Mr. Jack....

Such a little cutie...

Who absolutely HATES tummy time!

First he searches for his fist.  I guess he thinks if he feels anything close to his face, he must suck on it!

He gets ahold of it for a few seconds and is happy.....

Then he loses it and loses all control! We say he can't hold his head up because his cheeks are too big! :)

 And that's the end of tummy time!

Fall Craft!

Zoe has really been into making different crafts and art work lately.  She has been painting and cutting up a storm. She made a pumpkin and glued pumpkin seeds to it.  She made a picture using only squares that she glued. She (with some help) painted a turkey hand.
We made a meal the other day that used the spiral, colored noodles - which are also perfect for a fall craft.  I have been working with her on her fine motor skills, so I gave her a clothes pin, some glue, and the noodles, and had her glue the noodles to a piece of construction paper.  It took quite a bit of concentration and her arm and hand were tired after about 12 noodles, but she had fun :)

Going to miss the mornings!

I have posted before that I love the mornings - it's the one time of day that I will miss the most when I go back to work. When I leave in the mornings, everyone is still in bed, so I miss all the morning snuggles and smiles :(
I took these the other morning....

 

Go Blow a Kite...

Ryan was on a golf trip last week and brought a little kite home for Zoe.  On Monday, Zoe wanted to go out and fly it.....of course, it was a day where it was dead still with absolutely no wind.  We showed her how she had to run to get it to go up in the air and that normally the wind would help it stay up.  Well, the kite would stay up - as long as she was running :)  She had a blast playing with it though!
This morning, when she woke up, she said that after nap time, she wanted to go out and "blow her kite".

Love the mornings

I love being home with the kids, especially in the mornings! This morning was one of my most favorite ever and for no particular reason.... I think I just loved the quiet and calmness of us all being together. Maybe, I'm just starting to appreciate every minute we have together before I go back to work.
Zoe came down stairs first and snuggled up in the chair. Ryan came down with Jack while I was getting breakfast for Zoe. While he was sitting in the chair with his daddy, Jack had the biggest smiles and was just cooing away. Zoe, of course, didn't want her picture taken, but I took it anyway!

Oh, the things she says!

People are always telling me I should be writing down some of the things Zoe says so that we never forget them.  Well, today and last Sunday, she has said a few funny things, that I for sure want to have forever, so I'm blogging them :)

Last Sunday (10/31/10):
*The kids and I were in the living room playing and Ryan was in the kitchen.  It was pretty quiet in the house.  Out of the blue, Zoe says "Daddy, why do you call mommy's boobies titties?"  We just started cracking up!

*Just a few minutes after the "breast" question, Jack needed a diaper change.  He had blown up his diaper and really needed cleaning up.  Zoe was observing closely and asked "Mommy, why are you cleaning Jack's peanut like that?" I explained to her that I have to clean her sometime in the same way so that it all stays clean and healthy and doesn't hurt." Then again, out of the blue, she says "Mommy, daddy has a big peanut"

Today:
*She is talking on her fake cell phone (which is actually a foldable lint brush).  Who knows what she was saying because at some points I just have to tune out her non-stop talking.  She says something to me....and again, I have no clue what it was....then goes back to talking on her phone.  She says "Sorry, I was talking to Tori."

*She had to go to the potty so she went running.  By simply listening, I knew she would be needing my assistance.  As soon as I walked in the door, she says "It's a big one!"

She absolutely cracks me up!

Nice try...

Ryan has been gone all week on a golf trip. The differences between this year and any other is that we now have 2 lids and I'm not working.  We have been going to the post office, office, and bank each day.  We have been getting along pretty well even with Jack not feeling well (he is all stuffy with a little cough).
Wednesday, however, was the day from you know where! I decided to do way too much while out and it turned out disasterous.  We did the rounds for the business and that went just fine....I should have just come home after that!  Instead, we headed to Beavercreek to go to Sam's, Target, Abuelo's, and then Graeter's (as long as Zoe was good and ate good - were the stipulations).  Sam's went just fine, except I had promised Zoe that we would buy Just Dance 2 and after waiting in line for 20 minutes, the girl decided their system must be wrong because they were showing they had 2 copies left but she couldn't find it.  We decided we would get it at Target.  At this point, Jack was still sound asleep, so we headed to Target.  Diapers, pacifiers, Moby Wrap.....and.....no game here either :( Jack was starting to get a little restless, so we headed to Abuelo's.  I thought we could get in and get ordered because Zoe and I were also starving.  While we were waiting, I had planned to nurse Jack.  Which is exactly what we did. Our food came and Zoe, of course, decided she needed to potty.  As we were going back to the table, Jack decided he was going to get screaming mad.  I tried so hard to keep him calm so that Zoe could eat.  After about 10 minutes, I gave up.  I told Zoe she could just finish her dinner at home.  Thankfully, she was cooperative :) Two waitresses decided to help me box our food - I guess maybe the screaming baby was starting to get on their nerves and they were trying to help get us out.  By the time we got to the car, Jack decided he was done screaming....so Zoe (who was good, but didn't get a chance to eat good) ended up having ice cream for dinner.
We got home and Jack just wanted held the entire time.  Zoe had used the restroom and needed help - so I wrapped him up in the new Moby Wrap (LOVE IT!) and went to the restroom.  When she was washing her hands, she spun around on her stool and fell and hit her chin on the sink.  Her chin was fine but she bit her tongue, which we all know hurts! 
After getting her settled down, we sat down to play blocks, while Jack was still strapped to me of course because he didn't want put down. Time for pj's and bed.....Zoe starts being rotten and won't let me put her diaper on.  She wants to read library books instead.  Ok, "get the books, let me put your diaper on, and then we will read books."  Jack was finally asleep and let me put him down. She got the books, but then when I went to put the diaper on, she started peeing all over because she had been holding it so she could go in the diaper instead of in the bathroom.  I sent her to the bathroom.  Once she was finished, I went to put her diaper on and she was just being bad.  She refused to let me put it on! So, there she was, laying on the living room floor, screaming because she wanted to read books.  Her 20 minutes of screaming woke Jack up.  I think I had them both screaming for 20 more minutes and was ready to pull my hair out!
Finally, Zoe let me get her dressed and I agreed to read 1 book, in hopes they would both settle down and go to sleep....and it did! Yeah! Too bad this wasn't the end of the terrible evening though!
I decided to call Toshiba because the new laptop was having trouble keeping an internet connection.  The first person I talked to, said I needed to do a system restore.  I had no clue what this entailed - if anyone EVER tries to tell you that's what you need - make sure you know WHAT it means!  When the computer restarted, QuickBooks (the program I use for our business accounting) was gone and I still had the internet problem.  I called them back and they just couldn't understand that I was more upset about the program not being there than I was about the stinkin' internet.  Finally, they decided my virus scan was causing the issue.....UM....HELLO! Shouldn't you try that BEFORE a system restore?!?!
At that point, I just turned the computer off and went to bed....it was 12:20am!
Needless to say, I was so excited to crawl into bed and prayed that Thursday would be better - and it was....thanks to my mommy :-)

COSI

**Warning: Tons of pictures**

Earlier in the Fall, Lori and I made a plan to get together for a day before I went back to work....Friday, the 29th was the day! We took the kids to COSI.  It was the first time for me in the "new" building and the first time for Zoe ever.
We had so much fun! We were at COSI for about 6 hours and the girls were excellent considering they didn't have naps. Zoe's favorite parts (according to her) were the "doctor's place and the animals". As the mommy, I loved watching her play the most in these areas also.



Natalie pouting...

 

Too funny!

This is the "doctor place" Zoe loved!

 This is the animal part....



LOVE how Zoe has her hands folded!




Petting the turtle.




A little less sure about the millipede




Loved this! She was supposed to be sitting, but couldn't resist touching it!




Time...




for...




nap!



This was the funniest part of the whole day.  I wanted to get pictures of my kids by Clifford and then pictures with Natalie, Zoe and Jack.  It's obvious that the kids had had enough ;)