Backfire

I had taken the kids out back to play in the wading pool. I went inside to get something and Kate followed me. She then decided that she wanted to stay inside and color. I said okay, but that I was going outside and that the door needed to stay closed. She was inside for a couple of minutes, then I heard her crying and saw her pounding on the door. I opened it and she said, “We do not close the door on kids. That makes me very sad.”

I thought she was going to put me in time out.

When 2 milk-drinkers come together

For Jean, who probably wasn’t really serious. This will last us one week. Hopefully.

And yes, I have, in my mind, fast-forwarded 12 years when we have a house full of teenagers. I have no idea how we will survive. If there isn’t a milkman in our neighborhood, we WILL move to find one.

2 2-and-a-halfers

My grandmother always said that 2 1/2 is the last time you see their “baby face.” After that, they start to look more like a real-life child. It’s a little bit hard for me to believe that 2 1/2 has arrived. I won’t get lengthy with idiosyncrasies tonight, but here are a few stats of this momentous date:

• A lady never reveals her weight, but I will say that our little lady has 6 pounds on our little man
• They know all the letters and LOVE to point them out everywhere
• I have come to the realization that Ethan is a closet smarty pants. He rarely pays attention when I’m trying to teach them things (letters, songs), but he’s always the first one to grasp what we’re working on (example: A couple of months ago, I was sitting on the couch going through some letters flashcards with Kate. She loves going through them, but at the time, hadn’t really memorized more than 10 letters or so. Ethan had never shown interest and to be honest, I don’t think he had even looked through them once. I asked Kate, “what letter is this?” Ethan, who’s busy throwing his ball across the room and kicking it and jumping looks up for one second and shouts, “G!”)
• I don’t know their exact heights, but all that’s important is that they’re tall enough for the Toontown roller coaster- a 35” requirement. My guess is Ethan is around 35.5” and Kate is around 36.5”.
• They each drink a gallon of milk a week, almost exactly (I know this because they each have their own type of milk, which is different from the milk that Greg and I drink)

and finally California, part 3

Newport Beach

I love him

Attempt 1 at a cousin photo. Not bad.

Let’s see what happens when you put chocolate in front of them...

a little better. Ethan wasn’t buyin’ it, but Kate figured it was worth the effort, just in case we were serious.

California, part 2

Since Disneyland wasn’t enough crowds or overpriced food, we spent an evening at the LA County fair.

Finally, a 4-generation photo. I’m definitely the weak link in this family chain.

Disneyland, with Greg

California, part 1

We had a FABULOUS time in California the past 8 days. The weather was p e r f e c t, the company was outstanding, the food was DElish, and Disneyland was line-less (so we went 3 times!)...

Is she 13 already?

Lunchtime.

K: Mom, I want to go play with my toys.

Me: Okay, will you please take three more bites?

K: Are you kiddin’ me?!

(I’m sure you can imagine the face that came with that question.)

Needless to say, she did take those 3 more bites. She was then sent to time out where she remains and will remain until she is actually 13. (okay, joking about the time out thing. I was laughing too hard to scold. I told her to finish her lunch and walked out of the room)

**Right after I hit “publish,” the perpetrator walked into the room and handed me a piece of paper that she had been coloring and said, “here, mom. I made a beautiful, beautiful picture for ya,” followed by a kiss. Maybe she is 2 after all and maybe I’ll forgive her.

Blue Slide

So there’s this pool in this neighborhood that we go to every week. My kids are obsessed. They call it the pool with the blue slide. They are obsessed with the blue slide and when we go to this pool, they climb the stairs, go down the slide, and back again. Over and over. For about an hour. I wish more than anything in this world that I had better pictures of this, because it is by far the thing they have done most this summer. But since someone has to be there to catch them (me), it’s just not possible. The few times Greg has been with me to the pool, I’ve brought my camera, but when Greg is there, they talk him into climbing the stairs with him. He is a sucker, so again I’m at the bottom of the slide to catch. I did get one go of the slide, and this is all I got. But it will have to do. Oh, and it’s no kiddie slide. They technically don’t reach the height requirement, but the lifeguards are suckers, too. Who could say no to this?​

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(this is the picture from the neighborhood website. I didn’t get a proper picture of the slide itself. You get the idea.)

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Ethan likes to mix things up. He never comes down the same way twice. One time he came down on his back, head up. Don’t ask me how he does it. But you can hear him laughing before you see him come around the last corner.

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... and back for more.

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... And cause I can never get too many picture of this little thing in her two-piece, here’s one from last week at the splash pad.