Mid-Summer Check-In

I've been doing an internship this summer, so we've been in a little apartment without internet.  Thus, no picture-posting for the past six weeks or so.  A tiny bit of catching up:

We went to a car show over Father's Day weekend.  The Doodlebug and I went around and found all the characters from the movie "Cars."  We found Lightening McQueen, Sally, Doc Hudson, and the Dyno-King.  And to top it off, we found...Mater! 

("Mater" actually belongs to Papa, so Atticus got to sit inside it and play around.)

Here is Franny-bug out on the farm feeding the sheep.  We have video of her petting the sheep, giving it kisses, and then looking at the camera and saying in a perfectly sweet little voice, "We are going to eat these sheep!"

 The Doodlebug helping Daddy work on the cabin/cottage/tiny house.  I can't believe he just turned FOUR!!  Such a big helper! 

 Here are the kids last night at the Fourth of July celebrations waiting in line for the bounce house with their cousin Neely.  The lines were really short so they got to do plenty of  bouncing.  

This was the first year they got to stay up and watch the fireworks.  Neely invited us over to watch them from her yard.  Franny was a little fazed by the loud noises, but she loved watching the fireworks.  The Doodle would have preferred to watch them from inside the house.   

I wasn't scared of the loud noises, but I was scared about keeping the kids up two full hours past their usual bedtime.  You could tell they were getting tired, but they did great.  As soon as the fireworks ended, Franny's first words were "Can I go to sleep now?"

Life with Frances

So yesterday morning I go in the kitchen and the kids are sitting at the table.  Atticus is cutting strips of paper with his little safety scissors.  Goldilocks is cutting her hair.  Luckily, I walked in and caught her in the act, so she didn't get more than one whack at it.

Do you think that's all the fun we've had the past few weeks?  Indeed it is not. 

A review in pictures: 

 #1.  We find Franny like this:

We have these paint markers in the closet that she climbed up to get.  We caught her because we heard her moving the footstool across the bathroom to admire her work in the mirror.

Why don't we keep the markers out of reach, you ask?  Let me show you where they were stored at the time she got them.  See that top shelf?  The two see-through plastic boxes?  The markers were in the one on the left.  She demonstrated for me how she got up there.  She used the grocery cart, bottom, as a booster.

 #2.  Saturday morning breakfast.  The kids have their pancakes at the table, and Craig and I are finishing up the last few pancakes and bacon.  I hear Franny say, "And now she dives in!!"  I turn around, and her pancake is diving into her bowl.  Which is filled with the entire bottle of maple syrup. 

 #3.  I don't think this requires an explanation.  I think we've all been here. 

 Sometimes after a long day of being Frances, you pass out right where you are.

Who Needs Toys?

So I get home this afternoon and the Doodlebug is out in the backyard, carefully cutting up chunks of mud with the side of a garden spade.  

What are you doing, Atticus?

Cutting up vegetables.

He recently figured out how to cut up his pancakes with the side of a fork, and the other day he got to help dad cut up carrots with an actual knife.  Apparently this new skill is very simulating for him, because I got him a plastic knife and he literally sat out there for two full hours doing this.  We had to drag him in for a bath but promised him that he can work on it again some more tomorrow.   

I think it is amazing when the kids hit on something that coincides so well with their development that they are willing to concentrate on it for hours.  It's pretty amazing.  He was just so relaxed and happy out there, perfecting his technique.

In other news, we go to the dinosaur museum and the "bug guy" is there with a cart full of snakes, turtles, and tarantulas.  When we walk in he's sitting there with a snake around his neck.  Franny-bug, of course, shrieks, "A snake!  I want to PET IT!" and makes a beeline for the snake.  She loved on that snake and let it lick her all over the hand and face with its little forked tongue.  (Ugh, right?)  She didn't even hesitate for a second.  

I'm kind of proud of her for being so brave, but it also terrifies me a little on a daily basis.  I mean, this is a girl who caught a bumblebee in her bare hand.  I'm a little scared she might walk in the door with a rattlesnake one of these days.

One more thing: I try to take the kids' questions seriously and give them the best, most truthful answers I can.  So Atticus asks me the other day, completely thoughtfully, "Mom, why does everything have sides?"  

Good grief.  What do you say to that? 

Ladybug Girl to the Rescue!

Tuesday afternoon.  I am cleaning house, sorting through the kids' clothes and packing up winter things, etc. The kids are running around playing and entertaining themselves, so I'm not paying too much attention to them.  Then the Doodlebug wants to go outside and help Dad, who is working in the front yard.  So I let him out, and when I come back inside, I can't find Franny-girl anywhere.  Then I see her running through the backyard, like this:

 

She looks like some strange Frog-Butterfly Superhero on a mission.  In case you are wondering, those are Christmas trees on her glasses.

 She was running around the backyard carrying on this intense running monologue.  "Look at those puddles!  Those are BEAU-tiful puddles!  Let's count those puddles.  One...two...three...four...Look at those birds!  Those are beau-tiful birds!!  Let's count those birds!"  I couldn't quit laughing.

 

 The Doodle came back with some dandelions he had collected.  

  

Which makes me think of this sweet little book:

 Does anyone remember this book?  We'll have to look for it at the library.  By the way, have I mentioned how much I love it that the kids are old enough now to follow actual stories, and not just read picture books?  So much fun!!  (Except that Frances still wants to read Go, Dog, Go! every single night.  I feel like I've read it at least once a day for the past four months.  Would it be wrong of me to hide this book?)

Little Chef and the Alligator

I just have a few random pictures so I thought I'd post a life here the past few weeks.  First, the Doodlebug thinks he's this guy from the movie Ratatouille:

 In case you haven't seen the movie, this kid who works in a restaurant but can't cook meets a rat who is a great cook but can't work in a restaurant because, you know, he's a rat.  So the rat hides in the kid's chef's hat and helps him cook, propelling him into a career as a celebrity chef.  The kid calls the rat "Little Chef."

So the Doodle has this little plastic lion that he carries around and calls Little Chef.  I guess because it has whiskers like a rat?  Anyway, Craig made him this chef's hat from posterboard.  The Doodle keeps the Little Chef in his hat.  It's mildly hilarious.

 
Now Lady Frances.  I post this picture even though her eyes are closed for two reasons.  One, because she insisted on wearing this ensemble all day, including at the dinner table.  Two, her eyes are closed because she is preparing to jump.  Which she did, off of the rim of the wagon.  I don't know how it didn't turn over on top of her.

Here they are at the zoo last week:

What else? We were driving the other day when Craig turned around and looked at Atticus sitting there in his carseat, serious as can be, wearing the chef's hat (yes, I know).  Craig laughs, saying, "He looks like the pope...or a priest...whoever it is that wears those hats."  Atticus says, "What's a BEAST?  I look like a beast?"

As for Franny-bug, she loves to ride the elevator at the museum, but she calls it the alligator.  As in, "Mommy, we went up in the Alligator today."  And she insists on wearing her brother's underwear.  You know, because they have Thomas the Train on them.  Sooo much cooler than her own.  She'll love that story someday.

Then and Now...

The last set of pictures I took of the kids seemed strangely familiar, so I went back and took a look.  As Franny-bug says, "I'm getting big and big and big!" 

We're back!

Contrary to what you might be thinking, we did NOT fall off the face of the earth.  Finals and Christmas were crazy, and then No Internet January kept me from posting pictures.  

The Doodlebug.   

He's three and a half.  He's cool.  

He likes to line up all his toys perpendicularly.  Nothing wrong with that.

 

 Franny-girl.

Still the sweetest little mess you ever saw.

Potty-training superstar.

The Doodlebug/Ladybug are growing like crazy.  Now that they are big enough to have actual conversations with each other, they are providing us with endless entertainment.  Such as:

Franny (in her carseat): Ouch!  I cut my finger!

Atticus (from his carseat): What did you cut it on, Franny?

Franny: My finger!

Atticus: But what did you cut it on?

Franny: I cut it on my finger.

Atticus: You cut your finger on your finger?

Franny: Yes.

Atticus: That doesn't make any sense, Franny!