Too Smart for Someone's Good

In our house we don't drink juice boxes unless we are taking them with us somewhere. Mostly because it's cheaper to buy bottles and well, we have cups. For some reason that makes them very desirable...forbidden fruit I guess. Now that you have the background let me tell you what Ryan said to me this morning.

"Mommy, do you want me to have a juice box for breakfast or snack? Which one?"

I guess he has figured out the "ask a question with only desirable outcomes" trick. ::sigh::

Hot Tip

My little Ramone(he runs the paint shop in Cars) decided the walls around his Cars decorations needed some highlighting and accents. Since there was no spray paint around he resorted to coloring with crayons. I tried in vain to get the wall clean with soap and warm water. I didn't have any WD-40 sitting around and I'm not sure how I would feel about those fumes in my kid's room, so Crayola Cleaning Tips wasn't any help this time. Mid-scrub it struck me that crayons are made from wax. Wax melts! So I busted out the hair dryer. Low and behold the red streaks I had barely made a dent in with my scrubbing sponge [after quite a bit of trying] came off with ease right before my eyes!

Here is what I did...
1)Hold hair dryer set on high over a section of colored wall for 5 seconds.
2)Wipe immediately with back side of a damp sponge(that possibly had some dish washing liquid remaining).

Yep, that easy.

Cuties

I thought I would add a posed one for good measure:-)

I thought Ryan was so cute watching Curious George this morning I decided to get a picture. While I was taking pictures Lily decided she would have a better view from on top of the table.

I predict that when Ryan sees this picture he will laugh and say, "My hair is all crazy." Gotta love bed head;-)

Making It Our Own

We've been making lots of changes around our house lately. We were thinking we would move, but with the market the way it is we decided to stay here for a while. I decided if we are staying than I am changing a few things. I want to decorate my own way and make some changes. We like our schools and our area. The only thing we need is more space. We had a contractor over today to look at putting an addition on our house. We have plans for more to come. It's really exciting talking about making changes and knowing it could really happen. I've also been painting our playroom (it's unusual, but it is the first room you see when you come in) and I've picked out colors for about 3 more of our rooms. Today we bought a new table for our dining room. We are going to need more space when Lily is no longer in a high chair. Our current table seats only 4 comfortably. I'm so excited for it to get here! I don't feel like I've ever fully moved in anywhere since I was a teenager. Maybe it's time for me to really make this place my own after 4 years of living here!

More Sledding

Jay found Zach's sled in the garage, so now each kid has their own. It's really much better that way. Here they are sledding down the sheet of ice in our back yard today.
They had some trouble getting back up the hill because there seriously is a sheet of ice on top of the snow. Zach sometimes crawled to the top of the hill. It was pretty funny to watch. Sometimes they would be taking steps forward, but their feet would slip so much that they would end up further back than they started. They sure did get some speed going down the hill, so I guess it was worth the climb. They have done quite a bit of sledding these past few days. The neighbors even came over to sled. I guess we have the best hill. I'm also guessing that the tube sleds that our kids have are superior to other types in these conditions.

The Sled

It snowed Tuesday and it was supposed to turn to a mixed mess that night, so I decided to give Ryan part of his Valentines Day present early. It was a sled. When I gave it to him he was so excited. He shouted, "Wow! A sled!" He ran around the dining room table saying, "I can't wait to go sledding!" [repeat 20 times] I asked if he wanted to go sledding now. The whole house practically echoed with his giddy laughter. He shot out of the room like a rocket. This is not unusual, so I just started blowing up the sled. It's one of those snow tube things. Before I had 1/4 of it blown up he reappeared with his socks, shoes and mittens on saying, "I'm ready to go sledding." After I finished blowing up the sled(my cheeks may never be the same) I helped him get his snow pants and coat on. He put on his hat and was out the door. He had to share with Zach because we couldn't find Zach's sled in the garage. When I told him that he was fine with it. He even told Zach he was going to share with him. He talked about the sharing a lot before he went outside. After about 5 trips down the hill he actually let Zach have a turn. Hey, you can't blame a 3 year old for wanting to use his brand new sled a few times before giving it up, right? After a few single trips I suggested that they could ride together and that's pretty much how they spent the rest of their time. They had so much fun. I watched through the sliding glass door because Lily takes after me, she does not like to be cold. They were laughing and enjoying each other. It was great. I even got some video. I stuck my arm through a crack in the door so I could stay with Lily. It worked rather nicely once I put a glove on. If I ever get my video camera to play nicely with my computer I'll post some of the video.

See how happy he looks?!

Money

Zach's new job is to empty the trash every night. Tonight he came downstairs and said, "Daddy, I found this dollar in the trash." Jay, understandably frustrated with Ryan, said, "RYAN! Why did you put a dollar in the trash?!" Ryan replied with a bit of sadness in his voice, "Because it was wrinkled." I start laughing immediately. Jay's stern demeanor softened as he let out a quiet chuckle, then Zach joined in and finally Ryan. Then Ryan said, "Why am I funny?" I couldn't explain to a three year old why his three year old logic was so sweet and innocent, but I could tell him why throwing money away isn't a good idea. I explained that dollars are still good even if they are wrinkled they can still buy things. I told him we should never throw money away. I hope he learns that lesson literally and figuratively before he has to manage more than a few dollars at a time. I know some grown ups who still throw money away. All in all another valuable lesson learned here in the Periwinkle house.

Valentines/ Snow Day

Yesterday was fun. I had anticipated the snow day and armed myself with crafts for the kids to keep the bickering to a minimum. We started the day with some play. We moved on to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while mommy blogged. Then I busted out the paints and magnets that I bought.

Right after that was finger painting for the little ones. You see Zach took much longer to paint his two magnets than Ryan. When Zach did finish his painting we were about to wrap up our 10 minutes of finger painting, so he went down to play computer games. Seriously, finger painting, totally not worth all the prep and mess for the 10 minutes of fun for Ryan and the 10 seconds of fun before Lily found out that finger paint does not taste good. She recovered a little bit and with much coaxing did put some paint on paper. Mostly she just painted herself. I have cute pictures, but since she is only wearing a diaper I'm not going to post them. All you get to see is her cute little hands:-)

And Ryan's hand too:-)

By the time we finished all the painting and the immediate bath that followed for Ryan and Lily it was lunch time. Then Lily went down for her nap and we called Grandma to say Happy Valentines Day.

When Jay came home(early) he had these beautiful and probably very overpriced roses. They are pretty though, aren't they. He also had a box of chocolate covered strawberries(YUM) and a nice card. Yes we were totally a part of the florists and card companies getting richer, but it's nice to feel loved on Valentines Day:-)




And doesn't Lily look adorable on her little outfit?! Even with all her bruises.

Now? two and a half snow days later? not so much fun.

Random Thoughts of the Day

-My stupid laptop just shut off without telling me the battery was low and I lost my whole post.

-Oh yeah, Happy Valentines Day!

-It's another snow day, but for once I agree. The roads are slick and gross. Last night it snowed and now there is freezing rain, so that does not make for an easy drive. I wish Jay hadn't had to go to work. **Update- Jay got to work, but he said the roads were awful**

-Do people really think they are clever when they use normal names, but spell them wrong? To me it's kind of like thinking you are especially clever for pronouncing all the letters in vehicle.

-I love Mickey Mouse Club House for giving me this little blogging break...it entertains ALL my kids. Even Lily loves it. 8years-3 years and 11 months that is quite an age range for one show!

-Lily is my little dancing girl. She dances to any music she hears, even the music from her toys or commercials. It's so sweet.

-I was going to add a bullet about Ryan getting his sled yesterday, but it turned out to be too long. I'm going to have to do a separate post because his reaction is something I don't ever want to forget.

-I finally found a dentist. I had an appointment yesterday. Sadly it's been 4 years since my last one. Several of those months I was unable to brush my teeth at night because it would bring on "morning sickness." So it is by God's grace that I didn't have any cavities. ::Phew:: I was really worried especially because I've had sensitivity to cold foods lately.

-I think it's really cute that my mom-mom still puts $2 in my Valentines Day card because everyone has to get the same amount. Ryan, Zach and Lily all get their own cards with $2 as well. It's really fun to watch them get so excited to get the money.

-I think it's time to bust out the crafts I got a couple of days ago in anticipation of snow days. MMCH is over and the kids have all scattered, well, except Zach- he is still watching the tv.

Yummy

Anyone who has been to our house for more than about 5 minutes probably knows one of Jay's favorite games to play with the kids involves chasing and "biting" the kids. The kids love every minute of it. They run, laughing, through the house until he catches them and mouths their little tummies, arms, legs or whatever he feels like at the moment. They laugh and when they get away they run to a "hiding place" and call for him to come get them. Jay told Ryan the other day that he bought a "new Ryan" while he was at work so he could chomp him. Ryan, with furrowed brow, very seriously replied, "No, Daddy. You should chomp the old Ryan." Ryan has always taken his fun seriously. Since Ryan wants to be just like Daddy of course he has started "biting" people too. Really only me and Jay, sometimes Lily. It's pretty funny when he does it. He tells you he is going to bite you, makes a big dramatic chomping noise and takes a big "bite" with his lips. It usually tickles and he loves when you laugh or yelp. Lily has just recently gotten old enough to play the bite game. She laughs and giggles just as much s the boys when daddy picks her up and "bites" her. Recently she has started "eating" Jay too. This is how I know she actually gets the game. She doesn't put her mouth on Jay the way he does with the kids. She takes her hand and pretends to grab a handful of Jay and then brings her hand to her mouth and pretends to eat it. It's just the way she eats food. So cute. I'm going to try to get video of it if I can, but she does it at random times; whenever she's in the mood I guess. It is really cool to realize your baby is able to use her imagination.

Binge and Purge

In our house most projects get relegated to naptime and maybe bedtime if I have enough energy. So I try to get massive amounts of things done in one small amount of time. Like right now I'm trying to paint the downstairs playroom. It has taken over a week so far and I'm not nearly done. Lily goes down for her nap I race to get everything out and paint what I can before I hear her stirring in her crib about 2 hours later. On the days I'm being smart I try to finish a little before she wakes up so I can clean up the brushes and rollers. I feel good about how it will look in the end. I've always disliked the wallpaper that adorned the walls in that room. It's a dark room with one sliding glass door and no windows. I feel like the yellow I chose will make it feel brighter down there. I've got the yellow on two walls and I really like it. Both walls still need a second coat and the one other wall still only has primer. The other wall...well, it's behind the HEAVY couch, bookshelf and desk. I still haven't touched that wall. Like I said, it's taking a while to get things done.
Today we will be working on painting as well as purging our storage areas. We are running out of space and we NEED to get rid of stuff. I'm wondering if I should get rid of my baby stuff that is still in good shape. I want to save it in case I would ever need to use it again, but I don't think I will need it(if you know what I mean). I'm not sure if I should make those kinds of decisions until Lily is a little older, so this leaves me in a quandary about what to do with the baby stuff Lily has outgrown. I hate purging. It's against my sentimental pack rat nature. It's always hard for me. It's especially hard when a certain husband of mine "helps" me. He pulls out boxes of my stuff, holds up one item at a time and says things like, "You don't need this. Do you?" Never mind all the boxes of his stuff we have like cassette tapes from the 80s, yea. Anywho, that's what my day looks like today. Fun stuff.

Sigs

For easier reference I added bithday sigs to the sidebar, but they don't tell how old the kids are. They only tell how any days until their birthdays. The tickers remain on the bottom unless I can figure something else out that works better. I am frustrated with the whole thing especially since blogger crapped out on me while I was working on them last night. I think I'll just let it be for a while.

Woohoo Lily!

Lily stayed in the nursery at church for the whole service yesterday! ::the skies parted and the angels sang, "Hallelujah!"::
Maybe next week I wont even watch the screen the whole time wondering why her number hasn't come up;-)

New Look

I've been working on my new look for the new blogger. I'm not sure how I like it yet. My only experience with HTML was experimenting with the old blogger until I got it to do what I wanted. So this new widget stuff is just something else to figure out. It's supposed to be easier, but I want to tweak stuff that is not in the easy to change tabbed sections. So I have to go into HTML and figure out how to do it. It's taken a while, but I think I like what I have so far. The biggest thing I don't like is that my tickers for the kids don't fit neatly across in the template, so the looked silly taking up so much room on the top. I relegated them to the bottom of the page for now, but I want to figure out a better solution for them.
Oh and I like the new spell check format even though the suggestions still leave quite a bit to be desired.

Lily at 11 months

Lily is getting better at making her will known, though she has always been pretty good at getting her way;-) She is now pointing and shaking her head. She points to things, up at you and puts her hands on your legs when she wants to be picked up and in the direction she wants you to carry her. She also points at things and says "sDat?" which I assume means "What's that?". She can also reliably point to my nose and mouth when I ask her, but she won't do it when anyone else is around; maybe she is too distracted. When she doesn't want to do something she shakes her head "no". It's the kind of shake that would make her hair fly out if she had any. It is so cute I can't help but laugh. This has become a problem because now she thinks it's funny and she does it to make me laugh too. Usually I can tell which one it is. When she is just playing sometimes I'll shake my hair back at her and she thinks it is hilarious. Her little sense of humor is coming along well.
She is not quite as portable in that she wants to be down on the ground doing things. I used to be able to take her to Ryan's gymnastics class and I would just hold her while we watched or carry her around the classroom when I watch the 2-5 year olds for Bible study. Now she protests violently. She wants to be in on the action. It's not as easy as just letting her walk around as she wants to run into the gym or eat the carpet. There is a class at the same time as Ryan's for 1-2 year olds, so we can join that class next session. It starts in April. I have no idea what I'm going to do until then.
She is quite a vertical child. She climbs on everything. All those table toys that are meant to help kids start standing? Yeah, she would rather be on top, thank you. We need to keep them away from all furniture because she will use it as a stool to get on the table or piano bench. You should see the look of satisfaction she has on her face when she stands up on the coffee table. It's like she's saying "I'm the king queen of the mountain, HA!" Of course climbing stairs is one of her very favorite activities. She has gotten pretty good at going down too. She always turns and backs down on her tummy now. She still needs someone to be behind her just in case, but she almost always makes it just fine.
She says "Da" when she sees Jay, but it is also still her generally happy noise. She also says, "Ma ma ma" when she wants me, but it can also just be rambling. She does that..."talks" a lot. She just brought me the Baby Beethoven DVD and said, "dadadada." I guess she likes it. Maybe she wants to watch it while I blog more;-) Really though I have spent enough time blogging. I should go pay attention to the munchkins for a while.

Here Lily is playing peek-a-boo with daddy. It's one of her favorite games.