Inside

Ohhhh, we've had lots of fun inside for the past months.  We are ready to be able to play outside, but we've been finding lots of things to do for entertainment. 

 

Jed loves to play the piano.  He especially loves to tap out Jingle Bells.  He picks one key and pecks the song out as he sings.  It's actually pretty impressive.  He also just loves to pound on it as Evangeline dances along in encouragement.  

He likes to point at the notes like he sees his sister do.  He just loves to imitate her.

Jed really into race cars and super heroes lately.  He's always carrying around little matchbox cars and is usually wearing his super hero capes and masks.....like all day.

Evangeline built a really fun tent a few weekends ago, complete with snacks for her and Jed.  They both had so much fun in that tent.

 

Evangeline is such a bookworm which makes me very happy.  She is always found reading and she will read for very long stretches.  I still read her a bedtime story each night, which is one of my favorite parts of the day.  We just finished The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh, which we both absolutely loved.  (It was a Christmas gift from Uncle Kenny.)  We are currently reading Little Women and we are almost done with it.  Of course we read to Jed every night as well....I think Jed is following right along in Evangeline's footsteps.  He loves being read to as well.

 

This little feller is constantly melting my heart with his, "yuv my mudder", "yuv you, best in the world", and "yuv you best".  He is the sweetest. I LOVE when he calls me mudder.  

Fresh As a Daisy

Jed's bath time.  One of our favorite routines.  He is so cute in the bath.  I still bathe him in the sink because our sink is just the right size for him and it doesn't hurt my back like bending over our bathtub would.  He hates when water gets in his face.  I always use a cup to wet his hair and I've been trying to teach him to lean his head back and hold a washcloth over his face.  The cute thing is that when he holds up the washcloth, instead of holding it over his eyes he, for some reason, holds it over his mouth.  I do what I can to shield the water from his face with my hand, but sometimes it drips down under my hand and Jed says, "it's raining!  It's raining!  It's pouring!" as it rolls onto his face.

 

I love our post bath snuggles where he says things like, "Mommy hold me tight" and, "Mommy's nice and cozy"  and I tell him this version of his birth story, which goes something like this....."I was walking through the kitchen one day when I heard something splashing around.  I looked over to find a baby in the sink!  I said to Daddy, 'oh, daddy!  Can I keep him' and Daddy said, 'I don't know, Mommy.  Baby boys are a lot of work, but if it makes you happy, you can keep him." 

And then after I'm done telling him this story Kyle and Evangeline are rolling their eyes at me because they've heard me tell it one thousand times, but Jed still likes to hear it and I still like to tell it. 

Evangeline has one of these birth story's too, only she fell into Daddy's lap when we were watching TV one day...."an angel fell from Heaven" as Daddy likes to tell it.

Evangeline took these pictures and I love the one of Jed's huge sweet smile......

Happy Hearts

Evangeline can just be so patient and sweet with Jed and Jed can be so loving and admiring of his sister.  Don't get me wrong, they have their moments, but when they are being sweet.....ah, there are just no words for it. 

Here Evangeline is letting Jed assist her in assembling her class Valentines.  Her Valentines this year each came with an eraser.  She put the sticky dot on the card and let Jed adhere each of the erasers.  He was so proud of himself and it was awfully nice of her to let him help. 

On the day Evangeline came home from school sick, she was supposed to get picked up by Ammie and go to Wal-Mart to get a surprise for us for Valentine's Day...at least that was the plan she made with Ammie.  She didn't end up getting to go because of the longevity of all of our illnesses, so she improvised while Kyle and I were napping on our sick day.  She had this barricade set up outside of her bedroom.



She had made handmade cards and gifts for each of us, which was far better than a Wal-Mart gift.  She made a little clay car for Jed and when she handed it to him on Valentine's Day morning he said, "EB made my day!"  He was so excited about that car.  He didn't want to put it down!

And Jed brought this beautiful Valentine home for us from Ammie's house....

I was surprised with these beautiful flowers from my family.....

Tiny Conversationalist

Jed is truly hilarious and absolutely precious with his verbal skills.  His little sayings and phrases make me smile so many times each day.  I have been jotting down some of the things he says and I'm just going to dump them all right here....

 

He has started saying, "that makes sense."  The first time I heard him say it our conversation went like this:

Jed: Where's EB going?

Mommy:  She's going to go shoot a bow and arrow (archery practice).

Jed: Why?

Mommy:  Because when you get big like EB you get to do cool things.

Jed:  That makes sense.

 

When he wants to snuggle or for me to pick him up he says, "Mommy, hold me tight".

Mommy:  How is your bath water?  Not too hot, not too cold?  What's it feel like?
Jed:  Garlic bread.
Mommy:  Garlic bread???
Jed:  (big grin) I being a stinker.

Jed likes to tell me, "don't worry, Mommy".  Like today I told him to take one bite of his food at a time and not put it all in his mouth at once and he replied, "don't worry, Mommy."  Every now and then he will throw this phrase out in a random way, but mostly he uses it in context.

When I leave for school in the morning I go in to tell him that I love him and he says, "yuv you, Mommy.  Be carful outside."
He also hugs me tight and says, "yuv Mommy.  Best in the world." 
Jed is on top of things whenever someone sneezes with a big, "bless you". 

 

He says, "I'm happy.  Mommy makes me happy".  Ahhhh....this kid knows all the right things to say.

After I tell him what we are going to do he likes to say, "that sounds good".  And when he's in a good mood he says, "I be nice to Daddy and Mommy and Pickles and EB.  I be nice everybody!"

 

Somehow he's picked up the phrase stinking fill in this blank with whatever pops into his head.  So for example he's looking for a plastic Easter egg in his toy basket he says, "where's stinking egg?"  Or he is obsessed with ghosts still from Halloween and we keep telling him that Halloween is over and he says, "no stinking ghosts anymore." (He says this one all the time.) 

 

This furry little orange guy makes his way to Jed's bath no matter where it is.  Pickle's is so fascinated with bath time.

Recovering

Stomach flu hit our house hard last week.  It was horrible!!  It started with Jed then made it's way to me, then Kyle and Evangeline was the last to get it.  Evangeline also had a terrible cold and only made it to school for 1.5 days last week.  I missed two days. 
Poor Jed was so confused about what was going on with his little body.  Each time he vomited he would yell, "clean it up!" or say, "I'm broken".  It was so pitiful.  It was seriously a awful week and I am so so so so so happy that we are all on the mend. 

 

Basketball Season Three

Evangeline wrapped up her third year of basketball with these girls.  It was another great season.  She scored the first basket of her career during the first game and scored her second basket in the last game of the season.  We were so proud of her.  It was extra cool because they got to play in the big gym of the Boys and Girls Club, which is Peggy's old high school.   

To top it all off, Lily and Savannah were there to see her make her basket.  They were her cheerleaders.  They jumped up and down with excitement when Evangeline scored her point.


Jed was a little trouper.  It wasn't easy for any of us to make it to those early morning Saturday games.

The girls looked so tiny in that big gym...