Munchkin Funnies: Talkin' Tummy

This morning--

MJ: "My tummy's talkin' to me." (Most of what she says is even funnier if you see how she says it--sorry--can't depict that part in writing :) )

Me: "What's it saying?"

MJ: "It's hungry--but I'm not hungry--I wanna pway with my dolls." :)

4 Years Old!!

Our sweet Mikaela Joycakies turned 4 years old today! I can't believe it's already been 4 years; it's good and bad--I enjoy seeing her new stages in life, but it would be nice if each year would just last a little longer :)

Some of our big goals with Mikaela this past year was to do LOTS of training, learning how to read, lots of Bible verses, counting, and quite a bit of other stuff that I just can't even think of right now. She's becoming quite the proficient reader (and speller, as I learned tonight when she started spelling all kinds of 3-letter-words for me and even a couple of longer words--I was kind of taken by surprise--pleasantly, of course--do we see years of Spelling Bees in our future??! :) )

As for today, MJ helped me make some chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast; she opened up a few more gifts that we didn't give her the day of the party; they played for a little while. Then it was off to a park in League City to take some birthday pics of my little princess :) Can't have a birthday w/o taking some pics, right? Well, it was pretty toasty outside, and she was only wanting to cooperate for about 15 mins anyway--perfect :) Then we stopped off at Sonic for a grilled cheese sandwich and slush and were off to the Millers' house (where the Browns are also staying right now). Poor MJ couldn't get it out of her head that all her friends weren't coming over today for her party, even though we kept telling her she already had her party--so we decided to take HER to some friends' house for a little while :) When we got home, another friend had left a little goodie bag on our door for her--what a nice surprise! She wanted pizza for dinner, so pizza it was. Overall, I think she had a fun day!

Hmmmm

Me: Elijah, what movie do you want to watch?
EM: (pointing at all his options) "Hmmmm" (sometimes he even taps his mouth with his pointer finger when he does this; he says this to many other questions he's asked too) :)

5 Months

Our little Kerith Love is 5 months today!! I can't believe it's already been that long! My little "cutest pie" is just that, although, for the past month or so she has decided that sleeping 8-10 hours at night is just not her cup of tea. We thought we might actually have this cute little baby that also lets us sleep at night, but it looks like she was just teasing us those first few months :) So right now, we are pretty tired parents, but God did give us a wonderful little 8-hour night a couple of nights ago to let us catch up a tiny bit :)

And MJ LOVES her little sis! She is so cute with her and thinks she's just the cutest baby in the whole wide world :) It's so sweet to hear her talk to her, telling her all the things she hears me say to her. And KL loves her sis too--somehow, MJ can almost always manage to make her laugh out loud--MJ's definitely funnier than Mommy--I get lots of smiles, but MJ gets the laughs :)

So about three or four weeks ago, I posted a video of KL spitting. I love it when babies start doing all their cute little baby things, so I was excited. Well over the next few days, I noticed she really only did it when I put her on the potty. When I put my kids on the potty, I always say, "pssss." So I started wondering if that was her way of copying me to make that sound. For the past 3 weeks now, I have tested her out. I don't catch it every time, but the girl spits to tell me when she needs to go to the potty! Sometimes she's telling me she needs to go, and other times she's telling me she IS going :) It's so cool--I didn't think any of my babies would ever really tell me this young. The only problem per se is that she spits A LOT b/c even if she's just passing gas, she'll spit (and she's got a lot of gas :) ). Then, there are times like today in church when I'm trying to ignore her spitting, but she just kept spitting louder and louder as if to say, "Mom, I really have to go!" So I took her, and sure enough, she let loose :) Now, she has also spit in the wee hours of the morning after having nursed, to which I'm like, "Sorry kid, you're just gonna have to go in your diaper right now." :) We'll see if she continues to do this--I'm not ready to get my hopes up quite yet, but I'm definitely going to enjoy it for now. And after she goes, she looks up at me smiling, waiting for me to tell her, "Good job, Kerith!" to which she smiles even bigger :)

Baby Addison

A friend of ours is due to have a baby girl in November. Well, Mikaela knows her name is Addison Grace, so the other day she had her brown baby and told me her name is Addison. Keep in mind that this baby has been called "brown baby" for a couple of years now, so it's actually kind of weird for her to have some other name. So, if you don't want someone to steal your baby name, don't tell MJ, b/c she doesn't have a problem taking other people's names and using them for her own babies :)

Then before we went to Walmart today, she asked if she could bring Addison with us. She kind of laughed and told me Addison was pulling her hair :) Then next thing I know, she told me Addison had to go potty--everyone else was made to go before we left--why not Addison? :) Eric told me to look, and the pictures above are what we saw--she was actually sitting with her the way I do with Kerith (not that both she and EM haven't ever pottied their babies before, but she's never sat on the potty like this with them) :) I guess she's going to potty her babies too :)

Brag Time

Well, I figured it's ok to brag--as long as you're bragging on someone else and not yourself--right? Anyway, I'm just very thankful for my wonderful hubby right now. We just got back from Walmart, and I'm sooo grateful that for the past few months (since before Kerith was born), he has chosen to go with me. Yes, I can do it by myself, and the self-sufficient part of me says I can do it on my own, but it is 10 times easier when he goes with me (and it's a couple more hours that we get to be together :) ). He figured if we're going to keep having these cute little kids, then he's just going to have to come with me :) And then when we got home, he put up almost all the groceries, unloaded the dishwasher, loaded it and washed the other things that don't go in the dishwasher (all without me even asking him!). I think he pretty much rocks and am so blessed God chose him for me :)

Maroon = "Mine Woom"

MJ: "Mom, is this ring maroon?"
EM: "Mine woom!!" (as he points to his room) :)

MJ "Mobying" Her Baby

MJ's Princess Dress-Up Birthday Party

On Sunday, we celebrated Mikaela's upcoming 4th birthday. I actually hadn't planned on having a party per se, but she is very into birthday parties and requested a princess dress-up birthday party, so we scrambled and got a party together :) We got tutus, shoes, bracelets, crowns and earrings from the dollar store. But it turned out that the other two little girls who were able to come brought their own beautiful princess dresses. So once MJ saw them in theirs, her little tutu wasn't going to cut it :) So she donned the dress given to her by Aunt Kelli and let Amelia wear the blue Cinderella dress. She really wanted to wear this other dress, which she has literally torn to shreds, but she loves it and is constantly telling me that we need to get "your mom" to fix it :)

So the party turned out to be a lot of fun. Auntie Monica and Alyssa painted all the girls' faces, which they LOVED. Monica asked me for some pictures of the Disney princesses so she'd have something to go by, and I told her, "Oh they're not going to want princesses--they're just going to want stars or hearts or things like that. Just ask them what they want." So here goes MJ--"Mikaela, what do you want on your face?" "I want Belle." :) Good thing Monica is a pretty good artist b/c it would have taken me MUCH longer to do what she did. And, of course, all the other girls ended up wanting Belle on their faces too :) So Monica painted Belle, and Alyssa painted castles on their other cheeks :)

Then we read the story "The True Princess" and tried to talk a little bit about what it means to be a princess on the inside and what Jesus looks at in us. Then we made "character sticks" (no, they are NOT wands :) ) and put a Bible verse they wanted that would remind them how Jesus wants them to act.

After that, they made necklaces with some fun beads and string. I also had these really pretty wooden beads that NONE of the little girls used. Well, after taking the girls' pics, when I came back in, all the big girls had used them to make their own necklaces and bracelets :)

While we were having fun inside, all the little boys were having a blast outside playing with toys and swimming in the kiddie pool. So it appears fun was had by all, but we were some pretty pooped parents by the end of the day :)

Munchkin Funnies

Interrupting for a quick post...This is for my friend Jo, who is having withdrawals from a lack of posts :) Sorry, but I've been a busy bee the past couple of weeks working on a math project and getting ready for MJ's party that we had this past Sunday. So this is all my brain can remember right now--will post more if anything else comes to mind :)
________________

MJ: I'm so very exciting about my party (with all her funny body language that goes along with her talking)!

Me: I'm very excitED.

MJ: I'm so excitED about my party!! I'm gonna wuv it soo much!
________________

The past 3 weeks, MJ and EM have gone to friends' houses 2-3 days out of the week so I can work on my project. One of the families' last names is Crews.

EM: (to Mrs. Crews) Coos, paw-ee! (Mrs. Crews, I have to go potty.)

She informed me that half the time he calls her Coos, and the other times he calls her Mom :)

I think that out of the three families, Crews is the only name that he can come pretty close to saying, so many times, if we're going somewhere now, he'll ask, "Coos house?"

Mikaela Funnies

As I was fixing MJ's hair, I saw a little speck of something that I was trying to get out.

MJ: What was that?
Me: I don't know.
MJ: A gray hair?
_________________

Mikaela took a "bite" of her pretend green apple and then fell on the floor.
MJ: That's Snow White!
_________________

After having seen some of the goodies we're going to have for her birthday party, she later told Eric, "We have tutus and shoes and bracewets, ... and earrings. Oh no, I don't have any holes for the earrings! I need some holes in my ears." :) :)

How Kerith Got to Swim After Getting Tired of the Float

Eww--Stinky!!

Sad/Happy

Kerith just rolled over from her back to her tummy for the first time, and I missed it! She started fussing so I looked over, and she was on her tummy--too bad she doesn't realize she knows how to go the other way too :) If I'm ever able to get a video of either direction, I'll post it :)

Kerith Working Herself to Sleep With Her Blankie

Me waking her up with the flash--oops :)

Tuckered Out