Category: Uncategorized

You know that plastic grass they put in Easter baskets? The stuff that gets everywhere and you can’t ever clean all of it up no matter how hard you try? Marie has a big basket of purple bunny grass that she got from preschool. She just came in and told me it was the Easter eggs and she was going to put some in each room. Ack! I told her no way. Thank goodness she listened to me, but she is still playing with the basket of it and it is still getting everywhere.

This morning, Brian was playing with Peter’s cell phone. He lifted up his sweatshirt and started poking the phone on his belly and I thought – what is he doing? Then I realized he wanted to wear the phone like Peter does on his belt. So, I clipped it on Brian’s pants and he is happy and still wearing it.

Brian loves to count. He usually only uses the number two. He’ll count things in a book “two, two, two, two!” Sometimes he throws a five in there for fun.
If you prompt him and hold up your fingers, he can count one, two, three!

Marie and Brian’s babysitter from last year, Danielle, is away at college this year. She got them Christmas presents but we never managed to meet up when she was home, so her mom gave them to me last week. They LOVE them! Brian has some new little people and animals. The turkey is his current favorite. Marie has a new Barbie (thank goodness because her one Barbie was getting lonely) who has a doggie! Cool! But wait – it gets even better. The doggie comes with treats that it can eat and then poop out. This is completely fascinating to someone who is three years old. Usually the doggie spends the afternoon on the kitchen table or counter eating treats and pooping for hours. Peter even figured out how you can feed it a lot of treats and then…well you can guess! I’m writing this down because I don’t like to talk about it in front of Marie because she’ll see me laughing hysterically and think I’m making fun of her.

Brian’s latest thing is to attempt something himself, and then proudly declare “I did it!” Examples from today:
1. He plugged in his usb Elmo mouse all by himself.
2. He went upstairs and swished around in the toilet with the swisher stick we use for his flushable diapers. (He was so proud that instead of telling him how oogied out I was that he was playing in the toilet, I let him flush and helped him wash his hands)
3. He put a piece of chalk into a marker cap and ran and found me so I could see this amazing thing.
4. He got a hold of the tv remote and restarted the Dora episode that just finished so they got to watch it again.
He is increasingly interested in doing “big kid” things, like washing his hands at the sink, drinking out of a non-sippy cup, going potty, playing with electrical outlets, and doing anything Marie does.

Laura made a cheesecake yesterday. Some of the cheesecake dripped out of the pan on to the bottom of the oven.

Later in the evening, we cooked some french fries and chicken nuggets — at 450 degrees. This was enough to set the gunk at the bottom of the oven aflame. Smoke began billowing out and you could see fire through the door. Ovens are meant to handle things like high heat, so of course Laura did the right thing by leaving it closed and turning off the oven.

Moments later, Marie burst into tears and ran from the kitchen. She said she was afraid that it was going to burn her. What a sad and precious moment! We have talked a lot about fire and the fire department over the last 24 hours.

Brian can say his name! It has a couple more syllables than Brian, but it’s definitely Brian. You can point to him in a picture or point to him and ask “who is that?” and he’ll say it.

Tonight at dinner, Marie had some water in a regular cup (not a sippy cup). She does a good job lately of not spilling. We had a bunch of stuff for dinner. She requested pizza and brussels sprouts. I was ok with that, but Peter was completely horrified. Especially since I made him eat 5 (of the tiniest ones!). So, we had pizza and brussels sprouts and the adults had taco salad. For added fun I put a tiny little pile of shredded cheese on the kids’ plates. You’ll never guess where Marie’s cheese ended up. In her cup of ice water. Oh yes, on purpose. She was proud of her water with cheese in it. I didn’t see her ever take a drink out of the cup after that, but she did fish out the cheese and eat it. GROSS!!!

For a while now, Brian has been saying “lah-lo” for water. Yesterday when we had pizza for dinner, he kept yelling “peeba!”

Yucky! I am sick. Peter is sick too, but he’s in California. Brian is not as sick as us, but still a little bit sick. Marie is feeling fine and has been really wonderful all day long, indulging my need to nap, sit on the sofa, drink gatorade, eat chicken noodle soup and watch lots of tv. As of right now (5:45 pm) I’m feeling like I might live. Ugh.