From the Mouths of Babes

I hesitate to write this quick post, because it doesn't come anywhere near doing justice to what I want to capture/share. I want to share a couple things Jack said yesterday. It seems like Jack and Malynn take a new step with their language abilities every single day! A night doesn't go by that Mike and I aren't recapping the incredible things the kids did and said each day, because they constantly impress us with the things they say. Their figurative language is growing, their sense of humor is developing, and their compassion for one another and others shows more and more with each passing day. I know the quotes lose their power out of context, but they are perfect examples of the delightful little things I want to remember.

1) Daddy is the "closer" these days for bedtime. So he was in the room with the kids and I was downstairs starting clean up for the evening. Malynn has been doing a great job going without her paci and softie during the day, but she brings it downstairs after naps and we often forget to take it back up for bedtime. I heard Daddy call down and say, "We need the P-A-C-I and S-O-F-T-I-E." Then I heard Jack come out into the hall to holler down to me, "Daddy needs the S-O-C." Both his effort at spelling and desire to help ensure Daddy got what he needed made me smile from ear to ear! Amazing!

2) We were playing out in the garage/driveway space in the afternoon. Jack wanted to make a track with chalk for his trike. Outside the driveway was wet from a recent rain, so I suggested making a track in the garage instead. That was an acceptable alternative and Jack even picked up a broom to help me sweep it out first. As we were sweeping Jack said, "We're makin' dis awesome."

A Long Breakfast Table!

In college, after morning practices, there was a fantastic tradition of anyone from the rowing team who didn't have an 8am class going to the dining hall for breakfast together. There were always A LOT of us, and we would pull a long string of tables together that spanned most of the width of the room. In fact, we always found it annoying to have to reassemble the tables each morning when we arrived...maybe not as annoying as the dinning hall staff felt having to disassemble the tables at some point after we left each day.

Today, I was part of a new "long breakfast table." After gymnastics class, Dylan & family, Sophie & family, and our family would usually head to our favorite bagel place for breakfast together. We missed doing that, and finally got a Saturday that worked for us all to do it again. Mae & her family joined us, so we were four families deep. We took up an entire stretch of tables across room, and it certainly reminded me of my old "long breakfast table" days.

Afterwards we all headed to the park for some play and fresh air. Kurt Daddy got this great picture of Sophia and Malynn playing together. (Thanks for sharing your bike Sophie!)

Jammy All Day Day

We all do it from time to time...right?...a Jammy All Day Day...a day that you plan to stay home all day so you just stay in your PJs. :) Well, we do, and when Melody mentioned one day that she'd love to come to work in her PJs, Jack decided to make that wish come true for her. He said, "Jammy all day day with Mel." He brought it up a couple times. So the next day that they didn't have an activity to go to with her, we invited her to come in her PJs for the day.

It was a perfect Jammy All Day Day! The stars really aligned, because it was a cloudy/rainy day, making it feel all the better to just stay inside in PJs. The kids loved that Melody's PJs had little hearts on them. They made their special snack: banana pieces coated in crushed graham crackers. Then they had hot chocolate while sitting by the fire. The whole rest of the morning they were perfectly content just playing in the family room: driving cars, building with blocks, doing puzzles, and reading library books. Ahhh.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

These days birthdays are mostly special thanks to the ways we celebrate with Malynn and Jack. When we started talking about how Daddy's birthday was coming up, the kids started practicing singing, "Happy birthday to Daddy. Happy birthday to Daddy. Happy birthday to Daddy. Happy birthday to you." This would be prompted by mention of Daddy's birthday, but also heard as impromptu singing over the monitor when the kids were falling asleep or waking up. (Singing is a particularly favorite activity that Jack and Malynn share when they wake up and are waiting for Mommy or Daddy to come get them. Jack usually initiates. Sometimes they get their singing synched up, which is maybe one of the sweetest things my little ol' ears have ever heard. Other times, someone really wants a solo and we'll hear, "No! You no singing. I singing.") For the actual birthday day, Grand was here. She treated us to a surf and turf dinner (all paleo), of which Jack ate most of the shrimp! Then the morning of she treated us again to a feast of eggs and bacon (more paleo), of which Jack ate most of the eggs -as usual! The kids kept saying that Daddy needed a present and cupcakes, so I made sure they got to follow through on at least one of those things. Now, thinking of a gift for Mike is not my strong suit. Not that I can't think of ideas, but along with those ideas I can always think of the reason he would feel like it wasn't something he really needed/wanted. Plus, we don't have a tradition of giving each other gifts. (No gifts IS our gift to each other.) So I was so pleased when I thought of something that I knew he'd love and wouldn't object to because it ultimately is for the kids...Legos! We got two new sets: a fire engine and a flatbed tow truck to freshen up our collection. Jack and Malynn LOVED giving them to Daddy, but maybe not as much as Daddy LOVED putting them together with Malynn and Jack.

Happy Birthday my husband. You make me proud to be your wife every day, and more kids out there should get a father like you. We love you so much!

Toy Story Inspired

One of the Toy Story movies starts out with a scene of a home video of the little boy simply playing with Woody and his toys -nothing outstanding -just playing. This movie was out in the "before Malynn and Jack" phase of our lives. I remember two different parents commented about the opening scene when it came out by saying, "It makes me wish I had taken more videos of my kids." That stuck with me. I haven't been great about getting video, the challenging of managing video (uploading, downloading, storing, etc.) don't help, but I keep trying. Today, I took some just because video. Just because, the kids were playing so nicely and I was simply sitting there soaking it up when I remembered Toy Story and thought to grab the camera. :)

Part I: Bunny gets hurt. "Doctor, doctor, I hurt my knee."
PartII: At the hospital.

First Tutu

The day that we were working on the media room, I had to snap this picture because it was the first day EVER that Malynn wanted to wear her dress up tutu around the house! I try very hard to keep things gender neutral for the kids (which is actually facilitated by having one of both genders) so then I'm interested in when they make stereotypical choices. Of course, they make such un-stereotypical choices most of the time, that the stereotypical choices are probably mostly just a product of chance. Either way, Malynn was a cutie pattotie in her tutu!

A Vision Realized!

Mike has had a plan for finally making our basement media room a media room for over a year. LAST Christmas and birthday he asked for Amazon gift cards that he could put toward a projector. He didn't have enough to buy it then, so he saved them all year. He asked for gift cards again this Christmas and birthday and ended up with enough! He had done a good bit of research to figure out how to put it all together, truly on a dime. He purchased the materials to make the screen himself and found refurbished speakers on Woot! for a great deal! Once the materials were purchased it was time to clean out the room, which had been serving us as play room, way too much storage space, and axillary guest space. Over the weekend we tackled the clean out, vacuuming, and measuring for installation with the kids' help...

 

When they both started holding the level on the wall and tracing lines, it was so adorable and impressive that neither Mike nor I had it in us to stop them. :)

 They were both so proud to be working like Daddy: using the level, climbing the ladder, measuring with the tape measure. You can be sure that anything that gets measured right now will either be 48 or 6. I don't know how those numbers got to be so special, but they are. They come up whenever we ask what time it is, weigh ourselves, or talk about how tall we are.

 The finished product really deserves a better picture, but this is what I have for now. Movies and football games will be a whole new experience now! And Mike is so proud that if you ask the kids about the speakers they will promptly tell you, "Da speakers are for hearing, not for touching."

Way to go Daddy!
(And thank you to all the family whose gift card gifts made this possible!)