you know you are desperate when...

you find yourself in the children's bathroom with one square of toilet paper left and your only option is asking an 18 month old to bring you more.  you are impressed when (after bringing a bag of wipes first) she actually got it from under the sink and brought it to me!

surprise

my sister, along with my niece and nephew, came to town to surprise our mom for her birthday. mom thought she was coming over for dinner with just our family, but when she arrived all the grandchildren had a little show ready! they were dressed up in my great-grandmother's clothes and some old wigs... they looked hilarious. they each had a sign from the song "happy birthday to you" which they held up when that word was sung. it was very cute. mom was completely surprised when she walked into the room and the children started singing.

m2 woke up from her nap a few minutes before the arrival of grammy and granddaddy. when jd brought her downstairs she was greeted by the sight of all of the costumes and wigs and completely lost it! they had to take off their wigs before she started to settle down. after the show the children made home-made pizza and salad. sister and i completely caught mom off guard... normally she can figure out when something is going on. we were glad to surprise her and happy that the children had fun performing for her. happy birthday, mom!

18 months

m2 had her 18 month appointment recently. she is in the 70% for both height and weight and has some serious thighs. dr. paige adores her and thinks she is doing great ~ with the exception of one area ~ language. not sure if it is a "i am the third child so i will stomp and point to get what i want" type of thing or something more serious. for now we are trying to work on that more intently. she is a complete joy to have with me during the day!

• she wakes up laughing
• she adores her big brother and likes dancing with her sister
• talks all day long without saying anything (all.day.long. & she prefers eye-contact)
• enjoys sitting in the rocking chair reading a book
• loves to play with the kitchen set
• can play independently or with others
• doesn't go anywhere without her dolly (dawdaw)
• enjoys playing the piano and singing
• can say the following words ~ dada, um, toe, ahm (arm) daw-daw (doll-doll) notice the lack of mama, she just wraps her chubby arms around my leg to get my attention
• can sign the words ~ more, milk, please, eat (has known them for a while but they come in handy with her lack of vocabulary)
• knows most of her body parts
• if you ask her a question she will say "uuuummmm" like she is searching for the answer
• runs for the door when she hears daddy come home
• will "discipline" little man and m1 ~ i was fussing a few weeks ago about them not putting their backpacks up after homework was complete... after all they have been in school over nine weeks now. when i was done, m2 took over "dadadada nanana bebebe dududu" she even pointed to the hall closet where their backpacks should have been.

he's a part of the family too

little man just asked jesus into his heart. he crawled out of the fort he was sleeping in about thirty minutes ago and asked me if he could accept jesus into his heart. we walked hand in hand to find daddy.  jd asked him several questions and he answered them and had a few questions of his own. he then repeated a prayer after john david.  m1 was excited and tried to be a part of it also, but we sent her to the other room so we could have some private time.  she fell asleep while waiting but woke up briefly for little man to tell her the great news. "you did what to your foot?" was her response. i guess she was still a bit groggy...

p.s. he doesn't always sleep in a fort! we are on day three of the children being home from school due to the rain and hurricane like weather. yesterday he and m1 built a fort and they are sleeping in their sleeping bags underneath.

great wolf lodge

the children were out of school last friday for a teacher workday so the family headed up to the great wolf lodge on thursday afternoon. we were overdue for some immediate family time... lots of distractions lately. the park was just about empty thursday night and most of the day on friday. this was a great trip and we all had a fantastic time. little man and m1 had fun playing with each other, and the fort provided hours of fun for them. jd and i took turns with m2 so we were able to spend lots of time with all the children.