cousin, brother, sister, cute

some cuteness from grandma's surprise birthday party:

-

pickle in a bucket

speaking of potty time...

we may have the stubborn-est boy in all the land. after a brief infatuation with all things potty, he no longer has any desire to use the potty. we read the elmo potty book all the time and watch the elmo potty dvd almost daily. we ask him constantly if he wants to go pee on the potty but he never does. if we put him on the potty anyway, he maybe squeezes out a couple of drops, but mostly just wants to play with the toilet paper and flush the toilet. even when it is painfully obvious that he has pooped himself, he lies and says no when we ask him if he has pooped. we've drilled it into his head that he will get a present (we have a stash of monster trucks, including a teenage mutant ninja turtle truck he's been pining for) when he goes poop on the potty. this has definitely registered with him because he constantly walks around saying, "go poop on potty. get a present. turtle truck." but has he done it? nope. we've even done a couple of underwear experiments to see if it would bother him to be wet. note: it does not. - so we will keep trying but not force anything and just let him decide when he is ready. no sense in us driving ourselves mad when he clearly has little to no interest. as long as he's potty trained by kindergarten, right?

dot org

we have been watching the elmo potty time dvd a lot lately. at the end, there's some hype about sesame street's website. when quentin sees this, he looks at me and says, very matter-of-factly, "dot org." i don't know why, but it just makes me laugh every time he does it, like he's worried that i might think it's a dot com or something.

his sister's keeper

i was in the kitchen a couple of days ago, getting their lunch ready when Q came in and started pulling me to the living room, saying very urgently, "momma. sister. chee." (chee is what quentin calls the television. don't ask - i don't get it.) when we got to the living room i saw why he came to get me. pickle was trying to pull herself up on the TV cabinet. i am terribly fearful of the TV falling on top of the kids so i always "yell" at them to keep away. Q was worried for his sister. either that or just tattling on her!

eureka!

well i understand the worm party phenomenon now...

we watched an episode of backyardigans last night where the backyardigans are a cowboy polka band who are heading to cheyenne to play some rockin' polka at sherman the worman's brother herman's surprise party. yes a surprise party for a worm, thrown by other worms. it all makes sense now.

and of course...

we can't let quentin's patriotism go unrecognized.

red, white, and vroooom!

-

pickle's pretty sundress sunday!

so patriotic! bought this for july 4th but realized it could pull double-duty for memorial day too. but of course, she wanted to play with (and eat) the grass rather than have her picture taken. -

pickle's room: a vision

caroline's big girl room is starting to take shape in my head. it will be a garden-y room, with hedgehogs, ladybugs, clovers, and daisies. most of these things are just inspiration. but i did buy a bunch of the yellow fabric (1st image) to make curtains and possibly a bedspread because it's rare fabric and it is just what i was looking for. also bought the hedgehog beanbag chair. so our house needs to sell soon so we can move to philly and i can get to work on putting it together for realsies.

watch mommy!

quentin's newest thing is, "watch mommy!" because he knows it will get my attention. at least for now. because i'm not sure how many staged monster truck races i can watch before i am numb :)

worm party. surprise!

quentin has been absolutely obsessed with parties for a while now. he must have seen a show about a birthday party or read about one in a book. the first time i saw him do it a few weeks ago was with his monster trucks. he picked up each truck and said, "gravedigger going to the party," "monster mutt going to the party," etc. once the group had assembled, he starting mumbling about cupcakes and presents. and then he brought over another truck and exclaimed, "surprise!" - then he started doing it every time we have pasta for dinner (which is a lot, since it is one of the few non-dessert and non-french fry meals he will actually eat.) the noodles are worms and they are throwing a a worm surprise party. it is just too damn cute. it is so fun to see his imagination developing.

tubby time

now that caroline is getting bigger, she's more stable in the tub. so we've started bathing both kids at once. both seem to enjoy it and are willing to stay in the tub longer because they think it is play time.

monkey see, monkey do. quentin was sucking bath water off his wash cloth (gross i know, we pick our battles), so pickle wanted to do it too.

touch-a-truck, take two

we went to another touch-a-truck yesterday afternoon. quentin was not as excited but i think that was because this one didn't start until 1 p.m. and that is his usual nap time. it also didn't help that this one was a little more crowded so he had to wait his turn for things. but despite being a little crabby, he still loved the trucks. i think he may start to think that he can play on trucks all the time. -

and caroline reminds you to hydrate.

11 months old!

wow! baby girl is 11 months old! doesn't seem like it is possible. she seems like more of a baby than quentin did at this point, but i think that may just be a matter of perspective. caroline is cutting at least 5 new teeth right now (she won't really let us look in her mouth - we only get glimpses when she yawns or screams.) she's pulling herself up on everything and started cruising a little bit last week. she's pretty verbal, much more than we ever remember Q being. she definitely knows "mama" and "dada" and i'm pretty sure she says "there" when she is trying to hand something to you. and this girl can eat. we are pretty sure she is the reincarnation of our beagle abby who had a very loose definition of what constitutes food and once ate almost an entire bag of kibble because she could. can't believe she's almost a whole year old!