Bouncing on the aerator!

I was resting on the couch while the girls napped and Lucas played in the backyard. All of sudden I felt I just had to check on him. I walked out into the backyard and didn't see him right away. But all of a sudden I heard him! Earsplitting shrieking and crying, making my mommy blood run cold.
Rushing around I met him as he raced towards the house, his poor little face scraped and starting to swell.
"What happened Lucas??" "I'll show you", he sobbed out. I couldn't piece together quite what had happened until when Rick got home he had Lucas demonstrate what he'd been doing.
First he's hooked the aerator over the fence. Then climbing aboard he began bouncing.
Until the fence broke and launched the broken piece into his face. I'm really grateful it missed his eye.
This picture does not to the damage justice. Poor lil guy.

Spring is in the Hair

Bike ridin' on Sabbath

When Lucas was about 22 months of age, we bought him his skuut bike. This quickly became his motorcycle and favorite mode of transportation on walks. He could balance and glide so well after about a week of practice.
About a month ago, we decided that Lucas could exclusively use his bicycle and that Abrianna might enjoy the skuut bike. I was wrong. She was afraid of the thing. But today we thought we'd give it another try, taking both of our children to Fort Walla Walla after lunch for some practice. Lucas loves the BMX track and the skate park. Such a variety over the same old boring trail or driveway at home.
At first, Abrianna really struggle to even keep the bike upright and her hands positioned correctly on the handle grips. Then she went from being afraid of the thing to thinking she should be allowed on the track and the skate park.
After about an hour, we came home and put our children to bed. Abrianna had a 2 hour nap! Wonderful. Surprisingly Lucas just rested, never slept. I really expected him to sleep after all the physical exertion at the track.
We had breakfast for supper- waffles, applesauce, and fried potatoes. Then out for another family walk this time on the trail.
Abrianna is such a girl! She had to keep watching the scenery and stopping the bike to pick up rocks or flowers. Finally I insisted she either keep going while riding or ride in the stroller. We let her ride the bike about a half mile. She did great. No more difficulty holding it upright. In fact, now she can get it up by herself if it tips over.
She was keenly disappointed when we insisted she have to ride in the stroller on the return trip. I'm hoping by the time Abigayle makes her appearance in about 6 weeks that I can simply put her in my Moby Wrap and let my older two ride their bikes!

Bed head

I've been looking forward to Abrianna hair growing long enough for me to put into piggy tails and braids. It's finally long enough for the piggy tails. The down side of this is her bed head when she wakes up in the morning or after a nap. What do you think?

Are you poopy?

Dialogue
Me, "Abrianna, are you poopy?"
Abrianna, "No, Jojo poopy!"
Me, "Come here Jojo and let me check your diaper. Yep, you're poopy! Abrianna, let me check your diaper.
Abrianna, " No poopy!". What do you know. She was right.

Tweezers needed

Last night while reading stories to my children, Abrianna was playing with a tiny piece of toilet paper and had tucked it up her nose.
Awhile later, when getting her ready to tuck into bed, I noticed the inside of her nose looked strange. Upon closer examination, I found it was stuffed way up high with toilet paper. It didn't seem to bother her.
She cooperated very nicely while used tweezers to extract it. My children's inventiveness for mischief amazes me at times.

In other news, Abrianna said a 3- word sentence today, "please help me!" as she had gotten her stroller stuck while pushing her babies around.

While I was TRYING to sleep

Whew! What a night! I only missed seeing the 10 o'clock and 2 o' clock hours on the clock due to a stuffy nose, dry mouth, and restless little ones.
Finally they were out in the living room playing with Grandpa Richard while I attempted to sneak in a bit more rest.
Suddenly a voice pierces my groggy mind, " Rachel! Abrianna's go a mess out here!" To which I replied, "Peanuts?" Oh, that would've been an easy mess to clean.
Instead Abrianna was once again Miss capability. She had taken off her jammie pants, removed her full poopy diaper, plopping it into the toilet, gone to her room and come out with a clean cloth diaper.
It didn't take too long to clean up the mess. Daddy thought it was funny. I thought I just wanted to go back to bed-which I did for awhile.
Fortunately she hasn't pulled the diaper thing very frequently.

Biscuit Mmmmm!

Mmmm Biscuit!

Look I got up here all by myself with the aid of that stool.

Okay, maybe I wasn't so hungry. Oh well, it's fun and it'll give momma something else to do.

Spiders!!!

About a week ago, I was filling the tub for bath time. Unbeknown est to me a spider was about to meet his demise.
My children, in the tub, spotted the drowning bug. Shrieking in terror they scrambled pell mell out the the tub.
I scooped the poor dead thing out and threw it in the sink. It took a few minutes to convince them that it was not going to share the rest of their bath.
You'd think that was the end of the incidence. Alas, it is not! Abrianna has the memory of an elephant. Ever since that fateful day, at the mention of bath time, she erupts into tears. She respects me enough to obey albeit reluctantly and will stay in the bath tub until I give her the okay to get out. But she cries the entire bath.
Lucas hasn't helped matters by declaring there are spiders in there- just to make her cry!! GRRRR!
I've tried talking to her, distracting her, and singing to her. The singing helps some. Do any of the rest of you moms have great ideas on how to help her overcome this new fear and return to enjoying her baths?
All advice welcome!

Picnic in the Park

Gorgeous! That is the word that describes the glorious sunshine, calm winds, no clouds and warmer temperatures of yesterday.
Spring fever had struck our home. What to do? How about packing sandwiches, water, stroller and heading to Pioneer park?
Lucas was ecstatic! He sat in the living room singing at the top of his lungs about going to the park.
After fixing our lunch I stuck my head in the van. Shoot! Abrianna's car seat has made it's way to Richland in the car with daddy.

I told Lucas we probably couldn't go now. He erupted into disappointed tears. Oh dear! What to do? I choose to be a creative and irresponsible momma, taking Abrianna's booster seat from the table and used it as a booster seat for Lucas. Lucas seat became Abrianna's and Jojo used her seat as usual. I drove VERY CAREFULLY the approximately 2 miles to the park.

Spreading a quilt on the warm grass in the glorious sunshine, I passed out sandwiches. Jojo was so excited to be toddling free gnawing on a crust of bread. Lucas and Abrianna set to the serious business of polishing off sandwiches, apples, and mini cupcakes while trying to decide how threatening the buzzing honey bee was to them. I simply asked them to make sure not to eat it. That may seem a strange request to some. Miss bee kept landing on and tasting my sandwich.

Lucas and I put the picnic quilt and remnants of our lunch back in the van. The girls rode in the stroller while Lucas walked beside me.
There were a fair amount of ducks in the pond. Now Lucas knows the difference between the male and female ducks.
There is a nice little kids play gym set Lucas and Abrianna played on. Abrianna, of course, shows know fear when copying her big brother, scrambling up the slides and sliding down on her own. I had to keep insisting that she slide on her bottom and not face first on her tummy. Jojo was well occupied in the swing, unless I didn't talk to her enough.
We spent a few minutes on the big play set. I set Abrianna up near the top of the tall slide. Low and behold, down she slid, BY HERSELF! I caught her. There are reasons why she breaks bones.
On the way back across the park, we paused for several minutes by the ox and wagon statue waiting our turn to climb on it.
Lucas scrambled all the way up onto the ox's back without assistance. He is growing up so fast.

It's a balancing act to try to let him do what he's capable of and not allowing him to do what he THINKS he's capable of doing. Can be dangerous when it's trying to warm food on the the stove top- spaghetti noodles, or want to cut bread with a knife.

Our adventure lasted just about an hour and a half of filling little love cups. This is something I need to make time for more often. The down side is that I was exhausted the rest of the day. I forget how much energy it takes to be pregnant.

God blessed me though last night with children that BOTH slept through the night. Neither one is up yet. I'm rejuvenated now.