So Girly

Man is this girl GIRLY! I guess you never know if being surrounded by all these boys would cause one to take on all that boy-ness, or move in the other direction. Don't get me wrong, she actually loves playing with cars and balls and all the "boy" toys we have around the house. But she has this natural girly-ness that is coming on strong!

For starters, she insists that all her nails be painted at all times. As soon as the polish starts to chip off she starts coming to me saying, "my nails are off! my nails are missing! Mom, you paint them?"

She loves my jewelry and gushes over it! As soon as we sit down in church and she is settled on my lap, she starts noticing my earrings, bracelets and necklaces (since I only wear those things on Sundays ;) She exclaims, "OH! I like your pendant! OH! I like your earrings! OH! I like your necklace!" (She gets "pendant" from Sofia the First.)

She cannot leave me alone while I get ready, and she loves every step. While blow drying my hair, she is there asking that I do hers also. While putting on lotion, I must repeatedly give her little bits to rub on her arms and legs, and while I do my makeup, of course she wants it all on her also.

Everything for her must be PINK, PINK, PINK! And it's not that I always give her pink stuff. We have lots of blue and green stuff. So that's what I give her. But slowly she is getting more insistent on pink.

And last, but not least, the DRAMA! Oh my goodness. She just has a sensitive little soul. We can firmly (but not yell, of course ;) tell the boys no about things all day long and they can take it. They might object, but they can take it. But if you, even as gently as possible, tell Elise she should not do something, even for the nicest reasons, she will put her head down, cuddle into you and try to hold back her tears. It is frequently accompanied by "that makes me sad" in the saddest little voice you've ever heard. We're "gently" trying to work with her on not being so sensitive to that kind of thing. :) But we love every inch of her, including all things drama! We love, love, love her!!!!!

 She LOVES playing with Joey. Any place, any time. :)

 Ready to go for a run with mom!

Sunday afternoon lunch.

Cuddling with dad is her favorite :)

We are all so crazy about this little face! Happy or sad, she's quite a keeper ;)

Last Days of School

Well, now that school has started again, I suppose it's time that I post the last day of school pictures from last year. Here they are. Last day of kindergarten and last day of 2nd grade. It goes so fast. :)

Joey Turns 4!

Joey turned 4! (It was a few months ago--I'm a little behind :) When asked how old he is, he always responds with, "I am a little 4!" Never just 4. And never a big boy. As least he's not trying to grow up too fast! :) 

He continues to say the funniest things and every day has the biggest plans. He takes Elise and runs her around the house through various games and scenarios that only Joey could come up with. :) Recently after I put Elise down for a nap, Joey came in looking for her. After telling him she was asleep, he broke into tears, crying "WHY?! Why did you put her to bed?!" It's so cute how much they love each other (even as they both hit and make each other cry periodically throughout the entire day.) 

We had a little party with a few friends.

Presents!!

At the little party we had the kids just eat the cupcakes. Then the next day we had the whole family over and ate the cake with them.

Happy Birthday my little Joe! Love him like crazy!

Luke turns 6!

So for Luke's birthday, he had the choice of a few kids at Classic Skating, or a bunch of kids at our house for an outdoor water party. I didn't mind, so long as I could pile them all in the back yard with the sprinklers on. Luke chose lots of kids in our yard. Well guess what. Gorgeous weather on Sunday. Raining on Saturday! Ugh! So the party was moved indoors. It added to the stress level significantly, but we managed to pull it off. 

The Cake.

This was one of my favorites I made this year. 

We managed one water game. It was a race to knock down the Storm Trooper or the Jedi.

 Then we had "Pod Racing" on the wiggle cars.

(Lance is Anakin Skywalker, by the way.)

 

And finally the Falcon pinata.

 

 A couple of presents and we're done!

 

Whew. That was a long two hours :)

Happy Birthday, Luke!

My Sweet Joe

This kid, I tell ya, is mister personality. He cracks up everyone he meets. And he meets A LOT of people. That's because he tries to talk to every person he sees. Just last week, he came into the Post Office with me. There were probably half a dozen people in the line which only grew while we were there. I was kind of focused on my packages I needed to send, but I knew he was doing his usual: going down the line talking to everyone and making friends. (And asking them personal questions :) By the time I was done, no joke, everyone in line AND one of the Post Office workers was just cracking up with him as he sauntered out with me. It's just what he does.  

Whenever we go swimming, he will be all over the pool, playing with different families and inserting himself into any group he sees fit. I always worry that he's bugging everyone and try to go apologize for him, but everyone is always just laughing. (Except for maybe the old guy in the pool last Saturday. At first he was laughing because Joey was calling him grandpa. But then Joey said, "why is your belly so big like that?" pointing to his belly. I couldn't really tell if the old guy thought that was very funny.... :)  

But most people are pretty good humored about it. When we were in Arizona a few months ago, we spent a fair bit of time at the pool. There were a bunch of young adults just sitting around the pool with drinks, dangling their legs in the water. Joey would crawl along the side of the pool and just put his hands right on their knees as he went by, saying "Hi" along the way. They all just laughed. Then there was the elderly lady laying out with cucumbers on her eyes. Lance was just a little too far away by the time he saw what was about to happen. Joey walked right up to her and lifted the cucumber and peaked at her eye and asked why she had them. By the time Lance could reach him, the lady was thankfully just laughing at him. 

I seriously can't get enough of my sweet Joe. Everything he says is so darling. He loves to cuddle all the time and wants to be held lots and lots. He loves to tell you how great you're doing. Like "Mom, you're really great at getting me juice!" Or back before he was potty trained, while changing his diaper, he would frequently say, "You're doing a great job, mom!" One instance, Lance was changing him while he was experiencing severe and extremely painful diaper rash. Joey was sobbing and through his tears, he kept saying, "you're doing a great job, dad. A great job, dad."  And he is so sweet to Elise and works so hard at playing with her (albeit, too hard at times causing her to cry because she just doesn't want to follow along. :)

But I think one of the driving forces of all his personality and friendliness is just plain curiosity. This also can have some negative effects. Like everything that follows! (Note, I have been meaning to post all this stuff for over a year, so some of it is a little older. But that just goes to show you how long he's been at this ;)

Some of the things Joey does (Note, we DO have child locks and I try to keep things put away and out of reach, but he will just find a way!):

*He found a spray bottle with bleach in it and sprayed my curtains:

*While sitting in church, I suddenly noticed that the kind old gentleman (who was a visitor and not someone we knew) sitting next to Joey was getting a pocket full of trucks. Joey was sitting there stuffing his little cars into his suit pocket. (And he was kind enough to just let him do it until I happened to notice and put a stop to it.) 

*Lotion in my hair brush

*I took the cover off the grill then ran inside for literally less than 15 seconds. In that time, he grabbed the Pam cooking spray from the grill and thoroughly sprayed Elise all over with it. 

*Then in the bath with Elise, he dumped a whole bottle of shampoo on her head. Which then took cups and cups and cups of water to get out. The poor girl was just bawling. :(

*He then filled the toilet with a whole role of TP and flushed it over and over causing quite the overflow (I say "then" because he did those last three all in one day.)

*He threw all my flower pots over the edge of the porch down three stories smashing every last one. (There were probably 7 or 8 pots.)

*The toilet paper holder was a little loose in the wall. So he pulled out one arm, including the screws sticking out of it. Then he proceeded to stab the opposite wall with the screws over and over filling it with tiny little holes. 

*He pooped on the carpet. Then played with it and REALLY rubbed it in. So, so gross. No pictures. Couldn't focus on anything except the poop. And how to clean it. 

*This haircut (buzz) is because he cut his own hair. (Luckily, ONLY his own hair, and not Elise's...this time.)

*He cut Elise's hair (at least only a little bit...)

*He draws on Elise

*Lance had finally gotten our salt water tank up and running and we finally had fish in it. I came down to find him on a chair next to the fish tank...the bottom of the tank was covered in food and there were two empty bottles of chemicals. For some reason he only wanted one Nemo fish. Sadly, he succeeded. One lived and one died. :( 

*And he killed our hamster :( It was very heart-breaking. He kept getting the hamster out without our help and we finally decided we needed to lock the cage. But before we could get it locked, he came running upstairs sobbing, "Mommy, mommy! Cookie won't move, cookie won't move! You squeezed her and I squeezed her! We squeezed her too much!" He was just holding her and sobbing. It was so sad. (We then had to have some talks about living things and being gentle.)

*Of course, we got a new hamster and locked the cage. So he took the cage off the shelf and took the entire cage apart to get the new one out. At least he knew not to squeeze her. And now he's very good about being gentle. :)

*I know, what kid doesn't do this. But our house his filled with "Joey art." We'll just have to repaint the whole thing one day. And buy new couches and chairs. 'Cuz they're all covered. 

 (These are all different spots on different days. No matter where we put that marker, he seemed to be able to find it!)

*This is the entire contents of a pack of Halloween makeup all over the carpet and cabinets. It doesn't even look as bad as it actually was. It was everywhere!

 *This was him trying to make his own sippie of chocolate milk. You can see the stool he dragged over to the fridge to get the milk and chocolate out. (That gallon was almost entirely full.):

But man, I can't stop laughing with this kid. And he has the best giggle ever. Mikey was doing swim team. His cap and goggles were in the back while I was driving and taking care of something else and really not focused on him. I turned around and found this. 

And man, does he wear himself out. He just plays and plays, and then zonks for hours!

 Yes, he is asleep here:

And there:

He will no longer nap, but at least every other week or so, his primary teacher will come out at the end of the day, carrying a limp-bodied Joe, totally asleep to the world. And he will stay asleep for hours after that!

But he is the happiest and funniest kid ever. I seriously can't get enough of his cute face!

Love him!!!