Organizing Chaos: February 2013

Monday, February 25, 2013

Entertaining Themselves

The kids always find a way to entertain themselves.

They found the sled in the garage. Who needs snow?!

Landon pushing Jillian down the hill.

Landon pulling Jillian back up the hill.

Jillian attempting to push Landon.....

But falling over instead......

And crying about it as Landon tries to make the sled scoot down the hill, while Jillian is still entangled in the rope.

Landon being a rock star.....

He's wearing his headphones that go with his LeapFrog Leapster, a headband made from a newborn hat from the hospital, while singing into Jillian's pretty-pink-light-up-princess-wand.

Oh yes, this was one intense song of jibberish.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Two Ways to Deal With a Bad Guy

It is Friday.
I have cleaned my kitchen like a maniac this morning.
I am taking a break and surfing on pinterest.
The kids are playing with cars and getting along well during this activity.

I note that Landon has migrated into the dining room while Jillian is still in the living room.

I hear Landon engaged in play.....

"Die Bad Guy! Die! Die Bad Guy! Die!"

He repeats this, almost like a chant.

A minute or so later I hear Jillian playing.....

"Sorry Bad Guy. Sorry. Didn't mean to. Sorry."

(note that "s" is pronounced with an "h" sound.)

Just wanted to record this observation for future reference. See if this is any indication of their personalities, differences in conflict management, etc.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Jillian Turned 2

Jillian's birthday is New Year's Day. When I write her birthday on forms, it is 1-1-11. I giggle everytime I write it. And I went completely natural-----so no, it wasn't planned for her to be born on that day.

One day in December we were driving around and I told her that her birthday was coming up soon and that we'd have a party for her. She said, "Cool." I think that's the only time in her life she said "cool" without being prompted or copying someone else saying it. Cracked me up.

When Christmas was all over and we were done talking about Jesus' birthday and Daddy's birthday, I started telling her we were going to have a party for her, and cake, and presents. She said, "Happy Birthday to me?! YAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!!!" Cutest tone of voice and inflection ever.

At one point she asked, "Happy Birthday Yandon?"
And I said, "No. Happy Birthday Jilly!"
She just smiled and it quite obvious she was impressed and excited something was "all about her" for once.

Picture of her little cupcake on her actual birthday.

Just us at our house.

Also, I had spent 3 hours at CHOA Urgent Care that morning because Landon came down with Croup after our New Year's celebration.

We had her birthday party a week later. I tried to keep it as small as possible. She's not a fan of big crowds.

She truly LOVES her Papa. But had just woken up from a nap and people were here.

She just couldn't be excited when waking up to people in the house.

This is her waiting for her cake to be brought over to her so we could sing and blow out candles.

Seriously, she just couldn't handle the attention.

The cake was brought over and she perked up......slightly.

Homemade cookie cake. Well, I mean I scooped pre-made dough out of a giant bucket, smooshed it out on the pan, and turned the oven on. That counts as homemade when I'm required to bake something.

When we first gave her piece to her, she stared at it. She then requested a fork. Miss Priss can't get her hands dirty you know.

Overall, she did much better when we did very small gatherings......just us four at the house, just us and my parents at their house. My visions of future crazy New Year's Eve birthday parties, too many tween girls at my house, etc. were probably unfounded. I'm thinking this girl's headed for small birthday celebrations, a friend or two over for the night, that kind of thing.

Happy Birthday Jilly Sue!

You're Two!!

**Also, I'd like some points for being a mom-of-a-girl. I dressed her in a pinkish outfit and put a bow in her hair. For anyone who has known me for any length of time, these two things are big accomplishments for me.**

Sunday, February 10, 2013

To Remember #11

The house is neater and cleaner more often these days. The kids can help clean up the clutter and are excited to get stickers when they help. They also like "cleaning to make Daddy happy." Important milestone.....we're less and less headed for the show "hoarders."
Jillian constantly asks "why."
Landon can count to thirty pretty well and Jillian can count to ten pretty well.
Jillian says, "Cudder me Mama. Cudder." aka "Cuddle with me Mama. Cuddle."
Jillian has been repeating everything Landon says for almost a year now. Seriously, just yesterday, Landon asked for the FIRST TIME why Jillian says everything he says. I told him, "She's still learning how to talk. And she's a little sister. That's just what little sisters do." He said, "Oh. Okay."
Jillian will allow a bow to be in her hair as long as we're not in the car. She still hates ponytails and pigtails.
Jillian can't say her "S's" or her "v/f" sounds. So I often hear, "Help! Hombody help! Help! Homboday help!" And "huperman will hate you."
Landon used to ask for PB&J for breakfast and lunch. He now has informed me peanut butter tastes bad. Jillian used to eat bananas for every snack. She now tells me they are icky.
Jillian isn't loyal too long to any stuffed animal or doll. A few months ago she was clinging to Susie the doll. She now launches Susie across the room if I try to give her at bedtime. Currently Jillian is cuddling with "baby lion" or "bunny lovie."
Jillian often wakes me up by poking my forehead with her pointer finger repeatedly, until I mumble something to her.
Both kids hate it when the other one is sleeping. They can't stand to be without the other one when they first wake up.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Christmas 2012

Way past due......but here is my post about Christmas......

For most of the past six years we've had Christmas gatherings planned every weekend in December. We have six family gatherings, plus our own, making a total of seven Christmases to get to (mind you this does not include work-related or friend-related events). Somehow, the Scheduling Gods smiled down on us this year and we managed to slam out four of the six, plus our own household Christmas, plus Mass, in four days!!! All right in a row. So it was four days of Christmas madness instead of our traditional whole-month of Christmas madness. And this was truly a God-send because someone in our family-of-four was sick every day from December 1st to January 5th....so four-days in a row was much better than all-spread-out.

Onto the pictures and total month summary.......

Gramma came over to help decorate the tree.

Many of the ornaments were hung facing into the tree.

Rookie mistakes or well-intentioned children attempting to give the ornaments a view of the grandeur of our

hand-me-down-saved-from-a-trash-pile fake tree.

The best picture of the four of us.

*sigh*

Landon got some Hulk gloves.

Nothing could be more appropriate.

Jillian got several babies. This one from Gigi and Grandpa Aven.

See the intensity of her excitement?!

Happy Birthday to Jesus (and Josh)!!!

This year we opted for Christmas Day Mass instead of the childrens' Mass on Christmas Eve.

BEST decision ever. Church was not crowded at all. No craziness in the parking lot or hoarding seats or ill-tempered "C&E" church goers.

After Mass we decided to try some pretty pictures of the kids all dressed up on the very prettily decorated altar. Please just take a moment to set the scene in your mind.......very cheery Christmas Day Mass goers, arriving early for the next Mass, gathering in the front pews, my children on the altar, facing the pews filling with people, my children noticing people oooohhhing and awwwwing at them, flirting with them, .........