The Art of Play

Jessica is wonderful at playing. I know kids play all the time, but I love watching Jessica create story lines and scenes out of her fabulous little imagination and suddenly the trains are introducing themselves to mickey mouse and Ernie is riding Scoop from Bob the Builder.
Today's activity involved Jess finding my old Cabbage Patch kids (found in Mom and Dad's move this past weekend). We put diapers on them, fed them, rocked them to sleep, took them to the Doctor and even let them watch a little Frosty the Snowman ;) She was wonderful to them, she talked sweetly and sang songs and all the little special things that I normally do for her, and it made me feel like a pretty good Mom, at least for today ;)
She is so fun to watch as she creates, explores and builds, though she loves an audience and wants you to sit and watch and maybe play a little too.
I am so grateful for my sweet little girl and all the joy she brings!
(We've got to something about that crazy "CHEESE" smile!)

A Crab's Revenge

The saga continues with our favorite pets...ok our only pets.
About 2 months ago one of the crabs was molting and was buried down in the sand doing his thing. (From past posts you will remember that molting is a traumatic time for a crab and they are very vulnerable and weak until their new skin hardens.) Well the smaller punk crab took advantage of the situation and stole the poor molting crabs shell leaving him weak and defenseless without a shell. While it was very cool seeing the crabs full body I quickly added some shells to the tank for him to hide in. Well, no permanent damage done.

Fast forward 2 months. The punk crab has been buried down molting for the last 5 weeks. He finally emerges yesterday and I pull all the crabs out to clean the tank. As I pick them all up and check them out I notice that the punk crab who just finished molting is missing his big claw! His leg is all mutilated and black and he has no big claw anymore.

All I can figure is that the big crab decided to get his revenge on the punk for stealing his shell while he was down and out and made him pay by ripping off the punk's claw while he was weak and defenseless molting. Who knew that the world of crabs could be so violent and full of drama? I wonder if the big crab did it himself or if he ordered a hit on the other crab. Next thing you know there will be horse heads in my tank!

Birthday Central

This past weekend was filled with cake, ice cream, decorations, lots of presents and more cake. Both of my kids celebrated their Birthday! Ristow turned 7 and Jessica turned 2.
Here is a run down of some of the highlights...

Ristow had a rocking karate party at the Karate studio where he takes lessons. It was awesome and the instructor even cut the cake with his Samurai sword! It was everything he could have wished for.

Jess had a Mickey Mouse party and once she opened up the little Mickey figurines she had to show Mickey ALL of her presents as she opened them and have him help her. Totally cute. The highlight for her was the pony jack in the box she got. She turned the crank with eager anticipation and would get so excited as it was about to pop open.

We were glad to be able to share the weekend with Christopher's parents and managed to squeeze in a Birthday dinner at Logan's for Ristow, Breakfast with Santa at church, and a drive through tour of Christmas lights. It was a busy and wonderful weekend!

More pics can be found on my Facebook page

Pumpkin Carving 2011

This year carving pumpkins it was Team Werewolf (the boys) vs. Team Mickey Mouse (the girls) as determined by Ristow. Christopher and Ristow created some kind of Monster pumpkin while Jess and I opted for the cute pumpkin look.

It was funny to watch Jess tonight. She didn't know what to make of all the activity. She saw me drawing out the design on the pumpkin and thought she was supposed to be doing that too. She drew with pen all over it. Then once we opened it, she watched Ristow pull pumpkin goop out of his pumpkin with a weird look of awe and disgust on her face :) She loved making the "Blech" sound every time Ristow did and finally she reached in and touch the goop herself, with one finger. She was content with that and had fun watching Ris and running around. I guess you have to acquire the desire to touch pumpkin guts!

All in all I think the pumpkins turned out pretty good!

Fall Leaves and Pumpkins

This is Jessica's first fall season since she has been walking. It has been very exciting to see her discover and explore and have the words for all these new experiences. This past weekend I took the kids and my mom to the Pumpkin Farm. We fed goats, went on tractor train rides, the corn maze and played like crazy! It was a blast and so great to watch Jess. I think she tried to pick up just about every pumpkin there.

Today, I raked up what leaves have fallen so far in our yard and taught Jessica the ins and outs of jumping in, kicking and throwing leaves. Though the throwing part she was a pro at ;) We had a leaf fight and buried ourselves in them. New lesson learned ... leaves are very difficult to get out of long curly hair!We laughed and played and had lots of fun. I love this season and am so excited to continue to share it with my kiddos. Though when playing in the leaves in short sleeve shirts because it is 80 degrees outside, it can be kind of itchy ;)

Ristow's Cool Cut

Ristow decided last week that he wanted a design shaved into the side of hair when he got his next haircut. We had a long talk about it and decided to let him try it out.

Christopher took his to the barbershop down the street which was a much better idea than to GreatClips that was going to charge him to two haircuts, one to cut and one to shave the designs!
The guys at the shop were pros and this is what Ristow came home with...
This morning he woke up and first thing he said was "mom, is it still there?" Yes, Ristow it is. We will see how school goes today with him showing off his new style. He was super excited and decided to wear his sharktooth necklace for the full effect. School pictures are next week and he couldn't be happier!

WARNING! Jessica can now open doors (sometimes)

This week Jessica and I were playing in the kitchen and all of a sudden she reaches up and opens the door to the basement. Yikes! I scooped her up, headed to Walmart and bought safety knobs for the door. Crisis averted.

Today, I was vacuuming the house and Jess was running around wanting me to chase her with the vacuum and playing with the cord. I must of been really focused on my task at hand because after a while I realized she was longer anywhere to be seen. I turned off the vacuum and hear a faint "Mommmmmmy!" I couldn't figure out where it came from so I called "Jess, where are you?" I then hear a small knocking on the closet door where I keep the vacuum. I open the door and there is Jessica in the dark closet and all she says is "Hi". I guess she can't quite open all the doors yet :)
That kid sure keeps me on my toes.