One on One

Jon and I are trying to spend one on one time with the children. This past weekend I managed to spend some time with each child by him or herself. Saturday, I took Ella on a couple errands then we went to a nearby park. It was a surprisingly sunny day, so that was nice. Ella enjoyed playing on the swings, a digger and playing a bit of hide and seek. Pics of that day here.


Before that though, while Ben & Ella were in their music class (and after Nicholas had his), I took Nicholas to another park. At the park, we saw little baby ducks. At one point, we couldn't find the babies and Nicholas yelled out "DUCKS! WHERE ARE YOU?!?" It was quite cute. There are also pics of that on flickr.

The next day, I took Benjamin on an errand to Costco, but after shopping, we sat at the food court and had a smoothie. He told me all about what he wanted for his birthday, including a train pinata (very excited to tell me this). We definitely need to get a pinata as Ella didn't get to pull the pinata at a friend's birthday party and she was very upset by this.

In other news, I accidentally drove on our front yard a little bit when coming home yesterday. I told Benjamin what I did and he then told Jon when he came home. He told me when we were leaving to go to the beach last night that I should drive off the grass.

Nicholas will tell us all the time he wants to do things by himself - he says 'by. my. self!" So we let him and about 10 seconds later, he asks for our help. Apparently, this morning he wanted to pick out his own shirt today. My little baby is growing up. I am not looking forward to potty training though. I feel like I am still working on that with Ella, I can't imagine starting on Nicholas yet. I guess I will have to at some point though. Ella tells me that she will not poo in her underwear on June 12 (their 4th birthday). I look forward to that day.

At our church, they have a segment of the service called "time for young disciples". Usually, one of us will walk up with the twins (Nicholas is usually in the nursery still, but not for much longer!) toward the front. Well, on Sunday, I tried something new. I told them they would go up with our friend Leena and I would then meet them at the front. Well, Benjamin FREAKED out as he wasn't quite sure where I was. I guess that experiment failed. Makes me wonder how much my kids will freak out when they start kindergarten with brand new adults and kids. I guess we have another year before that happens - maybe they will be more independent by then.

"I'm Sleeping!"

Last night, my little 2 year old, Nicholas, decided he wasn't tired though it was 10 p.m. He came out to the livingroom and was resting with Jon on the couch. I came out to the livingroom and Nicholas exlaims "I'm sleeping, mommy!" Yep, it definitely looks like it Nicholas. Silly boy.

I went to bed before he did.

Surpisingly, both Ben & Ella stayed in their beds last night.

Now that Benjamin has figured out how to pedal his little bike (they have training wheels on), that is all he wants to do. We need more sunny days! Do you hear that mother nature?

Nicholas is also wanting to do everything by himself these days. You try to help him and he yells out "no! Myself!" He's becoming a big boy.

Ben & Ella are looking forward to their birthday. They know that their birthday is on June 12. Ella tells me that when she turns 4, she won't go poo in her underwear anymore (she's still afraid of going poo in the potty). I hope so. At some point soon, we need to potty train Nicholas. I am not looking forward to it as he seems as stubborn about it as Ella.

I can't think of anything else, so I guess that is it for now.

Old Phone Message

I had an old phone message on my old phone at work that I had to delete. It was Benjamin singing "I see blue" over and over again and when Jon
comes back with the phone, Benjamin yelled "no!" at Jon.

I think this was about the time I went back to work after having Nicholas - so the twins would have been nearly 2.

Mother's Day 2011

Well, this Mother's Day seemed rather hectic and a little laid back at the same time.

I woke up that morning, got the kids ready for church and myself. We went to church, then out to lunch. After lunch, Jon took the kids to the park then came home shortly thereafter so he could go into work. When he came back, I was in the process of finally converting the crib into a toddler bed for Nicholas. Ben & Ella were excited by this and eventually, so was Nicholas. After that was done, Jon took the kids shopping and brought me some chocolates - which they wanted to open right away. By this time, it was 9 p.m. and they had just had some ice cream at McDonald's (it looked like) so they didn't need it. They were not thrilled. Bedtime felt extremely rushed. Ella fell asleep right away since she didn't have a nap that day. The boys took a little more coaxing. You would think Nicholas would fall asleep right away since he didn't take a nap but he didn't. Benjamin had a nap but was only upset that we didn't keep the nightlight on so he could read his book. I want to encourage book reading, but they really needed to go to bed by this point.

So that was my day this year.

In other topics - Nicholas got up at 5 a.m. this morning and went out to the livingroom (he can open his bedroom door now) and said "where's papa? I do not know." You'll have to imagine the cuteness as he said this. He came into our room and I lifted him to our bed. He quickly fell back asleep.

The other day at the park, the twins were swinging (Nicholas hates the swing for some reason - did I put him in the swing too much as a baby?). A woman asked "what are your names? Ella yells out "I'm Ella!" Benjamin yells out "I'm Benjamin!...We're 3!!!.... and we're TWINS!!!" It was quite funny.

The favorite phrase for Nicholas to say these days is to announce "that's my mom!" So cute! And he comes running to me every time he sees me after I've been gone - even if I've only been gone for a couple minutes. So sweet!

Have I mentioned that I seemed to have had an ulcer? It seems to have mended itself a bit though I sometimes feel it every so often. I don't like those.