Picture Time

We got some pictures done of the kids today. They came out kinda cute. Jeff participated fairly well. He was pretty good with the pictures of them together, but lost it after the first one she took of him alone. I think the ones of Erin came out really really well though. Here's my favorites. Sorry for the grainy quality, that's the way they are from the website.

Garden Time

Finally it seems like it's going to stay warm here. We took advantage of the weather this weekend to get the garden going. With both kids getting older it was more fun for them. Erin helped to pick out flowers at the Garden Center. Then she and Jeffrey carried leaves (that we had used a mulch over the winter) away from the garden. Watching them try to walk up the hill with armfuls of leaves was hilarious. They were tripping and falling and trying desperately to hold onto all the leaves. Inevitably more leaves ended up on the ground just outside of the garden area than actually in the woods 30 feet away.


Both kids liked helping to plant the beans. Tom made rows and gave Erin and Jeff seeds to plant in them. Erin gently took hers and put them in the row. Jeffrey preferred the "sowing" method of throwing all his bean seeds around the garden. We eventually got him to understand where they were supposed to go and he put a few into the rows.

After lunch Tom and I put the flowers and herbs into the planters. When Erin woke up we were just beginning to work on Tom's hop plants - yes that's hops as in beer making hops. Erin helped to dig the holes and stir up the dirt inside. She even planted one of the rhizomes. Then she and Tom went down to the rock pile and picked out some nice stones to surround the hops.

Erin's favorite part of the day was yet to come though. Watering time. We have acquired a new hose that actually reaches the garden this year....with a cool sprayer on it. Erin helped to water all the plants in the garden and then got to run through the sprayer. Now all she wants to do every day is water the plants so she can run in the water.

So we'll see what the summer brings for the garden, but the fun of putting it all in was completely worth it.

A test of patience..

Both Jeffrey's and mine. Since our little man has been showing interest in the potty for several months now, we decided maybe it was time to bring out the pull-ups and little potty. Last Thursday was day one of the experiment. I got him up, set him down on the potty. He fussed and wiggled quite a bit. Sat for 1 Lightning McQueen story and that was it. Then he saw the Pull-Ups....with Lightning McQueen on them. He went nuts. All he wanted was to put them on. I told him we had to try to keep them dry etc, and I'm sure he processed about 1 word of what I was saying - "McQueen".

So Thursday provided 2 successes both mostly accidental. Friday included 1 poop but no pees. Saturday got a little rough, Sunday morning was hard, but by the afternoon he had a pee after his nap. This morning he went first thing - Yay!!! I'm going a little slower than I was with Erin, but I'm still there with him quite a lot. We read Lightning McQueen stories, blow bubbles, snuggle with blankie and read more Lightning McQueen stories.



I'm giving myself a week. If we're making more progress and having fewer struggles with staying on the potty we'll even try some big boy undies. I've got some Cars ones waiting here for him. So who knows how long this little experiment will continue.

Art Class

The kids did some pictures for Grandma yesterday. I wanted to share a couple of them because I finally figured out how, and they came out Very cute - as Jeffrey says -- boooiful. We used the Crayola Slick Sticks to get the bright colors. They are really cool. I don't get them out a lot, but when we do both kids love using them.

Erin's Drawing of a Rainbow, A Lake and a Sea Turtle (with her name at the bottom)



Jeffrey's Boooiful Colors

Happy Easter

Happy Easter Everyone!!!



We had a nice Easter day - even if daddy wasn't able to be here. Noni, Oma and "Papa" (Jeffrey's new word for grandpa) came down on Saturday night. They stayed through Sunday evening. We all just had a great time relaxing, playing and of course eating chocolate.

I tried not to go too nuts on the kids Easter baskets. I bought three or four bags of candy, put most of it into our eggs for egg hunting, and scattered the rest throughout their baskets. They each got a couple of books, a new bouncy ball and some bubbles. Erin got some new pets to add to her Pet House and Jeffrey got a Lightning McQueen T-shirt and Cars book. Noni added a few little nick-knacks too. They came out looking really cute.

Sunday morning Jeffrey woke me up at his regularly early time. But I didn't mind so much since I needed to get a shower, get the kids dressed, watch them with their baskets and get dinner started. They looked so cute in their outfits from Grandma W. They quickly dug into their baskets. Jeffrey went straight for the candy. Before I knew it he had 4 chocolate eggs in his mouth and was trying to shove in more.

At church Erin went to do Easter activities downstairs and then went out for another egg hunt. She returned with a HUGE bag of more candy. Jeffrey got to play in the nursery. Noni and Papa headed home early so Papa could hide the 30 eggs I had gotten ready. He put them all over the main floor. When we got home Erin and Jeff were ready for one last hunt. They found them in the plants, on the chairs, on windowsills, even hiding in the Little People ark. It took them less than 5 minutes to find 29 eggs (there's still one that I've found and they haven't yet). More candy hooray!!! Again Jeff stuffed himself silly.

The afternoon was spent playing with their new toys while mommy pot roast cooked. We even got out the Thomas train Jeffrey got for Christmas. Both kids were fascinated with it and had the best time playing together with it. By the time dinner was ready, Jeffrey was so full of candy he didn't touch it. Erin devoured 3 helpings of meat, several veggies and a few bites of potato. After dinner, Oma, Noni and Papa had to head home. It was very nice though to have them visiting and spending a special day with us.

Easter Activities

We had a week full of Easter activities here. Several egg hunts, and some other programs going on. The kids LOVED each of the hunts and had a blast filling their baskets with eggs. Jeffrey was able to get into it much more this year than last year.

Our first hunt was at the local community park and soccer field. It was a warm but cloudy day. Jeffrey was a little unsure of what was going on, but he quickly got into it. They set it up more as an "egg rush" than a hunt. All the little kids went at one time. They took a circle on a field, dumped two HUGE boxes of eggs into it. The leaders took a step back and the herd was released. Kids rushed into the circle and filled their baskets with as many eggs as they could. Erin was a little more careful. And she wanted to show me each egg as she picked it up. So rather than put it into her basket she'd scan the area, pick one out and run back to me to show me. They found eggs filled with lots of little toys which Erin has had a blast playing with....and are scattered around my house now.

On Thursday we had Story Time at the library. Each year they set up an egg hunt to follow the stories. This is probably my favorite of the hunts. Our library shares a facility with a senior day care center. Often the seniors come and sit for the story time. Mostly they just love being around the children. At Easter, they prepare the egg hunt in their wing of the building. The kids run around the senior center hunting eggs in every little corner. And the looks on the seniors faces as the children squeal at every found egg is enough to brighten my week. Both the kids quickly found their allotment of 5 eggs. Erin ended up with a few pieces of candy, a snap bracelet and an additional bouncy ball. Jeffrey found much the same.

On Saturday morning we were supposed to go to another hunt. Erin went to bed all excited about going into town to "find more eggs". When I went to bed Friday night I could hear it raining.....when I woke up we found this......



...so we decided to bail on that hunt.

With one more hunt scheduled for Church and eggs to find at home, the kids ended the week all egged out.

My Little Girl, Her Flowers and....

. . . her Football. That's right. I wanted to get some pictures of the kids with my daffodils today since they are all in bloom. They both love checking on the flowers every time we go outside. Jeffrey wasn't really up for having his picture taken today, but I got a couple. Erin's hair is doing some funky wild thing and she insisted on having her football in the pictures too. Still they came out kinda cute, and I just wanted to show them off. It's been gorgeous here again...warm enough today for shorts -- Yay!!!

Pretty Smile - at the Flower not Me


Deeply Inspecting Her Flower


Jeffrey Giving it a Try


Some Wild Hair Here, But Sweet as Can Be

Twins?

Tuesday morning we had some stuff to do and Tom had to work at the office. I dressed the kids in simple play clothes, jeans and a white T-shirt for Erin, cords and a blue striped shirt for Jeff. When we got to our meeting, Erin was being a little shy and not talking much. A gentleman we had never met before looked at them and asked,

"Are they twins?"

First thing that went through my mind was "huh?" I responded that she is 2 years older than he is and chalked it up to this younger guy not knowing much about kids.

So from the meeting I took the kids to the Discovery Museum in town. We haven't been there a lot and thought it would be a special trip. It's a great little place. The kids really seemed to have a good time, even though Jeffrey did his best "My mommy's the worst mommy ever" routine. The place was pretty busy but we ended up staying for about 90 minutes. After we were done, we headed to the sandwich shop next door for lunch.

Inside was a woman, with her two children, who had also been at the museum. She had seen the kids playing, seen Jeff's tantrums and Erin playing with a "ball elevator" machine. She looked at me walking the kids in and said,

"Are they twins?"

I literally burst out laughing. Then had to explain that Erin is 2 years older and that he's not even 2 yet. I also proceeded to fill her in on why I was laughing, "no one has ever asked that before, and we've been asked that twice today."

So while I was ordering 1 grilled cheese sandwich, 1 Caesar salad with grilled chicken (dressing on the side), 2 lemonades and 1 Diet Coke I looked back at the kids. I really wish I'd had a camera on me, because honestly...they looked like twins. Their hair is about the same color right now, their faces are very similar, and both have that "lean" build from their daddy. Erin's still taller but not by much. Jeffrey's stronger certainly. But when you see them interact with others Erin's maturity is blatant (I feel), and certainly her language skills.

So, sadly I didn't get a picture of the kids that day. I really wish I had. But what is clear is that Jeffrey's certainly growing up a bit more every day.

A Bright Bright....Sunshiny Day

The bright sunshine brought some warm weather this afternoon. We took advantage and went out to play. After lunch we went for a walk around the neighborhood block. We looked for all the animals and found dogs, cats, birds, ducks and geese. After a failed attempt at nap time we went back out to play. The kids wanted to go look at the stream that runs behind the house so we went over to the bridge to take a look. Erin picked up little stones to toss into the stream. She thought all the different sounds the stones made in the water were very cool. Jeffrey was really good about holding mommy's hand and even got to toss in a few himself.

Then we just played around the yard. Erin got the red ball and brought it out to play. They swang on the swing, slid on the slide, played in the dirt, climbed up the hill and rolled in the grass. It was really a wonderful day outside.

And best of all....everyone's exhausted and ready for a good night's sleep.

Windy Hair


Chilling Out


Digging in the Dirt

More growing up

It seems that the children in this house are growing up much faster than I'd expected. Jeffrey reached another big boy moment yesterday. Tom and I had been talking about getting him a bed and out of the crib, mostly because I was tired of having the crib in his room. We debated between Tom's old twin bed (with new mattress and box spring) and getting him a little toddler bed for a while. Well at the consignment store yesterday I hit upon a gem of a toddler bed for only $30. It was exactly what I was looking for so I grabbed it.

When I got home with it, Jeffrey was just waking up from his nap. Tom offered to go set it up and take the crib down. Erin stayed upstairs to help daddy. I brought Jeffrey downstairs to play and watch a Rocket (or 2). I could hear Tom describing everything he was doing with Erin and having her help him put it all together. It sounded like they had a great time. Once they got everything assembled (and disassembled) I headed up to re-arrange the room.

I stopped at Target on the way home and found a Lightning McQueen pillow and throw blanket. There were lots of bedding in twin size but not for a toddler bed. So I did the best I could to make his new bed exciting with McQueen (I have discovered a couple little gems for Cars toddler bedding on e-bay but Tom made me promise to wait a week to see how the bed goes.) So I got everything ready with Erin's help and she wanted to badly to get Jeffrey to show him his surprise.

He into his room and immediately shouted, "Queeeeeeen". He was quite excited. He quickly climbed onto the bed and grabbed a pillow I'd left on the side to put where the pillow belonged at the head of the bed. Then all his blankets and special friends came up to the bed. It didn't take him long to make it his own. He and Erin spent the rest of the afternoon playing in his bed. Taking blankets off and on, moving things around...

I was still a little afraid about bedtime. I just wasn't certain how he was going to take to it. So we did the usual ritual... brushed teeth, read stories in the glider. As I laid him down he immediately got upset, grabbed his elephant and precious blankie and ran down the stairs screaming for daddy and monkeys (5 Silly Monkeys book). I wrangled him back to me, found 5 Silly Monkeys and sat down to read it to him. After that, I laid him down. He got a bit upset but still snuggled down into his bed. Within 5 minutes he was out like a light.

I snuck up twice, once when I put Erin to bed and once when I went to bed to check on him. I took pictures some pictures to see how much he was moving around. Turns out it wasn't too much.

About 9:00 PM

About Midnight

About 7:30 this morning, Erin came in to announce that Jeffrey was awake. I hadn't heard him but I guess she did. I told her not to open his door but she did anyway. First place I found him was with Elephant and blankie in tow, sitting in the middle of her room. I'd wanted to get a picture of him where he ended up in the morning. Didn't have the camera right on me, but that seems the perfect place for a little boy to end up after his first night in a big boy bed....the middle of sister's room.

I guess we'll just see how nap time works out. Wish me luck.

After 21 months, 3 weeks, 4 days...

...Jeffrey has finally had his first haircut. That's right folks he had enough hair that it was time (kinda). Erin needed her bangs cut and we were out running errands so took the opportunity. Of course I had Jeffrey in tow. I asked the lady doing Erin's hair if she thought it was time for Jeffrey, especially since he'd developed quite the rat-tail. She sugested just giving it an overall trim to even it out so it would all grow in faster. He sat sooo well. Didn't fuss a bit and figeted minimally. I helped gently hold his head still and she was even able to use the clippers around his ears and back of his neck. He was such a big boy I was so proud of him. They had a little certificate to fill out and put some of the clippings into an envelope for me to put in his baby book (well now it would be his toddler book since it took this long). So here are a couple of pictures from last month....




And ones from today. You really can see the difference (especially if you click on the picture to make it bigger).

A Visit from Grandma and Grandpa

We got a special visit from Grandma and Grandpa this weekend. We're very lucky that they are able to visit us a couple of times a year. Here's a selection of some of the weekend's greatest moments.

~Erin and Grandma sitting at the dining room table playing Go Fish and Old Maid - over and over and over again.
~Jeffrey and Grandpa sitting at the dining room table pushing his favorite trucks back and forth while Grandpa sang "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (bet he didn't know I heard that part).
~Erin barging into our bedroom at 7:00 announcing that she was going down to wake grandma up....OK Erin, just go you don't need to tell me.
~Having an entire movie theater to ourselves for Jeffrey's first movie - Night at the Museum.
~Dining out at the Japanese Hibachi place for Tom's birthday with Erin entertaining Grandpa the whole evening (and eating his steak) while mommy and daddy did their best to entertain a very overtired Jeffrey, who still managed to eat Grandma's steak, daddy's chicken and mommy's shrimp.
~Did I mention Go Fish and Old Maid?
~"Thunder and Lightening", Jeffrey's "Cars" book that Grandpa had to read at least 10 times in a row.
~Discovering that Jeffrey needs a size 7 or 7 1/2 shoe and can wear 3T shirts and shorts. Oh My!!!!!
~Introducing Grandma and Grandpa to wrestle with daddy time...we all laughed soo hard.
~Jeffrey and Grandpa vegging out in front of the Weather Channel.
~Don't forget about that "Cars" book grandpa.
~Erin barging in at 7:00 announcing that "Mommy, It Snowed!!!!"
~Lastly the ever popular Go Fish, Old Maid and......"Cars" book.

Shameless Picture Post

Shameless Picture Post!!!! Here are some of my most recent favorite pictures of the kiddos. I promise I didn't pick too many.


I don't get these kinds of snuggles from my little man very often. I'll take all I can get.


Erin wore her new Valentine's Day outfit to Church and needed to have her Reindeer along with her to keep her company.


Getting a special horsey ride from daddy...a double decker one!!!


Jeffrey's new obsession is running into the bathroom and pulling his pants down right after sister is done in the potty. NO I'm not training him yet, but he thinks it's fun to take his pants off and sit on the potty for 2.8 seconds.


Playing together, working together, sharing with each other and not screaming....what else could a mommy ask for?

A Visit with Noni, Oma and Grandpa

Since Noni had the day off on President's day I decided to surprise Erin by taking her and Jeffrey up for a visit. I got her up in the morning and told her she needed to get dressed quickly as we were going on a surprise trip. Oh I know mommy....is it my birthday party? Are we going to my birthday party? That was her first conclusion, that her surprise was her birthday party. She kept at this fascination for about 30 minutes. By that time I had loaded enough things into the car that it seemed as if we were going to stay for a week and not a night. As we started driving Erin explained how excited she was that she was going to her birthday party. I told her that I didn't think her surprise was going to be a birthday party. That she would have to wait for that. Her birthday party would be on a warmer day that she could wear shorts and short sleeves and play outside. And play soccer, added Erin. Sure, and play soccer.

About half way through the trip Erin abandoned the idea of a birthday party and decided we were going to a parade. She became very excited about going to the parade. As I hit a little traffic she got more and more upset because she was afraid the parade was going to start without us. I let her know that the parade wouldn't start without us. But asked her if she was sure her surprise was a parade. Yes mommy, you're taking me to a parade. Very matter of fact. She was certain.

Only when we pulled into the driveway at my folks house did she put it all together and realize we were at Noni and Oma's (and Grandpa's too). I carried both kids inside and plopped them down. Jeffrey went straight for the dog. Erin ran right downstairs to find Oma. Parade totally forgotten about.

We spent a nice day at the house coloring, reading stories, eating grilled cheese sandwiches and playing piano. I also brought all of their snow things (thanks to Noni, Jeffrey finally has a pair of boots and both kids have waterproof pants). There was a nice amount of snow remaining in the back yard. When Jeffrey woke up from his nap we bundled up and went out to play. There was a crust on the snow that wasn't slippery, but you had to work to break through also. It was great for running and sliding around on plastic bags ---sleds next year I guess. Jeffrey ran around the back yard chasing the dog like a madman. Erin had Noni pull her around on her "sled". We also played on the swing set and made snow angles.

After all that playing we decided to take Grandpa out for a late birthday dinner. We went to one of Noni's favorite places where we could still eat sensibly and bring the kids. On the way in I grabbed their Magnadoodles from the back of the car (that I bring along for car trips) thinking this place might not have crayons. Proud of myself for grabbing them we walked in and were seated quickly.....right next to a couple who had brought in a portable DVD player to entertain their son. I felt not so creative anymore.

We all had a great dinner. Erin and Jeffrey ordered hot dogs and tried some Mac & Cheese bites which were really yummy. Jeffrey sat between Grandpa and Noni and was so good throughout all of dinner. Both shared bites from everyone else...including Oma's lamb....which Erin asked for more of. Jeffrey enjoyed his ketchup and the artwork he could make on the table....AND IN HIS HAIR...with ketchup on the end of his fork. Of course I had to take a picture on my phone of Jeffrey with a large streak of ketchup in his blond hair before we wiped it off....the DVD people thought I was a little nuts I'm pretty sure. We finished off with Erin ordering Raspberry Sorbet and Jeffrey eating most of Noni's bread pudding.

After getting home Jeffrey got his hair washed and was ready for bed. Erin went downstairs with Oma and played until they fell asleep. Mommy and Noni watched some Supernanny and CSI and caught up on all kinds of things. We left mid-morning the next day. Erin completely in tears because she wasn't ready to leave yet. Even in the car she kept crying ---until a quick stop at McDonald's for OJ and a hash brown had her all smiles again. It certainly was a great day spent with family.

Hapy Valentine's Day

We just wanted to say Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. Mommy made a little movie of us together. Here's the link:

LOVE Movie

Just click on the link and it should start downloading. It might just go directly into your Media Player (does for me). If you get an option screen, select "Open" the file and it should play fine in Window's Media Player.

Hope everyone has a wonderful LOVE-filled Day!!!

Wednesday Morning....

Erin -- Mommy Mommy.....Look out the window!
Mommy -- Erin, I'm going to teach you how to tell time so you don't come yelling at me at 7:15. What is it?
E -- Mommy Mommy....Look out the window!
M -- What is it Erin?
E -- Mommy mommy...Look out the window!
M(realizing she's not going to get anywhere without looking out the window) -- Ooohhh look it snowed. Isn't it pretty?
E -- Let's go out and play.
M -- A little later hunny, why don't you come snuggle for a bit.
Jeffrey (from other room) -- MOMMMMMMMYYYY!!!!
E -- Mommy, Jeffrey's awake! You have to go get him. He needs you.
M (realizing her efforts to remain in bed are futile) -- Ok, let's get him.

So mommy convinces Erin and Jeffrey to snuggle for a little bit and watch Disney. But Erin could only wait soooo long to go play outside. Flash forward to around 10 AM after breakfast and some playtime.

M -- OK should we get ready to go outside now?
E -- Yes Yes Yes!
J -- No (response to everything)
M -- Let's go upstairs and get some clothes on to go outside. Erin you get out of your PJ's while I get Jeffrey ready. Hmmm Jeffrey, you don't really have good snow clothes. Let's put on these old sweatpants and a pair of footie PJ's underneath. That will keep your legs warm. Sound good? Good!
E (hollering from the potty) -- Mommy wipe!
M -- Just a second Sweetie. There we go. OK let's get some clothes on. Comfy? Good. OK, let's get boots and jackets on.
E -- Is this the right foot mommy?
M -- Yep...good work.
E (throws boot across room) -- I Can't Do it!!!!
M -- Calm down, let's do it together. See? There we go. Now, do you know where Jeffrey's boots are? (after a check in his room and the basement we find them in the basket where I first looked). Let's put Jeffrey's boots on. OK Jeffrey push. Push. Let me loosen them. Yeah, this isn't going to work. Well you can't go out in your sneakers. I know...sister's old boots. Yes, I know they're pink, but it will be ok. OK Jeffrey, push.
E -- Mommy I wanna go outside.
M -- We're working on it. Ok, bud, this isn't going to work. Pants off. Footie pants off. Pull your socks up. Pink boots on. There we go bud. Now for coats.
E -- Mommy I need my mittens.
M -- I think they are in the basement. Let me check. Ok Erin, no they're not here. We'll wear different ones.
E -- NO!!! I need my pink gloves.
M (looking for other mittens) -- Erin you're going to have to wear other ones.
E -- There they are mommy. There they are. See them! Up there. I need those ones.
M -- Ok Erin. I see them. Coats on. (5 minutes later) Ok, coats are on. Let's get mittens and hats on. Push. Push your hands guys. Keep pushing them. Ok this is the best it's gonna get. Let's go outside!
E -- YAY!!!
J -- YAY!!!

Outside playing in snow...Jeffrey's pink boots keeping his feet fairly warm. Three minutes later.....

Erin -- Potty! Mommy I have to go potty.

Sigh...thankfully our neighbor and her daughter had joined us for some snow playing. Mommy runs Erin inside, gets her undressed and puts her on the potty. Ten seconds later Erin is "all done" and we go back outside.

Lessons learned?
1 -- Buy Jeffrey snow boots....even if he might grow out of them. Otherwise it's big pink boots for him.
2 -- Plan a good 40 minutes to get dressed and get outside.
3 -- Find mittens that will stay on.
4 -- Make sure they really really want to be outside....otherwise it's 40 minutes preparation for 10 minutes of play.
and most importantly...
5 -- Go Potty First.

No matter. We had fun playing in the snow again. Erin made more snow angles and played hiking up the hill. Jeffrey played on the slide and tried to clear the cars off. I guess is was all worth it.

My Bubble-ishous

Ever since Erin was teeny tiny one of the gentlemen at our church has fondly called her "My Bubble-ishous". Probably because she had these great big cheeks and went through a phase of blowing bubbles and raspberries when she was about 4 months old. Anyway he and Erin have had a special bond since then. He sings in the choir and will let her sit with him while we rehearse and she always finds him after service for a special hug.

Recently after church Erin was trying very hard to tell me she had to go find.....well I couldn't make out what she was saying. After about 5 minutes she grabbed my hand and we went walking around church looking for what she wanted to show me. Eventually we found him. Let me give you an image of what this gentleman. He's a tall, broad, African American gentleman who has a son in high school - not a small man by any definition of the word. He was at one point high school principal of the year. Erin saw him...pointed to him and yelled, "There he is...there's my Bubble-ishous." I can assure you this is the first time anyone has called him by such a nickname. To this day she still looks for her Bubble-ishous every time we are in church and always makes sure she gets her hug.

New Game?

So Tom and I decided that as part of our New Year's goals we'd make an effort to get the kids in bed a little earlier (especially Erin) and keep the play area on the main floor a little more cleaned up. So we started out by explaining to Erin that before bed we would take 5 minutes to clean up. We'd set the timer and say, "OK, clean up time!" Well....that fell flat on it's face. Erin would throw a fit because the timer generally has negative connotations (timeout or a time frame to finish dinner). So she would just get overly dramatic whine and cry while Tom and I put away the toys. Jeffrey became more interested with every toy we tried to put away and he'd run to get it back out so he could play with it.

So after a week or so of that I came up with another idea. I let Erin pick out a CD. We play 2 songs really loud and during those two songs it's "clean up time." Erin immediately latched onto it and would run around finding all the toys and bring them to me saying "where does this go mommy?". After 3 or 4 nights she had learned where everything went. Jeffrey was still in the playing with everything phase so getting him to help was a little more difficult. I finally figured that out by giving him one thing and saying, "Hey can you put the airplane back on the shelf buddy?" He'd immediately put it away and come back to me for something else. He knew exactly where to put it also.

So we've made some good progress with this. We knew we had hit gold the other night when I had this conversation with Erin....

Mommy - "OK, let's go up and get jammies on"
Erin - "Nooooooo" (runs to the stairs and buries her head)
Mommy - "Erin I didn't say time to go to bed, I just said let's go get jammies on."
Erin - (peeking up from the steps and sobbing) "But we didn't clean up yet mommy."

That's is she won...we grabbed the World Playground CD, cranked up the volume and put away the toys. Pretty cool huh?

Snow much fun

Well this is a week late but we had our first (and possible only)snow last Sunday. Erin noticed it about 10 AM and just begged for the next two hours to go outside. She stood by the window and shouted "Look it's snowing" about every 5 minutes. We convinced her to wait about 2 hours until there was at least a little snow on the ground to play in.

So a little after noon we got all bundled up. We still don't have snow pants for the kids so we threw on PJ pants and 2 pair of socks under some sweat pants for the kiddos. It was a nice fluffy snow and not too wet.

Jeffrey had never played in the snow before so he wasn't sure what to expect. He was a little tentative for about 2.5 seconds and then barreled right into it. He started out at the little swing and slide and had a blast there. Then Erin thought she needed to clear off the cars so she lured him over to the hill. Once he got over there he was lost forever. He spent the next 15 minutes running/rolling down the hill. The biggest issue was that he couldn't get back up very well so someone had to go down the hill and get him back.

Erin was a little less interested in getting down and dirty with the snow. She really wanted to clear the snow off the cars. She tried to make some snowballs but the snow was too dry and just floated away. Right before she came inside Tom showed Erin how to make a snow angel. She thought it was very very cool.

Sadly early in the evening we got some freezing rain. Not enough to make the snow melt, but enough to make the snow icey and crusty on top. I had to spend 10 minutes the next morning explaining to Erin why she couldn't go back out and play. She was simply heartbroken. But she finally relented. Sadly by Thursday the snow was pretty much gone :( Maybe we'll get some more before the winter is truly gone.

A Family in the Woods

Well we decided to take advantage of the unusually warm January weather and take the kids out geocaching and for a picnic yesterday. We decided to head over the mountain to find a few caches we hadn't yet picked up. (For those of you who don't know what geocaching is we describe it as, "using multi-million dollar government satellites to find Tupperware hidden in the woods." Check out http://www.geocaching.com/ for more information.) Tom packed up a picnic lunch for us to stop at a picnic area on Skyline Drive on the way back. Erin was totally enthused about the idea of a picnic. She's been playing picnic with her guys and little pets recently so all she could talk about was "time for the picnic yet?"

Our GPS sent us a little screwey in the beginning but once we got it set back on track we headed off to the first cache. This one was in a little park in a small town of Shenandoah (on the way to Luray Caverns from here). It stood on the site of an historic furnace. There was a little pond, picnic tables and a walking path. The kids were excited to see some ducks in the pond. Jeffrey and Tom walked down towards it for a closer look. As usual Jeffrey was wiggling to get away. Tom restrained him well though, until he fell for the old, "OK Daddy I give up" trick. At that point Jeffrey bolted immediately into the pond. Tom caught him by the back of his shirt (appropriately his "Little Wild Man" shirt) before he fell face first. Still he was soaked from his thighs down. Mind you we had left the diaper bag by the front door and this was the first stop. He didn't seem bothered by it so we just kept on. Found the first cache without any trouble and moved along to the next one which was very nearby at an old general store.

After nabbing that one, we decided to skip the one we had printed out that required the mile long hike up the mountain and do another that was marked as relatively simple. It took us to a really cool Civil War Furnace site in the George Washington National Forest. The furnace was huge...about 30 feet tall. Right next to a confluence of 2 smaller streams into one slightly larger one. The setting was beautiful. Given Jeffrey's recent expedition into the pond he was confined to the backpack as soon as we got out of the car. We let Erin go explore around the stream though. I even got her to sit so I could take some pictures in front of the stream. We headed off on a walk to find the rest of the cache. Since it was pretty cloudy the GPS was jumping all over the place. We're pretty sure we were in the right place for the actual cache, just couldn't get right on it. With it beginning to get into the afternoon and Erin still focused on the picnic we abandoned that effort and headed back up into the mountains for lunch.

There must have been a strong wind storm since the last time we were up here as many many trees were bent or broken. The picnic area we had planned on eating at was closed to cars. We decided to park in a little area out front and walk in anyway. There were trees down all over the place, but the tables were still standing and there was enough room for the kids to run around. We had a Frisbee and ball with us too. Both kids immediately started eating, but it didn't last long as they wanted to explore the area. They peeked around trees and kicked the ball around. They even decided to play some hide-and-seek (still one of Erin's favorite games). Erin loved hiding behind the different trees - no matter how small they were. Jeffrey doesn't quite have the hang of it yet though. So if you aren't sure where the hider is...just follow Jeffrey who is generally loudly trying to hide alongside. So we all finished with lunch, climbed around on the fallen trees with daddy and just had a "great outdoors" day. All in all it was a blast.

By the time we drove the 6 miles back down the mountain Jeffrey was fast asleep and Erin wasn't far behind. What a perfect way to wear the kids out and have a great family day together.