Losing teeth!

Kids go through such a funny awkward phase when they're losing teeth! Little tiny hillbillies! And then they look even more awkward when those grown up teeth start growing in that teeny mouth. I think it's the first weird-looking phase we go through in life but it's adorable too!
Brighton's first lost tooth was a bit traumatic- it was clear back this summer and it was so loose and I really wanted to pull it out.... that backfired and I had to vow never to do it again.

So now every tooth is super jiggly for at least a week until it finally gives up and falls out on it's own.  Now she's lost four or five and both of her front teeth are missing!

Catching Up- Birthdays!

Brighton turned 7 in January and Piper turned 2 a couple weeks ago! Bright said a while ago that she wanted a big pile of pancakes with a candle on it for her birthday, so I made it happen! She loved it! Her birthday was still during Christmas break- so we had all day to make her feel special!  We didn't throw her a party because we did a big carnival party for her this summer. But that afternoon we wanted to take the kids somewhere fun, so we let her invite two neighbor girls, Anila and Lilly to come to "Jabbers" with us, which is just a big play place. As they were in there, I realized Brighton is almost too big for places like that! :(  She still loves make-believe roll playing type games so this place is fun because it has a big life-size "doll house" with dress ups and a grocery store that they can play in. She loves that stuff but her friends didn't so much, which made me realize she's on the verge of outgrowing it. Super sad. Then she wanted to go to Olive Garden. I felt pretty ambitious taking my 3 kids plus two others to a place like that, but they did great and it was really fun! Then we came home and opened presents. Her cake was Minnie Mouse Bow-tique, which just meant that we took her Minnie Mouse bowtique set and put it all over the cake. That's how I roll.

Some things about Brighton at 7:   She still loves art. She got an easel and paints and markers for her birthday and loves them!

Here's her favorite quote: "I don't want boys to be in love with me, but when they are I want them to be even more in love with me." She thinks every boy in the world is in love with her. Or as she says "In loved with me"  Yes we can all be frightened for the future.

She's very sweet to Piper and a big help to me taking care of her.

She can still have a bit of a temper!

Her favorite foods are cowboy spuds, french dip sandwiches and glazed doughnuts. (I took krispy kremes to her class the day they went back to school after Christmas break.)

She has an intense fear of sweat right now- other people's, especially foot sweat.

She loves attention!

She is stubborn and has a hard time doing ANYTHING unless its her idea.

Now onto Piper!

Her birthday was a Sunday and we're kind of in the middle of moving to our new house, so we didn't do much, but it was perfect for a 2 year old who really has no idea what's happening anyway. :) I made her an  Elmo cake out of Jello no-bake cheesecake, raspberries, oranges and mini oreos. She just wanted to blow out the candle over and over, so eventually I was just letting her blow out the lighter over and over. She got princess shoes, a Minnie mouse shirt, a princess klip klop castle and my big splurge, her Minnie Mouse ride-on. She loved everything! (And Brighton wrapped up the pony she got for Christmas and gave that to her.

About Piper at 2:

There are SO many Piper-isms right now. She's the most particular baby/toddler I've ever had! She wants what she wants, when she wants it! The best word for her is "persnickety!" Whether it's certain shoes, a certain cup or wanting to be on my lap, she wants it!

Phrases:

"hold you!"  "milt (milk)" "babo (bottle)"  She says c and K like a T so it's "drint and mommy loot (look)!"  "Piper's turn!" "Piper do it!" She wants to do everything herself!  She's basically a parrot and will say anything we say, which is pretty funny. 

She loves oranges, peas, cereal, hot dogs and macaroni and cheese.

She has a temper!

Her best friend is Matthew. I've never seen such young kids love each other so much!- especially after hating each other so much. She used to SCREAM when she even looked at him. He's my friend Abby's little 2 year old and she sees him at the gym nursery, church and twice a week when we babysit each other's kids, so they're like brother and sister. They're ADORABLE together. And Abby is like an aunt to her. She LOVES Abby- sometimes more than me. She always says "Abby's house!"

She just wants to follow the big kids around and do everything they do.

She loves "Frozen"!  She says Mo-nan instead of snowman.

I love this little stinker pot! Even though she tries my patience like crazy, she's super sweet too and gives big loves and kisses. If I'm not listening to her, she'll grab my face with both hands and say "listen mommy". :) She's a crack up.

Wii addict!

I am having major issues with Deacon and his Wii. Before Thanksgiving he started getting into simple things like the Wii sword fighting games and other physical games like that. Then at Thanksgiving I bought Super Mario Brothers, more for me than anyone. Haha. Well Deacon was instantly in love and wants to play it morning until night. Before the Wii it was my tablet, so I know he just likes games and screens which is probably common in boys but now it's too out of control. Today I turned the Wii off and tried to get him to play with toys but he is really struggling and I struggle to know what to do with him. So today I let him paint, then finger paint.

 Then I let him get in the bathtub with water and a huge bowl of "Orbeez". Probably not the best thing for home maintenance to have bits of squishy gel balls going down the drain, but it kept him off the Wii for an hour. After I finished cleaning up the Orbeez out of the bath tub I walked in the TV room to find him like this. That is a serious problem!

Part of the problem, is it's just so nice to have him out of the way so I can get stuff done, but then he also wants help every 5 minutes...  I spent a ton of money getting him a marble set for Christmas, thinking it would occupy his time, but unless I'm right there with him, he won't play it. I need to spend more time playing with him, which I do a lot. But as soon as I step away and have to get housework done, or cook dinner, all he wants is the Wii. It makes me feel like a terrible mother!  Brighton was so good about entertaining herself all day!  Any suggestions of what other boys like to do that don't involve screens would be highly appreciated!  

Facebook fast

Lately I find myself in a love/hate relationship....with Facebook. A) I check it way too often. B) I find a lot of it really annoying. I think my mature age is making me want to put up with less bullpoop but I still find myself too nosy about said annoying people's lives to block them. (See A) C) I'm catching myself thinking in Facebook status language, don't pretend it doesn't exist cause it totally does. I don't want to be the friend who over shares, seeks validation, only posts about her kids, fishes for compliments or whines. Therefore in an effort to break my habit I started writing down facebook posts to blog instead of posting them. Maybe I'll start a "weekly facebook posts that never were" roundup.
Week 1:
-Bright just called her wrist her "arm ankle".
-Deacon just asked the question every parent dreads... "why doesnt xylophone start with a z?"
-Piper keeps begging me to peel her an orange then pulls it apart and says "ewwwww." No more orange for you!
- I guess asking a 6-year-old if the show they are watching is appropriate is like asking a hitchhiker if he's a serial killer before picking him up.
-when you walk in the room and your husband is asleep do you ever hover over him making weird faces hoping he will open his eyes?
-When Deac gets tired he starts touching his lips with his fingertips really softly.  Its so cute.., I dont want to ever forget those little things.
-Trying to teach Piper how to slurp spaghetti resulted in her blowing noodles all over the kitchen.
-I just told Bright she was the peanut butter to my jelly. She said "im the pb cause I'm all energy like protein and you're jiggly and tired like jelly".... hmmmm
-Deacon was making yummy noises and enjoying his lunch when he says "mmmm...this is good mom...couldn't have done it without ya".
-I just got kicked full force right in the eye by a 6 year old trying to put on a really hard shoe..owwww!!!!
-So were walking out of best buy Saturday and it's raining so I get the kids out of the shopping cart and said let's just run. SO Bright takes off running but slips and falls, on the way down reaches out and grabs deacons leg and takes him down too...face first, flat, right into a huuuge puddle of water! ! He was soaked and it was all I could do not to laugh.
Plus: owie!! Pip ran right into an open door!

And lastly, Pip just spilled juice on me....on the most awkward place ever. 

Piper talks to herself

I woke up really late this morning... the older two kids woke up and went in the playroom and shut the door and Piper slept in so it was super quiet! After the rush to get the kids to school I usually head straight to the gym but I decided to skip it this morning since I have a workout planned for tonight. So it was one of those do-nothing, quiet mornings which are so nice sometimes! I love when you're doing something and you notice your kid just contently playing by themselves, or in this case talking to herself rolling on the ground. I decided to capture a minute of it, also cause I wanted to learn how to edit and post videos with my tablet. ;)

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Mom fail.

I was an epic fail this week when it came to being a mom! Especially when it comes to Brighton.
Monday: in September, when it was rainy, I told her I would pick her up in the front of the school with all the other kids if it was rainy, so she could wait under the school awning instead of the back of the school where I pick her up on the street. Well she forgot and I briefly looked at the back of the school but then hurried to the front of the school to pick her up. After waiting in the 10 minute car line I got to the front only to be told she was not there. I hurried through the after-school traffic to the back of the school and found her on the corner, standing in the rain with her vest over her head, crying. I wanted to die I felt so bad.
Tuesday: The kids at school were supposed to wear university or college shirts in support of Red Ribbon Week. Well, I forgot and sent her to school in her own school colors.
Wednesday: Brighton's class had prepared a 20 minute play that they were performing two times during the day, so parents could come. I got the information about the play in the same email as all the other info about Red Ribbon Week. Needless to say, I forgot. Again. At the end of the day she said "Where were you? I kept waiting and looking for you to come." Talk about knife through the heart. Also Wednesday, the day before Halloween, we were supposed to carve pumpkins. But with Aaron working 90+ hours a week, I just didn't have the energy for that. So I skipped it, thinking Brighton wouldn't notice. But yesterday after Halloween was all over she was mad that we never carved pumpkins. What kind of parents don't even carved pumpkins with the kids? Us, I guess.

However, we did take our kids trick or treating until they couldn't take anymore. And we had a good time. Piper loved walking up to the door holding out her bag and watching the candy fall in. I will post Halloween pictures next. I also volunteered at Brighton school party, which I always love. I love seeing her in her classroom and the look on her face when she sees me show up. It's my favorite. Plus, a little girl told me I looked like Barbie, and that's pretty much the best compliment you can get from a 6 year old girl. ;)

Maybe I should wait to publish this post until Sunday, because I still have two and a half more days to mess up. Haha. Or maybe if I publish it now all my screw ups will be over. I'll go with that one.

Phases.

 Whenever a child, especially a toddler, does something naughty, people like to refer to it as "just a phase". Well Piper has a nice, fun assortment of phases right now! Including (but not limited to) taking off her pants whenever and wherever she can, climbing up on the bathroom counter and turning on the water, climbing up on the table to destroy whatever anyone is working on/eating, not eating anything herself. But my favorites are following me around all day screaming "mom!" at the top of her lungs like an angry teenager, screaming super loud whenever any other child goes near her and being REALLY mean to Deacon. In fact, a woman at the store actually stopped me yesterday to tell me that her baby also went through a really loud screaming phase and she recommended ear plugs. It's THAT loud.  My theme song for her right now is "Why you gotta be so mean?" The tricky part is when I get upset with her and attempt to use a stern "NO" voice, she thinks it's really funny and laughs and says "wowwy" (sorry)... and smiles her huge smile which makes it really hard to stay mad!  This video was at first an attempt to capture the way she yells "mom!" I didn't really get the essence of the way her voice usually sounds when she yells it, but I did capture a screaming match with her and Deacon over some root beer and in the end her hitting on Deacon. Seriously, she whacks him with toys and pulls his hair whenever possible and he just takes it like a champ. Little stinker. I should have let the camera roll longer but my instinct to stop the hitting took over. Enjoy. :)

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