Daddy's Buddies

Some cute pictures from the weekend.

Ross and Max wearing their cool shades...


And here are Daddy's helper's...


As soon as they saw what he was doing, they both ran to get their "tools" and help out.

Picture

It is rare that we get a picture of both of the kids together and looking at the camera, so I thought I would share. Here we are with the Queen Mary in the background.



Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend!!

Zoey's on a roll...

Zoey has just been cracking us up lately. Today I have another funny story, courtesy of the Z.
She doesn't quite get the concept that Ross and I don't know every body's name. Although I appreciate the omnipotent power she gives me credit for, I often have to let her down and just say, "I don't know." Unfortunately for my ego, this happens a lot! Mostly because besides the 400 other questions she asks me daily, she also wants to know the name of every dog we see going for a walk (we can't ask all the time because we are in the car or house)... Sometimes we just try and guess or make up a name, but usually I just have to say, "I don't know." Anyway, this concept is slow to sink in as I mentioned, so she continues to ask the name of any and all persons, real or pretend. So today she was using the bathroom and I went in to ask if she needed any help. Nowadays, they have these great wet flush able wipes for children. They help them wipe better and it is just a cleaner experience altogether. Anyway, we have a brand called KANDOO, as in, "I can do it all by myself." I don't pay attention to the packaging, but obviously, Zoey does. So when I went in to check on her she asks,
"Hey mommy, what's the name of the frog on my Kandoo wipes? Is it Buttwipe?"

I am startled by this and just say, "What?" I mean, it is not like Ross and I go around calling each other "Buttwipe", really we don't. And then I look at the packaging and realize, she is just very observant, and funny and that is our Zoey. But really, why would the frog have any other name?

The Puppy War Continues...

Max stole Zoey's puppy again (read below post), so today after taking him back and hiding him in her room, she informs me,
"I put a sign up on my room that says, "Max don't come in my room and get the puppy""

The sign is a picture of a boy on it with a bunch of letters. The boy is circled and has a big X through it. I can't take a very good picture of it because she colored in yellow and it just doesn't show up well, but you can get the idea. It is really too funny.


Where did she learn this? Not to mention, they share the room. Poor Max, kicked out of his own room already.

Puppy Love

We have had many toys come and go throughout the past 4+ years. Living on base with garage sales and gracious neighbors handing down gently used toys, as well as birthdays and holidays where grandparents and aunts and uncles and friends supplying us with new ones has kept our playroom filled with fun adventures. With all the different toys, it seems our stuffed doggies have become the favorite "lovey" for both kids. Zoey has her Buford, and along with him comes his twin Bo, Baby Buford, Murphy, Valentine, Cherry, and many other little ones with ever changing names. Max has Burrito, who has a replaceable twin hidden in the closet in case of emergencies, and Puppy. I am very thankful for Buford and Burrito, because they bring great comfort during stressful times like doctor visits and airplane rides. The dogs are quite well travelled as they have been on every trip and every doctor visit. However,they can also become the source of stress when we can't find one or Max and Zoey won't leave the house without them and thus I am forced to carry two kids and two dogs and a bag everywhere I go... Up until recently we never had a conflict with the dogs. They each clearly had their own dog/dogs, and neither was interested in the others. That is until these two came along...



Grandma and Papa brought us these dogs as Valentine's gifts for the kids. Max initially didn't care. He was happy with his Burrito and never showed an interest for another dog or lovey. Because of Max's indifference, Zoey took them both. We told her that only one was hers, but for now she could have both and she lovingly added them to her collection. Then one day Max adopted the solid color pup above and named him "Puppy" appropriately and he soon became just as important as Burrito in our going to bed routine. He still didn't seem to care about the other one. I am not sure if Zoey just had him hidden with her other dogs, but either way, he was out of the picture for awhile. Max is very attached to Puppy now and he knows that Zoey's dog looks almost like him, so whenever he sees it, he steals it away from her bed and lovingly hugs all Three of the dogs. This puppy love is beginning to be a problem because Max steals Zoey's dog and Zoey gets very upset. The funny thing about it is Max is relentless and sneaky and knows exactly what he is doing. If he wakes up in the morning before she does (they share a room) and he sees the dog, he sneaks over and grabs him and RUNS out of the room. The other day Zoey got sent to her room and was crying, so Max got up and walked in the room to see what was going on. He went up to her to give her a hug, which Ross and I thought was so sweet, and then, he eyed the dog, stopped hugging Zoey and grabbed the dog and RAN out the room... of course only bringing Zoey to more tears. Well, all of this comes with the territory of siblings I suppose. With all of the pups in the house, you would think we would get a real one right? Well, Zoey does ask, and she is an absolute dog lover, but I think we will hold off for now... Too much poo for this gal

To Our Moms...

Thank you for all that you do, we love you for all that you are. Wishing you a Happy Mother's Day.

And to all mom's out there, God Bless You, thanks for saying yes to life and motherhood.

With much love,

Zoey's School Open House

This weekend we got to experience our first "open house" at Zoey's preschool. They had a concert (imagine 50+ kids screaming), and then a quick slide show, and then we went to the kids classrooms to see some of the stuff they had been working on. I was brought to tears almost a couple of times. Once because of the singing and seeing Zoey up there and feeling very proud of her. And then another time, because of one of the projects Zoey did that I will describe later. Here is a photo of Zoey and the group. She is on the top row and looking at the camera in this photo...





And here is a picture of Zoey next to her class garden. She planted corn and it is growing in the back!



So the next thing that brought tears to my eyes (which I admit often doesn't take much) but these tears of pride and laughter were quite worthy, I think. It was a project Zoey was making about her mom (Me:) They had paper cutouts and she got to pick the color hair and the dress she wanted them to wear and then the teacher asked her questions about me, and Zoey would answer. Her teacher typed up the answers in first person and put in on the picture. Mine read something like this, "my name is Jill. I don't know how old I am. My favorite food is pizza and my favorite TV show is Grey's Anatomy. My favorite thing to do is play outside with Zoey and Max."

It was funny to see how she views me and then tells another about it. She did a pretty good job! The teacher shared another thing... Zoey is the first one ever to put hair on the arms of the mom, and so the teacher said she had to confess to looking at my arms to see if they were really hairy!! I asked Zoey about it, she didn't really have much to say. I will ask her again when she gets to bring it home. I will take a picture of it and share it with you!!

So the open house signals an almost end to our year. We go to school until mid June here. Summer weather is upon us though so we have been playing a lot outside.

p.s. I don't have hairy arms at all, for any of you who don't know... maybe she mixed me up with her dad momentarily!!!

Friday Smiles from Max

Max is a bit of a ham and loves to sing and dance in front of the mirror and watch himself.

And here he is in his singing debut:


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