Megan and her baby

Megan loves her baby doll. And she loves that she has a nightgown that is the same as her baby's. Which is why she is wearing a flannel nightgown in Arizona in August. Because it is so much fun to match baby. She is really cute with her doll.  She feeds her and dresses her and diapers her. The other day when she was bathing, Megan put her baby over by the edge of the tub since I wouldn't let her actually bring the baby in the tub. Several times, she went over to check on baby. So cute! At bedtime, instead of dancing with one of us and doing the mommy or daddy train, Megan will dance with her baby and then do the Megan train for baby. She is definitely a nurturer!

Mommy's little helpers

I had some of the cutest little helpers helping me grind wheat the other day.

Megan made sure the wheat ground into the bowl and let me know when we needed to transfer it into the other container. She also turned the grinder off and on.

Matthew transferred wheat from a big bowl into a small one so we could pour it in the grinder for a second grind. He definitely figured out a system to get wheat transferred more efficiently.

This is from a different day. They were both sitting on the same little chair. It was really cute to see them squeezing on there together.

Sarah's new look

Pretty cute, if you ask me.

Sarah had been complaining about headaches after school started so we took her to the eye doctor. Sure enough, she needs glasses. She only has to wear them at school, although right now she thinks it is cool to wear them more often (she just got them today). She is telling us how much clearer writing is with her glasses on. Sure glad we could help her see!

Conflicted....

Matthew is a bit conflicted about things. Let's use this morning to illustrate. After we dropped Sarah off at school, the conversation went something like this:

Me: Now we're going to go to Sam's Club.

Matthew: Nooooooo! No go Sam's Club! Go home! Go home mommy! Go home! No go Sam's Club!

He proceeded to do this most of the way to Sam's Club.

When we got in the car to go home, the conversation went like this:

Me: Now we're going home.

Matthew: Nooooooo! No go home. Go Target! No go home mommy! Go Target! No go home. Go someplace else.

And he proceeded to do this most of the way home.

This happens pretty much every day. If we are going home, he wants to go someplace else. And if we are going someplace else, he wants to go home. Some people just can't be pleased!!!

On a completely unrelated side note, something he is NOT conflicted about is what his favorite movie is. He wants to watch Rio. He loves that movie and would watch it all the time if we let him. 

Sarah's Amazing Memory!!!

Sarah has an amazing memory. I've always been impressed by what she remembers. You better be careful before promising her something because she will remember next time she sees you. Even if it is a year later.

Anyhow, this morning, she was telling me how she remembers being at Grandpa A's birthday party and her and Luke helped him blow out the candles. This happened in 2008 when she was 3!

Then she talked about being at Grandma and Grandpa O's house for a birthday and she got a bunch of necklaces. That was her second birthday!!!

Like I said, she has an incredible memory!

Me, Ma, Me and My

Say:

• "Me" as in the first syllable of "Megan."
• "Ma" as in the first syllable of "Matthew."
• "Me" as in "me."
• "My" as in "my."

Now say them in toddler speak.

Now say them in toddler speak in a sentence with a bunch of other words.

Now you can hear my problem. These four words are used a lot around our house. And I usually think I know which one is being said. But, alas, I am often wrong.

Megan: "Where is {my} shoe?"

Me: "You are looking for your shoe?"

Megan: "No! {Ma} shoe."

Me: "Oh! Matthew's shoe."

Megan: "Yeah."

Matthew: "Rice milk makes {my} tummy hurt."
Me: "Rice milk makes your tummy hurt?"
Matthew: "No. Rice milk makes {Me} tummy hurt."
Me: "Rice milk makes Megan's tummy hurt?"
Matthew: "Yup!"

(As a side note, Matthew says that a lot of "special" things he gets to have--rice milk, almond yogurt, almond ice cream, etc--make Megan's tummy hurt. Must be his consolation for the fact that so many things make his tummy hurt.)

It's all good, though, and I sure do love hearing them talk more. And one day, these types of misunderstandings will all be a distant memory. And I will probably miss them. So I enjoy them. For the most part:)

A fun night with dad

The kids and daddy slept in the tent last night. They thought this was great fun!

Budding Artist

Matthew decided to get creative with his carrots and hummus.

Questions for two year olds

I was reading in a child development book about some questions that toddlers should be able to ask by the time they turn three. I decided to try them out on my two year olds. This is how it went:

With Megan:
Me: What is your name?
Megan: Me (sounds like first syllable of "Megan"; it is what she and Matthew say for "Megan")
Me: How old are you?
Megan: Two.
Me: Are you a boy or a girl?
Megan: Girl.

Looks likes she is almost three!

With Matthew:
Me: What is your name?
Matthew:                            {no answer}
Me: What is your name?
Matthew:                            {still no answer}
Me: How old are you?
Matthew: 8!
Me: Are you are boy or a girl?
Matthew: Girl.

Looks like we still have a few months before he will be three! (I should note that he does know his name. He says, "Me Ma-phew!" all the time and get upset if anyone disputes this. And he does know his age but usually likes to say he is either 6 or 8. So really, this is showing his joking personality more than anything. He can be quite a jokester. And he's got the smile to go with it!)

The Cowboy Song

Megan got to choose the opening song for Family Home Evening this week. When we asked what song she wanted to sing, it sounded like she said "The Cowboy Song." She then proceeded to sing it to us. It went like this: "Cowboy Song. Cowboy Song. Cowboy Song. Cowboy Song." She made up the melody and everything. She then proceeded to sing us the Jessie Song and the Buzz Song. (The melody sounded a lot like the Cowboy Song.) I should point out that Woody is also known as "cowboy" in these parts so The Cowboy Song must be his song. So cute!

I guess we should teach her Ragtime Cowboy Joe so she will know another cowboy song:)

4:01

That is the time that Sarah tells us she went into Megan and Matthew's room this morning. U found all three up in their room at 5 when he got up. I guess I was the last one up this morning, sleeping in until 5:30 or so when Matthew woke me up. (U separated the kids in hope that they'd get some more sleep, or at least rest. Unfortunately, it didn't work.....)

Early to bed tonight!

Cute kids

Princess Snow White and her escort arrive at the ball.

Sarah experimenting with a vampire look.

M&M building with their Duplos.

Swim meet

Sarah had her final swim of the season this past Saturday. She swam hard and enjoyed the meet. It was super competitive! There were swimmers from all over the Valley and some even came in from Tucson and Show Low. Here are Sarah's results:

Freestyle: 22.21 seconds

Backstroke: 26.23 seconds

Butterfly: 29.12 seconds

Some pretty good times. I think the first two are her best times for those events. On backstroke, she was 9th overall, which was a little disappointing as the first 8 swimmers received medals. She thinks if she hadn't slowed down at the end due to fear of bonking her head, she probably would have medaled and she's probably right. We are glad her head wasn't bonked though. 

I was a timer for the swim meet. I had a front row seat for all the races! It was pretty nonstop--a lot of the races were 30 seconds or less and they started the next one as soon as the previous one was over. I was in lane 4 (of 8) which means there were swimmers assigned to my lane every single race. The only time we got a break was if a swimmer didn't show up for the race. We used the Colorado timing method. There were two timers/lane and we both hit a plunger when the racers finished. In addition, I had a stopwatch that I used to time in case the plungers failed. So I pushed one button when the race started, two when it finished, verified the swimmer's name and recorded the time from the stopwatch. Repeat all morning long. Pretty nonstop! (There was once that the swimmers in our lane and the next lane over had swapped places so it is good we checked identity.) Some of the races were determined by hundredths of seconds (which really means how quickly the timers hit the plungers--no pressure!). Like I said, pretty intense competitions.

Snooze

I would like to find the snooze button on my two year olds. 

It would be really nice if it lasted until 6:30. 7:00 would be even better. 

Them getting up before 6 is very tiring, for them and for me. This morning, it was 5:30. Here's to hoping for early naps!

Egg Challenge

Matthew has his egg challenge today and he passed! Yeah! This means he can now eat egg. 

The food challenges are very long and I'm pretty sure Matthew thought they were trying to starve him. We had to be at the doctor by 8 am and he was to not have eaten breakfast. So he was hungry. They finally started giving egg around 9, but it was such a little amount I doubt it did much for him. (It was 2 grams of egg--they weighed his food each time. Seriously, it was like a crumb of egg.) Every 20-30 minutes, they would come in, check his vitals and give him more egg. The amount roughly doubled each time, which means it was quite awhile until he got a normal bite of egg. After the fourth or fifth time, he had a really tough time. I think he was super hungry and wanted more food and was upset he kept getting these little bites. (He generally eats a big breakfast--1/3 cup oatmeal with raisins and fruit plus rice milk--and he would typically have a snack by this time. So the 40 grams of egg they'd given him really didn't cut it.)  Thankfully the next time, he had a few bites of egg and the time after that was more still. All told, he got the equivalent of one egg during the challenge, with 60% of that being in the last serving. Needlesstosay, he was still super hungry and when I could finally feed him a little after noon, he inhaled two fruit leather. He then ate the Cheerios and raisins I'd brought for him on the way home and then promptly fell asleep. His little belly was just glad to have something in it. He really was a little trooper. 

So we are glad Matthew passed. Now we just need to figure out how to cook eggs again!

Going shopping