Shout out to Grammy

I love when Zachary draws something/someone specific on his own. This is "Grammy." I think my favorite part is the lashes...or maybe the fact that she's doing the splits?

Allie-talk

In the past 2 months, Allie's language has quadrupled (at least). She is very assertive and has so many great words. She's also putting lots of sentences together. Yesterday she said, "Mommy, shoe off me!" as I pulled her out of the grocery cart. And sure enough, her shoe had fallen off. I love (LOVE) to hear her talk. It is the sweetest thing. Here are just a few of my favorites.

"I doooo!" = Whenever we ask her if she wants to do something, this is what she says. And whenever we ask Zachary if HE wants to do something, this is what she says.

"aud jew" = "Hold you." When she wants to be held. ALL the time.

"meeelk" = She LOVES milk. Asks for it all day.

"tan kew" = This is her "thank you" and she says thank you ALL the time. This might be my favorite because she is so considerate!! If you tell her she is cute or pretty or whatever, she says "tan kew". She also says it if you do something for her or give her something. Sometimes she even says it when I say, "I love you." She'll say, "Tan kew, Mommy." Oh...melt my heart.

"mee-yew" = This is the word she uses for any & all Kitty Cats (which are her FAVORITE).

"unnies" = Big girl undies.

"sdairs" = She says this whenever she wants to go upstairs OR downstairs.

"t-tee" = Cookie. Loves her some cookies.

"cho-cate"= Chocolate. Loves her some chocolate. That's my girl.

"NumNums"= M&Ms. I love this because she says it so darn cute.

"ceerl" = cereal

"-gul" = bagel (And every day, she likes for me to ask which one of these two items she would like for breakfast. I think she really likes to make her own choice!)

"Daddy go?" "Zat-y go?"= Whenever anyone leaves the room, she asks this and puts her little hands up to gesture the question.

"Bob. tumb." = Whenever we leave church, she says these words over & over all through lunch. Her Sunday school teacher is Mr. Bob and he teases that he's going to get her thumb (the one she sucks). This makes me laugh!

"mingo" = Flamingo

"minger" = Fingers

"o-tay" = OK. She says this all the time and I love it.

"teal" = Seal

"Panda moobee" = "Panda Movie." She brings the remote to me, yelling this over & over because she wants to watch Kung Fu Panda.

"bed" = This is what she says to me when I try to rock her & sing to her in her room, just before bed. She points to her bed and tells me that's where she'd rather be. Breaks my heart, but I am proud she's so independent, assertive & secure.

Integration of Church and Sports

Our church is promoting a Super Bowl-themed high attendance month. Last Sunday, the preschoolers were supposed to wear a football uniform. Allie is starting to be very particular about what she wears, so I let her pick out which jersey she wanted and everything else she'd wear. I was SO very glad it all matched (and looked super cute).

A lot more laughs

The kids have been super funny lately. Zachary found a Santa hat somewhere deep in the caverns of the playroom and decided to put on his Christmas jammies (which do not really fit anymore) and be Santa. Initially, we thought he'd just dress like Santa, but the kid took it much further. He put his little rocking chair in the hall and asked everyone to come & sit on his lap to tell him what we wanted for Christmas.
After we told him what we wanted, he'd get up, go in the playroom and get the item to give to us. He fully expected Todd & I to sit on his lap in that tiny rocking chair and come up with something we wanted from the playroom. Yes we did. But my favorite part was when he convinced Allie to play into it. She really did. Over & over, she'd sit right on his lap and ask for a gift. This went on for a good portion of a full day. So funny.
Disclaimer: My ill camera has no flash, so the pictures are poor quality.

Tough questions

Zachary's been in that "Why?" stage for a few months. I'd heard about this stage, of course, but had no idea that some of these "Why?" questions would actually blow my mind. I'll have more, but here are a few from today.

Zachary: "Mommy, how does a mommy duck kiss her babies since she has a beak?"

Zachary: "Mommy, what's under the dirt under the sidewalk?"

Zachary: "Mommy, why doesn't the sand in the hour glass move when you hold it sideways?"

A lot of laughs

Zachary picked this funny glasses set out of the treasure box at school. We have laughed a lot because it really looks so VERY funny on both of them!

...And the static on Allie's hair, her full belly and the way-too-big crocs on the wrong feet completes the whole look!

Cutie Little Ones

One of my favorite things about my stay-at-home-mom days is the way the kids dress themselves. They both love jammies, so they'll wear them all day. Then, throughout the day, they'll layer skirts, leggings, jewelry, hats, mismatched shoes, undies, neckties, and whatever else they find to put over their jammies. I really love to see the mess they come downstairs wearing. These two pictures are just them being silly in their matching jammies.

Do you see what they're holding in this pic? She has the container, he has the playdough that was in the container, still in its shape. So very funny. This is what Zachary does when I try to take a picture of him...and little Allie copies everything he does.

Enough evidence for a conviction

You know my camera's been broke for almost a month now. I was tinkering with it today, trying to see if I could fix it, when I found these images on the memory card. They are the last photos taken on the camera before it stopped functioning correctly. I believe someone was giving Panda a little fashion show photo shoot. And that little someone probably shouldn't be using my camera...But these pictures really made me laugh. Just imagining Zachary changing Panda's capes, setting him up in these poses and taking pictures while unsupervised is super funny. (My camera being broke is not super funny, but I'll deal with that another day.)

A & Z meet baby Ari

I took the kids to Charlotte so they could meet their first-ever cousin, Ari. She was born on New Year's Eve and the hospital had a policy that didn't allow the kids to see her before we had to head home. They were really excited to see her, however, Zachary was a little concerned that "the baby would want to chew on Panda...!" When we reassured him that Panda was safe, he made sure the baby got an extra-special Panda kiss right away.

Allie wanted to share some of her old baby toys with Ari.

Zachary helped feed her a bottle.

He was really proud!!

Ari enjoyed some awake time with her loud, fast-moving cousins.

And Uncle Dan got to imagine what life would be like with three kids, each 2 years apart. I think he used the word, "chaotic..." at some point.

Family Pictures

My camera appears to be in a coma. We're not officially calling it dead...but it is close. So I haven't taken pictures in awhile. No pictures = Less blog posts. Sorry! But, I realized that I hadn't posted these family pictures Aunt Jen took a month ago. She did a great job. I love my little family!!

We have a niece!!

Ari Taylor Haller, born 01-01-10 at 3:05am weighed 6lbs, 15 0z. We are very excited!! I have no pictures, but here's Jenny's blog.