Halloween Part I

I am sure that this will be the only time that I get Teigue is his full Mario costume. We discovered 3 seconds after putting on the construction paper mustache and oversized gloves that they were just too ticklish for this sensitive 4 year old and had to be immediately discarded. Why don't my kids know they have to suffer for candy! Deal with the oversized ill fitting mustache! At least my little purple witch wore her mustache and dealt with the annoyance. Candy was on the line- she knew what was at stake!

Bitty Baby's Rash

This actually happened a week or so ago. Pictures were on old hard drive. Thankfully I had this blurry one on my phone to tell this story.

I'm just going to let you all look at that picture for a moment. Try to figure out what is covering that Bitty Baby's butt, Jayno's legs, arms and belly. Oh, it was also on Stella's floor and play table (and later our couch, walls and bedding). Think you know what it is? 

Last week sometime Jayno was quietly playing in her room with her babies. I could hear her chatting away while I was in the other room, but I thought nothing of it. That is what Stella does all the time. Then my little naked lady comes running out of her room holding her baby- frantic. She didn't say anything, she just showed me the baby's behind. I could only see this smooth light brown substance that was covering the baby's back, Jayno's arms and legs...I instantly thought the worst. Maybe she wanted the baby to be like her? Maybe she wanted a more realistic doll? Why on Earth is she covered in it?!

I need not have worried. You see, Stella got a full (brand new just opened) jar of creamy peanut butter out of the fridge and emptied it on her American Girl doll. Why you ask? Why because the poor baby had a diaper rash. Stella was just trying to make the bumps go away with a little bit of cream. Ahhh, yes, why of course. No wondered she was so frantic, her poor little one was all sore on her tookus.

Thankfully tall was fixed with a little dish soap. Thankfully I was informed that American Girl has a hospital (thanks Timmy) for the future "rashes" this little one may have.

Teigue's Lonely Bed

I know what you're thinking: "Wait, it's 9:10 p.m., why is Teigue's bed empty?! Have you gone mad keeping him up well into prime be by yourselves time?!" Before you start thinking that Brady and I have turned all batty and are keeping Teigue up late, letting him sleep in our bed, couch, whatever...let me explain. 

You see, a few months back Danpa came to visit. In previous visits from family and friends, we usually gave the guest Teigue's bed (since it is a nice full size bed and pretty darn comfortable), while Teigue slept with us in our bed. Well, this is all fine and good except that Teigue REALLY likes to kick Brady and the back all night long and enjoys sleeping sideways. Which means Brady and I really don't get much sleep. Since Danpa was staying for a few days, Teigue sharing our bed would just not work- enter old crib mattress. At one point Teigue was in the teeny toddler bed that Stella now has and Stella was in her crib, so we had two mattresses. Well, one mattress was just hanging out all lonely in our storage room- it was brought up Teigue to sleep on in Stella's room while Danpa slept in Teigue's room. I figured that after Dan left the mattress would make a perfect couch of sorts- perfect for reading and telling stories in Stella's room. Well, I was wrong.

You see, Teigue has decided that his super cozy, full sized big boy bed is just not cutting it. Instead, he has deemed the super small, quite hard and not so comfortable crib mattress a much better bed. For the last 3 months, Teigue has been sleeping on the floor in Stella's room.

Some nights, they have even fallen asleep together in her bed. I mean, why share Teigue's full sized bed when there is a perfectly teeny tiny doll sized toddler bed to cozy up in?

I always knew that my kids would sleep in the same bed at one point in their lives (I loved sleeping in my brother's room when I was little), but for some reason I always figured it would be Stella heading into Teigue's room. Never occurred to me that it would be the other way around. 

Again??

Uh, Stell, what's that on your chin? Jelly? Oh, yet another bonk on your face. 

 How'd you get it?

Reason #287,098 Why I Love My Kids

Holding hands in the truck, just because. 

Billy Fox

Have I mentioned Stella's very slight, minimal even obsession with puppies? Like how she would be a puppy if such a thing was possible? How we call her the Puppy Master and all bed time stories must involve at least one bad guy and puppies? Have I also mentioned Stella's um...strong personality? Her screaming for close to 25 minutes to get her way type of strong personality? Yeah, it has started to be a bit much. We know she is still 2 and this sort of behavior is normal for her age, but man, it sure can be trying. There is little that we can do to calm her, she gets herself so worked up, but we know that she has the ability if she just would try. To help her along we have asked for the help of Ollio, our friendly Christmas Elf. 

Yes, yes, I realize that it is not yet Halloween and we are already busting out Ollio. I too hate it when Target brings out their Christmas stock when the Halloween stuff is still out. But you see, we need Ollio and the power of Santa to help us. We have tried everything to stop the tantrums- ignoring the behavior, sticking to a schedule, quiet time, limited sugar, pleading, begging, crying...everything. Now, like most parents before us, we have started bribing our little lady with the promise that Santa will bring her a puppy if she is able to control her behavior. You know what- for the last 2 weeks our house has been calmer and happier than it has for a very long time. It is actually working. Thank God.

We headed out to a breeder today to just check out some 5 week old puppies with the slight possibility that we would get one. OK, we knew, we're not that strong. The way that this breeder works, whomever gives a deposit first, has first choice on a dog. Since we were the last to deposit, we get last pick. When means we are forced to take one of these guys:

One of these little fellers will be coming home with us on November 7th. We either get the chunky wittle white stinky wabador or we get the chunky sweepy darker stinky wabador. Kind of a win win for us.

Teigue is so excited about our new member, he wants to go get him tomorrow. He has decided that when we go pick him up, he will carry Billy to the truck and Billy will ride in his lap. No, scratch that, safety patrol captain has deemed that not safe, instead he will ride in the middle of the two seats on a pillow from Jayno's room and covered up with Teigue's blanket. We fell in love today. Hopefully Billy will help Stella work out her emotions in the future.

...And We're Back

My poor Mac's hard drive put up a good fight, but just couldn't make it. Sadly, it is no longer with us. Also, even more sadly, that hard drive took with it about 3 months of photos that I didn't transfer to my external hard drive. So, let us all have a moment of silence for the lost pictures and videos that never made it to their final home..unless our Mac genius friend Rae can some how get the photos off with her magic tricks. *sob*
Although we lost countless of photos that never made it to the blog- for instance the super cute pumpkin patch pictures that we took last Friday when we headed out east to sled ride on some cottonseed meal and run through a hay bale maze. I guess you could just go look at last year and add a year onto the kids. Or them playing in the mud. Wait, I guess you can look on here as well. Hmmm... Have we done anything new? Anything? Wait! The Mac died before I could upload the pictures from our beach day! Do I hear a yawn coming from you? Yet another beach day you say? Well, listen here, it wasn't just any beach day.  Since  Teigue finally became comfortable with the water, Mr. Fox has always been a runner in and out of the water kind of beach goer. Never one to linger in the water, just quick in and out bursts. Well.on this day, he sat and let the waves come up and crash on his belly, almost getting his ears wet. Quite an exciting new development.

He then started to realize that going in the water was quite fun, and slowly inched himself out further...

and further...

and further until he was all the way up to his chin, and loving every single moment of his new discovery. The whole time that he was out there I was a nervous wreck- here was my baby so deep in the ocean being such a big boy. The way he was acting was so confident, so sure, so big. I was still hoping that my little monkey was still content with running in and out of the waves, just getting wet up to his knees. Who was this big boy riding the waves in and walking with a new little swagger? Not ready for this at all.

 

Oh, what you don't see in these pictures is Brady to the right of Teigue, safely within 2 steps. I'm not that insane of a mom. The pictures of Teigue only make the new development much more dramatic, don't ya think?

Stay tuned...

My beloved Mac is under the weather so I can not currently upload any pictures onto it- I can't do anything really (this post was done with my phone, so no pictures). It's not really happy with me for some reason. I am going to have someone look at it this week- and hopefully save the pictures that I took recently and haven't transferred to my external hard drive. So please stay tuned. Daily posts will be back once I either get my baby fixed or get a new one.

Thank You John Muir...

Keep close to Nature's heart...and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean."

"The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness."

-John Muir

Oh, Yosemite, how we love thee. There is just something about your pine scented clean air, snow melt fed rivers and lakes, your ample wildlife teeming around every corner that just makes us feel so alive and content. Thank you for a wonderful four days.

We started our adventure at 5am- we figured leaving early and avoiding as much traffic as we could would be a great idea. What a great idea it was. We hit only about 20 minutes worth of LA traffic, the kids slept and were happy when they awoke, and we arrived in Yosemite at 2:30pm. A perfect time to see some ginormous trees, while still in our PJs, no less.

Before we even unpacked, Teigue needed to dip his feet in a river while Half Dome kept a watchful eye on us.

The next day, we woke to temperatures in the 90s- perfect weather to explore a snow melt lake. Do you think the kids minded? Uh, Teigue? Stell?

Think you need a dog to play fetch? Think again.

We got up close and personal with Benny the deer, Wile E. Coyote, Rocky Raccoon, Jumpy the Squirrel (and his 20 cousins), and then decided that we too, were wild and crazy animals.

Jayno even insisted she saw a crocodile. Teigue wasn't too sure.

We explored Cook's Meadow by day...

And by night. We saw shooting stars, the Milky Way, and more planets and satellites than we could have ever dreamed possible. For some reason only did this on our last night there. We all agreed that this is something we will do every night when we go back in May. 

Teigue almost exploded with delight at the amount of beautiful rocks that he found in the gift shop. Greens, purples, pinks- it was a bit overwhelming for this 4 year old. He decided that his favorite rock was the Pirate Rock- otherwise known as pyrite.

With these newfound crystals and gems, we played the best game ever created- Hide The Rock. What are the rules of this game? Well, you hide the rock of course. Then someone else tries to find it while you shout "Warmer! Colder!" We all know that the rules of "Warmer Colder" are that when the person gets closer to the hidden object they are getting warmer. Well, not in the land of Janyo and Teiguee. As the seeker gets closer to the object, you confuse them with shouts of "Colder! Colder! You really cold!" Then as they walk away you shout, "Colder! Warmer! Colder" so the seeker is once again confused and walking around in circles. Hilarity.

The game is then followed up by some popsicles and popsicle kisses.

And the night was finished by cleaning off some very dirty tootsies.

By far the best part of the trip? Watching a little boy gain so much confidence with himself and just explore explore explore. Private islands were meant to be jumped off of...wait slide off of...next year the jump, rivers should be waded through while walking far ahead of the safety of Mommy and Daddy, rocks and any trees can only be climbed, boulders were there to sit and reflect on...it was amazing watching his transformation. Teigue has always been sure of himself and content to explore but this trip he just blossomed into this Mountain Boy. He was fearless. It was amazing.

Daddy gained some confidence too...

I never thought my kids looked alike until I saw this picture.

Yosemite Falls...um, hello? Why are you hiding?

Here you go Joanie:

Good bye, Yosemite, until next May.


P.S. If you want some more pictures (if 40 isn't enough) I posted some on Facebook. (Just click on the word Facebook and it will take you to the album)