Carrots and Contacts

What, you might ask, do these two things have in common???  A LOT, according to Morgan.

When: Saturday Morning
Where: at the bathroom mirror
Who: the whole family
What: watching Mommy put her contacts in
Why: the girls think it's really cool to watch, especially Sadie

Daddy: What's Mommy doing?
Sadie: (as she pokes herself in the eye) She put glass in her eye to see.
Morgan: She's putting the soft glass in her eye so she can see without her glasses.
Daddy: Why does she have to do that? Why don't you or Sadie or I have to wear glasses or contacts?
Morgan: Because Mommy doesn't like carrots.  Me and you and Sadie like to eat carrots and they make our eyes healthy.  Mommy won't eat carrots, so her eyes aren't good.

And there it is, the truth to why I wear glasses/contacts.  Morgan is right, though. I don't particularly like carrots, so I guess that's why my eyes suffer.  It couldn't possibly be due to genetics (both my parents wear glasses and most of my siblings, too)!

Note: Earlier in the week, Brian and Morgan had been discussing the vitamins in carrots and why they are healthy for us.  So, she may not have remember the term (beta carotene), but she remembered the concept!

"I'm Not Tired"

"I'm not tired, Mom.  I'm not going to take a nap.  I'm just going to read."  That's what Morgan said just before rest time Saturday.

3 1/2 hours later... 

And, when I let Sadie wake her up, Morgan came out and said to me, "Mom, why did you let Sadie wake me up?  I was sleeping and I still wanted to sleep."
I simply replied, "Because she misses you and wants to play."  I left out the part where I also say that we want to go to sleep before midnight tonight, so you need to get up.  (I think she finally went to sleep about 10:30 p.m. that night.)

"Hick-Amucks"

That's Sadie's pronunciation of Jicama.  And that's about how much our baby weighs this week (32 weeks).  Morgan wanted to know what a jicama was, so I showed her at the grocery store.  And, because it would cost under $2 to buy one, we decided to get one and try it out.

Here's Morgan taking her first bite.  She wasn't a fan.  In fact, she refused to even give it an unbiased critique and simply ate her three small bites we asked her to try.

Sadie, on the other hand, like it.  She especially liked it dipped in ranch dressing, along with every other food she eats.

Brian and Mackenzie's take on jicama:  Brian actually tried it and ate several sticks (think like carrot stick size)!  He thought it was okay, and says it tastes just like he would expect a weed to taste (it is a root vegetable).  Mackenzie thought it was okay, but couldn't get past the "it tastes like a dandelion smells", unless it was dipped in ranch.

Final Consensus:  The baby should be the size of a pineapple next week (I peeked ahead on the calendar).  I think we'll enjoying that sampling much better!

Sprinkler Time!

It's that time of year again.  You know, the time when Morgan and Sadie find every possible excuse to get outside in the water?  And, even though it was only about 65 degrees on Saturday, here they are, all swimsuit-clad and ready to get wet!

Getting Creative

As we're slowing, but surely, packing up, the girls are becoming more creative in their playtime.  In fact, they haven't even touched trains, blocks, or dress up in almost a week!  Why would they need to when there are a gazillion empty boxes in the basement and lots of fun baby gadgets to use?  

What you don't see to the left of this picture are the 3 additional "train cars" (i.e. boxes)--the engine, the dining car, and the movie car.  These are the sleeping cars and the girls are pretending to be "fast asleep".  Funny thing, though.  On this train, they only serve lunch and you only take naps.  There's no other time of the day!  Just movie, lunch, nap, movie, lunch, nap!  

As I've been sorting through all the baby stuff, Morgan and Sadie decided it would be a great time to try everything out on their babies.  So, how many babies can you fit in one bouncer??  Five.  As long as you're okay with them all lying on top of each other and not being strapped in.

Peanut Butter Play Dough

This past week, I was in charge of a craft for our weekly Music Makers (check out the button on the side of my blog for more info).  It being the last week for the year (we take a summer break), I decided to choose something fun for the kids to do.  So, we made Peanut Butter Playdough to bring to Music Makers.  Morgan and Sadie loved helping make it and all the kids loved playing with and eating it!  

I just realized that the recipe I used from the OLD Nursery manual (the one from when I was a kid) has been boxed up since we made our play dough.  So, I found a similar recipe online.  My recipe called for powdered sugar and corn syrup (Karo syrup), but I'm sure honey and regular white sugar will work also.

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups peanut butter
4 cups dry milk powder
4 cups sugar
3 1/2 cups honey

Directions:
Mix together peanut butter and the sugar, and beat in honey and milk powder. This recipe takes about 12 minutes and is a nice change from traditional playdough.

"How to Eat Cake", by Sadie

 Last weekend, we also went to a first birthday party for one of Brian's coworker's kids.  I think my kids are a little deprived of classic sweets, like birthday cake, because Sadie's was gone in 3 bites.  I'm not kidding, either.  Somehow, I managed to get all three bites on camera!  

ONE,

TWO,

THREE!

Girls' Nite

Last week, Daddy went out of town for a business trip to "Sandy Eggo", so we had a couple of nights of just the girls.  

After the girls tucked their babies into bed,

we watched The Parent Trap (the old one with Hayley Mills), 

and enjoyed a slumber party in the front room--complete with lots of slumbering.  This was probably about 5 minutes after the movie ended.

To finish off our girls' nite, we went out to breakfast at Einstein Brothers' Bagels.  The girls didn't know there was a special store just for buying bagels, so they thought that was really cool!  And, despite being at the bagel shop, they both ate coffee cake and orange juice!

Laundry

One of Sadie's favorite chores is filling the washing machine with laundry.  She takes it very seriously.  And I take her willingness to help me very seriously.  Even if it is only one sock at a time.  I hope she never outgrows wanting to help!

Her only request seems to be that the water be running as she fills the washer.  If it stops, so does she!

Signs of Aging

It's happening.  I'm getting old.  No, I'm not experiencing one of those "Yikes!  I'm turning 30!  Where did my life go?" moments.  Mostly because I'm not turning 30 yet.  It's actually one of those, "Holy Cow!  My kids are growing up!" moments--Morgan turns 5 in a few weeks.

And, as was bound to happen at some point, my sweet little Morgan stopped calling me "Mommy" a few weeks ago and has now resorted to simply "Mom."  Much better than her attempt to refer to me as "Mother" last year, but, why can't I be "Mommy?"  It's bittersweet. I love to watch my kids grow up, and I want to freeze time so they can stay little.

Let Them Be Little

by Lonestar 

I can remember when you fit in the palm of my hand
Felt so good in it, no bigger than a minute
How it amazes me, you're changing with every blink
Faster than a flower blooms they grow up all too soon

So let them be little 'cause they're only that way for a while
Give them hope, give them praise, give them love every day
Let them cry, let them giggle, let them sleep in the middle
Oh just let them be little

I've never felt so much in one little tender touch
I live for those kisses, prayers and your wishes
Now that you're teaching me things only a child can see
Every night while we're on our knees all I ask is please

Let them be little 'cause they're only that way for a while
Give them hope, give them praise, give them love every day
Let them cry, let them giggle, let them sleep in the middle
Oh just let them be little

So innocent, a precious soul, you turn around
It's time to let them go

So let them be little 'cause they're only that way for a while
Give them hope, give them praise, give them love every day
Let them cry, let them giggle, let them sleep in the middle
Oh just let them be little

Let them be little

Licking Envelopes

Yesterday, as I was cleaning out a bunch of random drawers in our kids' craft stuff, Sadie came across a stack of old envelopes and a childhood memory that I'm sure very few of us still enjoy--licking envelopes.  She was so serious about it that I just couldn't help but take a video.  And, everyone of those envelopes was empty.  Oh, well.  If I still haven't used them since high school, I doubt they would ever be used anyway!  Now, I just need to keep the rest of the envelopes we actually use out of her reach!

Random Stuff

Who needs toys when you have boxes???  Morgan and Sadie entertained themselves for a good half hour watching a "movie" in the "car" (i.e. staring at the flap on a cardboard box).  

Oh, how we love Home Depot on the first Saturday of every month!  The girls wanted to paint their flower pots they made.  Daddy helped, which is why they actually turned out sort of cute.  And, they water their flowers faithfully, everyday.  This is the extent of our garden this summer.

 Last week at the library, I checked out the movie, Pillow Talk.  I was pretty sure Brian wasn't going to like it (he actually did think it wasn't too bad), but I remember watching it with some friends in college, so I got it anyway.  Sadie begged and begged to watch it!  I guess the DVD case looks pretty exciting!  So, I let her watch it, thinking she wouldn't last more than a few minutes (there's not a whole lot to the movie--it's from 1959 and it's not geared toward kids).  She totally shocked me and watched it for almost an hour (holding onto the case the whole time) before losing interest!  

Front and Back

A couple of weeks ago in church, Morgan was drawing a picture.  When she finished, she showed me and started to say something about how now she needed to draw the back.  

Trying to keep her quiet, I quickly dismissed whatever she was saying and went back to the meeting.  I didn't give it much thought and just assumed she wanted to draw on the back of the page.  

It wasn't until after the meeting was over that I notice what she meant by "the back."

The Front:

The Back: 

This is the same piece of paper, so she simply drew the back side of her characters from the front.  (She cheated a little and traced their general outlines from the other side.)  I can't say I would have thought to do that!  Aside from the boy having both pants and a shirt that are two-toned, I think she did a pretty good job!

My Girls

Oh, how I love these girls!  Being their mom is so rewarding (a lot of work, too!) and I love it when I catch them just being themselves and enjoying life!

Here's Sadie, reading.  She's in her princess attire, reading from her Disney princess book.  Why she chose to kneel at the mattress on the floor, I don't know.  That's Sadie for you.  She reads wherever she finds a book--the floor, at the bookshelf, on the couch, in the car.  I think my favorite part of this picture is her purse.  I was even nice today and let her carry around a "lip gloss", though she had strict instructions that it would be taken away if she opened it up!

When our new library opened, I purposely directed the girls away from the children's section and into the non-fiction stuff.  Morgan is currently fascinated with whales, dolphins, the planets, caves, earthquakes...you get the picture.  Every week we try to go and get different books, and Morgan has been getting books about various species of whales.  She's having trouble remembering all the facts that she's learned ("Mom, do you remember what kind of whale eats trash??  It eats garbage so we have to be careful not to put trash in the ocean!"), so we've started a chart (i.e. Excel spreadsheet) to keep track of their size, color and what they eat.  I really think it's her excuse to type on the computer, though!

China

The girls picked a couple of movies from the library before we went on our road trip to Utah last week.  We have a few Disney Collection storybooks and CDs, so they're really into all the Disney movies right now.  So, Morgan selected Mulan for her movie.

When I put the movie into the DVD player for them to watch, Morgan quickly turned the start of the story in her book and proceeded to read to Sadie: "Mulan: The Girl Who Saved China."

We've talked about geography a little bit, but mostly just continents and the United States, so I was pretty sure she didn't know what China was.  So, I asked her and here's how the conversation went:

Morgan: Mulan: The Girl Who Saved China!  Sadie, she saved China!
Me: Morgan, do you know what China is?
Morgan: No.
Me:  It's a country in Asia.  You know, like we live in the United States?
Morgan: Oh.  (brief pause) And, lots of my toys come from there.  They say, "Made in China."