Fire pit fun

The kids had their first fire pit experience at the Johnson's house a couple weeks ago. They loved it! We ate dinner, played outside, they stayed up late, and enjoyed wonderful company. Today Hazel was telling me about the purple and red chairs. We'll definitely have to go again sometime soon!

2 1/2

Sometimes I think I should write an ode to the age of 2 1/2. It would have something about lots of laughter, lots of fun, lots of freakouts, lots of mood swings, lots of frustration, lots of tantrums, and more. But, for now, a blogpost will have to do.

 Hazel sporting her new hat (which she now refuses to wear).

 This girl's ready for the beach!

 Wednesday is Jude's favorite day. That's because all the garbage trucks from the area gather in our parking lot to take a break. He stands there and watches them the whole time saying, "Big garbage truck. More garbage trucks. Big white garbage trucks."

Since Hazel got a new hat, Jude wanted one too.

Let's see....what's Hazel "into" these days? 

• Since our vacation, she asks for "more white bed" EVERY DAY. (Her crib in the hotel was white). She tells me which toys we had in the "tel" (hotel) and that she wants "more tel". 
• She is starting to say some pretty funny things and loves to say that anything and everything is silly or funny. 
• She is SUPER whiny lately and is always asking me to pick her up. Or she says, "Mommy sit on black couch" when she is really craving some attention and wants me to sit with her. I'm realizing that she really needs one-on-one time with me so we're going to try and have some regular dates together. 
• She would wear a zip-up hooded purple sweatshirt every day if I let her. 
• She likes to help with the laundry and the dishes and is an excellent toy picker upper. The other day, while I was changing Nona's diaper, Hazel had got herself down from the table, carried her cup to the kitchen, opened the dishwasher and put her cup in! 
• She wants to carry her white blankie, yellow blankie, doggy, and pillow around all day.
• She likes to sing and instead of napping the other day, she was in her bed singing/yelling, "Moo moo here! Moo moo here! E I E O! Animals! Baa baa here! Baa baa here! E I EO!"
• She is SOOOOOO shy but will warm up to people after a long time.
• She refuses to admit that the numbers 5, 6, and 7 exist. 

What about Jude?

• Jude wakes up very happy every morning and immediately starts talking about what he wants to eat. It's usually, "Eat oatmeal" but sometimes he says "eat pancake" or "eat cereal". 
• He LOVES trucks and cars. We have a bunch of different wooden toy trucks and he knows what all of them are.
• He still loves books
• He loves to color and we've only had 1 incident where he decided that the chairs should be colored instead of the paper
• He's very friendly
• He would play outside all day if he could
• He loves to eat but is having a major aversion to meat lately
• He copies everything Hazel does (getting her stuff out of her bed, whining, etc.) which is sometimes fine and sometimes not so fine (depending on what she's doing)
• He is throwing less tantrums lately (thank goodness!) which could be partly due to his food sensitivities getting more under control
• He is pretty good about playing with Nona

15 months

How is Nona 15 months already? She is changing and growing up so fast (though Hazel still refers to her as a "little baby Nona").

 She definitely has a mind of her own and insisted on wearing this hat for breakfast one day.

 She thought it'd be a good idea to ride this stool upside down. 

 The kids love picnics at the park and Nona wants to sit on the bench with Hazel and Jude. Ha!

 She is always right next to her siblings. She and Jude play better together than she and Hazel do. She loves doing whatever they do, learning from them and making them laugh.

Nona has started talking over the last couple weeks! Some of her words are:

• Mama
• Dada
• On (she brings me her shoes and says "on")
• Done
• Ni-Ni (Night Night)
• Wawa (water)
• Bum (She means "boom" and says it whenever she falls)
• No
• Nana (Banana)
• Uh-oh

She went to the doctor a little over a week ago and weighed exactly 20 lbs. She seems so big to me but lots of people tell me how little she is.

She is such a snuggler and is always making me laugh. 

She just popped her 3rd molar (whoa, that was a challenge). I hope the 4th one comes through a bit faster.

Summer?

Summer doesn't usually arrive until late July on Whidbey Island so we've been soaking up every minute of this summer weather we've been having lately!

 Picking flowers

The kids LOVE being outside. Jude brought me his shoes at 7 AM today asking to go out. I love them being outside. They're happier and sleep better. Win win for me!