We're good.

To be honest, I feel like my posts may be becoming a bit boring.  The kids don’t have those month to month developments like they did when they were younger, but now I can be entertained daily by the words that are coming out of their mouths.  Landon likes to answer questions with his famous catch phrase, “ No, I’m good.”  (Example – “Landon do you need to use the potty?” “No, I’m good.”) Riley is starting to talk to me about her dreams and woke me up yesterday telling me about her “water dream.”  The other day I caught her in her room trying to put shoes on her Barbie dolls and she indicated that the process was a “catastrophe” and I could not stop laughing.  I am trying to keep up with writing the cute and funny things they say in a notebook, but sometimes there are so many in a day I would need to carry the notebook with me!

Landon asks me every morning if I will play with him.  I love to play, but I can’t keep up with the imagination! He expects a different voice for every animal character and I love that he has “conversations” between them.  He loves to play with his Paw Patrol figures and Rescue Bots and will interact the two together.  He doesn’t mind playing alone either, but he much prefers someone to play with him.  He is enjoying his soccer practices and was kicking a ball up and down the hall yesterday morning repeating directives the coach uses in his practices.  We have had several nice days lately and they have been able to play outside.  They love being outside, especially if bubbles are involved.  Landon likes to do worksheets and projects with me and it is when we are working together that his perfectionism shines through.  We made rainbows today by gluing fruit loops on paper and he meticulously applied glue and matched colors to make the rainbow.  (Riley covered the paper in glue and applied about 5 fruit loops and ran away).  He still loves to snuggle up with me in the morning and eat his cereal from my lap and I soak in every minute of it.  He loves to eat dry cereal (so he can pick it up with his fingers he tells me), “messy cookies” (soft cereal bars), and “yogurt beans” (yogurt covered raisins that must be served in a small yellow container).  He LOVES milk and would drink it all day long if I let him.  They went to the dentist a few weeks ago for their cleaning (only second ever visit) and they did great.  He climbed right up in the chair and had no issues until the end when I think he was just on sensory overload.  He likes things to be a particular way and struggles a bit at first with change but will usually catch on.  It has been warm out and we tried to put shorts on Landon yesterday and he informed us that his “pants didn’t touch his ankles” and he refused to wear them.  I think some of his “quirks” can be frustrating to other people, but I just kind of roll with them.  I know to open the fruit snacks a certain way, to only use the yellow cup for the yogurt beans, to give him the green spoon and fork, to let him flush the toilet and close the garage door when we pull out of the garage.  I think a lot of this is just typical three year old behavior, but admittedly it can be exhausting at times. 

Riley is Riley.  She never stops moving or talking and prefers to be in the same room as me at all times.  She too likes to snuggle, but on her terms and she will place your hands where she wants them to be.  She even asks to hold my hand while I am driving the car.   She loves to sing and have me sing to her, especially when she is upset.  The top requested song is “5 Little Speckled Frogs.”  She recently became upset while we were out shopping so I had to carry her through the store singing the song while the Hubby pushed a massively full cart with Landon hanging off the side occasionally jumping down to restack the cans of soup to his liking.  I can only imagine what we look like in public and I hope that we are able to give people a smile.  I often find her singing along in the car as well, she likes songs that have repetition- so like any pop song right now.  She specifically likes Maroon 5 “Don’t Wanna Know.”  She still loves to be an animal and I have to stop her from pretending to be a dog sometimes when we are out.  It isn’t appropriate to crawl on the floor and bark in all situations.  Her favorite toys to play with are her animals and she has a large collection of stuffed animals at this point.  She loves to color and “write” letters – no scrap of paper in this house is safe.  She is showing a lot of improvement with her coloring and drawing her own shapes and letters, it just has to be on her time.  You can’t force her to sit still and get the “work” done.  Riley loves to eat fruit, yogurts, and cheeses.  Typically the first thing out of her mouth in the morning is asking me for cheese- she may be addicted.  She still loves to watch Curious George and that is about the only thing she will ask to watch other than Paw Patrol. 

We had a few adventures this month.  They have soccer practice every Saturday morning and they love it.  They can’t wait to get there and they are doing well with following directions and learning the skills.  We took them to meet Curious George at the mall and I thought Riley would be all over it, but she hid behind me while Landon ran up to hug him.  We have been doing some projects this month at home related to the weather and they enjoy being able to tell me what the weather is like daily.  We have been able to spend more time outside – even ate a few meals out there.  They have enjoyed a few trips to Story Time at the library and we get new books each week.  We even did some bowling for charity. The true adventure will come in April when I (with the help of a friend) am driving the kids back to Illinois for Easter.  Daddy gets to lead a bachelor life for 1.5 weeks! (Never fear he will have a list of things to get done – ha ha)

Foil Painting 

Waiting on our dinosaur to hatch! 

Story Time! 

"Puddle jumping" to practice our numbers 

I build a fort almost daily... 

Making Shamrocks 

Legos at the library 

Neither one will nap anymore... 

so this is what a short car ride looks like! 

On the down low

Happy Groundhog Day! 

This afternoon I answered 17 questions in three minutes.  17 questions for one child (luckily the other one was asleep).  My mind is exhausted by the end of the day! All those questions require answers and I do my best to answer all of them as scientifically (and anatomically accurate) as possible.  I need nap time to regroup during the day – give my brain a break – and unfortunately my nap time is often filled with homework.  Honestly, Landon is pretty impressive with his answers as well.  The other day, he went into a detailed explanation of how the water goes down the drain, through the pipes, and out of the bathroom.  He has a very “mechanical” mind and is constantly trying to figure out how things work so he can explain them to me.  So basically, there is a constant “noise” in my day with one asking questions and the other answering questions I did not even ask.  I love my quiet time when I can get it!   

They are both pretty protective of each other.  Riley expressed concern with “getting hurt” earlier and Landon said to her “don’t worry, you won’t get hurt.”  Today at McDonald’s, Landon was having difficulty climbing up to the slide as he is a few inches shorter than Riley.  She was encouraging him all the way and then when he asked for help, she got behind him and pushed him up to the next level.  I could hear them cheering each other on the whole time.  When we are out in public, they are never too far from each other, and are constantly looking out for each other.  They always remind each other of my instructions, which can come off as kind of bossy and I have had to remind them on occasions that I am the mommy.  We started soccer this past weekend and overall they did pretty well.  They followed instruction and enjoyed themselves- and looked pretty cute doing it.  We did start to have some breakdown in our attention near the end of class, but it was 11:30 and they were starting to get hungry.  Next time, I will know to “carbo-load” them before class. Ha ha.

Today we got Riley’s hair cut.  It has taken me a few weeks to commit and be willing to cut it off, but the constant crying when I am trying to comb it and her unwillingness to put it in a ponytail finally made it a priority.  We got about 4 inches cut off and there is still plenty of hair!  She continues to keep me busy and entertained.  She loves to pretend she is an animal and spends a majority of her day as a puppy – which means most of her pants are worn out at the knees.  If she is not busy being an animal she is playing with animals and our collection of stuffed animals continues to grow.  She likes to tell me that she is going to keep things “nice and warm” when she puts them away – like putting my glasses in their case.  She loves to play board games and is getting pretty good at them.  She likes to build forts in the living room and has me build one just about daily.  She loves to sing and dance and spin around.  She still likes to dress like a princess, but she loves to get down in the mud and play with the boys.  She is showing some improvement in going to the potty and we are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.  She has always had some issues with her belly and it is definitely impacting this process – we may be consulting with a doctor soon, but for now I will keep trying prune juice and methods at home.  She has been willing to try new foods lately, but that may be partly due to some bribery with cookies if she finishes her food.  Her favorite food is cheese, but we have put some limitations on that one so she isn’t happy.   She still likes to eat applesauce, macaroni, yogurt, apples, and fruit snacks.  Currently, her favorite shows to watch are (still) Curious George and basically anything with an animal.  She loves to read and will often be found in her room reading instead of taking a nap.  She has been able to mostly memorize some books and “read” them to me and she gets a kick out of that!

Poor Landon has inherited my seasonal allergies and we are both miserable right now.   They symptoms came on fast this year – too fast.  I have enjoyed the warm weather, but I do not enjoy the sneezing!  He has been fairly healthy otherwise, not like this time last year when we were battling with reoccurring croup.  I am so grateful that we were able to get him some effective treatment! Landon is very mechanically minded and is constantly explaining to me how things work, like water going down the drain or just simply saying, “ the sun goes down during the night and the moon comes up.”  I could listen to his little voice all day long so I just let him talk.  We have needed to discuss the use of an indoor voice a lot lately as he will start to speak louder and louder when he gets excited.  He does have some expressions that make me laugh – when something is underneath, like if I put something under the grocery cart, he will tell me that it is “on the down low.”  I have not corrected this one because it makes me laugh every single time, so sorry future teachers. ;) He is also always asking me if I am “forgetting something” when I do not answer his call/need right away.  I swear, between the two of them, 10000 words are spoken in our house each day before noon.  Landon loves to play with his racecars and Rescue bots.  He likes to watch Mickey and the Roadstar Racers or Superwings lately, or one specific episode of Curious George that is driving me crazy.  The other night he read Brown Bear, Brown Bear to me when he was stalling his bedtime.  He also loves to read his books and will take one to bed with him each night.  He is doing great with the potty training and is in underwear full time now, other than night time.  His current favorite food remains as “cereal with a star on it that I can pick up with my fingers” (aka imitation lucky charms served dry in a blue or green bowl so he can pick out all the marshmallows and eat them first).  A “jelly sandwich” (PBJ) is a close second along with his “white milk,” which he will always say both words despite the fact I have never really offered chocolate milk. 

We had a couple of adventures this month.  The hubby and I took them to the Shiele Museum in Gastonia and they liked seeing all the animals – especially the dinosaur. We have been spending a lot of time playing with our buddies Jack and Will, which has been nice since they ask about them just about every day anyway.  We visited the aquarium and learned they are going to be opening a turtle exhibit so we were pretty excited about that. With the weather being so nice, we have been able to spend a lot of time outside and at the parks and they love that! If only I could get them to stay in the stroller long enough for me to go for a run. :/  We are still doing school activitities - I just have not had much time to do a seperate blog of those, it is on my list though.  I am impressed daily with the progress they are making.  Landon picks things up very quickly, but is more reluctant to stop his playing for "school."  Riley runs to the activity, but quickly gives up when she feels like it is "not perfect."  I just love watching them grow and develop! 

Basically lived in these boxes for 3 days... 

Just watching TV

A girl and her dog

I can do it! 

Yep, she kissed it. 

Will it sink or will it float?

Candy hearts vs. different liquids