Bedtime Giggles

Both kids skipped naps today and were particularly squirrely by 6pm. I was fighting, with all the grace and good cheer I could muster, to herd them through putting on pajamas, reading stories, brushing teeth, and going potty. If you know how wacky over-tired kids get, you can just imagine how this multi-step routine just begs for chaos. At one point, both kids had their toothbrushes but had run, squealing, out of the bathroom and were in the living room, lounging on the couch and brushing. I scooped Nathan up, and laid him back on my lap saying, "It's dentist time! Let me check you teeth!" He thought that was pretty funny and was surprisingly compliant. I'd just about finished his teeth, and he said, with the million-dollar grin that he has, "Excuse me, dentist. Can I have a toy now?" And we both exploded in giggles.

Sweet prayers

Nathan and Abigail almost fight over who gets to pray at meals. "I'm fuhrst!" "No, it's my turn!" (I just realized how ironic it is that they're fighting over praying...) Grandma Ko has been with us this week and it's so sweet the way Abigail always thanks God for "Grandma visit us." She's also very methodical in thanking God for everyone's (fill in the blank)..."Thank you for Mommy's rice, Daddy's rice, Nathan's rice, Abby's rice..." So sweet.

Nathan has had a pattern to his prayers for quite awhile but every now and then he'll surprise me. There's a boy in his preschool class that always takes toys from other kids and is just generally annoying. This boy has been our "prayer pal" all year (a picture of the boy to remind us to pray for him and his family) but Nathan tends to forget, probably because he's not fond of this boy. Nathan's also been particularly "3" this week, and we've been talking ALL.THE.TIME about listening. So last night when I was tucking him in, he was praying, and said, "...and God, please, PLEASE help me to listen. And thank you for (boy's name from school) and that he's in my class." So sweet.

Argh!

I was sitting at the computer this morning for a few mindless minutes while Nathan finished his breakfast. Abigail was playing on the floor behind me with her large Hello Kitty plush doll (aka Big Kitty). I wasn't really listening to her chattering away until I hear her saying, "Ahoy, me hearties!" I turned around to see Big Kitty with Abby's flower headband as an eye patch (pink of course). The endless imagination of this girl!

A Nature Walk with a 2 year old...

...means you're stopping at least every 2 feet to pick up every leaf, stick, rock within arm's reach. Abigail and I hung out this afternoon while gMa worked in Nathan's preschool class. (Ordinarily, Abby naps while Nathan's at school but I figured she needed some extra TLC since Nathan got special gMa time.) After a rousing session of Dance, Dance Dora (and yes, I got up and did all the Dora dances with her), we decided to go out and enjoy the beautiful spring (in February??) day by taking a "nature walk" around the neighborhood. We came home with a bag full of dead leaves, various sticks, and some rocks. I was also able to persuade her that we should bring home some cherry blossoms from a nearby tree (I only picked a few of the branches that were hanging over the sidewalk!). A walk around the block took us nearly 45 minutes because stopping to look at all those "treasures" was a very important job. And the sweet little girl who actually wanted to hold my hand today was definitely my favorite part!

Daddy's Traveling

We had a nice, lazy weekend. John and the kids stayed in their pajamas most of Saturday. Yesterday was another low-key day, napping and hanging out after church. This morning John left early for D.C. where he'll be until late Thursday. The kids and I have a busy week planned with plenty of fun with friends, but it's still not the same without Daddy.

And yes, we're still alive!

Oh dear...it's been forever since I posted anything. I'll probably not get back to catch up, but here's a quick taste of what's going on. Hope to post more regularly...but that's a habit I need to work on forming!

Nathan's into big numbers lately. When he wants a lot of something, he'll usually say, “Yeah, 159 of them!” But in his 3-year-old understanding of numbers and counting, he's begun to realize that he'd like even more...and so now it's become, “Even more...like One hundred fifty twelve!” or “Twenty-ten (for 30)” I love that!

Meanwhile, Abigail is chatty as ever. A few weeks back, she and I were looking around at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and everything was “beautiful” or “lovely.” This morning she saw Karly, the cat, jump up onto the bathroom sink, and Abigail said, “Karly jumped up and put her head in the sink and that's 'bisgusting'!” Big words from little mouths, said slightly wrong are adorable!

Morning Conversations

John has a very busy day at work today. His to-do list is insane and on top of that, he has to go into the city and visit a customer. He decided to take BART to avoid traffic hassles. He was up early and Nathan came in while he was getting ready. I told Nathan about BART and of course, he was very excited.

As John was getting his coffee and preparing to leave, Nathan was asking questions about Daddy's day. Then he said, "When I a man, I want to go to work with you, Daddy. I want to wear glasses and ride the FART (BART, no that's not his idea of a potty-mouth joke...it's just his pronunciation on that one, LOL!!) train, too."

Later we were discussing what to have for breakfast. "Cereal, oatmeal, and french toast!" he said. Eventually we got that whittled down to just french toast. I added in some bacon, egg, cheese, and spinach frittatas I'd made and frozen and we were set. (Side note: I was totally floored that they gobbled up the frittatas without batting an eye at the spinach...yay me!) Nathan came back into the kitchen after he'd been gone playing and said, "Thank you for breakfast Mommy. It was very good and yummy!"