Stink

Somewhere in my house is a sippy cup with just enough milk in it to really stink, whenever I do find it.

Can you tell I'm into my kids?

It's so fun having a girl, because now I can do this...

Snacking on pretzel sticks

Tjabe's first sleepover

Last week Tjabe had his first sleepover with buddy Blake. They spent the three hours before the sleepover playing at the bounce house (or whatever you want to call it) and running around, so by the time they got to my place and into bed they were pretty tired. I did overhear some whispered conversations from their respective beds in Tjabe's room before sleep took over, and managed to capture some of it below for your reading pleasure. Keep in mind, they were whispering, so they had a hard time hearing each other.

T: Blake, I’m sorry for messing up your fingerpaint. Will you forgive me? (pause)

Blake, I’m sorry for messing up your fingerpaint. Will you forgive me? (another pause)

Will you forgive me?

B: YES! I said yes, yes, yes! Now it’s OVER!

B: Tjabe. Sometime you should come to my swimming lessons. (pause)

Tjabe. (another pause) Sometime you should come to my swimming lessons. You can watch what I do. We do really cool stuff.

T: Sometime I will.

B: What?

T: I said, sometime I WILL!

[later] B: Did you like the pizza we had tonight?

T: Yes.

B: Yeah. The cheese was good.

Then a discussion ensued about Legos that I couldn’t keep up with.

And here they are with freshly-brushed teeth.

Words of Wisdom

The scene last night:

Maggie is crying and screaming on the couch because I won't let her play with the phone (which I'm talking on). Did I mention she has a temper and was especially fussy yesterday?

Tjabe is sitting next to her.

Tired of the screaming, Tjabe kneels down in front of Maggie, puts his hands on her shoulders, looks her squarely in the face and states: "Maggie, you will not get what you want by crying and screaming."

Spoken by the voice of experience. Now if only I could be that calm all the time when I say it.

Pictures I've been meaning to post

... but keep forgetting.

This is what Maggie looks like on the way back down after she's been tossed into the air.

Tjabe dressed up

Maggie in her Christmas dress, with her beloved toothbrushes

Tjabe cooking dinner (pancakes)

A conversation...

I just had with Tjabe. He had been sitting on the toilet, reading Go Dog, Go! and doing his... duty (he he, I said duty - thanks for laughing, fellow Scrubs fans). Anyway, I peeked in to check on him, and here's what followed:

T (enticingly): Hey Mooooom-my... look in the toooiii-leeeeet...

Me (looking in at two complacent "products"): Oh good job buddy! Now let's get cleaned up.

T: But hey Mommy, look at that one (pointing to the one sitting on top of the other in the toilet). Isn't it coooool?!

I didn't see anything particularly cool about it, just an ordinary every-day turd, but I occasionally like to be supportive, so I agreed with him. Are little girls like this too?

Random holiday shots, all out of order

It’s late, so I’m not going to say a lot, but you all just look at this for the pictures anyway, right?

Someone turned four, and we made him a rainbow cake.  It looked so cool.

Maggie got a tutu for Christmas from surrogate grandparents Cathy and Karl.  Thanks, guys!

Our advent tree, which I mentioned in an earlier post.

We got a Betta fish for Maggie, since we got Tjabe blocks for Christmas.  Of course, he loves the fish and she plays with the blocks.  Is any gift really just for one kid, when you have more than one?  We’ve named him Mott, since those are sounds Maggie can say.  Tjabe came up with the name all by himself, but to make sure we spell it right he pronounces it “Mot-t-t.”