An Interview With The Bean

1. What is something I always say to you? i love you



2. What makes me happy? if i didn't be naughty



3. What makes me sad? if i did be naughty



4. How do I make you laugh? tickling me



5. What do you think I was like as a child? happy



6. How old am I? 36 (almost right, i turn 35 in july)



7. How tall am I? that tall (stretches her hand high over her head)



8. What is my favorite thing to do? play toys and games and puzzles of mine



9. What do I do when you're not around? play with sprout



10. If I become famous, what will it be for? getting a baby (????)



11. What am I really good at? everything



12. What am I not really good at? school



13. What is my job? to clean up



14. What is my favorite food? peanut butter and jelly (while it is good it is not quite my favorite....)



15. What makes you proud of me? cleaning up



16. If I were a cartoon character, who would I be? alice (in wonderland i suppose...)



17. What do you and I do together? make crafts, cook cookies, and everything



18. How are we the same? both girls



19. How are you and I different? you wear glasses and i don't



20. How do you know that I love you? 'cause you say i love you



21. Where is my favorite place to go? the store, shopping, and every place



22. What is one thing you wish you could change about your mom? your hair (i wonder what is wrong with my hair??)



23. What would your mom do with a million dollars? buy lots of things... like giant toys that weren't on sale



24. What do you wish you could go and do with your mom? go to the farm (???)

Spring Pick Me Up

for all of you that are experiencing the drearier side of spring, here are some reminders of why spring is good...

the view of the bright spring sky when lying with your child under a large oak tree...
the discovery of tiny buds in the bushes...
and what they will become once they open...
now, mother nature (if you are listening) can you sprinkle these kind of days into the dreary days a little more liberally?? it is difficult to be stuck inside with two kids for more than a couple consecutive days. please and thank you.

The One Year Old Sprout

sprout turned one weeks ago and i never really gave an update on him did i? hmmm. seems mommy is more lost in space than she thought!! ;)

so sprout at one year is:
23 pounds 8 ounces (60th percentile)
29 inches tall (25th percentile)
48 1/2 head circumference (95th percentile)

he used to be tall- 97th percentile at 9 months. but it seems he really hasn't grown any taller and now he is a short little dude. people actually giggle at him and tell me he doesn't look tall enough to be walking! i'm just waiting for a mega growth spurt.


what does he do? well... everything. no not really but it seems he is into everything all the time.

*he spends far too much time figuring out how to get to the dog's water dish and far too little time learning to speak words. i mean, throw me a bone kid! there are 300 things on that side of the room. i don't know what you are pointing at. it doesn't matter how emphatically you point. really. gah!!!!!!!!
what is funny is that the gesture that he uses to tell you he wants something is to hold his hand out and rub his fingers with his thumb. you know, that gesture that most of us use to mean "money". ha! cracks my ass up! ;)

ok, so he does say "dada" and sometimes "ma" or "mum-mum". every so often we hear "daw-ghhhh" or "baaa" (bark). and a couple times we have heard things that sound something like "sis", "block", and his own name BUT we just really aren't sure. he does understand things quite well. he will bring you something if you ask for it. he will occasionally stop when you tell him no. he makes gestures in response to some questions to convey his desires. it would just be so much easier if he would try to speak. (he is remarkably silent at times... do you think it is because his sister never shuts up??)

*he walks all the time. crawling is almost unheard of. as a matter of fact he has started to run. well... try to. he gets about 3-5 steps and crashes to the ground.

*he throws balls and loves to watch them bounce away. he also likes to throw assorted toys over the baby gates.

*he has 9 teeth- 7 in front and both right side molars (this includes the molar he got on easter sunday)

*he will eat just about anything.... except eggs or potatoes. he loves meat- ham, turkey, hamburger, chicken, steak- if it's meat he's gonna eat it. (bean HATED meat when she was his age.) he also loves almost all fruits and veggies. but he can't have oranges or tomatoes- OH THE DIAPER RASH! eeeeeeeek!!!!

*he really has no interest in learning about his body parts... except one. he LOVES his toes. if you ask him where his toes are he will reach down and grab them. and today when he did it he said "tahhhhhs". cute!

*he used to wave bye bye. but he seems to have stopped doing that. i've only seen him do it twice in the past month. i tried FOREVER to get a video of him doing his two handed "jazz hands" wave and he just stopped doing it. like he knew what i wanted and decided he wasn't going to let me have it. he is a turkey like that.

*he gives hugs.... to bean. he loves to hug his sister! well, if you count grabbing my legs tightly i guess he hugs me too. and yesterday he hugged his nana. :)

*he kinda gives kisses.... but only to baby dolls. and it is more like slobbering and licking than kissing. it is actually kinda gross and i think i'm glad he doesn't do it to me! ;)

there is probably something else i should be saying but for the life of me i can't think of a thing! so we will just end with these shots from sprout's 12 month photo shoot....

we have sweet sprout.

tough sprout.

and silly sprout.
ain't he just the cutest thing?! :)

Marshmallow Bunny

no matter how sick you are. no matter how miserable you feel.
eating a chocolate covered marshmallow bunny...
will make you happy.very happy indeed!

Easter Afternoon...

so i mentioned that bean was a big fan of the egg hunt, right? she wanted me to re-hide the eggs right away. i told her that "if she was good" i would do so after her brother went down for his nap. and i even said i'd do it outside if it was warm enough. well, of course as soon as that boy's head hit the matress she was raring to go outside. she had her eggs all piled in the basket and her coat on so out we went.
grandpa helped hide the eggs. he hid them harder than mommy. here he is helping her find one he hid- inside a magnolia blossom!
mommy was a little easier on her and hid one in the tree trunk...
she was so excited about the hunt. truly. she even wanted a turn hiding them, which was hilarious! she hid them for grandma then ran around the yard telling grandma where to look. she would stand right next to the eggs and say things like, "grandma, i think you should look over here." and "did you see this one, grandma?" HA HA! there is no challenge when the bean is hiding the eggs. :)

after the grow-ups got tired of the hunting. daddy and bean played a little soccer. bean practiced her kicking while daddy was goalie. daddy does not go easy on her- he does not believe in letting anyone win... or even going easy on them.
but eventually she did score a goal on daddy and she was quite pleased with herself...
it was all quite lovely....
until sprout woke up screaming. seems easter afternoon is a perfect time to cut a molar. sigh.

Easter!

i hope everyone had a nice easter. we did. :)

we started the day by getting the kids dressed in their adorable easter clothes. bean's dress from last year still fit so she got to wear it again, but it was given new life with the addition of this fabulous floral crown that was made by my lovely friend christina- isn't it gorgeous! (it was sliding off her head in this picture but it is still cute... this girl just didn't want to sit still- there were eggs to hunt for!)

then (once i had exhausted every last ounce of their patience taking their pictures) bean lead her brother down to the living room to hunt for eggs! awwwww, they are totally holding hands and being sweet to each other.... its an easter miracle! ;)
then we looked for eggs. sprout's were easy to find- the bunny just scattered some on the floor for him. bean had to look a little harder, soon she was peeking under just about everything!
sprout loved his eggs. these two were particularly interesting because they are some what transparent and he could see that there was something inside! something that looked a lot like food! but... how does it come out??
at some point sprout did break one of his eggs open. it had banana nut cheerios in it and they spilled all over the floor. the magpie was quite pleased. so she hovered around sprout quite a bit that morning. she even checked out the contents of his basket hoping for another quick snack...after that there was a fun breakfast and then the arrival of grandma and grandpa. it was a wonderful day of food, family and egg hunts.... bean is a huge fan of the hunt it seems but that is a story for another day.
:)

Crafty Tuesday?

i can't really say that i've been particularly crafty lately but my daughter has. but i'm going to take credit since i have to plan these things, right? of course i am! ;)

first, on friday, we dyed easter eggs. i got to use the white crayon to draw on the eggs and bean got to dye them. she love watching what i write or draw appear as she colors the eggs. this year we had orange, green, purple and (of course) pink eggs. here you can see the artist hard at work...
then on saturday we made an easter bunny craft. it involved feet and paint. it was surprisingly less messy than i thought. sprout did not care for paint between his toes though... not at all. bean did an excellent job of drawing faces on our cute little bun-buns. she used pink for her bunny's face and blue for the sprout's. here are the adorable results...

oh wait! i was crafty all by myself this week! i made the kids a special breakfast easter morning- bunny face pancakes. i thought of this saturday night, it didn't turn out as well as i'd hoped BUT it was still freakin' cute and the bean LOVED IT. i used blueberries for eyes and a cherry (from the can of fruit cocktail) for the nose. what do you think?

so that is the crafty that we had at our house this week. what have you done?? :)

Beanisms Return!!

bean is babbling away about some thing or other, i think about how snakes smell with their tongues... sorry, she talks so much that i tend to tune her out sometimes. (terrible i know!) and she pauses like she is waiting for me to respond so i say....

"is that so!"
and she says....
"yes! i know that because i'm an excellent knower!"

he he!
yes bean, you are indeed an excellent knower!
:)

Magnolia Funny

while trying to take pictures of some of the magnolia blossoms lying in the grass i accidentally got this shot.
it seems someone invaded my picture! ha! i never even noticed that i got a picture of magpie running by until i got this on the computer! i guess all i can say is that she is really fast sometimes! ;)

Magnolias

i simply love my magnolia tree. it makes me happy. (despite the fact that it is a messy messy tree that you have to rake up after several times a year!) it is the very first thing that blooms in my yard. it is the thing that tells me that spring is really here. and it is SO gosh darn pretty.

this year we had some wind in march that knocked a few blossoms down just as they had started to open. but they were still pretty even though they were lying in the grass...



and the pink and white petals of the ones still on the tree look so lovely against the clear blue, blue sky of spring.

i hope everyone else is enjoying spring as much as i am!

Magnolia Kids 2009

i decided to take the annual magnolia tree pictures today. the blossoms aren't all the way open but i feared that with the windy/rainy weather that was a-comin' that we would lose the flowers this weekend. (that is the one thing about magnolias, their blossoms can be so fragile!) so out to the tree we went!

first up was bean...

smelling the flowers
(i can't even tell you how much i love this shot. there simply isn't words for it!!)

hanging out in the tree.

when daddy got home the kids both got to climb the tree!

then sprout had his turn.
(he wasn't interested in smelling the flowers for mommy.... wasn't much interested at all!)

but we did finally get a smile out of him!

now i don't have to worry. the pictures are taken.... although i can see myself taking more if the blossoms survive. what can i say, i'm nutty like that! ;)

Crafty (With Cake) Tuesday

sprout was having a party and i needed a cake. bean had a caterpillar cake for her first birthday so i wanted something equally cool and three dimensional for sprout's first. i found it on the family fun magazine website- a dragon cake.

what is the theme going to be though..... OH! knights and dragons! sprout is the knight that slays the dragon (cake). awesome!! however this is not a party theme that you can find decorations and stuff to go with. i had to make a castle and shields out of paper to bring the theme to life.

but back to the cake... i baked. i cut. i frosted. i decorated. and i think it turned out pretty darn good! what do you think?

and here is another shot of the dragon sitting in front of that castle i created for sprout on our dining room wall. of course he had a castle, he is the knight that slayed the dragon (cake) after all!

of course i didn't put the scale texture on it. the directions tell you to use a marker lid to make impressions in the icing that look like scales..... i decided that a one year old wouldn't care about such things (and that i had done enough for one night!).

well, that was my crafty for this week. have you done anything crafty?? :)

The Big One

saturday was the big celebration. the par-tay. the day where the crazy mommy invites tons of people over to scare the poop out of her tiny shy boy....

"if i hide under the gift table maybe no one will see me....."

he didn't really hide under the table. actually he did pretty good. all the guests were very understanding and gave him his distance when he was asking for it. he may even have enjoyed parts of the party (even though it was horribly scheduled at nap time. what was i thinking??)

he got LOTS of wonderful gifts.
including many, many clothes. i will need to buy him NOTHING for summer time. :)

and plenty of fun toys too! every boy needs a fire truck, right??

his favorite part was the cake though. oh my did he ever LOVE his cake. he ate it all. then i gave him ice cream- which he also LOVED (after the initial shock of the coldness). he ate it all up and was one sticky gooey mess when he was done- and so was everything within his reach!
yep, that is green frosting. he had a knights and dragons themed party and his cake was the dragon. dragons are green, right???
(if you want to see pictures of the cake you will have to wait 'til tomorrow's crafty tuesday post)

after all that excitement we had a brief nap time and supper then went to grandma's hotel for some swimming with his aunts. he had a fantastic time. he loves to swim- just like his big sister.
so glad you had a great birthday little buddy! your first year was so much fun!! we just can't wait to see what the next year has in store for you!! :)

Happy Happy Birthday Baby Boy

yep, it is here- sprouts first birthday. but as you may remember we thought he was going to be born on the 27th... you know, when it was scheduled! ha ha!

one year ago i had a doctor's appointment. she told me that she didn't think i'd make it to the induction. she said she wouldn't be surprised if i had the baby that day. i had contractions on the way home. i thought it was only because i'd had an exam and that they wouldn't last......... um, yeah. 5 hours later we were on the way to the hospital. about 3 hours after that the baby was here, he was a boy, he was BIG and beautiful.


and believe it or not he kept getting cuter.

and stubborn (oh so stubborn) too. (that is his binki, don't you dare think of taking it out!!)

and now.....

he is a big boy and more adorable than ever. he is walking. he is starting to talk. he LOVES his sister. he is a wonderful little man and we love him more than anything.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LITTLE SPROUTY!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

The First Cut... the Sprout Edition.

i took the sprout to get his first haircut today. we went to one of those special places just for kids.... my sister said she only did boy hair with clippers and i didn't want it THAT short so we had to opt for a professional. we really wanted him to look good for his big day!

it started out ok. sitting in taxi cab and watching baby mozart was good, but he seemed suspicious...

then a STRANGER came NEAR HIM!!!! OMG!!!!!!

and she WOULD NOT STOP TOUCHING HIM!!!!
he actually flailed around. tried to throw himself out of the taxi. and basically didn't sit still for even a second. he was incredibly unhappy about the whole process.... mommy, of course, giggled at his ridiculousness!

but his "wings" (or "girl hair") are a thing of the past. we trimmed up but didn't go really "big boy" short so he'd still look like a baby.
his birthday is one week from today. ONE week. time sure does fly, doesn't it?!?

Weekend Funny

these are just some of the amusing pictures i took of my son today. if you are feeling like you need a laugh, these should do it!

almost picking his nose.... i'm sure he'll do it for real any day now.

i think he's trying to cram some sort of outdoor nastiness into his mouth here. i'm trying not to care what it was.

and lastly, i give you this face. he makes it quite often. we aren't exactly sure what it is about but it makes us laugh our asses off. ;)

A Daah-ghhhh

sprout has started to speak actual words!

we are very picky when it comes to saying our kids know words. if they repeat a word we say that is great but it doesn't count- they need to say it on their own to show they know what the word means.
this week sprout opened a book about dogs (the touch and feel puppy book) and clearly said "ah daah-ghh". then he turned the page and said it again. then again on the next page. he seemed quite excited about it. later that day when i was changing his diaper then neighbor's dog barked and looked up and said "ah daah-ghh!". i think it is clear that he knows the word dog now. :)
also, he has started making a sound that we believe is "ruff" in association with the word dog. i think he is making the dog sound! (and he should know it, our magpie can be quiet loud at times!)

we think he may be calling bean "sis". we aren't sure but it sounds like it. (she tells him she is his sister or sis all the time.)
he also may have said "buh-buh" (bye-bye) to his nana the other day. he has not repeated this again so it may have just been a fluke. we will have to wait and see.

so, sprout has two words now- dada and dog. he says the sound "ma-ma-ma" but he doesn't use it to refer to me. he calls us both "dada" (bean did it too so i guess that must be somewhat normal).
*don't worry, he's going to be getting his hair cut soon. my brother and sister kept teasing him- saying he had "girl hair" his weekend! so before his birthday he will be sporting big boy hair, i promise!! ;)

Crazy Dancing Bean

since you've recently seen sprout dance i thought i'd let you watch the strange, jerky, flailing that make up bean's dances.

she is more than a little crazy....

crazy, right?! that's what i thought. :)

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

facebook disturbs me.
it shows me all the people i went to high school with and wants me to be friends with them.
and i have an anxiety attack when i see their names and pictures.

hmmmm, apparently i'm not over the horrors of high school. who knew?

Little Picasso

it is a beautiful day here. it is about 68 degrees. partly sunny. you know, a good day to be outside.
bean decided that she was going to make a rainbow masterpiece. here is my little picasso at work:

she needed the hat "because it is windy".... apparently it keeps the hair out of her face. :)

so, did you do anything fun today??