Week in Review

This last week has been a crazy one in Trey's development. Every day he adds a word or two to his ever-expanding vocabulary, he's doing great with a spoon now, he is playing and interacting with Abby a lot - when she lets him, and is starting to "read" books to himself! His latest words are: Rust(dog), Doods and Bell (cats), shoes, apple, watch, dance, bounce, sweatshirt and a few I can't remember right now. He has started to fake snore - so funny! He can follow directions pretty well. He wanted a hard-boiled egg yesterday and I asked him to get me a bowl and he opened up the kid drawer and there weren't any bowls clean so he brought me a cup instead. He can put most of his shapes in his shape sorter by himself and will put things away when asked. My baby is becoming a boy!

We let him sit at the table now instead of using his tray. Up next, the booster seat!

Applauding his awesome spoon skills!

Oh so cute!

The kids have been playing a lot of follow-the-leader type things, guess who the leader is?! Trey has discovered Abby's new play area between the couch and the wall and she has also taught him the super neat skill of crawling outside through the dog door, yikes.

I love it when they play so sweet!

I have managed to clean the house and keep it clean for a week now. That is a BIG deal if you know what the normal clutter level for my house is. Dishes have been done and the kitchen cleaned every day, laundry isn't piling up, and all the toys have been put away (5x a day, ugh!) and I owe it all to Shrek! The first Shrek movie was on tv the other day and the kids caught the last half of it and Trey was mesmerized! I recorded it the next time it was on so that we have it available whenever I need a few minutes to get something done. It is the only thing that holds Trey's attention for long. I'm pretty sure he doesn't even blink through the first half.

Eating lunch

Bobs for him, snack for her (different day than above!)

Watching Dad mow the lawn, how very interesting for the little guy!

Dancing is the latest craze to hit our house. The kiddos dance ALL THE TIME to any sort of music that's on. Lately they have been dancing more together, which works out sometimes but mostly Abby gets a little wild and spins Trey right into the ground. She has also started to breakdance, or at leat her version of it. Quite hilarious that girl is.

Abby has thrown out a couple cute things too this week. Instead of decorating she says decTorating, she told me in the car the other day that her "lips are getting real strong" whatever that means, and when there weren't any cows where we usually see them on our way into town she told me it was because they were all inside getting haircuts. I told her it was more likely that they were taking a nap or eating lunch and she said that she was pretty sure they were getting baths and haircuts. So there you go, strong lips, clean cows and some dectorating, what else do you need in a day?!

Anyone need a laugh??

Someone told me about this site today and I checked it out and laughed my behind off! Anyone that has ever been to Walmart will so get it!

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com

Go Dawgs!!

Time to bust out the new Husky duds on the future UW starting quarterback!

Working on his hand-off technique

Look at that form!!

Go deep!!

And as a bonus he can tackle too!!!

He makes his dad proud!!

Because they're cute!

All snuggled up for his morning snack.

Always eating!

Cutest chipmunk in town!

Rusty followed him around until he spit the egg out 5 minutes later. I think Rusty ate it before it hit the floor. Sometimes I love having a dog

So tired after a trip to Target!

Buddy getting in on the action

She loves it when olives are on the menu!

Early bird gets the....

....grumpy mom! Abby is such an early riser these days. I think maybe it's payback for being such an excellent sleeper as a baby. She is up somewhere between 5-5:30 EVERY DAY!!! Seems like the older she gets the earlier she's up. I thought that wasn't supposed to happen until you were old but maybe she's just special. She always comes in and asks if she can play something or watch cartoons and every time I tell her that she can do either one any time without waking me up to ask. Then she disappears for a few minutes and then comes back saying she's hungry. I tell her it's too early to eat, she gets pissy and loud and gets in trouble and sent back to her room, where she stays, sometimes. Mostly she's in and out of her room and mine, talking, crying, fussing, playing, reading, singing, talking, talking, talking.... I've tried every parenting trick, every bribe, every threat and nothing, NOTHING makes her stay in her room. We've tried putting baby locks on her door and all she does is scream, which wakes Trey up and leaves me with TWO unhappy people. Once we head downstair however it's all sunshine and rainbows for her. The solution seems to be that someone (ME!) should just get up with her at the unholy hour of 5 and take her downstairs. Good for her, not so good for me. Every day is a long day now.

Trey is my fun guy right now though. He kind of makes up for his sister's willfullness/stubbornness and general attitude with his spunk and his charm and his neverending smiles! He's learned some new words this week. "Up" and "Out" are newly found fun words that he figured out actually mean something! He also knows "horse", go figure. He has lots of baby words, mama, dada, baba, cheese, thank you and occasionally please. He knows what I'm telling him most of the time now and can follow commands well. He's starting to get into books, especially animal books and knows what sound a lot of animals make. He's jabbering all the time, most of it nonsense but it's fun to listen too. He still is pretty destructive and can get into EVERYTHING. Today I found him eating my cookie out of a ziplock bag, plus he found a red sharpie marker and wrote on himself, ripped up two books and got a big ol' goose egg on his head from the underside of the table. And that was all in the last few hours. He loves Abby's toys (much to jerry's dismay!) and if you ask him what he's wearing or tell him you like his outfit he'll twirl around for you. He has discovered a love of dance and has three moves: bopping, twirling and quick feet. He loves to run and explore, especially outside and is just ALL BOY!

All Dressed Up

Jerry's grandma passed away last week and her funeral was on Friday. Wedding and funerals are two places I will not take my kids to right now. Neither can be quiet and one won't sit still for beans! But I did get the kids dressed up for the reception part and took them to that. Informal, other kids there, and food...all a plus. And since I rarely get the kids out of their jammies, much less into non-play clothes, the mamarazzi was out in full force!

I love that Abby has hair long enough to do something with. I think this is my best work so far!

My beautiful blond babies!

Cheeseball

Abby going in for what I was informed afterward was a Princess kiss...

...a big Princess kiss

A little off the mark...so much cuter that way

Oh, Trey. He's got smooth moves already. Cute with your sister when you're 1. I think I'm in trouble when he's older....daddys keep your daughters away!! :)

Bumpa and his Abby (cutest pic ever right??!!!!!)

random pics

Lots of funny stories from the past few weeks that should have been blogged about. Alas, I have been too busy being a human jungle gym, maid, chef, bath-giver, etc. to get a blog written too often. And now I've forgotten a lot of those funny moments so I'm posting some pics instead.

Abby's first Lite Brite picture (on the original LB)

Oh Buddy.

Ab's first headband

Buddy's first headbandCan't leave Daddy out!

Boys in sparkly headbands...lucky.

So happy waking up at 5;15 every day.

Not so happy getting up early.

Buddy loves to hide between, behind, under anything

A face any mother could love!!

A true Gardner

They got out all my tablecloths and placemats and Abby made Trey a bed to sleep in