We had Josh's siblings and families out for the last weekend in January. It was a lot of fun to be with everyone. We got the brush pile burned down, went sledding, played games, and had fun visiting. Jake and Ruth and their girls came the Wednesday before the weekend (Jake had a conference in Bismarck). It was fun to spend some time with Ruth and the cousins really enjoyed being together. Johnny and Lu want everyone to come back again.
Josh gave me a days worth of hard labor for my birthday.:) We spent the Friday of superbowl weekend priming and painting our bedroom. I was pretty excited when he came home with my birthday present of wall paper remover, since I've been talking about painting in there for a while with not much enthusiasm from him. Our bedroom looks really nice and inspired us to start working on the dining room. We plan to get the walls painted before we start seedlings and hope to work on removing the carpet a little at a time until the real work outside starts.
Josh and I have been on a board game kick. It's been fun to buy and play new games with eachother. We're enjoying the relaxing time of the season, but getting a little cabin fever waiting for spring to come.
Jeremiah's two top front teeth popped through this last weekend. He's growing up too fast. He's eating baby puree. And likes it. He's had oatmeal, applesauce, beans, peas and squash so far. The bananas he tried plugged him up, so we'll wait to try those again. He can sit up on his own, but if I leave him by himself like that he gets a little crazy kick and either dives forward to a toy (smashing his face on the floor) or flings backward in excitement (hitting the back of his head on the floor). He can army crawl forward in pursuit of a close by toy and he can get up on all fours, but can't quite go forward yet in the crawl. He gets frusterated when trying to go forward, he scoots backwards til running into the opposite wall. Jeremiah loves to play ruff with Daddy. He knows it's playtime when daddy sets him on the changing table to change his diaper. If we wakes up in the evening for a nursing snack (usually about the time we're getting ready for bed), he just wants to play with Dad in our bed...way more fun than nursing and going back to bed.:) He likes to put everything in his mouth, so the really little toys are put away and we try to keep the hotwheels cars out of his hands. He loves the bright colored duplo blocks that the kids have been building with lately and John and Lu don't seem too upset if he destroys their towers.
Lu Lu reached the terrible twos, about a month late, but she's there. She wants to do everything her way and herself. "No" is the most used word in her vocabulary. And she's got the tantrum thing down...Sitting on the floor and kicking her legs. The TTs usually only come out when she's tired or hungry. She is so cute that her terrible twos are for the most part funny to me (except when I'm tired or crabby). She had a 2-3 day lapse in the potty training last week, but has done very well since. She always wants to help. She is very good at helping with some things (putting away dirty laundry, throwing away dirty dipers...) Some "helping" causes me more work like when she "folds" laundry...We won't say what her drawers look like;). She is talking and singing all the time. She is always taking care of her baby dolls. "Quiet, Mommy, Baby sleeping." as she tip toes out of her room. She is an amazing dancer. Sometimes we listen to music in the kitchen when washing dishes or making supper. She likes to "get supper ready" with her kitchen toys.
Johnny is Johnny. He goes from wanting to do everything right and being helpful and listening really well Saying "Okay Mom" even if he doesn't want to do something to being very headstrong and wanting to do this his own way no matter what. Usually when he's headstrong, he's like that all day, so by the end of the day I'm exhausted and crabby from all our battles. He's always wanting to learn to do more chores. I taught him how to clean the bathroom last week. I haven't let him do it by himself yet. I think I'll have to supervise a few more times, but it's very nice to have the help. He can fold all of his own laundry and put it away (except for the top drawer). His most used words are "Play with Me". He is very athletic. He loves sports...football, wrestling, running, jumping, basketball, chasing, racing. He is supper fast and very coordinated. He has "babysat" Jeremiah, watching him and playing with him while I'm in another room working on a project. He is sitting on my lap right now saying "play with me", so I think it's time to go play outside.:)
