Love it. Hate it.

Alice is into loving things and hating things.

I love Ichabod. I love Tacit. I love candy. I love chocolate. I love it!

Tom picked out a shirt for her to wear: No, I don't want it. I hate it. With emphasis on the hate.


Never!!! Is another favorite. Following in her brother's borderline footsteps...

Future vegetarian?

Alice: What dat? (pointing at the pulled pork on her plate)
Tom: Pig.
Alice: Pig?
Tom: Yes.
Alice: Eat pig?
Tom: Yes.

Later on that night...

Alice: Dis pig?
Eve: No, that's a marshmallow.
Tom: We also eat cows and chickens.
Alice: Eat chicken?
Tom: Yes.
Alice: Chicken crying.
Eve: Why's the chicken crying? Because we're eating it?
Alice: yeah, chicken crying cuz eating it.

Uh oh. Alice is now very curious about her food and asks what everything is. She's a little hestitant to eat meat now.

Green Lantern

Alice and Daddy being silly

Vacay 2011

We're getting ready for a month of vacation time over here. I have no desire to pack which is why I'm actually updating the blog.

Here's some pics from a bday party that we went to a few weeks ago. It was at the Okey Doke ranch.

Waiting for some pony rides.


Lucius and Drew.




Peanut on a "Pink" Pony

White balance

I just learned something in Photoshop that I should've learned 5 years ago. White and black balance! It can make a huge difference in pictures. Man, I need a photoshop class or something.

Alice "unbalanced"


Alice "balanced"

Do you see the difference???!!!!


Here's the tutorial I used:http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/2011/02/photo-tips-with-emilie-lets-try-this.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BlueCricketDesign+%28Blue+Cricket+Design%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Like father like son

Lucius broke his right elbow this morning and it took an entire day with 3 trips to 3 different doctors to figure it out. Luckily it was Tom that had to handle it and not me. ;)

Mom and Lu day

Lucius went to the dentist and has one wiggly tooth! And more importantly, no cavities. We had an entire Mommy and Me day with a trip to the diner for lunch (Lu wanted soup) and to the movie theater to see Rio. In the car Lu commented on how quiet it was without Alice saying "it's like a vacation!"....yes, Lu...now you know how me and daddy feel.

Perfect!

Alice has started saying "perfect!" when she's done something that makes her proud. She's also asking "why? why?" and "what dat?" to everything. Alice also refused to say "sorry" after her timeout the other day. I asked if she was going to sleep on the stairs the whole night and she shook her head yes. I finally squeezed a mumbled "sorry" out of her. She's definitely a full-fledged 2 year old.

Pronunciation

I love the words that Lu mispronounces...I just can't bring myself to correct him.
Mush-stache
smarsh-mellow

He's still having trouble with his L's, but he's getting there. Too bad that his name starts with an L (U-shus) and Alice has an l (ah-yis).

Alice calls phones "hellos", stars "twinkle twinkle", and clocks "tick tocks". Too cute.

Alice came very close to having her first ER visit yesterday. She was down for a nap and I was cleaning up cat puke off of our white duvet cover when I heard her start crying really hard as if she were hurt. I ran into her room and she had her hand stuck in her mouth. I thought that maybe she bit her check until I removed her hand and saw her tiny metal barette at the back of her throat.

If you're eating stop reading now.

I did the finger swipe and couldn't get it...luckily (?) that made her throw up (into my hands and I didn't get a single drop on her Tommy Hilfiger duvet cover, thank you very much). Long gross story short I managed to retrieve the barrette and put her butt back into bed for a nap. Hopefully she learned a lesson. I sure did! No more barrettes at nap time.

2011 School Pictures (Preschool)

2011 Target Pictures

The session went much better than the first time we went.

Happy Birthday Alice!

Alice turned 2 today. Everytime I sing her "Happy Birthday" she smiles wide and giggles.

I tried to recreate the pictures I took of her on her first birthday, but it didn't go so well. Luckily, she loves to copy everything Lucius does so if I can get Lu to smile she'll do the same.

Happy Birthday Big Girl! We love you!

The birthdays approach

The big birthdays are approaching. Lucius will be 5 (FIVE!) and Alice will be 2 (TWO!).

I had to give Alice her first official time-out yesterday. I caught her dumping handfuls of cat food into their water dish. I was very serious and told her "no,no" and then tapped her hand and said "ditty, ditty" which REALLY made her upset. She had to sit on the stairs for 1 minute...which she did very nicely...she just wailed the whole time. When the timer went off we "talked" about what she did and I made her say sorry ("saw-wee mama")...then we had lots of hugs and kisses and everything was OK. ;)

Lucius is maturing by leaps and bounds...the things that come out of this child's mouth are just hilarious. He keep us and his teachers entertained. The other night I asked him to get me a napkin and he said "what am I like your service or something? ha ha I'm just kidding". His teachers told me he had requested his "water service" at lunch the other day. LOL. I had to explain 1) that it's servant not service and 2) what servant even means.

What's between love and like?

Like any preschooler, Lucius asks questions all.day.long. I try my hardest not to get annoyed and answer them...but I don't always succeed. When I asked him why he asks so many questions he said it's because he doesn't know what's going on in my mind so he has to ask about things. His way of saying that he's trying to figure out how the world works.

When I was away for the weekend I talked on the phone with Lu...something I rarely do. I was shocked at this kid voice talking back...using complete sentences and words such as "actually" and "realized". Who is this kid? Where did my baby boy go?

I never know what's going to come out of his mouth. On the way to the doctor's this morning he asked "What's in between love and like?"

In other news...Tom lost Alice's last pacifier while I was out of town and so Alice is now a big girl without her nuk! She still asks for it though. She's been crying herself to sleep for the past 4 nights. Something she's never done before. She'll be fine in th car for awhile but then she'll stop chatting and just cry out "nuk!" and start pouting. We'll ask her "where is it?" and she'll say "I da know" and then we'll start talking about something else to distract her. The poor girl.

De-potty trained and talking up a storm

Somehow Alice de-potty trained her self over the last week. We're back to hardcore potty time (aka setting timer every 35 minutes). Hopefully she'll be back on track soon!

In other news...the girl is talking up a storm. She likes to say "careful, careful" when doing something dangerous like putting her pants on while standing up. If you ask her question she doesn't know the answer to she'll say "I da know". If she doesn't know what something is she asks "wha dat? wha dat? wha dat?". And when she's finished "reading" a book to herself you can hear her say "the end".

Happy Valentine's Day!

No more babies in this house????

Just a quick update on my big girl.

Alice did excellent in underwear over the weekend. She stayed dry until 6pm Saturday night and then had a couple of accidents since she didn't want to stop playing with the boys.

She had one accident on Sunday during the day, stayed dry during her 2 hour nap, and then stayed dry the whole time we were at a superbowl party! She went about 3 times there.

And then on Monday she stayed dry at daycare!!!! I think she had an accident on Tuesday but at least she's making huge progress.

I think this is all due to the candy reward she gets after going. She'll sit there and squeeze two drops out in order to get her candy.

Alice is also approaching official big girl status because we took the side off of her crib on Saturday. She has yet to climb out and visit us in the middle of the night, but I'm sure that day will come. Soon we'll be getting her a twin-sized bed which means.....NO MORE CRIBS! NO MORE PACK N PLAY! EVER!

Can you tell I'm excited?

Woohoo!

Yucky, hummy, potty

For the past two months Alice has loved to point out "yuckies". I'm not sure how or when she became so germ/dirt phobic, but she is. So, if you have a freckle, mole, piece of food, wrinkle(s) or any spec of anything that is not up to par then Alice will gladly point it out and say "yucky"...repeatedly...until you either wipe it off or or distract her (if it won't actually wipe off).

Following in her brother's footsteps, Alice loves food. I'm convinced that my kids have the Sledjeski food gene. Most of the kids we know only eat chicken fingers and maybe a piece of broccoli...yet mine are making "recipes" out of meatballs, tomato sauce, avocado, and olive juice and actually eating it. We have to hide to eat if we don't want to share with Alice. Even if she's just eaten a full meal she'll still seek you out yelling "hummy! hummy! hummy!" (hungry) and she won't stop until you give her some.

And some news on the potty front...Alice has definitely made some progress especially since we started positive reinforcement with sour patch kids. She's gone #2 in the potty for the past 3 days and #1's almost every time she sits down. Of course, she's also leaving many pee trails in her wake...I think we went through 6 pairs of underwear today. On the bright side, it's starting to click that pee and poo go in the potty. If she pees in her pants she'll now let us know ("uh oh pee pee potty). She actually told Tom "potty!" and then she went in the potty. Woohoo! Tada! Fingers crossed that she'll have this down by the summer.

Potty Time

Alice pooped on the potty! I've been putting her on it before bathtime and lo and behold she actually used it. I was so excited. Lucius was so excited. Tom was so excited. And of course, Alice was so excited (clapping and saying "yay!").

Do you think I could potty train her before she's two?

Worth a shot, I guess.