FORTY-SIX

2016 week forty-six

Well she's big enough for the Ikea kid area. And she loved it! It helped that there was a ball pit, but to be honest it was probably the fact that they were showing Frozen while she was in there. 

Eating a pomegranate- taking bites out of it like an animal. 

Magnolia wreath. I'm so pleased with how this turned out. Thank you to the neighbor down the street with the huge magnolia tree. 

Kitchen eucalyptus and cinnamon pine cone wreath. 

We visited Aunt "Mike" at her work the other day and Vera got to play dress-up "wedding girl." Theo got to pound his head against all the mirrors. I'm really sorry to whomever has to clean up all the finger and face prints on those mirrors.

Less fun activity was Vera's first trip to the dentist. She's been with me to my appointments since she was born and I always had her sit on my lap at the end to get "checked" to make this a normal experience for her. Unfortunately, sometimes well-meaning children's books about getting over fears serve to do nothing more than teach the kids they have things to fear. So after reading "Vera Goes to the Dentist," my own Vera was terrified when it came time to sit in the chair. She was screaming and flailing and tried to run away nearly hysterical. The hygienist was amazing though and was so slowly patient with V and eventually she was able to have a full check up and was happy about it.  The hygienist gave Vera a bag of "dentist dress up" to take home! (mask, gloves, suction tube head) She even skipped down the hall to get her prize out of the treasure chest. When we left, however, she only remembered how horrible she felt initially. All those years of grooming her for happy dentist visits were dashed against one book. 

Matching bone jams. 

"I'm a butter monster! I'm a butter monster!" (shaving cream)

While Matthew was gone I tried letting V sleep in my bed with me. And to repay my generosity, she woke up at 3am insisting it was morning and didn't go back to sleep until 430am. Theo woke up less than 2 hours later, but V slept in late. So my boy and I got to enjoy a cool morning outside together with tea and milk.

Perfectly swirled cinnamon walnut bread.

Matt put this bow in his hair, much to everyone's delight. 

Unless Theo is trying to tackle Vera, they are very dear friends. 

Quotes

When Theo sees something soft, like a stuffed animal, he wants to clutch it to his chest and whisper something that sounds like "Deedle deedle deedle." When we were walking through Ikea he would point at the sheep skin rugs or the dusters and say, "Deedle deedle deedle." We thought this was unusual and funny until we realize that is what we say to Frida when we are snuggling her. We clutch her to our chest and say, "Oh Fridel deedle deedle!" Hah.

"I'm not going to put too much pepper on my egg like Hickabod Crane."

"I'm going to put this bean in my tummy. *GASP* He's in my tummy and now he's a normal baby! His name is going to be paw patrol like a normal baby."

Theo grabbed Vera's World Market flyer out of her hands and ripped it in half. Sobbing. Soul wrenching (on her part, I was laughing- quietly) sobbing ensued. "Theo RUINED Mousie's birthday! That paper was for her birthday and he RIPPED IT and RUINED the WHOLE day!"

Veronica absolutely loves free handouts and business cards. She begs for any and all types at any and all stores. Her pockets are stuffed full of them when we leave the doctors office.

"I got new toothpaste from the dentist and it tastes like Bum Gubble!"

"We can't play at the park when we're not wearing panties. I'm just a silly child."

'This is my book. It's called "The Biggest Ever Crumb" or sometimes I call it "Crumbkin." 'She talks a lot about this imaginary book she's written.

Theo's first word is "Hot." He points at the lights all the time and questioningly intones, "Huuuuuuuah?" I'll say light and sometimes he does a quick swooping gasp afterwards. I didn't understand what this was. But then the other night I was lighting a candle and he again said, "Huuuuuah? *Gasp*" and flung his hand back. I realized that a few nights earlier I had pretended to touch the flame and then gasp and fling my hand back while saying, "Hot!" He's getting better at pronouncing "hot" but it's mostly a gasp still. When I gave him hot eggs the other morning he touched them and swoopingly gasped "Hot." It's very cute.

He insists upon having a book to read in the car because V always has one. Currently it's Each Peach Pear Plum and I have to wrest it from his fingers every time I try to unbuckle him and take him out of the seat.

A few weeks ago we were at a park and it had no bathrooms. V, naturally, had to poop while we were there. So we stripped her down and she squatted and used the grass. I was actually impressed. She didn't hesitate or fuss. While I was helping her get dressed Theo stood up a ways off and started screaming and shaking his hands. I ran over to him and he had crawled through a fire ant hill! He was COVERED in them: ears, nose, toes, fingers, clothes. I had to strip him as quickly as I could and brush all the ants off of him, and his clothes and myself. (He had huge puss-filled welts all over his body and in between his fingers and toes for a week after that.) All the while, V was still naked and there was still a poop on the grass.

Around the same time as the fire ant adventure, I took the kids to Target and we were just roaming the aisles. I can't keep Theo in the small basket because the belt is a joke and I will turn around and he's wiggled himself out of it and is standing up laughing. So I put him in the big basket sometimes to give him more room to wiggle while appearing to be more safe. Vera loves the "special baskets" and always wants them so I'm usually maneuvering a semi-truck type basket around the store. On this occasion, we had a special basket and Theo was in the "big basket." He kept grabbing things off the shelves and pulling them down. At one point he grabbed onto a sweater with all his little monkey-fist strength. I stopped when I noticed and tried to move the basket over a little, he still didn't let go, this basket is enormous and I cant reach around it so I move it a little bit more to be able to grab him and as I grab the sweater to yank it out of his hands, he holds on for dear life and topples up, out, and over the basket and bounces on the floor right on top of his head. Some parts of parenting a boy are horrible. We cried and I was shaking and couldn't eat for the rest of the day. Horrible.