Recent Pictures

Life is good, but very full these days.  Acutally, when has it NOT been full since I’ve had kids?  Especially since I’ve been working on getting some writing work going, I find lots more to do in my free time than I ever can get done.

Recent highlights: Tucker graduating from preschool, complete with cap and gown.  During the ceremony, Molly discovered that the bathroom in the church had an Elmo potty seat and spent the whole time trying to go potty… again… and again… and again.  It’s hard to play chicken with your two year-old about using the potty.

The kids’ cousins visited, and Henny gave Molly and Emery the same matching ballerina dress.  They felt very pretty—and were very cute too.

Molly and Tucker love to play together these days, and often entertain each other for hours.  It is awesome, and makes time around the house really fun.  They play in the sand together, paint together, create forts, color, play "night-night time”…. 

At 2 and a half, Molly is really talking a lot these days, and it makes life with her a lot quieter (less screaming) because it is easier for her to tell us what she wants.  She is at the stage that everything she says is cute.  When she’s in a good mood, she has a beautiful laugh and also loves to squeal with delight.  She is obsessed with coloring and colors so meticulously that I wouldn’t be able to tell who colored a picture, her or Tucker.  She goes through her coloring books page by page until she has done every single one.  She also loves to watch me and Austin color, and is very good at telling us where/what/when we need to be coloring on the page.  It is hard to read her books before rest time because she just wants to color with us instead.  She can also buckle herself into her carseat all by herself—a very useful trait, though sometimes very slow.  She is as independent as I was at that age, and seems to be a leader.  She is also our risk taker.  Today we found her after rest time sitting on top of her dresser, with all the drawers pulled out, putting on tights.  (There’s a reason we bolted that dresser to the wall.)

Playing T-ball

Molly is a slugger!  She is amazing!  She can even hit wiffle balls out of the air--a new trick Tucker has just learned too.

Recent Quotes of the Day

Me (to Austin, while we’re watching golf): Is that Justin Rose or is that Adam Scott?
Tucker: Did you just ask if that was Batman?

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Tucker (to Molly): Are you going to give me a spanking?

Bathtime with Tucker… and Clarence

Clarence just bounded down the stairs, soaking wet and totally hyper, racing around the room and climbing on furniture.  I went to investigate and found the bathroom completely covered in water, and Tucker getting out of the bath.  Upon further investigation we have confirmed that dog and boy just bathed together.  A good time was had by all.  (But not by the bathroom floor, which was under water.)  I am seriously doubting the hygiene level of this house.

Go Orioles!

 

Both Austin and Tucker are Orioles this Spring since Austin is helping coach the team.  Tucker insists that he is not playing baseball, and makes me say T-ball every single time.  His first game he ran to third base instead of first, but this last one he went to first every time!  I have yet to see any of the kids actually throw to each other AND catch it, which makes getting out in the game very unlikely unless one kid gets the ball and runs to the base.  But I’m not sure how much Tucker is even aware of the possibility of getting out, or that that is the goal as a fielder.  Nuances.

Clarence the Big Tongue

I’m pretty sure if Clarence had an Indian name it would be Big Tongue.

Happy Easter!

 

Quote of the Day

“What is that smell?!  It smells soooo good, like apple pie or something.” –Tucker, walking into the room after I had been using bleach. 

Quote of the Day

“Sorry, Daddy, me do it.” Molly while putting away silverware

SuperBat Man

These days you can rarely catch Tucker without a super hero costume on.  Even if it appears that he does not have a super hero costume on, he often has it on underneath his clothes and as soon as he walks in the door at home, he sheds his ordinary exterior right on the kitchen floor to become Batman or Superman.  He never wants to wear a jacket over these costumes because it impedes the flapping of the cape.  In fact, the other day it was a 33 degree rain outside and I caught him running out the door in a short sleeve/shorts Batman costume.  I managed to convince him to put on a long sleeve shirt and pants underneath his costume, and he happily played outside for a relatively long time in the 33 degree rain.

My Go Rocket Moon

Molly is talking a lot these days, relatively understandably, but sometimes you need some context.  Like yesterday, I was pushing her in the jogging stroller and stopped so I could hear what she was urgently telling me.  It sounded a lot like “my go rocket” – and it turns out I had heard completely right.  Apparently, she had tilted the shade back so she was staring up at the sky and could see a crescent moon even in the daylight, and was thinking about going there.  She later clarified, “My go rocket moon!”  She wanted to take me, Austin and Tucker but she did NOT want Clarence to come.

Molly also calls everything hers.  When we pick Tucker up at the preschool that she will go to next year, she spends most of the trip to and from clarifying that this is “my school” NOT “Tucker’s school.”

Florida Pictures

 

 

 

Recent Pictures

Molly is turning into a big girl these days with shoulder length hair, a big girl bed, and very infrequent naps now.  (Personally, it seems like it’s too soon for her to be giving up her nap, but it does have the advantage of her going to bed early!)  She is still a force and it often seems like Tucker is begging her to play with him, not vice versa!  They love to play the “night-night” game where they roll around in Tucker’s jumping nook and don’t sleep.  They also have recently started imitating snakes together, and creeping into the room while hissing.  Tucker’s favorite game right now is superhero, and Molly dons her cape and enthusiastically says “super hero!” too.  Molly is still obsessed with Elmo, she does not like Clarence our new dog (because he steals food from her and because she likes to pull rank and boss someone around), and insists on diapering her dolls and dressing them in sleepers and tucking them in beside her when she sleeps.  She is fascinated by "boo-boos” and has her own box of bandaids so she can apply one to whatever imaginary boo boo she decides she has.  She also likes to put her hand over her eyes and pretends people who are looking at her don’t exist if she feels on the spot.  She loves doing errands with me and will ask to go to the store, totally out of the blue, just because apparently the grocery store and dollar store are so much fun.  Molly is at a delightful age right now; her language is exploding, she doesn’t need quite as much supervision, and she can be so enthusiastic and smiley and happy.

And here are some pictures of Tucker and Clarence digging.  (Tucker frantically went out after church to dig with him, hence the blazer.)

 

  

 

Tucker has brought some sweet things home from school recently, like this paper on MLK day that says his dream is for everyone to love God.  Below, he also states that his chosen profession is to be an ice and water maker.  But he changed his mind recently in a new sheet that came home saying he actually wants to be a priest and that his favorite thing about himself is that God made him.  Awwwwww.

We are reading the Narnia series, and are on our fifth book.  Tucker LOVES this series and begs for multiple chapters to be read at once.

Tucker also is obsessed with super heroes.  He has taken to wearing his super man pajamas over other clothes so it will look like he has bigger muscles.  I saw some paper falling out of his outfit yesterday and asked what that was about—the crumpled paper was also about making him appear more muscular.  Crazy that a 5 year-old thinks like this.

Otherwise, Tucker’s main interest remains crafts.  It takes him eons after his rest time to clean his room because of his propensity to cut paper up into really small pieces, and how hard it is for him to part with any of those pieces.  He also loves to wet paper and make little balls of paper, which he delights in showing us as his treasure.  He recently has been explaining to me that tape turns to plastic under water but turns back into tape after it dries.  The other week he went into the yard and found some bits of paint that had peeled off the roof, a crushed whiffle golf ball and a couple other random odds and ends.  He put them all in a little bag and declared them his treasure which he displayed proudly and has tucked away into a secure location.

Clarence the Chewer

Clarence is on both of our bad lists today.  First he ate all the oatmeal out of the pantry yesterday and experienced massive indigestion two nights ago that resulted in lots of clean up.  Yesterday he ate lots of uncooked old rice out of the compost bin and experienced massive indigestion last night that resulted in lots of clean up.

But how can you not love that sweet face?

It is strange having a young dog in the house after Ben’s 12 year-old mellowness.  Plus, Ben was never as high-energy as Clarence, even at Clarence’s age.  And Ben also came to us fully trained.  Clarence, on the other hand, steals food from kids, counter surfs, pantry surfs, and chews, and chews, and chews.  So far an Elmo spoon has gotten decapitated, many writing implements will never again see the light of day, a doll’s hands have gotten chewed off, superman and batman have both died horrific deaths, a retractable leash has been chewed in two… and more, I’m sure.  But who’s counting?  (Though I do have to say, for all his faults, he doesn’t eat poop, or socks, which is very nice.)

But he is just the best as well.  He chooses a belly rub over his food first thing in the morning, and will curl up with his head in my lap.  Ben had a concept of personal space on the couch… not Clarence.  If I am napping, he will happily nap lying on top of my legs.  He also lies at Tucker’s feet in the car, and will dig holes with Tucker for an hour in the yard.  Boy and dog together is just the sweetest combination.

Clarence runs like a deer, with amazing speed and in leaps and bounds.  He enjoys retrieving a whiffle ball from batting practice and manages to thwart the garden fence and get stuck inside at least a few times a week.  He has also figured out the invisible fence and took himself for a walk to the river today—think we will need to be turning up the voltage on that one. He also has the longest tongue and is partial to giving kisses, so watch out!