Grayson is 3 months old!

Why hello there!  I hope you're having an outrageous week (in a good way)!  Speaking of outrageous, I had the weirdest dream last night.  From what I can remember I was at high school, but in my current job and I remember working with some of my co workers on a project in the computer lab...  Anyway, then I went to the next classroom over to the "baby ward" to visit one of the girls at work that had a baby (irl it was ~9 months ago).  Anyway, pretty strange.  Back to reality, Grayson is now 3 months old!  He loves to smile and is generally a very happy baby!  He loves his sisters, and they love him too!

This past week Winry found this ruler I've had since I was a kid and really started to love it.  I don't know if you'll ever be able to see it well, but it had dinosaurs on it, and it's one of those ones that when you tilt it it changes pictures.  It was actually Spencer's back in 4th grade if you can believe the information filled in on the back (yes, this ruler is so cool a kid would hope it would be returned to them if lost).  Maybe if I remember I'll get some close ups of the ruler for next week, anyway, back to Winry.  Well, she found that ruler, and called it a carou-horse! (which is what she calls a carousel)  She would ask you which dinosaur you wanted to ride on, and then spin it around in a circle.  You might think that's a fun 15 minutes game, but that's where you're wrong.  Winry played with this ruler, and only this ruler, for the ENTIRE day!  And then half of the next day!  This sorta feels like those stories where the kids open all their Christmas presents, and then go play in all the empty boxes instead of with their toys, EXCEPT!  This story is about a kid who loved a dinosaur ruler so much he stole it from his brother, kept it for 25 years, and then let his daughter play with it for a full day!  You tell me which is the better story.

We had a few warm days this past week, and so we headed to the backyard to play soccer.  Brooke got some cones for Christmas and asked what to do with them so I set up a dribbling drill.  She went all the way down and scored!  After she asked what else we could do,  I informed her that you basically just set up cones to dribble the ball around, unless she wanted to run ladders.  After Brooke made a few inspired cone setups of her own, we instead started making stacks of cones to knock down.

You may be wondering where Winry was during all this excitement.  Well, as potty training so often does, it has driven her to only wearing underwear all day long.  She assured me she wouldn't get cold, but I made her get dressed anyway.  

A quick coaxing later and she came and joined us, and even got a cone tower of her own!  She's not quite a kicker yet.  Also, she's really hard to time slow motion videos for.  I'm pretty sure I was holding Grayson while we were out there, and he was getting fussy or cold, and I think Brooke got cold too so we headed inside.  Winry wanted to just keep playing though.  Here she is setting the cones back up.  She was struggling with that so she didn't play outside for too much longer before coming in.

We got out our baby seat for Grayson while doing baths on Thursday night.  He really liked it and did a great job sitting up!  We've put him in a few times since, and he'll usually stay in there until he gets too tired from holding his head up.

Winry held Grayson a few times this past week, this is my favorite picture of them together!

As mentioned Grayson crossed 3 months so Monica put a photo shoot together.  That's what the very first picture was from, and I really liked this picture of him as well!  He's such a chunk already and is growing super fast!

Of course photo shoot means the girls need a turn with the phone to take pictures of each other.  I would assume Winry took this one, but there isn't a finger over half the image so I'm not sure.  I just don't think Brooke can selfie this well yet.

And of course, Jelly had to take her turn in the spotlight.  She took a good long nap there all afternoon, and the next afternoon too!

On Friday the girls went out to jump on the trampoline.  It was pretty cold so I told them to put jackets on.  Winry wanted to put her jacket on all by herself, and while she did get it on.... well... I still needed to help out a little bit.

Monica got a picture with the girls and Grayson today.  We actually got one where everyone was looking... except Grayson, but what can you expect, he's only 3 months.

And here's Monica with her handsome little man!  Doesn't he look ready for a job interview?  He was grabbing at his tie, and for some reason that reminded me of Dilbert and/or going in for a job interview.  Anyway, maybe Monica will add something more meaningful here: -intentionally left blank-

That's all I've got for this week.  I think we're going to try to reboot preschool some next week, so that will hopefully be exciting.  Also, Monica started an elimination diet this past week, and while her constant migraines haven't gone away it's helped her not feel as dizzy!  I realize I haven't talked about that yet, and I'm sure there's a ton to say, but it's late, and this is the last paragraph, so maybe next week.  Anyway, have a wonderful week ahead!

 

Happy 3rd Birthday Winry!

Winry is already 3!!!  How did that happen!?!  Honestly, I think the crazier thing was to think that she was only 2 just a week ago.  I feel like children change a LOT while they are 2.  When I think of a 2 year old I think more of just turning 2, so it's felt more like Winry was a 3 year old for the last while.  We had a wonderful day on her birthday, and most importantly Winry had a superb day!  Here we are singing happy birthday to her as the day closed out!

I decorated the house for Winry after she went to bed the night before, and she was super happy to see everything when she woke up.  We put streamers around the room, put up the happy birthday banner, and put up some of the candy shaped balloons we got for her birthday last year!  She was very happy when she woke up!  She was even happy on Tuesday morning when everything was still up, and when she came downstairs she said "Hey! It's my birthday again!"

At breakfast Winry deftly counted to show us how old she was.  Turns out when you don't go in public as much you don't remember your age as much.  Brooke always had it down, but then again random people would ask Brooke her age all the time while we were at the store, etc.  This past year there hasn't really been any of that, so age isn't quite as automatic for Winry right now.

After breakfast we let Winry open her presents.  She loved it all!  Grayson gave Winry some Frozen undies (like, the movie, not a prank.  He's still only 2 months old), and I don't have any pictures cause I haven't figured out a "classy" way to get one yet, but Winry has been potty training since Tuesday and still hasn't had an accident!

Winry also got this giraffe from Brooke and absolutely LOVES it!!

I took a half day from work and we all headed to the zoo in the afternoon.  The carousel was open, and since it was a special occasion we asked the kids if they wanted to go for a ride.  Of course they did!  We even get 2 free rides a year with our membership, so we just used those.  The girls had a great time.  Winry got to pick where we sat.  First she wanted to be on a zebra until I mentioned that it would go up and down, and then we sat on a peacock bench instead.

Here we all are together with the Mongolian horses!  I always stop to say hi and grab a picture, and this time the girls joined me!!

Monica got a picture with the girls and the giraffe.  Note that Winry has her giraffe with her too.

That evening after dinner we sang happy birthday (and could be seen in the first picture) and then all had cupcakes.  Winry really wanted a turtle cake which was from Brooke's princess cook book.  It was basically a cupcake with a turtle made out of various candies, and Monica did her best to find candy we could use to make them.  They turned out great, and were delicious too!  It was chocolate cake with mint icing!

Here's everyone at bedtime!

At Winry's dance class on Wednesday, she got to try on her recital dress!  How cute!  I can't wait to see her dance!

On Thursday, Brooke headed to the dentist to get her cavity filled.  She had to get a crown, and it was her first time heading in for more than a check up.  She got to watch Moana, and she did amazing!  All in all it took them about 25 minutes from the time we got there until they were done.  Brooke had a great time, so that's very good.

Here you can see her crown in her mouth.  Once she was done she seemed a bit out of it from the nitrous.  They gave her a popsicle, and the first one just slipped out of her hand after like 5 seconds.  I don't think she even realized what happened.  She came back to normal pretty quickly though, and we headed to Kneaders to pick up breakfast.  Brooke had to be fasting, so she was very hungry and we let her pick.

Winry (....and by Winry, he meant Jelly...but most of this fits for Winry too, so we'll just leave that!) found a squirrel on the fence yesterday.  She loves to watch out the window for wildlife.  A week or so back she saw the neighbors cat out back on their hot tub where it likes to sit and was meowing at it.  I opened the window for her, but she wouldn't meow loud enough for the other cat to hear.  Also, Jelly has a new game she loves.  She'll go into the bathroom and meow, like she wants you to turn on the water so she can get a drink.  When you head in she jumps around the corner as you come in the door to get you!!  I like it, the girls don't....

I think I've hit all of the highlights from the past week.  I hope everyone is doing well!  Have a great week.

Surprise Sister Visit

Aloha!  It's been a tropical winter so far this year, tropical in the sense that snow is like shaved ice, and I imagine you eat a lot of shaved ice in the winter in a tropical region... or in other words, it snowed all day yesterday. I just wanted to start with an aloha...  Anyway, Monica's sister, Michelle, was scheduled to come visit us on Monday-Wednesday this past week.  What Monica didn't know was that one of her other sisters, Megan, snuck into Michelle's luggage and came along!  For her birthday no less!!  It was a pretty short trip all things told, but it was a lot of fun!  There was time for Unicorn Jr. Monopoly, and going to the park, and a dance party, and karaoke.  I'm sure I'm missing other things, but the point is that we crammed a lot into a little bit of time.

As mentioned, everyone headed to the park on Tuesday.  I'm sure the girls loved each having their own personal pusher on the swings.

Tuesday night we did karaoke together.  Brooke and Winry were really excited to get out their microphones and sing some songs from Frozen!  Are there even other songs to sing?  If you're a parent of a small child (may need to be a girl, but I'm not sure of that) then no, no there is nothing else.  But that's okay, because it's just so fun to watch the girls sing!

I took Brooke to the dentist on Wednesday.  She said one of her teeth was hurting, and so we just grabbed the first appointment we could.  She had a cavity (which I could tell when she showed me where it hurt...) and the dentist recommended going to a pediatric dentist.  He said she might even need a root canal.  Fortunately, the pediatric dentist didn't think it was quite that bad.

Monica was feeding Grayson that night, and Winry came in with her baby doll, plopped down on the floor and proceeded to feed her.

The whole house dressed in BYU clothes to cheer for our inevitable win over Gonzaga!  Then the game started, and it seems like Gonzaga is VERY deserving of that number 1 ranking they're carrying right now...  We tried Grayson, we tried...

Brooke was able to get in to the pediatric dentist on Thursday.  They wanted to take a look before she came in to get her tooth fixed.  They said she needs a crown, and Brooke is super excited to have a silver tooth!  It is a baby tooth, but it's a molar, so it'll be around for another 5 years or so, so we're gonna get it fixed.  She'll head in next Thursday, and hopefully it's all as fun as she thinks it'll be.  She's very excited to get to watch a movie and all of that.  I really do hope it turns out a good experience for her.  I'd hate for this to cause her to start to fear or hate the dentist, because up till now she LOVES going.

Winry got some matching pajamas with her baby doll.  Monica got them for her this past week.

Monica also found some kids masks on clearance, and masks are so cool in our house right now!  "How cool?" you may be thinking to yourself.  Cool enough that Winry will finally wear one, and cool enough that Brooke made one for one of her stuffed animals this past week!

On Saturday morning Winry told me she wanted to play her version of Jr. Monopoly with me.  It was really cute.  Our playing pieces were a giraffe head Easter egg and a container of silly putty.  We'd roll a slap bracelet on our turn, and Winry would decipher how many spaces we got to move.  Frequently we rolled 1's which meant we had to go to jail!!  We'd progress around one of the couch cushions, and the first one to make a full loop won!  It was very hard to pass though, and I kept rolling 5's and couldn't catch up to Winry rolling 2's and 3's, my spaces were just that much smaller.

Saturday night was bath night, and the girls had a lot of fun.  They're at the stage where they always think they won't like it and don't want to get in.  Once they're finally in they say they want out as soon as they're done, and once you're done bathing them... they're too busy playing to get out.  This weeks game was giving a shower to various plastic animals they have in the tub.

I think I got to hold every child while trying to get everyone down for bed, and it has rather wiped me out as well.   Have a fantastic week!

...and a Happy New Year!

Hello hello!  Every year I have from Christmas to New Years off from work, and we had a wonderful time playing together this week!  We had to say goodbye to Niki early on in the week, but we had so much fun while she was out here and are so glad she came!  I somehow don't have any pictures from before she left... but I do have this great one from swinging in the backyard earlier this evening!  The girls love the new swing.

Grayson did some tummy time on his new Cosmo pillow on Tuesday.  He's a pretty good tummy time champion.  I think he's un-learned how to roll over, or his head is less massive than his body now and doesn't flip him so easily, but at least when I do tummy time with him he'll sit and look around and be content for a bit.

On Wednesday Monica let Winry do both of their makeup!  Winry loved it and has SOOO much fun.  If only faces were bigger, or had more features, Winry probably could have kept going all day!  Just look at these beautiful styles!  Monica washed her face soon after, but Winry wore her makeup proudly for the whole day until bath time.

Grayson has been a champion smiler!  He really likes beat boxing (and doesn't even mind if it's really bad!!), having his cheek tickled, and saying "hi" or his name high pitched!

Winry has just started drawing real things, and she drew this picture of her and Brooke in their beds this past week.

I included that picture because it was a much more clear picture of what she drew.  I wanted to get a picture of her with it, but she refused.  I tried to track her down and get a picture really quick, but she always ran away....

However, later that morning she was willing to hold still once she got her stylin sun glasses on!  Look at that style!

Brooke got Unicorn Jr. Monopoly for Christmas, and it has been a dream come true!  She wants to play it all the time.  I would say it's a big improvement over regular Monopoly as you just play until the first person goes bankrupt, and the game is designed to drive you there rather quickly.  We've played it several times, and she loves it every time.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday we made our way to the park.  It was nice to finally head back, and the girls had a great time.  Winry has reached the age where she begins to fear slides, but fortunately I was able to coax her down the small slide pretty easily, and from there the sky was the limit.  Brooke also really liked sliding down the double slide holding hands.  The best part was really just getting outside and letting the girls run around.  I don't think they've really been able to get out their energy very well since Grayson was born, and I feel like it's been causing a host of other problems, like having a hard time going to sleep at night.  They've been bedtime champions the last few days.

Thursday was the first time the girls tried swinging together.  We had a lot of fun! P.S. I'm now holding Grayson trying to get him asleep and he's kicking and screaming so I'll be more brief...

We had some peppers with lunch one day.  Brooke didn't want any, but Winry took some.  She didn't actually eat them, just needed them for this.  It's sort of like the reverse walrus...

The girls made their beds once this past week.  Just once, but you've got to start somewhere.  Here is Winry's bed!  She proceeded to tuck some stuffed animals in and then it didn't quite look so nice.

And here's Brooke's bed!

Friday night we heard a loud bang probably around 8.  I figured a neighbor was just a day late with a firework, though it was very loud.  Turns out a Le Croix froze in the back of the fridge had exploded... dang...

I caught Jelly doing whatever this is..  She was half off the couch using the blinds to keep her up.

I had a presidency meeting today, and when I went to find people after I found this snuggly duo!

Well, that's about all the one handed typing I've got in me.  I'm even typing this on my phone whole I remote control my computer because Grayson will lose it if I stop walking, and walking circles looking at my phone is making mw dizzy... have a great week!