Accurate

Jillian constantly needs a new craft to do. She wants to create, which is a lovely thing, but it requires me to always come up with something new. I am not very good at that. For starters, I hate messy crafts. I also generally need her to do crafts independently (because craft time happens when I am trying to cook or do dishes usually), and therefore don't want anything too complicated. For these reasons, I am grateful to Target and all of their seasonal sticker-type crafts. These are super exciting to a 4 year old, and are pretty forgiving. Today, she was thrilled at the packet of foam mix-n-match Easter eggs I presented her with.We got out some stickers and the markers, and she went to town decorating an egg for everyone she could think of. She was very intentional about each person's egg, and did a fantastic job of personalization. Here is the egg she made for Matt. Any guesses on the description she gave me????

"This egg is for my dad. It is covered with x-rays of ponies, because reading x-rays is his favorite thing to do!"

Protection

I should preface this little story by saying that Jillian is in what I am going to call an "afraid of the night" phase. She doesn't want it to be dark, doesn't like it that we don't all sleep in the same room, is scared of every shadow in her room, is aware of the wind and doesn't like the noise it makes. She is also at my bedside at  least every other night right now with some sort of fear. I can't seem to convince her that she should wake up Matt, since daddies are really good at this nighttime scary stuff, so I am doing my best to be understanding and teach her to be brave. Usually, I have to turn on yet another light (she already sleeps with the closet and hall lights on), remind her that she is safe, and pray with her. If I'm lucky I have to only do that once.
As we headed up to bed tonight, Jillian caught sight of Matt's little Santa Doctor figurine on the office shelf. He set him there when we unloaded the Christmas boxes, and I guess we just forgot about him when we put it all away. She seemed startled by it, and said "Whoa. What is that guy doing there?"

Me: "Umm...maybe he's watching you"

J: "What?!" (that is where I caught myself and realized that might seem scary to her...)

Me: "Oh, I mean that maybe he's just here to look over you and protect you" (trying to recover from my inadvertent scare)

J: "OH!" And then in a hushed voice..."Is that Jesus?"

Me: (stifled giggle) "No honey, that's just Daddy's Santa doctor guy". My response apparently got her thinking about Santa and Jesus in the same frame of thought, because the next thing out of her mouth was,

J: "How does Jesus get in our house?"

Me: "What do you mean? Jesus doesn't get into our house"

J: "If he helps protect me, how does he get into our house?"

Matt (overhearing this from Adrienne's room, shouts) "He goes down the chimney!"

Me: (shooting Matt the evil eye that he can't see) "No, he doesn't Jillian. Daddy is teasing. Jesus can be everywhere all the time. He is God and he is bigger than we can understand. I don't know how he watches us and knows us, but he does."

J: "Got it, Mom"
Thank goodness that answer satisfied her, because as usual, I was unprepared for her inquisition...

The mystery man

Ever

One of Jillian's most frequently used words is 'ever'. She does seem to need a bit of help using it correctly, but I can't bring myself to correct her because I enjoy the giggles I have to stifle in the 'heat of the moment'. A few examples:

- "I EVER want to go to school again!" (protesting the transition from the show I let her watch before we left for school as a reward for prompt completion of the morning routine)

-"You EVER let me have enough treats!!" (mad at me for declining a sucker request mid-afternoon)

-"I EVER get to ride my bike anymore!" (mad because I wouldn't let her ride her bike in the garage without her helmet)

-"I EVER want to go back to time out" (mad because we have started using the time out again)

-"It's EVER going to be Spring again!" (mad because I told her that no, today is not Spring...and I would have to agree that I feel the same way she does about it.)


-"I EVER want to go to bed again. I am EVER going to be tired!" (Ah, the bedtime routine. Such a happy time)

You get the point. I suppose I should start teaching her the correct use of 'ever' vs 'never', but I EVER want to forget this cute, frequent little slip-up.

Snow Day Smiles

On Friday we had a partial snow day--schools were delayed about two hours, which meant Bible study was canceled and we were to be hanging out at home. I could not stop chuckling about the state of the girls' hair that day. They both woke up with some serious bed head, each in their own unique style.

Bed head: two varieties

I am lazy (read: I don't like it!) when it comes to getting ready to go out and play in the snow, so was glad I could convince Jillian that it would be super fun to bring some snow inside and play in our big bathtub with it. So, we did (and then it turned into a big hot tub to warm up after the snow fun)

And, as usual, Adrienne tried to do everything that Jillian did.

Sure hope that snow wasn't yellow....

Getting Cozy

Adrienne is done with sleep sacks. She throws a hissy fit anytime I come anywhere near her with one, so it appears that it is time for some "big girl" bedding on this "big girl" bed. Though I'm not a huge fan of the blue in her room, it was freshly painted before we moved in by the previous owners, so it'll stay awhile. I was glad to see this sweet elephant bedding, and think it looks pretty cute in her room. She was pretty excited about her "el-punt" pillow. So now this "baby" of mine looks even more like a big girl with real pillows and blankets in her bed.

I admit my crazy worry skills got the best of me late that night, however. I snuck in and took the pillow away before I went to bed.

Sister Pics

I like to keep on the same picture schedule with Adrienne that I had with Jillian, so I had a few pictures taken in honor of Adrienne's 18 month birthday. Actually, she was just over 19 months when they were taken which was really consistent of me since Jillian's 18 month shots were actually taken at 19, too. I am nothing if not consistent. I decided to have Jillian along for this little photo shoot as well, since their sister relationship is so cute and since I have no official 4 year old picture of her outside of her school pic. Two birds, one stone. Done. A big thanks to Becky Wooten for taking these sweet photos of our little ladies.

Presidentially Puny

Long "holiday" weekends are rarely a holiday when small children are involved. I am not to that phase of parenting where I am excited about time off of school (and my husband doesn't have a job where he gets those days off to play with us). Yet. (I hope I get there someday.) But, we had a fair amount of things planned for the weekend that I was sure would carry me through yesterday's day off of school.  And then Adrienne got puny. She started running a high fever early Sunday morning (and by high I mean 104.6) She was delirious and hyper. I was panicked. Matt was semi-comatose. Jillian was awake. And scared of everything. Did I mention this was just a couple hours after we got home from a super fun date  night where we behaved like college students? (I am of course thankful that the sickness didn't strike until after our night out). Back to reality with a jolt! It was a long night with little sleep...for the second Saturday in a row, I might add. I hope that's not a trend, girls. Thankfully we got the fever down to a manageable number and she really didn't have any other symptoms. This little febrile episode, however, botched up our plans for a couple days so we have been hibernating at home (with a little extra crankiness on board) in some ridiculously cold weather. Can you say cabin fever? A few pics of the weekend...

Such a daddy's girl right now. We call her the Daddy Monster. She was a bit warm Saturday morning, which I attributed to teething at that time (clearly I was wrong), and just wanted some extra snuggles from her best guy. This girl gives some long snuggles.

"I ready go Cos-co" We did head to Costco late Saturday morning...

Punies in full swing--my view on Sunday morning. Pathetic, febrile toddler who hates TV was snuggled in my lap zoning out to Horton Hears A Who.

We canceled the sitter on Sunday and Matt attended a work dessert party on Sunday afternoon without me. That was a bummer for me. I love dessert, as we all know, and I also love a grown-up get together. So Jillian and I made some chocolate dipped strawberries while Adrienne napped. These were Jillian's creation: she felt the red sprinkles were a necessary touch.

I finally tried out something from Pinterest. Finger paint in a ziplock bag. No mess. Still fun. Great for moms who hate messes (me!). We also did this with shaving cream.

Adrienne liked this for about 5 seconds

Adrienne discovered Pablo, the empty pinata from Jillian's birthday party, in the craft closet as I was cleaning it out. She promptly gave him an exam. (He's since been trashed. Seriously, why did I have a broken, empty pinata in my home for the last 4 months?!?)

Ahhh....order. With labels. I am happy. This will last 2 days, max.

The fever is gone and Adrienne is back to her old self. She managed to find a sunny spot while reading this afternoon, and really did need those shades. Don't let that beautiful sunshine fool you...we've got 20 below windchills. Darn it, Minnesota!!