7.25.11 sleeping on the floor again

7.23.11 pizza maker?

I had such a funny conversation with Caleigh in the car today.  It started when Caleigh and Andrew began playing this "game" that they play from time to time in which Caleigh tells Andrew, "Andrew, you say yes and I'll say no" (or something else similar that opposes each other).  In this game Caleigh will say yes, to which Andrew will say no and they start out in normal voices and by the time I come in there to stop them they are usually both yelling their respective yes-es and nos.  So... in the car today they started playing some version of this game with Caleigh instigating it as usual and so our conversation began.

me: "Caleigh are you promoting peace or stiring up strife?"

Caleigh: "stirring up strife"

me: "The bible says you should not stir up strife, instead you should promote peace.  You should be a peacemaker."

Caleigh: "But Mommy... I don't want to be a pizza maker."

 

We laughed so so hard about this.  I love when kids say stuff like this and I love that Caleigh is getting into that age.

7.19.11 this little piggy...

Caleigh this morning, playing with Andrew's toes:

"This little piggy went to market, then water park, then eat cupcakes, then eat doughnuts, then wee wee wee all the way home."

I think she is trying to tell us something...

7.18.11 nicknames

I had to laugh today during this conversation with Andrew:

me: "Andrew what is your name?  Andrew, what?"

Andrew: "Andrew Bruiserman" (a nickname we use for him)

me: "Your name is Andrew Dyer.  What is your name Andrew?  Andrew, what?"

Andrew: "Andrew Bruiserman"

Apparently we are going a little overboard on the nickname usage!

7.14.11 Caleigh's craft

Caleigh has been drawing so much lately and I love it.  She has really gotten into drawing faces - her favorite medium is markers which we don't often let her use but she loves it.  Her faces/people are usually a face like you see in the picture below - a big head with eyes, a nose, and a mouth - sometimes with hair and sometimes with arms and legs coming out of the head.  I love it - so cute.

I am not the least bit artistic or crafty at all but it is neat to see her get into something (whereas Andrew may spend about 5 seconds - 1 minute on a project before he is done... for example: When painting with watercolors the other day he was done with the watercolors after maybe 3 minutes so he experimented with slowly pouring the colored water on his paper and then balled up his paper as if it was a paper towel and tried to wipe up the spill.  This was after he painted on the wall.)

Caleigh has recently been loving color wonder markers (so have I - no risks!) and she is getting so good at coloring in the lines on paper.

7.13.11 picking blackberries

We went again this year with my parents to pick blackberries.  I suited the kids up in dark colors and sunscreen and we were off to this great little place up in Concord, NC.  The kids did a great job and were much better at actually picking the berries than they were last year.

But it was HOT and that made Caleigh a little grumpy...

Andrew ate a ridiculous number of berries... probably more than a pint.

Dad wanted a picture with mom with his mustache before he shaved it off and this one turned out great!

This one is so cute too!

We picked a flat of blackberries and though it was late in the season and several were overripe it was still good - perfect for making cobbler.  Can't wait to do it again next year!

7.10.11 meeting baby Haven

On July 8th one of my dear friends, Carrie Dirks, gave birth to this bundle of joy - sweet Haven Katelin Dirks.  She is my hero - as she birthed this sweet girl with no drugs - and we didn't know whether she would be a girl or a boy until she was born.  I got to be in the delivery room when Haven was born and it was amazing - I have never experienced a birth before (except for when I was the one giving birth) and it was truly spectacular.  Such a miracle of life.  On Sunday the whole fam went over to meet sweet Haven at home.  Andrew was particularly enamored...

 Isn't she gorgeous for a 3 day old?

 Caleigh was absolutely precious with her -

C

 And then the kids had a fight about who got to put the paci in...

And a big kid pic - the girls hamming it up for the camera (especially Maggie - and the boys looking slightly bewildered while staring off in the distance)...

We already love this sweet addition to the Dirks family!

7.6.11 roomtime

Sound asleep on the floor after 30 minutes of playing in roomtime...

7.5.11 sibling love

happy 2nd birthday to Andrew!

On June 14th (a Tuesday) we celebrated sweet Andrew's 2nd birthday.  I thought it would be weird to say that he was 2 but he definitely seems like a 2 year old.  He seems older at 2 than Caleigh seemed at 2.  He is really verbal and really active and physically coordinated - he has been jumping up and down and off of things since 18 months or slightly before (whereas Caleigh didn't jump up off the ground until almost 2.5).  On Tuesday morning he opened his gifts - 

 A scooter (isn't it disguised so nicely? - we won't be able to get away with that much longer)...

 Sissy wanted to help of course and even since his birthday she has been talking non stop about her birthday (several months away!).

 He got his first remote control car...

And he LOVES the scooter.

Andrew at 2 LOVES balls and all things sports related.  He loves to point out which kinds of balls are which and throw everything as if it is a ball, even if it isn't.  He is actually quite talented at throwing (again, more so than even Caleigh is at 3.5 - it is so neat to see the many differences between boys and girls even at such a young age).  So... we thought a ball cake and cupcakes would be great -

 I think it turned out pretty cute - there were a bunch more cupcakes, decorated like soccer balls, baseballs, and basketballs.

 We had the cake on Saturday when Gigi and PopPop and KK and Gammy and Bampa all came over to celebrate with Andrew.  They brought more gifts... and more balls!  Andrew was thrilled.

 More matchbox cars which was great because one of his other (non pictured) gifts from us was a big rug with a racetrack and all kinds of places to go and park his matchbox cars.

 He also got a sweet book, The Little Engine that Could, from KK with a sweet inscription in it.  He is really getting into trains too so this was right up his alley.

 He got a helmet that he loves for his scooter along with the balls from Gigi and PopPop.  It also comes with a (rather loud) horn that Andrew loves too (but we didn't love so we had to put it away - way too loud in a 1200 square foot condo).

 Trying out the scooter with his new gear...

 And the patented foot raise - pretty cute...

 He was super excited about the cake...

 And made a pretty good attempt at blowing out the candles...

He choose a baseball (which Adam is already rejoicing over - praying that he indeed chooses baseball to play as a sport - and with Andrew's left-handedness Adam really has high hopes for him) - and Caleigh choose a soccer ball cupcake.

We had another special moment at Andrew's birthday party which I will share in another post!
Happy happy birthday to our sweet 2 year old boy!