Few and far between ...

Sometimes I get frustrated when I visit my regular blogs I watch and they haven’t been updated in a while. Then I realize that I never update mine, so I’m not one to “talk.” So … here is a little update.

Mikey will be 4 years old in less than a week. The other morning he called his cereal “Honey Boats of Goat” (it was Honey Bunches of Oats). He is very strong-willed, that is for sure. He is a very good boy, but he just wants to argue his point and debate every little fact he doesn’t like. For example,
Mommy: “That’s the end of the book.”
Mikey: “No, it’s not.”
Mommy: “Yes it is. Look, you can see that it is the end.”
Mikey: “No, it’s not the end.”
Of course this is because he doesn’t want to do whatever it is I told him needed to be done after the book (e.g. it’s nap time, it’s time to clean up, whatever it might be). I love it, though. I’m so glad he already knows he can think for himself. And he usually makes really good decisions. He really is a good helper to everyone in the family – he always wants everyone around him to be happy. He sticks up for Travis – whenever Travis gets in trouble, Mikey says, “Travis didn’t mean to, Mommy. It’s okay.” – even if Mikey is the one “hurt” by what Travis did. That makes me feel good about how he’ll stick up for his brother throughout their lives.

Travis is smack in the middle of the “terrible twos.” He’ll be 3 in February, and he is starting to get a little bit better – but, I swear, some days with him it feels like a day-long tantrum, with small breaks for meals and nap time. But, he gives the best hugs and kisses. All the bad moments seem so far away when he looks up at me with sleepy eyes and says, “Good mowneen (morning), Momma.” Lately, whenever he goes down for a nap he wants to put a toy down for a nap, too. He sets up a little blanket, covers up the toy, and tells it to have a good nap. Then, he loves to “wake up” the toy after nap time. He also loves to try to scare me – he’ll come around the corner, roar and then immediately ask, “Scare you?”

Charlotte is counting down the next couple of weeks until she turns 1 year old. We are leaving for Disneyland next Friday for our “tradition” of celebrating the kids’ first birthdays at Disneyland. We did it for both Mikey and Travis, so we don’t want to leave Charlotte out. Plus, we haven’t had a vacation at all since Travis’ first birthday trip to Disneyland, so we are REALLY looking forward to this. Anyway … Charlotte is a pro at sitting up and rolling over, but she doesn’t crawl yet. She just doesn’t seem that interested. But, I’m happy – I’ll take it as long as I can get it, because once they start going they never stop! Ha!! She has said her “official” first words: “uh-oh” (the same as Travis’ first words), which often follows her flipping off the light switches while sitting in her high chair. She also attempts “meow, meow” when she sees the kitty outside in the yard. Her favorite thing these days is to have raspberry contents with Travis – they’ll sit and spit and spit, and laugh and laugh. She also greatly anticipates her goodnight kisses from her big brothers – she smiles at them and you can see her “get ready” for the kisses and hugs. Oh, and she also waves now – her sweet little hands both get going, and she smiles so big while her little hands wiggle.

Mike and I are just fine. Same old – still busy, still madly in love (we met 10 years ago this month!!). Nothing much to report other than we’re SO HAPPY the fence and sprinklers in the back are finally done and that Mike was able to get grass seed down late last week. We hope to return from Disneyland to a nice, slightly “green fuzzy” backyard.

On to the good stuff … the pictures:



Dinner at the park:


Travis the banana:

The picture Mikey drew of himself with Travis:

There's nothing like an Airhead after a pb&j:

To see this picture, you'd never think this is my daughter - she looks nothing like me, right? Well, I should scan on my baby picture ... because she looks EXACTLY like me (except I had blonde hair and blue eyes, which subsequently turned green around my 2nd birthday).