www.micahandlindsey.com

I really can’t believe how much I love my two kid’s ages right now.  If I could freeze frame a time frame, this might be the one I would pick.  Scout is constantly talking, and is so excited about everything.  I love how he knows his nursery rhymes by heart (probably about 12 fully memorized).  I love how he sings along to the music I play in the car.  His favorite lately is Yankee Doodle.  He is catching balls.  He is constantly wanting pillow fights.  He helps me with everything.  He is starting to really comprehend holidays and the excitement involved.  He loves his little friends.  He tries his best to be a good boy.  He is my total buddy, and I would pick hanging out with him over about anything.

Navy is at such a fun age too.  She is constantly smiling and making this other cute face where she sticks her chin out and has an under bite.   She is terrific sleeper.  She gets excited to play with toys.  She is an almost too-good eater.  She adores Scout.  She is very self contained as long as I am in the room.  She is totally tough and isn’t highly emotional — not yet anyway.

They are both so great and fun right now.  But of everything I love about them the most, I think my favorite is how much they love their mother.  Scout has turned into my sidekick, and thinks I am so funny.  And Navy just always wants to be with me.  Motherhood has some serious perks!

Micah has been talking about Stan’s Donuts for at least a year.  This is usually how it goes….”I can’t believe  I lived in L.A. all of those years, and NEVER went to Stan’s.  I mean, they are ranked the BEST DONUTS IN THE U.S.  And if they are the best in the U.S., then that clearly means they are the best in the world!”

Micah has even gone as far as telling my mom, who faithfully gets pastries for Christmas morning, that she definitely needs to replace those “nasty” things with Stan’s.  (Mind you that he had never tasted them.)  He even put on his Christmas list, “One of each from Stan’s”.  Oh Brother!

So in an attempt to not hear about the fresh ingredients that Stan uses for the next five weeks, I nipped it in the bud.  Skills spent the night, and at 5:18 this morning, I woke my donut partner in crime up, along with Scout, and we headed to Westwood.

I got “one of each” of the good ones for Micah, and two dozen of the #1 donut (the peanut butter and chocolate pocket) for my Sunday school class tomorrow.  Skilly, Scout and I had a great time, and Micah was so thrilled!  He got right up and started chowing!

Looks like he ate the equivalent of 6ish donuts. World’s best — if so, the world has pretty average donuts, although their apple fritter was pretty phenomenal, and their buttermilk donut holes were great.  The good news is that I think he had his fill and my mom can reorder the nasty pastries she usually does.

P.S.

Not everyone in my family thinks they are nasty.

P.P.S.

Tradition trumps taste anyway!

P.P.P.S.

Hey Sunday schoolers — BYOM! (Bring Your Own Milk!)

Whenever Scout is playing, and Navy heads over his way, we call her the “monster”.  If he is building, she is tearing.  If he is organizing, she is messing.  Well, the monster has officially had her first mishap.

I remember when Scout had his first mishap, and I was so proud that my little boy was turning a little stinky. (But stinky in a funny way.)  He came down after getting into Nonnie’s lotion, and had it all over him.  I snapped picture after picture to document the exciting moment, and then we cleaned it up and had a nice day.  The amazing thing is that Scout has NEVER had another mishap.
I was seriously spoiled by my nice boy.  But reality has hit with the monster.  She won’t EVER sit in her high chair.  Even when I am feeding her, she stands up to eat.  She is always on the move, and has already climbed things that Scout is just now mastering.  Apparently….she is “walking” in her dad’s footsteps.  Well, the other morning, we finally had our first  — of what I am sure will be many — mishaps.  Too bad that it came at the cost of my mom’s antique and expensive vase.  Ickity Dickity Dock thought she would climb to the top, but toppled over just shy of her goal.  The crash was deafening — especially when I was in the next room and knew exactly what had happened.  I felt pretty bad, like I was a careless mother.  But when Icka apologized, Nonnie just hugged her and said it was, “no big deal”.

The silver lining — Scout finally found his flying saucer.

But was it really “no big deal” when I found my husband and mother out on the front porch a few hours later, just staring off into the sky.  They were having a moment before Micah took off to work.  Wonder why I wasn’t invited….because I am careless?

Ickity has been taking five steps for about a month.  She is upping it to six or seven lately.  She has also become quite the master.  She can clap and walk, dance and walk, walk and pause and walk again, take sharp corners, and stand from a sitting position.  I am positive that if I worked with her, she would have been real-deal walking a month ago.  But at officially 10 months now, I don’t have any desire to chase a walking kid instead of a speed crawler.

There is a beauty to a plug.  It pacifies, it occupies and it even babysits.  So when Icka wasn’t into plugs from the get go, I was pretty bummed.  Especially since plugs were Scout and my best friends.  I always thought that Icka didn’t have the ability to keep one in her mouth.  But come to find out….it isn’t ability she lacks.  I know this because Icka ALWAYS has something in her mouth.  No matter where she finds it, or how big it is, Icka is sucking or chewing on something.  In just the past few weeks of pictures, I was able to find a few examples.

Trash digging at Seth and Bretts.

Tub Time.

Playing with the trains with Scout.

Oh…so you can keep a plug in.

Seth and Brett headed to Hawaii, and I headed to Vegas to watch their kids.  They took Covey Lovey and Rose, so I had their other four boys and my two.  I loved when I arrived to Brett saying, “why are you doing this for us?”  And then she said repeatedly, “You are so nice!”  I then had a brief conversation with her and realized that it appeared as if I just offered to do the favor.   But in reality, the story went a little more like Seth called me and said, “So….what are you doing for the next week or so?”  When I stupidly answered that I didn’t have any huge plans, he said, “so …uh…..so…you think….uh…you think you want to come and watch our….uh….kids?”  And then he just started cracking up.  When I told Brett, she said that him asking wasn’t in the story she heard.  The fact is that I didn’t really care, and ended up having a good time with the boys and Navy.  The only hiccup came when I got sick on day two and lost my voice by day four of seven.  Can you believe that the only time I have lost my voice in 15 years is when I have to bark out orders to 6 kids.  Classic!

Here are the charts which proved to be really effective.  Notice that the Tiny Size Chiklets for Saturday were no longer….that’s because before I even made the chart, someone had swiped them.  Notice also that there was a “Final Prize” involved.  It was a four hour stint at Chuck E. Cheeses with every other person who lived in Vegas there at the same time — and YES they earned it.  I will have to admit that it was a total blast, because I used Seth’s money to buy as many tokens as we wanted.  How many, I don’t know….but four hours of nonstop play for 5 kids and me can account for a LOT of tokens.

Glued.  Scout never gets to watch television, and these boys get very little too, so when they get to….they are glued.  This was Scout’s first time seeing a dog and his friend named Scooby Doo and Shaggy.

Do these two look alike?  I can see similarities and differences.  Time will tell.

This is one of the zillion times I had to tell Scout to not jump on the furniture.  Then he informed me that he was jumping “off” the furniture.

My two were in heaven with their cousins.  Can you tell, in the middle picture, by Scout’s eyes that he was utterly exhausted?  In the bottom picture, I was trying to catch Icka taking some steps, but Scout intervened.  I love that my two adore each other.

The drive home was bittersweet.  Great to get home, and sad to be driving at 4:00 am.  Ha!  You thought I was sad to leave the chaos behind…..only a little bit.  My kids took a day to adjust, and just when  they were back to their schedules….they got what I had.  What a rip.

When I talked to Brett, she told me that they were obviously paying me.  I told her that was ridiculous, and that they were not.  I told her that when I want the favor returned, I will call her up.  Then after her expression, I said, “you would rather pay me huh!”  Too bad for her….I’m taking the favor.

Thanks to my sister-in-law Brett, I have learned the art of making Navy a bazillion baby bracelets.  I have been known to whip one out in the morning to go with her outfit of the day.  I will have to admit that I have made a few masterpieces lately.  And it’s a good thing, because Tristen has been calling Navy “SheMan” lately.  And my mom “struggles” to find much feminine about her.  I can sort of agree that ever since she learned to rip off her bows, she has not looked quite as girlie.  The beauty of these bracelets, is that she can’t get them off — so far.