Patient Hands

I just really don't like grabbing, whining, and begging, so I instituted what we call patient hands. When they start doing one of those aforementioned dreaded actions, I simply remind them to have patient hands and the girls are very good at showing me their patient hands which looks just like the top picture. I started this a long time ago when Hannah was a toddler. I thought teaching her to say Please would help stop the grabbing, etc. However, she would say Please and sign Please over and over frantically, and it drove me nuts while I was in the process of getting whatever it was she wanted. So I thought of this to control her hands and to begin teaching her the impossible lesson of patience.

I started just a week ago trying to teach Isaac this and he picked it up so fast! Here is his slight variation on our patient hands.

Recently I read somewhere about self control hands and I started trying this out with the girls. When they start to get out of control, whether it is their temper or just getting too excited and rambunctious for a certain occasion. It has worked well for us so far.

"I don't know"

Or more accurately, "Dunno" which is how Isaac says it. So cute! Watch this! (He got a little distracted at the end, but I got him to say a few things for the camera.)

A few of his other new words are: shoes, cheese, yes, fish (with sign), hop hop (with sign for bunny), Isaac, bib, sleep (with sign) and tah dah.

Here I video taped him walking around, mostly for Daddy to see. I thought I would put it on here anyway, because I love toddling!

It makes noise and has wheels!

What could be better?

Isaac loves cars, as I have previously mentioned, and inspired this photo shoot because he so wanted to sit in his aunt's car.

After Aunt Kristen had to leave, and we said our good byes, we took a short walk!

Wedding number two and counting...

Wedding number two! My cousin, Ashley, married her highschool sweatheart, Ryan! It was a late wedding and so my dad volunteered to stay home and watch the little guy and Genna since they can't handle being out past their bedtime, especially not out till midnight. Hannah, my big girl did get to go. I made a big deal out of Genna's special night with Poppa Boat and Isaac so she would want to stay home. They had a movie night with pizza and ice cream planned out. Hannah got all spiffied up with my mom, sister, brother, and I. Here she is chatting it up before the ceremony.

The wedding and the bride were stunning, of course! They had a nice autumn feel to the wedding decor. After the wedding, the reception was a blast. My sister's new husband had to work all weekend and couldn't make it, and my brother's fiance was sick. So none of us had our significant others with us.

All of us together...

My sister, my mom, and I...
You can tell who lives in the land of no sun verses the tan Texans. :)

My uncle David and Hannah

Hannah was Little Miss Social and couldn't wait to be reintroduced to her distant cousin, Megan, the flower girl. We walked into the reception and she pulls on my dress to ask, "OK, Mom, where's that girl you wanted to introduce me to?" Here they are dancing the night away!

My sister, the maid of honor (my cousin, Lindsey), and Hannah Banana being silly.

My sister and Hannah dancing...

Hannah was super attached to my cousin, Zach. I can't believe we didn't get a good picture of them. She was in his arms a lot. I remember when she was about 6 months old and he had long hair, she would just laugh and laugh at him when he would shake the water out of his hair at the pool. Over the past year there have been a couple of men to whom she has really attached herself. She misses her daddy, and I think it helps her. She's such a daddy's girl!

Then came the wedding boo boo. I think we are making it a tradition that someone falls on or steps on one of my kids during each of the weddings during this wedding extravaganza (we still have two more family weddings before going back home). This time Hannah was running around without shoes and got behind some very energized Aggies getting ready for the war hymn and was stepped on by a high heel shoe. It immediately bruised up and even broke the skin a bit. So our night went downhill from there and she wanted to be held the rest of the time. We had to leave before the bride and groom. Here I am dancing with her.

Compound me!

I think I have mentioned before that my girls were very early talkers. By 18 months they were both using three word sentences all the time. By the time they were Isaac's age they had too many vocabulary words to count. Isaac is not quite so talkative and is much more into learning sounds and signs than actual words. So I am rolling with it. At his 2 day check up, the girls were chattering away to the doctor and he turned to me and said, "Do not be alarmed when he doesn't talk as well as them!" I noticed he said "when" and not "if" so I sort of expected this. He does talk and says a good amount of words, so no worries. He is just going to do things at his own pace.

All this is to explain my excitement when he busted out with his first compound word today! I don't think I even noticed the girl's first compound word because after a year their vocabulary increased exponentially with every passing month. But when Isaac repeated the word "highchair" today after I told him to come over and get in his highchair, I swooped him up, threw him in the air and made a huge fuss about it. So now he gets a huge proud smile before he says it. So cute!

An exciting new skill!

Quilting!

I just took a class at Joann's and this is what I made.

It is just the top part of the quilt, so I still have the backing to do. It is a doll sized quilt that I made in the two and a half hour class. I have three more kid-sized quilts waiting at home to be made, one for each of the kids for Christmas gifts. I think it is a bit of a lofty goal, but my husband will be home before then and need to spend extra time with the babies anyway, right? A friend of mine is going to give me her old sewing machine that she doesn't use anymore since mine is kaput. I can't wait to get started on them!

I also embroidered this for my cousin's soon to be born baby boy. It's simple, nothing fancy, but I am feeling like I am not accomplishing much these days. So I like to lay out what I have done. I am working on a bib for him too. So much to sew!

A day at the park...

Literally! But it wasn't today. This was last weekend. I am just reminiscing since the rain won't go away.

Isaac loved the swing and so did I, since it meant I didn't have to chase him up the steps, through the tunnel, and down the slide! Bad picture though. Sorry!

Something I enjoy about the Fall...

Raking and sweeping leaves! It's theraputic and addictive. I started sweeping up all the leaves in my parent's driveway and patio and I couldn't stop. The kids all helped me by putting the leaves in the bucket to be transported to the compost pile (and here is the amazing part) for an hour! Hannah started drawing with chalk after a while, but Isaac and Genna loaded up three buckets full of leaves. Isaac did about five leaves at a time, of course.

The disappointing aspect of this activity is that the leaves just keep falling and eventually you throw your arms up and say, "Forget it!"

Still loves to vacuum!

Another lesson learned: Don't vacuum right before naptime when your baby loves the vacuum this much! He usually goes right to bed, but not when he's mad about the vacuum cleaner stopping.

A great reason to cry!

Yesterday at Mass, we had a bathroom emergency (which we usually try to avoid) right when they were starting with the gifts. We tried to be fast, but it just isn't possible. Anyway, we make it back half way through the most important part of the whole Mass, and slip into our pews. Hannah starts crying (silently, I might add, like a good girl) and I whispered to her to find out what was wrong thinking she is missing her daddy again. I was surprised to hear that she was upset we had missed half of her favorite part of Mass! What a sweetheart!

Sunday Sibling Talk: Baby destroys all fun for older siblings!

This boy strikes terror in the heart of a certain four year old and a certain 3 year old. He is into all their business...their games, towers, pictures, dolls, whatever. I know this stage will not last forever, but it is difficult to keep him out of their stuff, but not exclude him from all the fun. If they are always playing up at the table or in their room, then he gets totally left out. Poor thing gets told "No" by his sisters a million times a day no matter how many times I remind them to try to use other words to get him not to destroy their stuff. So now he is saying it too. All the time. Fortunately, so far, not to me! This is a blessing that will not last forever, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts. He walks around saying "No" in the cutest way ever. Seriously, I have never so enjoyed any child saying "No" before, but he says it so cute. I am going to have to hide my amusement from him though. Don't want to create a monster!

This is his shy pose...

Leaving in a rental car, don't know when I'll be back again...

...So kiss me and smile for me. Tell me that you'll wait for me...

We planned to head back to my parent's house on Wednesday and swing by to see some friends on the way there, but I woke up with a stomach bug and so we stayed a few days longer. Today we made our way back, but unfortunately didn't get to see those friends that I was so wanting to visit. I am feeling better, but still not quite eating normal yet. Here are a few pictures from our stay at Gigi and Poppy's house that I left out.

Gigi with the kids



I love this picture because the girls all crossed their legs to copy Gigi.



Brian's one request from afar was that we get a picture of his son on Poppy's motorcycle. We got pictures of the girls on it when Hannah was almost 2 and Genna was 3 months old. Since I am not at my home computer, I can't dig those out. I might just do that once I get home. But for now here he is...

And we had to get the girls on there again too...

My Free Spirit

Genevieve is my free spirit! She is all over the place and it is funny sometimes and frustrating other times. Today it was mostly funny...

I tried to teach her to play Tic-tac-toe with Hannah. When she was O's, she randomly decides in the middle of a game, "I want to be Triangles!" Then when she was X's, she proclaims, once again in the middle of the game, "I want to be T's!"

We didn't have our bathing suits, but, boy, this day was just so hot that we had to dip our legs in the pool. The girls ended up just playing on the steps in their panties so their dresses would stay dry. Genna says with giggles coming out her ears, "My panties are dripping wet down my leg! This is so cool!"


At lunchtime, her Auntie was perusing the sale ads in the paper and Genna walked up and said, "Are you looking for someone to marry in there?" Umm. Not sure where that came from, but you can tell what Genna thinks her vocation is going to be. I don't always understand her, but she sure does crack me up!

Water Wonderland

My sister-in-law and I took the kids to the Waterway to play after dinner. They had so much fun...free fun, I might add! They all were soaked by the end, of course. So we were ready with towels and jammies in the car. Such a great time!

Hannah was a little nervous to get wet at first.

Isaac went right in, but was very serious. No laughing like I expected.

An action shot

The whole group

Genna, silly as ever!

Isaac's experience was documented on film...

Pine Cone Walks and Trane Watching

Isaac loves to go outside! He is always asking, but it has been horrible weather this last week. Either insanely hot (at least for us...we're not acclimated to this Texas heat and humidity anymore) or pouring down rain. Plus the mosquitoes have been very rough, especially on Genna. She seems to be a little sensitive to them and the bites swell up bigger than a half dollar. But today, I decided I would take him out to walk around the cul-de-sac for as long as we could stand it. He made it all the way down to the circle, around it, and back without me having to carry him at all. He has been walking everywhere for awhile now, but tends to want to go his own way and not follow me. He did much better today though. And the best part is he walks so fast! The girls have always been so slow, especially Genna, who marches to the beat of her own personal drummer. He was keeping up great! We did have to stop many many times to inspect something on the ground. He carried his 2 favorite pine cones almost the whole walk until he insisted on tasting them twice and lost that privilege. He would toddle along, then stop, and jibber jabber at something he found on the ground. He was so very tempted to stomp in the puddles, but he refrained. We ended our sweltering walk with your everyday Trane watching. No I did not spell Trane wrong. I mean the air conditioning unit sitting on the side of the house, of course. "Why did we watch it?" you ask. It makes rumbling sounds! Isn't that enough of a reason to be fascinated with it?

Speaking of rumbling sounds, Isaac also is in love with the fancy coffee machine that Gigi and Poppy have. Whenever it starts to grind up the beans, he drops what he is doing and runs over to watch it.

He is signing so much now, and it is great! I think the signs are going to come in even more handy with him since he seems to be slower on the talking than the girls. This is a great age!

What's good for one gosling is DEFINITELY not good for the other gosling!

I learned this the hard way! I let both my girls have a sleep over at their cousin's house last night since they rarely get to see her! I really don't know exactly what I was thinking. Maybe that I would get a break? You do crazy things when your husband has been gone for 10 months. Maybe that they would get to spend extra time with their aunt, uncle, and cousins that they see once or twice a year? Maybe that since Hannah had her first sleepover at 3 1/2 years old (a special occassion as well) and was just a little more difficult the next day that Genna would also be able to handle it? WRONG!

Oh boy, was I wrong! Wrong, wrong wrong, wrong, wrong! She made it through and all. I did not have to get out late at night and drive over to get her or anything like that, but she was so sleep deprived today that she was uncontrollable. I won't even go into all the trouble I had getting her to take a nap and to go to bed the tonight. Whoa, am I a dumb person! Never again! She is going to be on as strict a schedule as Isaac until I see an improvement in her self control when she is tired! Lessons learned the hard way, I guess...

Here are some dress up pictures of them.

Genna was Spiderman here.

Then they switched out the Spiderman costume.

Lucille Ball :)

My, my, how they have grown!

Isaac and my nephew are about a month and a half apart in age. We got this picture of them together about 9 months ago. Here they are today! Isaac is about five pounds more than him, but his cousin has a whole lot more hair. (That seems to be the same old story, huh? He weighs several pounds more, but has less hair than all the kids his age!) They get along great! Isaac seems to get along with other kids well since he is fairly laid back. My nephew seems to be laid back as well.

Musicians

Here they boys are with Hannah and Genna. (We have one missing cousin at school during this picture.)

My husband's grandmother has something like 26 great-grandchildren and has made each one a felt Christmas stocking, except for Isaac and his cousin. She has retired that job, and I volunteered to take it up, at least for this section of the family. So I made my nephew's first and will start on Isaac's soon. (His will probably not be ready for Christmas this year, but I don't think he will notice! Wink, wink. So nobody tell him, ok?) Here is my nephew's stocking, ready just in time for his birthday! Happy birthday, Little Buddy! (Technically his birthday was a week or so ago, but we are just now seeing him.)

We are staying with Gigi and Poppy now. Moving, moving, moving! I am not even unloading all our stuff, just living out of the rental car now. :) I just thank God for the energy to do this! It certainly must be Heaven sent!