Just a few more longers please?????

A familiar routine. It is way past bedtime. We have watched our nightly show (the Upside Down Show), had our milk, read our books and brushed our teeth.

"OK, Lo, time to pee and get up to bed" I say.

"Just a few more longers?????" she pleads.

Cute.

Lola has lots of these weird little twists on normal English language. Pobo Cats, for example. We picked up this strange game at a thrift shop a few weeks ago. The object is to put your little foam cats on these plastic catapults (get it, CATapults, ha ha) and then you drop something on the other end of the catapult thus launching your foam cat across the room. You can only imagine how much fun this is for a 2 year old, and how non-fun it is for Mommy to pick up the ten assorted foam cats as the fly across the room, bouncing under the couch, zinging off Rowan's head, and ending up behind the china cabinet. Anyway, she calls this game "Pobo Cats". I have no idea why.

Noodles are "loo loos", any young woman she doesn't know yet is "Teacher", and if you ask her what her brother's name is, she will answer "Baby Brother."

We have been super busy lately. I had to throw a baby shower, we drove 2 hours to see some extended family, and then we had a huge yard sale. The yard sale went well overall, considering it was an all day event and we had the kids there. Lola developed "yard sale-itis" however, and suffered a sad 103 degree fever that night. It was mysteriously gone the next day.

Rowan started fussing and drooling a couple weeks ago and I thought, oh boy, teething. Yay. Well, after a few bad days I took him to the doctor for a check, and it turns out the poor kid had a double ear infection! Sad! So we put him on amoxicillin. You might remember my woes about getting medicine into Lola when she was a baby. Rowan is about a million times worse. I don't know how he does it, but he can get the whole dropper full in his mouth, hold it there until I'm not looking, and then projectile spit it all over whatever is in front of him at the time. It is amazing he got any drugs at all!

Rowan is now a hefty 18 lbs and he has been eating like a little piggy lately. We have started feeding him breakfast in addition to his usual dinner. It has been fun experimenting with different foods. Pears, apples and sweet potatoes are in, as is oatmeal. Peas are definitely out, along with rice cereal. He has been totally into the jumperoo lately, and really gets going in there. The other day I caught him sleeping in it, snuggling with his rainbow hedgehog. I was vacuuming....works every time!

We finally got our new deck finished. The old deck was so scary that I can't believe we actually walked on it. It was totally rotten. The new deck is that fake wood and looks really nice. We put gates on either side to trap Lola in. I have been able to open the door and boot her out onto the deck to play and get some sunshine while I get some things done in the house. Unfortunately since it has been hotter than the 7th layer of Hell lately, we can only play on the deck in the morning and very late evening without melting into puddles of grumpiness.

Lola has been doing awesome at swim lessons. She graduated to the swim belt recently. I asked her if she wanted the noodle or the belt and she turned down the noodle. Amazing! She is a total noodle freak! I put the belt on her and off she went. The kids in the lesson looked like little wind up swim toys, their little arms and legs paddling madly as they inched across the pool with parents wading along behind them. We took her to the aquatic center where there are slides and water toys, and she did great! I think swim lessons are starting to pay off.

Finally, Rowan has really started to belly laugh. I have been trying to get this on film for weeks now, and I have succeeded. Lola is the only person who can make him laugh until he actually gags...and then starts laughing again! He has also managed to come up with a really dirty look that he saves for that last bottle before bedtime when he really wants peace and quiet. If you dare talk while he is trying to concentrate on eating, he shoots you an exasperated dirty look. i'l try to capture it on the camera, but it may take awhile.

Well, time to put Lola and Rowan to bed. Rowan is all swaddled up, despite it being freaking 100 degrees out. I think that kid will be swaddled until he goes to college! Anyway, Lola has just come up and asked for a few more longers. She doesn't know that in the morning we are going to meet her new pony! Yay!