Oh, what a beautiful day!

Today has been nearly perfect. I love those days! I think a lot of it has to do with the change in the weather. Yesterday morning it was actually quite cool here. I almost grabbed a jacket on my way out the door. Today is sunny but with a high of only 85. Perfect weather in my opinion.

The kids and I decided to go enjoy the Jumpy Gym this morning. We're letting our membership expire at the end of October so we're trying to get our money's worth out of the place for the next few weeks. They have so much fun there. They bounced till they couldn't bounce anymore. There was a little girl there who started following them around and playing with them. Jake was being so silly trying to get her to laugh. Eventually, though, she decided Emma was more fun and followed her everywhere. I could tell Jake was a little sad that his sister was playing with someone else and ignoring him. But to his credit, he didn't pout or throw a fit. Progress! And to make the day even more pleasant Emma did not throw her usual temper tantrum when we left the gym. We came home, made lunch and now both kids are napping. Perfect! The only thing that would make the afternoon better is if my pants weren't so tight right now. Or if I was eating some sort of blizzard from Dairy Queen. I realize those are contradictory statements. Perfection is a hard thing to achieve! Here are some pictures of the kids at the Jumpy Gym. Yes, I know we need to lose the binky for Emma. She really is such a pretty girl!

School Happenings

Jake is loving school. We are blessed with so many good teachers at this Mother's Day Out program. Jake was a little sad when he realized he wouldn't have his beloved Ms. Mandy again this year, but I think his new teachers are beginning to win him over. He still can't get their names quite straight for some reason so he just describes them. They are officially "the really tall one" and the "one with yellow hair."

Well, Monday afternoon, the "one with yellow hair" had to inform me of a minor accident that Jake had at the end of the day. She showed me a pretty big goose egg on his forehead and told me he got it from doing somersaults on his napmat during nap time. As a teacher, you hate to tell parents that their child got wounded in your class. I could tell she felt bad but I just thought it was classic Jake. Of course he hurt himself. Of course it was his forehead. And of course it happened because he chose to do gymnastics instead of lying down still during naptime. We got to examining his head because she thought part of the wound was his scar from where he fell on the fireplace on Christmas Eve. I assured her that was an old war wound and then we moved down to his chin which had a huge scrape on it. I told her that was also a prior injury. She breathed a sigh of relief and said something like "oh good. We had an incident with a friend hitting Jake with his shark today too and we thought that's where the scrape came from." It cracks me up. How many boys can get a goose egg from a somersault and a scrape from an unfortunate shark throwing incident all in the same day?! And how would you like to be that little boy's teacher?! I'm so thankful for all of you who have had the opportunity to take care of Mister so far through his school career. We appreciate all of our teachers!

Accessories are in the eye of the beholder

Emma cracks me up. I was super excited when we found out we were having a little girl because of all of the cute clothes I would get to put her in. I also dreamed of "fixing" her hair. You know, cute little pigtails that stick straight up and everything. However, Emma was born with very little hair and has only recently started growing enough to do anything with. Mike and I think she looks like one of the Hoo children from Dr. Seuss. We've started calling her Emma Mae Hoo. ANYHOO, she still doesn't have enough hair to put up in a pigtail. And her hair is super fine so clips don't stay in very well. Also, she rips everything out as soon as I put it in her hair.

So, the other day when she started pulling all of her headbands out of her dresser I was just thrilled! She would let me put one on her head and then immediately rip it off. I thought she just needed some time to get used to the idea. Wrong. She does love wearing the headbands, just not on her head. She prefers the thigh-high look. And really what says sweet, innocent toddler like a few garters on the thigh? For the last three days she's been putting as many as she can find over her pants and prancing around the house with them. I can already see that my expectations for Emma may be different than what her ideas for her own life are going to be. I'm already preparing myself for heart wrenching trips to the mall where she won't try on any of the cute things I pick out for her. Oh well. Jake doesn't usually question what I put on him. He even let me put a headband on him yesterday. And he wants me to paint his toenails. Blue.

All I want to do is Blog

It seems I never have time to read blogs or update mine anymore. Also, I'm way behind on talking to my friends and family. So, if you haven't heard from me in awhile it's probably due to one of the following reasons.

A.) I have been on my death bed with killer allergies for a week now. It culminated with a dizzy spell yesterday afternoon that had the room spinning for a couple hours. I kept being reminded of women in old time shows or books complaining of the "vapors". I'm not sure what a vapor is but I think I may have them.


B.) Two weeks ago I picked up a Stephen King book I hadn't yet read. It's called Under the Dome. And then I got sucked in to it and have been spending every spare minute I have trying to read. It was a very good book and quite the page turner. The problem is that it had 1,072 pages to turn. And since I can only read when the kids are asleep it took me awhile to get through it.

C.) The new television season started. We have lived through a wasteland of TV programming all summer long but finally we have been delivered. There is so much TV to watch we don't even know where to start. Our DVR is full of stuff we haven't gotten to yet. I will say that season whatever it is of Survivor has started off with a bang. I'm completely hooked on that show. When I saw that Jimmy Johnson was going to be a participant I was all "EWW! I do NOT need to see Jimmy without his shirt on all season long." However, both Mike and I are actually cheering him on now. He seems to be one of the most down to earth and least crazy of all the contestants. Plus, it is way less painful watching the Dallas Cowboy former head coach on Survivor than it is watching the Dallas Cowboys play football right now-even with his man boobs.

So, there you have it. I hope things start to settle down a little now so I can do the really important things in life like keep in touch with people. I'm assuming you care. You do care, right?

Emma at 18 months

I can not believe our little baby is a year and a half already. She just looks so big to me now. It seemed like Jake held onto his babyness a lot longer than she has. He always had those chubby cheeks to make him look a little bit younger. But Em is slimming down and just looks like a straight up toddler now.

I took her in for her 18 month check up on Thursday. I think the doctor said she looked great. I'm really not sure what the doctor said because Emma was completely crazy in there! She sat still for the exam but that was it. As soon as her doctor started talking to me she was off and running. It was actually a little embarrassing. But at least she wasn't screaming while kicking and hitting the doctor like Jake does. I wonder if I could hire someone to take the children to the doctor for me?

Anyway, here are the stats for toddler Emma.

Weight is 21 lbs 3 ounces. 10th percentile. This surprised me for some reason. I thought she was a little bigger than Jake at this age.

Height is 31 1/2 inches. Also, 10th percentile.

Head is the biggest part of her and is in the 75th percentile. Her stats are all looking a lot like Jake right now. We are destined to have small little monkeys with big heads. I love it!

The doctor did seem a little concerned about her vocabulary. Apparently, she should be saying somewhere between 10 and 25 words right now. I can only think of 6 or 7 that she says. But she talks all the time so we're really not that worried about it. We just can't understand what she's saying yet! And yes, everyone has told us they think she could talk if we just took the binky out of her mouth. But, sometimes a girl just needs her binky, okay? We love you little Emma! Can't wait for your next milestones.

Elmo's been saved!

Our church just completed building a beautiful outdoor baptismal. I wish I had a picture to show you but just picture a large circular pool surrounded by rock with cascading water flowing over the top. It's gorgeous. They have a cover for it. However, when church is in session the cover comes off. To show off its beauty I suppose.

I've already begun praying about the day we will stand beside this baptismal and watch Jake and Emma make a public committment of their faith in Jesus. I just never imagined that one of their "lovies" would beat them to the punch.

Imagine being a three year old walking outside by this large "pool". Imagine carrying one of your favorite stuffed toys with you as you pass by. Imagine being a child who is infatuated with the ocean and being someone who turns every toy he owns into an object that is "swimming in the ocean." Do you see where I'm going with this? I didn't get all of the details, but this is what I pieced together from Jake's Sunday school class. They went for a walk by the baptismal. Jake was carrying Elmo with him. Elmo took a flying leap into the baptismal. Someone rescued him. Elmo was drenched and it was recommended that I give him a turn in the washing machine when we got home. He smelled a little chlorine-y.

I've often thought that Jake is going to grow up to be an actor. He's just very dramatic. Now, I'm thinking maybe a preacher. I think I'll send a different toy with him next week and see if he baptizes it as well. Before long, his entire toy collection could be saved and he'll be well on his way to a very rewarding vocation.

When I'm stressed out...

I love to bake. I always have. It soothes me. Our life has seemed very busy now that Mother's Day Out has started up again. What's it going to be like when the kids go to school five days a week? I can't imagine. I keep toying with the idea of homeschooling, but that's a whole different post. Anyway, last Thursday I decided we were not going to leave the house for any reason. We watched movies together, read lots of books, played and sometimes fought. And we baked. I started out with these delicious pumpkin cream cheese muffins for breakfast. There's just something about the flavor of pumpkin or ginger right now. I think they make me think of fall even though it's still hotter than heck here.

After the muffins, I got out Pioneer Woman's famous cinammon roll recipe. Once I had a multitude of baked breakfast goods on hand we stopped baking. I wanted to make brownies that night but decided to hold off for a couple of days. I'm so glad I did. I just saw this recipe for marshmallow fudge bars on the Cookie Madness site and can't wait to give them a try tomorrow!

There's just something about having freshly baked goods sitting on the kitchen counter. It pleases me. It brings me comfort in an uncomfortable world. So I bake on.

Daddy diapering

Every now and then I have the opportunity to leave our coop and meet one of my friends out in public. The last two times I've gone somewhere I have come home to find Emma dressed solely in a diaper with a big piece of duck tape going around it holding it on. Apparently, she chooses to take off her diaper and make a big ole mess with her poop when I'm not home. Poor Mike. He may never let me leave the house again. Yesterday, while I was gone, he went to get Emma up after her nap and was greeted by her sitting in her crib with her shorts and diaper off. She was also sitting in a big pool of pee and had smeared poop all over her bed and the toys in her bed. These are the days he'll remember fondly when we're old, right? He did tell me the other day that someday when he's 90 years old I'll be changing his diapers. I had to remind him that when he's ninety I'll just be dead. So, it looks like I'll be getting out of all of the smeared poopy diapers in my lifetime. But, maybe he can get Emma to come over and take care of him if he keeps reminding her of her diaper adventures throughout life. Just a thought.

I never did get a great picture of the tape job. But, here is Emma all strapped up.