It Begins

Me: "Andi, what do you want for lunch?"
Andi: "Mom, I'm still a princess."
Me: "okay, princess, what do you want for lunch?"
Andi: "Princesses don't eat."
Me: "Princesses eat."
Andi: "No, Cinderella does NOT eat!"

Apparently media brainwashing and the ensuing eating disorders start a whole lot earlier than I thought. Don't worry, she did eventually eat lunch, after another 10 minutes of arguing about whether or not princesses actually eat.
Thanksgiving was wonderful, we spent the day at Thads parents with his family. And from the moment we left and Andi realized Thanksgiving was over it's been nothing but Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. "Is it Christmas now?" "When is it Christmas?" "Is that for Christmas?" "Where is our Christmas Tree." She's almost as pushy as the stores these days. If it were not for the crazy week ahead of me I would probably have given in to her prodding and started decorating today, but Thad leaves first thing tomorrow morning and won't be back till friday afternoon and I've got way too much to get done this week to do Christmas decor on top of it. I'm sure by next Sunday though we'll be pulling out our tree ;)

Calling it!

We're calling it. Sammy is walking. It's amazing the progress toddlers make in a matter of days. One day he was falling all over the place, and the next day it all finally clicked and he's walking everywhere. Don't get me wrong, he still stumbles, but let's be honest, Andi is still tripping over her own feet and she's almost 4. So we think he is officially walking.
He also does not like that it is finally getting cold here. He loves being outside, but I hate letting him out just because everything is wet and muddy and he comes in filthy and soaked. But keeping him in seems to make him very cranky. He needs a little time outside in the yard each day. So to facilitate this we bought him these.


I know, there will never be snow here, and it's not even close to cold enough for snow gear, but it keeps him dry and the rest of his clothes clean. So he gets what he wants and I don't have to wash 3 outfits a day for him.
Andi had her first slumber party last weekend. I'm not sure if it really counts because Paige left in the middle of the night, but as far as Andi is concerned they had a sleep over. Tara & Jacob had an evening temple trip planned and needed someone to watch Paige. Andi was so excited when I told her that Paige was sleeping over she could not contain herself. Seriously, it was nuts. Thad walked in the front door before Paige did and Andi broke down and cried because it was supposed to be Paige. Once she got there they immediately put on their matching Cinderella dresses and heels and crowns and kept them on till bedtime.

They had a "tea party" in Andi's room and watched a movie back there, which they thought was the coolest thing ever, and we adults enjoyed as well ;) I was surprised at how well they did. I was expecting a 3 year old slumber party to be a traumatic experience, but it wasn't bad. All the same, I don't think she'll be having anymore slumber party's till she's much older.
Christmas shopping report, I'm done with Thad now and all we have left are the two kids, which is really good as I have a couple of Christmas party's I'm working on and other projects between now and then. Oh, and New Moon in 2 days! There is a group of my friends going to the midnight showing tomorrow night and I might be crazy enough to join them.

Sammy's discovery of the week: The ice & water maker on the freezer door. Luckily our fridge comes with a lock function, so he made one mess and we've been able to keep it locked and prevent many many others.


We have also started trying to include Sammy in story time at night. Andi is not a huge fan of this idea as story time takes place in her room, in her bed. But she has realized that Sammy doesn't last very long and at least half of story time is just me and her.

Andi feels very grown up these days and likes to be my "helper" for everything. More so than usual lately. Like last week at Target they were both in the basket. As we got to the car I took Sammy out first and strapped him in his chair and when I came back around the car to get Andi out, she was already out and pushing the basket back across the parking lot to put it away! I still don't know how she got out of the basket without hurting herself, and we did have a long talk about her walking around the parking lot without me and how it's just like a street and the cars might squish her.
Sammy is getting better and better at walking. I still don't think it's official because 6 or 7 steps is the max, but his balance is getting much better. It actually looks like walking now, not just falling forward and catching himself for a few steps.
We have attempted to start a little exercise group at the church building 3 mornings a week. I'm teaching pilates and we've been doing it for 3 weeks now. The problem is Sammy has decided he hates it and cries the whole time and crawls all over me and won't stop till we go home. Today I got through 1 exercise before he started up and then after 10 minutes without being able to get back to it I just gave up and we went home. I'm going to give it one more try and bring his einstein dvd's and if that doesn't work it might be over. So much for getting fit!
oh, and I spoke in sacrament meeting Sunday. Glad that's over with.

Halloween Tradition

I am hoping that Sammy is not trying to create a Halloween tradition of being sick and skipping all the fun, but it's 2 years running. Okay, the first year was not actually his fault and he wasn't sick, he was just 3 days old and so he and I skipped the festivities. This year however he was sick and miserable and not in the mood to wear his costume even for the 30 seconds it takes to snap a picture. Andi decided to be Cinderella this year, and we thought it would be very fitting to make Sammy Gus Gus. So I made him a little green hat with mouse ears and a tail, it was going to be super cute, but like I said, he ripped the hat off the second I put it on.
But I do have some cute pictures of our Cinderella, who was very excited about wearing mommy make-up and showing everyone her beautiful dress. After we got her all ready she ran to the mirror and did the whole exaggerated gasp thing and said "Oh I'm beautiful!"

She had a great time at the ward party playing games and getting her face painted, but wanted nothing to do with the spook alley Daddy was running downstairs.

After the party we went to my parents to pick up Sammy and she wanted to help hand out play-dough(my mom passes out little things of play-dough instead of candy) so she sat in the doorway and waited for kids to come up the walk. Lucky for us it's Bakersfield and even at 8 pm on Halloween it was nice enough outside for her to do that. About the time she started asking kids to come in and play with her, my mom thought it was a good idea for her to be done helping.
Yesterday I was making dinner while the kids were out back playing. I had Sammy in the swing and would give him a good push then run inside and work on dinner, then run back out. . . you get the picture. Apparently I took too long inside and Andi decided to help out. I got video of this, but blogger is being stupid and won't let me load it, so here is a picture which gives you an idea of what was going on back there while Mommy was inside.


Don't worry, Sammy was laughing hysterically as Andi twisted his swing up and let him go over and over again. Whenever he would do the dizzy head bob Andi would drop on the ground laughing at him. It's nice when they can play together and no one gets hurt.
Thad is actually home this week, yay! His trip got postponed for a few weeks which is nice. It's been a long week with a sick Sammy so it's good to have him here to help.