Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

I am making a REAL goal of blogging more often. It is a crime that I am not recording the things that happen in this house on a daily, if not weekly basis in order to look back on when the kids grow up.

Things here have been busy, but good. I have all the kids on the same nap schedule... so I usually have at least an hour and a half to get things done around here. I need to use that time one day a week to write.

Let's start with Jack:

This morning, we were playing restaurant in the basement. Jack and Mallie were walking around with their chefs' hats on taking orders. Mallie strictly directed me to my seat by yelling 'MA MA!!!!' and pointing to the bench where I was so be seated. Then Jack told me the restaurant was called "Jack Jack" and asked if I would like a 'Haco", which is how he says 'Taco'.

Other Jackism's these days: he's been learning about 'Who-Hi-Hee" in school (Hawaii),

He and Tommy were talking the other day and Jack told him "You're my best guy Dad", to which Tommy replied, "Thanks, you're my best guy, too Buddy." And Jack came back with, "Thanks for the nice compliment Dad". He then explained that "a compliment is something you tell someone to make them happy.".

He's also been throwing 'interesting' into conversations a lot lately.

Today Mallie said something that sounded like "OK" to him and he was so excited. He yelled in the other room to tell me: "Mom! Mallie said OK!!!! She's a fabulous girl!!!"

Tommy went to 'Day with Dad's" yesterday at St. Angela's preschool. Jack told him that he was going to have to sit on the carpet and that he would teach Tommy how to learn. They had a camping theme the whole day and made smores by the pretend fire and sang Kumbaya..... God I wish I could have seen it.

Jack always thanks me for dinner right after his first bite by saying, "MMMM, this is pretty good. Thank you for making this dinner for me Mom." He also recently told me, "Mom, you're pretty coot. (cute)".

Uncel Drew was over this weeknd and Jack had a melt down when he was told to get off the computer. Finn was crying too at this point and to distract him, Drew asked Jack what he should do to make Finn stop crying. Through his tears and sobs, Jack said, "I don't know. Why don't you try a pac!?" And went on with his tantrum.

As far as Mallie Bird goes- she's becoming a big girl quickly!!! She is telling me when she went potty (by pointing to her diaper and saying 'poo!') I think she's going to potty train very easily. Maybe once the weather gets warmer!?

SHe knows all her body parts and animal sounds. She says her animals sounds instead of the names of the animals. I think my favorites are 'crab' (pinching her hands together), 'gorilla' (beating her chest) guinea pig (scrunching up her nose and eyes) and fish (making the fish face with her mouth).

Mallie LOVES to read. I cannot emphasize this enough. When she realizes someone is going to read to her, she gets so excited and brings her little arms up to her sides and smiles really big and does a little shimmy. Then she backs into their lap with her butt. I find her reading all the time when I've lost track of her and it's quiet!

Mallie adores her baby sister. She cannot get enough of her. She greets her about 1000 times a day with a very high-pitched 'HIIIIIIIIIIIIII Yi-Yi!!!!" (which is what she calls her). Also, I am finding it fascinating how Mallie is in to girl things and Jack boy things. I don't feel like I've raised the two of them any differently. Boys and girls, just truly gravitate toward different things. Mallie is obssessed with her babies. She reads to them, pushes them in their stroller, puts them to bed, feeds them, puts blankies on them, burps them, shushes them, bounces them. She is very maternal. She could sit on the couch and hold Annie for a half hour if we let her.
SHe also does an impression of Annie by pretending to eat her hands, as this is one of Annie's favorite things to do.


Mallie loves to dance. A favorite past time in our house is to play a CD (these days it's either the Wiggles or Justin Robert's Popfly). The kids go crazy. Mallie's favorite move is to crouch down and do a torso twist while holding her arms at a 90 degree angle. Then she falls on her butt and sayds in a very deep voice with a furled brow: "WHOOOOOAAAA!"

A typical play time for Mallie includes her walking around the house, with her metallic purple purse on her arm (sometimes with sunglasses on), with her pretend cell phone to her ear, babbling away and waving 'bah!' to me.

Mallie's main words right now are: mama, dada, yi-yi (annie), JA! (jack), yaya, papa, ti-ti (auntie), baby, shoe, sah (sock), moh (more), peeeees (please), de-de (thank you and dede), bah! (bye), duh (duck), baaa (bath), daw-duh (all done), na-na (banana).

Mallie LOVES to eat. She will sit for a half hour after Jack gets up to finish whatever is in front of her. We were at a SUper Bowl part last weekend at the Lange's and it became a joke every time Mallie went up to the appetizer table to 'refill'. She thought it was funny that everyone was laughing at her, too.

Jack and Mallie play very well together 95% of the time. They make each other laugh while they eat breakfast and lunch together at the kitchen table by taking turns shaking their heads violently back and forth. I don't get it, but it's really funny to them.

Annie started smiling the week before Thanksgiving. She was about 3 1/2 weeks old. She is the happiest baby I've ever met. SHe loves to watch the action and she will sit in her swing or bouncy for a really long time just watching. She is doing well with her tummy time because she is so motivated to look up at what's going on. SHe took her first dip in a swimming pool last week. We took the kids swimming at the rec center and they had life vests for the older 2, so I felt comfortable holding Annie and dipping her little toes in the pool. She loved it. Annie is on Pepcid for acid reflux and it's pretty pathetic when her tummy is hurting her because she tries so hard to smile through it. It doesn't seem to be as bad with her as it was with poor Mallie when she was this age though.

Annie is pulling her legs up and trying to roll over from her back this week. She's also pulling herself up from a reclined position to alsmot sitting by herself! We need to be careful because she could easily roll out of her swing, etc.

She has fuzzy little fluff for hair that is so cute. It looks like she has a buzz cut. And it's going to be red!

She started sleeping through the night about a month ago. Some nights she'll get up to eat one time, but mostly she gets through until about 6 a.m.

We baptized Annie January 20th. It was freezing that weekend and our pipes froze, so we had to stay at a hotel the night before the baptism. The kids had a blast running around the hotel suite. They played a game of running from one wall to a door and slamming into it at top speed. They were laughing so hard they were crying!