April fools?

In honor of April Fool's day some of the items below are true and some are not.

1. Morgan has marriage proposals out to at least 5 different people


2. Simon fell off the dryer


3. The new car is only a few days old and already has required a good vacuuming on the inside


4. Simon is currently training for the 2032 Summer Olympics in trampoling


5. Morgan ate a stick of butter


6. The new car has been named "Elizabeth" and old car has been named "Elmo"


7. Morgan has now been admitted to the hospital more times then Patrick


8. Simon and Morgan's favorite genre of music is Irish Punk

Good luck guessing!

Giggles and... more giggles

It would appear that Simon has come down with a rather infectious case of the giggles. Don't worry - we're getting it checked out. For some reason if Simon has a full belly, a clean diaper, and no sleepy eyes he becomes a very happy little boy. We thought Morgan was a happy baby but I have to say there is just no comparison to Simon's giggle spurts. So far he seems to be partial to funny faces, tickles, bouncing in the air, and duck sounds. But of course he always has a smile for big goofy sisters.

Speaking of which, I fully expect Morgan to assume the role of class clown when she starts preschool. Even her current play school teacher thinks she's funny. And naturally Morgan is fully aware of her comedic talent which of course makes it even funnier to watch. Right now we're focusing on her slapstick routine and general musings but I'm sure it won't be long now before she's asking what's the deal with monkey bars.

Who knew that my award-winning wit and natural comedic timing plus Patrick's child-like giggle infestations would produce such funny and entertaining kids.

Random facts, part 4

Morgan's favorite movies: Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Coraline, Monsters vs. Aliens, and Curious George 2

Simon's favorite movies: See above

Snoozing and schooling

After getting Simon checked out for his 4 month appointment I believe I can now officially request information on Duke's early acceptance guidelines since little boy is measuring in at 27" long - aka the 95th percentile for those keeping track. For a bit of comparison Morgan at 4 months came in at 25" and 14lbs. Simon tipped the scale at 15lbs which is actually a bit on the small side compared to his height. Aside from the gigantism Simon is doing quite well. He is an ace at rolling over, loves tummy time, and routinely comes down with a serious case of the giggles. He also loves looking at his big sister but in his defense she is quite silly to look at. And Simon is quite the big boy now with sleeping in his big boy crib. He still wakes up about once a night and then again between 5-7 am but that's still a pretty good deal. Now I just have to do something about Mr. Snorey McSnoreington...

Speaking of sleeping, my side of the bed has seen quite a bit of damage of the last couple of days. Earlier this week Simon and I were enjoying some early morning giggles in between a diaper change. Apparently Simon gets quite relaxed while giggling and decided to show off his impeccable 4 month old aim. If he was aiming for my blanket then he's got quite the shot on him. No worries since I of course needed to get out of bed at 5:30 am. Then jump to last night where Morgan decided that she wanted to have a slumber party in our bed. No worries to this either since the last slumber party we had was the night before Simon was born. Until of course she decided to christen my sheets seeing as how Simon already beat her on the blanket front. And did I mention that Morgan is a close sleeper. Which means she cuddles. Super close. To me. I was already awake at 3 am anyway. At least Morgan also noticed the extreme log cutting that was happening on the other side of the bed...

Well aside from that one little blip Morgan has been doing well with potty time. Although she was concerned that since she has really excelled in this area she really didn't want to make any of her friends look bad. So after some careful deliberation Morgan made the brave, I think, choice to regress a tad bit mainly with pooping in the potty. But again, she did it for her friends. She really is quite thoughtful and considerate.

We did get our packet in the mail saying that Morgan had been accepted into pre-school for the fall (packet = request for money). I'm thinking it was definitely her fairy photo that sealed the deal. I'm not sure how I feel about that... we may have to pay close attention to these "Episcopalians." Morgan is excited mainly because her new school is not only right across the street from the library but also right next to the site of the infamous car chase we witnessed last summer. I have a feeling we'll be needing to explain that to her teacher on the first day of school. We also found out that one of her friends from her play school class will also be going to the same pre-school so that should be fun for them. And I guess I'll need to start compiling more vegan recipes for future school parties.

We bid adieu this morning to Grandma and Grandpa (and the camper) for the next 2 months. Here's hoping the house is still standing by the time they come home although I'm not making any guarantees... especially not with these two in charge.

Random facts, part 3

Morgan's new favorite breakfast food: cheese sticks
Simon's favorite toy: spoons

Rolling over for potty time

I'm going to go out on a limb here and defy the standard rules regarding jinxing oneself by announcing I'm pretty sure... and by that I mean I'm about 92% confident... that we've aced this whole potty training thing. With Morgan at least. I feel like I should knock on like five wooden desks now for saying that but in my defense for making such a bold statement we have gone almost the full week, including bedtimes, with Morgan wearing actual underpants with only maybe one or two accidents. And to be fair, the few accidents we've had have been pure flukes. I mean really, who gives a kid like five different types of fruits and veggies at once? And here I thought we were past such rookie mistakes. So yes, back to potty training... all squared away like I said. And it only took about two months to perfect. Though I'd like to extend my thanks to the helpful mom who I met online who so helpfully e-mailed me an extremely helpful instruction packet for starting AND finishing potty training in exactly one weekend. Very helpful as I believe I have mentioned. And I'm sure a very realistic time frame for her imaginary children.

Simon celebrated his big sister's success (or should that be his parents' success) by rolling over for the first time. Frankly I'm surprised he's had time to manage that what with all the laughing and smiling that's been going on. Hard to believe but I have to say that Simon is an even sillier baby than Morgan - and we all know how that one is turning out. He is doing quite well though... already an old pro at laying down, we are now working on sitting. And when his sister isn't "borrowing" them, Simon enjoys holding his rattles. Right now the favorite is measuring spoon rattle but that might be because that's the only one his sister hasn't "borrowed" yet. We're still working out some kinks with the sleeping though. Simon is a very good sleeper... in four to five hour stretches. Unfortunately they kind of frown on taking nap breaks here at work so we're hopefully trying to extend that to maybe six to seven hours. At least we got that whole excessive fussiness thing figured out. Simon really is a very happy little boy... when he's drinking soy milk. And not teething. Which he is. Now.

We're all gearing up for Valentine's Day. With Morgan being at her play school this is the first year where she gets to hand out Valentines to all of her little friends. And we are also experiencing for the first time the joy that is school parties and parental contributions. Pat decided to step up and volunteer us for the most dreaded of offerings: cookies. Normally this would not be such a challenge however in a class of 10 kids cookies must be free of milk, eggs, and nuts. Now I know why eight parents offered to bring juice. No worries though as I have branched out to my vegan friends in the hopes of finding a suitable cookie recipe. I actually found three to try so I'll be sure to let you know how the non-milk, non-egg, and non-nut cookies turn out. This is certainly good practice though since we just mailed in our application for pre-school for Morgan to start in the fall. Fortunately we missed out on having to write an essay though we did have to send in a recent picture of Morgan. We opted to send in two: one of her in her Halloween fairy costume and one of her playing the drums. We thought that showed a nice balance of her musical ability paired up with her talent for performing magical illusions. Though now I'm kind of wishing we had gone with the doctor costume for Halloween instead.

I'll end things here with good news - my computer is finally back up and running and this weekend I can get started on downloading all 300+ pictures from my camera. So no worries - Simon does exist and soon I'll have photographic proof.

School and snow

Over the fall Morgan started going to a mini pre-school class two days a week for two hours. We wanted to see how she would go being away from us for a bit and give her a chance to interact with other kids her age since it's really just been her and at least one of us all the time for the past 2 years. Well she did really great with it and we've got her signed up to continue going through April. Yesterday she was supposed to start up again after the holiday break but had her very first snow day instead. Of course she doesn't quite realize that snow days are a good thing yet... she was actually quite a bit disappointed that she didn't get to go. Although I think she was even more disappointed later in the day when we didn't have time to hit playland after going to Target.

With Morgan doing her classes and soon to be signed up to start pre-school in the fall it's naturally making me curious to see if we can guess any future career ambitions. First she's got to have a photographic memory or something because Morgan has this uncanny ability to remember things - in great detail, mind you - of events or conversations or whatever that have taken place months ago. And that extends out to remembering song lyrics and specific words on each page of her books (I caught her flipping through the pages of one of her books and reciting exact phrasing of sentences from each specific page). So I'm sure she'll put that little talent to good use.

Speaking of songs, she does sing songs quite well but lately she's been singing along to the proper beat of the songs. Plus we are all quite familiar with her drumming ability so I have no doubt she'll end up being a musical genius. And she is doing some wonderful creations with play dough so sculpting could certainly be a possibility. She's got about 3 different kitchen play sets now plus loves helping with the cooking so we've got chef on the list. Dr. Morgan has a nice ring to it as she likes walking around checking our heartbeats with her stethoscope. And lately she's got this funny fascination with boats as we've been playing that game where the floor is the water and the rug/chair/sofa/bed is the boat so I could totally see her sailing around the world or something.

But for right now, especially with school coming up, Morgan will absolutely be voted class clown. And Simon will probably follow in her footsteps with that. His favorite show: Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - preferably the reruns at 3am. Definitely a chip off the ol' block, that one.