May 30 = Bashful Day

First of all I'll share a picture of Liam that Zachary captured when he got home from work today.  Looks like he's not taking his nap like he's supposed to be...

And then I have to share a story that made me smile.  We go to the gym pretty much every day.  The girls in the Kids' Club are so great and love the kids.  Liam first fell in love with Bekah.  She's babysat the kids for us before- she's definitely a favorite.  Liam knew her name and that's saying something.  But she's not been working as much when we're there and Liam now has another favorite.  Her name is Irma and on her first day there, I knew there was going to be a connection.  They're so cute together.  And now when we go to the gym, he'll say "go see Irma."  Well for the past few days she hasn't been there and he's definitely been disappointed.  Today, we were talking on the way in and he said "go see Irma" and I said "maybe, buddy."  We walked around the corner and there she was.  I expected Liam to be so excited but instead he got super bashful!  I've never seen him act the way he did tonight- it was so funny. 

May 29 = Wedding Day!

My parents came in yesterday- they left after my dad got off work so they got in pretty late.  They're watching the kids for us this weekend so we can go to a wedding!  One of Zachary's fellow LEAD Program cohort members got married today in Norfolk, VA.  We were hoping to have some time to ride around and look at where we may be living in two years or so but we barely made it to the wedding in time.  It's Memorial Day weekend so traffic was pretty heavy.  We got this picture of Miss Malia while we were riding- she must not have gotten enough sleep last night!

We got to the hotel with some time to change but the line of people checking in was long and they were doing renovations so there were no public bathrooms downstairs.  So we had to change in the car. When we got there, we sat towards the back and didn't see any of Zachary's other fellow cohort members that were supposed to be there... they were later than we were!  They got there after the bride walked in... but no judgment here- traffic was rough.  Anyway- the wedding was beautiful.  And we were planning on staying at the reception for a little while so we could look around Norfolk and spend some time together without screaming children.  But we had so much fun at the reception that we stayed until almost 9pm!  Zachary talked me into doing karoke... we sang "Lucky" by Jason Mraz and Colby Caillat.  I got five weeks off from cleaning out the litter box for it.  Here's a picture of all the guys singing karoke a little later when everyone was nice and intoxicated...

And here's a better picture of Zachary with this fellow cohort members: Kayron, Kelly, Will, Brandon.

May 28 = Spaghetti Day

We had spaghetti for dinner... can you tell?

May 27 = Playground Day

We are still taking advantage of the warm weather with a lack of rain.  We went across the street to this little playground and Liam especially had a blast.  He's a huge fan of going up slides instead of down... I'm too impressed with his coordination to tell him to do differently.

On the way back, they held hands... so sweet!

May 26 = Play Outside Day

On Tuesday I ran to Babies R Us real quick to see if they had any alternate baby proofing solutions now that Liam has figured out how to open doors with the regular old knob protector.  I found something- we'll see if it works.  While I was there I also got him a car seat to put in Zachary's car so that some days I can bring Liam to Zachary and they can hang out and Zachary can bring him home!  Here he is trying out his new seat:

I got one other thing from Babies R Us- a kiddie pool!  We'll see if we have any more success with it this year than we did last year!

And when they were done checking out the pool, they returned to the trusty turtle sandbox!

We decided to strip them down outside before they brought all the sand in with them... Malia was a fan.

May 25 = Park Day

Zachary got off pretty early yesterday so we took advantage and went to Kinder Farm Park.  We met my new MOPS friend, Christina.  We saw a few animals but spent most of our time on the playground.  I put lots of sunscreen on the kids but they got really really red so we got scared and left after about 30 minutes.  We went straight to chickfila to have dinner and then to the gym and by the time we got to the gym, they weren't red anymore.  I was so terrified I bought bad sunscreen and that they were both burnt but thankfully, I think they were just hot.

Here's Malia and Liam singing and chirping on the way to chickfila:

And here's Malia after dinner- the park wore her out!

May 24 = Dentist Day

The kids both had dentist appointments this morning! At the time I made these back to back appointments, it seemed like a great idea.  Note to self: it is not a good idea.  We had to entertain ourselves for 30 minutes past our appointment time and that was no small feat. 

Thirty minutes doesn't seem that long.  If the kids took a 30 minute nap, that wouldn't be long.  But while in a waiting room, 30 minutes takes forever.  But we made it.  Liam went first and got his first actual cleaning.  He hated it.  Then Malia went and they counted her teeth and told me again that the enormous gap between her top two teeth is fine...

Later, we went to a graduation party for some of Zachary's midshipmen- it was downtown and here's Zachary and his little girl:

 Also I saw this today and had to share... so true.

May 23 = New Slide Day

I've joined a facebook group called MOPS Swap for the sole purpose of hopefully finding a slide for this child.  Every time there's a post I look immediately but no one is trying to get rid of a slide.  So I finally broke down and got one at Target today.  He's a big fan!

May 22 = Caillou Day

I thought we were over Caillou.  We're not.  As Liam was watching Caillou, I was scrolling through facebook and saw this:

I sent it to Zachary who was also reluctantly listening to Caillou's very annoying voice.  He welcomed the text distraction and laughed out loud with me.

May 20 = Moving Day

We got some work done last night but the majority of the work is going to be done today!  I didn't take any pictures during the day because my cute kids weren't there to be in them but I did take a picture of my delicious lunch at the Village with Alexandra.

I got lots of texts from Zachary letting me know how their day was going and sending me lots of pictures so I didn't miss everyone too much!  He sent me this:

and then a video to show her new habit: 

They had to get up early (for the kids, late for Zachary) to go to a ceremony at the Academy so this was Liam before dinner:

Zachary moved some furniture around to make our lives easier- these kids get into everything!  Liam's favorite trick is to move our kitchen table's chairs to the counter and he can access everything and therefore make a big mess.  So Zachary moved the table and chairs into the area that has a gate blocking it off when we want it blocked off.  That meant the toddler bed that had been in that area had to be moved so he moved it to Malia's room and she slept on it like it was no big deal.  Liam still hasn't transitioned to his bed yet- he doesn't stay in it until he passes out but Malia stayed in it all night!

Just in case, Zachary moved the changing table contents out of Miss Malia's reach:

 I also got this precious picture of Joey:

I'm so glad to get to help my parents move but I do miss them all!

May 19 = Drive to NC Day

My parents are moving this weekend so I'm driving down to help and I'm going by myself!  This is the first time ever that I've left the kids at home with Zachary and gone somewhere by myself- it's so weird!

I saw this on facebook and thought it was really great- I don't have anything to apply it to right now but it's such a good point.

Before leaving, I tried a new game with Liam.  I had gotten some paint samples- ya know, the cards with different colors on them.  I cut them all up so we had tons of little strips of different colors and got my different colored cups and bowls and had Liam sort them- we did a similar game with little poms a while ago.  

That was too easy so then I moved the bowls and cups onto the steps so that he had to work a little harder.  Marley was supervising:

Malia wanted in on the fun too.  I should have taken a video but Liam was being so sweet showing Malia which bowl or cup to put each strip in.  He's such a good brother.

Part of packing was folding laundry because I didn't have any clothes to pack... Joey wasn't the most help.

After stopping to get gas, I was getting back on the interstate and had a horse friend in front of me.

When I got to Graham I went to the house my parents sold to get the few things left behind before locking up and moving on!  Before leaving, I sat on the front porch one last time and got this picture.

I can clearly remember sitting right here and playing the "car game" with my grandparents, parents, brother and aunts and whoever else was there.  Everyone would pick their color and we'd count how many cars of each person's color went by and whoever had the most points at a undefined time would win.  I also remember throwing a tennis ball with my grandparents' dog, Princess.  We played badminton and bocce ball... Matthew and I would throw a baseball or kick a soccer ball back and forth for hours. Just looking at this picture can take me back to that time so easily and quickly so I'll cherish this picture.

Another picture that was fun to see was this one- it was taken on my first birthday and while it doesn't look exactly like Malia, I could definitely see similarities when I first looked at it.  It might be the attitude...

May 19 = Diaper Disaster Day

Today started off like a normal day.  I opened Liam's door and he ran into our room to get the iPad so he could play his morning music while I changed Malia.  I FaceTimed my mom because I needed to tell her something- can't remember what it was now- and was taking my time... when I finally picked Liam up to change him, he was soaked.  Then I realized he had somehow taken his diaper off without taking his clothes off.  If you look at the bottom of his right leg you'll see a bump in his pajamas.  That's his diaper.  So early morning bath for Liam!

 Loved this:

 Loved this as well:

 And loved this the most:

Some of my favorite moments in life are after the kids are in bed for a while, one of them wakes up and is being super sweet so we'll bring him/her down and spend some one on one time with him/her.  Tonight it was Malia's turn.  She's such a sweetheart, especially when she's tired!

May 18 = Favorite Video Ever Day

First I saw this on facebook and laughed out loud and then sent it to Zachary.

Next I'll share some pictures of some of the preschool work we did today.  We worked on the letter A which Liam pronounces like the letter E.  There's a subtle difference between the pronunciation of his A and his E so I can tell he knows but it takes a discerning ear to hear it!  This picture shows the first time he has attempted to actually color something instead of just indiscriminately scribbling all over the page!

While Liam and I were working, Malia sneaked off with a marker and did some artwork of her own. 

As a side note- I typed in snuck before changing it to sneaked because spell-check says snuck isn't a word.  I then googled it and in case you were wondering, sneaked is the traditional past tense of sneak but snuck is an American word and is an acceptable alternative.

Anyways.  Here's a video that I'm so so glad I captured.  How cute is she?!?!

May 17 = Help Sister Day

I'm going to start with that because although Liam is three, he's getting close to four and this totally applies.

Today was our last MOPS meeting.  We ate some yummy food and played some games- one of them was "Mingle Bingo" where you have a bingo card and you have to find people that match descriptions in each of the squares.  Some of the descriptions were:

Is a twin
Drives a Prius
Knows how to sew

The only two out of 24 that applied to me was "has a tattoo" and "dislikes tomatoes."  After the games all the moms picked their kids up from Moppets and we all met downstairs in the gym for what was supposed to be a fun "picnic" because it was raining outside.  Part of the meeting was "sharing time" for people to talk about what MOPS means to them.  One girl said she was disappointed she hadn't been able to come very much but that she's looking forward to next year and is really hoping to make some friends.  I can definitely relate so I found her at the picnic afterward and we discussed how hard it is to find friends!  She's super nice and I think we're going to plan some play dates during the summer to keep us busy until MOPS starts back up in the fall!  I had to leave early because Liam was throwing tantrums because I wouldn't let him open the doors off of the gym that opened up into rooms with lots of musical instruments in them.  It wasn't pleasant.

But he had a nap and afterward was feeling a little better.  I asked him to clean his room when I got him up and that involved putting his number puzzle pieces in the right spots and when Malia came in, he started pointing to the spot each of the pieces she was picking up went and it was so cute!  I waited too long to start taking a video so you only see him helping with one piece but it was so, so cute.

 

May 16 = Magic Carpet Ride Day

Zachary got them on this and told them to say "Weeeeee" and put their hands up in the air like they were on a magic carpet... Liam didn't participate but Malia was really into it.