, Mommy"
"Yes, Julia"
"Hep, please"
"You can do it. Try again."
...
"Thank you, Mommy!"
"I didn't do anything. You figured it out for yourself."

Yesterday, Julia climbed in the Pack 'N Play and wanted Dax in with her. I put him in and the two of them entertained themselves in there for over an hour :)

Poor Dave

Friday night Dave kindly let me take his prescription cough medicine (shhh! don't tell anyone) so I could try to get a full night of sleep. Since normal cough medicine knocks me for a loop, he knew that with the codeine-laced one I'd be unavailable for the entire night.

Unfortunately for him, everyone went NUTS! Both Julia and Dax went into a loop: one would cough so hard it would wake him/her up; crying ensues; the other child would wake up; much weeping and wailing; David would go in to pat them both back to sleep; repeat. He finally decided that the two kids needed to be separated and planned to move Julia to another room. But I was in our bed and still coughing which would wake her up (I guess the prescription stuff doesn't stop the coughing, you just don't care because you're knocked out.) So, he ended up pulling out the sofa bed and sleeping with her in the living room. Poor guy, it was so late he couldn't find the sheets and ended up having to do a make-shift bed. His weekend was not very relaxing (especially since Julia sleeps sideways) ...

Let's Talk Disease

It all started with David ... a lovely respiratory infection that caused him to miss three days of work and led to a bacterial eye infection.

Then Julia started with the red, goopy eyes.

Now Dax has the eye goop.

Joanna has a searing sore throat and achy sinuses.

Just makes you want to pack your bags and come for a visit, doesn't it? (And if your answer is "Yes" please act on that because we'd love someone to come take care of us for a bit! Plus, I'd love for someone to take over giving the kids the eye drops. Those sting!) Hopefully the weather will quit its seesawing back and forth from cold to hot and pick a season and let us all get better. I feel like we've done nothing this winter but pass illnesses from person to person.

A First Birthday

(as always, you can click on each picture for a bigger version ... )





Start your morning with a present ...

At first, it looks like he knows what he's doing:


After approximately 6,000 pictures, we start to doubt he understands the concept of opening presents. Then, he gets an edge ...
... and after 20 minutes, this is what he's unwrapped so far:
An impatient Mommy takes over.
Now, what is wrong with this picture? (Besides my weird flippy hair thing):
Grandma, Julia's fishing game is a hit!
Finally! He gets his hands on his hammer! (Thanks, Aunt Laura!)

Move on to a lunch of mac and cheese ...


Then, after a nap, another present ...

And I'll spare you the majority of the pictures of him playing with the paper:


It took Julia about 20 seconds to get her gift unwrapped. And that's only because Uncle Christopher wrapped it in several layers to try to distract her while Dax opened his present!

Playing with the new gift:

After a pizza dinner, it's time for a trip to the barbershop! First haircut:

One last look at his "flowing locks" aka The Mullet:

Trying to distract him so Daddy can cut his hair:

Sporting his new 'do:


And then, BIRTHDAY CAKE!

Sushi cake, decorated by Dad:

Julia inspects her piece:

Waiting for the song to end:

And immediate disgust once his fingers get in the icing :)


Julia trying to show Dax what you do with cake:

He refused to eat it until Dave cut off the icing parts and shoved a bite of cake in his mouth. After tasting it, Dax was ready to eat the cake part. But no icing please! :)

Then baths and off to bed!