Ladybugs, Mantis' & Frogs, OH MY!

My little dainty princess loves anything creepy and crawly! (Except spiders which she will tell that they make her "nervous") If there is a bug or otherwise to be found, Miss Norah will find it. One morning she was out with Jason in the backyard and she came in for a glass of water. I noticed something on her face and upon closer inspection- there was a ladybug on her face! We start looking and it and letting it crawl in her hand and Evan walks over with a Ladybug book.
No lie!

Ladybug

Close-up view of the ladybug

Brilliant Evan! :-)

When we were in Seattle, there were frogs a plenty in our friends yard. Norah went nuts for the "Baby, Speckled, Flying Frogs. They have three boys, so frogs were not a abnormal thing in their house. She carried them, kissed them (no prince?) and loved them with all her heart. When it was time to go, she cried and cried because the frog was not allowed on the ship. We promised that Jennifer and the kids would take care of her frog. The whole cruise she kept asking us if Jennifer was taking care of her frog. Thanks to our wonderful waiter who made her origami frogs that jumped and even bought her rubber frogs! (That kept her entertained during meals).

Baby, Speckled, Flying Frog

Pet the Froggie!

Norah and her new friend, Laslo

Origami Flying Frog (before it landed in Alphabet Soup)

Back at home, Norah spotted something in the tree... She ran to Jason to show him. Sure enough, there was a praying mantis in the tree just hanging out. Mind you, she was helping while dressed in jammies and princess dress-up shoes. Clop, clop, clop... she came to show me her new discovery. I had a very difficult time spotting it- I have no idea how on earth she ever found it. She was so excited about the "Mantis" that she told everyone that she met up with for the next 3 days.

Standing on a rock to get a closer look! (Note the yellow princess shoes)

"Right there, Mommy!"

Mr. Mantis

Maybe they just find her. For a mom that is not crazy about those little creatures, it drives me a little nutty. But she is so sweet and loves these little buggies to death (sometimes that is unintentionally literal)

Evan 11 months

OK, I am a bit off- this is the 11th month update, but my baby will be a year old this week! (Not to mention I had this written 4 days ago, but I did not save it and have to re-type everything!) We got a little behind preparing for and going on our cruise to Alaska. (Keep an eye on the blog for updates on that) I am going to get you up to speed...

We have an official walker!!! It started out with 3-4 steps, then moved on to 5-6 steps, next thing we knew- he was walking across the room. He walks with his hands up in the air. It looks like he is in a "stick-up!" Evan is quite proud of himself as he maneuvers around the room. As much as he loves walking, he loves to stay busy. He will sit and play with Norah's play kitchen. He loves to stack the bowls and play with the cups. He will sit down there for a good half hour at times and play. Oh, what a precious child!!!

Evan is starting to talk even more. He is surely saying something, but we are still trying to figure out just exactly what he is saying. Jason and I had to speak in church a couple of weeks ago and when Jason got up, my mom said that he clearly said, Dada!" He will babble on just like he is having a conversation, you answer back and then he continues the conversation. I just love to listen to him in the morning before he lets us know he is ready to get out of bed. He will chat up whatever he is playing with. We have determined that he will never be too dependent on his pacifier too much because he has too much to say. He will take it out of his mouth as soon I as I pick him up because he is ready to let me know how things are going.

He is our little ray of sunshine. When he wakes up, you can walk into his room and he will greet you with a huge smile. It is a rare occasion that he will wake up crying. That just tells me that he did not sleep enough. I cannot say enough that he is just the happiest baby around. He does have a little stubborn streak. Jason says he gets it from me, but I think he is just too stubborn to admit it. If there is something he wants, he will go and go again until he gets it. If he doesn't, he will cry like his heart just shattered. It is pretty pathetic.

Norah is just as fun as ever. Speaking of talking, she has amazed me how recently she has been forming these complete sentences and some of the remarks she makes. Papa offered her a drink of his soda, and she replied, "No thanks, Papa. I'm fine. I'll have some of my mommy's. Thanks, though." We all just look at each other and shake our heads. We had some friends over and when they were leaving she hollered out, "Bye! Come again!" Sometimes she is a little too clever... She is still obsessed with everything bugs. The only thing that tore her away from bugs, were the frogs in Seattle. There were these tiny frogs at our friends house and she was in love. Kissed them, petted them, wanted to take them home! (NO WAY!) We have to have a moment of silence for a couple of frogs that were "loved" a little too much...

Well, I am off to finish the details of Evan's first birthday party.

Here he comes!

This is a stick-up!

Playtime!

"Baby, Speckled, Flying Frog"

Love the Froggie!

Looking for Dory

Going for a ride

SERENITY NOW!

For those Seinfeld fans out there, you have to remember the episode when Frank Constanza was advised to say "serenity now" whenever he felt his blood pressure was going up.
(see link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5513mXmQbw4) Well, that could pretty much define my day. This post is dedicated to my pal Julie!

Wake up. Everything going smooth. I have to wake up Norah because I have to head to my presidency meeting. As a bribe, I offer a "hangaburger" for breakfast if she gets going. Again, going smooth... We are in the drive thru line at McDonalds, place the order and Norah announces that she has to go potty. I patiently tell her she will have to wait to get to Debbie's- it will just be a few minutes. She desperately tells me she needs to go now and if she doesn't she is going to "pee her skirt!" So, we pull around to the gas station, get Norah out, get Evan out and low and behold, he is soaking wet. He emptied the cup of water I gave him into his lap. (He presses the sippy pary down on a surafce and the water then begins to puddle) Trying to have your 3 year old go potty without touching anything and balancing a squirming baby on your hip is a little tricky, but we got the job done. We were late for the meeting, but I thought it was over... not so fast... serenity now...

I made the trek to the party store to get stuff for Evans party. The traffic was backed up from Decatur to Rainbow (all you locals get that). The store manager then told me they cleared out a lot of birthday supplies to make room for Halloween. Namely, the theme I chose. I found a few items and went to pay for them. No wallet. I ran to my car and there is was under the seat. Whew... grabbed the wallet, ran back in to the store came back out- keys and everything else was locked in the car. Now, only that could happen to me. I have a keyless system on my car that is to detect if the key is in the car and not lock and beep angrily at me for even entertaining the idea of trying to lock the keys in the car. Where were you today angry beep!!!?!!! So, back in to the store to beg for a phone because dim wit's phone is in the car, too. I am going to give a shout out to the clerk at Party City in Arroyo Grande shopping center who loaned me his personal cell phone to try to get a hold of someone. (BTW he is also the one who patiently waited for me to retrieve my wallet) No answer from Jason or my mom. I just left messages as to where I was and decided to go for a walk. Hey, I had my wallet- I may as well hit Michael's while I had a little time on my hands. On the walk over, Norah kept saying, "Calm down, Mommy. It's OK. Everything will be fine." What a sweetie! I used the phone again in Michael's. Jason finally got my message, had me paged in the store and agreed to come and rescue me. Bless his heart for not saying anything except, "I'm on my way."

I got into my car, called my mom and let her know that I was OK, kicked my toe on a shopping cart (owww!) and dropped Norah's ring pop that she got for being such a good girl. Now, I am in the safety of my own home where hopefully I cannot do too much damage. My beautiful kids are sleeping, despite my complaining I am healthy and have it pretty darn good and I have serenity now...

Back From Alaska!

We are back after a wonderful week spent in beautiful Alaska. Norah got to wear her rain boots and use her umbrella. What more could a kid want? I am not going to write much more about the trip- yet. When I downloaded the pics from the trip, there were over 600 pictures. (That was just with my camera- that did not include pictures from my family) I need to get them organized and ready to go. So, much like my pal Suz, the highlights will come in installments.

:-) Stay posted!