Cousin play time

 I haven't blogged about Easter yet, or some other things I had in mind... but here I am visiting my sis and her new baby Julia.  I'll have even more pictures later, but I wanted to share a few since I have a spare moment to post them. 

When I first saw Julia I exclaimed, "that's not pale skin, look at her next to Skyler!"  And sure enough, Sky's little cousin has olive skin next to his bright white skin."  FYI, Lara had been lamenting that her daughter had her daddy's fair complexion.  Later that evening, Lara told me that she hadn't seen a smile yet, but she suspected one any day now.  And guess what Aunt Lea did, I got her to smile 4 times for me!  HA -HA!  Lara witnessed them but refuses to put the sticker on her calendar since they weren't for her mom.... giggle...  Here are just a few pictures when the two first got to meet...

 

I can NOT figure out how to turn this picture the right direction - I've tried it 5 times and I give up.  But, it's our favorite picture.... she's trying to eat him up!

Sky is 3 months older that his cousin - but he looks more like a beast when next to her!  And he did keep grabbing her hand too - he's going to be very protective of his little cuzin'.

Skyler is wooing everyone he meets and greets - lots to say and lots of smiles.  He's being a great traveler with his mommy.

Super Saturday

Maybe it was because we forgot it was St Patrick's day.

Maybe it was because we didn't wear green, any of us.

Maybe it was because we are just THAT GOOD at planning fun stuff.

The fact is, we had a super Saturday that is worthy of a post...  

Destination #1: Children's Museum

RESULT: Huge parade in front of the museum (and a sudden realization that we forgot it was a holiday) and a thousand people all around.  Let's change our destination.

Destination #2: Jump Place (Shayne had purchased passes through a groupon deal)

RESULT: Closed for private parties all day

Destination #3: Home for naptime... 

RESULT: whew, a little 3 year old in our house needed that!

Destination #4: Local Rec Center to swim

RESULT: "Sorry, but we are closing in 20 minutes, are you sure you want to pay to swim?"  (and lots of tears too)

Destination #5: Movie Night at home

RESULT: Daddy had to drive 2 towns over to get the desired movie, then left it in the shopping cart.

LUCKILY, he remembered before driving away.  

Did I mention we tried to take the boys sledding two weeks ago and ended up driving for nearly 2 hours looking for a hill with snow?  We ended up at Arctic Circle eating corn dogs...

Yeah, we're awesome.

Skyler

Dear Skyler,

I can't believe you've been in our lives for more than 3 months already!  There are few things you need to know about you at 3 months...
1) Danny adores and smothers you with affection CONSTANTLY (good thing you ordered the mommy-protection plan)
2) Cole makes up songs to ease your crying or just to entertain you, and they work!
3) Hunter loves to hold you and kiss you
4) You now sleep about 8 hours at night, and that makes Mommy VERY happy
5) You prefer to be held out - facing the world.  You want to see what is going on and be on the move.
6) Luckily, the swing is a favorite spot too.
7) The car seat is not a favorite spot - but you put up with it because you have to.
8) Daddy gave you a taste of ice cream and you gave him a good stink-eye, no more ice cream for you.
9) You've grown so much and too fast.  Mommy is sad that she had to put away the 0-3 month clothes already.  
10) No binky for you - you don't like it.  You do like your fist but, don't think about sucking on that little thumb-mommy will cover your hands with mittens!

I love you to the moon and back... over and over again.
-Mommy

quote for Friday

by Danny
"Mommy, I'm going to change my clothes?"
why?
"Cause they're not awesome."
I think they're awesome.
"No, they're cute.  Not awesome."

Laundry

I don't think this picture does justice to what I'm about to explain, but it has to be documented.  Danny LOVES to wear pajamas.  One of these days I will take a picture every time he changes his clothes, but that's for a future post.  The thing is that every time he changes, he changes his underwear...  so I giggle when I'm doing laundry and here are the piles of underwear.  I think the ratio is AT LEAST 3 to 1, if not more.  I suppose I should show the pile of pajamas too...

Danny

Danny has decided to award us points based on our parental performance.  When he's angry at me he yells, "you don't have points!"
OK...
But sometimes I do things right and suddenly mommy has "lots of points!"

Recently Danny was being very affectionate and telling me how much he loved me and what a great mom I am (I like those rare days) and he said, "I'm sorry I hated you last week Mommy"
me too!

Reason

As I was driving Hunter to school last week, I suggested he should REALLY brush his teeth and hair EVERY morning.  He snickered a smile at me and said, "I don't want to."  And I replied, other kids won't want to be by you!  His reply, "my friends like me just fine the way I am."

So, I continued - "If you don't take care of yourself, you're going to turn into a pimply, ugly teenager!"

Hunter looked at me and groaned... (I'm ready for the smart remark here...)
"Why do you have to be so reasonable?"

message

Cole stayed at home while I did Hunter's carpool on Friday.  Upon my return, Cole is in his underwear and I immediately ask what happened.  Cole says, "Didn't you get my message?  I called you and told you about it already!"  My phone didn't show any missed calls and I thought perhaps he had called the wrong number (which he does often enough to know the other person by name).  Later, I got a call from my sister, Lara, asking why Cole had called her about spilled milk.  Here's a transcription of the message...

Uh, if this is….uh….hi, this is Cole. If this is (major grunt of frustration) my mom Lea, I just want you to know that I spilled my…some milk and it went EVERYWHERE! So I’m cleaning it up and it got on my pants so I took them off and are drying them, so things might be a little crazy around here. Bye.

My favorite part is "a little crazy around here..." since it was just him and his mess!