Funny kid stuff....

So this morning, Delaney and I were cuddling in my bed and she pulled my shirt up to uncover my belly. She wanted to talk to the peanut and give him hugs. She was gently patting my belly when she stopped and exclaimed, "Mommy, your belly button looks messed up!" Yes, it is starting to poke out.

Toothless

Here's a close up of our toothless boy. He is really enjoying whistling through that big open hole. I hope he can still figure out how to do it after his teeth grow in. He lost the second top tooth about two days after the first. He really is delighted with himself.

Headed Home....

I'm not sure this was an intentional pose, but it was too funny and I was fast enough with the camera, so there you have it....

On the way to Arizona, we blew a tire at 7 PM on a Saturday night 100 miles west of Phoenix. We were headed all the way to Tucson that night (so still another 200-250 miles to go.) Needless to say, it took us 4 hours to find a new tire and get it installed - we didn't want to drive on the spare the whole way. We were grateful that the trip back to CA only included long stops of our choosing and none due to car trouble. this particular stop of our own choosing included milkshakes from Denny's. Yum. Upon returning home, the kids immediately dressed up and ran around, enjoying being back in their own space. Here's a late snack after we got home.

Grandparents

Here are the kids with their greatgrandparents, Dan and Irene Barber. We, of course, finished up with a silly picture. We had a good visit at their house - the kids played with some toys that Nate remembered playing with when he was a kid. Its always fun to spend time with family and be reminded of who you were and are and where you've come from. The Barbers love to play games. It doesn't feel like a visit without playing a game, in fact, so we played some cards before we headed to Phoenix.



Here we are outside of the Fish Market. Vicky took us all to eat lunch there with Nate's grandfather, Grumpy. Grumpy and Granny grew up and lived the first part of their married lives in New Bedford, MA so Grumpy loves to eat sea food. After lunch, we all went to see Granny at the nursing home where she lives. She seemed to know that we were folks she should know and was delighted to see the children. She knows Grumpy, although she often calls him her father, as she did the day we visited. Grumpy still lives alone and will turn 89 this year. Granny will turn 90. They've been married 64 years! Nate definitely has Grumpy's sense of humor - a word play or pun is never lost on either of them.



Delaney decided she really like Grumpy during our visit with Granny. She climbed up in his lap and played with him.

Tucson Zoo

We took the cousins to the Tucson Zoo on Monday after Easter. It looks like everyone had fun. We were able to get really close to the giraffes, which I thought was pretty cool.


Nate taught the kids the finer art of "playing the fence." They all fell in line.


We finished off the day with dipping dots. This was my first experience with this form of ice cream. It was little strange, but cold and refreshing. You can see the kids were all very involved in theirs.

Post Hunt

Here's some more fun. Aunt Jo and Deb playing with Easter grass. Also here's a few of the kids with their hunt finds.

The Hunt

Late in the day, we had an Easter Egg Hunt in the front yard at Jo and Brian's house (parents of little cousins Katy and Lena). The kids were very cute and kind, all sharing and ensuring everyone got their "fair share." This was all after the kids decided to swim in the pool. While it was warm outside (in the 80's), the pool measured about 63 degrees. It didn't seem to bother the cousins.

The close up is of Katy - Nate took it. I think it has really nice light and is really lovely of her.

Easter Morning in Arizona

We went to Tucson for Easter. Here's the Nana (Nate's mom) with all of the little cousins in their Easter clothes she made for them. From the left are Nate's twin cousins Katy and Lena and then Delaney and Jackson. We went to church with Nate's grandparents and got lots of comments on how cute the kids were in their matching outfits. Nana Vicky did a great job!
After church the kids had a great time playing on the playground. I had a hard time getting pictures of Lena during this trip, but I thought this was cute of her.

Another tooth lost....growing up.....

Well, tooth number three came out on Friday. Jackson can now just breathe and make a whistling noise, much to his delight. Tooth number four (the other top, front tooth) is sure to follow soon - its pretty loose. You can see his two front bottom teeth coming in.

It's hard to believe that my baby boy is getting permanent teeth! His head looks strangely large in the picture - I'm not sure why. But check out all the freckles coming in also. He is such a little boy and not a baby now too. He loves to run outside and ride his scooter around the back patio, using any and everything as an obstacle to ride around in figure eights. He is delightful most days also, helping his little sister whether she wants it or not, and trying to remember to say ma'am and sir.

Lately, we've been devouring "The Magic Tree House" books. They are short 10 chapter books about 2 kids who time travel and complete different "missions". Right now, we're reading about ancient China, as the wall was being constructed and the Dragon King was persecuting the scholars. Mr. Active Imagination spent some time this afternoon constructing his own Wall of China out of magnetic blocks and balls. I so love this kid! (and not just 'cause I'm the momma.)

Funny kid things....

What happened to the "stare you awake?"
So I woke up this morning (I mean 3:30 AM) snuggling with Jackson. He had a bad dream and climbed right into our bed next to me. I remember standing at my parent's bed just staring at my mom until she somehow knew to wake up and invite me in for a cuddle after a bad dream. There was no staring - he just climbed in. He didn't want to talk about the dream and started his usual "trying to go to sleep fidgeting" which really drives me crazy and keeps me awake. Now there's not much room in the bed these days between Nate, me, my belly, and all of the pillows that my belly and aching back require, so I was snuggled up pretty close to JAC. Just as I started to drift off, the kid had the gall to turn to me and say, "Mom, that snoring really hurts my ear." Needless to say, I took him back to his bed and laid down on his floor until he went to sleep (I was also able to drift off). My sore body was very glad to get back in my own bed and to my colony of pillows at 5:40 this morning. Nate, of course, peacefully slept through the entire episode. He's always surprised that someone cried during the night, like the night last week when Delaney and I acheived together, maybe 3 hours of sleep total. We also had a bowl of cereal at 3:40 because we were both hungry by then. (She's cutting 4 molars at once.) It just infuriates me that he can sleep so sound -I'm JEALOUS!

"It's not a kiss!"
So tonight after dinner, Delaney and I were giving fish kisses (you know, make a fish face and then give a kiss.) She kept wanting to just press our lips together. I said, "Do you just want a regular kiss from Mommy?" Her reply...."It's NOT a kiss, Mommy! It's a mouth hug!" Have I mentioned that she has recently started referring to me as "girl" also, as in..."What are you doin', girl?" I must admit, I've called her girl, baby girl, etc. so I know exactly where it comes from. It's just funny to hear your own words back, well sometimes at least. Later tonight, she answered me with "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Boo-boos?

We took a family walk/bike ride today. Jackson wiped out on the bike a couple times and Delaney was "teaching" Kobi how to run and tripped. I don't think they're any worse for the wear. Delaney was actually pretty excited about wearing her kitty cat band-aids. I think she's been waiting for an injury that actually warrants a band aid. Jackson's lip boo-boo is from climbing on a slide and making it collapse at his sitter's house Friday. As my dad would say, we're all pretty rough on equipment.

Santa Monica Beach After Tym's Departure

This from Nate ("I", that is, is not Jen, rather "I" is Nate):

Jackson, Delaney, and I spent an hour at the Santa Monica Beach after dropping Aunt Tymmy at LAX, while Jen used the quiet time to work on a few scrapbook pages. More precisely, we were an hour on the beach, and an hour at the car afterwards drying off Jackson and shaking the sand out of Delaney's hair.

The sand you see on Delaney's hand and foot was a small fraction. Her favorite activity was literally rolling in the sand, traversing the beach. She also enjoyed finding little shells like the one she showed me for the picture.


While Jackson defied the ocean with hands on hips, it put him in his place a few times when he forgot to keep an eye out for the waves rolling in (smackdown!) or simply misjudged the size of the wave he was running towards (wha-bam!). Lesson learned: ALWAYS bring a bathing suit to the beach, even if you're "just going to get your feet wet." Oh, and include underwear in the set of dry clothes to change into.

The sun was setting as we rolled out of the parking lot, and I snapped this shot through the open car window as we paused to check it out.

Delaney was out before we hit the 405. Jackson, not so much.