Valentine's Day!

Okay, so some of these pictures are from the week before Valentine's Day, but they are wearing thier Valentine's PJs. Does that count. We are finally starting to get the basement area a little more organized. At least now it is not just a sea of boxes. So we put books, puzzles and toys down there for the kids to play with if they are down there with one of us. We finally put together the presents that Brett, Anne and the kids gave Drew and Jillian for Christmas and they love them. As you can see, Jillian is getting some good practice standing up. You can let go of her for a couple seconds, but that is about it. She has the strength to keep herself up, just not the balance or self awareness yet.
A couple days later, when the kids and I were down there she pulled herself up to the table, but almost immediately took a dive. It is the first time I had seen her pull herself up to a standing position. Who knows she may be like her big brother and walking at 9 months. We should focus on crawling right now. She is sooo on the verge. She army crawls and get on all fours and will crawl just one step then back on to her tummy. She also is a yoga prodigy. She will get into downward facing dog, on her hands and feet with her butt in the air, her body in a V shape. Atleast I think it is called downward facing dog, but by the looks of me I am obviously not a yoga expert. Needless to say this is a very strong little girl.

Drew is obsessed with these animals. It is a very cute toy, an animal for each letter of the alphabet. They mat will tell you the letter, what sound it makes, the animal and what sound it makes. Everytime we leave the house he wants to veer off and go play with the animals. I usually tell him that they are sleeping and that works for now. For some reason, Drew is not interested in the alphabet. He knows colors, shapes and counting when wants to, but gets angry when I start in with the letters. He will say "no mama" when I start singing the alphabet song. Maybe it is my singing and not the letters.

Drew is a genius. I put out these stacking/nesting cups for little miss to play with and she did and had a great time spreading them all over the floor. So Drew comes over to play with them and he starts nesting them, then he would have one that didn't fit and he would undo the previous and find out where it fit and then proceed nesting the others. He encounter non fitters about three times and figured it out all by himself. I was so proud, I was nearly jumping up and down. Not long ago he would have been frusterated at the first obstacle and would have whined, thrown the cups or gave up. Now he had the patience to figure it out. I am one proud mama.

Okay the real Valentine's Day!!

Of course I wanted to get pictures of my angels together in their heart day pj's. The pictures make me smile and laugh just looking at them. I hope the do the same for you.

Drew is trying to watch TV and humor me at the same time.

I asked Drew to give Jillian a hug, which he does quite often, but usually they are facing each other. He tried putting his arms around her, but couldn't quite get it figured out so he decided to hug her feet. Funny boy. Everyone's feet need a little love. I know mine could use it, I need a daddy foot rub yesterday.

FUNNY FACES!!

One of the cutest pictures and there is a shadow, which I think is my finger. Oops!

Drew and I made cupcakes for Daddy for Valentines Day. He helped me pour in the water, oil and cake mix and counted the eggs with me as I adden them. He put the paper cups into the pan. He helped me mix all the ingredients and they baked during his nap. We talked about shapes, circles and hearts and colors, red, pink and white. Who knew learning could taste so good. He had a great time decorating them. Daddy was very impressed.

A couple Drew side notes. I tell everyone that he is a little repeater, which is true, but we are also starting to have more converstations. It is so funny to hear the things that come out of a two year old's mouth. I will tell that something is not a toy and he will ask "why not" I will explain that it could hurt him or Jillian and tell him what it's real purpose is and he is usually satisfied with my answers. If I just tell him no and don't explain it usually gets a worse reaction all the way up to Drew melt down or throwing himself on the floor. Who said you couldn't reason with a two year old. He also is gets the concept of again, which is pretty cute to me. He will ask me to read a book, usually Brown Bear Brown Bear and then when I am done he will say "read book again mama." I could probably recite the entire Brown Bear Brown Bear book by heart, we read it so much. Sometimes I just hide it, just so we can get a little literature variety.

Also an update on potty training. We are so not ready yet!!! We (and when I say we I mean me) decided to give potty training a full out honest effort. It lasted less than one day. We put on pull ups and were sitting on the potty. Sometimes he would pee, but he was always wet. Even less that an hour after a fresh pull up. He was getting a little upset by having to sit on the potty so much. So I called mom and we talked it over, I really needed her to tell me it was okay for him to wait a little while longer. Which she did :) I think he needs to be able to hold his bladder more and stay dry for atleast a hour before this is going to be worth the effort. Plus I don't want him to hate the potty, so we are going to wait a couple of months and then have more potty training trials. For now we will keep reading our potty books and watch our Elmo potty DVD. I know he will get it, just not right now, which is okay.

The End. Have a good weekend everyone.

Jillian is moving on up like George and Wheezy.

Here is Jillian sitting at her high chair for the first time. What a big girl!!Jillian using a sippy cup. I don't think she actually gets anything to drink out of it yet, but she gets the idea.

What is this??

Jillian enjoyed the biter biscuit, but it soon became a dog treat the minute it hit the floor. Oh well, we will try again soon.

Snow Day!!

Drew man sledding. He did well, daddy would push him down the hill and he didn't seem scared at all.

Drew and Nini the snow man. The night before, they were calling for 6-10 inches of snow and I told Drew we could build a snow man tomorrow. Apparently he has yet to grasp the meaning of tommorow. He was crying and saying "mommy, Drew build snow man." I asked him if there was any snow outside and he said "nope." Yet still was whining "mommy, Drew build snow man. We will have to work on the tommorrow concept. Once the actually snow man building / snow playing was here, Drew couldn't be happier. Once we built the snow man I asked Drew what the snow man's name was, he response "Nini." Where that came from, I have no idea, but that is the offical name of our snowman.

Nini's eyes and buttons are made of chocolate. Daddy, Drew and I all had a little mid snow play chocolate snack :)Enough with this play stuff, it is time for Drew to earn his keep. What a big boy shoveling the driveway. Once he saw daddy shoveling, he wanted his shovel. He couldn't hold on to it with his mittens on, so he asked "mittens off please." I obliged, but once his hands hit the snow, he was ready to go in. We all had a fun time playing together in the snow.

A Double Baby Shower - Minus 1

Any of you that have talked to me in the last 3 months, know that I have been planning a baby shower for my two best friends, Tara and Ericka. Both are due in March and both are having girls. Ericka is due March 12 and her baby girl is Virginia Lynley. Tara is due March 24 and her little girl is Ella Claire. I am so glad that this shower is over, for two reasons. It about made me a little insane thinking about all the things I had to do and second because it means I will get to meet these two baby girls soon. It didn't go exactly how I planned but what really does in my life. Tara's grandpa EJ passed away and the funeral was Saturday at 2:00 pm and the shower was Saturday at 2:00 pm. You see the dilemia. Tara had to miss the shower, but we videotaped and took lots of pictures and had a present opening / cake eating party later that night.

I will keep everyone updated on any baby news. I have a feeling Ericka will go a little early and Tara a little late. We will see how my psychic skills are when they are about others. Obviously not so accurate with myself because I was convinced I was going to have Drew 2 weeks early and they were 3 weeks were the longest of my life. 2 weeks early, 1 week late, practically dead on. Watch out Dion Warwick.

Momma Ericka and Ashlea Adams (also pregnant, due in April with a surprise baby). Ashlea is a the momma of Brixey the M&M monster. Brixey and Drew are only 5 days apart. Drew had a blast playing, by playing I mean running around the room like wild kids, with Brixey and Gilly.

Gilly and Jilli. Gilly Grigsby was Drew's first smooch, awww. She seems to be handling the hair pulling well, obviously a seasoned big sister.

Opening presents at the Orr house. I wish I would have got a picture of Tara's adorable baby bump. I was busy being the present recorder. I think this lifted her spirits a little bit, at least I hope.

Cute Faces

This kid is even cute when he is upset. He is getting frusterated because he is trying to walk in my boots. They have heels and it makes it a little difficult. If you ever come over to our house and take off your shoes you will see first hand Drews obssession with wearing everyones shoes. Jillian is really excited, about what I am not sure. Maybe she is getting ready to make a phone call. She and Drew are both have animated little faces. They keep me smiling.

Night Night Bicycle

Drew is big into a toy or book going night night with him. This night he wanted his bicycle to go night night with him. Daddy put the bike in the bed and snapped a pic and then closed the door. Drew came knocking on the door and asked "where's Mikey", the monkey and consitent night time companion. So I got Mikey out of the living room and took the bike out of his bed and put it next to his bed. I could just see that scenerio going badly. Surprisingly he was okay with the bike removal.

Messy Drew!!

The more he uses his fork and becomes independent, it seems the messier he gets. Here is Drew after spaghetti for lunch imediately followed by a prenap bath. What a mess!! The Friday before the big shower I made chocolate covered oreos for favors and Drew was very interested in this process. He would say "up please" take a look at all the cookies in amazement and then "mmmmm cookies." Repeat the previous sentence about 20 times. He asked for a cookie multiple times and I told him after lunch if he ate good (which recently has become a huge issue, this kid used to eat so well). He cleaned up his pears and ravioli in record time and was ready to taste test the product. Conclusion: YUM! Finger licking good actually.

Again, messy lunch followed by a mid day bath. This kid is changing everyday. I look at these pictures and he looks like such a big boy, where is my baby boy going?

Two PJ pals!

Here is Miss Jillian in her first pair of two piece jammies. Adorable Valentine PJs. These two have to be the cutest kids I have ever seen. Drew is always laying by Jillian and giving her kisses. He is very sweet with her, but gets a little upset when she starts to grab his toys, books etc. He insist on playing with these things right next to her but doesn't want her to touch them, which in nearly impossible. She is a handsy little girl.
AWWWWW! Mid yawn. Just thought I would post the funny face.