Buddy Loses His First Tooth

Buddy's first tooth came out yesterday. We don't know where it went. All of a sudden I looked at him and said, "Your tooth is gone!" Which freaked him out a bit. We don't know when or where it happened, but it's out! You can see the adult tooth growing in behind it. Unfortunately we didn't capture any pictures of the tooth fairy like we were able to with PS's first lost tooth. B was out late so when he came home we went in Buddy's room and B found a flashlight and pried Buddy's mouth open so he could see the hole. Then I made Buddy get up and go potty because I'd forgotten to make sure he went right before bedtime. I told Buddy all of this in the morning and he didn't believe me since he remembered none of it.

For the record, since I didn't record what the tooth fairy left PS and it would have come in handy last night when the tooth fairy was trying to figure out how much to leave Buddy, she/he left him four quarters.

Baby X Plays Ball

This is how Baby X plays ball. With one hand he holds on his baseball hat (which is a baseball cap shaped ice cream bowl from a 31 Flavors promotion from B and my childhood) and in the other hand is the ball. This makes him less of a lefty when he throws because usually his left hand is occupied with holding the hat on. He typically has once ball in each hand (when one isn't needed for the hat) and whichever hand is holding the bowl throws it. Left first. Then right.

Visiting Richmond

We visited our Virginia cousins (S and G) down in Richmond last weekend and got to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa M as well. Here are some pics from getting ice cream with them and going to Maymont... which we did several years ago with them on a Spring Break trip to Richmond. Very fun! Thanks for having us cousins.




Maymont. March 2007
Buddy, cousin G, PS and cousin S


Maymont. September 2009
PS, cousin G, Buddy, cousin S, and Baby X

Blog Look

The background went all crazy on my blogs... so until I figure it out, you get to enjoy this nice, minimalist look.


Later.... we're back being fun! Layout issues resolved.

Words, Noises and Body Parts

Hike

We went on a hike last week in Bull Run Regional Park.


Me and the kids at Bull Run.


The parking lot had this tiny little bridge. Buddy of course loved it because he loves bridges. Baby X was very excited about it and took it all very slowly and carefully. It was cute.

Homeschool

Those are my legs teaching Buddy about beginning sounds, middle sounds and ending sounds in words. Baby X wanted to learn too.

Dress-up

We sent our kids upstairs the other night to brush their teeth and put on pajamas and then to come back downstairs for prayers.

This is how Buddy showed up:


And this is how Princess Sparkley showed up:


Earlier in the day we had Baby X do his Baby Elton John impression.

Blog Update

Princess Sparkley has updated her blog here.


Buddy has updated his blog here.

Their blogs can always be found by clicking on their pictures to the right.



They LOVE comments!

Baby X speech update

I have some videos of Baby X "talking," but they are still on the camera. I wanted to write his words down before I forget to do it. I was looking through an old journal last night where I'd recorded Buddy's words. Baby X is coming up on 20 months. According to what I recorded in my journal, Baby X is now, about where Buddy was at 23 months. And between 23/24 months and 2 1/2 years, is when Buddy took off with his speech. We'll see. Here's what he knows, says, does... I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but it's a start.

Right now, Baby X's sign language signs are:
ball
bird
cat
dog
more
all done
milk
fish
please
Jesus
all gone
hat
toothbrush
bath
book
flag (a sign we made up)
baby
airplane (a sign we made up, accompanied by an excellent airplane noise)
moon
light


Baby X's words are:
ball (ball)
balloon (Bu-oon)
bubble (bubbulll)
bus ("bu bu bu bu bu")
[Buddy]
[Princess Sparkley]
Mama
Dada
cracker
duck
a sound that either means truck or that
awa (or something like that) is his word for flag
boo
uh oh
uh unh (no)
whoa
moon

He knows all his body parts
{he has for awhile, so we're adding stuff like cheeks and chin to his routine.}
eyes (closes them)
ears
lips
tongue (lalala)
teeth
hair
nose
chin
bum
toes
feet
arms
fingers
legs


Noises:
doggy: pants with his tongue out
cow: mooooo
horse: blows raspberries like a horse nickering
firetruck: nnn nnn nnn
train: woo woo
airplane: kchkchkch
race car/car: rrmmmrmmrmm

Two Loose Teeth

PS lost two teeth last September when she was just starting first grade. I noticed her adult teeth were growing in behind her baby teeth in bottom, on front. We went to the dentist and they said not to worry, they'd come out, and if they didn't, then they could pull them. But they got wiggly and fell out. So far, they are the only teeth she's lost. I think she's inherited my teeth. My roots were so long that most of my baby teeth had to be pulled. I guess we already knew she inherited my teeth. She's missing two incisors (?) on top. I'm only missing one. But I have great aunts and other relatives that are the same. It's sort of fun because Buddy isn't missing those teeth, and thus, has more teeth than his big sister.

In our first week of Kindergarten for Buddy I noticed that one of his adult teeth is growing in behind a baby tooth. His baby tooth is fairly wiggly. I've been keeping an eye on it and the other adult tooth broke through the gum as well. So Buddy has two loose teeth. Here's hoping he didn't inherit my teeth. Having your teeth pulled is no fun.

Line-ups

The "first day of school." Baby X obviously wasn't supposed to be in the picture but lined himself up at the door with the big kids.



B was taking this picture of just Buddy to show off his redneck outfit. PS stood next to him. So Baby X lined up with them. (Really, he isn't so unclothed this often.)

Maps

Daddy loves maps. So Buddy loves maps. And now Baby X loves maps. Here they are studying a map of BYU.





Here's a picture of Buddy at about the same age studying a map with Daddy.



Buddy at 19 months studying the Thomas the Tank Engine brochure.

Civil War Battlefields

Last Saturday we decided to visit one of the Civil War Battlefields that is kind of close to our home. Here we experienced a new aspect of living in the South. A little girl near us asked her dad who won the war. He said that "we won this battle. But we lost the war." We?? This was a concept B and I (being mainly from the west coast) were unfamiliar with. I always just think that the South lost (and rightfully so). Which I guess means I side with the North, thinking we won. But I think of it as ALL of America winning. I guess not down here. Not to mention most of the memorials at this battlefield are for Confederate soldiers, generals, etc.

Kansas friends visit from Texas

Now that we live somewhere "cool," or so I'm led to believe because no one ever wanted to visit us in Kansas, we have had a lot of friends tell us they'll come visit. Tiffany and her family were the first to follow through with that promise. She's originally from Philadelphia and came up for her brother's wedding in the DC Temple. They came to our home and visited with us for a few hours on Friday and then we met them at the temple Saturday morning to watch their three boys for them. It was fun to visit and see how much her boys have grown.


Two months apart (Baby X is younger)




PS is 6 months older than their oldest. And I think Buddy is about a year older than their middlest.



Beautiful temple picture with the clouds (note the wedding couple -- NOT Tiffany's brother).


In case you couldn't see them, here's a close up. Interesting.

PS in the Kitchen

I have a bunch of kid cookbooks from when I was little, so Princess Sparkley went through them the other day and picked out some recipes she wanted to make. She decided that Buddy would love this (and he did) because it involved fruit (especially cantaloupe) and a race car. It turned out okay.






This, however did not turn out so great (although PS LOVED it), and it was mainly my fault.





The problem is I only like Marie Callendar's Corn Bread Mix. And, so far, I can't find it here. I'd heard before that if you mix a corn bread mix with yellow cake mix, you can recreate Marie Callendar's Corn Bread. What we ended up with was hot dogs in a yellow cake. Bleh. PS thinks it was wonderful and wants us to submit the recipe to a kids cooking magazine of some sort. Anyone want to send some Marie Callendar's Corn Bread Mix my way?? (Although, there's still one grocery chain in town I haven't checked yet. Cross your fingers for me.)

Babymouse

With some of her birthday money, Princess Sparkley bought this Babymouse t-shirt and the new Babymouse book (which we bought at Borders the day it was released... exciting, exciting). For those of you who don't know, Babymouse is a graphic novel that PS LOVES. This particular book is Babymouse: Dragonslayer... hence the viking hat and sword.

National Zoo

Last Saturday I took the kids to the National Zoo in DC.

top to bottom
left to right

a Panda
below the Panda, Baby X being a cutie
to the right of those 2 tiny pictures, Baby X excited about those little animals being near him
Buddy with an elephant/excavator construction sign
Buddy examining some cow poop
next row: Buddy and PS with the zebras
an elephant shrew... possibly the cutest thing I've seen
Baby X with his tongue out letting me know that this animal is a doggy
last row: the kids with a statue of a Panda
the kids with an adorable picture of a Panda
PS and Buddy in a mister


The day started out hot. The zoo is free, parking is not, but B had dropped us off so had about 2.5 hours, so mainly I wanted to see the Pandas, so that was the goal. I figured we'll go back again before we move (it is free afterall) so it wasn't important to see every animal and spend hours at the zoo that day. About an hour before B came and got us it started raining. We finished the outer loop of the zoo which is most of the animals, so we hung out under a tree for awhile until it was raining so hard that the tree wasn't protecting us from the rain anymore. Then we made our way across the zoo and back to the petting zoo area where B had dropped us off (got soaked) and spent the reminder of our time seeing the farm animals under the barn roof.

Impromtu Dance Party

Baby X "woofs"

Here's a video of Baby X playing with PS's Little Pet Shop puppy. He's making it go "woof, woof, woof" which is a step up from what he thinks a dog usually says, which is sticking his tongue ALL the way out a panting - see pictures below video.





Panting like a dog and kneeling.


Here he's not only panting like a dog, but also crawling
around on all fours like a dog.

Baby X "Dances"

Baby "dances" in his car seat by kicking his legs wildly. He used to only do this for The Killers song Human and he'd stop whatever he was doing, even if it was crying and throwing a tantrum in the car, so he could start dancing and laughing. Then expanded his favorite song list to their song Spaceman. Now he also dances for some Weezer songs. Here are some clips:

Spaceman




Weezer's Troublemaker




Human

*Sorry, I can rotate it in Picasa but it doesn't rotate in
"My Pictures" and that's from where the videos are uploaded.

Duck

Baby X says "Quack" or possibly "Duck."

Sound Effects

Baby X has inherited Buddy's awesome sound effect talents. Buddy is always making fire engine siren noises, or something. Sometimes even Baby X goes to the window thinking there's a fire truck driving past as Buddy makes his noises. Now Baby X has noises of his own. And his lips are so cute when he's making his fire truck sounds. I have a bunch of videos to upload but I've been having problems lately with getting videos on here. Just know that Baby X does an awesome car, train, fire truck, horse, duck quacking, dog (panting and woofing) and cow and that videos are forthcoming. Oh, and he's taken to crawling around pretending to be a puppy as well.

Yea... I think it worked:


Firetruck (note the cute lips and determined brow):




Car, Truck and sign language for fish:



Here he is as our puppy:



And be sure to check out this post from a month ago that I forgot was busily uploading a video and I hadn't yet published... Baby X says "ball."

Maryland and Delaware County Trip

B is of course itching to get all the new counties we live by now, so last Saturday we went on a little county trip. It was especially exciting because the kids all got two new states (Maryland and Delaware), B got Delaware and we all finished Delaware (since the state only has three counties).


We started off at the Washington DC Temple in Maryland.



Next was the Maryland State Capitol in Annapolis.



Then across the Bay Bridge (super exciting for Buddy) and the Chesapeake Bay (hooray, our first near glimpse of an ocean in years) into more Maryland... then Delaware and the Capitol in Dover. Fun fact about Delaware, is has more people in it than Wyoming. Who knew?? And no sales tax. On the way back, in Sassafras, MD, we had to stop for a draw bridge. If there wasn't also a super long suspension bridge and a tunnel on this trip, Buddy would have for sure picked the draw bridge. It was a toss up. That top corner picture of Buddy was taken as we're watching the draw bridge go up.

We also documented Baby X's left handed tendencies as he sat in the backseat "coloring." He's been throwing and eating with his left hand lately.

Camouflage

Where's Buddy?

Living Room and Upstairs

The entry way looking into the kitchen.


The living room.


The living room from the dining room.



The Stairs... no nearly as brutal as the steep stairs we had in Kansas.


Baby X's room/Storage
There's a row of boxes of outgrown kid clothes behind the crib. To the left of those are books that are staying packed up and a lot of framed pictures that we don't want to hang when our lease is short-term. Then a bookshelf of toys. So about 1/4 of his room is taken over by storage. Another 1/4 by crib and toys. Then openness, not pictured.


PS and Buddy are still sharing a room until Baby X is big enough to sleep on the bottom bunk. I couldn't wait for tidiness to take this picture, it would never get taken.


Upstairs bathroom. HUGE compared to the downstairs half bath.

Dining Room and Living Room and Backyard

Our front room is set up awkwardly. It's a huge room, and the door/entry way is right in the middle. Straight across the front door is about 6 feet of wall where our big bookcase is (we've since packed up the stack of books after choosing which books get to be on the shelf for the next little bit). To the right of the big bookcase is a coat closet and then the stairs. To the left is a narrowing that goes back to the dining room, and then on the right, the kitchen. Oh, and a miniature bathroom. We've chosen to split the front room into two tiny rooms. On the right is our humongous desk that's been living in B's brother's basement for 4 years. On the left is our couch/living room area. We sold our TV before leaving Kansas and haven't yet replaced it, so this room is mostly a couch. Notice our sideways family picture. We just had new family pictures taken and they are oriented the other way, so we got the picture frame ready. B and I think this is hilarious and can't wait for the Relief Society president or someone to drop by to get to know us. The kids didn't notice for almost an entire day.


Living Room-ish.


Dining Room taken from the kitchen.



Dining Room taken from the space between the living room and dining room... there's a sort of narrowing of walls to separate the two rooms.


From our back fence. To the left of Baby X is our storage shed.



From the dining room doorway. There's a strip of grass between our back fence and the apartment building behind us.

Front and Kitchen

Here's the front and the kitchen of the townhome we're renting right now. It's about 300 more square feet than we had in Kansas. With a tiny fenced backyard (which we are supposed to mow... not sure about that) and a tiny storage shed out back and extra storage under the stairs. We actually feel like we have a spot for everything... almost. We just need more wall space and more bookshelves for that wall space. I'll try to post more pictures when we get more stuff organized.


B probably thought I was nuts as I unpacked all of my kitchen stuff and was so giddy. I finally had a spot for everything!!! And the corner cabinets above and below the sink on the left, are SO DEEP. It's awesome.


Next to the washer/dryer is what we like to refer to as our Harry Potter closet.




This is the first time in years all of our books have been in one location. For awhile we had a few boxes of fancy books on display at B's brother's house and about 12 boxes in his parents basement. This is about 90% of them... most of our kid books were already unpacked and on little bookshelves upstairs as well as a lot of B's school books, so they aren't pictured.