Shirtless, Muddy, Goggle-wearing Kids

Just another word about these kids of mine. I had to laugh yesterday when I was watching them at story time. Alex had his hood up and gloves on the whole time, while Marissa was wearing a short sleeve dress, no tights or socks and tennis shoes that were on backwards (at least her hair was done). Connor was wandering around somewhere with a pair of goggles on (yes, goggles--see picture), which he has been insisting on wearing ever since Erin's swimming lessons--you know, at the grocery store and stuff. He points to them and says "Eye", meaning he wants me to put them on. It could have been worse though. At least my kid wasn't the one with the leotard over her nightgown. Classic. I get some good laughs anyway even if the kids think there's nothing odd about any of it.Connor has been able to show his personality a lot more lately due to the fact that he is starting to talk a lot. We've been reading a lot of the Froggy books where the mom always yells FRROOOOGGGYY! and he always says wh-a-a-a-t? I was trying to entertain Connor at Erin's school one day and all the kids' names were on the wall on some frogs. I said, "Look Connor, Frogs. What do they say?" And he immediately said, "FRROOOOOGGGYY!" I love seeing the little wheels in his head turning. He knows he's being funny too. The other thing he picked up from that book is "wh-a-a-a-t", so he will always answer us if we call him, even if he can't say much more than "what".

Whenever he wants milk he comes up to me and says, "jiodjkflmeaio;fmi (something I can't understand) muk" and then immediately after he holds his hands out and says, "s'is it?" (meaning where is it?). Then he pulls me over to get him some or else he'll start crying. I love that every time the phone rings he yells, "Uh-oh, foam." He recently started say "shaw" for "yeah", which always makes me laugh. "Did you poop Connor?" "Shaw"

He loves to sit on the counter, and usually it is easier for me to do what I need to do with him there. Yesterday he pulled out several pieces of bread to cook, and recook, some very crispy toast. Should I not let my 1 year old use the toaster?
Erin and Alex still love each other. They've been fantasizing about being twins. When asked why, it was so that they could copy each others' homework. Nice.But lately Marissa and Connor have become better buddies, which is good to see. Connor copies so many things that she does, which is why I now have two shirtless children dancing around the living room every day instead of just one. I don't know why Marissa thinks taking off her shirt is a good idea, but the moment she does it, so does he. Then, she will strike a pose and ask me to take a picture. Connor immediately follows with the same pose. What kind of kids am I raising anyway? But they sure make us laugh, as evidenced in the following pictures taken during FHE.
This one cracks me up because he really was striking a pose here.He copies her every move.Also, just note that I usually do Marissa's hair and I always make sure she has a shirt on at the beginning of the day, but alas, this is usually what it comes down to in the end--my little naked orphan girl. This picture was taken literally 30 seconds before both their shirts were off. And... they are both crouching.And now for one of the worst ideas that I've agreed to since moving into this house: the day I let them play outside in the mud. This is our backyard...Isn't Utah just breathtaking? Instead of making snowballs they decided to make mud balls. Mud was all over everything! Just look how much mud is on the bottom of Connor's boots? He couldn't even walk without slipping.By the end he also had it all over his hands, pants and coat, which then got onto our house, glass door, floor, chair and me. What was I thinking? We've got to get our grass in soon! Until then, I guess we'll have to keep happy inside.

Speaking of inside, we have been trapped inside because of sickness for a week and a half. Erin missed almost all of last week, Connor was sick and wouldn't eat anything except "muk" and then I got sick this week. I felt horrible on Tuesday, and so did Connor, which was a bad combination. Ugh. Sick moms should not have to take care of cranky babies. That should just be a rule, that's all I'm saying. Jared came home about an hour early and I slept for hours and hours. Hey, I was even too sick to watch our newest obsession, "Downton Abbey." Such a great show! I absolutely recommend it!

We are all on the mend which I am extremely grateful for. It doesn't take much to realize how good you have it when you are healthy, that's for sure. The other bad thing is that I didn't finish my goals for February. Almost, but not quite. One involved finally getting all of our doctors and dentists nailed down and I did that one (yep, we've been here since June and I'm finally getting around to it). The other was to organize my files, which I went through but never got back into the filing cabinet. I was in the middle of painting the ugly file cabinet when we all got sick. Hopefully it'll get done soon. Not tonight though. I have a couch to lay on and another great episode to watch.