Marin and her teeth

Marin loves her teeth and uses them a bit to much for my liking.  She has 4 on the top two on the bottom and all four of her 1year molars.  She cut her first 2 molars with a couple wakeful nights a little bit of fussing but honestly they were easy.  The second 2 we are not sure when they came in because they did not keep her up and she was not fussy.  I just went to brush her teeth and they were both there.  I am so thankful since every tooth in Symeon's mouth caused us some wakeful nights and some cranky cranky days. 

Like I said she loves her teeth and she has used them to bite her brother several times the last time leaving marks for several days, she has bitten the end off my hair brush, she has chewed up several foam blocks, she has bitten multiple buttons off our remote control, she has bitten through a large cookie wrapper at the check out counter so Shawn had to buy it, she has bitten through two Snicker bar wrappers at the check out and was working on a peppermint patty when I caught her so I had to buy those, she has bitten the erasers off pencils, she bits the soft grips on pens, she bit several of Symeons toy balls and some foam bowling pins, she bit the side of Symeon's bed and left marks, and she bit the top off her water bottle so I had to get her a new one.  I am sure this is not an exhaustive list since these are only the things I have caught her biting. I am sure there is so much more than I know.  She has yet to bite anyone outside our family and I am praying it stays that way. A biter ahhhhh!!!  This is a new area for me Symeon would put things in his mouth but he was not a biter so Marin often catches me off guard with her vampire vulture like tendencies.  I hope this is a short phase. 

Who me a biter?  Don't believe work of it!

A day out with Thomas

Thomas the tank engine was at the Strousburg RR near our house and although Symeon does loves trains the way some kids do he does have a small Thomas and we thought he would enjoy a trip to the rails.  I love the flexibility we have in our lives on a random Tuesday we headed out and the crowds were small since most kids were in school and a lot of people were at work.  We had a great time as a family and it was pretty neat to see Thomas life size.

 

Marin and the potty

Here is Marin after she asked to go on the potty and then proceeded to let me know she needed a magazine.  She is so funny and so communicative.  She also loves to drink water from the toilet by the cup full.  The other day I was walking past our bathroom and the light was off but out of the corner of my eye I spotted Marin.  I turned around and went it to find her using her small play teacup to drink water from the toilet.  I took her out cleaned the cup and closed the door.  A few days later she came out of the bathroom with her little cup filled with water and I assumed Shawn had filled her cup,  she drank it and disappeared and when she returned she had a bit more.  I said to Shawn did you get her that "tea" which is what she calls it and he said yes.  I said did you get her the first cup and he said no. We both were like where is she getting that water. Sometimes she gets Symeon to turn the water on for her but he was busy.  You think I would have realized quickly but I was having a slow Mom day.  Her third time out she has the cup filled to the top and she is drinking it and it hit me I yelled Shawn grab that from her it is from the toilet.  She was and is very distraught that toilet water is off limits.

A funny kind of day

Any of you who know me well know that weird things happen to me rather often.  I warned Shawn before we were married and now he experiences my adventures and silly mishaps on a regular basis.  I think Symeon inherited this particular jean or it might have more to do with his need to explore everything in his 2 year old world. 

So today two rather funny/weird things happened.  First we went to the chiropractor and while I was getting Marin out of her car seat in a busy parking lot Symeon asked to sit in the front seat which was fine by me. As I pulled Marin out and closed her door I heard the car doors lock and for a second I panicked but I did have my keys so I pushed my unlock button on my key chain and hence set off my car alarm.   Symeon and Marin thought it was so funny and so did I when I looked up to the wall of windows and the entire waiting room was watching. I just started laughing which cracked up Symeon and Marin even more.  As we went to go in  I noticed Symeon had turned on the flashers and when I reached into the car to turn them off I bumped the horn and the laughs started all over again. 

Later in the day we were headed to Target and I was driving.  Symeon was in his seat directly behind me.  We stopped at a red light on a busy road with 4 lanes and as I am looking in my side mirror I see the back door open into traffic. I said Shawn's Symeon's door is open we both turned around and I grabbed the door, shut it and locked it.  I guess one time when Symeon was standing there he clicked off the child lock that is on the inside of the door so he could easily open it.  No harm done but gosh a weird feeling.

On a lighter note Symeon told me he was going to marry me and that when he grew up he wanted to be a Mommy not a Daddy.  I  agreed to both since trying to explain the details seemed a bit pointless.

Also Shawn was able to remove the quarter from my laptop camera card slot so hopefully it will still work.   

Catching up

I feel like I have been catching up all summer on blogging which would usually bother me but I am fine with it.  We have been busy but just the right amount and having lots of fun so I do what I can and enjoy the moments to the fullest.  I have also been so sick with allergies this year, from what everyone tells me ragweed is really bad this year which I am assuming I am allergic to since my head has felt like it could explode for several weeks.  I also have had some computer problems mostly two small children who have pulled the keys off my keyboard and it is very difficult to type.  We have tried to fix it but it is a wash at this point. I am in need of a new computer and hopefully soon so my posts don't take quite as long type as they have been. 

Here are a few things we have been up to the last few weeks...

Ok so I really need a new laptop I just went to insert my camera card in the slot and it would not go in because someone I am not sure who but I have a good idea shoved a quarter into the slot  It is so far in I can't grab so posting waits again ahhhhhh!

Playing Doctor

I  bought the kids a doctor kit and they have had a blast playing doctor and patient.  Marin is a great patient it is super funny to watch her lay there and let Symeon do all the doctor stuff to her.  I think she likes any attention he gives her so if that means playing the sick one that is fine with her.  Here she is getting examined by Dr. Symeon. 

First on the list her ears and blood pressure

Well good news is she is going to be fine bad news was she had to get a shoot which she took like a champ which is pretty much how she manages the real ones.  Dr. Symeon had a great bed side manner once I explained that giving her a shot in the eye was not an option. 

Watermelon

I have been eating so much watermelon this summer which means just about every trip to the Farmer's Market or the grocery store I come home was a watermelon.  I have had so many good ones this summer it has been great.  The other night I came home with groceries and when I was just about done putting them away I turned around to find Marin perched on my latest purchase. 

Out of town, VBS, and moving out all in one week

Shawn was out of town for a week in California and Denver seeing some Phish shows and visiting friends.  The kids and I had a great week.  We had lots of fun in the midst of some chaos that made up our week.  Here they are wearing their little Mountain tee-shirts Shawn brought them back from Telluride CO. 

The weekend Shawn was gone fun and relaxing.  On Sunday Symeon had his first vacation bible school adventure at our church.  He did really well the first night, telling me he was a big guy and wanted to be on his own.  I was a bit sad but super happy for him.  VBS was at our church and was run by all the women we know at church including all the youth group Mom's and all the youth so Symeon was in good hands.  They all encouraged me to go have a cup of coffee they took my cell and told me he would be fine.  To be honest I would not have left the first night except that all meat was served at the dinner they had and I was starving so I left with Marin.  After an hour I returned because I could not take it anymore.  He was fine having tons of fun and I wanted to let him have his fun so I watched from a distance and he did great.  The following nights had their ups and downs, as the week went on he became more and more tired so he was reluctant to have me leave which was fine with Marin she was itching to be a part of the group.  She joined in playing games and getting rowdy with the mostly boy class she was in her element.  One night we were getting ready to go and Symeon said Mommy "mine stay home" I could tell that exhaustion had set in so we stayed home and played out side together.   When Shawn returned we went to the family night which concluded our first week of VBS.  We look forward to many more it was so much fun for us all.  Here is his certificate and class. 

As the week progressed there are bound to be a few snags.  The babysitter I had lined up for the first day was not able to babysit because she found a job so that left me in quite a bind so I called a friend who did me a huge favor and watched the kids while I went to this rather important meeting I had scheduled.  Then on Tuesday we had to move our of our apartment for the third time so some work could be finished.  We had done this two other times in the past month so the kids knew the routine but it was still a ton of work to get us all packed and get the apartment prepped.  Once again the kids managed really well if I don't count a very ugly incident at the public library.  Marin and Symeon both snapped and started pulling down magazines off the shelves and chasing each other while Symeon yelled "mine and babes are rowdies Mommy"  I wanted to crawl under a desk but I grabbed them both picked up the mess left the library and we had a long ride home with me telling them it would be quite a while before they returned to the library.  ( On a side note when we returned to the library about 3 weeks later Marin lost her mind again and began running and squealing in utter delight and Symeon thought she wanted to be chased so he began chasing her her laughing and squealing every bit as loud as her.  Some people in the library were laughing but others were giving me the judgmental look like oh that women can't control her kids.  I realized most of the people were laughing like I remember when and most the people judging could not have been parents.  Needless to say they were both disciplined and we will not be returning to the library anytime soon.)  But back to the original story we stayed with friends over night and the kids did great. 

I must admit the day we had to move out was a hard day for me I had a crisis at work, a computer that would not work and a 2 year old who would not nap.  I was up later working on a project for work and honestly I was utterly exhausted.  My dear friends who have been married many years and raised four wonderful children loved on us, listened to me, played with the kids and basically showed us God's love in a tangible manner.  I am so grateful for the amazing people God has placed in our lives to minister to us at just the right moment, especially when we are so broken and exhausted. 

Overall it was a good week but we were really happy to pick Shawn up from the airport.  Marin asked for him about 50 times a day and finally Symeon said, "Babes  Daddy in Denver" like gosh how many times do we have to explain this to you. 

Our kids love corn on the cob

Baking a favorite family past time

A fashion faux pas of the worst kind

Symeon wanted to wear socks and flip flops which first seems uncomfortable and second is just silly.  We were only walking around the building so I let it go.