Being a Mom comes with its own amusements...

Last Saturday we decided to have a cute little family picnic and movie night in the living room.

Roughly the twelfth viewing of The Lorax for the kids, first time for Mom and Dad.

Really it was all just an excuse to not pause the movie--but it worked out for everyone.

And when I plugged in my memory card to post these pictures, I decided to let public a few of our more entertaining moments that come up while we're home alone all day.

Ben loves bananas. He recently ate three in one sitting. I volunteered him for a toddler fruit-eating contest.

He is quite particular about how he eats bananas, however. He doesn't just eat a banana. He divides it into smaller pieces, stands them all on end, then eats them one by one. Every single time.

Speaking of food, Jane very adamantly repeated to me several times that Megan and Ben ate all the leftover frosting that was in the fridge. She was ever so frustrated when I just didn't believe her.

Until I took a picture and pointed out that she had frosting on her face.

You know those moments when Mom decides to take a picture instead of intervening? Yeah, this was one of those times...Megan was stuck.

Instead of helping her down--for the fourth or fifth time today--I took a picture instead. Which means I was all kinds of prepped to capture this little gem.

Don't worry, no toddlers were harmed in the taking of this picture. She's fine. It was a total win/win--I had the best laugh I've had in a while, and she is no longer climbing up the file cabinet and getting stuck. Thank you, Natural Consequences.

(I debated posting this for fear of judgment from other mothers who may look down on me for taking a picture of my child falling. I am posting because she's fine, she learned something valuable, and I think it was a dang lucky camera shot. And because judgment from others is irrelevant. :) )

And just because it's funny, here is Ben yelling CHEESE!

On a cousin's birthday

Happy FOURTH birthday to Dalton James! To celebrate, I helped the girls reminisce a bit...

What is your favorite thing about Dalton?

J: I like when he runs up and tries to catch me.

M: Playing with him.

What is your favorite thing to do with Dalton?

J: I like to help him learn how to potty train.

M: Play with not a baby.

What is Dalton's favorite food?

J: Macaroni and Cheese.

M: Basketti.

What is Dalton's favorite song?

J: I don't quite know, but if I guessed I think it would be Praise to the Man. But I don't know.

M: Praise to the Man.

What is Dalton's favorite movie?

J: Hmmm...it's, umm...Dragons. Hiccup.

M: Rapunzel.

What is Dalton's favorite place to go?

J: Grandma's House. Because he likes going to see Papa.

M: To the restaurant. To eat basketti.

What is Dalton's favorite toy?

J: Dalton's favorite toy is an airplane.

M: Rapunzel.

What do you like the most about Dalton?

J: I like when he comes over to our house and I also like having dinner at his house.

M: Playing with him. Tag.

What do you miss the most about Dalton?

J: I just miss Dalton.

M:I miss playing with him.

What do you want to tell Dalton for his birthday?

J: Happy Birthday! I wish to give him a present. It would be a car.

M: Happy Birthday DAAAAALLLLLton.

Miss Chatty's Birthday Answers

I totally forgot to post Jane's answers to the questions I asked her on her birthday. Better late than never, here they be.

Favorite Food: noodle soup, cake, Chinese food

Favorite Color: pink

Favorite Toy: Princesses and dolls

Favorite Book: Dick & Jane, anything with princesses

Favorite Activity: Going out to dinner and going out to lunch and playing at the park and going out to breakfast

Favorite Scripture Story: When Jesus died.

Favorite Song: All the Christmas songs.

Favorite Movie: Princess movies and the movie that used to work but now it doesn't work--the one with a robot and a boy. (Mom translation: The Iron Giant. We've yet to replace that dvd after she broke it and she reminds me of that fact constantly.) And Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel. Also I do like Charlie Brown.

Favorite TV show: Mostly Phineas and Ferb, and Caillou. Mostly anything on tv. Even though I'm not a grown up, I watch grown up shows. Like Phineas and Ferb is a grown up show.

Favorite Breakfast: French Toast

Favorite thing about Albuquerque: I like to go on the roller coaster. (We haven't done that yet, but we drive past one often, which is randomly in the middle of town. Maybe we'll try it out this summer.)

Miss most about Salt Lake: I miss going to my friends' houses and Grandpa and Grandma's house. Grandpa Jeff and Grandma Karrie's house, and Grandma and Grandpa Petty's house, and Grandpa Craig and Grandma Janet's house.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Something that help you when stop lights are broken and wears blue clothes. Do you know? Guess. They help people and use a whistle and tell people when to stop and go. It's a person. YES!!! I want to be a police officer when I grow up. Just like Weston.

P.S. You may or may not have noticed my post on Facebook the other day about Jane having a fever. Quick recap, she did not get up after watching a movie during quiet time. That isn't normal and she didn't look very good to me, so I took her temperature. It was 105.4. Not good. We gave her tylenol and it came down, but I wanted to play the "better safe than sorry" card and took her to urgent care. They were obviously annoyed that I brought her in for "nothing more than a fever" and sent me home saying it might be the flu, "which this year just looks like a fever." Needless to say, I don't think we'll be frequenting that particularly Urgent Care facility.

Two days later, she's totally fine. We kept her home from church on Sunday after her fever spiked again in the middle of the night, but since then she's been fine. Laying low today, which is easy since school is closed for the holiday, and tomorrow I suspect we'll all be back to normal.

Just FYI.

Fishies Fishies

 
We availed ourselves of a still ever-so-fabulous BioPark Society membership and a free Saturday and trouped on out for a lovely morning at the Albuquerque Aquarium. "We" being Chris and Laura and the Wamplettes and Heather...who is also a Wampler, who is also younger than us...so she can be an honorary Wamplette.

I was not quite as impressed with the aquarium as I was with the zoo, but we still had quite a good time. The fish were as active as you may expect fish to be.

And the children were as active as you may expect children to be.

Coolest attraction: touch the sting rays and sharks.

I did. It was gross. I don't want to do it again. I have long maintained that fish are my favorite animals/pets and that is for one pure and simple reason: you never have to touch them.

Chris, on the other hand, thought it was really cool.


We made it through the entire aquarium twice in less than an hour and a half. Heather came back to our apartment for lunch and a game of chess.

I love the serious expressions on everyone's faces--even the kids.

Just so you know--it has been many a year since Christopher has agreed to play chess with Heather. She's really good and he doesn't enjoy losing. Back in high school, he beat her once. This is the first time they've played since.

(P.S. He lost.)

(P.P.S. He gave me permission to post the fact that he lost.)

(P.P.P.S. This is Heather's impression of a jelly fish.)