Berries, bubbles, and board games

Tamsen's on vacation this whole week, so as proof that I am competently taking care of these children, I'm going to update every day this week. Please don't send the authorities to take the children away from me. I am trying, honest.

This morning we got up, ate breakfast, got dressed, and headed out to the backyard to pick berries from our blackberry bushes. We filled up this cup in just a couple of minutes.

Edie was very interested in the berries so long as they were in the cup, but really did not like touching them, since the first one she grabbed from the bush was softer than we realized, so it squished in her hand. She's in a phase where she can't stand any sort of anything getting on her (even water), so berry juice in her hand didn't sit well with her. Fortunately, the grass was still wet, so I showed her how to wipe her hand clean, but unfortunately, since the grass was still wet, her shoes got wet, which caused a whole new set of problems. She was screaming at me to get her new shoes while I was crawling around the bush picking berries as quickly as I could. I wasn't quite the delightful family adventure I'd imagined it would be.

Although, Marty didn't seem to mind being hauled around the backyard.

He could sit in that stroller forever, I think. Edie was the same way.

I parked him there for a little bit while I blew bubbles for Edie.

Edie absolutely adores bubbles, and I made the mistake of telling her last night that we would play with bubbles today. I don't think she talked about anything else until we finally got them out, which was a solid 16 hours. Here's a quick video of her popping them.

Marty couldn't possibly care less about the bubbles, but we put him in the porch swing and pushed him around for a bit, which he really liked. I would have stayed out for longer, but Tennessee in July, y'know? Five minutes was plenty.

We came in to cool off for a bit, and thankfully, Marty went to sleep before long. Edie knows that once Marty goes to sleep, though, she's allowed to play Candy Land and Hi Ho Cherry-o, since he won't be around to try to eat the pieces. Edie got her copy of Candy Land about three weeks ago, and I would imagine we've played at least once every day since then. Considering the game is determined by nothing but sheer chance, she wins way more than I would expect (viz., always).

I told Edie that we should play with our Play-Doh at one point, but quickly realized I had no idea where it was. Tamsen was traveling all day out of range of cell reception, so we just had to tear apart the house. Luckily, she called around 6:30, so we had a bit of time to play before bed.

Marty isn't allowed to play with Play-Doh, but he seemed content enough to chew on necklaces.

We had fun today! Now I just need to think of ways to fill five more days and I'm all set.

Another week

Weird things happen around our house all the time, but sometimes I forget to write them down anywhere.

Weird things, like Marty walking around the living room and spontaneously deciding he would step out of his pants. You can see them on the ground right behind them.

Weird things like Edie sobbing this morning because I cut her sandwich into two pieces, not four, followed by her grabbing a placemat off of the table and proudly announcing that she was wiping her tears. (She did this seven times during breakfast. That poor placemat.)

This is Edie just after her bath last night. I had just given Marty a bath and had planned on relaxing for a bit before their bedtime (giving a kid a bath is exhausting), but she insisted that she have one, too. After the bath, we took two or three dozen selfies. I would have waited until my hair was dry before taking pictures, but, I mean, you do you, little girl.

Errands

I had both Monday and Tuesday off for the holiday weekend, so we spent some time as a family together today doing errands. Running around town with two little kids in tow may not sound like your idea of fun, and I completely agree, but Marty is pretty docile as long as he isn't hungry, and Edie genuinely enjoys being buckled up and pushed around in a cart. In fact, she usually doesn't want to get in the car and go anywhere unless I tell her we're going to a store, whether it's the grocery store, the burger store (getting fast food), the lollipop store (getting a haircut), you name it. 

So we headed down to the grocery store, which here requires you to put in a quarter before it releases a cart to you. We realized as we were getting close that we weren't sure if we had a quarter, which was a problem because Edie was in the backseat singing "I'm going to the grocery store, I'm going to the grocery store" over and over. Fortunately, we didn't have to disappoint her. 

The carts at the store are double wide, so we got to take this adorable shot:

Marty seemed to enjoy being pushed around, too, and Edie was having a great time pointing things out to him. ("Look, Marty! Cereal!") At one point, she told me that she saw ice cream on the shelf, which confused me until I realized it was a box of ice cream cones. So we bought them and brought them home to have ice cream cones after dinner. It wasn't until we gave one to Edie that we realized she'd never had one before. It was, well, not as bad as it could have been.

You may notice that we finally got her hair cut, since it was entirely covering her eyes. I took her to the "lollipop store," and she was really excited right up until she sat in the chair and realized she was getting a haircut. She sat still and did a great job, though, which was a pleasant surprise. And she looks real nice, too! At least, I think so!

Marty is still a grabby little boy. He spent a good twenty minutes grabbing at the steam coming out of Tamsen's humidifier the other night and having a ball doing so. He likes to grab Edie's toys, which isn't a problem unless she sees him, which makes her scream to everyone that will listen, "Marty's sharing my toys!" He's a good boy, and we like him, except for all of the times that he screams at us. (We still like him then, but he's not a good boy when he's screaming.)

Party time

My co-worker's son turned two last week, so we all went to his birthday party on Saturday. We all had a good time, as much as anyone has a good time at a party for a two year-old.

Edie played it cool so none of the dinosaurs thought she was trying too hard.

She didn't seem interested in any of the other kids there, but she was excited to see that there was a plate of grapes and cheese and that she could have as much as she wanted. Eventually, she got so excited that she squeezed the bottle of water she was drinking from and spilled on her shirt. She got really upset and started saying (a little too loudly), "I need to go home! I need a new shirt!"

Marty seemed completely indifferent to everyone, so long as people were feeding him.

He liked being held, and since most of the people there hadn't seen him in a while, he had a lot of people willing to hold him. He was also keenly interested in eating directly from the garbage can, which was less exciting for us.

Not much new to report this week. Both kids continue to fall on their faces repeatedly, but we still like them.

Father's Day

We have a tradition in our family of not making a big deal about Mother's and Father's Day. Not for ourselves, anyway; we still get nice, lavish gifts for our parents. Our agreement is that we each get a treat from the grocery store. This year, Tamsen got herself some gummi bears, and I got myself some potato chips. (Cheddar and sour cream! It's a bigger deal for me than you'd think!)

So imagine my surprise when Tamsen revealed to me on Sunday morning that while I'd been gone all Saturday at church meetings, she and Edie had made me a Father's Day cake.

Granted, Tamsen did the baking and icing, but Edie added all of the ingredients, mixed them, and poured the batter into the pan. She also picked the colors and added the food coloring herself. The yellow and green are Oregon Ducks colors, but the inside is red for no other reason than that it's Edie's favorite color.

She even signed it! Or Tamsen did for her, whatever.

After we celebrated by stuffing ourselves silly with cake, I gave both of the kids baths. We have enough Edie pictures in the bath, but it's still a new experience for Marty, so Tamsen took a few shots.

I love the vague finger pointing he's doing here, as if to say, "Can you get a load of this guy, peeking in my drawers? Who does he think he is?"

Marty really doesn't enjoy baths lately, but it turns out that if we give him a rubber duck to chew on, he calms right down. And in a pinch, they work well as strategic covering for highly inappropriate baby nudity.

All in all, I think it was a pretty good day.

Trading places

Edie is a girl, but she doesn't really do anything that would set her apart as an especially girly girl. She likes to build things with Legos and blocks, she likes to play with her train set, and she enjoys making shapes with her magnets.

Today, before church, she was playing with her magnets and told me, repeatedly, "I'm making a hexagon."

You can't really see it here, but she was absolutely making hexagons, complete with 120 degree angles. STEM, here we come?

Meanwhile, Marty was crawling around this week and found an old hairband that Edie refuses to wear. He didn't seem to mind if we put it on him, though.

Marty: quite possibly the prettiest princess?

Relaxing

Not much new to report this week. Edie is improving in her speech, and she still regularly falls on her face walking around the house. Marty's working on standing and walking, and he regularly falls on his head, too. He's working on vocalizing now, throwing out CVCVs like it's his job. (You know, mamamama, babababa, etc.)

And that's all good and well, but I'm guessing the only reason you're reading this at all is because you heard that Edie and I pinned Marty down a few days ago and made him into our own personal set of bongos. Take a listen! I think we got a pretty good sound out of this kid.