Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day! We are in Lookout Mountain, Georgia overlooking the grand city of Chattanooga, Tennessee where Liz and Matt live. This is our first trip down, and it has been a wonderfully relaxing weekend, at least after we arrived. Driving down was a bit dicey. A couple weeks ago Austin said he was nervous about Molly and the 8 hour-plus drive. I told him that Molly has never cried in the car and she'd do fine. Ha! Sometimes my husband is right.

Molly celebrated the trip by screaming. She is a feisty little thing and got it in her mind that she did not want to be in her car seat and did not want to sleep... and she expressed her opinion at top volume for most of the drive, just wailing. At one point Tucker was so sick of her crying that he decided to join in and hysterically screamed as well (sort of in jest, thankfully, but that only made the situation a little bit better). It was so ridiculous I ended up taking a few videos of the car ride just for posterity, which there is no need to share unless you enjoy the sound of a baby crying. A lot.

Ben came with us on the trip, and has been the highlight of the vacation for cousin Emery. She crawls around the house after him and says "da B" ("the Ben"). She is very respectful of him, almost in awe, but is totally, completely obsessed. She will need to come live with us in the summers as her parents say there is no dog in her future at home.

In other news about Ben, he is too old to jump into the back of the car, so we have to lift him up and down every time. He doesn't like this. The second morning we were here, he snookered someone into letting him outside to do his business and took off to explore the neighborhood. This was highly out of character as he hadn't even eaten his breakfast. I guess he is having as much fun here as we are.


Other highlights: a hike, a party yesterday (the girls wore matching dresses courtesy of Henny), and visiting downtown Chattanooga. Fun!!! You really need to check out the picture of Austin and the kids on the hike--wearing Molly in the front pack while having Tucker ride on his shoulders. Pretty impressive.

Recent pics

Kiddos hanging out at church...




Mad baby!

Kite festival





Ben doing some babysitting

Quote of the Day

"Let's stay in bed all day, snuggling like puppies!" -Tucker

"This looks like chocolate." -Tucker, holding a piece of ginger

Quote of the Day

"My tummy hurts. I think if I watch TV it will feel better."
-Tucker

Kite festival

Yesterday the kids and I went to a kite festival while Austin worked all day. We had a good time and I have pictures to post later. Tucker was a lot more interested in the moon bounces and picnicking than actually watching or flying kites, and we had a fun morning. When Austin arrived home, he asked Tucker what his favorite part of the kite festival was. Immediately Tucker said, "I LOVED the bathrooms!" No discussion of moon bounce or the bubble machine or the new playground or the kites or our picnic--nope, Tucker loved the port-a-potties.

Some other endearing things Tucker has started doing:
*When someone calls, Tucker wants to speak with them, no matter who it is. If it's someone he actually knows, he gets the phone and runs away with it so he can have a long and private conversation.
*Tucker got into a phase recently where he spent a lot of time making snacks. He would get a container and go into the pantry and mix together as many different snacky things as he could find, stir them with a spoon and divide it all up into a bunch of different containers. Ben liked this phase a lot.
*Whenever I ask Tucker what he dreamed about he always replies "making muffins!" and then promptly asks if we can make some.
*Tucker loves mailing letters right now. He has been stealing so many of my envelopes I finally got him some little ones of his own at the dollar store. He stuffs them full of paper and other random things and I'm pretty sure he will find a way to get them into the mailbox.
*When we go on walks and there is no mail, Tucker is so disappointed that we have gotten into a routine of finding a special treasure--usually a stick or a pine cone--to put into the mailbox so it won't be empty. I think our mailman is probably confused. A couple months ago Tucker fervently wanted to paint our mailbox so it could be "beau-T-full" but thankfully seems to have forgotten about this project for the moment.
*Tucker loves getting his own cup of tea in the mornings. He specifies what kind of tea it is. Today he is drinking "Daddy Tea mixed with Big Boy Tea" but sometimes he wants "Mommy Tea" instead.
*Tucker loves investigating his closet and pulling out clothes that I've squirreled away for when he's bigger. He has found some car pajamas and a car sweatshirt, new khakis, new shoes... and each of these things are so much more special since he discovered them. Of course, we never know what he might be wearing when we go into his room after rest time.
*Tucker LOVES the dustbuster and the vacuum. He loves the vacuum's "magic wand" attachment and is on a personal mission with the dustbuster to rid our house of stinkbugs.

Tucker is also in a phase where he has been doing some not-so-endearing things as well. The past couple months have been very challenging for us in terms of discipline. Tucker is focused, reserved, exuberant, cautious... and very strong willed. Recently we have removed almost all of Tucker's toys in the house to get his attention regarding some major behavior things, and I have learned that he is also very resourceful. The toys have been gone for at least a week and a half and although he's noticed, he has had no lack of things to do. Everything that boy puts his hands on--Austin's tools, cooking stuff, Molly's toys, Molly herself, Ben's toys, the dustbuster, the vacuum, cleaning supplies, gardening things, CDs (even without a CD player), his own clothes, the chickens, and especially paper and writing utensils--becomes a toy.

In other news, Ben surprised me this morning with throwing up a good sized piece of gravel/small rock--probably 3/4 of an inch by an inch and a half. He has eaten and thrown up many, many different things but a rock is new. It must've felt like having a pill stuck in his throat, except for the fact it was about 50 times the size and sharp.

B

Tucker loves to begin words with a "b" regardless of whether they start with it or not.

Here are some of the b-words he's been using lately:
b-monitor (monitor)
b-mote (remote)
b-nelope (Penelope, a girl in his class)
b-grola (granola)
b-nilla (vanilla)
b-flower (flower)
b-parade (parade)
b-tivity (nativity)

Not sure why everything is better with a b, but apparently it is, and I never correct him because it's so darn cute.

Quote of the Day

Tucker and Austin are driving together and they pass a port-a-potty by the side of the road.

Tucker: I LOVE those potties! They are my favorite!

Hmmmm... I think we need to give Tucker some lessons in class.

Quote of the Day

"Someday, Mommy, will we go to all the libraries in the whole wide world?" -Tucker

Quote of the Day

Tucker runs into the kitchen and says to me, "I was making Molly into a cake!"
Tucker runs back to Molly and says, "I'm going to eat you right up, little cake!"

The pictures below are of Molly as a cake.