rockin' video #2: lucy rocks her abc's

lucy loves to sing. her repertoire isn't great, and her pitch is more than a little off, but she needs little encouragement to break into twinkle twinkle or another of her favorites. after we tuck her in at night we will often hear her little voice singing tunes to herself in bed. john and i make up songs for her a lot, so my favorites are when she sings about one of her stuffed animals, or being a princess, or things she happens to be looking at that moment. for christmas she got a pink guitar, which she loves, from her aunt lisa, and will often use it to accompany her. she really does know how to hold it correctly, but for some reason in this video she insists on strumming it with two fingers. she also doesn't really sing here as much as recite to her playing...

pacific science center bugs

john's dad got a fabulous pass to the pacific science center for the year and we've been able to enjoy many happy times there. lucy, jett, and i went this week with a group of friends and had, yet again, a great adventure. lucy loved it all. she's such a ball of energy that if she can go, she does. she especially seemed to be enamored by the insect/bug exhibit.

lucy has her shy moments, but her fascination with this hissing madagascar cockroach sent them all by the wayside. of the group of kids we were with, a majority being slightly older boys, lucy was the first to march up to pet this "sweet" creature.


one of my favorite things at the museum is the butterfly room; there is a glass case of cocoons which i especially love. i should have gotten a picture, but the cocoons are so amazingly crusty decayish looking and yet the shapes and colors of them are as unique and beautiful as the butterflies they are en-crusting. one looked as if it had been gold leafed and burnished. amazing.
in this picture i think lucy is trying to convince the butterfly to perch on her fingers.

and my favorite butterfly!

jett had a great time too. he crawls around everywhere and looks cute. he really really really (as lucy would say) liked the water play area. unfortunately, the protective smocks were longer than he is. luckily he couldn't reach high enough to splash himself too much.

ohhh! bright colored buttons that make noises!

here are some great shots from past science center adventures too-

lucy and isadora looking awfully cute in their matching leggings
(unplanned- believe it or not).

captain cousins in the cock pit.

the effect of the over-sized chair and table looses its effect on jetty.
everything is huge compared to him!

lucy loves her papa, and we love having him along to chase after her.
and for his fabulous company of course.

and the whole family in the crazy mirrors.
the one that makes me look super tall and thin was disturbingly pleasing.

jett: the family dog

lucy was never one to put things in her mouth. we never had to worry about small things around the house with her because she just did not explore her world through taste. jett is a different matter. we call him the family dog because:


1) he chews on anything and everything. he was crawling around in sunday school a couple of weeks ago, and as he meandered past the rolling chalkboard he looked over and saw something of interest. it was the head of a screw attaching a caster to the chalkboard. so, like every sane toddler should do, he just opens his mouth, sucks on it for a second, and then keeps crawling on.


2) he carries things around in his mouth. and by things, i mean anything he can fit:

wood utensils

stuffed animals

various bottles
(though he looks like he might not be enjoying this one as much)

anything from lucy's kitchen
(this is a piece of wood bread)

3) he begs for food. it doesn't matter what we are eating he wants it. we don't even give him most of what we eat, but he still tries. john gave me a box of see's chocolates for valentine's day (i love that guy!) and if i even go near the box jett starts crawling over, climbs up my leg, and starts begging, yelling, and when that doesn't work screaming.

first he tries the looking pathetically hungry technique

then he moves on to the i'm never going to be happy again
until you let me try whatever it is you're eating stance

we do love the kid, and in the end he is just a joy. though while i was typing this i turned around to find that he has discovered the toilet paper in the bathroom. the whole roll was on the floor, and yes, part of it was in his mouth.

rockin' video #1

here is our princess. a bit rough and tumble, a bit pirate loving, but never-the-less our rainbow, pony, flower obsessed, dress wearing, purse carrying, girly-girl. for instance, she has a drawer full of pajamas that she now refuses to wear. last week i coerced her into wearing a matching pair that i had gotten for her and jett. (something involving bribes and white lies...i'm not really proud). we woke up to her screaming in the middle of the night. sitting by her bed i gently asked her what was wrong, ready to soothe her back to sleep. she sobs, "mommy", sniff sniff sniff, "i want to be a princess", sniff sniff sniff, "i want my nightgown!"... the princess wins. to our pleasure, however, she still has her days when she wants to wear all black like daddy. to her pleasure, this means a stinkin' cute black knit dress with black leggings and shiny black "princess" shoes.

we make banana muffins

so, i figure this is as good of a place to start as any. lucy, jett, and i made banana chocolate chip muffins. lately i feel as though we've had one of those life spurts; all of a sudden lucy is a little girl telling me about how much she likes flowers, and rainbows, and puppies, and ponies. and jett is saying "mama mama mama" following me around the house. all this growing up goes on and on whether i do anything about it or not. i say this because i noticed, as we were deep in muffin making, that lucy was actually helping, instead of just "helping".

the only reason i buy the large bunches of costco bananas... so that half of them can go bad and i can make goodies! lucy peeled these herself and attempted the mashing.

lucy's favorite part of kitchen help. she is really very excited about the chocolate. in later years when she discovers she can pair it with a pepsi she'll have true bliss. (blame my mom)


the finished product! lucy is pointing at the one she wants; the muffin with the most visible chocolate. that's my girl!

ahhh! "delicious"!

whoops... looks like someone else is enjoying the chocolaty goodness. a stray chip found it's way into jett's mouth... doesn't look so guilty to me.

i hate to say it but john was pleasantly pleased to find fresh baked goodies when he came home from work that day... probably says something about my domestic-less-than-perfectedness. so here is my domestic goal: if i can't have part of the house in reasonable order, at least have something delicious in the kitchen. this week i made oatmeal cookies and vacuumed out the seat cushions of the sofa. we're doing good!