Hello again!

Lately in our house we have had two little hooligans that we call Pete and Repeat.  Every little thing that Paige does Claire then has to imitate.  It is cute most of the time until Paige will spit and say, " no spitting."  By this time Claire has already started spitting.  For Claire spitting isn't just a pastime it requires a bath time.  She can soak almost anything in no time!  However with this new love each other Paige has been very affectionate with everyone...more so than usual.  I have gotten to have the pleasure of snuggling with her on the couch in the morning.  We sit and watch Mickey Mouse clubhouse  and she leans in and says, Suggle suggle wif mommy."

Yes she is finally saying my name the right way and likes it so sometimes she says it over and over and over again.  Another repeating phrase comes when I sneeze.  I know that my sneezes are really big but I am blessed 8 times by the time I finish.  First Paige says, Bless you mommy, bless you mommy, bless you mommy, bless you mommy," and then our little repeat steps in and begins.  In the end I am blessed 8 times.  It is really cute. 
Paige is also very helpful with Claire.  She loves her and kisses her without any prompting. She also has started handing Claire books and when she does she says, "here you go sweetie."  Paige is always making sure that Claire has something to play with.  Claire thinks that her sister is the most wonderful person in the world. 
One more little story...

Yesterday Paige drank down her milk really fast in the morning.  This caused her to get the hiccups.  Paige thought that the hiccups were so funny. She would get a smile on her face when she knew one was going to come and then she would say, "here it comes..."  She would hiccup and laugh and then start over again!  Pure hilarity! 

That is all for now! Have great week!

I know it has been forever...

Between my class, our trip, and our two very helpful sweet girls we have been a little busy.  Today though I have to share our latest.  Our trip to the grocery store today reminded me of a story that Linda likes to tell about Daniel.  Paige and Daniel share some similar traits and apparently Linda and I both like to lie about dogs who follow children.  ;-)  For everyone who doesn't know...When Daniel was younger he had gone to a football game with his family and they were on their way back to the hotel room.  A dog started to follow them and Daniel was most upset about it but Linda reassured him that the dog would go home soon.  A little while later the dog was still following as they approached the hotel and Linda again reassured him the dog wouldn't come up the steps to the room.  When they got to the room and noticed the dog was STILL there Linda said it won't come into the room it is okay.  Sure enough the dog went into the hotel room much to Daniel's dismay.  Today we were outside the store on the sidewalk and a sight challenged man with his guide dog was coming up the street.  Paige was getting nervous but I told her we were going to walk into the store and they were going to keep on going.  Sure enough they turned into the store and followed us for a few seconds and then later we met back up in line.  So Paige must be thinking that I don't tell the truth! :-)
Two year olds are pretty literal but tonight Paige took it to a whole new level.  Daniel told her to hop into bed and she hopped 4-5 times on the ground and the jumped into the bed.  He laughed and said oh that works too I guess I did say hop into bed so that works.  Paige then says hop in bed okay and proceeds to jump up and down on the bed.  He calmed her down and she went to sleep but it was pretty cute. 
Claire always thinks that she is cute and she walks around the house with a plastic bucket on her head saying "hat" and "cute."  She has started testing her boundaries and has learned so well from her older sister. ;-) 
Well this was fairly short and sweet...I will try to write more often in the future.  Hope you have a great week!!

We made it...

        On Saturday, March 19th,  Paige, Claire, and their obviously crazy mother woke up at 3:45 to make it to the airport to fly out to Colorado.  Daniel and I unpacked the bags from the car in front of the airport and then took the carseats out and spent at least three trips getting everything and everyone into the airport so that he could go park the car.  Then all 4 of us and our stuff finally made our way to the ticket counter.  They tagged our bags and then told us that we need to take them right over to the TSA bag drop off location.  The whole process taking about 30 minutes.  We then had to go through security.  To explain...first we removed belts and shoes.  Parents taking their shoes off first and then taking the children's shoes off.  For Paige this could not have been a worse idea.  In Paige's way of thinking you should wear shoes at all times unless you are going to sleep in your bed.  So anyway we take everyone's shoes off and then we move to taking off a backpack and a carrier and a purse and pulling all of the liquids out of the bags.  We then position the carseat on the conveyer belt.  I think we ended up using at least three of the trays.  All of this to walk through one metal detector.  :-)  On the other side we put everything back together.  Daniel went to get us some juice and water for the flight and when he got back we said goodbye and boarded the plane.  So much for arriving 2 hours prior to give ample time to gather thoughts before getting onto the plane.  ;-)  Paige and Claire could not have been more perfect on the flight.  It was as if they had flown before.  They sat and looked at books, the dvd player, and napped the whole way.  When we touched down in Denver Audrey was there to meet us at the gate!  This time we decided to get a cart to wheel everything out to the car on...this was comical in itself.  We must have gotten the one cart that doesn't wheel straight.  But slowly but surely we made it to the car.  We drove to Colorado Springs. 

   While there we visited a couple of parks.  We saw the Garden of the Gods.  We even went to an Apple store.  I had never been to one and it was quite interesting!!  Paige had lots of fun with Daadwey and E-ic.  Though she liked to say Ducie's ( lucie) name she was not a big fan of her being anywhere near her.  Claire absolutely adored Stella though.  Stella was a bit unsure at first but slowly warmed up to this little thing that squealed in her face and always touched her nose! Paige's favorite thing of the week was probably being puched around the apartment in a diaper box by her Uncle E-ic!  She was most upset anytime he would stop.  Each time we would leave to go anywhere Paige would say Cuckoo Cuckoo clock.  She thought that Audrey's car chimes where a cuckoo clock.  Like I said it was a wonderful time!  We enjoyed some fresh air and some sunshine since Dayton's springs are really rainy.  We loved being able to see mountains and not just hills!  And last but certainly not least we loved hanging out with E-ic and Daadwey! 

      On Saturday we all drove to the Denver airport.  We waited in an incredibly long line to check-in and get a gate pass for Audrey and Eric.  Audrey walked us through security where again we have to remove everyone's shoes and belts and this time we not only have a car seat, a backpack, and a carrier but lets throw in a stroller too.  We took up the whole belt.  After we had walked through the TSA guy came up to me and said he was going to have to search my backpack b/c there were liquids in it.  I said okay.  He starts pulling out everything that i had nicely packed in the inside pocket.  I told him that honestly I could have liquids in there and forgotten.  I told him that we had taken some Germ-X to the zoo in the front pocket.  He opened the front pocket and sure enough there was the Germ-X.  He gave me a pass and then I got to pack everything back up.  While all of this was going on Paige was mad because she couldn't see Dadwey and Claire was upset b/c she wanted to get down and run.  Great time had by all.  I was so glad that Audrey was there otherwise I am not sure what would have happened!  We finally make it to the gate.  We grabbed a sandwich, changed everyone's diapers and sat as close to the on ramp as we could.  Audrey said her goodbyes and we stayed to wait for the plane...for about 10 minutes before they announced the the gate had been changed to the one at the other end of the terminal. 

      With all of the horrible things going on in the world and all of the people you have to watch out for being everywhere your trust in people sometimes can't help but be lacking.  On Saturday it was given a boost.  As everyone stood up to walk to the other end of the terminal a few people looked over and asked if I had everything.  I didn't want to be a bother and I knew how heavy everything was so I said I had it.  I put Claire on my back in the carrier and my bulging backpack on my front.  I picked up the carseat and started to push the stroller with one hand.  Then this older man and his wife come over and the man takes the car seat and says I've got this.  I asked if he was sure and he said yeah.  He and his wife walked me all the way down to the other terminal.  He then helped me onto the plane.  The flight went well aside from some serious silliness towards the end by a couple of little girls...one named Claire and one Paige! :-)  When we landed Daniel was supposed to meet us at the gate but security had already left for the night so he couldn't make it.  We got off the plane and I loaded everything up to make the trek to meet Daniel by baggage claim and I walked up the ramp.  When I got to the door the man and his wife were there waiting to take the car seat and make sure that I had the help that I needed.  It turned out that his mom was a military wife and traveled a lot with her two children by herself and he wanted to make sure that I had all the help I needed.  I don't think that I was able to thank him enough!

Fun was had by all last week!  I know this was a bit long and parts were a little hard to explain but I hope you enjoy! I also know I have left so much out...

Have a great day!

Claire is 1!!

Today is the Bear's birthday! She looks so cute walking and almost running around in a little tutu and her big spitty grin!  Both she and Paige came to pt with me this morning and were perfect angels.  There were quite a few older ladies who came by to wish Claire a Happy Birthday and have a fit over the two of them.  Claire is certainly growing so quickly.  Not getting much bigger but def becoming less of a baby! She has started really being interested in the older toys.  Paige doesn't seem to mind as long as it is not when she is wanting to play with them.  Then we have issues.  Claire loves to eat everything!!! I don't mean food either.  So as she is walking around the room the other night chewing on the play phone that goes with the kitchen set Paige came up to her and said with great flair, "Don't eat the sone (phone)."  It was so cute.  Later at dinner we tried to get her to say don't eat the phone eat the fish.  She finally said it and then she moved on and started to eat tomatoes and she said, "dont eat the phone eat the sasooos (tomatoes)."  Earlier in the day when we went to get the fish we were by the case in Dorothy Lane.  Paige looked over and saw the case in the seafood section and said, " EEEEEWWWWW. Fish." She said it so loudly.
One of the girls favorite game to play nowadays with their Dad is Broom.  Daniel will get the broom out to sweep the floor and they both take turns coming up to it as he is sweeping.  Then they squeal and they run away screaming or in Claire's case she just burst out with laughter and runs away.  They then go around through the kitchen and come up behind Daniel and the cycle begins again.  When I was little Robert, Megan, and I would play this game with the dreaded Sloppy Mop at the grocery store and Daniel informed me that he and Eric loved the Bubozer sauce ( garbage disposal in the sink).  It must be a normal thing but it is hilarious!
For Paige's birthday she got some really awesome gifts but one of the most creative ones was some food for the kitchen set.  What was so special about some food you ask? It was homemade...no not real homemade food but felt.  Laura had made a hamburger complete with tomato and lettuce and cheese.  She also made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, some eggs, and bacon and even a cookie.
Calibamagirls: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner: "Breakfast Lunch and Dinner for my sweet niece on her 2nd Birthday! These were so fun to make. Felt food is all over the internet, ..."
So we have a 1 year old and a 2 year old! What are we going to do now?  Probably continue just the way we are for at least 6 months and then hopefully Paige will be figuring out how to follow the rules and Claire will just begin to really test her boundaries! :-)  Claire is already starting to talk so it won't be long now until we will get to here the "am not, are too" arguments!! Joys of raising kids! ;-)  That is all for now hope all are having a great week and have a wonderful weekend. 

Another wonderful first...

Here she is this morning with the end result. 

 

Yesterday we took Paige for her very first haircut.  We went to my lady at the real beauty salon.  Paige did as well as can be expected from a 2 year old getting her very first haircut.  Kate, the stylist, started brushing Paige's hair and she gave her this look like what are you doing and why are you touching me.  Then we were able to distract by feeding her some of Claire's puff snacks that Paige doesn't always get to eat.  She sat and Kate and I sang to her with Paige chiming in occasionally.  When it was all over one of the other stylists brought Paige a lollipop.  Her mood did a 180.  She smiled at Kate and everyone else who was watching and walked out through the salon with a little spring to her step.  Everyone was smiling even know I just know they could all hear her earlier.  Sooo funny!  I will add some of the pictures from the actual haircut to shutterfly.
The other night right before bed we were doing Paige's bedtime routine and she came to kiss me and Daniel was going to take her to bed.  She came over and gave me a kiss and a hug and said uuuuzzzz ooooo bub. ( yes i am still not MOM  ;-) ) Then she backed up and started looking around the room for something.  We thought maybe she was looking for something she wanted to take to bed with her.  Then all of a sudden you could see the light bulb go on in her head and she put her fingers on her mouth and said, shhh, tear seeeep. ( shhh claire is sleeping) She had apparently been looking for her because she always kisses her goodnight too.  It was so cute.  Then as she was finally going to bed she had to tell one more thing goodnight.  It was hotfirelight( the fire in our fireplace).  She blew it a kiss and told it she uuuzzzz-ed it. Soooo cute!! I am constantly amazed at the ideas that she comes up with and how sweet she is.  Well all for now! Hope you have a great rest of the week and a great weekend.  We are going to have Gigi with us this week and Paige's second birthday so lots of exciting things coming up!!! YAYAYAY!!

February

Well so far this has been an interesting month.  We started out with an ice storm.  The bright greenish blue flashes that lit up the sky as the large branches broke under the pressure of the 3/4 inch of ice were beautiful.  We lost power at about 9:30 on Tuesday.  Poor Claire had been to the ER that morning because of a 105 fever but was feeling much better until we tried to put her to bed.  She fell fast asleep only to be woken up 2 hours later by the tree outside her window splitting and falling to the ground.  When we finally laid her back in her bed asleep and started sneaking out of the room the tree on the side of the house became overpowered and slid to the ground uprooted.  In the process rubbing along the side of the house. So of course that was the end of that nap.  Claire however was a very good sport and decided that it was time to play with her parents who were trying to get her back to sleep. ;-)  We took her to the doctor on the following Thursday and she must have just had a little virus.  Then we got to have a wonderful play date with Aeris and her mother Jenn.  Claire made herself right at home and started chewing on every toy that Aeris owned.  That night we got to stay on base and Paige got to sleep for the first time on her own.  We made a pad for her with a mattress from the sleeper sofa and a bunch of blankets.  She actually stayed put the whole night!! Very proud!

Also this month Claire has decided she is all grown up.  She has started walking as her main mode of transportation.  She still does the monkey walk when she starts going really fast and has her arms up in the air.  So cute!  Claire has also decided that she doesn't eat baby food anymore.  So yesterday she ate a ton of Creole vegetables.  Her shirt and hair and face all the way to her ears was COVERED in tomato sauce.  I Shouted the shirt immediately but Shout has met it's match. It will never be the right color every again. :-) All this started when her Granny came to stay after we kept telling her Granny that she never eats and never sleeps.  She just wanted to show off for company is what I decided. ;-)  She has also said her first word.  She started this week when she fell down and she looked at me and with a very breathy voice said, " uuuuuhhhhh, oooooooooo."  She repeated it again when she fell again.  Claire is def. saying it on purpose!!  She also is playing peek-a-boo.  She will hide her face and you will say," Where is Claire?"  Then she giggles and pulls her bunny away from her face and beams!  So proud of herself.

Paige has started streaming words together like, Tank u dad bup.  ( thank you for my cup dad)  We also ask her what a dad says and she says uzz oooo dad.  It is really cute.  She will also run away from you giggling and say tiggle sage, tiggle sage, tiggle sage( tickle paige).  We have also found out that when she wants to sing a song you HAVE to sing tinkle tinkle first or there is a major melt down.  This is usually always followed by tsy tsy( with hand motions for the itsy bitsy spider).  After that you can really pick any other song without incident.  That about does it so far for this month. We had fun when Granny came and we are looking forward to a visit from Gigi at the end of this month.  And to top all we are looking forward to a beautiful little girl turning 2!!!!  ;-)
I will write when I have time again...been pretty busy lately!
Hope you are all having a great week!

Lots of goings on...

Since the last time I wrote our computer died and we got a new one so this is the first blog from our brand new Dell.  For once I could say the old advertising line of "Dude we're getting a dell."  Anyway a lot of things have happened since the last time I wrote. Paige has gotten her first ear infection but is on antibiotics and already improving.  She really is such a trooper that even in the midst of being sick she was cute.  Paige didn't want us taking her shirt off because it would hurt her ears and she fought us the whole time to keep it from going over her head but then everytime we would finally get it off she would look at us and say, "Teek a dooooo." ( translation: peek a boo)  Paige has also started doing this when we tuck her in at night and throw her covers over her face.  She will pull them back down and grin really big and proudly and proclaim teek a dooooo.  She has seemed to recently discover the cat again and really wants to interact with him.  The problem is that she thinks that if she meows at him he will like it because he answers me when I meow at him so she bends over near him and yells nnmmmmeeeooouuuuuwwwww.  He then runs away and she looks at me for answers.  Today she wanted to read her book to him and looks so sad as he runs down the hallway.
Paige has become a really big helper later with all kinds of things, one particular incident was soo helpful.  One morning I had finally gotten Claire back to sleep. Soon afterwards Paige woke up.  We were having so much fun reading books together and just spending Paige and Mom time.  I decided that it was time for Paige to get dressed for the day.  I told her I was going to get her clothes and to stay in the living room.  I head to Paige's room and as I am picking out her clothes I hear loud slapping of feet as they run across the living room and head down the hallway.  I then here the door to Claire's room slam open and a little voice say," HHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!"  Claire wakes up and starts to giggle with excitement at seeing her sister in her room as she woke up for the day!  Oh well so much for sleep for Claire. ;-)
Well that is all for now...I will post more when I get a bit more time to myself.
Have a Wonderful day!