Recent Pics

Cool area in front of the hospital that Jeffrey and Arabelle both love. There are lots of rocks, pathways, bridges and streams.











I can't seem to get Jeffrey to just pose normally, partially because he is always dying to play with the camera whenever he sees it. Before Church:



Total outfit. Too bad I took the picture in a messy area of my house.



Putting on Woody hats:



Possibly the best picture ever taken?

Jeffrey's Birthday and Arabelle's Swimsuit

This year we had Jeffrey's birthday party at a park, and just invited family. Luckily he has plenty of cousins to play with. The park we chose has a cool splash pad with water features to play in and it is also bordered by a river.




Jeffrey turned 4 but he gets mad if anyone says he's 4. He yells, "No! Jeffrey 3!", which is interesting because he never managed to communicate that when he was actually 3, but now when it matters most and his 3-year-old status has been threatened he's putting forth the effort.




Here's Jeffrey's "Lightning Mcqueen" cake that he picked out. I can't believe I've turned into one of those moms that buys a character cake from a grocery store bakery, but it was so easy and just what he wanted! So in spite of the expense, nasty frosting, and lack of creativity, I'm happy with it for this year.




Unfortunately I did a really horrible job taking pictures at this event. I managed to get a lot of Arabelle's cute swimsuit and that's about it. I suppose I was too busy following two kids around and organizing the meal, etc.

Jeffrey at 4 years:

• Jeffrey is finally really starting to talk. He still has to learn each thing, but at this point he only needs to hear a word once to learn it if it catches his attention.


• Jeffrey is into things being "broken" vs. "working". He likes to be able to fix things by getting new batteries for them and helping open the battery compartment with a screw driver. If that doesn't work he says "Daddy fix it."


• He is also into carrying around collections of things. At Memaw and Papa's this summer he had a Lightning McQueen bag that he had to carry around the entire time that held several dart guns, a wooden box, a watch and a few cars. The bag did become very large and cumbersome. He continued doing this at home. First he had to carry around a bag full of several plastic revolvers, dart guns, and his pocket knife, then it morphed into a bag full of my two jewelry boxes with jewelry and coins that I had given him.


• Jeffrey is also very into "keys".


• He has a necklace that he loves that is a silver chain with several large charms: a sword, a key, a cross and a few others that I forget.


• Jeffrey likes to watch Clifford, Superman, X-men, and Madeline.


• His favorite X-man is Scott because of his "powers" with his eyes.


• Jeffrey is really enjoying his second year of preschool and seems to be really adjusting well. He is exhausted each day when he comes home.


• Jeffrey likes to drink apple juice, eat mini corn dogs, spaghetti, cheerios, blueberries, raspberries.

Arabelle at 18 months:

• Arabelle is full of life and spunk. She likes to play with the toys Jeffrey does: guns, Lightning Mcqueen, trains.


• She is also into Elmo.


• Arabelle wasn't eating any solid foods until about 15 months because she was unable to swallow correctly and would wind up gagging and throwing up. Now she has turned into quite the eater and I love it! It is still amazing sometimes to just see the food disappear into her little mouth. Arabelle has many of the same favorite foods as Jeffrey: raspberries, apple juice (Ju), spaghetti. She also likes yogurt and cheese sandwiches.


• Arabelle is talking a little, really just one word nouns mainly, and a lot of them she doesn't quite finish, like "Ju" for juice and "Chi" for Cheese. She says "Elmooooooooooooooo" really cute.


• She still cries when I put her down for bed/naps and I have been sleep training her for months now and not going to get her. It's usually only about 5 minutes now but sometimes can go much longer. She will also wake up screaming a few times in the night and sometimes wake up for good at 5 a.m. I will let her cry for half an hour but she still won't go back to sleep.

Random

Jeffrey's pocket knife:




These pics are from last Spring when Jeffrey had his short hair do. He got the "super hero cape" at school. We told him to put his arms out like he was flying and this is what he managed:

New Toys

This is a new addition which was my anniversary present/ Jeffrey's birthday present. I found it on Craigslist used for $200. It is incredible that these plastic things go for over $500 new! Jeffrey and Arabelle were both so excited about it and played with it tons the first few days. Unfortunately too is not the great panacea that I am always searching for (the fabulous toy that will induce hours and hours of daily wholesome self-entertainment). The kids will play in it by themselves sometimes, but Jeffrey really prefers when friends come over and he can pass out guns and it can be used as a fort.









I could tell that Jeffrey was trying to think of a good pose, and evidently this is what he came up with:





This is the mud pie kitchen that Jeffrey got for his birthday. I think Arabelle has played with it more than him! She likes to rub mud into her hair.

Grandparents Visit March 2011

These are some long overdue pics from Mom and Dad's visit last March. My camera broke and I never so I never uploaded them until I got a new one and put the old SD card in it.


Arabelle has learned from a young age to be interested in things like trains and Lightning McQueen:




This was my fav part of the Children's Museum when I was young. I must have been about 5 when we visited. I remember being fascinated by the Grocery area, but very annoyed that the other kids had mixed up the foods instead of making sure they were all orderly on the shelves and in their appropriate spots. I was also frustrated because older kids wouldn't let me have a chance at being the cashier.



Jeffrey has seen this pic a couple times, and every time he sees it he starts screaming, "I want fire truck! I want fire truck!"



This is a cool over-sized nature area to make the kids pretend that they're rodents or something.





Jeffrey was quite fascinated by the Bubble exhibit. Here he is waiting for a giant bubble to drop and Papa is making sure he gets first dibs.



In the toddler area there is a play house inside a fake tree trunk. Jeffrey thought the bunk beds were really cool and kept wanting Arabelle to get in the bottom bunk.


My little woodland creature:



Jeffrey was disturbed that the wooden blocks and fruits had been wedged into the vegetable garden. Dad found a tool and was able to get some of them out



This is at a cool mexican restaurant/attraction in Denver where they have arcades, cliff divers etc. Jeffrey really liked this driving game and Dad said he was uncannily good at it.




This pic kept rotating back when I moved it, but here they are watching the cliff divers. I was worried that Jeffrey would be freaked out by the divers jumping so far into the water, but he seemed okay with it.