February 2012

 February!  What a fun, busy month.  We started the month off with a huge Super Bowl party.  It was just for our little family, but we had the fixin's for a large group of people.  Lot's of left overs:)  To be quite honest, I really didn't watch much of the game. And Jerry doesn't have a specific team he usually roots for, mainly whoever can help his fantasy football team.  But he and Hayden chose which team they wanted to win.  They even got cups.  I've been drinking with those cups for months now, and I still don't even know which team they were going for.  I guess I could just read the cup!
Even though I didn't really watch the game, I sure had fun being with the kids, and I always love the commercials.

SYDNEY'S BIRTHDAY!!

Sydney turned 4 on February 9th.  She is such a sweetheart.  Her birthday happened to be the same day as the elementary school carnival, which I was bummed about at first.  I didn't want to have to worry about adding one more busy thing to a busy birthday day.  But after thinking about it for a few minutes I was so happy that her birthday party was planned for me - by the school.  We went over to the carnival and had a great time with the games, bounce house, and painting faces.  

  After the carnival we went to Buccaneer Bay to go swimming in their huge pirate themed swimming pool.  The kids had a blast.  Hayden was the only one tall enough for the water slide so he rode that several times, and they all rode on the little kid slides throughout the pool.  

When we came home we had cake, ice cream and presents.  It was a FUN, busy day.  We love our Sydney.

 We love this little girl so much.  Sydney has such a sweet, sweet personality.  She has so much love to give.  She helps fill my constant need for words of affirmation.  She is so very complimentary about everything.  My favorite is when she wants to say something nice, but doesn't quite know what she's going to say until it comes out like, 'Mom, I really like your....ears."  I was driving her home from preschool and she sweetly said, "Mom, you do a really good job driving."  Oh, so sweet.
She LOVES to play pretend.  Her favorite at 4 is mombaby.  It is one word.  It is her word for playing house.  She plays mombaby all day long.  I cracked up so much one day when she was telling me how we were going to play mombaby one day.  She said I would be the mom, she would be the little girl, and Luke could be the baby.  I was happy to know that I've been acing mombaby all along.
She is destined to be a teacher.  She likes to quiz me on things.  Sometimes I'm not quite sure if it's because she doesn't know the answer, or if she wants to be like her preschool teachers.  For example, she'll say something about a color, she'll say, "I want to color this the color of a Stop sign.  What is that color called again, Mom?"  I'll say Red.  "Right, red. very good."  It repeats all day.  With simple things, and harder questions as well.
She is in Preschool and loves her teachers Ms. Lori and Ms. Maria.  Her favorite songs from preschool are "Dinosaurs marching." and "Oh, the Lord is good to me."
I do worry sometimes that she is our little Jan Brady.  When Rebecca or Hayden are getting praise on something, a lot of times she'll just start singing one of her songs from preschool because when she sings her songs we love it and praise her.  She is generally a pretty well behaved girl (Except when it comes to cleaning - that is a doozy of a fight) so I worry that she doesn't get the attention that other children that demand the attention a little more - either by personality, or the fact that Luke is still a baby that requires my attention.  It is something I'm trying to consciously watch.
She is a little cuddle bug.  I love to cuddle with her.  She has an odd fetish still.  When she is cuddling with me she likes to put her hand in my armpit.  Gross..I know.  Believe me, I know.  Honestly, it started when she was nursing as a baby, I remember she would rub my arm and tuck her little hand under my arm, and a lot of times she would pinch.  It is something she has done forever.  I just thought it would have stopped by 4.  Nope.  Sadly, it's one privilege I take away from her when I'm trying to convince her to clean up her messy room.  "If you don't clean your dolls, no armpit tomorrow.  All day!"  So, so, pathetic on my part.  But hey, if it works right?!
Sydney also has her own made up language.  It is so funny.  She'll just be playing and make up these nonsensical words.  Once Jerry was teasing and said, "What was that?  What language you speaking girl?"  She replied, "Eyeball."   or maybe it's "IBall"  It stuck.  Now when she says funny nonsense words we just call it the language of eyeball.

She is so much fun.  We love her so much, and are so happy she is a part of our family.

Happy Valentine's Day

Admittedly I went overboard on Valentine's this year.  I think I was making up for dropping the ball last year.  I was pretty much in a funk for a good chunk of last year after having Luke, and dealing with all the change in our lives.  I was so excited for Valentines because I found some fun stuff at the dollar store and just wanted to have a fun day.  

I decorated the house and they each got a little dollar store teddy bear at the table that morning.  And a breakfast full of waffles and candy hearts.  

 Yeah, Totally overboard.  But it was really so much fun.  When the kids got home from school I set up a small scavenger hunt for them to go on.  At the end was a box of sugar cookie mix and frosting and sprinkles for us to make as a Valentine's treat.  But - we didn't make the cookies because we were already sugared out.

 Here are just some random pics of Luke being silly.  He is really a crack up.

 Movie night.  We had family movie night.  All the sudden Luke seemed like such a big boy sitting with Sydney.  How is my baby growing up so fast??

 Hayden was toothless for a while.  He lost his two front teeth, then a few days later on the playground the next tooth got bumped and loosened.  It fell out a few days later, before it was really ready to fall out.  Then about 2 weeks later the other side/front tooth fell out.  He literally was missing his 4 top front teeth.  Poor boy could barely eat.  His teeth are finally all coming back in - yeah, it's taken a while- and his speaking is still a little adjusted because he had to adjust how he spoke because he had no teeth:)



Little Luke is SO Stinking funny!  And he totally knows it.  He is a little actor.  He'll do funny and silly things, but he won't crack a smile.  He will do it to make us laugh, but won't break character.  This was his latest in February.  He would try to push the wall over, or lift it up.  He'd be so exhausted from trying to move it he'd slump his shoulders down from "pure exhaustion."  Where on earth did he learn it??  Even still when I tell him to push the wall over he gets all serious and pushes and grunts and groans trying to push the wall.  He WILL NOT crack a smile, even though he knows he is being mr. Silly pants.  Or I should say, Mr. Silly Diaper.