It's Someone's Birthday Somewhere

Isaiah's favorite song is "Happy Birthday to You." He is always making Mega Block cakes and singing happy birthday. If there is a candle lit in the house or on a t.v. commercial, he exclaims, "Happy Birthday!" and tries to blow it out. It's lots of fun to watch and listen to him sing.

Joanna has been experimenting with her voice a lot lately. She's been shrieking, growling and playing with her tongue. Blowing bubbles is a favorite oral exercise. She still prefers to fuss until someone comes to get her rather than change positions herself. She is able to roll from her tummy to her back and I really think if she'd just try, she could roll her hips over and get to her tummy from her back. She's just not willing to. She wants to work on sitting instead. Maybe the view is more appealing.

I haven't put up any pictures recently, so I thought now would be a good time. These are from Christmas.

The best family picture we could get. Joanna did not like her outfit. I love that outfit. She hates it. The teen years are going to be fun.

Tim and Isaiah with Isaiah's Christmas present.

The Fireplace is NOT an ATM Machine

A couple of weeks ago, while Tim is at AWANA, I sit at the computer to check e-mail and catch up with a friend of mine. Isaiah decides his movie is boring. So he goes to the diaper bag and pulls out my wallet. At first, I don't notice. Then I realize what he has, that he's got in open and is taking things out. I tell him to bring it to me and give him a chance to obey. After a while he finally does. When I go to snap it closed...I notice a couple of cards are not in their spots. So after seaching my home, high and low, trying to think like a two-year old little boy...all the while asking him where he put my cards and getting the response "I don't know" with a huge grin, I take drastic measures and pause his movie. After grilling him a bit, (and trying not to laugh because he's being really cute...) I get him to confess.
"Empty," while shrugging his shoulders, "All gone."
"What do you mean, 'Empty?' Where did you put my cards?!?"
He goes over to the fireplace vent and looks in while pointing in it. I get a flash light and sure enough, there is my Costco membership card and what appears to be a.....bank card. After trying various means to retreive them, I decide to wait until Tim gets home. In the meantime I check my wallet and find that I have no idea what bank card it is, but it must not be one that I use.
When Tim gets home, he takes the fireplace apart as best as he can and finds that the cards are stuck between the sheet metal of the fireplace and the wall. Never to be gotten to, unless the land lord decides he wants a new fireplace. At least he did discover that the alleged bank card is only an American Express magnet that came in some credit card offer. *whew* I got a new Costco card the next time I went in and it was no big deal.
So the next Wednesday night...Tim is at AWANA again, of course. The kids and I are home with my father in law and brother in law. Isaiah gets one of his Cars memory game cards stuck in the fireplace vent. My father in law gets it out and then I find Isaiah got another one stuck behind the sheet metal and wall....again! He still talks about that silly Cars card being in the fireplace. I think he got his butterfly magnet in there too now. I figure one day, when someone decides they don't like that fireplace because it has silly little vents that probably aren't even necessary as it is a gas fireplace so it is more for looks than anything else and only attracts small children to deposit thin, flat objects into them, and gets rid of it...well they will have all sorts of treasures.
Now all I really want to know is if we can use the fireplace or if it will melt the plastic "treasures" and release toxic fumes into the air? Someone has to have an answer on this...I can't have the only kid in the world who has done this.

Cinnamon Covered Ants Anyone?

The ants go marching 50 by 50. Hurrah! Hurrah! I just deep cleaned my master bathroom on Tuesday evening and by Wednesday night, the floor was covered with ants again. So I just keep vacuuming in there. Sprinkling cinnamon sure seemed to help in the guest bathroom. I don't think it will work in the master though...I don't think I can get to their point of entry. They had to choose to come in through the base of the toilet. We're using those liquid ant traps, but they just aren't cutting it. Anybody have some bright ideas?

I am so looking forward to this weekend. It will be nice to get to see Tim again. I don't know how Military wives do it. I think they'd have to lock me up. I'm just thankful that this busy time is only a season for us. Well my timer just went off, so I better go grab the cookies out of the oven before they burn. Have a great weekend!

HHHHHUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGG

Lately Isaiah has been wanting lots of hugs. Usually, it's when he's trying to manipulate a situation in his favor. For instance, in Target when he really wants to walk (wander, rather) on his own about the store. So at first it starts out with a hug. Then he wiggles his way out of my arms. Followed by staying close to Mommy and then finally, running between clothes racks and throwing boxes of pantyhose. I think we're learning to just cry, "hug" to get out of doing anything that we'd prefer not to do. He knows Mommy will always give a hug. I hope he'll catch on soon that, yes, he will get a hug, but he will still have to obey.

On a happier note, we did survive that trip to Target and even another one. So now we're pretty much set with Christmas decorations, except for a stocking for Isaiah. I haven't found the right one yet. Anyway, we worked on decorating our tree last night and found that many of our ornaments are missing hooks. :-/ We mainly have special ornaments, but we really need to work on making ribbon ties for our little purple and white glass ball ornaments to fill our tree in more. Here are some pictures anyway.

Isaiah and his Baby's First Christmas ornament

Hanging it...

Joanna and her Baby's First Christmas ornament

Helping Daddy

It's About Time

I've thought many times about starting a real blog. You know, something other than a myspace whose sole purpose is to be able to keep in contact with friends that have literally scattered across the globe. So almost three years into our marriage and two children later, I'm finally doing it. :-) I'm really not good about journaling, but I think it would be good to start doing it for my family's sake and for those of you out there whom I fail to call on a regular basis that would like to know how we're all doing. So here goes...

Timothy and I are coming up on our third wedding anniversary. It really is hard to believe that. I know it's not that long, but the past three years have really flown by. I know some time must have lapsed, since after all, we do have a two year old and a four month old. A boy and a girl, which is what we call, "a great start." :-) Still, it does not feel like three years have passed.

It's high school soccer season, which means the kids and I are spending lots of time without a Husband or Daddy. In fact, that's where Tim is now and will be on Tuesday night. (I'll probably be posting a lot on reffing evenings. So you can most likely expect more updates to come.) The kids and I really wanted to go to his games today, but Joanna has a cough that makes us think she doesn't need to be out in the cold, windy weather. It was a bit of a letdown for Isaiah. I was expecting him to have more of an issue with it than he did. I'm glad he handled it well. He hasn't been handling most things well lately. I think he's still getting over the cough he shared with Joanna, which probably explains the moods. He is still such a sweet boy though. He adores his sister and she is growing to love him more every day. I love watching them interact.

Joanna has had thrush since ten days after she was born. It was really rough for me for a while there, but hasn't gotten that bad in weeks. I just tell myself in a year or so from now, she will probably be weaned or in the process of and it will all be over. Hopefully it won't last that long. Other than that and her spitting up episodes, we really haven't had any issues with her. She is a very sweet little girl who seems to love people the same way her brother does. With a family as big as ours, it really never was an option not to be a people person. ;-) She sleeps at least 6 hours every night. Usually, she goes for a longer strectch. Lately she hasn't been, I think either because of the cough she's fighting off, or maybe a growth spurt. I sure do appreciate the sleep!

Speaking of sleep, both of the kids are just now down for a nap at once. Not a normal occurance around here, so I ought to take advantage of it. I'll come back to this another time.

Until then, I hope you all take care and I look forward to hearing from you and trying to keep you all updated on our life in this Ferrill home. :-)