Family Update

Dallin

• Dallin continues to amaze us and horrify us simultaneously every day. He is such a funny character and he is developing more and more.
• Dallin KEEPS GROWING!!! I joke that I am going to bring the Jolly Green Giant to kindergarten. People typically think he is 6 years old. He will be 3 1/2 at the end of this month. He wears a 5-6 shirt and 4-5 pants. He has outgrown his underwear (now in a 7) and his shoes (now in a 10). He weighs about 50 pounds and is about 4 feet tall. His size is probably one of his greatest blessings and his greatest trials. He is able to physically do things most kids his age can't. He is VERY good at gymnastics and sports. He is agile and strong. However, he can't really be picked up and tossed around like other kiddos his age (or his little sister) and that is hard for him. He is also able to actually DO many of the things other 3 year olds can only dream of because he has the body of an older child. This has caused MANY problems since he is quite imaginative and intelligent. He can also really hurt someone just by throwing a tantrum or hitting/kicking like 3 year olds can. It is tough sometimes but we are trying to explain to him that he is bigger so he has to be more careful than other kids his age. On the plus side....he will be the best kid on the field when he starts soccer next year!
  
• Goodbye Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and SuperWhy.....HELLO HANDY MANNY! While Dallin still likes the others, his new obsession is Handy Manny. He sings the little jingles from the show, says the catch phrases, and is constantly stealing tools from the garage and "fixing" things around the house. He puts on his belt and pretends it is a tool belt. He really wants a Handy Manny doll with the tools, but I think he will be moved on to another phase by birthday time. The other day I came downstairs to find him with a screwdriver by the lightswitch. When he turned around, I saw that he had actually unscrewed four of the screws (it had 6) and he told me he was "fixing" it. I wasn't sure if I should be horrifed because of how dangerous that was or amazed at the dexterity of my little man. Thanks so much, Manny! We have let him help daddy fix things around the house so he can do it with supervision and keep putting the pilfered tools back in the triple dead bolt locked garage (yes....he CAN open it). He DID help install our Texas license plates last week. He was very excited!
  
• "Ave uhhhhh! Ave uhhhhh! Ava!" Dallin has a new little friend in one of the playgroups we have joined named Ava. He sounds like Wall-E running around yelling out her name all the time. He wants to be with her every single second. He can be really pushy but I have seen him play what she wants just to be with her. The big problem is that he fixates so much on her that he doesn't really want to play with the other kids and he doesn't want them to play with her either....hmmmm. I don't think he is old enough for me to be worried about this yet, but still we are trying to promote being EVERYONE'S friend and not controlling anyone else.
• "I'm Prince Eric! Where are my glass slippers? I am going to dance with princess kate at the ball!" Ok....yes, I have subjected my son to the princess movies (cause I like them so much MORE...and let's face it there is a limited amount of time that he will be into it anyways) He has phased out of it a little bit, but every once in a while he will still pretend to be Prince Eric and he'll want you to check his foot for a heartbeat. Then he will slow dance with his sister in the living room pretending that he is prince eric and she is a princess. All in all, not too bad since he is at least pretending to be the GUY...LOL umm...except the glass slipper part...apparently, he wants to be "the man" and STILL get to wear the glass slippers....LOL oh well...let him have his cake and eat it too! You go Dallin! (Yes, the shoes in the picture ARE nana's high heels!)
  
• "Knock Knock? Who's there? Boo. Boo hoo? Don't cry...it's only a knock knock joke!" Ahhhh...the classics. Dallin is developing a sense of humor and he thinks knock knock jokes are the funniest thing ever. This is the only one he really knows. He has made up some....but "Knock knock? Who's there? Pants. Pants who? An apple!" isn't quite as funny to the untrained ear. Dallin, on the other hand, thinks it is HILARIOUS! Unfortunately, he has also started in with body part/potty humor and any mention of a bum or any other body part is sure to elicit a giggle from him. He has tried to make me laugh with his "mom...smell by bum!" but it usually ends up with his nose in the corner. What can I say?....I guess I am just not a good patron of the comedic arts.
• "I am the dad to Kate" Dallin loves to take care of babies. He is always asking to hold Maddie and feed her a bottle. He tries really hard to make sure she is taken care of and is very responsive when she cries. I have caught him trying to play house with Kate. He is the daddy, she is the mommy, and they have a doll, but I guess that Kate doesn't play as the mommy right so Dallin is now the daddy to Kate and if she is whiny he will practically hog tie her to "feed her" her sippy.
  
• "This is the best lunch you ever made!" Dallin says this to me a lot when I cook something he likes (not necesarily something that is actually an amazing meal...one time I got this comment over kraft mac n cheese).
  
• "It's from my dad!" A question Dallin gets ALL THE TIME since I have dark hair is "where did you get that RED HAIR!" He is so used to it that he will answer it himself now...but don't think of touching it! That is forbidden "Don't touch it!" often follows this phrase.
  
• "Yellow is my favorite color! It means happy!" Dallin LOVES yellow and always has. It was the first color he recognized. He will pick the yellow one no matter what!
• "Let's hang out!" I've noticed Dallin says this a lot when he needs a break because he is tired and wants someone to sit with him. He will plop down on the couch and say it. It is really cute.
  
• "You're the best mom ever!" Dallin says this when I do something nice for him or he gets his way. A couple of times, it has been unanticipated and that is a sweetness I love to savor.
• "Katie bug" Dallin loves his sister and STILL calls her Katie Bug (not just Kate). He picks on her but NO ONE else better try it!!
• "the present ripped itself" Dallin has been telling little lies lately. Nothing major, but I do let him know that he is lying and ask him to tell me the truth (which he usually does). The one was after he helped me wrap a gift for his friend's birthday party, when I came downstairs he told me the present was ripped. When asked if he ripped the present, this was his reply...ummm...yea.
  
• "I want a job to buy a house, and a car, and some food and some air, and a patch, and maybe a tree" This was Dallin's reply when he was asked what he wanted to do when he grew up. He said he wanted a job and when he was asked what he wanted to buy with the money from his job. This was his list. It was pretty well thought out I thought. I mean, everyone needs some air to breathe. Oh...and Patch is the cat..lol
  
• Mom: Dallin, mommy is going potty before we leave. Do you want to go potty? Dallin: (looking annoyed) Moooomm. I'm not touching myself! I'm just touching my leg! Ok...so since Dallin has potty trained, he became enamored with a certain part of his anatomy so we broke him of it by making him go potty every time he touched himself because that MUST be the reason he was holding himself, right? (wink wink) Well, I guess it kind of back fired here. LOL
  
• Mom: Dallin, I love you so much. You are growing up so fast! What am I going to do when you are not my little boy? Just stay little, ok?

Dallin: I can't do that, mom. I have to grow up and drive the car.
Mom: But I will miss you being my little boy. What will I do?
Dallin: It's ok mom, you can come with me.
Conversations like this one....priceless.

Kate

• Kate has really sprouted and is definitely in the terrible 2s. She is soooo funny. So much spunk in such a tiny little package. She speaks in full thoughts all the time and it has been quite enlightening to hear what is on her mind.
• Kate is still at the other end of the spectrum...our pint sized princess. She is about 24 pounds and only 2 1/2 feet tall. She wears a 2 shirt and 18 mo -2t pants. She is STILL in a size 3 diaper. She recently outgrew her shoes and is now in a size 6. Her eye teeth are coming in but there is no sign of her 2 year molars yet.
  
• "Pincess! Pincess!" Kate loves the Disney princesses and anything that looks "princessy". When she wears her big puffy dresses, she'll twirl and play with the skirt saying this over and over. She love to wear tiaras and love ANYTHING with Disney princesses on it!
• "Pink Pink Pink!" In traditional girly girl style, Kate is obssessed with the color pink (any shade really) and will point it out loudly to me over and over wherever she can find it. She also associates pink with being a princess. She is learning her colors and can often name the basic colors all correctly (pink, purple, blue, yellow, red, green) with only an occasional mistake.
  
• "Madison so cute!" Kate LOVES Maddie too! In fact, every baby is now Madison. Everytime Kate sees Madison she has to say "Hi Madison! Madison so cute!" It is funny! The girls really like each other, but occasionally there is a flare up of jealousy especially over nana!
  
• "Weed! I weeding" Kate loves to read (weed) and you can often find her with a book "weeding". It is really cute to hear her tell the stories (some of them she almost has memorized). Her favorite right now is "Bark, George" She hasn't been as careful with books lately so she has been confined to board books unless supervised. :(
• "Eyes! Eyes! Make-up!" Kate loves to watch mommy get ready in the mornings and will stand up on the toilet seat beside my sink while I do whenver I let her. She especially likes it when I clean my contacts. She insists that I put a drop of contact solution on her little index finger and then she will poke it in her eye. She does it on both sides. It really cracks me up and I want to put a video of it on here as soon as I can. She also like it when I put makeup on her AND me (I don't really...by the time I have used it there is no more on the brush and she just gets the sensation...but that is enough for her). She really struts when she thinks she is all primped.
  
• "Date do! Danks!" Kate is very VERY good about saying thank you for EVERYTHING! LOL It is almost overdone, but I would rather that than have her seem rude so I let her go on and on. She gets a lot of compliments on her hairstyles. (The picture is from Valntines day when we did her hair as a heart!) I guess she is used to it because a lot of times when someone tells her they love her hair she will just smile and say "Date do!" without prompting. GOOD GIRL!
• "al wight?" Kate is very cute if someone seems upset or hurt and will always ask them if they are alright....over and over and over again until she receives an answer.
  
• "water! water! water!" This means I want some water...right now!! She will keep saying it until she gets some.
  
• (pulling up her shirt and pointing to her distended belly) "Mommy, my tummy big...I go poop!" This may seem nasty, but I thought it was very funny and was very excited that she actually went upstairs and PRODUCED! This was the first time that she has completely initiated the process! Yippee!! (I thought the picture of the queen on her throne was just too funny to pass up!)
• Kate is a master pixie--delicate and cute and can be sugar sweet, but don't be fooled. She is also a master of the stink eye. I have yet to catch this on film, but it is a look like no other....you know she is giving you "the look" She does it a lot with strangers....."Oh what a cute little girl! ...(stink eye)...."Oh! Oh my!" Yep, that is my girl. She is very shy and for a while she would cry and hide when strangers said hello, now she just gives them a crusty stare and kind of hunkers down a little. It is soooo funny seeing a handful of nothin be so feisty.
  
• Kate has also decided she won't take a decent picture to save her life. It probably started around the time we tried to do family pictures. She screams and cries and throws herself on the ground and arches her back throwing tantrums...won't do anything you ask her to do and makes herself a general nuisance. She will do the occasional snapshot around the house, but heaven forbid you should want something nice...you will be S.O.L. It is a shame because she is sooo beautiful and darling and Dallin has finally started taking WONDERFUL pictures so I was really hoping for some nice ones with BOTH of my children, but alas....maybe when they are grown!
  

OTHER UPDATES

• Christopher now works FT for Sears in their call center handling delivery issues. He also works PT for UPS sorting packages. We are really looking forward to eventually having just one job! His job with Samsung disintigrated a few months after we moved down here and after using up our savings we had to do something else. We are happy for the opportunities and are hoping that he will be able to become a UPS driver in the next couple of years.
  
• Because of Christopher's job disappearing at Samsung, I have had to go back to work FT at Wal-Mart as well (yes, it takes all 3 jobs to make the same amount as we were making working 60-72 hrs at Samsung). I unload the truck, pull pallets, and generally take care of the receiving stuff. It wipes me out, but I have lost 10 pounds so far.
  
• As briefly mentioned before, our family adopted a cat before Christmas. We named her Patch. We had been looking at pets for several months prior. We often checked the local animal shelter to see what they had available for adoption. We first noticed Patch in October on the shelter site and thought she looked really cool because she was white with a little black "soul patch" on her chin. We often checked back and she was still available. She was even pet of the month in Nov. So in December we called our landlord and with his ok, we went down to the shelter and asked to see her. She came home with us and the rest is history. It took her a few weeks to warm up completely after 3 months in the shelter, but she is wonderful! The kids LOVE her and she puts up with more than she should have to (and keeps coming back for more...there may be something wrong with her survival instinct..LOL)