Are you sure you are only two?

This afternoon Gabriella came out of her room wearing a tank-top and a pull-up. She was in tears crying "I have nothing to wear!" After some looking through her drawer we were able to find an acceptable pair of pants and she was off to play again.

A few minutes later...

I need a "Quaf quaf" (washcloth). She opens the drawer in the kitchen, pulls out a microfiber cloth and heads to the bathroom to wet the cloth. She returns a minute later and starts scrubbing the floor with it while muttering, "This floor is too messy....." After she finishes she rinses it out in the sink and hangs it on the over door to dry.

This afternoon....

The kids are playing on the deck. They use four plastic chairs and a table to create a rocket ship. They all tell me good-bye. When I ask where they are headed, they chime in "to the moon!" When I ask what they are going to do when they get there and Gabriella adds "We are going to the store on the moon to buy trees." "Are you going to bring the trees back for our yard? I asked. "Not trees, TREATS- candy for us!"

Quick Change Artist

Between pajamas and clothing, Gabriella has worn six outfits today. One I put on her this morning and it lasted until 11:00, when we returned home and she decided she needed pajamas, then other pajamas, then each check of her nap resulted in another outfit. She emerged from her nap in peach colored beach outfit and is still wearing it now, but a pair of pajamas in the hours to come. The good news is if you only wear an outfit for an hour or two, they don't get dirty, and therefore results in less laundry, just more folding. While they outfits didn't necessarily match, all were put on the right direction. Three cheers for independence!

As I type this, she is trying to convince Ben to get down one of her dresses to change into.......

Fee- fi-fo-fum!

Gabriella watched a Dora movie this morning that involved an giant ogre. She has been marching around the house saying "Fee-fi-fo-fum!" over and over again. I said something about her being a scary giant and she said. "Don't be scared, I not a giant, just a big girl." I asked why she was saying "fee-fi-fo-fum!" and she said "because I like the way it sounds! I like it all the time!"

Mowing man

We came home from jazz/kid gym/exercising and Kevin was mowing the lawn. Gabriella sees him and shouts "My daddy, he is cutting my grass for me!" She was so excited. "My daddy, he mows under my swing!" He took a little break, said hello to the kids and got a kiss from Gabriella. Then we went in and got ready for bed. Gabriella got her pajamas on and then yelled from the window, "Stop Daddy, you need another kiss!"

Now that's appreciation!

Baby trees and cuddly book time

While Ben was at Memorial for an evening play date with Claire and Lisa and Josiah were attending the final day of Kindermusik for the year, Gabriella and I spent some time together outside. Step one - swinging

"Higher daddy!" she exclaims, her hair tussled gently by the breeze. The evening sun illuminates her wispy curls and toddler cheeks with warm, golden highlights.

"I have my baby pants on. Lookit daddy!" (little green short pants that are longer than shorts but shorter than most pairs of pants)

"Oh! My nose is running. Stop the swing." catch the swing and hold it while wiping her nose with a handy Kleenex... One. Two. Ready, let go! Higher daddy!"

When she tired of swinging (her arms were getting chilly), we set Skipperdee (the painted turtle) in the grass for some free roaming time and I started pulling grass while Gabriella climbed on my back. For 5 or 10 minutes I pulled little tree sprouts while G hung on. Finally, she asked me what I was doing.

"Pulling up baby trees - because there are too many of them in the wrong places."
"Baby trees?! Can I see them?"
"Yes, here they are." as I show her the handful of young trees ranging between 2" and 6".
"Ohhhh! Baby trees! Soooo cuute!"

We returned Skipperdee to the egress pit and spent some time out front edging and sweeping. G was a great helper, lifting the dustpan full of grass and dirt and carefully dumping it in the lawn waste bag.

With Ben gone until late evening, Josiah and I had a wonderful time cuddling on the couch reading a couple of bedtime stories, Baloney (Henry P.) and On Beyond Zebra.

:)

Growing in the garden

Our next door neighbors have an amazing flower garden and vegetable garden. Last night Gabriella and I went down for a walk by the woods. As we passed the vegetable garden she exclaimed, "Look, they are growing milk in the garden!" I tried to explain that they were using the jugs to protect new plants but she wasn't buying it. Trying to explain that milk came from cows was much harder for her to believe.

Sunshine... on a rainy day

 

 

 

Rain or shine, G loves swings. And she loves outside. Lisa took these pictures this afternoon, about 20 minutes before I got home from work.

In the driveway was another surprise. A yellow post-it hung in the rear window informing me that the car had been professionally detailed by Josiah and Lisa. After school, all three kids hauled all of the accumulated detritus from the interior of the car to the trash or into the house. For the next hour, Josiah Windexed the windows and vacuumed the floor (with a little touch up assistance from Lisa), while Ben played with Gabriella. They even washed and scrubbed the floor mats :)

Yet another bit of sunshine on a gray, rainy day.


-Kevin

Josiah's Tooth

Josiah lost tooth number five over the weekend. It has been wiggly for months and finally fell out while Josiah was swimming at Dad and Me camp. The boys' friend Matthew found it in the bottom of the pool-quite a treasure hunt. Kevin carefully placed the tooth in the zippered pocket of the swim bag to bring home for the Tooth Fairy.

The boys were home mere minutes when we noticed Gabriella looking through their things. Gabriella pulled something small from the bag, held it up and asked Grandma if she wanted to eat it. When she said no, Gabriella threw it on the ground and resumed digging in the bag. I went over to see what I thought was a piece of popcorn and found it was the tooth.

Little Tooth Fairy, sometimes it is so hard to keep track of your teeth!