Cheeks

sleeping cheeks

The final comparison

Got the final picture today.
This was the last job on my to-do list before leaving the old house.
Pretty amazing!

9/20/2013

Van jumped backwards on his bed and his head smashed into my knee.

Van: "Are you ok mom? Does it hurt?"
Me: "Yeah it hurts a little."
(he gives my knee a smooch)
Me: "How is your head, does it hurt?"
Van: "Yeah it hurts pretty bad. I think I broke my fossil."
Me: "You broke your fossil?"
Van: "Yeah I broke my bone."

adorable.

***

After Van is not listening about something or another.

Me: "VAN COME HERE NOW!"
(he comes)
Van: "Are you happy now mom?"
Me: "Yes"
Van: "If you're happy then why don't you have a smile on your face?"
I smile
Van: "Good job!"

Also when I'm mad now he says, "take it easy, take a break. take it easy, just take a break."

Owl hat

Esther in the owl hat my friend Karri made for her.
Love those cheeks!

Esther 6.75 months

Just realized its been too long since I posted pictures of Esther. Here she is, the sweetest happiest girl.

9/19/2013

"My tummy hurts. Maybe the hambooger is inside my tummy kicking the walls? Maybe that's why it hurts."

- Van with an upset stomach, after eating 1 bite of hamburger.

Catch phrases

Muhammed Ali said about boxing,
"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee"

Lightening McQueen from the movie 'Cars' says about car racing,
"Float like a cadillac, sting like a beamer"

And Van says (as if he's talking to a cadillac),
"Cadillac, sting like a beaver!"

Out to the beach

Another set of pictures I received while I was at work. I'm so lucky my little man gets to go on so many adventures.

A day in the life

Sometimes I get pictures while I am at work. Here are some examples.

Muscle Finn

Muscle Van

Silly Van with grandma

Thinking Van

Laughing Van and cousins

Van won 50 chips

Mortality

Having trouble getting the point of morality through to Van. Unfortunately he's interested in the idea of dying, but it's hard for me to get the gravity of the circumstance across to him.

Van: "Hey this is my puppy, except he died." (Van is holding a stuffed pillow with a picture of a dog on it.)
Me: "Oh no! what happened?
Van: "Well he was squished by a t-rex."
Me: "oh no, that's terrible."
Van: "Well it's ok, we'll just buy a new one."
Me: "You can't really buy a new one, because each puppy is an individual."
stop.
think.
Van: "Guess what? I don't live in this world."
Me: "You don't! what world do you live in?
Van: "I live  in a world where when your puppy dies you can buy a new one and there's more and more and you never run out!"

hmm that wasn't really the point...

9/15/2013

Van spent the morning putting up zombie traps around the house.
Strings tied to every doorknob, bandaids placed in an X on a door, shoes piled up against a door; many things can act as a zombie trap.
I was busy cleaning up, so I was happy he had a distraction that was not too destructive. I carefully stepped over the toilet paper strand he had tied on one end to a barstool and the other end to a kitchen drawer, to preserve the house's new zombie resistant safety regulations.
I was doing laundry and went upstairs to the master bedroom to put away clothes. As I reached out to open the bathroom door, I felt a thick layer of slime.
"Van Karns Angel! Did you cover the bathroom doorknob in Vaseline?!"
Van stopped and looked up from his trap setting downstairs. He thought for a moment and then said, "Oh yeah, that's just to keep zombies out of the bathroom mom."


***

I can tell when Van is playing pretend, when he uses a deep voice.
This morning as I was organizing stuff when he came to me with a dollar I had found in the the laundry, then left on the counter.
"Excuse me mister," he said in his characteristic deep voice, "I would like to buy something from your store. I'm someone else." he added the latter just in case I wasn't clear that we were playing pretend. This is his go-to when he doesn't have time to create an alter-ego.
"Oh I see" I said, "Well I have this monster bowling kit, a truck, and some washcloths in my store today." I said, describing the items directly in front of me. "What are you interested in?"
"Well, I only have one." Van said, holding up the one dollar bill.
"Perfect" I answered, "Each thing here costs 1 dollar, which one do you want?"
"I'll take monster bowling." he decided.
We exchanged money for items all morning. He would disappear out the front door, and come back with dimes and quarters that he would use to buy items from my 'store'. I'm pretty sure he was getting the money from Andy's truck, hope Andy doesn't need to pay for parking any time soon.

***

Back to work tomorrow. I love my work and I love my weekends full of a sweet baby, a wonderful husband and plenty of playing pretend with my imaginative and creative son.
What a fantastic life.

Esther's Rocking

At 6.5 months, my sweet baby who still barely rolls over, decided to get up on her hands and knees while helping me with the laundry.
Crawling is on the horizon!

9/14/13

Driving home with Van is not so simple, it's like a pop quiz about life.
Here is our conversation.

Van: "Hey mom, what makes you feel better when you're dead?"
Me: "Well, nothing really."

Van: "Hey mom, I wish I had a magic ball, that steers."
Me: "Steers what? the car? Why?"
Van: "I want a ball that steers so I don't miss."
Me: "Miss what?"
Van: "The hole."
Me: "What hole?"
Van: "The golf ball hole."
Me: "ooooooh, you want a ball that when you throw or kick it, it steers itself towards the target."
Van: "Yeah."
Me: "That makes sense. Good idea"

Van: "Hey mom, when did the dinosaurs arrive?"
Me: "A long, long time ago."
Van: "Was it before I was born?"
Me: "yes."

Van: "Hey mom, do animals eat themselves?"
Me: "no…"
Van: "Why? Why don't animals eat themselves?"
Me: "What do you mean by that? Do you mean 'why doesn't an animal bite its own arm?', or 'why doesn't, for example, a bear eat another bear?'"
Van: "I mean why don't animals eat themselves."
Me: "Ok well if an animal was to eat its arm: first, that would hurt. Second, he wouldn't be able to use it anymore."
Van: "Like this?"
(Van tries biting his finger)
Me: "Yeah."

***

Van: "I've got little drum things in me."
 - Van, when he has the hiccups

***

Van and I are playing and he says, "Honk" around the same time that I say "Bonk"
Van: "Hey they Rhyme!!"
Me: "Yeah! You're right!"
Van: "Wait, did you already know that?"
Me: "Yeah"
Van: "Aw man"

***

Van set up a very creative game on the stairs with 'bad guys' (soft bowling pins on the floor) and he was up on the stairs  with 'savers' that he would use to knock the bowling pins down. He was playing and came to get me.
"Mom, Mom! look what I did!" He had knocked down all the bowling pins in one throw, triumphantly he says, "I scrambled those like scrambled eggs."

Snug as a bug...

An hour past Van's bedtime, this is the scene (don't worry, the paint on the wall was us testing colors last week).
But where's Van?

See him yet?

Yep, that's right, there he is. 

So now what? 

I'd hate to have him wake up in the middle of the night under the bed. I'll have to call in Andy to extract him.

9/8/13

Esther did great at her 6 month appointment.
She was 99th percentile for weight and height. 21.2 lbs and 28 inches long. After the appointment I started her on solid foods. She does great. She loves everything she's tried so far and gives me the evil eye if I don't share everything I'm eating.

***

I come downstairs from putting Esther down for a nap and it's like that scene from "The 6th Sense".

Luckily instead of ghosts, it was Van. Looking for scissors and getting himself a snack. That is cheerios, green beans (in a can) and a fruit stick all in a dinosaur cake pan.

***

Esther and I went for an evening walk.
She was awake on the way out,

But fast asleep on the way home.

***

All in all a great weekend! I love playing pretend with Van and answering his numerous questions.

High chair

Found this while unpacking. Can't wait to start solid foods, she looks ready.

Breakfast in the new house

Here is my view from the kitchen, as I make our breakfast crepes.

Here is a closer view in case you missed Van in the window seat. I need to unpack the real camera, my iphone does not take good pictures anymore.

BUT before you think that is cute, here is the conversation we are having.

Van: "I found a hard booger."
Me: "Oh yeah, they get that way in the morning sometimes."
Van: "I just like boogers all the time, I never stop."
Me: "Oh, don't like boogers, they're gross"
Van: "I know YOU don't like boogers, I'm just saying I like them."

I'm not really sure where to take this argument? I don't want to define what he can and cannot like, but there are downsides to liking boogers.


P.S. Now that we've eaten our crepes I'm sitting in the opposite of Van in the window seat, writing this post. I love the new house and our window seats. :)

Snug as a bug in a rug

It is not uncommon for Van to get up and play after we attempt to put him to bed. This is what I found tonight when I went in to check on him.

I can't help but wonder what he was thinking right before he fell asleep. 

Something like, 'Hm getting a bit tired now... ah-ha! This rug should do the trick'

He likes to play down to the very last second, sometimes that means sacrifices in bedding quality.