So Long Bluebonnet and Dandelion, we won't miss you!

I love my Matilda Jane girls!  They looked so cute dressed up for church that I had to snap this picture, the best I could do…and yes, Jacob in the background didn’t want his picture made in his “fancy” (AKA a shirt with a collar) shirt .

It has been another busy week.  I ended up taking Gwyn to the Dr early in the week, and after being there 4 hours, it was determined that she had a viral throat infection, so do nothing unless it gets worse, which, thankfully, it didn't.  Imagine trying to contain Annie for 4 hours in a Dr office, where whenever we went back to the back, memories from the previous week's vaccinations came roaring back to her.  At one point, I had to put Annie in the stroller, and hold Gwyn down to let the Dr look in her ears, throat, and do the strep test.  Both were screaming bloody murder, so much so, that when the Dr left, I was holding Gwyn and rolling the stroller back and forth, and they both passed out from exhaustion for a glorious 15 minutes until we were finally able to go home.  We were able to do some fun things this week, Annie and I went to breakfast with some friends for my book group one day while Jacob and Gwyn were in school, Brian was able to go to Kindergarten round-up at Jacob's school for next year (so impressed and excited about his school!), and Brian and I were able to get a much needed date night on Saturday night, followed by Sunday afternoon having Brian's grandpa and his brother stop in from St. Louis on their way to San Antonio.  It was great to visit with them, and Brian's cousin, Ange was able to come over too.  Brian and I love to hear his Grandpa talk about how things have changed since he has been alive, how amazing that the first house he bought was less than $11,000!  

Oh, and an update on Gwyn, who I really expected to be a dance-school drop out this week...she did GREAT this week, and even cried on the way out because she didn't want to leave!  I was proud of her. She did great, they do 15 minutes of ballet, a 15 minutes of tap, and then 30 minutes of gymnastics, she loves it and was having so much fun.  Jacob can take books, stickers, toys to play with while we wait, and there are several other brothers waiting on their sisters.  Annie goes absolutely nuts running all around.  This week, she was constantly going after everyones shoes in these cubbies.  I'd have to run over there, get the shoes from her, and then put them back.  She was squealing, running from me and thought it was the funnest game.  After about 30 minutes of me running back and forth (all the while attempting to have a conversation with another mom), this little girl went over and moved all the shoes up two rows, so that Annie couldn't reach them...I thought (while I'm dripping with sweat), why didn't I think of that 30 minutes ago!  As we were leaving, the director said they had classes for toddlers Annie's age, and I just said, no thanks, I doubt you could control her!  

I made the never-to-be-made-mistake-again of signing up to babysit the birds from Jacob and Gwyn's preschool for the weekend.  They were AWFUL!  So loud and annoying, chirping non-stop until we put the blanket over their cage for them to go to bed (which I admit to doing on night at 5 pm because I couldn't stand the noise!).  Their names were Bluebonnet and Dandelion.  Bluebonnet was mean and the kids were constantly telling on him for pecking Dandelion.  Poor birds, we hope to never see you again (well, Annie did enjoy them!).

Another fun week of visiting a couple of different parks, including visiting Hermann Park out by the zoo on our "Fun Day Friday."  I've been trying to do something extra fun on Fridays, since this is my last year with Jacob home with us.  He is in preschool Monday-Thursday, so I try to make Friday extra special.  This park has ducks to feed, a huge playground, walking trails, and a train ride.  Jacob told Gwyn that this is a REAL train, not just a fake one.  Here are a few pictures from that trip.  Jacob teaching Annie how to chase after ducks:

 Gwyn, who had gotten into my eye shadow that morning and wanted to look like a cat...I think she did a pretty good job considering she didn't even have a mirror.

 Jacob, for once, standing still so that I could take his picture:

 Gwyn, who still LOVES to go down "super fast" slides.  She will try out all the slides, then determine which on is the fastest, and then go up and down it continuously:

 Annie, who practically attempts to run down slides.  Notice her leg is soaked.  She went down a slide that was wet with dew before I could get to her...she was soaked, but hey, she cleaned the slide for everyone else!

 Gwyn and her little friend Lauren, so sweet holding hands on the way to the train:

 Waiting on the train!

The kids are really saying some sweet prayers.  Brian and I take turns putting to them to bed each night, and it is just a really sweet time in hearing their prayers.  They will pray for people when they are sick, they pray that Annie and Mommy sleep good, and Jacob likes to pray for everyone in our family and everyone not in our family (that just about covers it!).  Gwyn likes to pray that God “blesses our hearts” or “help keep our hearts happy.” Of course, you can’t help but smile when they pray for things like, “thank you for Mommy bringing home that candy for Daddy so we can all have some tomorrow” or “thank you for Star Wars.”

Annie is continuing her path of destruction and can now climb onto the couch and the kitchen table by herself.  This has become a huge problem, since the kids like to do a craft or drawing up at the table most every afternoon.  Annie wants to be right in the middle of everything, so she just climbs right up and jumps right in.  Brian came home one day and Annie was on top of the kitchen table with markers drawing all over her legs.  He kind of freaked out and thought I wasn’t watching.  I told him that yes, I had spent at least 30 minutes going back and forth trying to keep her down, but then saw that she was in the middle of the table and pretty content with just marking her legs up (with of course washable markers that would come off in the bath later), and since she was in one place, I could make dinner in relative peace!  He agreed it wasn’t too bad of an idea, I think mainly because he was hungry!  Brian says that Annie pretty much requires a dedicated person to follow her around during the day to constantly clean up her path of destruction.  She also now thinks it is so funny to take off her shoes.  She can get them off before we even get out the door, even if it is the last thing I do before grabbing my purse.  She also takes them off, as well as her socks, during the car ride to school, so I spend and estimated 30 minutes every day putting her shoes on, over and over again!

Gwyn has now mastered her coveted Dora puzzle all by herself.  She is so proud and works it at least 3-4 times per day:

If you think I'm joking about what a handful Annie is, here is an example of Gwyn sitting quietly "reading" to herself in the waiting room during Speech:

And here is Annie, who is like a mad person getting books out, climbing up on things, standing on things, digging into my purse, etc:

Funny things the kids said this week:

Jacob (who loves gum now): You should try it Gwyn, gum has juice in it.

Gwyn:  What kind of juice?

Jacob:  Gum juice, it is good!

Jacob:  Why don't the birds eat the apples we gave them?

Me:  I guess they aren't hungry now.

Jacob:  Do you think that they think it is a poison apple? (um, no)

Jacob:  Mommy, P and R are kind of the same except R has that extra line coming down.

Me:  Yes, I guess they are kind of related.

Jacob:  Like cousins??

Gwyn:  Why do you have that on your face (talking to me about makeup)?

Gwyn (later that day):  Where did your make up go??

Gwyn:  Mommy, is underpants potty talk?

Me:  Kind of, yes, we don't need to be talking about underpants.

Gwyn:  OK, Jacob said it.  (she is now getting technical about tattling!)

Gwyn:  Bum, bottom, bottom bum.

Me:  Gwyn, no potty talk.

Gwyn:  But Mommy, I'm 3 now, I'm a big girl, so I can say potty talk.  (um, no.)

Brian to Jacob before bed:  You are really lucky, you have 2 little sisters.  Some little boys don't have any sisters at all, and you are so lucky that you have 2!

Jacob (getting upset):  Does that mean we have to give one back?