Kangaroo Climber

Since the last 3 posts have been about Vivian I figured I needed to find something to post about Michael. Well looking at my pictures from the last month, it wasn't hard to find a theme. This kid likes to climb. His main goal has been to get as tall and as high as he can and to do what the big kids are doing. Some of these are more daring than others but still equally as creative.






Daddy had to help with this one.
Vivian wanted to join the fun too.
This is his 'Spiderman' climb.
My little boy isn't a scaredycat any more. I guess I have to watch him more closely.

Boo boo

Yesterday I had another 'horrible mother moment' at the park. Vivian started crying out of no where and I said what I normally do, "Your OK." Another mom that was there told me that she had gotten her finger stuck in the toy. So I was like, "Oh, your OK" again because she had already stopped crying, so it couldn't have been that bad, right?

So then later when I was putting her in the car I saw this huge scab on her thumb with tons of dirt in it. I figured I would be nice and wait till we got home before I attacked her. So after lunch I gave her a bath and poured hydrogen peroxide on it to clean it out. After that she got her very first band aid. (I know that's pretty amazing that it didn't happen sooner having Michael for a brother.)

She was fascinated with it the whole time I was feeding her and even after I put her in her crib. (I wonder how long she played with it before falling asleep?) When I went to go get her up she showed it to me first thing. We talked about it for awhile and it wasn't long before she was saying, "ban-da." She finally was able to get it off while I was cooking dinner.

She is such a sweet girl and so smart. It amazes me how she learns new things every day. And I'm so grateful that her daddy and her brother are turning her into a tough girl, because I am often annoyed at how much of a sissy I am.

"Ee-i-ee-i-o"

[Must be sung to the tune of Old McDonanald]

Lorina Bowman has a daughter,
who is learning to talk.
She says, "Mommy" here
and says, "Daddy" there.
Here a "ball," there a "doll"
everywhere a "dog, dog"
Vivian is learning to sing,
"Ee-i-ee-i-o"

Vivian has been singing, "Ee-i-ee-i-o" for the past couple days now and so I decided I would take after my mom and create a little rhyme about it. These are some of the words shes been saying a lot lately so I hope you've enjoyed my cheesy song.

Oops!

I guess this is what I get for getting distracted before I put her down for her nap.

Michael's Girlfriend

Well I'd like everyone to meet Michael's new Girlfriend. Michael thinks of nothing else. He talks of nothing else. He plays nothing else. She comes over every morning about 8 and I usually try to kick her out by 10 or 10:30 because all Michael does when she is here is this...

Meet Dora the Explorer, the love of Michael's 3 year old life. Should I be concerned?

Attack of the Flies!

So last week we mysteriously had a few hundred flies in our house. We looked everywhere trying to see where they hatched from but we couldn't find anything. Luckily they were pretty stupid so they were pretty easy to kill with the fly swatter. Michael loved helping me kill the flies and there are still a few flying around our house. But after hundreds of flies, I don't mind a few. So I'm back to telling Michael to, "Leave them alone, they're not going to hurt you." SO yesterday we were eating oranges and a fly was playing with Michael. His commentary was as follows, "He's saying hi. He's on my hand. The fly is on my forehead. Is he cleaning my ears?" It was so funny to watch him sit so still while he let the fly go all over him. I went to go get the camera to try and get a picture. It took awhile for the fly to come back but you can sorta see it right below Michael's hairline. Then later we were playing in the living room and I see Vivian in the middle of the floor (with that big old grin on her face) kind of dancing with a fly. She thought it was the greatest thing ever.

"Nigh Nigh!"

Vivian has been pretending to go night night a lot. She will lay down somewhere and say, "Nigh, nigh!" or she will lay down a doll or something with a blanket and pat it and say, "Nigh, nigh." But last week they were helping me clean up the toys and I got this bin out to put the bigger stuffed animals in it and this little pillow ended up in there first, so she immediately went and got her blanket and started laying down in it. She thought she was so cute.
Then Michael had to have his turn but Vivian was quite mad about it. Here she is trying to get him out of her 'bed.'
Then on Sunday, Michael and I were playing catch with his pillow and he started laying down waiting for me to throw it to him and so Vivian grabbed her blanket and laid down with him on the floor and actually started pretending to snore. It was hilarious. She is growing up way too fast.

My little Pixies

A couple weeks ago we went with my friend Kellie and her daughter Chloe to Pixie Woods. It is a huge playground right here in Stockton (that wasn't too expensive) for the kids to play in.

Here are my two little Pixies riding on the boat all decked out with Life Jackets to keep them safe.
Michael even got to drive the boal since we were the only ones on it. (And it was the guys first day, I hope he doesn't get fired for that.)
I think he must have seen another kid climb up there because I don't know how he did it. I nearly had a heart attack when I looked over and saw him up there. But he's a smart boy and was able to climb up and down safely.
I don't think she's too sure about this whole sitting on a duck thing.
Michael loved climbing onto the horse though.
And here's Chloe having a blast on this horse.
Of course she had to stop and play in the sand. I was pretty grossed out when she started sucking her thumb after that.
Chloe is having fun jumping on the lily pad and showing her mom what she can do.
Michael and Chloe sharing a lily pad.
Vivian wanting off the lily pad.
I love how her face is helping her to climb up the stairs like a big girl.
I think he was asking him what he was reading.Before we left we got to ride the Carousel. You can't see Vivian in this pic but I think it was her first ride. Thanks Kellie and Chloe for letting us go to Pixie Woods with you! We were there over 2 hours but only saw a third of the park. We'll have to go explore the rest real soon.

Cliff Jumping

John's been wanting to take me Cliff Jumping at Knights Ferry ever since we've been married so he finally just planned everything with a couple friends and told me we were going. I told him I was going to be a chicken but that I would go. The area where they do the 40 foot jump luckily came along with a very shallow beach that the kids had a lot of fun playing in. Vivian is usually a chicken when it comes to water but she just went right in there the second we set her on the ground after the 10 minute hike to "the spot."
Michael loved walking on the rocks (at least he didn't complain like the rest of us anyways).

There was this group of rocks in the middle of the shallower part that he had fun climbing on too.Vivian liked to suck the germs off of the rocks. Fortunately she didn't get sick after wards.

Here are the guys making their way up to the jumping off point.Visily is almost ready to go... the other guys... not so sure yet.

I thought I better use the beautiful scenery to get a couple mommy/daughter pics. Of course my favorite is this one where she has her thumb in her mouth (as usual).
John appologizes for the camera strap in the way but this was the only good picture we got of the full jump in the back ground. Carlos is going for his second and last jump here.
Father and Son together.
Here are the guys trying to get over the shock of the cold water.
I decided I better put sun screen on her head because her hair is so thin so I ended up giving her a mohock at the same time. I love the expression on her face in this one, "Really mom?"But then we ended up just putting her on a chair out of the sun to protect her. She is such the spoiled little princess.
Michael just attaches himself to anyone who will talk to him so here he is with Seth having a grand old time on a rock.

Here is one of the Video's we got. Visily's videos are the only ones short enough to watch. The other ones lasted forever waiting for them to get up their nerve. At the end of this video you'll see a dog that was there, he would run into the water after anyone jumped trying to save them, but he would stop where the rocks dropped off, so much for the rescue mutt.