Easter

Another year, another Easter with Matt on call. That didn't stop us from having some fun, though. Our Easter weekend in pictures....

Dyeing eggs using a little trick I picked up on Pinterest. The whisk was a great way to keep the mess under control! Please forgive my child's inappropriate attire. I choose my clothing battles wisely, and a lazy Saturday at home is not an occasion worthy of such a battle.

The egg masters. Jillian was very concerned that Matt planned to eat these eggs this week (he is the only one who likes hard boiled eggs), and could not seem to understand why she couldn't just play with them in her room for the day.

The Tauntons came over for dinner on Saturday evening, then I put on my Easter Bunny ears and got to work while Matt went into work to read a quick CT. I knew the grandparents would shower the kids with candy (they did), so this Easter Bunny kept the edibles to a minimum.

Checking out the loot

Who knew Minnie Mouse stickers were so exciting??

Silly

The Easter Bunny left a note for an egg hunt in the basement. Adrienne had to find blue and yellow eggs, and Jillian was to search for the pink and orange.

An enthusiastic "cruise director" for the hunt.

Working for the surprises

Hard at work face

The Easter Bunny left some jelly beans, stickers, and a bit of cash (for J) in these eggs

Pre-church poses. I love the matchy-matchy going on here!

Sweet sisters

Matt insisted that Jillian come to grown-up church with us. I was so proud of her behavior. She sat like a lady the entire time. Her legs look so long in the above picture--she is really growing up.

After a fruitless 2 hour nap battle with Adrienne, we loaded up and enjoyed Easter dinner with our friends, Bekah and Max.

1.75

Our dearest littlest is officially 21 months old today. That's 1.75 years for those of you who prefer decimals, or 1 3/4 years for my fraction-loving friends. No matter how you slice it, she is getting big. Big. Independent. Busy. Curious. Busy. Curious. Busy. Curious. (Trying to make a point here...). Persistent. Smart. Sensitive, very sensitive. Snuggly. A tad whiny. Ridiculously verbal. A Mama's girl.  And A Daddy's girl. Milk monster. Book lover. Diaper fiend. Silly. Happy. Fun.....she is her own unique person with a personality that's growing every day. It's interesting to me how Jillian was born with a big personality, and Adrienne is sort of easing into one.  I am pretty convinced that Jillian sat her down for a secret conversation recently and informed her of the few toddler shenanigans that she didn't try, and told Adrienne to try them. This means we have a nap-refusing, sleep-fighting, clothes-stripping, diaper removing little stinker on our hands. And we all think she is pretty darn great.


A few random facts:

-Adrienne will not allow you to put her shirt on until her pajama pants have been removed. There are tears and loud protests ("I want take the pants off!") if you try and dress her out of this order she has decided on.

-Adrienne is counting. She can count to 4 or 5 pretty good, and to ten with a little help, but what shocked me is when she heard Jillian counting something the other day and proudly inserted "thirteen!" appropriately between 12 and 14 when Jillian paused to take a quick breath. The ABC's are fragmented and totally adorable. I need to get them on tape.

-Adrienne insists on carrying Jillian's lunchbox into school. She knows it is her job to put Jillian's lunch on the lunch cart, and she is proud of her participation.

-Adrienne is testing me in the nap department. Really testing me. Though she has been in that toddler bed for about 3 months, she just figured out that she could actually get out of it yesterday. This is not good. She is now terrorizing her room, trying to open the door, climbing on the window seat and pulling on blinds, and basically doing whatever it takes to steal the minute piece of sanity I have. I am scared, but I am determined to win (as I type she is finally sleeping after 2 days of said terrorizing instead of sleeping). To add to the drama, she loves to remove her diaper. Most days, I go in to get her and she immediately hands me her soaking wet diaper ("Here you go, Mommy!"). I pray every day that we will not repeat the poop incident of last month, but I'm sure it will happen again. Her latest diaper tricks involve reaching underneath the snap that covers the zipper of her footed pajamas and successfully unzipping them to remove the diaper (snap still in place!), and reaching up under her onesie to unhook the diaper and pull it out through the onesie (that is still completely snapped!). We have a true Houdini on our hands.

-Adrienne is a master pouter. If you reprimand her at all (even with semi-stern "No"), she juts out that lip fast. If you have really hurt her ego, the tears come about 5 seconds later. The pout is pronounced, and pretty shocking--I admit it instantly makes you want to apologize all over yourself for even thinking of redirecting her as you worry she is scarred for life. It's a pretty awesome manipulative tool she's got going on. Luckily, this is not my first time around the block with a toddler.

-Adrienne's conversational abilities are what truly define her at this stage. Recently, she has begun to understand ownership of objects and loves to point out things that belong to each of us ("Dat's Daddy's water bottle", "Dat's Jillian's lunchbox", "Dis Mommy's boots", "Dis Ay-dee-en's jacket"). I also love how she repeats phrases she hears me say all the time back to me at appropriate times. When she starts pulling wipes out of the container or Ziplocks out of the drawer, I hear "Dat's enough". After she picks out her pajamas, she prompts me "Dat's a good choice", most recently I have heard "Just a minute" when I ask her to do something. Oh dear.

-Adrienne loves to read books and is at the stage where she can recite most of the familiar ones when we read together. If I pause on a page, I often hear the last words ( i.e.: This is George.... "He's a good Monkey" or George is...."curious"). Her favorite books right now are Curious George (obviously), Iggy Peck Architect, Who's Baby Am I, and My Busy Stomach.

-Adrienne likes to sing and loves music. She now requests "Mama Mia" in the car ("I want to hear Mama Mia!), and now I have two kids who could pretty much sing any ABBA song at a karaoke bar. But, her favorite song is Beyonce's "Single Ladies" (I know, I know...this is Matt's fault. He calls it "All the Single Babies". It does make for a great dance party!) She likes to shake it, bob her head and sing "All da single babies!" She regularly sings "Twinkle Twinkle", "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Jesus Loves Me" whenever the mood strikes. I got a cute little clip the other day.

Our first "telescope", according to Jillian

Suddenly not scared of laying back in the tub. Pretty proud of herself.

The famed pout. Her feelings are so easily bruised.

Milk Monster in slippers ("I try it Mommy's sippers on")

"I got Daddy's gasses!"

It's all George, all the time. We have a serious Curious George lover on our hands here.

Passionate eater

"I read da book to Georgie" Her morning time sweetness melts my heart every new day.

Aspirations

For our first conversation of the day (me still bleary eyed), Jillian began:

"Mom, guess what I want to be when I grow up?"

 She continues before I can answer.

"I want to be a baker girl. You know, a girl who bakes dessert. And an astronaut. But Ella is not going to ride on my rocket ship. She is going to drive her own, and we will meet on the moon together. And I also want to be a firefighter, because I want to rescue people. And, I am going to be a girl who makes movies. Daddy said I will be good at making movies. And then I want to be a builder, and also a plant and garden girl. You know, a girl who grows flowers. Also, an ice skater and a ranch girl. And....that's it.... (suddenly hears a loud beeping noise)...Mom! Something is on fire!!"

Me: "Um, no. That's Daddy's pager going off"

J: "Oh, OK, good. It sounded just like a smoke alarm. Can I have my breakfast now?"

She is going to need a good breakfast to adequately fuel her body and mind so she can get started on that list. Guess I should start buying Wheaties.

Technologically Savvy

It seems we are raising a technologically savvy child. I am not sure if this is a good thing or not. We definitely (almost) found out the hard way. True story (everything I speak on this here blog is true, of course. It just seemed like a good place to insert those words): Yesterday, we were all downstairs during what we often refer to as "happy hour". Admittedly, it is the time on weekend afternoon where we try and chat over a beer or two as the girls play in the playroom (in our line of sight from the couch or bar area). We pat ourselves on the back that it is almost time for dinner, which means baths and bedtime will follow, as will a couple hours of quiet time together before we turn in. This time is gold for parents of young kids. So, during this particular happy hour, we were trying to watch the KU game. The girls were not cooperating with the plan, and seemed to require a bit more assistance than usual to play together during this time. Matt then quickly came up with what sounded like a brilliant idea--he opened Amazon.com on his iPad, handed it to Jillian, and told her to look for puppets she liked (The back story with the puppets is that he and his dad are planning to build a puppet theater for the play room, and Jillian has done nothing but talk about puppets and her ideas for puppet shows since she learned this fact). This made her very happy, and we were then back to watching the game without interruption for a good 5, maybe 10 minutes max, before she returned the iPad and exclaimed "I bought some great puppets, Dad!" We were sure she hadn't actually bought them.....had she?
Indeed, she had. She managed to add many, many puppets to the cart and then ordered over $500 worth (thank you, one-click ordering!) in that short period of time. She even made sure to point out that she had selected a special one just for Adrienne (A Very Hungry Caterpillar. This kid is good.). She was beaming with pride. I stifled my laughter and watched Matt frantically flip through the order and confirm that she had successfully made this purchase. Thankfully, he was able to amend the order, and he helped Jillian sort through her selections and allowed her to keep a few. She is on pins and needles awaiting their arrival. I think it is safe to say that we have an enthusiastic, slightly impulsive shopper on our hands. I wonder where in the world she gets it from??? Certainly not her mother....

Squeaka and Her Sister

Matt began calling Adrienne "Squeaky" shortly after her birth. She was a noisy baby and made lots of squeak-like noises, hence the name. It morphed into a few variations....Squeaks, Squeak-A-Potamus, Squeaky Pete, and so on. Matt has a real gift for nicknames. Recently, she has become "Squeaka". This is a special name because it was given to her by Jillian, and it is used solely by her as an endearing name for her sister. When she addresses Adrienne as "Squeaka", the tone of her voice changes. It is always used sweetly, with a softness that demonstrates the love she has for her. Maybe I didn't give Jillian enough credit, but I admit that I was unsure how she would grow into her role as a sister. She has a big personality, has her own ideas, and is quite independent. I am here to tell you that she is (and always has been) one fantastic sister, and she demonstrates that skill over and over as she guides her little Squeaka along.  I am so grateful for the relationship between these girls, and am excited to see how it grows and changes as they do.

Serious trouble here.

Noodle Lover

My kids love noodles. They are pasta fanatics just like their mom, and they did not inherit this trait from their noodle-avoiding father. Jillian is especially into them, and wants to try every shape she can find (or that I have floating in the freezer from meals past). When Matt is gone I usually let the girls eat whatever they want for dinner, so this means Jillian had three consecutive nights of noodles in some form last week. I got so tired of hearing "More noodles, please", literally between every 2 bites I took of my salad (a mom just wants to eat her food without stopping for once!), that I just gave her the bowl and told her to live it up.

"Gammy's" Girls

We had a fun few days with Grammy (or "Gammy" as Adrienne calls her) while Matt was in San Antonio last week. The girls were spoiled with lots of special attention, and it is so nice to have the extra set of hands. My mom is really good at just playing with the kids. I suppose that is easier when you don't have to manage/run the household as I do, but it is something I would like to improve on and often feel guilty about. Here are a few cute pics/stories from the visit.

Crafting together. Jillian pretty much expects a "cool craft" about every afternoon, so I'm glad Grammy came with a few. I think it was on this day that Jillian made sure my mom knew how much she loved her..."Grammy, I will always love you. Even if you die someday, I promise I will still love you".

Snuggled up watching a show while I prepared to make dinner. It is so nice to make dinner in peace once in awhile.

-On Monday I left Adrienne at home with Mom while I took Jillian to school, got groceries, and went to tennis. When I walked in the door at  noon Adrienne came running up to me shouting, "I had fun wif Gammy!" It was much in the same manner that she exclaims "I had good day, Daddy" when Matt gets home.

-The night before Mom left, they were having a conversation about Jillian going to Grammy and Grandad's house sometime. For some reason Jillian thought we meant that she would live there, which of course was  not correct. She calmly stated her reasons why this wasn't possible--"Grammy, my dad would really miss me. And another reason I can't live with you is because sometimes I get a little bit naughty and I don't want you to see that". There you have it...proof of some self-awareness!

I took advantage of the help and cleaned out the girls' closets/dressers one afternoon, and snapped this peek as I peered down at story hour.  They went through a lot of books that day.

Soft Spot

I have such a soft spot in my heart for this little face, even when it is plastered with an ornery, mischievous grin.

Go ahead, Mom, just try to be mad at me for dumping my milk all over the floor on purpose. Bet you don't last 5 seconds before you cave and gush about how cute I am.

Irish Eyes

Happy St Patty's Day from my little "Leper-Cods"!

The Dinner Hour

Oh, the dinner hour. I am so glad it doesn't actually last an hour. It is pure madness at this stage for us. We wait as long as we can to eat so that we can all eat together--usually, we make it until Matt gets home, and sometimes we don't. Often, he rolls in the door just as it is put on the table. Then, we spend 10-15 minutes shoving our food in, trying not to choke, as the girls jabber away, make demands, refuse to eat, complain about food, ask for treats, etc. We exchange many wide-eyed crazy looks at each other across the table, practice deep breathing, and remind ourselves that bedtime is near. If I didn't have such a strong belief in family meal times, I'd just wait to eat until the girls were asleep. I decided to take a video clip tonight, as an example of the chaos that ensues. I didn't want the girls to know I was doing it, so you will be looking at the kitchen counter most of the time. You can hear Jillian tell me that it is morning (start of the bedtime protest because it is still light outside), and you can hear Adrienne chant relentlessly about wanting to see the Sea Monkeys (aka brine shrimp) we have growing in the container on the hutch as a science experiment ("I want Sea Monkeys Daddy"), and then remind us that she wants to take a bath. Over, and over, and over. Here's a 45 second taste of the dinner hour.....wine, anyone????

Awareness

Jillian is changing. That goes without saying, of course, but we have noticed some changes in her recently that reflect a greater understanding of the world and its vastness. This was confirmed to me at her preschool conference yesterday. Her teacher reported that she has seen an increase in anxiety (for a lack of a better word) in Jillian, and that she sees some new hesitancy in her in terms of making decisions about activities, friends, etc. We went on to discuss that around this age kids start to lose their ego centrism and realize that this world is a big old scary place, and that this change can be more pronounced in really bright children--their wheels are always turning, processing, etc. It happened literally overnight with Jillian, about six weeks ago, and I can still remember her sudden change of emotion, increase in fear, and undesirable behaviors at home. This switch in her that flipped also happened to coincide with her first run-in with a bully at school, and it took awhile to work through what was really going on. When I say bully, I mean in terms congruent with 4 year old bully behaviors, but still--very real and frightening for Jillian. I have nothing but positive things to say about how this situation was handled by her school, and am proud of how Jillian learned new skills to stand up for herself, express her feelings, and to reach out to adults who might not see every little interaction in the room. These last few weeks have been a big wake up call for me on a couple of levels. First, I know that in about 10 years I will wish my child's struggles are as "small" as preschool bully. It is going to get a lot harder--for her, and for us as parents. Gulp. Second, for as long as I have wished that Jillian would show a little fear or hesitancy about things (mostly relating to keeping her safe during those exploratory toddler years), I am kind of sad about the development of new fears. I know this is a normal, expected part of development, but I do not want her to be a fearful person. I want her to be brave, decisive, and step out with a great faith. I desire these things for her not because I think they are "right", but because I know first hand through my own personal tendencies how miserable and paralyzing fear can be. I am sure most parents want their children to inherit their best traits, not the ones they struggle with, and I am no exception. Being a mother continually provides me with an overwhelming dose of self-awareness as I see my girls reflect my words, actions, and behaviors right back at me--the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between. So, in refining their behaviors I also have to refine mine. Did I mention I think being a parent is just plain hard???

On a lighter note, here are some questions Jillian has asked me in the last 24 hours:

-"Mom, how did you get a husband?" (I am not sure if she meant literally how I got her dad to marry me, or how someone would even consider marrying me...maybe I don't want to know!)

-"Mom, what's a groupie?" (Uhhhh.....how did she even know this word?? I told her it was someone who really loves a band. End of story)

-"Mom, what happens if you don't love Jesus?" (Oh dear. Well, this started last night at dinner when Matt asked her what her favorite part of school was, and she told him Bible time. He asked her why, and she said because it was right before show and tell. Then, she went on to talk about the most recent Bible lesson where they learned about Judas. So it all made sense to me at that point, but I wasn't sure how to answer. I told her that if you don't love Jesus, that it makes God feel sad because he want us to love Jesus. Later, I realized that my off the cuff answer wasn't what I wanted to say--I wanted to tell her that "Jesus still loves you", because I think at her age she needs to learn about love and grace...but next time, I'll tell her that we are going to call Grandma and Pop Pop with these kinds of questions!

Never a dull moment over here.

Over It

Two snow days in less than a week. Can I get a little sympathy here? March is always a hard month for me in Minnesota (so is April by the way) because it feels like it should be Spring, and it is not. It still feels so out of reach. The time change is nice because the staying light later deal gives me hope, but it has brought with it a predictable bedtime protest "Why is it light out when I go to bed, Mom?" "It's morning, not bedtime!" The other two most used phrases out of her mouth right now are, "That's boring!" and "You are not letting me do what I want!", but those require a whole separate post. So, for now, I'll just share a couple cute pics of some (more) snow day activities. Hurry up, Spring!

We declared a movie day on Sunday. The weather was gross, and Matt and I were tired from a fun late night out with friends. This delighted Jillian, the forever TV addict, but Adrienne wants no part of TV. I realize this is a good thing, but sometimes a mom just needs a little help, ya know? We started the Lorax, and Adrienne sat down for 30 seconds to watch it next to Jillian (who is STILL wearing her Burger King Queen crown she got from her special outing to the MOA with her dad on Friday).

Yesterday, Jillian immediately asked me for a box because she wanted to make an airplane. That meant I would need two boxes, of course. Thankfully I found some boxes in the basement from the most recent Costco run. I applied wings as requested, and the two little pilots took flight often that day.

Craft time...using muffin papers as flower blooms. She requested a craft that was "not boring", and thankfully this met the criteria for a few minutes. Yes, she is wearing a snow hat (what she decided was a pilot's hat) as she crafts.

Itsy Bitsy

Adrienne loves to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider right now. I have been unsuccessful at getting her to sing it completely for the camera, but got a pretty cute clip today. Please excuse her little raspy voice, she has a bit of a cold.

Spring Fever

We are getting excited for Spring in the Howe household. A couple of weeks ago, Jillian brought home a paper from school where she drew her favorite Spring activity, and the teacher wrote it out explaining that Jillian is most excited for spring because, "I like to plant a garden with my family". We have been discussing plans to expand the garden this year, and after Matt heard about Jillian's growing enthusiasm, he decided it was time for a little science project. We now have a little growing station in the basement storage room that houses the seeds we hope will sprout into plants for our garden.

The timing of the new dining room table was impeccable--our old one is the perfect size for garden seed sprouting!

Taping up pieces of the boxes that housed the new chairs into walls

A little teamwork with duct tape and foil. Matt wanted as much light reflection as possible.

Our little gardener planting the seeds

Admiring her work

The "door" to the green house. It's a picture of a plant (on the right), and then reads "Jillian's Greenhouse". When you give a 4 year old a large piece of paper with no lines and she asks to spell a very long word, this is what you get. It's like a word search.  The letters are all there....you just have to look!

The official experiments: Matt's wounded jade plant, the garden seeds, and another attempt at sprouting an avocado plant. I giggle because I bet you Matt has tried this 20 times in the last 10 years and it has never worked. Many an avocado pit has graced my kitchen windowsill.  He is sure that in his new light box he will have nothing but success. Time will tell....

In The Clouds

I noticed a hot air balloon in the distance as the girls and I were driving to Costco on Saturday morning. I pointed it out, and Jillian immediately asked me who was inside of it. I told her I didn't know, but whoever it was felt like taking a cold ride that morning. "Is it Jesus?", she asked. I told her I was pretty sure it wasn't, and asked what made her think Jesus was in that hot air balloon. "Because he lives in the clouds. What does God look like?" My "I don't know" answers are just not good enough anymore...she now always asks, "But WHY don't you know?" This kid is as curious as her father. I know he tires of my lack of enthusiasm for his random questions that I never even think to entertain. My standard answer for all unknowns is now "Ask your dad!"

20 Months

"I don't yike it pictures"

Grumpy Buns is 20 months old! I love the above photograph because it depicts a face I see many times every day. This is Adrienne's expression of displeasure, and is usually accompanied by a "No!" or an "I don't yike it". She is doing a great job of mastering that whole autonomy thing that is the true developmental task of toddlerhood. I would like to point out that 20 months old sounds a whole lot older than 19 months, and is the point of development where I start to realize that my child is really almost 2, and then I become scared. For many reasons. Anyway, at 20 months Adrienne...

-is so polite. I ALWAYS hear "Thank you, Mama" whenever I give her anything--whether it's milk, a tissue, a toy, put her shoes on, whatever. She says it. It sounds so sweet to me, and generally makes me forget about the fit she probably just threw about something 10 seconds earlier.

-is starting to really test the limits. I see this most often with trying to open the bottom oven door (which I never use to be safe, so don't worry), jump off the couch, and turning the microwave on (she is tall enough to reach the start button. Did you know that a microwave smells like it might explode if you let it run with nothing in it??)

-is starting to express her feelings of discomfort/fear/dissatisfaction via words. For example, "I'm hun-gee (hungry) Mama" or "I cold", or "I hit it, my head". This is really helpful to me in so many ways, because she can start to answer me when I say "What happened?" or "What's wrong?" She said a couple of things this week that made us giggle that would fall into this category as well. On Monday morning I went in to change her diaper when she got up and she said, "I want to see Daddy". I told her that Daddy was at work, to which she replied, "I no yike it Daddy work". And then Wednesday night when Matt went to take her upstairs for bath, he held her up to peek out at the dark front door, and she suddenly said, "I no yike deer. I no want to see deer!" I'm not sure why, but she's decided she doesn't like deer while also thinking that if you look outside in the dark that you WILL see some. News to me.

-is starting to really enjoy coloring, for which I have Jillian to thank. If Jillian is coloring, she wants to, too. She is always proud of her crafts that she brings home from the RAC (also because she knows Jillian does crafts)

-is pure madness at the dinner table. She insists on drinking out of an open cup, and then just focuses on gulping as much water as possible over the course of the meal. She hardly ever eats anything at dinner, and I hear lots of "More water, Mama!". She tries to talk over Jillian (which is really tough to do), and spares no expense when it comes to competing for attention. It is a messy, crazy time for our family.

-is fighting me on her nap, but I am not giving up. She does not realize how important this is to me, and that I will fight to the bone to keep those precious quiet moments in the early  afternoon. It's a battle of the wills, but I am tougher than she, I assure you.

-would choose to live only on Alpha-Bits, cheese, yogurt, oatmeal, and applesauce if I let her. While she asks for whatever Jillian asks for when it's lunch or snack time, she rarely eats it unless it is one of the above mentioned foods.

-will repeat her request until she gets what she wants, or until she gets tired of requesting it. Over and over and over and over. Even if you are in the act of getting her what she wants, she continues the chant until it's in her hands. "I want milk, Mama. I want milk, Mama. I want milk, Mama. I want milk, Mama". I am sure this persistence will pay off for her later in life, but it frazzles my nerves most of the time.


-is still snuggly. And I love love love that. While she doesn't want any snuggles before bed as we are reading stories, singing, etc, she still makes sure she gets them in throughout the day. She is definitely a kid who needs a periodic hug or snuggle from me, and always cozies in close by laying her head on me as we hug. I love the smell of her hair, the pats on my back, and her contentedness to be still with me for a few minutes. She is one sweet, happy, beautiful little girl.

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