new fads-for the grands

Mommyhood is always full of surprises-each day is new and different. This post is mostly to catch up the grandparents on what wild things their grandkiddos are doing these days. Because my brain is mostly mush and fragmenty after 9pm, please excuse the randomness.

Micah's current faves: watching Chuggington on youtube and then re-enacting the stories with his Thomas trains, making train tracks and car tracks in play doh, making train tracks with stickers, driving cars on mommy's striped shirts (because they look like roads), re-enacting scenes from Cars (especially tractor-tipping and driving through the leaves on the highway), driving cars in sand or dirt, and of course, sleep-dog. He also likes Clifford stories and Richard Scarry stories.

You might think he is completely obsessed with planes, trains, and automobiles. You would be correct. But he also paints (with brushes because fingerpainting is messy), makes phone calls to grandmas and papas on his banana and zucchini phones, cooks and then eats plastic eggs with mom and dad, makes sharks and snakes out of play doh, snuggles with mom on the couch after naptime, reads as many stories as he can get away with before naptime and bedtime.
 

Lydia's current faves: pulling on the garbage bags sticking out of the trash can, eating toilet paper, pulling her dresser drawers in and out, laughing at her brother, eating cheerios, trying to eat computer cords, and crawling anywhere that big brother has toys..."godzilla-ing the train set and airport"
She has two teeth now and would rather feed herself than let mom do it. Too bad she really can't do purees with her fingers.

 This was an attempt at sending grandparents thanksgiving cards. I thought Micah would think it was fun to use the glue stick to stick colored scraps of paper to cards. He thought it would be fun to drop the 'leaves' on his trains. "Fall is come!" Maybe next year. or maybe next child.

Please note the car park that has bit the dust to the left. Good thing Moo is sleeping.

Quotables:


On the bus yesterday, a female student asked about Lydia,
"Girl or boy? Boy probably."
No, girl actually, I replied.
"She looks like you."
Does this mean I look like a boy?


When asked his name on the bus two weeks ago, Micah replied, "Moo"
When asked his name in front of our house today, Micah replied, "blah"
I guess we don't have to worry about identity theft.

another year for the memory books...

 We celebrated my birthday a few weeks ago...Micah of course was ecstatic to stay up late, help blow out candles (if you look closely, you may be able to figure out which birthday), and EAT CAKE! Micah is now also quite excited to go to Bible study with me every week because there is always cake. Can't beat that.

My beloved husband blessed me with a fancy night out to the Hilton hotel for dinner. A beautiful view of the Bosporus, amazing food, and delightful (kid-free) conversation. Quite comically, we were the only ones there when we arrived at 7. By the time we left at 9 there were quite a few more dinner guests...several wearing jeans. But my hubby wore a suit and tie and I wore a dress that did not have baby drool, spit-up, or finger paint on it. Harika! (Awesome in Turkish!)

Siblings

 You would never guess from these photos that Micah has issues with his sister playing with his toys. He is making mom and dad crazy with his frustrated cries of "I not want Lu to play with that!" "I not want Lu to look at me!" And then there are other moments of the day when he just showers her with love and toys....in the brotherly way of shoving them into her face.

random sillies...

 Last weekend's fun activity was going to the amusement park at the mall before it opened. Micah had plenty of fun without turning on any of the rides. We'll save that for when he's older and knows they actually do other stuff. :)

 We convinced Dad to cram into a teeny truck to join Moo. Such delight on this little kiddo's face.

 Where's waldo??

Come fly with me...

We took an airplane trip this past weekend to the South. Micah loved watching the planes and going up high in the sky by the cloudez. Lydia loves her fair share of planes too. We had a big shock when we returned Tuesday...we sweated our way to the airport and then we got off the plane back at home and immediately commenced shivering in the rain. A weather shock to the system. Lydia got to try out her cute bonnet and booties from some friends in Gary. Now I am beginning the maddening process of switching over all our clothes to fall/winter season. Break out the boots and the coats! Where did I put all that stuff anyway? Not having closets lends itself to creative junk storage...but sometimes I forget where things went...

PS...

Lydia cut her first tooth last week too! She's getting so big!

Catching up....

 A couple weeks ago we had a fair at church with face painting and games! Micah was super excited to have a "green snake on my face. with grey stripeys and an ornage" (tongue). Two weeks later, he asked me today out of the blue if he could have a green snake on his face. Where did that come from?

 Yesterday, a local kids' bookstore sponsored a performance of two kids' plays at a cafe. I got a free coffee and Micah (and Lydia) got to see "The Giving Tree" and "Little Red Riding Hood" acted out by a drama group from an English speaking university. Micah pretended to be pretty nonchalant during the performances, but when I asked him about it later, he was quite happy to tell me he saw "two stories - a tree and another story". Lydia was fairly happy rolling around on the big comfy chairs at the coffee shop....why is it that coffee shops sometimes have chairs more comfy than our house?

 We topped it off with a trip to our favorite park...and Micah even let sister play this time! She cackled at him coming down the slide after us and he got pretty stoked to have mom and sis chase him on the big pirate ship.

 I love these two kiddos!!

Is it nap time yet Mom??