I Don't Want to Forget...

I don't want to forget...

Cody's first time in the big bathtub.  I took an idea from Pinterest and put him in a laundry basket.  It worked great!  He had fun splashing in the water until Serena and Bret put so many toys in the basket with him that there was no water for him to play with anymore!  ;)  Serena was beyond thrilled to share the tub with Cody-bear!

• The time Serena prayed oh-so-earnestly for Piglet to learn to say "acorns" rather than "haycorns."  She thanks God for each of her Winnie-the-Pooh friends by name in her prayers at night (some of them twice as she loses track of who she's already mentioned), and then thanks God that she can be a duck.

How I always wonder how on earth I get myself talked into the mess of letting a 2-yr-old and a 3-yr-old make their own pizzas every week!  It is fun, though!

• How after a 2 1/2 week stint as a duck named Mrs Mallard, Serena became a girl again.  She slept in her nest for one last night, and by the next morning, she had changed her bed back to normal.  I was a little sad.  I certainly didn't need to feel sentimental, though, because here we are a week later, and she is back to being a duck (complete with a nest in her bed)!

Bret's expression when he begs, "Hold-a me, Mommy!"

• The "Winnie the Pooh" phase.  For about a week, we were exclusively in the Winnie-the-Pooh stage, but now Serena kind of waffles between playing with Pooh and friends and being Mrs. Mallard.  She plays with all the characters from the 100-Acre Woods pretty equally.  She generally imagines Piglet as a baby girl-pig, and carries the imaginary animal cradled in her arms.  Serena goes into great detail describing how Kanga cares for Roo and carries him in her pouch.  Rabbit is also imagined to be a girl, and Serena and Rabbit have had some talks with Tigger about not bouncing people.  In fact, the other day, Serena & Daddy spent a good portion of the morning trying to teach Tigger how to bounce nicely.  Owl, Christopher Robin, and Pooh are usually only mentioned in passing.  Although whenever we sing the "Winnie-the-Pooh" song, Serena gets all excited at the end when it says Pooh is a "willy nilly silly old bear" because she played "Hide and Seek" with him the other day and whenever she would count, he would come closer and closer to her and then he started knocking on the door, and "isn't that SILLY?!" ;)  Eeyore has gotten the most attention, as Serena has been celebrating his birthday all week long.  On Thursday, she had me calling everyone she could think of so she could tell them that it was Eeyore's birthday and then ask them to sing "Happy Birthday" to him with her.  We called Grandma, Grammie, Caroline, Kaden & Keira, Gram, Aunt Jessica, Aunt Julie, Auntie Anna; and then we had Auntie Anna pass the phone around to Grandpa and Uncle Grant.  Uncle Luke was also requested, but he wasn't there; however, he guaranteed his on-going status as "the favorite Uncle" by calling her shortly thereafter.  ;)  Before bed for the last week, Serena has been requesting that we sing "Happy Birthday" to Eeyore.  So, the other night, Bret requested that we sing "Happy Birthday" to Owl.  Right away, Serena became very distressed, "No!  No!  But it's not Owl's birthday!  We can't sing "Happy Birthday" to Owl because it's NOT. HIS. BIRTHDAY!!!!"  I had one of those "Mom" moments of ingenuity (yes, even I...one of the not-so-creative-moms...manage to have a moment of ingenuity now and then!), and very calmly said, "Oh, it's okay, Serena!  We know it's not Owl's birthday.  Bret wants to sing "Happy Birthday" to his Owl."  A knowing look came across her face as she instantly became calm again. "OOoooohhhhh," she said, nodding.  And she happily joined in on a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" to Bret's Owl.

How excited Serena was when one of our balloons popped!  Now she could play the balloon game like Eeyore did on his birthday!

Bret didn't seem to grasp the wonder of the moment, haha!  ;)

• How much Bret loves balls.  He spent almost the entire morning the other day trying to throw his ball up on top of the fridge.  Yesterday, as we ran errands, he would look up to the ceiling in each store, as though calculating the distance.  Then, he would announce emphatically, "I can throw a ball up there, Mommy!"

The sound of the kids running, squealing, falling, helping each other up, laughing, laughing, laughing!!!

• Bret's little talk.  He's got so much to say, and the vocabulary to say it!  Granted, unless you're used to listening to him, you might not understand him.  ;)  

• The way Serena says, "Hey, Code!" to Cody.

• The new change to our morning routine.  Jordan's added in a story time with Daddy, since the morning is the only time Jordan gets to see the kids on the days he works.  The kids are loving this!  I'm just wishing we'd started doing it sooner!  ;)  One morning last week, Jordan was going to have to go to work early, which meant he would be gone by the time the kids got up.  So, he sneaked into the kids' room, woke Serena up, and read her a book before he left.  He said the look on her face was priceless!  She was so happy and her eyes just sparkled!

Serena "sitting under her favorite cork tree" (from the book "Ferdinand the Bull")

• The fun of having a video monitor.  It's something I've always wanted, and we came into possession of a used one a few weeks ago, and we finally get to see what we've been missing!!!  It's been so fun!  We always imagined that when Serena and Bret were talking, that they were facing each other...that Bret was probably standing in his crib watching/talking to Serena.  Come to find out, he's just laying there with his legs in the air, playing with his blankie, and talking to Serena!  The other morning, Serena was up pretty early, and I woke up to the sound of her singing the "Hokey Pokey" over the monitor.  I turned on the video, and there she was, standing on her bed, dancing the "Hokey Pokey!"  Later that same morning, she started pretending she was Noah, and asked Bret if he wanted to be God.  "Yeah," Bret said.  So he was God.  Serena would address him, "Hey Bret, I mean, hey God...."  Then later, she was guiding imaginary animals as she said, "Everybody on the boat!  God is going to do something special!"

Cody's new favorite pastime - pulling all the books off the bookshelf!

• How much Serena loves being Mrs. Mallard.  When people ask her what her name is, she'll usually tell them it's Mrs. Mallard.  She likes to call Bret Mr. Mallard, and the other day Bret said "I'm Mr. Mallard" completely independently of Serena's prompting, and Serena just beamed with pleasure!  This morning, she mentioned something about the eggs in her nest, and Jordan teased her that she shouldn't be leaving her nest if there are eggs in it.  In the book, Mrs. Mallard only leaves her nest to get something to eat or to get a quick drink.  ;)  That was before breakfast, and nothing more was said about it.  Then, after breakfast, I got Serena cleaned up and she got down and ran off.  I didn't really think too much of it, except that she was in quite a hurry.  Suddenly, she came back, took a quick drink, and ran off again.  I finished cleaning Bret up, and we went to find Serena.  She was on her nest.  Keeping her eggs warm.  So, we made Bret a nest on the floor, and they spent the next 20 minutes running back and forth from their nests to the kitchen (to get a quick drink).  Bret had so much fun!  He kept stopping to tell me that they were playing games and they were running FAST. He doesn't really get the whole concept...a little bit ago, I checked on him laying on his nest and asked if he was taking care of his eggs.  He said yes, and then pretended to feed me a few bites of his eggs, heehee!  ;)