Cuteness Contest

Contender 1
In this corner is the 4-year-old girl who has learned to skip and hasn't stopped since. Watch out for the bouncing blonde spiral curls as she flies by you. She has been known to ask Mom to skip with her.

Contender 2
In this corner is the 21-month-old who tucks in her big sister at bed time. The blankets must cover her sister just so, each pulled up individually. Then the big sister must gently be kissed on the forehead and hugged. The routine is complete when the toddler stands up and grins at her parents and heads to her crib.

Contender 3
Not included in any corner of this Cuteness Contest is the big brother. He arrives in his mother's classroom after school each day and commonly distracts any students staying after for tutoring. Conversations he has with the students include, but are not limited to, that he pooped at home that morning.

Light up the Sound

Last night, out of nowhere, Xander grabbed his guitar and started to make a song. He then grabbed some paper and wrote down the song.

After that one performance, Josie wanted in on that action. Xander freaks out because she is replacing the word 'sound' with 'sun'.

Sticky Fingers

Chris thought it was no big deal that Hannah did this until he found out it was $10.

Update - Hannah Style

Oh, how the little ones grow. Hannah is trying so hard to rush past this toddler phase. She so badly wants to be like her big sister. She wants to sit on the potty (and has successfully used it a couple times), she is reading, watching television, follows directions, laughs, dances and even occasionally speaks.

I'm continually surprised by how 'girly' Hannah can be. I guess I thought one of our daughters would be a tomboy. And while they are active and enjoy the rough-and-tumble games, they both love to dress up in play clothes, other people's clothes and with as many accessories as possible.

The thing that gets me about Hannah is she is very meticulous and wants to have things just so, even at the tender age of 20 months. She rearranges her food, fork and drink when we sit down to dinner. She rearranges her blankets when I tuck her in at night (though Chris claims she does not do that for him). If she wants a coloring book, Hannah will take every single one out of the cabinet and then decide which one she wants. 

Clearly the oven mitt belongs in the kitchen.

I have way too many pictures of my children sleeping.

Hannah has developed attachments to many of the friends (aka stuffed animals) in our house. After much fighting over the special few (most are free-for-all, but a couple are just Josie's or Xander's), I took the kids to Build-a-Bear after dropping Chris off at the airport for a three week work trip. Xander and Josie helped to make Hannah's special friend, Misty. Misty, named after the Pokemon trainer, was an instant hit. So much so that Josie keeps stealing her away from Hannah. Boy, did that plan backfire.

Hannah spends a lot of time mothering all of these special friends. She carries them, gives them bottles, feeds them, pushes them in a stroller, tucks them in, shushes them, etc.

Hannah has also discovered the thrill of art. Meaning she scribbles and then chews on the marker or crayon when you look away. If you are totally gone from the room, tattooing ensues. I thought Josie did this, because have you seen her art, but after another episode I realized Hannah is just really talented at drawing on herself.

She is also talented at singing; thought indecipherable it is very melodic. She even sings some of her words like "Thank you." Super cute.

And finally, she remains the most squish-able thing ever.

Update - Josie style (with Well Check!)

We finally had Josie's 4 year well check. It's a few months late because insurance won't cover it on her birthday (due to being in California a couple years ago) and then I completely forgot to take her in when I did get the appointment scheduled. Oops. Since there were no concerns about her health, it took another month to get her in for her check up.

Weight: 35 lbs (42nd percentile)
Height: 40.5 in (53rd percentile)

This is where I would link to Xander's 4 year stats, but apparently I never published them. He was 46.6 lbs (98th percentile) and 42.5 in (94th percentile). So despite Josie being middle of the road, she seems dainty by comparison.

We answered all of the doctor's questions and then she received a couple vaccinations. We had talked about it before hand and I promised her chocolate milk for lunch. She grimaced and yelped but didn't cry. I told her she was super brave and the nurse gave her sparkly band-aids and two stickers.

Meanwhile, Josie is an inquisitive sponge. She asks about every other sentence that comes out of my mouth. "What does 'that's cool' mean?"
"How are houses made?"
"How are beds made?"
"What's 'a minute'?"

S'mores!

She declined additional s'mores because they were so messy.

Hannah has to join in the picture fun.

We've held off on nail polish until this summer.

She's still my little sleeper. She doesn't need a nap most days but occasionally she'll disappear
after school and I'll find her snoring away.

She still loves drawing and any kind of art or craft. 

No dance class this year, but that hasn't impeded her flexibility.

"Mom, take a picture because I'm so bea-u-tiful!"

Speaking of drawing.....

When I asked her why she drew on the wall, she replied "It's so cute!"

Update - Xander Style

What has Xander been up to? Let me wander through the photo archive and provide some visuals.

A new school year has begun. He is not a fan of homework.

Star Wars super fandom continues. He has seen the six films and reads the kids books he finds at the library.
Play time often consists of pretending to be some character from Star Wars. He also created a puppet show.

He lost 4 teeth in 4 weeks (only three missing here). 

He turned 6 years old! No big party this year but he received a new bike.
His favorite feature is the kick stand and he describes the picture on it as
"a skull with wings for it's ears!"

Xander asked for the Chuck (aka the yellow Angry Bird) on his cake.

A new soccer season has begun. Chris is coaching again.
Xander is not falling down nearly as often as he did last year.

Tales of the Trio

Xander

     While doing the back to school shopping we picked up a pack of new underwear for Xander. The store didn't have the briefs with cartoon characters in his size and he was disappointed that he couldn't get Star Wars Lego underwear. We managed to agree on some plaid boxers and went on our way.
     After getting the new boxers washed, they were the first thing Xander picked to wear all week. Last night at bath time he announced that he was out of boxers. I said to grab some Spider-Man undies and he got this sad look on his face but turned around to go back to his room. So I told him I would be doing laundry in the morning. That cheered him up.
     Next thing I know I'm coming out of the bathroom and tripping over his laundry basket. He put it there so I wouldn't forget to wash his clothes.

     Xander loves to read at bedtime. While Chris was gone I'd gotten in the habit of putting the kids to bed at the same time but letting Xander stay up and read a little longer. Now that school is in session, I have to remind him to put the books away and go to sleep.
     Last night, after the laundry basket incident, he was reading this large book that was the alphabet with super heroes. I told him to put it away and he looked around, plainly trying to figure out where to put it and what to use as a bookmark. Finally he twisted around and picked up his pillow, laying the book down with the pages open to where he was. I nearly burst out laughing because I clearly remember hiding books under my pillow as a kid, though I don't think I started that until I was a couple years older.

Josie

     Josie has spent this morning pretending to be a teenager. She didn't say that but she is certainly acting like it. She was talking on the play phone when I tried to tell her that I was going upstairs to shower. She didn't even look at me, just held up one finger in the 'just one minute' gesture that I give her when I'm on the phone. She chatted for another minute as I stood there with my eyebrows up. She finally hung up and explained to me that she was talking to her (imaginary) boyfriend and was going to go babysit him in the afternoon.
     As the morning has progressed she has texted her boyfriend and sent him pictures. He was supposed to come over but became ill. His dad is giving him medicine and she is still going to babysit this afternoon.

Hannah

     Earlier this week I dressed Hannah in some clothes I'd pulled out of storage. The top was an empire waist with straps and embroidery passed on by a friend. It was a little big but I didn't think too much about it. Within an hour Hannah was pulling the straps down and off of her arms and the shirt would bunch at her waist. She proceeded to pull it down and run off giggling.
     After putting the shirt back on and having the same scene repeated, I told Hannah "You need to wear a shirt, you don't see Mom walking around naked." To which she responded by throwing her little hands in the air and yelling "NAKEY!" and then doing her dance of joy which involves running in place with high knees. Another moment where I had to try my darnedest to keep a straight face.