Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

There's been a gap between posts because I was bloggin outside the kids' room every night after I put them to bed to make sure Mallie wouldn't get out of bed. But she's getting better about that and I don't have to wait there for a long time anymore. That, and even if I did have to wait there, I wouldn't have a computer because TOmmy's been working so much lately. I guess in this economy, the work is good. But I have never seen him work so hard on anything before. He comes home at the regular time (over the past 3 1/2 weeks) and eats dinner with us. Then he sits at the kitchen table and works until 11:00 p.m. It's torture having him here and not being able to interact with him. Even worse for the kids. But, like I said, I'd rather him busy than not at work.

Annie is really growing and changing a lot. She's rolling over without any effort now. Mostly from her back to front. She's been eating her oatmeal for a little over a month now. She usually likes it and seems really full after a good meal. I give it to her in the morning and the evening. And she's getting 3 bottles in between. For several weeks, she was waking up in the middle of the night for me to rock her back to sleep and she only wanted to sleep in our bed after she woke up. Then, I got completely fed up with rocking her for 15 minutes at 2 a.m.... so I just plopped her down on a pillow between Tommy and I. As soon as her little head hit the pillow, she fell back asleep. She'd sleep a few more hours and then get up for a bottle between 4-5 a.m. and then go back to bed for a couple more hours. I didn't have any issues with this new plan. I was getting sleep and so was she. BUT! Last night, I fed her and put her to sleep at 8:45 p.m. Tommy and I woke up at 7 a.m. without Annie in our bed. I kind of panicked and made him go check on her. He did and found her on her TUMMY!!! This made me even more anxious and I made him go back in to make sure she was breathing. She is now officially a tummy sleeper because she rolled herself over for her morning nap too.

Annie is laughing and chatting all the time. She is a very happy baby, but she's pretty serious sometimes, too. She studies people's faces before giving them a smile. But once she's your friend, she is very smiley and fun.

Mallie is really working on talking. She has several phrases down that she uses every day. "Read Mo Book." (Read More Books)..."Yaaaa Mama Yaaaa"...(when I do something she wanted me to do). "Mo Ju peeee" (More juice please). Etc. She will come up to me and chatter away, with her little hands flailing. I do not know what she is saying and I feel bad because she obviously does. I just nod my head and say, "Oh!!! Wow!". Usually she throws a word or two that I understand in here and there, so I can get the gist of what she means. Mallie knows about 3 letters right now and makes sure we all she them when she sees an 'O' or and 'A' or and 'E'. She is still in LOVE with reading and loves to snuggle up with anyone who has time to read with her.

Jack is getting really good with his writing. He is practicing his numbers and letters all the time.

THe other day, Jack was playing outside by himself in the back yard. It was a beautiful day, so the neighbors were out, too. When I went to check on him, he had his pants around his ankles and was going tinkle in the backyard. I don't know how the neighbors did not see this, but I don't think they did. He told Tommy that "Mommy does this at the park".... which I do NOT... But I have let him go potty behind a tree at the park before, so I can't blame him.

I was putting Mallie to bed the other night and she kept getting up and running out of her room. She runs out, slams the bedroom door, leaving Jack in the dark, dowering under his covers because he's afraid of how mad I get at her. Then we can hear her little feet running into our room, around the bed and hiding on the far side of the bed. When we get to her, she's laughing and bouncing up and down with excitement. Anyway, I caught her the other night and put her back in her bed and said, "Stop it right now!". She responded with her little pacifier clenched between her teeth and said (in the exact same tone), "Top it Ra Now!" I had to run out of the room because I was laughing.

Jack asked me yesterday why he is a boy. I have been avoiding this question by answering, "Because God made you a boy", and thought that I probably needed to confront this now. So I told him, "Becuase you have a weiner". He said, "And Mallie has a weiner?" I said, "No, she doesn't". He said, "Yes, she does" and tried to pull down her diaper. THen we had to get into the provacy issue. So he asked, "well, what Mallie has?" And I said 'She has something else. Why don't we go downstairs and get a snack?"

Jack and Mallie sing along to the CD in the car. If it isn't on when the car starts, Mallie shouts at me from the backseat, "Turn Up!!!" She knows the ABC song pretty well and they sing it at the top of their lungs. She is always looking at Jack to make sure he sees how cool she is. They also sing 'BINGO'... But Jack thinks they are singing "B-R-N-G-O" I have explained many times that it's an 'I', but he doesn't care.

WHen Jack and Mallie fight, which is rare, they are usually playing unsupervised in the basement. I will hear Jack yell, "MALLIE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" And then she chimes in, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" and then he chimes in on top of her, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!", so the two of them are just standing there yelling at the top of their lungs. This doesn't solve any problems, but by the time they are finished yelling like that, they've forgotten what they are yelling about.

Mallie has the funniest characteristics when she is talking to someone. The other day, I asked her if she was going to read a book. She was headed for the back door and stopped and tilted her head toward the door, bent down, curled up her little arm and hand toward her face and started pumping it back and forth, saying in a really quiet voice, "No Mama... outside? outside?"

I asked Jack the other day if he was my favorite boy. He replied, "I your favorite Boy" and I said, "Do you love your Mama?" He replied, "Yeah, you're pretty cute.." Then he scrunched up his nose and said, "Yes you are, yes you are!"