Life

Life in our house has been yucky for the past 3-4 weeks. We have each been sick for at least part of the past month with colds and coughs. We've taken all sorts of medicine and the kids were even on breathing treatments for a short time. I think we can see the light at the end of the tunnel...whew!!

Christmas came and went with lots of time spent with family and friends. Lash doesn't understand why Christmas doesn't last all year long...I tried explaining but it was useless. Since watching the movie "Elf" three times this season he has been arguing quite a bit lately, "No its not...yes it is...not its not...yes it is."

Henley is walking!! She started taking a few steps around Thanksgiving and she really took off the week of Christmas, although she still crawls quite a bit because it is faster. 

Life is going to calm down a little now that the holidays are over, which means I will hopefully have more time to update the blog...right?!? :)

Henley being Henley

Several weeks ago we had a friend over for dinner. We were eating fresh fruit and found out that Henley really likes blueberries. We also found out that she preferred eating them from the spoon that our friend offered rather than from Daddy. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Jesus

I couldn't help but sing this tune the other day and after I did Lash wanted to hear it for real. We found the song on YouTube and now he requests it several times a day. He picked up the words pretty quickly:

Girly Girl?

Henley Jane is fascinated with the mardi gras beads at Papa and Oma's house. Every time we visit she goes to the drawer, pulls out the treasure and puts each strand of beads on. She appears to love wearing them and they make her look very pretty.

The other day Henley found Lash's super hero cape. Just like with the mardi gras beads, she tried to put the cape on...she tried and tried and tried:

Coloring Pictures

Lash really enjoys to color and to do workbook pages. This morning he got out the crayons and notebook paper to do some drawing. He brought me two or three pictures and asked me to guess what he had drawn...I got it wrong every time.

Then he brought me a picture of a drawing of Daddy:

How awesome is that?!? He is only three years old folks!!

When I was telling him what a wonderful job he did he said "I love Daddy so much," and "Daddy is such a great guy!" That kid loves his Daddy!!

After drawing Daddy he went on to draw me and in the process made some comment about my bum...not cool. After that he drew a picture of "Baby Henley" and as he was drawing he told her, "You're going to be so pretty."

Rules

Today at lunch I had to remind Lash of the dinner table rules:

1. There are no animals at the table. When you are at the table you are to act like a little boy and not a dog or a horse or a dinosaur, etc.

2. Do not make any weird noises with your mouth because Henley Jane will mimic and spit food everywhere.

Late in the lunch Lash started listing off his own set of rules. It wasn't until he had made it to 20 or so that I had the sense to get a pen and paper and write them down:

1. We don't hit people.
2. We don't get messy.
3. We don't hit babies.
4. We don't get messy ketchup all over the floor.
5. We don't get water all over grandmas when babies or boys are in the bathtub.
1. We don't ever run a school bus on people.

(Lash: "Are you writing it down?")

2. We don't hit people.
3. We don't hit people.
4. We don't drop tater tots on the floor.
5. We don't shine flashlights in peoples' eyes.
1. We don't push down Henley.
2. We don't hit zebras.
3. We don't kick horses with your legs.

Although he would hold up the second hand, he always started recounting from one and never continued to six. He also included "We don't hit people" much more frequently than I wrote down...do you think he has heard that a time or two before?!?

Randomness

Two cute and quick stories:

I laid out clothes for Lash to wear and then I left his bedroom. A minute or so later he comes running out of his room carrying the green shirt I had picked out for him and exclaims "Mom...thank you for cleaning this!" I said, "You're welcome. I knew you liked it." He then runs over to me and gave me a hug. The entire exchange was very dramatic but he was being serious and so sincere.

Lash wanted to watch a movie the other morning. While I was getting the VCR plugged in and the movie going Henley was getting into things and I said "Henley go sit in your chair and watch the movie with Lash." She immediately crawled over to her chair, climbed in and waited for the movie to start. If only she was that obedient all the time!

Lesson Learned

It was Thursday, which meant the kids were headed to Oma's house and I was going to the office. I typically  take Lash and the diaper bag (or anything else that needs loaded) out to the car first so that I can get Lash strapped into his car seat before needing to strap in Henley. After everything has been loaded I go back in to set the alarm and get Henley. This particular day I decided to take both kids out first...

After I got Lash in the Tahoe and gave him instructions to get into his car seat and I got Henley strapped in (there is no car seat base in the Tahoe so I have to use the seat belt to secure her car seat) I headed back inside to finish loading our things. When I got to the door it was LOCKED! I could not believe it! Lash had turned the lock on the doorknob and locked us out of the house. At that moment I was very glad that I hadn't left Henley in the house while I loaded Lash and the diaper bag because that would have made things much worse!

I felt completely helpless...I had no phone and no keys! I'd been meaning to get a spare key made and hidden, but that task was still on the to do list. I decided I would go to the neighbor's house and use their phone to call Clint. I left the kids in the Tahoe that was still parked in the garage and I started walking. I realized half way up the driveway that I should have changed shoes (side note: I was wearing a business suit and nice black dress shoes) but at that point I was not going to turn around. I walked to our neighbor's house, which happened to be over a 1/2 mile away (on a gravel road) and prayed that someone would be home. Nope..I even tried the doors thinking I could go in and use the phone and apologize later for intruding.

On my walk/jog back to the house I was praying for wisdom and help. I was hopeful that I would meet a car on the gravel road and borrow a cell phone. Well, I made it almost back home when I heard a car coming so I ran back up the driveway waving my arms, but I got there 5 seconds too late and the driver did not see me.

When I got back to the house the kids were both fine and no one was crying (I would pay money to see a video of what he did for the nearly 30 minutes unsupervised). There were some random keys in the console that I tried and none worked. I grabbed a putty knife and thought maybe I could break into the house...no luck. 

I had no idea what time it was but I was thinking that Oma and/or Clint might start to get concerned soon and maybe come looking for us. I thought that I could walk to other neighbors' homes, but at 8:45 on a weekday morning I wasn't too hopeful of anyone being home. I changed shoes, put Henley in the stroller, and off we went. I told Lash we were walking to Oma's house, but as we walked I was really just praying that someone would drive by. 

We made it a little over a 1/4 mile from our house when a truck drove by. After some persistent waving I was able to get the man to stop and he let me borrow his cell phone. I called Clint and he called the locksmith who showed up at our house right after we got back from our walk. It took Mr. Wilson less than 5 seconds to slide his drivers license down the door jam to pop the door open. 

I was so thankful and I made sure to have Mr. Wilson make a copy of our house key so that this will NEVER happen again! Lesson learned.

Facebook status updates

For the sake of time, a lot of the cute things Lash says or does gets posted as Facebook status updates. I decided to compile and post some of the funnier ones:

Clint:

10/16/2012: I need a physicist... Toddler spills approximately 1/2 cup of milk on the floor. Milk splashes behind the toddler to nearly 6'6" up the wall AND stretches roughly 8 feet across the floor opposite the wall. A simultaneous "WOW" escaped our mouths as we sat shocked in complete amazement... Everything was fine until toddler defiantly shouts, "I'm not happy with YOU right now - dad!"

10/5/2012: Nose to nose with his stuffed giraffe and both hands clutched around the limp giraffes throat, "HAVE YOU SEEN MY PLUG?!?!!?!?? DO YOU KNOW WHERE IT IS?!!! Is it in the closet?!!!" ("Plug" = "pacifier" and Lash got unplugged a few weeks ago.)

9/26/2012: Spoken at 7:00 A.M., "Dad, tell me about your day."

9/21/2012: "NO DAD!!! I am NOT going to 'Spank City' on my birthday!!!"

8/29/2012: It's bedtime. You are stalling. You know the drill. Bathroom. Brush your teeth. Let's go! Ok, let me help you... "DAAAAAAAAAAAD!!! Be kind to one another and build eachother up! That means you be nice to me!" Mark? "No!!!" First Thessalonians? "Five Eleven!!! Be kind to one another and build eachother up! That means you be nice to me Dad!!!" (He's not even 3 and already he is preparing to outwit me...)

7/19/2012: You know it's gonna be good when your 2 year old starts out a story with, "Back when I was a little boy..."

Sarah:

10/16/2012: This morning I told Lash to go potty (because that is what he does first thing every morning or else I end up cleaning up a whole lot of pee off the bathroom floor) and he responded with "I don't have to..." (serious face....pause) "...I went yesterday."

10/12/2012: Today at lunch I asked Lash what his favorite fruit was and he responded with "Maybe fruit salad."...what a smart guy!

9/25/2012: In case anyone is needing Christmas ideas for Lash he wants "pears, oranges, apples, bananas, blueberries, strawberries....and...umm...toys...and...umm...Kohl's Cash."

CIRCLES!

This is a game that Lash named CIRCLES! He loves it and so does Henley Jane: