Two Days of Fun...(?)

Yesterday I had a chance to have some one-on-one time with Samantha, in that Brian wasn't feeling 100% well and slept quite a bit in the late afternoon (which in turn led to some late night hours for him...). We had our dinner together, me, Samantha, and her little rubber lizard animal. I think she named him Henry. (Most of the animals and dolls in our house carry that name.) When it was time for prayer she said "Henry say it." She folded his little legs across his back and dictated to him what he should say. "Father in Heaven, food, bodies, day, safe, happy, name Christ, Amen." Then she proceeded to feed him chicken and rice.

It was a fun experience to watch her during her bathtime play. Typically she and Brian bathe at the same time - to save time and avoid any danger while one is in the tub and the other running around. Brian often dominates the toys and directs their play. So it was interesting to see what Samantha came up with on her own. She had the little Happy Meal Nemo toy and asking, "Where's Dory? Look here..." She put her index finger against one of the tiles and 'rang it' saying "Ding Dong.. Dory here? Nope, try next one... Knock Knock, Dory here?" And she went all along the bottom row of tiles 'looking' for Dory. Then she told Nemo that Dory was not home.

They were both fairly well behaved during church meetings. One of my favorite things to see is the two of them walking through the halls and into the chapel with their arms folded. Brian spends half of the time in nursery and then the other half he goes into the Sunbeam class. We (Ladelle - the nursery leader - and I) thought that might be nice to take the 3 year olds, who barely missed the '3 by Jan 1' guideline into the Sunbeam class for a while to help them get accustomed to the older Primary. He seems to really enjoy it and the teacher is great with those little ones. It is really fun to see them both come from their classes into the Primary room after church is over and say "Mommy! Look!" and show me their handouts and coloring.

Brian is feeling better, I think he may have just been overly tired yesterday. He went all morning yesterday, until about 2 pm in fact, accident free, and going to the toilet. I'm so proud of him. Yesterday he made 2 of 3 BMs (TMI) in his toilet and then in the evening I think he forgot his success of the day and had a few accidents. Today he also made it all morning and most of the afternoon with out a big Oopsie with the Poopsie. I had piano lessons this afternoon and right before the first lesson he did have some major leakage in his room. But he is usually good to tell me right away - like he did this evening, running through the house: "MOMMY! TWO POOPIES ON MOMMY'S FLOOR!" I was doing dishes and from what I gather he took his pants down and did it there - because his pants were clean (again, TMI), not quite making it to the bathroom. From what I gather it seems to me he is getting better and controlling and holding, and he doesn't like the feeling of having yuckies in his pants. I went to Target to return something and he had gone nearly 3 hours without going so I kept asking at every turn if he needed to. He didn't, until we got in the car, and even though I asked if he needed to use our port-a-potty, which yes, is IN the car, he had an accident. He said "I'm sorry, Mommy" and gave me hug. I only had a pull-up in my bag so I cleaned him up and put it on him. He said he didn't like it and it was too tight. I think he's liking the feeling of his big boy pants, so that is another good thing.

Because of the piano lesson schedule the kids didn't get naps and they were oh so grumpy! They weren't nice to Alina, their babysitter, and that made me grumpy. I had a little talk about that with the children after she left.

We had some 'isolated thunderstorms' today - it was nice to hear the rain on and off. All of our lawns are dry and getting yellow. Although the it was really really hot outside. Hot and humid. There is a big fire in the Everglades and you can see and smell the smoke. There has even been light ash on the car the past couple of days.

Just a few little things about the kids: they are getting better about brushing their teeth. It is cute to see them brush and get their mouths all bubbly and then rinse and spit. They also are getting better with counting and singing the alphabet. Brian counts to 20 now, and Samantha to 12.

They both love to watch The Bee Movie. There is a part in it where two bees are excited about something and give each other a high 5 then say Hallelujah and tilt their heads back and make a funny "ahhhlalallaaahhh" sound while shaking their hands. Brian and Samantha love that and crack up whenever they see it, and now we've started doing this little celebration thing among the three of us.

It is always amazing to me to watch and listen and wonder how their minds are working and what they are thinking. They both have very imaginative play and are starting to ask questions about stuff. Brian picked up the phrase "Why not?" from cousin Debbie in Dallas (she asked him to say or demonstrate something and he didn't and she asked "Why not?", so now he says that phrase a lot. Not always in the correct context, but it is cute to hear him say that. I will remind myself often I'm sure that there was one point when I thought the Why question was cute...

The little ones helped me out a lot today with some general cleaning. They are for the most part good little helpers. I sure love them and absolutely adore them.