Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Inside activity to wear your child out

What are you supposed to do when it is 20 degrees outside with a horrible freezing wind?!? Plus you have boys that need to get some energy out in a way other than trashing your house and tackling you and his sister. My friend Jessie and I decided to get out our small trampoline. This kept all the kids occupied for over an hour. It was great!! I don't know why I haven't thought of this before. I told her she should buy one for Landon cuz that boy has more energy than any other kid I know.
Don't they look cute here all dresses like twins practically!!
We let them jump 2 together until one of them kept falling off and then it was one at a time which worked okay as long as we remembered who was after who and that they all had equal time.
If you have one of these I highly recommend it. It even works well in small houses with limited space as you can see.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Crafty kids

I've been having the kids make lots of homemade stuff for gifts this year. Cameryn has really been enjoying all the painting and stuff. I only let Luke use watercolor paints though so most of the painting is done by Cameryn.

So today I was having Cameryn finish up the last three gifts that needed painting and Luke of course wanted to join in so I got out the watercolors too. Then I noticed how he was painting. Look at the picture below and tell see if you notice anything different.


Here is a closer look:
If you didn't notice, I'll tell you. He is using his left hand!! But that's not all, I have also seen him using his right hand too. YAY!!! I have passed it on!! I am ambidextrous and so was my Grandma on my dad's side. Unfortunately, I stopped doing it at a young age because I wanted to be like my sister who was right handed. I can still do a lot of things with both hands but my handwriting with my left hand isn't very good anymore. It's still probably better than most people trying to write with their left hand but I wish that I had kept writing with both hands. I hope that he keeps it up too.

Here is one of the ornaments that Cameryn painted today too. She is such a good little artist and I love watching how quickly she progresses with all of that. I had more to write but I have to go bath some kids and put them to bed.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Toys in timeout

I love that my kids play together so nicely for the most part, but boy Cameryn can be bossy. I know I know, typical older sister right. It's just so annoying to listen to sometimes. Like today for instance, Cameryn and Luke are playing with the Little People house and some Star Wars toys. I'm hearing them while in the kitchen and they are playing nicely together. Suddenly all I can hear is Cameryn saying "NO NO!! That's not right!" and on and on with a bossy tone of voice. I peek in the living room and all seems okay but I tell Cameryn that she needs to stop telling her brother what to do and let him play however he wants to. She then tells me "That was the toy, not me". Okay, yeah, sure... I then say "Fine then, if your toy can't start being nice and stop being bossy than the "toy" is going in timeout".

That stopped it for a little bit and they seem to be playing nicely again. I don't want to interfere in their playing too much, but I also don't want Cameryn dominating the playing all the time and not letting Luke do what he wants to do. Most of the time I just leave them be as long as there is no loud screaming and crying because I want them to learn to work things out (even at their young ages) by themselves. But sometimes I just get so annoyed with Cameryn's bossy yelling (or the toys bossy yelling, whatever) and I have to say something. Is that wrong? Should I just let it go as long as Luke doesn't get mad? I go back and forth on this all the time. Sometimes I figure as long as he doesn't mind, why should I? But seriously, it is soooooooooooo annoying sometimes and I really can't help myself.

Like I've said a million times though, I am lucky with my children. They play together so well and I really can't complain too much. I was shopping with my mom last Thursday at the mall (I had to pick up their pictures) and they were so cute and happy running all over together. I won't lie though, I did get annoyed at how hard it was to keep track of them and I did try my best to control them better in the stores (without much luck). When I think about it now though, it was really sweet and I love seeing them holding hands and running together. Though it doesn't work so well in a crowded mall with them zigging and zagging and cutting in front of everyone else walking along. Oh well, most people didn't seem to mind, though I'm sure in their heads they were thinking "That mother should control her kids better" which is actually what I was thinking. Shopping with kids is never a good idea but it's just a part of life and we all deal with it.

Saturday, December 06, 2008

For my enjoyment!!

I have really been enjoying my kids recently. Luke is becoming so talkative and funny and he and Cameryn have been getting along so well. He has started calling her "Cam" out of nowhere and it is so beyond adorable. I LOVE it!!

His new favorite thing is doing somersaults.... naked of course is best. He still does them with clothes on but as soon as he is out of the bath, he is doing his little dance and then doing the somersaults. I couldn't get Cameryn to do them forever. She was scared for whatever reason but my mom brought out this little exercise mat at her house and now they both love to get it out and do somersaults for long periods of time. Of course I have a video of it. Well this is before the mat so it's mostly Luke. And I convinced him to let me put a diaper on before I started videotaping. I didn't think anyone else needed to see the naked ones.

Cameryn is really loving her Preschool playgroup. She is making friends which I'm very excited about. I love asking her what they did that day. Her stories usually revolve around what dress ups she wore that day and what the snack was but I can sometimes get out more info by asking more questions. One of the girls, Katrina, loves to invite Cameryn over to her house, which Cameryn of course is more than willing to do.

I'm so proud of her. She is mostly past the horrible horrible three year old stage and is really a wonderful big sister. She and Luke both love to look at books and "read" then to each other. That usually consists of them turning the pages and "beating up" the bad guys on them and then laughing (they just lightly punch the pages). They will play for hours with all our Little People and their house, the Star Wars toys, of course the Princesses and toy cars to fit them all in. I love to watch and listen to their play. Luke's imagination is very hilarious compared to Cameryn's. He mostly follows her lead but sometimes the Princesses or whatever he's playing with just have to use the bathroom multiple times. They must have eaten something bad or just too much birthday cake which is another of his favorite scenarios. It's pretty hilarious to hear while I'm cleaning in the kitchen or something.

There are so many cute things that Luke says now and of course I wish I could get them all on video tape. I know I'm going to forget some of the really cute things that he says. It's pretty interesting because Cameryn spoke so well as a toddler and almost always enunciated everything perfectly. She practically started speaking in sentences. Luke was more your typical child in learning to talk. Little new words picked up every day or so and then suddenly he is non stop talking and saying hilarious things. He talks a lot more than the other kids his age but I think that's mainly thanks to having an older sister who talks a lot too (at least they both do at home). It's still pretty difficult sometimes to understand him without a translator (me) but for the most part other people can understand him to. Then there are those news things he says that no one knows what he means until a day or two later when I finally figure it out.

I am really enjoying having two kids now and I love that they are so close and love each other so much. They love to play anything together and both love giving hugs. Except that has now turning into wrestling. Luke runs and gives Cameryn this huge hug but then lets his knees go under him so that she is holding him up and since they weight about the same and he came at her running, it turns into a tackle. It is another hilarious thing that I love watching. They laugh and laugh and then do it again.

Luke also broke his glasses that he is supposed to wear to help straighten his eyes. My dad fixed them for him once and then he broke them again. They are now fixed again but I desperately need to buy him a new pair. Thankfully we just got new insurance through Mike's work that has some vision coverage and covers one pair of glasses a year (or something like that). I'm just waiting for it to go into effect. He was very excited when my dad fixed his glasses. When his Grampa asked him who fixed his glasses, he looked up all happy and yelled "YOU did Dampa!!"

I haven't been taking as many pictures as usual for whatever reason but I'm excited about decorating my house for Christmas and will definitely take lots of pictures of the kids then!! For now enjoy the video of Luke's almost naked somersaults, along with a few songs by Cameryn and Luke!!