Oh, my, my, Delilah.

I was working late on Wednesday, and my mom was watching the kids. I got a phone call that essentially said "Delilah is fine, but she lost a tooth..."

Of course she did. My rambunctious little crazy girl was running down the hall with her brother, slipped, and fell right on her face. The dentist said it's healing fine, she's just going to have a gappy grin for a few years. We will be watching her other incisor, because it's a wee bit loose, but she'll be fine. And hey, the tooth fairy is coming early! Maybe even for both kids in one night, since James has one that is about to fall out (and the dentist said he needed to work on getting it out...).

Delilah is 3!!!

 We had a Fairy Party for Miss Delilah's 3rd birthday at my mom's house. She was thrilled, but apparently not in the mood to keep her wings on for any pictures. I'll eventually get one of her with her wings so I can show you guys.

 

Sitting in front of the Fairy Treats Table

 

The food table had the following (with labels, of course!): Fairy Cakes (vanilla cupcakes with strawberry buttercream frosting), fruits and veggies "From the Fairies' Garden" (raspberries, strawberries, purple cauliflower, baby carrots, and sugar snap peas); Toadstools (Baby Bell Cheese); Shooting Stars (yogurt star cookies); Magic Wands (yogurt star cookies attached to breasticks); Fairy Pillows (vanilla cupcake kettle corn); Kelpie Treats (seaweed and veggie straws). It was all a big hit!!

Dragon Riding, naturally

James proudly wearing his "Poison dragon" wings

My fairy child

Dragons on the trampoline

3 year stats: 37" and 28ish pounds. She was 50% for height and 17 for weight.

Delilah-isms, age 28 months

To Chris:
"Daddy, those helicopters are way high. You can't even reach them." (Apparently in her world, things that are just high are things Daddy can reach.)

Cowboy boots = cow boots

She asked my pregnant friend how there was a baby in her belly button... close enough?

She loves smoothies (yogurt w/fruit) and necklaces. She enjoys taking care of her baby dolls, changing their diapers and feeding them. Sometimes they get bottles, sometimes they get her paci, and sometimes she nurses two of them at once. Sometimes she lifts up her shirt and tells the baby she "needs to get her boob out" first.

My Little Ponies are a big thing for her right now (especially her Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie undies). So are dresses. If you ask her what she wants to wear, she will say "a dress!" and probably request her cow boots to go with it. Hair accessories are also important. She still loves dinosaurs, kitties, puppies, and being fierce. She's not so into owls as she was a few months ago.

She can count to 10 without help, and has occasionally decided that "I Lilah today."

Pooping on Cows, and Other Silliness

James lost tooth #2 at his cousin Drew's 4th birthday party on Saturday. There was a bouncy castle with a slide inside, and he somehow bit it (haha) on the way down and knocked out his tooth. He came running up to Chris and said "Daddy!! I went down the slide, and hit my face, and here's my tooth!" For the record, the tooth was already loose and nearly ready to fall out, so he wasn't actually hurt by the ordeal.

The tooth is in the baggie. I made him get out of the piñata line to get his picture. I'm so mean.


The bouncy castle was a big deal for Delilah, too. She had lots of fun, as long as nobody bigger than her was in there at the same time.

 

Now, I bet you want to know about the pooping on cows. I mean, surely, I would never have included it if I didn't mean for you to find out about it, right?

On the way home today, Delilah informed us that she needed to poop. This is a big deal, as she is potty trained now and we weren't quite home yet. So I asked if she needed to go right now, and she said "No, I need to poop on a cow."

This inspired an entire discussion about the uh...technical details of pooping on cows. We asked what she thought would happen if she pooped on a cow. She reiterated the stinky part, and said it would stick to the cow. James chimed in, wiser older brother that he is, and pointed out that it would depend on what *kind* of poop was going on the cow. At this point I was laughing pretty hard. Then Delilah said "Moo" and I laughed so hard I cried. It was one of those moments you never expect, and then BAM, you look like an insane person riding in a car while your children discuss the finer points of livestock defilement. 

Moo.

First Day of School!

James started kindergarten yesterday. So far he absolutely loves it. He's made two friends in his class (and by friends, he means that he knows their names). Here's a picture of him (you only get the one, because the computer with our other pictures isn't working at the moment) waiting for the bell to ring, which was another whole new experience!

I know he looks terrified, but he was just feeling squinty. Also, I think his shirt was hungry.

Delilah Goes to Space

The other night, Delilah was climbing in and out of her high chair playing that it was her space ship. Her destination? A hat shop. The hats were lovely and after she purchased each one, she showed it off and then ate it. Repeat. This went on close to an hour, and it was delightful.

Humor and Delilah

Having two kids is great fun. Especially when your almost-5-year-old teaches your 19-month-old a knock-knock joke. Or two.

Delilah: Na na.
James: Who's there?
Delilah: Doggy.
James: Doggy who?
Delilah: Woof woof woof!

Variant:
Delilah: Na na.
James: Who's there?
Delilah: Daaaaah. (Dinosaur)
James: Dinosaur who?
Delilah: RAWR.


On a vaguely related note, Delilah has gotten good at denying that she's pooped. Although if you tell her she's stinky, she will say "Poop. Peeeoh." and wave her hand in front of her nose. Hee hee. 

Eleven Blissful Hours

Guess who I had to actually *wake up* this morning? (and boy, was she hungry...)

Also, happy birthday to my nephew Seth!! I don't know how is is14 already. That's crazy. I remember when he was just Delilah's age!

A Girl and Her Dog

MacGuyver is "my" dog. He's been very loyal to me ever since we adopted him when he was 11 months old, to the point where he sniffs me good morning every day and waits outside the bathroom for me. When James was a baby, he was pretty indifferent. He didn't want hugs or kisses from the baby, and would just walk away when James came too close for comfort (though he was a big fan of the high chair and its associated leavings). When Delilah showed up, though, everything changed. "My" dog suddenly had a new girl in his life. He sits patiently waiting for her to finish eating every meal (which, considering he's a hound, is only notable for the fact that he's patient about it) and he has never gotten snippy when she got close to him while he cleans up after meals. He waits outside the kids' room while she is napping or while we are putting her to bed , and if he can he'll sneak in to sniff her and make sure everything is okay (regardless of which of us is in there, so it's not just about him checking on me). He lets her crawl on him and pet him and kiss him, and it is absolutely adorable. In her turn, she loves her "gog" and frequently wants to go "liggle" (tickle/pet) him.

Today, Chris called me to tell me that MacGuyver had snuck into the room while Delilah was napping, laid down next to her crib, and took a nap with her the whole time she was in there.

Things My 4 Year Old Taught Me

Bruce Wayne is Batman, and Peter Parker is Spiderman, but Spiderman is also Bruce Wayne.

Playing "Doctor" means that your baby sister is the doctor, and she needs to give you a checkup because you have a fever, so you chase her around the house yelling "doctor, come back!"

The dinosaurs died when a meat-eater fell out of the sky onto the earth.

Poop on the ground (i.e. dog poop, goose poop)  is actually magic worms.

Watering your hair makes it grow like plants grow.

Entomologist in Training?

We found this massive, massive ant in the garden yesterday. This thing was a full inch long. Yowza.

Here's the only picture I could get. 


Anyway, James saw it, thought it was cool, and when I asked what kind of ant he thought it was, he said, "Maybe it's one of those big queen ones, that's the mama, and she's got lots of babies."

We looked it up, and sure enough, it's a queen carpenter ant.

I really hope she doesn't set up shop in my garden.

However, my boy is one smart little cookie.

Flashback: How Not to Take a Nap

This is an old one that I accidentally reposted, but it's funny so I'm leaving it up. It's from January 2011.

You will need: one 3 year old boy, one comfy bed, and about an hour of time.
You will imagine that your son will snuggle with you like he did as a baby, and that you will both have a very nice nap together.
What will actually happen is that the boy will lay down very sweetly for about 10 seconds. He will then decide he wants to hide in the covers, and request that you lift them up so that he can do so. Once hidden, he will rapidly wiggle back to the pillow and lay down again. Since you are still trying to sleep, you will tell him that he needs to lay down and have quiet time so you can sleep. He'll respond by telling you that you need to open your mouth, and demonstrate by making snoring noises. If you don't open your mouth, he'll stick his fingers in it and make you open your mouth. Then he'll move on to your eyes, and get really, really close to your face. He'll poke you in the eye so you will look at him, and then he'll laugh and tell you that his eyes are blue and that you have eyebrows and he has eyebrows. Then he'll decide to hide again, and once again wiggle back up to the pillow. At this point he'll tell you he needs a toy to take a nap, and he'll go to the living room and get two tiny Dimetrodon (sp?) dinosaurs that he got for his birthday. This will take him just long enough that you will start to doze. You will soon be awakened by a small dinosaur tail in your nose. At about this point your dog will start scratching on the door of your bedroom, and your son will let him in while he goes on another trip to the living room. You will remember that your dog is an ideal napping partner, as he just curls up by your feet and goes to sleep. Soon your son will return again, and this time he will have a hamburger that he made special for you. This will be given to you in that he will throw it at your (not) sleeping face and tell you that the hamburger came apart, and can Mommy please fix it? Shortly after this point, you will realize that your attempt at a nap was completely futile, and you will give up.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love!

Gems from tonight:
James drew blood on the picture he made for Chris for Valentine's Day (because he has blood in his body, apparently he needed to include that?). I will try to scan it later to share it, because it's darn cute.

James asked whether, if he pulled on his penis hard enough, it would fall off and he would die. It took some convincing, but I think he understands that his penis can't fall off. My theory is that since Ian recently had a loose tooth, and a grown-up tooth grew in, and the grown-up tooth is bigger than the baby tooth was, James thought that all body parts fall off like teeth and then you grow new ones.

Day 3 of single-stay-at-home-mom while Chris goes hunting: Library, and A Day in the Life

I accepted the challenge from Jill at BabyRabies (more or less)! A day in the life, in (roughly) hourly increments: 

Good morning!

James helping make oatmeal.

Time to walk the dogs! Delilah is wearing her hat and sweater as knitted by Grandma Ginny, and also having her first stroller ride without her carseat!

James found this water bottle, and played with it. The lid pops open when you push a button.

Heading home from the library! James got a lot of books, as well as the movie "Robots"

Watching "Robots" apparently requires monster faces while eating a snack.

Then I startled Delilah, and made her cry. And took her picture, but managed to miss her perfect little frown.

Keeping me company while I cleaned up the kitchen. Delilah thought this was awesome, and James had fun "showing" her how to play with her toys.

Outfit #3 for the day. Does it look familiar, Mom?

Even Mommies do stupid things sometimes. Like cut their finger with scissors while removing tags from socks.

Time to make cookies!

More high chair playtime, and a smile that I caught!

James found this in Delilah's toys, found out that it plays music, and dubbed it his iPod. He carried it around and danced to the song for quite a while.

Bedtime for baby!

Bedtime for James! We learned about llamas, and he wanted to sleep with my llama wool blanket from Ecuador. The green thing on his pillow is the snake he got at Ikea. 

I did manage to even get some real work done, it just didn't happen til after the kids were in bed...

Fin.

Day 2 of single-stay-at-home-mom while Chris goes hunting: Ikea

James picked out Delilah's outfit this morning, and wanted me to take pictures. He made faces, she wiggled, but here ya go. She spit up all over herself shortly after these were taken, so I changed her before we went to Ikea.

Ikea was absolutely everything I dreamed it would be (Chris does not approve, but my feeling is that it's better than Target or Walmart). James ate all his meatballs (kids eat free on Tuesdays, which is why we went today) and got a compliment from the table next to us about how well behaved he was at the table and how nicely he was eating his lunch. To me, it's just every day, but this guy actually said he wished his granddaughter was as good! I love hearing that my kid is awesome, and it's so nice to get kudos from total strangers. Also, while we were waiting to get into the cafeteria area, James asked me if Grandma was there. He has no concept of Hawaii at all, and I guess he thought that Grandma lives at Ikea now. I think we need to look at a map...

Things got scary when James wandered off. They have lots of little model rooms/apartment type setups, and James went in a bedroom which I didn't realize had another door. He went out that other door, and just kept going, and by the time I realized what had happened he was nowhere to be found. I have never been so terrified as I was when I could not find my child. Fortunately the Ikea people are well-equipped to deal with such things, and also with tearful moms (yep, I cried in front of a bunch of total strangers). It turns out he'd made his way about 1/8 of the entire floor and was hanging out with some women he'd attracted. He'd just followed one lady, saying "Mom? Mom! Mom?" and she asked him if he was lost. He said he was, and that his name was James Kolakowski (which comes out James Toakowski). I got to him as fast as I could while pushing a cart, and I hugged him so tight he got embarrassed, and I cried in front of some more people. I am actually tearing up now just remembering. Motherhood is hard, man.

We did buy a couple of things, including a tiny plush snake (for James) and a tiny plush moose (for Delilah), and a plastic bag holder for all the bags we get for picking up after the dogs. Suddenly our front closet is way less messy!

Chris got his second deer this morning, and also injured himself with a gun (but not via gunshot, so that's good):

The butt of the gun slipped and banged him in the face when he fired, because the prop he was using wasn't as stable as he thought. He reports that his nose hurts, and is very bruised.

Day 1 of single-stay-at-home-mom while Chris goes hunting: Working

Okay, so I guess technically this wouldn't count as staying at home, since I went to work today, but lets go with it anyway. I managed to get the kids BOTH to daycare by 8am (so much for 7:30, but it is what it is) and both dogs were walked and fed before we left. Work was work, and I even made record time (seriously, best traffic ever) to get the kids picked up so our care provider could make an appointment she had at 5:45. James managed to fall asleep at 6:00 as I was pulling into our complex...and he stayed asleep until 8:30 this morning! So that was insane. He slept in his clothes, and through getting carried out of the car to the couch, then moved to his bed an hour or so later. He said this morning he was just really, really tired, and he had a dream about many crabs that walked in the snow on just two legs and they were silly crabs who made faces, and Daddy was there. My mom made a joke about them being snow crabs. Hahahaha.

In other news, Chris got his first deer!

Recent "James-isms"

When something is broken, it's "borken." I love this.

"My sister is coming out soon. She's gonna to."

"How did Liwah get in there?" (The answer was that Mommy and Daddy put her there.)

"What does she play with in your belly? Baby toys?" (When I told him that she didn't have any toys, and probably played with her fingers and toes and umbilical cord-and explained what that was- he got a very disturbed look on his face. Especially when I told him he used to play with his cord.)

"I'm just going to sleep on the floor. I don't want to sleep in my bed."

"I'm a frog baby! Awwww."

How Not to Take a Nap

You will need: one 3 year old boy, one comfy bed, and about an hour of time.
You will imagine that your son will snuggle with you like he did as a baby, and that you will both have a very nice nap together.
What will actually happen is that the boy will lay down very sweetly for about 10 seconds. He will then decide he wants to hide in the covers, and request that you lift them up so that he can do so. Once hidden, he will rapidly wiggle back to the pillow and lay down again. Since you are still trying to sleep, you will tell him that he needs to lay down and have quiet time so you can sleep. He'll respond by telling you that you need to open your mouth, and demonstrate by making snoring noises. If you don't open your mouth, he'll stick his fingers in it and make you open your mouth. Then he'll move on to your eyes, and get really, really close to your face. He'll poke you in the eye so you will look at him, and then he'll laugh and tell you that his eyes are blue and that you have eyebrows and he has eyebrows. Then he'll decide to hide again, and once again wiggle back up to the pillow. At this point he'll tell you he needs a toy to take a nap, and he'll go to the living room and get two tiny Dimetrodon (sp?) dinosaurs that he got for his birthday. This will take him just long enough that you will start to doze. You will soon be awakened by a small dinosaur tail in your nose. At about this point your dog will start scratching on the door of your bedroom, and your son will let him in while he goes on another trip to the living room. You will remember that your dog is an ideal napping partner, as he just curls up by your feet and goes to sleep. Soon your son will return again, and this time he will have a hamburger that he made special for you. This will be given to you in that he will throw it at your (not) sleeping face and tell you that the hamburger came apart, and can Mommy please fix it? Shortly after this point, you will realize that your attempt at a nap was completely futile, and you will give up.

Stalling

Here's the story of how James postponed bedtime tonight:

James: "Hey, Mommy, there's a spider on my ceiling."
Me: "Why yes, yes there is."
James: "It's a Mommy spider, where's the daddy spider?"
Me: "Honey, I think it's a Daddy spider. It hasn't met a Mommy spider yet."
James: "It's on my ceiling. When does it come down?"
Me: "Do you want it to come down?"
James, emphatically: "NO! I do not want it to come down."
Me: "Do you want it to stay up there? Or do you want Daddy to get it down?" (Given that I have some arachnophobia issues, I wasn't about to volunteer to get a chair and drag my pregnant butt up there to "rescue" a spider. Ick. *shudder*)
James: "Daddy get it down. Spider can go outside and eat bugs. Daddy's still taking a shower. The spider is on my ceiling eating bugs."
Me: "Yes, Daddy is in the shower. When he gets out we'll have him get the spider down so he can put it outside and it can eat bugs."
*Several minutes pass while Chris gets out of the shower, finds a jar and a piece of newspaper, and herds the spider off the ceiling and into the jar. It was a yucky brown spider. About an inch across, all told. Bleh*
James, following Daddy to the front door to put the jar outside: "Spider's going outside to eat bugs!"
Me: "Yep..."
James, heading back to his room: "Where's the Mommy spider? Where's the baby spiders? What about the boy spiders and the girl spiders?"
At this point I explained that the spider we released hadn't met the future mommy spider yet, kind of like Uncle Eddie. Not that I am comparing my brother to a spider, though James did start calling the spider the Eddie Spider. Erm...After about 5 more minutes of coaxing and explaining, James finally accepted that the spider was outside having fun eating bugs and would find a mommy spider later. He did ask about 3 times to go look at the spider again, although I mentioned that he could look in the morning, though it would probably be gone because it will have found a new house.
Finally, about 20 minutes after the first time I tucked him in, he went to bed. Then he decided he needed to sit on the potty. This is his "guaranteed to get another few minutes before bed" method, because he knows that even if he doesn't pee, he still gets to sit on the potty and hang out for a few minutes rather than go to bed.

Things James Said Today

1. In reference to yesterday when he helped me get pumpkin seeds out and bake pumpkin: "I had fun with Mama yesterday. Pumpkin seeds not ready yet." (The seeds are not, in fact, cooked yet.)

2. He had been wearing his pajama shirt still and suddenly came running into the living room, without his shirt on, yelling "I took my shirt off! Where's mine Broncos shirt? Want wear Broncos shirt!" He's spent the rest of the day wearing his Broncos shirt and cap.

3. When he overheard Chris and I talking about whether my belly button would pop out this pregnancy (it never did last time) he said: "My belly button pop out, my butt falls off!" When I said no, his butt wouldn't fall off, he suggested that maybe his head or hands would fall off. Our friend Sarah had told him on Saturday that if he unscrewed his belly button his butt would fall off.

4. Chris was looking for his wallet so he could go out and do some Christmas shopping tonight. James ran into our bedroom and loudly said: "Mommy stole your wallet!"

5. I helped James make his bed with a down comforter (actually a throw but perfect size for a toddler bed). He proudly told Chris that he had a "fluffy help me" on his bed.