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.

Happy Birthday, Monkey!

 

Six candles on a cupcake glow pretty bright! Happy birthday, kiddo. Thanks for being mine.  

Last Night as a Five Year Old

James turns six tomorrow. I want to snuggle him and savor his last night as a five-year-old.

Sweet dreams, sweet James.

Happy New Year!

The kids were practicing their evil laughs and also wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

This was after we went on a 1.5 mile walk (the kids and me plus the dogs, though Delilah was in the stroller). As we got home and returned to our garage (the door of which is not functioning as intended due to a busted gear in the opener, yay, but we can manually open and close it), one of the front wheels on the stroller broke off (like, the plastic snapped). So glad *that* didn't happen on our walk. Then about a minute after we got everyone inside, it started snowing. So what I'm saying is we had absolutely perfect timing.

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.

Growing Up!

We moved both kids to big/bigger kid beds last night. Delilah still woke up twice, but no worse than normal! She *loves* that she can get in and out of her bed by herself. James still slept like a rockstar, as he always does. He loves his big bed! We got his bedding and bed from Ikea (bed frame, duvet cover, sheets). Delilah has her old mattress and moved into the toddler bed that Papa made for James when he turned two.

           

James' bed is sort of temporary. I will (this summer) be making him this bed (from Ana White's website) so that he and Delilah will have more room in their shared room. He will be keeping his mattress since it's brand new. I figure he's going to be using it til he moves out, so it was worth the investment. He said it's a little too "hard" but it should soften a bit with use, and if it's still too firm we can always get a topper. Although the way he's been jumping on it, it might get softer really fast...

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. 

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.

A Growth Report on the Kiddos

Chris is seriously the bravest man ever. He took this boy

and this girl

to the pediatrician for their 4 year and 9 month (respectively) checkups. By himself. Also, during the day, wee Delilah decided that it was a good time for her 4th tooth to break through. Both kids were rockstars about getting shots. James was a big fan of the dinosaur on the eye chart, and he had a nice talk with the doctor in which he bemoaned not getting too much junk food. He's also been super into puzzles lately (good thing he got so many for his birthday!)

Here are the stats, since I know you all want to know!
James: 39 1/2" tall (40th percentile)
          34 pounds (45th percentile)
Delilah: 28.75" tall (90th percentile)
           16 pounds 1/2 ounce (10th percentile)

Delilah isn't crawling yet but she's getting closer to being mobile- mostly James just brings her things, so I don't think she's very motivated, though she will rotate and scoot a teeny bit if she's sitting somewhere.  She's also been working on talking. Yep, talking. She is a REALLY early talker and has 3 words: Mama, Dada, and Bwabwa (brother). Bwabwa was a big surprise for all of us, but she certainly seems to mean it, and she lights up and says "BWABWA!" when she sees James. Sometimes this is followed by an attack kiss. I don't expect that she'll add many more words any time soon, but who knows. Her favorite food seems to be peas- she gobbles them up like there's no tomorrow.

Stationery card

Snowflakes Ribbon Christmas Card

Heartfelt: Christmas photo cards and holiday cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Are my children not just the cutest? I mean, come on. Look at the attitude Delilah's radiating! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful and filled with love and laughter!

The Elusive Nick

I am so thankful for my beautiful, wonderful family, even if my daughter has no sense of humor.

Almost.

Go Broncos!

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.

Wordless Wednesday: Giggles

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.