Give away

Aaron's favorite song is "Give Said the Little Stream".    He sings it constantly.  In the car I have the Mo tab's Teach me to Walk CD and as soon as we start driving I hear "Give Away mommy" over and over again until I put it on.  As soon as the song is over I hear  "again."  So we drive around with this song on repeat. He also won't let us sing any other song for Family Night or for our nightly time to tuck you in song. 

Cortney told me that during the day when she is watching Aaron and her baby Grey starts to cry
Aaron rushes over to her and sings her his favorite song. 

Here is a link to Aaron singing this song.  If it asks for a password enter --Give-- and be sure to capitalize the G.


https://vimeo.com/127226220

The Woes of a 2 year old

 Bart mowed the lawn for the first time this season.  Aaron seeing his dad start up the lawn mower quickly got his out and attempted to mow the lawn as well.  The problem is his fisher price lawn mower is great on cement but as soon as it's on the grass the wheels don't move well.  For a while Aaron would tinker with his mower.  He got out his tools and tried to fix the wheels.  He filled it up with gas but it still would not maneuver over the grass very well.  

 Here he is trying to push it.  After a while his patience ran out. 



















So he picked up the lawn mower and threw it across the lawn a few times.  Then the tears came!  











 






 He trailed behind Bart wailing that his lawn mower won't work.  Bart finally picked him up and continued mowing the lawn.  Even though Aaron was hanging on for his life it calmed Aaron right down.  I guess he just really wanted to mow the lawn with his dad. 


Don't you worry Aaron you'll get your chance in a few years!

Me money!!

Aaron is constantly scavenging for money.  If I've left my purse on the table it's common to find him digging into it to find my coin purse to take a few coins off my hands.  In return I am constantly finding coins on the floor, picking them up and returning them to my coin purse.  When he sees me holding coins he instantly runs over and says "Me money"  to ask for them back.  It's a never ending cycle.

There is no doubt about it this kid knows what he wants.  When we were in Sam's Club the other day we strolled past the chips and crackers and Aaron sees this ginormous jar of cheese balls.  Aaron got so incredibly excited saying "me want those, me want those" that I couldn't say no.  He was such a happy camper when I gave it to him that he hugged it the rest of the time in the store.

My phone is Aaron's favorite toy lately.  He'll sneak off with it and be found watching "Fireman Sam, Bob the Builder, Barney, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or other favorites courtesy of Amazon Prime.  He also loves to take pictures with it and giggles and giggles when he takes pictures of his feet.

In case your dying for one of these blurring photos, I'd be happy to share since there is only 400 of these on my camera roll.

Aaron is all about multiple wardrobe changes throughout the day. His room is in a constant state of disaster with clothes tossed about and figuring out which is clean and dirty is quite a chore.   I'm considering hiding his clothes, especially now that the "rocket" ship washing machine took orbit and no longer works and we are temporarily out of the laundry business.  But that's another story......

Let's go to the movies

Emily was so excited to have a birthday party this year.  Her birthday fell during Spring Break which allowed us to have an afternoon party on the day of her Birthday!  She got so excited when she realized that she was born at 2pm and her party was going to start at 2 pm.  All week long she was counting down the days until her party.  On Wed she announced that tomorrow I will be able to say "Tomorrow is my birthday."   She had so many ideas of what to do.  At first she wanted to go to Chucky Cheese.  I told her that was fine but she could only invite like 1 friend.  Emily said she would rather have a big party so a home party was the other option.  She wanted to have the party at the park.  That would have been easy but April is too unpredictable to guarantee the weather would cooperate.  She wanted her friends to bring their favorite stuffed animal and the party evolved from a Teddy Bear Picnic to a "movie theme" party.

First things first my sister Allyson, who is always so willing to help with graphic design stuff, came up with these movie ticket invitations.  I only had the digital copy left but if you cut in the middle it becomes two invitations. 

 After the guests had arrived we went outside to the driveway and played a game of "Sidewalk Chalk movie pictionary"  Basically they took turns picking a piece of paper out of a bowl with a popular movie.  The made a drawing of the movie while the others tried to guess what movie it was.

We then went inside and played this matching game where you match the saying with the right movie.  

At this point everyone wanted Emily to open their present so we took a break from the games and Emily opened presents.

These glasses were the hit of the party!  Who says you need to spend a lot of money on gifts? 

 After the presents were opened the kids broke off into 2 groups and with their stuffed animal they went outside and made up a movie.  After some time I came out and filmed their creation.  Then we came inside and watched the 2 movies.  The girls loved seeing their movie on the big screen.

Next up was cake time.  I loved that these cupcakes were so easy and Emily approved. 

With some time to spare one of the girls suggested they take the water stick Emily got from one of the guests and go outside and have a water fight.  I've never been so happy for nice weather and a big back yard.  They were all in heaven running around.

 I spent some time on the internet and with Emily's approval we made some goodie bags for the guests to take home.

Tell me a Giant story

Long ago in my girls life, I use to tell them a story I made up to them at bedtime.   Lots of times I would tell a sort of "social story" about something going on in their life. ( FYI social stories are little stories that teach interpersonal communication and how to interact in an effective and appropriate manner).  Somewhere in all of these stories my girls started asking for stories about lots of different things from Hello Kitty to bunnies.  A favorite among them were what became "The Giant stories".

As time has gone by bedtime has become less 'complicated' and now consists of a prayer, primary song and a kiss goodnight.  Recently as I was tucking the girls in Emily asked me if I would tell her a giant story.  Jane got really excited and we all settled down in Jane's room and I told them these two beloved stories.   In case they want to someday tell them to there kids here they are.

"Once upon a time there were two tiny little fairies.  These fairies had a special job to take care of a big beautiful meadow full of flowers.  Each day the Fairies spent there time caring for the meadow and making the flowers so lovely.  One morning the Fairies went down to the meadow and discovered that somebody had been in the meadow killing the flowers.  This made the Fairies very sad. They didn't want their flowers to die.  That night instead of going home the fairies hid in some trees that were on the edge of the meadow to wait and find out who was ruining their beloved meadow.  After some time the Fairies heard BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, and they saw the biggest giant they had ever seen come into their meadow.  This giant went around the meadow squashing the flowers and laughing the whole time, saying "what fun it is to squash these horrible little flowers"!!!   The fairies where shocked!  What should they do?  The giant was so big and they were so little.  How could they stop him from ruining there meadow?  One of the fairies suggested that they go talk to the wisest fairy in all of fairy land.  The next morning they rushed to her door to ask her how they could stop the horrible giant from ruining there flowers.  The wise fairy listened to there plea, thought about it for a moment and then said "Perhaps we should make some fairy dust that would stop the giant from wanting to come to the meadow."   The Fairies spent the remainder of the day helping the wise fairy make this special potion.  That evening they waited with their fairy dust for the familiar sound. Soon they heard it,  BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.  The giant appeared ready to squash the flowers. The fairies were so small and couldn't be seen by the big giant they hurried and flew up to the giants noise.  Quickly they sprinkled some of their magic fairy potion under the giants nose.  The Giant suddenly started to sneeze and sneeze and sneeze.  He sneezed so much that when he finally stopped he said out loud "I must be allergic to these flowers, I'm getting out of here".  Off the giant went and never came back and the fairies and the meadow lived happily ever after"


"Once upon a time there was a fairy named Emily.  One day Emily decided she wanted to go play in the forest.  She went next door to ask her special friend Jane if she wanted to come along.  Both of their parents said it was OK if they made sure to be home by dinner.  So off flew Emily and Jane into the forest.  Both of the girls had such a fun time flying over the flowers and around the trees.  Suddenly the fairies looked up and saw the biggest house they had ever seen.  Jane looked at Emily and said "Giants must live here".    They flew quietly up to the window and looked inside and saw that nobody was home.  Emily then noticed that another window was slightly cracked open.  Just big enough for two fairies to slip into the house.  In the house the fairies saw a huge couch.  The TV was ginormous.  They flew into the kitchen and saw the biggest fridge, sink, stove, plates and glasses they had ever seen.  They then flew up the large staircase and into a bedroom full of toys that belonged to a 'giant girl'.  The fairies had so much fun playing with all the giant toys.  There favorite was playing in the giant girls doll house.  It was the perfect size for the fairies, who were the size of barbie dolls to play house.  In fact they played so long they lost track of time and before they knew it they heard a great big door open and close.  Oh no said Emily the giants are home.  Soon they heard sounds of feet coming up the stairs.  Quick we better hide said Jane.  They both jumped into the toy box and froze like Barbies.  A little girl, who was really huge to the fairies, stormed into the room and quickly started looking for a lost toy.  She looked in the doll house, under her bed and then opened up the toy box.  She found the missing toy and didn't notice notice the fairies who were laying very still.  The fairies heard the girl run down the stairs and back outside.  Emily turned to Jane and said "Quick lets get out of here".  The fairies flew to the door and looked down the stairs and noticed the cost was clear.  They bolted to the window as fast as their tiny wings would go.  As soon as they got to the kitchen they saw the mother giant coming into the room.  They ducked into a cup to avoid being seen.  To their dismay they saw the mother come pick up the very cup they were hiding in.  The giant picked up the cup to fill it up with water.  Just as she turned on the sink the phone rang.  The mother giant set the cup down and walked out of the room to find her phone.  Relieved the fairies quickly flew out of the cracked window and made it home just in time for supper.  The End

Here I go again...

This weekend I've been in a fighting match.  A fight against foot pain.  So far Loratab and I are winning the battle of the bunion correction pain.   Unfortunately  the pin that is fixing my hammer toe in my pinkie toe is holding out the winner of the most painful thing I've yet to experience.  On Thurs night at it's peak my mom giving a pep talk said to remember that it is all for the best and when it is all over you'll be thankful you did it.  I told her I'll have to think about that tomorrow  I'm in too much pain to think about that now.  

Mutual Adoration

It's well known that the girls have always adored Aaron.  What you may not know is how much this little guy adores his sisters.  The other day, while driving I glanced back and noticed Aaron and Emily calmly holding hands in the back seat.  I giggled and Emily said "What, Aaron asked to hold my hand".  Each day after we send Jane off on the bus I read a story, rock and put Aaron down for a nap.  Before I leave the room he says "Nap... Emi, Jane home"  I reply "Yes Aaron, Emily and Jane will be home after your nap."   When they are home he wants to be right with them.  He's so sad when he gets kicked out the big girls rooms so they can play without little boys hands grabbing everything.  One night he was particularly attached to Emily but Emily wanted to finish something in her room.  Whenever she tried to slip away he started to cry and reached out to her, hugged her and held on to her ever so tight.  It melted her heart and she stayed and played.  The rest of the night he would not let her out of his sight.

Now that Emily wears glasses I notice Aaron walking around proudly sporting yellow glasses that have been floating around with the dress up clothes for a couple of years.  It's obvious he wants to be just like his sisters.  Like the other day when I was doing Jane's hair.  There's always a few howls associated with Jane's sensitive scalp.  The next thing I see is Aaron taking the brush off the counter and walking away combing his wispy blond hair saying "Aaawwwa...Aaawwwa" as if he has lots of knots in his own hair.


I admire this adoration and am so proud of the love that exists between my children.