the kids are so happy to be back in their home!!! they were both asleep on sunday when we pulled up to the house. i stayed with them in the van while neal unloaded the van. when rex popped his little eyes open he said "ah home!' so stinking cute. when they got inside, the ran all around, playing with all of the toys they could get their hands on. rex was not happy about being in his room alone at bedtime. i think he got a little too used to malloy being in the same room with him. he cried for a little while and the conked out.

on monday, the kids fell back into their routine with ease! we has a playdate in the morning. malloy had her little buddies, brooke and gianna to play with. they played in malloy's room most of the time. at one point malloy came down the stairs pouting and looking all sad, her cheek pushed to her shoulder. she was sad because she couldn't find her squinkies. gianna put her hands on malloy's shoulders, looks in her eyes, and says "it's ok malloy. i put the squinkies in your bed." they are so cute! rex was a little bit of a wreck - i don't know if he thought that i was leaving him with the other moms or what, but he followed me around the house the entire time just crying. my clingy little puppy.

malloy loved school, as usual today. she is in full-blown christmas mode!! she's watching frosty and rudolph and any other christmas show or movie she can find!  at bedtime, we have to sing christmas songs.when you ask her what she wants from santa, she replies "i just want lady." she's been watching lady and the tramp and in the movie, they get lady in a box under the christmas tree. i had to explain to her that santa makes toys, not animals. hopefully she gets that! rex loves santa, too! i think it's from watching the christmas movies and from malloy because i hadn't even said "santa" outloud yet! over thanksgiving, he just started yelling "santa" every time he saw him. he's really talking so much more!!! it's still blowing my mind that he understands everything and can communicate so much more! he started crying in the playroom yesterday. i went in and asked what happened and he put his hand on his head and said "head" with a sad face. so stinkin' cute!!!

and before i forgot to just document malloy's "goodnight" - every nap and bed time when we leave the room, malloy blows a kiss and says "put it in your pocket, sweet dreams i love you night night". except she's been saying it so long and says it so fast that it sounds like "puhpock fweet dreams i luh you nigh nigh" i need to record it so i can listen to it for forever!!!!

Rex is saying "bapa" and "mama" for grandpa and grandma all on his own!! Amongst tons of other new words. He's an official walking and talking toddler!!!!

wow!! more than a week has gone by already!!! it's been a busy one getting ready for thanksgiving!! the kids have colds again and are both getting teeth. rex is good most of the time, but when his mouth hurts him, forget it! he's a whiny, clingy bear!
we had a playdate on monday and malloy was so excited to have her friend, cameron, from school join us! he was excited, too! they were so cute together!! she had him playing ring around the rosie in no time.
we drove to grandma tappy and grandpa gary's house on wednesday morning. the kids were pretty good on the drive. rex slept a lot and malloy kept herself busy with lots of books,toys, and games. she was SO excited to be at grandma and grandpa's - she went in and just started running around the house. rex followed soon after. he loved walking around and around the kitchen island (malloy loved this at his age and still loves it!). rex is walking about 80% of the time now. he still looks like a little frankenstein with his rigid walk - it's so cute!!
thursday was thanksgiving. we went to great grandpa bosket's house for our first thanksgiving feast. malloy was so excited to play with nathan!!! he's such a good kid - very patient with malloy and rex and willing to play with them and humor them. (side note - this was too cute and i don't want to forget to mention it!! we were talking about thanksgiving and malloy said "first we're going to grandpa biscuit's house for thanksgiving?" i busted out laughing, she's just way to cute sometimes!!) then we went to roro and papa hank's house for some more desserts. malloy went around and gave everyone thanksgiving hugs - except uncle morgan. he got a high five. our last stop was back at grandma tappy and grandpa gary's. both malloy and rex loved playing with aunt norma. they were showing her all of their toys. i think she was enjoying it just as much as they were!! the kids did great all day and definitely had full bellies at bedtime.
today we went to a party at great-great-aunt barb's house on cayuga lake. rex loved being out on the dock on the lake. he was trying to get in!!! good thing great-aunt sue was there to stop him! malloy didn't like being by the lake at first. she was showing off her singing, dancing, and spinning skills inside. later, she went back down to throw rocks in the lake and had a blast! her favorite part was the swing, of course!!! why were we outside so much at the end of november, you ask? why, because it was 60 degrees and sunny!!!! we're lucky to have such beautiful weather!!

rex has been talking so much lately! he's definitely having his "language burst" at the moment!! yesterday he kept telling me "ahhhh home. ahhhh home. ahhh home..." i had no idea what he was saying. then he took my hand and placed it on his chest while he was saying it. i finally figured it out!! earlier i was playing "this little piggy" with his toes. he wanted me to tickle him "all the way home"!!! SO CUTE!!!  and today when we pulled up to malloy's school and got out of the van, he was saying "me! me!" (that's what he calls malloy). he was so excited to see her. gotta love this kid!!! he's also repeating everything! i told him great job when i was putting him in the van and he just kept repeating it. :)

we had a playdate here yesterday and malloy played her first real hide and seek game with her pal charlotte. it was so cute!!

we started the morning off painting with shaving cream in the bathtub - the kids loved it!! then they took a bath to wash everything off. after baths, we went to a playdate at our friends safina and emery's house. safina and malloy were wearing dress-up plastic high heels and walking back and forth in the kitchen holding hands. they were also playing with another friend, corbin. at one point, malloy and corbin were walking around together - malloy with a purse on her arm and corbin pushing the baby in the stroller - so cute!!! rex was palling around with jack, sadie, and patrick. after playdate, we went out to lunch to celebrate my birthday. it was yummy and the kids were pretty good. they took a late nap, got up and had dinner and watched gnomeo and juliet then it was bedtime!! malloy had to go potty one more time before bed. i got her up and she asked "what are you eating, mommy". i told her i was just eating dinner and she said "oh, i thought we were going to have mashed potatoes or some more french fries. i thought so. can i have french fries?" she's a nut!

wow!! it's almost been a week since the last post! woops!!! it was a busy one! quick recap of the week:

monday:

we went to the buffalo museum of science with some friends. we had a great time!!!

tuesday: malloy had a farm visit at her school. rex and i stayed for a bit to see some animals. he just wanted to crawl over to the horse so bad, i had to take him home because he's too strong - i can't control him anymore!! we went to the gym in the afternoon and for the first time in a long time, rex didn't care that i left him!!!

wednesday: we went to a playdate at safina and emery's house. rex was walking a bit more and was getting into trouble playing in the dirt! brooke, safina, and malloy had a great time together!

thursday: i co-oped in malloy's classroom this morning. so fun!!! malloy is so cute with her friends. during playtime, she went around and asked her friends if they wanted to play dress up with her.
after dinner we drove to grandma tappy and grandpa gary's house. malloy finally fell asleep for the past hr or so. rex fell asleep after he had a few of neal's french fries. getting them to go back to sleep in the same room was a nightmare - they didn't get to sleep until 12:30am!!!! not doing that again for a while!

friday: it was neal's birthday! we spent some time at grandma val and grandpa don's in the afternoon. malloy got to nap in grandma's bed and rex slept on neal.  that night we had a surprise birthday party for RoRo for her 76th birthday! malloy had a great time yelling surprise over and over again throughout the party! the kids wore themselves out!

 saturday: we went to bella's 5th birthday party at the discovery center. malloy had a blast running around the "jungle gym" and eating lunch with the big kids. she sat right next to bella and was talking her ear off. rex loved eating at the table with the big kids, too.  that night we had a little party to celebrate birthdays.

and today we drove back home to buffalo. the kids were pretty good in the van on the way back. we had a lazy rest of the day. hopefully the time change is out of their systems ( they were getting up at 5 am all week!!!) and they'll sleep until a reasonable hour tomorrow!!

adding "boon" (balloon), "hippo", "bear" and "football" to rex's list of words!

football pancakes!

dress up

new haircut

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                   


we had a pretty calm day today. had a trip to wegman's this morning and then watched football with uncle ryan in the afternoon. when rex got up from his nap, he saw ryan and just started whining until he could get to him. ryan was laying on the couch and rex was pulling and pushing at his arm until he got up!! he then laid and read book after book with him.
i cut malloy's hair again today. it's so hard to do anything with because it's so fine, i thought having a style might help. i think i like it, sorry malloy if it's awful!!! :( hair grows back. and she's only 2, she had no idea if she has a good or a bad haircut, right??
i forgot to mention i started a potty chart for malloy and since we started it 3 days ago, she's had one accident and is now asking to hide in the bathroom instead of hiding under the kitchen table when she feels like she has to go to the bathroom!! success!!

yesterday we went to the zoo with our friends, Brooke, Ben, Gianna, and Kenadee. it was pretty chilly but still fun! the older girls were walking around the zoo holding hands :) the zoo is a different place in the chillier weather! we got to see a trainer with the sea lion doing all of its tricks, the otters were out (we haven't seen them in a long time!) and more of the bears were out. malloy begged to go to the rainforest the entire time until we got there!!!! it's definitely her favorite place in the zoo. she loves to walk across the little rope bridge. rex sat happily in the wagon checking out all the animals and eating snacks. he's a good boy!
i thought that both kids would pass out on the way home, but neither of them did. i put them down when we got home - rex went right to sleep, malloy did not. she sang and talked in her bed for about an hour. i went up a few times to tell her to go to sleep. then i heard little footsteps padding around and a light switch flick on. when i went up, the light was on and she was playing in her bed with her care bear! the night before she had a terrible meltdown and part of it was that she wanted her projector turned back on (she missed it the first time because she was too busy screaming). she FINALLY figured out that she could get out of bed and turn it on!!! it was a first! so, she thought "hey, what the heck, i'll just go turn my light on!". after i took her care bear away she slept for 2 hrs!

today was pretty low key. we went to target this morning. both kids passed out on the way home. it was noon. you'd think the zoo would be a LOT more tiring that a trip to target...
this afternoon, malloy and i went back out to buy some yarn. she was so good! she walked around with me and stayed with me. she got to pick out what color yarn she wanted so i could make her (or at least attempt to!) a scarf. while we were at the store, she found a pair of fairy wings. they were on clearance so i got them for her because she was being so good! she left them on during dinner and ate all her dinner so that her fairy wings could get bigger and then she could fly! after dinner, we went outside with the fairy wings on. she was so excited to fly. we walked a few steps and she tells me "this isn't going to work". she cracks me up!
side note: as of a few days ago, rex has 2 new words: shoe and frog. he just comes out with random words that i didn't think he knew - he's full of surprises!! oh! and i found another tooth in his mouth today! it looks like a molar on the top right, but i'm not sure which tooth it is. no wonder he's had this runny nose for forever! the teeth just keep coming!!

we spent the day at home today, with a quick outing to wegmans. malloy stayed home from school today to catch up on rest. both kids have colds and they don't seem to be going away! i'm ready to be done with it!! malloy has been getting super cranky when she gets tired and it's no fun!! hopefully they'll be on the mend soon!

this morning we had a playdate at our house and celebrated our friend, gianna's 3rd birthday with cupcakes! the kids love having friends over to play, but can get so crazy sometimes!! rex was climbing on EVERYTHING!!! every time i turned around he was up on something else! he definitely keeps me busy these days!! malloy had a great time with her pals but started crashing hard as soon as they left. a hungry, tired, malloy is not something i enjoy being around!!! she plays the "i want to/i don't want to" game. it's not fun. she finally settled down after i told her that i knew she was just cranky because she was hungry and tired. she took a bite of sandwich and said "this bite made me feel better".  little stinker. she had a much better afternoon! it was beautiful out so we went for a walk and then played on the deck for a bit. rex was walking more than he ever has this afternoon! he was even walking on the deck with his sneakers on - we're getting closer!!! :)

so i thought that when malloy went to school, rex and i would have a lot of quality time together. instead, he cherishes his time alone playing with any toys he can without them being ripped away or malloy over his shoulder!! the green bear is malloy's and he was clutching it as tight as he could, walking on his knees around the playroom. cutie pie!

malloy was eating fruit and rex wanted some. he sidled up to her, cocked his head, and said "mo mo peeeaa" while signing 'more' and 'please'. SO CUTE!!!! it was the first time he said please on his own!!! it makes me so proud to hear my kids use their manners! they're definitely not little angels all the time and can give me a run for my money, but somehow hearing "please, thank you, sorry, and your welcome" makes it all better sometimes!!