mmmmm biscuits!

fall crafts!

malloy's tree

'

rex's tree

malloy stayed home from school today :( she has a runny nose and it was making her cough constantly. i was so sad to not send her!! she handled it pretty well, but was disappointed for sure. i promised we could do art to make up for her missing it at school. they had a great time painting their trees!
after malloy's nap, she wanted to lay in my bed and snuggle. so we laid in bed and watched some  nickelodeon. i ended up falling asleep for about a half hour - she clearly didn't care and woke me up when she decided it was time to go do something else. she's such a sweetie.
malloy did great with the bedtime checklist and went right to bed - she waited until we got completely downstairs to start in with her stalling. she was yelling that she had to go potty and then wanted her blankets put on her, etc. we just need to be no nonsense and consistent and she'll get over it soon - i hope...

bed time was not as successful as last night. there were no tears, but she did yell that she had to go potty and then that she was awake and to come get her. we'll try again tomorrow night and pump her up for the checklist and going to bed!

rex's name is behind the glare

playing in the waiting room at the dentist

the kids had their first dentist appointment today! they loved the place as soon as they walked in!! there was a train table, play kitchen, movie theater, video game room, and balloons!!! malloy kept asking if it was time to see the dentist - she was so excited! once she was in the exam room, she kept asking if she could go back and play in the "living room". she did great letting the hygienist, marcia, clean her teeth. she just counted her teeth and then brushed them with a toothbrush and wiped them clean. malloy sat with her legs around me laying with her back on marcia. then it was rex's turn! he was not as cooperative. which was expected! he resisted a little bit, but then stopped as soon his teeth were being brushed. he did much better than i thought he would, considering he woke up at 5:20 this morning! then it was time for the dentist to come in - he was loud and energetic. rex didn't really like him and put up a fight when he was getting his teeth looked at. malloy did great with him! while dr. mike was look at malloy's teeth he said "one, two, buckle my shoe, three, four, we're gonna need braces (i laughed), five, six, i'm not kidding." so turns out malloy has the same mouth as her mama! her palate is very high and narrow and her top teeth don't fit over her bottoms like they should. she's got a cross bite at the moment. nothing that can be done until she's about 8. not surprising news! other than that, their teeth and gums look nice and healthy!

let me start by saying the checklist worked!!! at least for tonight!!! she only called out once and it was just because she wanted to make sure that neal told me she did a great job at bedtime and she got all of her checks - i can't really get mad at that!! she was so proud of herself!!
backtracking...malloy had another great day at school!! a co-oping mom came out after class and told me that malloy and her daughter were holding little conversations about squinkies and such and that between the two of them they're ruling the roost - so cute!! so glad she has a peer at her level in her class!
while malloy was at school, i took rex to story time at Barnes and Noble. i used to take malloy when she was rex's age. she would sit so nice, sing all the songs, and listen to the story. rex did none of the above. i was sweating - dripping- when we left!! he was so excited and overwhelmed. when we got there we played at the train table and all of the toys surrounding that area. then, during story time, he was ALL over the place. stopping only when everyone was singing to get up on his knees, wave his arms frantically in the air, and yell (he was very excited to be there) while turning red and sweaty. after story time was over, he crawled over to the thousands of little stuffed animals, screaming "DOG, DOG, DOG, DOG, DOG, DOOOOOOOG. DOG, DOG. DOG. DOOOG!" he secured two dogs and then crawled around with them in his hands (this is why i'll never buy a stuffed animal from that place). when it was time to leave, i had to pry a dog out of his hands and he lost it. trying to buck out of my arms, wailing, with huge crocodile tears!!!! he has quite the little crazy streak - definitely my kid! i have definitely been known to run around all red, sweaty, and yelling enthusiastically and then flipping out crying over something at the turn of a hat...

dancing with the mushrooms on fantasia :) this is what she does right before bed! and i wonder why she's been having trouble falling asleep!!!

we had a fun day apple picking with friends and playing in the leaves! it felt funny doing both these things the kids had so much fun that rex didn't want to nap and malloy didn't want to go to bed! i feel like i was just saying how much i love that the kids just go to bed!! how quickly routines change!!! i made a sticker chart for malloy and thought it would work - it did NOT! hopefully tweaking a few things at bedtime will nip this VERY soon!!! malloy is a very persistent little girl!!

rocking the jeggings!

wearing red, white, and blue for the Bills!!

helping squeeze the skins of the grapes for the pie!

she took her job very seriously

she's a natural :)

of course we need to have a few tastes!!

playing with chalk while listening to the Bills game

 

 

 

 

what a busy day!!! the kids and i played up in malloy's room when they got up this morning so that neal could get some extra sleep - he came home in the wee hours of the morning. i brought some kix, dried cherries, and milk to munch on. the kids loved it!! they thought it was so fun to have a "picnic" in malloy's room. neal came up after an hour`- he said that he couldn't sleep because he wanted to come play with the kids. such a good daddy!!! i can only hope that rex will grow up to be just like him and malloy will find someone just as great. i had to pry the kids away from neal and take them to wegman's! we got a football at the store and malloy was so excited to go home and play catch with her daddy! rex wanted to eat it.
after nap, malloy helped me squeeze the skins off of the grapes that we got from aunt sue at the farmer's market yesterday. she did such a great job. then we rolled out the pie crust, mixed the filling together, and poured in the the crust. next year, malloy will be making the entire pie by herself! after helping with the pie, malloy went outside to play with rex and neal. they played sidewalk chalk and on the deck while listening to the Bills game on the radio (it was an exciting game and we won!!! 3-0 isn't a bad start to the season!!). rex learned how to climb up on and get down from the picnic table and climb up the slide. he is fearless!!!
you'd think that after such a busy day and all the outside play, malloy would be exhausted and go right to sleep. NOPE - she's started a lovely new game of stalling at bedtime!! "i have to go potty one more time. sing me one more song. i need a different pink. put my blanket back on..." it's SO frustrating!! it's the 3rd or 4th night in a row - ugh!! it's time to start a behavior chart!!

neal left this afternoon to hang out with some friends. i decided spur of the moment to take the kids to mcdonald's for dinner. it was the first time we've ever gone to a fast food place for dinner and the first time that i've taken the kids out on my own. they did great and ate their entire meal (they love apple dippers!!!) and loved being somewhere different!

malloy kept chewing on on a balloon and i kept asking her to please stop chewing on it. she looks up at me and says "i'm closing my eyes so you can't see me chewing on it."  if only it worked like that...

we made the most of our rainy afternoon playing with popcorn kernels and rice...

 ...and balancing things on our heads!!!

i need to start making a list of things that my kids do that make me smile, i shall call it The Smile List:

1.  rex crawls around and wags his head from side to side looking like a chinese dragon
2. malloy requests an apple for snack then proceeds to eat the entire thing, including the core
3. malloy describes her poops in terms of family members - for instance: "look! i made a big daddy poop and a teeny little baby poop!"

my cute little school girl

 

 

 

malloy had another great day at school! her teacher told me that she's her little helper and would love to have her there all week long :) she's keeping the kids in check and telling them what they should or shouldn't do. no idea where she gets that from! ;) while malloy was at school, i cleaned the bathroom and got to have some one on one time with rex!
while i was putting rex down for nap, i heard the gate at the bottom of the stairs being tampered with. i opened rex's door and malloy's standing there at the top of the stairs with her new owl winter hat and 2 mismatched mittens with the thumbs pointed in opposite directions - it was hard for me to not burst out laughing!!! she's such a kook!

we had a fun day today! this morning we went to the zoo! it was the first time that i did something alone with the kids (besides grocery shopping) and i enjoyed it so much! malloy loved walked around the zoo and getting all my attention. rex loved riding in the wagon and thought the animals were fascinating! he would just watch each animal so intently. they were both so cute! when malloy got up from nap, she helped me stamp all of the book orders for school - such a good helper! before we went to the gym, the kids both had a snack while i made dinner and did the dishes. rex was done with his peaches and wanted malloy's yogurt so bad. she told me she was done, but still had half a yogurt left, so i decided to see how malloy feeding rex yogurt would go. it was a hit!!! malloy loved feeding him and rex loved that she was feeding him!!! i LOVE my kids!!!
rex learned a new word today - he was pointing to some birds when we were leaving the gym so i told him they were birds. he then said "bir" and pointed to some more birds :) he's learning so much right now and he is constantly surprising me!! my phone beeped and rex put his hand up to his ear and said "ho?" such a smartie!

malloy had a longer school day today. i walked her to her classroom and off she went! no kisses, no good-bye!! she was ready to start her day! rex and i ran some errands while malloy was in school and i made the kids' first dentist appointments in the van while rex shoved yogurt raisins under his butt in the car seat. malloy had a huge smile on her face when she came out of the classroom and told me a bit about her day. she told me that she painted with mark, they read a book about making new friends, and danced to shake your sillies out. this afternoon, we played at the playground. malloy can now climb on everything all on her own and is going down the slides by herself. it was the first time that she played on the playground without needing any help!! rex was also all over the playground giving me mini-heart attacks every 5 seconds! he is so daring and has no fear of getting hurt. we all had a good time and went home HUNGRY and sleepy.

snippets of our day:

• i was doing dishes in the kitchen this morning and rex comes crawling out with one of malloy's headbands on his head! he looked so proud of himself for getting it to stay on (he wears it on a U on top his head). he was playing with it all day!! 
• malloy's been making up songs lately. today she sang me a frankenstein song. she said: "wanna sing a frankenstein song? it goes like this: if you don't eat your dinner you'll turn into a frankenstein. that how it goes. that what daddy says." and i just found out as i was telling this to neal, he told me that he's been singing a frankenstein song to her every night and it goes: "frankenstein, frankenstein, if you don't go to sleep you'll turn into frankenstein." ha! gotta love a father's lullaby!! :) 
•  rex's favorite book lately is everyone poops. he will sit and leaf through and study each page for quite a while. when i ask him if he wants me to read it, he gets VERY excited. i have no idea why this is his favorite book!!

touchdown!

yesterday, the kids were at the table having a snack while i was cleaning. i had left the mail on the table and rex got into it. i was in the other room and i heard him saying "hi, hi, hi...". when i came into the kitchen, he had gotten hold of the victoria's secret catalog and was saying hi the one of the models!! he was also given her kisses (in the bra area no less!). it made me laugh out loud! boys will be boys, i suppose??!!
the kids have been been sleeping a lot better lately - perhaps it's because we're actually home for an extended period of time!!! rex has both front teeth just about to break through - both teeth are visible. he's been very clingy and grabbing his mouth - poor little pumpkin!
we had a nice relaxing sunday. malloy and i took a walk this morning looking for leaves that had changed and collecting them. everything is so exciting to her - she's so cute!! we spent the afternoon watching football, doing art (leaf rubbings from leaves we collected on our walk and coloring), playing, and celebrating a Bills' win!! 

i asked malloy to please pick up all the crayons off the floor and she replied "i'm sorry, but i'm trying to find my favorite color". excuse me, missy, "i'm sorry, but..." is MY line!

this is what i found when i was cleaning up toys. malloy's getting pretty good at drawing faces! 

malloy had her first hair cut today!!! her hair was constantly in her eyes if it wasn't clipped with a barrette, and her hair is too fine to hold a barrette, so i figured it was time to give bangs a try! i think it looks pretty cute. i also evened out the back, as much as it pained me to cut what little hair she has!!! it was getting a little scraggly looking. she did great - just sat there and let me do it. i told her we were playing beauty parlor. hope that one doesn't come back to bite me!!! we keep the scissors put away out of reach!!!!
our whole family is sick :( the poor kids have terrible coughs because of all the mucus dripping - it shakes their whole body. even when they feel awful, they're in pretty good spirits, just a little more clingy than usual.
totally off topic, rex picked up my camera a day or two ago, held it up to his eye and said "cheeeeee". SO CUTE!!!! and now every single time an airplane flies over he says "ba paaane". he's so much fun right now!!

this morning i did my first co-op at malloy's school. she's so cute to watch in her school environment!! she was taking her art work so seriously, drawing slowly with her brow furrowed. all of the kids were supposed to hold hands during circle time - malloy told the girl next to her "hold my hand" all on her own. ahh i love it! i really didn't think the transition into school would be quite so easy!!! she's a pro!! she didn't mind at all that i was there, either.
rex had a great nap and then used all of his renewed energy to climb on everything he could!!! he climbed up on his garage, onto an end table with a laptop on it, stood on the laptop and then climbed over the arm on the couch onto the couch. all in about 3 seconds. and as far as i know, this is the first time he's ever done this! he's everywhere!!!!! time to get out the huge baby play fence and set it up in the living room!!!! not even joking!

rex is getting into trouble more and more! climbing up on things, trying to climb over things, etc. he has no fear!! today, i was sitting on the floor and felt him touching my leg. when i looked up, he was just standing on his own without holding on!!!! it was during a playdate, everyone clapped and yelled "yay!" after that, he kept standing on his own, throwing his hands in the air, and yelling "yay"! :)
we had a fun afternoon filled with art, kisses, walks/wagon rides, and playing outside!!

random moments:

• malloy saw a stain on the floor in the bathroom and said "it's probly poop or somepin" sometimes she just makes me giggle! :) 

• rex went missing during our playdate at our house this morning. i went looking for him and found him setting food on the play kitchen table, just playing like a sweet boy!!!! made my heart melt a little (especially since i was expecting to find eating something he shouldn't or breaking something!!).
• i LOVE that the kids look forward to their afternoon naps!! malloy runs up the stairs and hops in her bed and rex is almost passed out when i sing to him and snuggles right up into his blanket. love those two!!!

fangs

he chewed up grapes and spit them all over the floor. then he got the swiffer :)

taking a walk

so proud of the sticker her teacher gave her on the first day of school!