Knock knock

After reading Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear several times, Jack was trying to recite it. "Jesse Bear, what you wear? Pants." on every page.

Leesha likes to pretend taking pictures of Jack, saying; "Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching." Jack told me he was taking pictures of me and said; "Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching."

For the first time that I can remember, I'm allowing Jack to have "water play" in the bathroom sink. He must think I get to do that all the time in the kitchen sink when I do dishes. Now, if I could figure out a way to make him think that he's having water play with the dishes in the kitchen sink .....

Leesha had homework tonight. She asked to use my calculator, and I told her to do half the problems herself, then I'd let her use it. After some "balking" (a mild descriptor), I looked at the homework and realized that none of it needed a calculator, so told Leesha to do it all without and then I'd let her check her answers. Once she was done, she got the calculator and was able to check her work. The calculator didn't find anything she hadn't found herself. I'm proud of my girl.

It was a pleasant evening as a family - hanging out and making jokes while Leesha finished her dinner. Jack picked up on the concept of "Knock knock" jokes, even correctly doing both sides of "Knock knock" "Who's there?" "Doctor" "Doctor Who"

Jack - n - Maggie

I told Jack I was going to switch the laundry. He said; "I will do it. I will switch laundry."

I feel a measure of success! I took the babies grocery shopping. Jack stayed dry AND asked to use the potty - - twice. Not that it's entirely convenient to stop shopping twice and go to the bathroom, but he asked! After the first potty break and he was back in the cart, he noticed that his pant leg was pulled up. So, he told me; "Mom, my leg fell out."

Jack now sees himself as a big brother. He actually pays attention to Maggie and tries to meet her needs. Some examples ...

When she is in her saucer and fussing, Jack will tell her; "I right here." We often think she fusses because she cannot see us, so we'll tell her; "I'm right here."

He also asked; "Where Maggie little hanni (hand)?" And when I showed them to him; "Oh dere it is!"

When she was laying on the bathroom floor, he brought her her big lovey and laid it on her. Then he laid down beside her, putting her bitty lovey over himself.

He's interested in my laptop and has pulled the "eraser head" off a couple of times. After putting it back on, he discovered that the arrow on the screen moves when you move the "mouse". I informed Jeffry that Jack had discovered the mouse on my laptop. Then Jack tried to tell him; "I d'scover' mouse on Mommys 'puter."

When he was in the bathroom, he kept telling me; "Mom, I can' hear you. I in bafroom."

The furnace fan was making the toilet paper flutter. This did not please Jack. I don't remember if he was saying; "No!" or something else, but it was amusing.

Jeffry dumped the bristle blocks out on Jack's rug. Not long after, Jack said; "Dad, put bristle blocks away. You made a big mess."

I took the babies with over to Eric's house the other day and the boys started watching Monsters Inc. Jack will now inform people that he watched Monsters Inc. at Eric's house.

On to Maggie ....

She rolled over from tummy to back several times this morning of November the 15th. Not entirely sure it was intentional, not entirely sure it wasn't.

She's grabbing toys and pulling them to her mouth - either to suck on or chew on. One of her places of entertainment is in her crib where I've strung together her plastic rings. I'll put different toys on there for her to bat at, and pull down. It's always fun to see how she scoots about and pulls them down.

Jack is a great source of entertainment to her (well, honestly, she's not the only one entertained by him) and she'll quiet down when he's within sight.

Narrative on getting dressed

Narrative on getting dressed; Jack: "I need socks. Oh dere my socks! I got my socks on?" Mom: "You've got one sock on." Jack: "I got two socks on. Mom pull my pants up."

Veggies one morning; "No! I don' like dat."

"Mom, get "Jesus Loves Me" book. Should I read it for Nikki?" (Nikki is one of his stuffed dogs)

In the car, on our way to the Doctor, I turned so the sun shone on Jack. "No sun! Stop. Hurt my eyes." And later, when I told him Maggie was getting shots, but he didn't need to get any; "I want shots too!"

After the Dr. we went over to Eric's house to help him with installing their countertops. Jack was very excited, but was pronouncing it; "Side ick".

Upon noticing the band aids on Maggie's legs from her shots; "Should I kiss it?" and after doing so; "Should I kiss the other one?"

A little catch-up

I'm avoiding dishes like the plague, and there's not even that many of them.

Tonight, we babysat our Godson, Josiah. He was pleasant and quiet. Jack was very thoughtful of him at times - taking him his cup, handing him his plate of food, etc. It's so cute to watch.

We did our best to de-leaf our yard yesterday. Leesha raked the back yard and had fun playing in the pile with Jack. Jeffry took some pictures after helping her. I mowed/mulched. The neighbors must be at least partly pleased.

Jeffry survived all three children again. He was done early on Friday, so we called off the scheduled sitters and he tended to the children while I went to work for the afternoon.

Thursday evening, we babysat for our friends the Browns. We had a very busy household with our 3 kids and their 3 kids. We even survived the first serious toilet overflow in our house with no water leaking into the basement. I was impressed.

On Wednesday after work, I got the babies and came home to get Leesha. Then she sat in the car with the babies while I ran in and did errands at various places. It's so nice to have a big kid to keep an eye on the little ones so I can get some stuff done a little more quickly.

We were at the Browns house for Small Group on Tuesday. The kids watched a movie while the adults studied. I kept taking Jack to the potty every so often, and was about to do just that when I looked up and there he was with his pants down. I think he'd gone all by himself! He does pretty well at home - especially when he's not encumbered by clothes - but then regresses a bit when he's elsewhere.

On Monday, I tackled the job of cleaning Leesha's room. Jack watched a lot of Clifford because cleaning Leesha's room takes a long time. Now it's done and looks good. She even seems to appreciate it.

Maggie has figured out how to bat at things, grab them and pull them into her mouth to chew on.

When asked what the bus says, Jack responded; "A' fru a town" (all through the town), and later; "Roun' and roun'".

"Nember" = remember

"Fum" = thumb

Halloween

Jack got to go Trick or Treating for the first time. He was shy at the houses, but what child isn't their first go round? He did not want to let go of the bag of candy, even though it was a bit too heavy for him to hold on to easily. We'd offer to hold it for him and he'd say; "No. 'Smy candy."

This year, he was a Jack O'Lantern.

Maggie was a babybug for a few minutes. She was nursing when we first went out. I guess she was "Eating Baby" and I was "Dairy Queen" at that point.

Leesha didn't get to dress up at all. She was with her dad and they'd been out while the neighbors party was happening. Poor girl. Good thing that my Aunt, our neighbors and Grandma Darlene donated plenty of candy to us so she didn't feel too left out.

At dinner one night, Jeffry said; "What the?" Jack filled in; "Heck."

Jack will come out from somewhere and say; "Here I am!"

Leesha will ask Jack if she can get him out of the car, give him a hug, etc. Many a time, Jack will respond; "No. You may not."

Open Sesame!

It's been a busy week .... and since I worked 4 of 5 days, I wasn't with the kids much to record their cuteness.

Maggie is currently doing raspberries. She gets rather wet blowing bubbles. But it's a happy thing, so what's a little spit? She is also reaching for toys, and pulling them to her mouth when she gets ahold of them. She now sucks her thumb, sometimes even putting it in the open end of her sucker - doing double duty.

While trying to settle Maggie a bit, I watched Jack copy me. He had his Peef bear up on his shoulder and was bouncing up and down.

He has also started to feed Peef (still called Poof) with one of our pop beads.

I'm guessing that Jack's current singing; "Mack of dust, dust, dust" is from They Might Be Giants song in which they say; "Speck of dust, dust, dust"

Leesha was teaching Jack "Open Sesame!" He practiced; "Open Sesame Street!"

Jeffry gave Jack an Allen wrench. So then Jack informs us; "I wrenching."

Leesha and I were laying on Jack and Maggie's floor with our heads on Jack's mattress. Jack was jumping on the mattress. He managed to pull Leesha's hair and once again make her cry. He then kept asking her what was wrong, and went to get her a tissue. He also suggested; "Leesha, go in you room. Go in you room if your iPod."

Car birthdays

Upon entering the bathroom, Jack fell. Leesha asked him if he hit his head. He replied; "No. I hi' my e'bow."

Last Christmas, Jack couldn't get enough of the Peef books. Today, as I was going through the gazillion stuffed animals we've accumulated in the last 12 years, I found the Peef bear we have. So, I put it somewhere that Jack would see it. Sure enough, he found it, but didn't make a big deal about it. So I asked him who it was. He said it was a tedddy bear. Hmm.... I told him it was Peef, then put it away. Seconds later, he asked; "Mom, where's Poof?"

On Friday, Maggie rolled over. It was an accident. On Saturday, she learned that diaper rash hurts. She also laughed, but not long enough to catch on camera, so we'll work on that.

Jack said to me; "Mom, dance with me!" How could one resist that?

We've had some interesting weather recently. A very windy day which blew a lot of needles off of one of our evergreens onto our driveway, and a couple of days of snow. We haven't had enough snow to shovel, but I figured we needed to clear the needles off the driveway before needing to shovel the driveway. So, Saturday afternoon, that's what I did. I blew the needles off the driveway. So long as I was out with the leaf blower, I blew some leaves around the yard. Jack decided to forgo playing with the balls, chalk or his bike and help me. He pulled out all three shovels and tried raking with those, then finally I pulled out the little rake and showed him how to use that. What a little helper.

Meanwhile, Leesha was on the phone with her St. Louis grandparents giving them a "rake by rake" from the comfort of the big brown chair.

They're not underwear or undies, they're "undie-wear".

New phrase: "I'm busy." (Wonder where he hears that?)

Coyotes are "Ka-wo-tees"

Abraham is "Ade-a-ham"

Apparently, the fascination with the "Little People" is over for now. He's back to the matchbox cars. The Jeep Wrangler, Chevy Blazer, Yellow School Bus and taxi were just serenaded with Jack singing "Happy Birthday". I think they're having hamburgers in the nesting barrels.